Well, of course he hangs out with Mike Nelson. I'm glad James Lileks knows what a charmed life he leads; though it does appear that he's worked in order to get it, so it's not like he's Paris Hilton.

Recently Frank the Trucker came into work and was talking to me about something he's read recently. My boss had him read Erwin McManus's The Barbarian Way, and this has seriously affected the way he's approaching life. He mentioned a quote from a saint of the earlier Church, who said something to the effect of, "People read the writings of saints and then somehow believe that it makes the reader an equal to them." He said that he found himself falling into that little mental trap, and living out his life vicariously through the recorded deeds of other people. He says he isn't going to do that any longer, so he's getting rid of a lot of his possessions and he's going to stop reading accounts of other Christians so he can begin living out some of his own adventures.

Mind you, this is coming from a guy who drives up and down the country for a living, who has been involved in trying to start an emergent church movement within his old church, and who is exactly the sort of guy to start up a conversation about Jesus with a stranger in a truck stop. It's a rare day that I work up the effort to leave my apartment. There's a lot of truth in what he said, though. After reading a lot of C.S. Lewis I find myself feeling a little self-satisfied, as if I had written anything or accomplished anything of his caliber. But really, most of my life is lived vicariously through the writings of others, or talk radio commentators, or through fictional characters in books, on television shows, and in roleplaying games. My own life, while quite comfortable, is really without note thus far.

Well, I am on summer vacation.

This may change a bit when the semester starts next month. I'll be helping to lead the Branches group on campus, which will be exciting; I need to give some thought and prayer as to what that will entail. Actually, I am really interested in what shape this is going to take. I'm still flattered that I was chosen to be one of the two leaders of the group, even though it's really only because the Old Guard is graduating and I'm next in line, and it might have something to do with the fact that I'm older than most of the students here by five to ten years. But hey, I'm game!