tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74570302024-03-07T22:53:34.190-05:00Ragamuffin RamblingsSteve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.comBlogger590125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-28887061950103297022011-09-15T11:35:00.003-04:002011-10-04T17:11:48.761-04:00Changed, for goodI have had 7 addresses, in 5 cities, in 8 years...and two of those cities I lived in for 2 years apiece. So the last several years have been, to put it mildly, "transient." "Nearly rootless" might be a better word.
That very transience has made me value the people who have connected with me - some of them at a very, very deep level, very quickly. But I guess I had been in some denial about how Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-69091283307346665112011-06-19T23:43:00.000-04:002011-06-19T23:43:44.671-04:00Branching out....I am not done posting here.
But I am finding the need to post things that don't need to remain anonymous. I'd like to be able to talk on some topics that don't require anonymity...and I'd like to share some of the things I've written here with a wider audience.
So I've started a new blog over at A Bubble Off Square.
The first post can be found over here.
The title comes from a termSteve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-76871127556406484512011-04-01T12:07:00.000-04:002011-04-01T12:07:34.946-04:00"And so it begins..."Actually, it's been underway for about a month - preparations to relocate to a new address have been going for a while, now.
Chris's job has been what one generous soul would call "a hot mess" for more than a year. It has been degenerating for at least a year, and he's been developing a case of "homesick" that's been getting more and more obvious over that same year. We had been looking at Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-66905466211276636882011-03-22T13:30:00.000-04:002011-03-22T13:30:39.575-04:00Faith, belief, and finding communityYes, I have been gone too long. Yes, I have some catching up to do. Sorry, it's going to have to wait....
A friend of mine recently decloaked as a fellow blogger, Ravenmoon at Becoming A Perfect Mom. Her post Not beliving, a lonely business brought me a flashback from my Church History experience with Dr. Kurt Hendel at LSTC. Here's my flashback word, with its Wikipedia reference:
Adiaphoron (Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-87011029521828508692010-06-30T23:11:00.002-04:002010-06-30T23:37:56.423-04:00Back to the beginning...Six years ago this morning, my car got towed from the parking lot of an Osco pharmacy in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood at something like 4 in the morning. I was unemployed, desperate for money, and my friend had just paid me $150 to take care of their pets for two weeks while they were gone to South America. I had taken them to the airport, and on the way home, stopped at Dunkin Donuts in HydeSteve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-2645892186341592442010-03-09T18:47:00.009-05:002010-03-09T20:25:37.210-05:00Outta my mind on a Wednesday moanin'Yet another tribute to the late Bob Talbert of Detroit Free Press fame (1936-1999) - a Southern boy whose accent translated "morning" into moanin' and whose book, Good Moanin', is one of the unsung classics of life in Detroit (along with Richard Guindon's cartoons). So today I divide my early-morning thoughts into Good moanin' and Jus' moanin':Good moanin' - there is nothing like having a cat Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-25066480117284165372010-02-22T13:50:00.006-05:002010-02-22T17:58:46.657-05:00Changes in the airTaking a moment to reflect on some interesting - and challenging - events out here in the slushy, mushy tundra of the Big Ten College Town in the Cornfields...One of fun trips we allow ourselves is a trip to Indianapolis each year to see the AMA/FIM Supercross (indoor motorcycle dirt-track) races. Yes, I know, you'd never peg me for a motorcycle-racing guy - but it's a good time. The racing is Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-46167627053391763272010-02-07T23:18:00.011-05:002010-02-08T09:02:54.580-05:00Finding answersWe are expecting the next "great wave" of snowfall here in central Illinois - generally, two-to-four inches of the white stuff can medium-paralyze The Big-Ten-College-Town-On-The-Prairie. So we are stocked up with enough groceries that we will survive, well-fed, for a while. Actually, I'm pretty sure we have enough food for Thanksgiving dinner for 12, if we only had enough places for them to Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-85766156644104774842009-12-03T22:51:00.006-05:002009-12-04T00:01:37.804-05:00A disciplined returnI found this in my inbox recently...a clear image of how connected I am, and how ripples in my life are detected by others...~~~Can't sleep. Up browsing.It seems you haven't posted on the ragamuffin blog for a l.o.n.g. time.Are you okay?Are you blogging elsewhere?Are you done blogging?Perhaps none of it is any of my business.I miss your words. your thoughts. you.Still pondering deeply and Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-74402996679384726092009-10-01T12:34:00.012-04:002009-10-01T15:59:21.328-04:00Fall reflections...It's October 1 - plenty of changes in the fall air...A little known fact about me is that I have had an oldish Oscar Schmidt autoharp in my closet for about a decade. It's had a couple buzzing keys, and it was a pain in the nether-regions to tune (there are thirty-six strings to tune!), so other than using it for a couple of kids' sermons in the 1999-2001 period, I never really pulled it out Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-40514286163320018142009-09-16T19:06:00.005-04:002009-09-16T19:14:34.914-04:00Something fun...Is it me, or do you see the resemblance?Left, Assembly Hall at the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Right, the Jupiter 2, from the original Lost In Space.I keep expecting to see Zachary Harris and The Robot rolling out of Assembly Hall each time I drive by....Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-85674172842510105702009-09-14T08:52:00.015-04:002009-09-14T15:43:55.065-04:00Thoughts from "Peace and Justice Sunday"Mr. Kissinger, as the Church, our job is to ensure that justice flows down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream; and, your job as the State is to irrigate the fields. (William Sloane Coffin, on Amos 5:24)Back in the '60s, two school reformers wrote a book in which they defined education as the fine art of "crap detection." That's not a bad way to describe good theology. (Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-73399744332216887382009-09-01T13:30:00.006-04:002012-07-17T12:16:09.482-04:00Just something to consider...Someone to need you too much
Someone to know you too well
Someone to pull you up short
And put you through hell
And give you support
For being alive...
(Stephen Sondheim, "Being Alive," from Company)
It was 8:10 PM Saturday, well after dark, as I drove through our development towards home. And as I came up to our duplex, my heart sank and panic set it.
It was after dark, and Chris hadn't made Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-47443767646151994262009-06-28T22:34:00.002-04:002009-06-29T10:59:25.171-04:00A place of healing, a place of hopeOh, there's nothing as sweet as fellowshipAs we share each other’s hearts...Sweet, sweet fellowship...- the group AcappellaIt's been a long, long time since I could say that about a church. Thanks be to God, I can say it today.For the last four years, I have been waging a 3-sided internal battle. On one side, I've been wanting to again be a part of a fellowship of Christian believers. On another Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-67417769877729457912009-06-23T20:25:00.010-04:002009-06-24T21:30:07.368-04:00Synchro Blog - Bridging the Gap, and loving our neighboursAnd yes, I spelled "neighbours" correctly - specifically for some friends I've never met in Canada....New Direction Ministries is a former Exodus ex-gay ministry based in Canada. Earlier this year they left Exodus because they disagreed with the direction and rhetoric of Exodus, which cost them a lot of support and funding. Since leaving Exodus their goal has been to be an important voice in Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-22363723206598389752009-06-08T09:08:00.005-04:002013-04-17T05:22:13.788-04:00Thoughts on "holy unions" and same-sex marriageLate afternoon, Saturday...
I am sitting in a shady spot at The Badlands Offroad Park in Attica, Indiana. All around me there are the rasps and roars of off-road vehicles - everything from the bumblebee buzz-whine of 125cc 2-stroke dirt bikes to the throaty roar of high-powered dune buggies, and everything in between. For folks who would forsake pavement to ride through the great outdoors, The Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-4779391457569271982009-05-27T22:55:00.015-04:002010-06-21T09:15:59.283-04:00Facebook, reunions and Paul AnkaGood morning, yesterdayYou wake up and time has slipped awayAnd suddenly it's hard to findThe memories you left behindRemember, do you remember?The laughter and the tearsThe shadows of misty yesteryearsThe good times and the bad you've seenAnd all the others in betweenRemember, do you rememberThe times of your life...Paul Anka, The Times of Your Life~~~I'm not really sure where "the times of my Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-36347847153632121662009-05-14T12:46:00.004-04:002009-05-26T09:16:51.162-04:00Restart/renew/reboot...Starting over, nearly five years in...It's been 65 days since I went into St Luke's Hospital in Toledo, complaining of chest pains. In that 50 days, a lot has happened, and blogging has simply been pushed near the back of the pack, so to speak. So now, as the holiday weekend ends and a new week begins, it's time to catch up, and reboot my blog.A scant 38 days ago, Chris got the phone call he'd Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-63030459915002291592009-03-22T21:17:00.007-04:002009-03-22T23:27:46.554-04:00Filling in that one blankNo matter what our chronological age is, we never really become an adult until we are asked to fill-in the blank that says, "Please list your next of kin." I think we never truly mature until the moment that we acknowledge our mortality.I don't remember who said that quote first, but I remember hearing thoughts like this early on from my dear friend Ted, and then hearing it echoed later-on in Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-44459618563145960652009-03-22T14:39:00.014-04:002009-03-22T16:46:28.127-04:00Thoughts from the body-n-fender shopThursday night, 9 PM.I was at the Thursday night Men's meeting when I started to feel this twinge in my left chest, and a little numbness in my left arm. I thought back over the evening - Chris and I had been to two standing-room-only restaurants before settling on "comfort food" at Bob Evans, and my first thought was "...too much caffeine for one evening," and gave it no mind.When I got home, Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-63551700003939823842009-03-09T00:38:00.006-04:002009-03-09T00:48:07.248-04:00"Heart and Soul" and nursery rhymesOK, here's a freaky one, that has nothing to do with anything at all...There is, in this video, a monotone-ish female narrative, and a melodic line. I'm going to suggest that most (if not all) nursery-rhymes will fit into the narrative rhythm, just as well as...well, whatever she's saying in the background.Try it. Let me know if you find yourself hearing Jack and JillWent up the hillTo fetch a Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-37112119203225142212009-03-06T22:29:00.009-05:002009-03-06T23:20:19.848-05:00Not a record to be proud of Twenty-nine days without a post.Not a sign of spiritual or emotional solidity, to be sure. Which, I guess, is what a friend would call "the God's honest truth of the matter."My blogging absence started with not feeling quite well - a winter cold that turned into a sinus infection, then into a series of bloody noses and all kinds of plague-like symptoms that even grossed me out, at times. StartedSteve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-60038682103717615472009-02-05T00:18:00.003-05:002009-02-05T00:57:02.049-05:00It still hurts, even nowWhen I was active in Kansas AA (before my abortive trip to Chicago and seminary-land), I would get asked to speak at "open" AA meetings - those meetings which are open to anyone, not just those with a desire to stop drinking. When I got asked, I almost always said "yes" - because that's what I was taught. If you're asked by AA, and you can possibly do it, the answer was "yes."A fellow frequently Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-57055426924067632642009-01-16T00:11:00.004-05:002009-01-16T00:53:27.957-05:00Taking a breather...Just a quick update from the frosty corners of northwest Ohio...This week marks a series of changes. Friday the 16th is Chris' last day at Hotel Hell; a local hobby retailer had an opening for a remote-control sales specialist, and Chris jumped at it. His schedule will be a bit screwed for a bit - he will have to work Sundays for a couple weeks, which has been our only "full" day off together. Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7457030.post-8901969132621586862009-01-11T23:05:00.005-05:002009-01-11T23:46:36.858-05:00Is this really an improvement?...The mainstream church, Driscoll has written, has transformed Jesus into "a Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ," a "neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture that . . . would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell." (Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church, quoted in the New York Times)This article paints Mark Driscoll as the next new voice of the evangelical church. It Steve F.http://www.blogger.com/profile/12697100521186605498noreply@blogger.com2