The Little Words Mean the Most

Fasting

The cheapest good wine I can buy; from BOTA, in a box. A cup revealing our politics. One-a-day protein shake. My favorite pen (the uni ball VISION ELITE) on my favorite mineral paperweight, purchased @ the Desert Museum (Tucson), @ a fundraiser. Paperweights keep me from blowing all over the horizon. Are we colonized by our projects? I have 10-15 underway at once.

What if Jesus reappeared to run against Ted Cruz?

Which would Iowa evangelicals vote for then? Very different messages.

Could Jesus win for President against Ted Cruz? That's a fair question to ask candidates who run under the Jesus brand.

 

Family Secrets

My sister knows all the family secrets. She's older. She says that because she's a woman, people told her things the males never heard. Hushed up events. Madness. We've scheduled a series of one-hour recorded interviews; she's handing the secrets down to me. One tasty morsel: my mother gassed herself running the family car in the new garage (she had a gift for planning). A 28-year-old family theory speculates that mom wanted me, her favorite (of 2 children), to find her. For what reason? Who TF knows. If you're thinking tragedy, I'm thinking comedy; as in, the human comedy. Everything's pretty much a prat fall at some level. ~ Jane, who was a wonderful new friend that summer, wrote in response to this post: "Within minutes of meeting your mother, she said, 'Tom has a girlfriend in the neighborhood.' I was so inexperienced at having a male friend that all I could think to say was, 'Oh, that's nice.' I remember she made us some scrambled eggs one morning before we set out on our journey. I later sent your mom a thank-you gift for being a hostess. I don't think she was comfortable sharing you with someone else, but I understood that at the time. I was a stranger and she was protective. Your last letter to me was in the Spring. You just stopped writing mid-sentence after telling me your mother had passed. My recollection is that it was a heart attack, or I assumed that was the case. I did not hear from you after that, as you were going through a mourning period, and my free time was consumed by school. Life moves on, and I probably did not know how to respond to someone who was grieving. Twenty-year-olds today know a lot more than we did. I only wanted to share this with you at this time, because you have learned a terrible truth. Her actions probably had no connection to you at all. People commit suicide, because they are in great pain, and they want to escape. Everything else going on is just...." The rest is private. ~ I asked my photo of mom tonight, "Did you want me to find you? Well, to tell the truth I was a close second. But I didn't stay long; dead bodies aren't the same as live bodies."

He didn't have much a a drawl, more a

a widdrawl

 

Serious question: Is donor communications a ministry?

This is becoming big

Read this report.

2013-14 for me is: mobile, communications thereon

A. IS MOBILE a better retention device than email?

A-part2. IS MOBILE a better 2nd-gift device than direct mail, for some?

A-part3. IS MOBILE a way better involvement device?

B. DOES MOBILE deliver better penetration into younger audiences? Direct mail isn't dead. But it's not the medium of choice for under-40's. They might not be major donors yet. But they can certainly afford small monthly gifts. And they are on fire for change!!!

C. DOES MOBILE, from the First Impressions Department: Seem more trustworthy than street-, face-to-face fundraising? Maybe. Dunno.

D.IS MOBILE? Obviously, the future. Until the next gadget (flesh-embedded, for instance; "embed" appears in my 1961 Webster's Collegiate dictionary) comes along. "You had them tattoo your iPhone on your wrist? Awesome, my Martian friend!"

It's August in the Northern hemisphere

the hard rutting is over

It was said better later

[a nivel: a novel about sniveling] I replied to her peckish note: "The conference is in a place I do not want to go, ever." Florida. "It pays like church mice." Faith-based, sure; huge conference. "And I feel like an hors d'oeurve, not a main course. I only said yes because ... someone whom I profoundly respect asked me personally, by phone, if I would. If he had added, 'There will be a lot of paperwork,' I would have said no instead. With all due respect to your filing system."

Dear reader, Let me give you some quick context: my paperwork for a conference in February 2014 is (in July 2013) a week overdue.

I couldn't care less, I am ashamed to say.

START THE MOVEMENT NOW: Please fire me! Please fire me! Please fire me!

WRITE YOUR CONGRESSCYBORG: Please fire Tom Ahern. [you know the rest]

I have a faith client

What I'm asking, on which day did God create poverty and hunger? And what's God's purpose for great wealth?