My Favorite Things

by Pastor Mark

 

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Two more of my favorite things just happen to be from Canada:

(1) The Weakerthans' "Reconstruction Site."  It's a compact disc full of songs they wrote and then recorded.  I think it's mostly about the death of Jon Samson's father.  What do you think it's about?

(2) Arcade Fire's "Funeral."  It is another pre-recorded compact disc that you can listen to at home or in your car.  It is also sort of about death.  (In case you couldn't figure that out.)

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The only sort-of-mean person I ever met in Canada was this border guard who asked me for my passport and then I said "You're kidding!" and he said in a sort of mean way, "Sir.  I would never 'kid' about such a matter."  He let me enter his country anyway.  (Maybe he was kind of grumpy because during the previous week my country's air force accidentally shot down one of his country's air force's airplanes and then refused to offer a decent apology.) 

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 My favorite things non-Canadian include:

 A movie, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson called "Magnolia."  The judgment parts turn out to be about grace.  The grace parts turn out to be about judgment.

Jason Robards is in Magnolia.  He is also in a much older movie called "A Thousand Clowns."  Its also one of my favorite things.  Would you like to watch it with me sometime?

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Another of my favorite things non-Canadian is Annie Dillard's little book Holy the Firm which took me two years to understand and which finally got me over my pantheist envy.

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 Eleven more of my favorite things:

 1. My mom and dad.

 2. Chicken and Spinach with Spicy Peanut Sauce (#21) at Raum Mit Thai in St. Paul.

 3. My children.

 4. My spouse, Natalie (I could never get used to calling her "my wife").

 5. My friends.

 6. Karl Barth.

 7. Snowstorms.

 8. Puget Sound.

 9. Christmas shopping.

 10. Shopping for me when I'm supposed to be buying gifts for someone else.

 11. The northern lights (which they see a lot more in Canada than we do here.)