Nit Picky, Nit Picky, Picky Picky, Nit Nit!

Most folks that know me will tell you that I'm an easy going kind of guy.

"What do you want for supper?"

"Whatever you want is fine, hon."

"Well, I don't know. What do you suggest?"

"Seriously, I have no bent toward one thing or the other. Whatever you feel like having is fine."

"But, I don't know what I want. That's why I'm asking you."

"Doesn't matter."

"Doesn't matter?

"Yeah."

"Just like it doesn't matter that you forgot to take out the garbage that one night two years ago."

"Oh, here we go.........."

"And I had to run outside in the freezing cold to flag down the garbage truck...."

"Hon, that was two years ago and.........."

"..........and I was in my bathrobe and nearly froze to death....."

"Hon, I apologized for that on the same day........"

"......and I slipped on the ice and nearly broke......."

"LET'S HAVE PIZZA!"

".......my neck, and then......Pizza? Oooooo, that sounds good! Where should we get it from?"

"Doesn't matter"

"Doesn't matter?!"

"Wait...NOOOOOOOO!!!!"

And so on and so forth.

Anyway, I'm pretty easy going. But, I do have my nit picky moments (as the post topic would, indeed, suggest). For instance, if I have read a book I prefer the cinematic adaptaion to be as close to said literary work as possible. Case in point, I was apalled at the "artistic liberties" that were taken with this summer's offering of "Prince Caspian".

There are more atrocites than I care to remember so I'll just map out the main three.

1. The fight at the train station - Uhhhhhh........where the flip did this come from. Apparently we needed some teen angst.

2. The (almost) return of the White Witch - Okay, let's quickly scan the 108 pages of the book and find where this happened.....it didn't at all???? Oh, but we just had to include it in the movie just in case we had forgotten about her from the first film. No, we couldn't possibly wait until "The Magicians Nephew" to see her again.

3. The Kiss - You know, I was listening to a movie review podcast the other day. Their gripe with this part of the film was that the love interest was "underdeveloped". I beg to differ. The problem with the love angle here is that it shouldn't have been there at all! Seriously, did the director even glance at the source material? In no way, shape, or form does a love interest develop between Caspian and Susan. Just aggravating.

I will say one thing in defense of this film.........Prince Caspian is, in fact, the correct film to be made after "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". This is true in the very same way the the first film was correctly chosen to open this series.

Confused? Let me explain.

Sometime during the late 1990's someone got the "brilliant" idea to market "The Chronicles of Narnia" chornologically. So, a whole generation of readers have grown up with the series in this order:

1. The Magician's Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
3. A Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

RUBBISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

C.S. Lewis wrote the books in his chosen order for a reason. That order would be.....

1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. A Horse and His Boy
6. The Magician's Nephew
7. The Last Battle

To put this into perspective, imagine viewing the Star Wars films for the first time in chornological order (HERESY!!!). Once Vader spills the beans to Luke the viewer would find themselves saying, "Well, duh! We found that out in Episode III." The same principle applies to this series of books. At the very least, the films seem to be occuring in the correct order.

Alright. That's enough. I've griped long enough.



WOW! Yes, I would LOVE to come over for dinner. What are we having? Doesn't matter??!!!!

Goodbye, Steve

Today's post is going to be a bit different. You might notice a lack of my usual flair for all things sarcastic. Absent are the biting comments toward the social structure of the modern world. And, most notably, there will be no lip synching video today. If ever there was a day to break character, that day is today.

Last week the world lost one of what many choose to refer to as "the good ones". In this particular instance the title could not be more fitting. Steve Szoke lived up to that title in a way that many of us could only dream of. Now, I would be lying if I were to tell you that he and I were the closest of friends. In all honesty, he and I had not spoken (outside of the world of the internet) in about 10 years. Steve was one of the first people that introduced himself to me as I moved into my dorm at college. It took no time at all for me to learn what he was "all about".

You see, Steve's passion was people. Plain and simple. He saw a world full of hurting souls. Steve knew the cure for that pain and made it his mission to reach out to as many as possible with it. He had a gift. And, there was no way he was going to keep it to himself.

When I stepped into Burns Funeral Home in Crown Point, Indiana this past weekend I had no idea what to expect. What I found was that Steve touched more lives than I ever could have imagined. I have never before attended a funeral in which I had to stand up the entire time because no seats were available. Not only were there no seats available, but space to stand was scarce as well.

During the service a video was shown. Steve had recorded some of his thoughts a couple of days before his passing and I was struck by what he said. In a nutshell, Steve believed that Jesus loved people. It didn't matter what background these people had. Jesus simply loved people. And he offers the gift of salvation to everyone.

It just got me to thinking, why in the world would somebody not want to accept such a gift? Too many times we find ourselves (notice that I include myself here) concerned with the state of people lives rather than simply loving them. Steve had it right. Jesus doesn't stand there and point out our faults and say "You've got to stop doing what you're doing". That was never His message. He wants us to come to Him and love Him. All because he wants us to come home to Him someday.

Well, Steve did just that. Now he is enjoying a reward so fantastic that we could not possibly imagine such perfection.

Goodbye, Steve. I'll see you again.