Musical Motivation

"When the rain comes you blame it on the things that you have done
When the storm fades you know that rain must fall on everyone
So rest awhile, It'll be alright
No one loves you like I do"
--When the Rain Comes, Third Day

In accordance with my weekend discovery, I spent some time playing guitar again yesterday (the above Third Day tune was on the playlist) and once again emerged invigorated by the musical interlude. I have a notebook about three years thick full of songs, something I haven't updated in years, but at one time or another I enjoyed playing every song in there, so I just flipped through and played stuff that looked good, especially some of that unplugged Clapton. In bible study on Wednesday night we talked about the different gifts that God has given each one of us (based on the Ephesians passage specifically mentioning apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers), and I definitely consider myself jealous of the gifts he gave Eric Clapton. I know he didn't write every song he sings, but the ones he did are beautiful and the way he plays is unbelievable. It's obvious that none of my gifts are as vast as that, but seeing (or hearing) someone who's the best at what they do (I spent about two hours yesterday at work watching MJ highlights, so that's the same sort of thing) just inspires me to continue working my arse off to be the best at what I do. If the body of Christ (the figurative one, like all the believers) is made up of people excited about their gifts and excited about maximizing them for the glory of God, the world's gonna fast become a more wonderful place. There's my spiritual meditation for the morning, inspired (as many things are) by music.
Sitting in the locker room at 24-Hour Fitness this morning, I overheard (not that I had to try) a conversation between three or four guys about incest. Yeah, that word probably took you by surprise, much as it did me. Not your typical Friday morning topic, I don't think. One of the guys asserted that the United States is one of the few countries that does not permit first cousins to marry; that Canada, England and a host of others do not at all prohibit that practice. In addition, about half of the states in the U.S. allow second cousins to marry; half don't (you can join me in the assumption that West Virginia and Kentucky fall into the former category). There was discussion about the validity of genetic studies finding an increased risk of birth defects when cousins marry, and one of the guys dismissed it as only a .5% (or .005) increase, which is quite minimal. Here's my question, which obviously went unasked for the duration of this conversation: Who are the people caring about this issue? Are there really not enough members of the opposite sex out there that people need to keep it in the family? If you have to ask questions about the lineage and the blood relationship and uncles and aunts, you really shouldn't be dating in the first place, much less getting married. Now I know the readership of this blog is limited, so I'm assuming that these questions remain rhetorical to you all--that nobody actually has a response to this that would make any sense. I had a cute cousin once, but she's not my cousin anymore, and technically never was by blood. However, there is not a single fiber of my being that would come even close to asking her out, because you just don't do that. It's like Jerry in the "menage" episode of Seinfeld, when he talked about how he couldn't be an orgy guy: "I'd have to dress different. I'd have to act different. I'd have to grow a moustache and get all kinds of robes and lotions and I'd need a new bedspread and new curtains. I'd have to get thick carpeting and weirdo lighting. I'd have to get new friends. I'd have to get orgy friends." In similar fashion, you'd have to move to West Virginia (or its California counterpart, the 909), definitely grow a mustache (I just checked the spelling of this and evidently "moustache" is also okay), probably buy an RV, start watching more NASCAR and get new friends--incest friends. You also might need a new name, perhaps something like "Ron Mexico." This, by the way, is the funniest thing I've read in a long, long time, and I can't imagine the thought process on the part of Vick or one of his associates that led to the creation of this moniker. Hilarious. Anyways, sorry to spend so long on this (and to go from spiritual gifts into incest--weird transition), but it disturbed me to hear this conversation, so I'm just sharing the pain.
Basketball games sucked last night (including the Mavs' 36-point thrashing of the Spurs and the Lakers' 13th loss in 14 games, ensuring them a losing record for the first time in forever), so I'm going to baseball for the line of the night (we'll see if this one becomes as regionally biased--the answer is yes). My boy Jake Peavy enjoyed a tremendous start to his season, but the offense couldn't get him a win (thankfully we scored in the 12th and got the victory anyway, but Peavy's great night went unrewarded). Last year's NL ERA champ went 6 2/3, gave up just four hits and walked two, striking out 10. Pirates starter Mark (don't call me Matt) Redman pretty much matched him, but only struck out three in his six innings, so he gets nothing.
Shearer update: He scored the game's only goal on a nice header off a Laurent Robert free kick, giving Newcastle a one-nil (it's a score, so I should use numbers, but writing it out is an homage to the game of all games) win over Sporting Lisbon (Portugal) in first leg of the UEFA Cup quarterfinals. The brawling teammates (Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer) both played, ironically with one being subbed on for the other, perhaps to avoid any repeat occurrences.
The weekend brings lunch with the grandmother (a yearly duty), a pair of social functions (one of which is at a place called the Boa Lounge--sounds a little too upscale for me, but we'll see), the Galaxy home opener (Landon Donovan's debut for the juniper and gold), one or two visits to Bel Air, some pick-up hoops and the penultimate game of our rec league regular season. I think we're 5-2 and looking for a little momentum heading into the playoffs.
By the way, I actually wrote more this morning, but we had like ten power surges in the office and I lost stuff way too many times to retype. Oh well, a pleasant weekend to all...