freeing my mind.
Welcome to the home of my writing. Between the blog and the book, you should find plenty of my thoughts on life and spirituality.
am I a liberal?
Over the past four weeks since my last post, I’ve been working on this one. I wrote it about 3 weeks ago and even sent it to someone to be edited. I’ve honestly never fretted this much over writing something. So, I deleted the entirety of the original post. Rather than continuing to worry about how I’m coming across or if I’m saying everything I want to say, I’m just going to go off the cuff and click publish.
Every now and then I get a statistical breakdown of blog traffic. One of the more interesting stats is the ranking of search engine queries that lead to my site. In my February report the 3rd most commonly searched term was “Is Craig Kinsley a liberal?” I would be remiss not to divulge the amount of uneasiness this caused me. It wasn’t so much the idea of being thought of as “a liberal”, but it was more the idea of being labeled in such a way that would make it easy to be ignored by many people.
an impasse
I find myself at an impasse; somewhat stuck between two worlds. I feel like the once popular kid who was forced to change schools, only to find himself lost in a sea of unfamiliar faces. On one side of me is the sect of Christianity that helped transform my life and gave me a platform for my voice. They welcomed me, taught me and created opportunity and experiences that someone in their mid-20′s rarely has. My friends in ministry, the people that I mentored and leaders who believed in me, all stand on this side. Although, for years I have found myself increasingly distant from many of their belief systems, processes and structures. Many ideas that I once simply questioned, I find myself rejecting.
the creative deficit bail-out
It’s official: Hollywood is out of ideas.
Adaptations of the following classic board games are currently in some phase of feature film production: Monopoly, Battleship, and Candyland. Thankfully, Universal Pictures pulled the plug an another rendition of Clue (leave my childhood alone) and a Michael Bay (leave everything alone) flick based on Ouija.
freeing my mind
Six months ago, I decided to take a hiatus from blogging. One year ago, I wrote a post that generated the most traffic I had ever received. I’m here to talk about both and, hopefully, to put an end to my extended absence.
At its inception, this blog was titled Freeing My Mind. I started writing as an outlet for the intense emotional, psychological and spiritual change that was occurring inside me. It helped to get my thoughts out of my head and onto a digital page.
on the outside looking in
Most of you know that I have a passion for interesting stories; stories about people’s everyday lives, historical events or just interesting happenings that I would normally never know about. Normally, someone would find these stories in books and while I do like to read, I find that audio shows and public radio are more conducive to my lifestyle. I’ve mentioned my favorite radio show/podcast before, This American Life. There iPhone app has the entire archive of their shows dating back to its beginning in 1996. Some of the episodes inspire me, some make me laugh, some make me mad and many bring up a plethora of questions. I came across one particular episode from 1997 entitled, Pray, which did just that.
favorites
If I had a nickle for every time I heard someone say that they got a front row parking space because of “the favor of God”, I would have $2. As I’m sure you’ve already guessed, I’ve been thinking about the idea a little bit: What about the 100 other people who got that parking place on that same day? Is it only God’s favor that gave you yours and random chance that they got theirs? Sure, I understand that everything that is just and good comes from God, but what is more righteous, your front row parking space set aside by God’s favor or parking in the back so the little old lady can have the one in the front?
only the strongest survive?
The idea of America being a “Christian” nation has always troubled me. For one, the mixing of secular government and spiritual beliefs is just a bad idea. (see history books) The other reason being that, in my humble opinion, I just don’t think we look much like Jesus. One of my personal goals has been to continually try to separate what the various cultures I’ve been surrounded by have taught me about God and what Jesus actually says about him. Recently I’ve been thinking about one particular tenet of our nation that has traditionally been attributed to certain segments of Christianity.
getting a kickstart
Due to the recommendation from a few friends and family, I started watching a television show on ABC. Shark Tank is a reality program that puts entrepreneurs in front of a group of “sharks” which is a varied group of business owners turned venture capitalists. The inventor/entrepreneur pitches their business idea hoping to strike an actual deal with one or multiple “sharks”.
daughters
It’s been quite an eventful few weeks since I last got a chance to blog. Lori, Piper and I, spent a couple of weeks down South. Mostly with family in Mississippi, but we also got a chance to spend a few days with friends in North Carolina. A few months ago this would have been considered a vacation. With a three month old, it’s more like a work trip.
good sunday, sir
So, last week my wife was perusing Craigslist. I’m pretty sure she does this every time she sits down to feed Piper. Obsession might be too strong of a word, but she really has a thing for staying up to date on the San Francisco public market. Yesterday, she found a guy that was giving away a baby crocodile. He was keeping it in his bathtub until someone came to adopt it. No mention of where the mother is. Anyway, so last week she came across an ad by a young computer technician. “Due to the state of the economy” he was offering free computer repair service to anyone that needed it. What?!?
