Christ coming to a Church near you

The following preview has been approved for ALL AUDIENCES.

A Trinity Production

(scene opens with a zoom in to a pair of feet in sandals walking down a dusty street, mystic chanting is heard in the background).

Voice-over: You have heard how he faced the accused in silence. (flashes to scenes of a bearded man standing in a courtyard amidst a crowd of jeering Roman centurions and other robed men)

You have heard him suffer (flashes to close-up of same bearded man, blood trickling down from his forehead where a crown of thorns have bitten and broken the skin; him grunting in effort to drag a cross down a road while being watched by a throng of people. Zoom into a woman holding a baby just as the baby looks away).

You thought him dead! (A peal is heard with finality, thunder and lightening across a blackening sky, zoom into a woman as she wails, and then a deafening crack as an altar in a dimly lighted room cleft in twain, then total DARKNESS)

... silence...

(scene changes to a sunny sky, several seconds later a flock of doves bursting from bottom of the screen, brilliant music playing)

But now he is BACK (sporadic collages of a pierced right hand, pierced left hand, and pierced feet with just the bottom edge of robe showing).

(more scenes of people suddenly stopping what they are doing, surprise on their faces)

JESUS! The comeback tour! (Beethoven's 9th blasting in the background as a figure is shown silhouetted in a blaze of light while more doves burst forth from behind him flying in all directions)

Come celebrate him LIVE at a church near you.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Falling in love

Do you know why they all it falling in love?  Because falling is a scary thing.  Think about that critical moment when you are leaning just a tad too far in your chair and on the brink of falling, wasn't it frightful?  Or better yet, when you are dreaming and you are falling, wasn't it always advised that you should wake up just before you actually fell?  So there it is, falling is a scary thing.  It is like standing on the cusp of a cliff, looking down, do you jump or do you hold back? Yet, the more amazing components of falling in love are the leap of faith, and gravity.  

See, the act of falling in love has three parts to it.  The scary part where you fall, and the first part where you have hope and take that leap of faith.  That first part is crucial in that you have to be motivated to take the plunge.  That is the beauty of love, it starts off with a leap of faith.  Have you ever played that game at camp where you stand elevated with your back turned towards a group of people, and the whole objective was to fall into their arms.  Wasn't that something?  Just be ready to fall and see who catches you.  You have got to believe that someone will catch you.  That kind of hope is amazing, that trust in humanity is precious.   

The third part is that love gravitates us.  The reason we can even fall is because there is gravity, and love is at the center of it.  It attracts us, we are drawn to it, like moths to a flame (although that properly opens a whole new slew of analogies, and I digress).  

Back to falling, as scary as it gets, it is also very elating isn't it?  Bungee jumping, skydiving, roller coaster these all have a certain appeal because in the act of falling we become alive, adrenaline pumping. If you fall from high enough, you may even hit terminal velocity and free fall for a bit. That moment of clarity, I have been told, is divine in of itself.

And, if you are safety conscious, what is great about bungee jumping, skydiving, and riding roller coaster is that they are actually quite safe.  There is either a safety harness or parachute involved.  If faith alone does not work, then, at least trust in the safety that is your family and loved ones to have your back when you do decided to take a leap and fall.

One more thing, it is falling in love.  Don't change the tense, make it perpetual.  The problem when we refer the action to a different tense other than the present participle is we relegate it to something less significant.  Falling, it represents constant motion, it denotes a continuous pull by the never ending gravitational force of love.  Love never cease, and the act of moving towards it should be perpetual.    

 So I say let's fall in love.

(I know there are some of you out there, and part of me too, who remains cynical. Kind of like that joke:  if at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.  I still choose to believe falling in love is a good thing, and an essential experience).  

I can't get a job because I don't have the experience because I can't get a job...

If my life was a 1920 gangster movie, this would be part where I am having trouble joining the outfit:

Cast:- HR department played by some shadowy figure in a fedora, trench coat, and who smokes a cigar. (Possibly voiced by Nick Nolte)- Me, looking remarkably like a newsboy, eight-piece cap and all. 

Scene: HR: "Sorry kiddo, no dice, the boss man says you ain't got the street smarts yet to cut it in the outfit. Wizen up a little, and maybe we will take a look again down the road." 

Me: "Whaddayamin I ain't got the creds? I have been bustin ma hump fer the past tootin years as a gofer intern and extern! Ain't that count fer somethin?"

Music and Audiology

"A sound life involves oscillating through ups and downs, finding that which resonates with your existence, accomplishing something that will reverberate in generations to come. Do not be afraid of coming across intense. Be always ready and willing to pitch in, because the truth is, life is the melody and you are the lyricist."

There are many compelling reasons that propelled me into the field of audiology.  Some border on the theological, and some along the practical.  Yet, perhaps the one that appeals to me the most is the  knowledge that I am in a vocation that will help people hear music.  Yes, audiology as a field has not been very focused on music, in fact some may even argued that we have thus far focused primarily on helping people hear everyday speech better.  The frequency response of most hearing aids can attest to this.

While I grant that to be the case, central to my personal pursuit of promoting hearing and balance in people's lives, is the firm belief that through helping people hear better, I can increase their chance of being exposed to music.  There is something magical about music that speaks louder than some of the best written speeches.  There is something about melodies that transcends all else.  When one speaks of sound, of resonance, of striking a cord, of tugging at the heart strings; one does not immediately conjure up lyrical poetries.  No, one imagines a song, a melody that stirs within them a memory, an emotion.

Music speaks, it is a form of communication.  I know as verbose as I tend to be at times, I find myself relating more to music, and reveal more of myself through songs than I would if I was speaking in tongues.  If we are lucky, each of us have strong ties to music, be it an early memory of a simple tune hummed by your mother or father as they lulled you to sleep, or a particular song that speaks out to you at a certain time when you are feeling most misunderstood.

Music are tied deeply into emotions.  Film score composers know this to be true.  Even from the early days of silent film to current blockbuster, sound effects and film scores have a special place in engaging the audience.   Music amplify, and even dictates how we feel during a certain scene.

At it's heart, music is vibration of a most complex nature.  With it comes vibrance, rhythm, and cadence. It makes words into lyrics, it turned walking into dancing. Think of the progression of movies.  When a play was not enough, we moved to operas, and from there we moved on to musicals.  Simply put, music is the spice to life.  Sure sure, we can have great conversations, but life would be so much more if we have background music and theme songs to go with it.

Being an audiologist allows me the opportunity to ensure people around have the faculties necessary to appreciate music, to feel the beat, to sing and dance.  There is music in all things, from a child's laughter to familiar voice, and I want everyone to hear it  Music helps us to stay sharp when the world is flat.