THE CURATED MIND

November is almost over, but before it passes, I just thought it a nice idea to go back a few Novembers and commemorate some of the great occurrences in lives of the Goens:

• Three Novembers ago James and I took our first trip together to Indiana to visit his grandma for Thanksgiving. It was the first time I met his parents, grandparents or extended family and the only time in my living memory that I have driven from Florida to Indiana.

• Two Novembers ago James and I were interviewed for a podcast for “Musicianairies” about our experiences in a house church we were a part of in Gainesville, Florida. Stephan, who was interviewing us, hosts this podcast for musicians around the country and is fond of the idea of the”unleadership” for worship leaders. A copy of that interview is linked to the title of this post.

• Two Novembers ago was also monumental for James and I as a couple because it was on Thanksgiving of 2006 that we were engaged to be married. He took me to a movie after dinner and then to a dock near Ft. Walton Beach, Florida and asked me to stand with him in this life.

• Last November held importance of its own as it hosted our first Thanksgiving as a married couple and a trip to Ohio to visit my grandparents.

I can’t say that this November will fall in the category of “unforgetable,” but we have made memories with our church family with a Thanksgiving day together and a sleepover, reconnected with friends in a trip to Charlotte, NC and visited both of our “real” families in Florida. I am sure that in the future we will look back at the preciousness of this time and find something to fondly remember.

I wish I had the words I needed to write about my world. But lately, I have felt so much pressure to write NBPTS entries that I feel guilty when I spend time doing anything else. That means I am working on my portfolios, or I am doing nothing at all. I should be specific…it is really only my creative endeavors that are inhibited by this stalemate between what I need to do and what I want to do. I have no problem wasting time with things that are not creative. The result is depressing: I create nothing. Maybe tomorrow will be different and all of my creativity will be set free.
This video is pretty cool… it is a robot saving a fish that is trapped in an underwater oil rig. I fear I may have liked it because I feel like that trapped fish. I wonder if there is a robot on its way to pull me out of my trouble?

I found this video on a feed from ted.com where I also found this talk by Andy Hobsbawm that is witty and inspiring and makes me long to be creative again.

So, I cannot help but pass on this article, and this image, as I think the article contains such insightful thoughts on writing and the way the brain works. I didn’t realize he had lost his ability to speak—and apparently he didn’t realize how much that would affect his writing and his thinking about his writing. I am adding Roger Ebert’s Journal to my RSS feed.

In other news, I celebrated Novemberween as Tobias Funke, the nevernude from Arrested Development, and loved every minute of my bald-head donnin’, mustache-wearin’, cut-off jean short stylin’ self. James went as another version of me—as Mrs. Featherbottom from Blackstool, England. I love him. Can you see the resemblance?