Category: Uncategorized

– After the unofficial vote yesterday, I don’t think I made much progress convincing myself (or Maile) that watching Lost on dvd fits within the parameters of our no-tv-for-a-year rules.  Bryan, I’ll be returning the box to you bright and early Monday morning, hoping to re-borrow it on January 1st, 2011.  For anyone who is counting, the final tally I calculated was 6-6 (many people never said what they actually thought, so I had to use the tone of their comment to decide which way they were leaning…I know, I know, a totally subjective method)

– Check out this link to the Fireside Writer’s Conference being held this fall.  We’ve got one speaker’s bio and picture up (but you have to go there to see who it is), and many more to come.  (Editor’s note – make that two; now you have twice as many reasons to click over and take a look).

– I’m about to go on a guest-posting tour to a blog near you. Let me know if you’re interested in having me swing by your site and do a guest-post (email me at shawnsmucker(at)yahoo.com).

– Currently reading: Deep Church, A New Kind of Christian, A House For Mr. Biswas (still), and the most recent volumes of The Missouri Review and Glimmer Train (yes, someone throw me a life preserver because I’m drowning in books)

– Spend these days listening to: Innocence Mission, Over the Rhine, Sting, Natalie Merchant and David Gray

So what are you reading? Listening to? Looking forward to about the weekend?

As you know, we are attempting to go one year without watching television.

As you may also know, one of the caveat’s is that we are allowed to watch movies.

So what constitutes a movie?

This question came up after I threatened on Twitter (follow me HERE) to borrow or steal Seasons 1-6 of Lost, mostly because Bryan Allain kept talking about it EVERY Tuesday on his blog and I finally started paying attention (by the way, if you haven’t read his recap you have to – it was apparently the most read blog ON THE PLANET on that particular day, or close to it).

Magically, “Lost: Season One” appeared on my dining room table (thanks Bryan).

Suddenly I was faced with a conundrum, a quandary, a sticky situation (can you tell I pulled these from my Word thesaurus?): is watching Lost on tv legal?  TECHNICALLY, it’s not a tv show anymore, right?  Maybe?  Couldn’t I classify Seasons 1-6 as a really, really, really long movie?

Maile wasn’t buying it, so I took to Twitter, asking people to vote yeah or nay, hoping to garner some support.

Well, it didn’t work – I was voted down by a margin of 5-1 (actually, the total vote was 5-1).

So like a kid who loses best of three and shouts “okay, best of five” then “best of seven” then “best of nine,” I’m taking this vote to the blogosphere.

What say you? Does watching Lost: Season 1 violate our terms of “no TV for a year”? Be careful how you vote – my short-term entertainment future depends on it.  And if you’ve already voted once, feel free to comment, but no way does your vote count again (unless you’re the one who voted in favor of it on Twitter, then by all accounts vote early, vote often, vote anonymously).

My son Cade is 6 years old. He’ll be 7 later this month, and I am constantly reminded of this by the non-stop birthday list that is always changing.

But one of my favorite things about Cade is the crazy stuff he says. His sister Lucy (5 years old) is always correcting him, and he comes running, checking for clarification.  I feel like I’m always telling him that Lucy is right.

This constant rightness by Lucy is something he will probably grow to despise in the coming years.

In the mean time, we really enjoy his off-the-wall comments.

Like this one:

Maile was running late and Sam, the baby, was crying because he wanted to be fed (something only Maile can do at this point).

Cade: Dad, what’s wrong with Sam?

Me: He’s just hungry.  Mom’s on her way home.

Cade: Oh.  Are you going to feed him with your knuckles?

Me: What?

Cade: (looking at me out of the corner of his eye) Nupples?

Me: Um, they’re called nipples, and no, I’m not feeding him with mine.

Cade: (looking at me, on the verge of laughing)

Me: Okay, son, let’s talk.

*****

This may turn into a serial post, but that all depends on Cade.  In the mean time, have any kids you’ve been around said off the wall stuff?

My sister Sharalee Halvorsen took this photo.  Check out her website here (she’s available for hire but in high demand).

I am a huge autumn/winter fan.  Leaves changing, cool temperatures, that whole mood of heading into the holidays – I love it all.

Summer? Not so much.

But in an effort to stay positive, I’m listing 10 things I love about summer.  This is inherently an excercise of faith – not sure if I can actually think of ten, but here goes . . .

1) Baseball – as a kid, baseball was my absolute favorite sport, to watch and play.  Now that my son Cade plays baseball, it’s a great reminder of those hot summers I spent throwing ball with my dad.

2) Water – there are few things that feel as nice as jumping into a cool body of water on a hot summer day.  Lakes, swimming pools, creeks, large puddles . . . all are great remedies for the summer heat.

3) Long Days – the best part of the day, that time after 7:00 when all is quiet in the house, seems to last even longer when the sun keeps shining.  And it’s so much easier to get up in the morning when our closest star is hitting you in the face.

4) Fresh Food – around here there are road side stands selling all kinds of awesome garden goodness: fresh strawberries, vegetables, watermelon – it all tastes so much better knowing it was just plucked, pulled or peeled on the same acre you’re standing.

. . . and that’s it.  That’s all I’ve got.  Help me finish this list and get through the summer without melting.

What are your favorite things about summer?

We’re trying to sell all kinds of junk today in a yard sale outside my sister’s house: old shoes, striped mugs, a thirty year old food processor, baby clothes, and, among many other things, a kid’s riding toy that looks like a huge worm.

It would appear there’s nothing you can’t sell.

It’s kind of like being in a parallel universe where there’s a huge demand for over-sized rubber ducks, and there’s no shame in negotiating 25 cents off a 50 cent item.

Other reasons a yard sale makes me feel like I’ve gone through a tesseract?

1.  a dvd recently bought for $14.99 is sold for $1, and that’s after the customer negotiated it down from $2

2. a green robe hangs from the handle of a stationary bike, and there’s a My Little Pony on the seat.  You could own all three for $11.25. And this all seems completely normal

3. the cook book I thought I couldn’t wait to get rid of suddenly takes on new meaning and importance when I’m about to sell it to a stranger for 75 cents

4. all the best stuff gets snatched up in the first thirty minutes.  Then you have the rest of the day for someone to buy “Host Your Own 80s Night” which is sitting next to the book, “Dog Training, Fly Fishing, and Sharing Christ in the 21st Century”.  There is clearly no one person on the planet who would be remotely interested in buying either of these things, yet you can’t start packing it all up at 7:30am

5. who owns this stuff?  when did I buy it? and who am I trying to kid, offering for sale things I would gladly pay $20 to someone if they were willing to take away the whole lot?

6. my sister has four kids.  I have four kids.  Between the 8 of them all they want to do is buy each other’s stuff.

So what’s the strangest thing you’ve ever bought or sold at a yard sale?

This post is a continuation of a story I told Wednesday.  Click HERE to read that post first, if you’d like.

*****

By Monday night I already had the new salary budgeted out.  By Tuesday I was looking at houses.  But Tuesday afternoon I got a phone call.

“Hey, Shawn, about that second interview.  Look, I know you would do a great job in this position, but the guys above me really feel I should hire someone with this particular, specific experience, and it’s one thing you don’t have.  I’m really sorry.”

I blinked two and a half times.  I tried to swallow but it felt like my cell phone had lodged somewhere just above my already abnormally large Adam’s apple.

“Yeah, sure, no problem,” I said with the remaining breath in my lungs, one long exhale, leaving barely enough to say “bye”.

Wow.  That was a hard pill to swallow.  I called Maile and told her – she seemed fine with it (I think she was secretly relieved, in a way, because she didn’t believe we had given the writing thing a serious attempt), but when I hung up I thought I was going to start crying.  Crying!  Then I got mad at myself: what was I, in kindergarten?  I angrily fisted the tears from my eyes and set my jaw, completely ready to begin the long journey towards becoming a bitter old man.

Then God said something to me.

Now, before I get into that, I know that some of you are really uncomfortable with the idea of God speaking to people.  Some of you don’t even believe in God.  Look, I am totally cool with either of those, and if you’re still reading I appreciate you tolerating my theistic world view.  But let me try to explain this as rationally as possible.

As I was driving down the road I suddenly had this overwhelming feeling that things would be okay.  This makes no sense to me, because at that moment in time every logical piece of data said that my life, at least financially, sucked, and was heading toward worse than sucks.  I was driving back to my parents basement, where my four children and wife were living underground, with about 2 1/2 months worth of income, and beyond that just a gaping financial chasm.

Yet peace overwhelmed me.

And the thing God said to me?  “Why don’t you at least try really hard to make a living, doing what you love, and stop letting this fear of failure halt you in your tracks.  You haven’t even pursued the leads I’ve given you.  Just do that, as a first step.”

I remembered what I had prayed to God the weekend before.

“Fine,” I said, and I may have even said it out loud to myself in the car.  “Fine, God.  Look, if you want me to write, if you want me to take a risk, then I’ll do it.  But this is what I propose – I will focus 100% on writing as long as we have at least 2 months income in the bank.  Once it drops below that then I’ll take that as direction from you to look for a job.”

“And in the mean time I’ll make some calls.”

By the end of that month I landed three new writing projects that would keep us going for six additional months.

Suddenly I had 8 months of income lined up.  And we were paying off huge portions of our debt.  I was making more as a writer than I would have made at that job I didn’t get.

*****

Whenever I share my story I always feel the need to clarify my position – I am not in any way trying to encourage people to recklessly quit their jobs, or turn down really good ones.  I’m not saying that working 40 or 50 hours a week for an employer is an inherently bad thing.  But I do want to challenge you – are you doing what you are passionate about?  Are you pursuing the leads that you’ve been presented with?  Have you reached out to others in your field of interest and made connections?

Don’t let fear, or the thought of discomfort, keep you from reaching a higher level of self-fulfillment and happiness.  Don’t let our culture’s overemphasis on stability and materialism shackle you to a life you don’t want to be living.

Don’t be afraid to spend your life doing something that you love.

*****

To read the very first segment of this story, which tells about how Maile and I made the decision to move from Virginia to Pennsylvania (and into my parent’s basement) click HERE.