It’s summertime–the season of daydreams and slipstreams. In the summer you don’t have to finish your thoughts. Thoughts are allowed to wobble and shimmer like the heat waves above a fresh patch of asphalt. So in the spirit of summer, let me throw a few random thoughts your way. None of these musings are to be considered perceptive, or even insightful, they are merely summer notions–ice cream ideas–toes in the water ponderings.

A couple of weeks ago I was at a wedding. As a pastor, if there are weddings, I tend to be a part of them. Me and weddings don’t get along! I love the fact that a man and a woman fall in love and want to live the rest of their lives together. I love the God-created mystery of two becoming one flesh but the actual stuff that surrounds weddings leave me rather cold. In my opinion, the stress and planning and showers and pattern picking and all the rest of the wedding refuse very nearly sucks the joy out of the occasion. Once in a long while, the couple gets through the ordeal relatively (note the double meaning) unscathed, but that is a rare and beautiful thing. Thankfully, this last wedding was very much like that.

But, what I really find interesting with this particular wedding was what happened at the wedding reception. I felt like an anthropologist discovering a new shift in the social fabric. This shift had to do with the traditional throwing of the bride’s bouquet. The loosely assembled female unattacheds, instead of reaching for the prize, did all they could to dodge the flowers. Without exception the flowers were treated like some kind of plague-encrusted manifestation of Beelzebub. Young ladies literally jumped out of the way. It was surreal to say the least! What does all this mean? I am not completely sure, but it made me laugh nervously and look the other way. Marriage, it seems, has fallen on hard times, or maybe it is just the human heart. Oddly, the world seems a little more cynical and lonely after that display.

Recently our family received a bobble head that now adorns the dashboard of our van. At any moment, when the urge strikes me, I proceed to flick the nose on our bobble Goofy and watch his head go up and down. The satisfaction this action brings to my soul is far more substantial than I would have imagined. I now know that there is a great power behind the bobble. Power to sooth. Power to relieve stress. Power to bring joy – even in a traffic jam! POWER!

It seems to me that if we genetically altered the human race to incorporate bobble head movement we would be far better off. How can you be mad at anyone whose head is bobbling? How can anyone whose head is bobbling be mad? Mark my words, the bobble head is the end to all wars! In the very least, wouldn’t we all profit from being a bit more flexible?

Right now I am on holidays. Doing some work around the house, spending time with my family. Thus far the holidays have been filled with variety and relaxation, not to mention physical work and some serious headway on my long list of home procrastinations. Often my life is distracted with the list of things I can’t do anything about. Sometimes I am numbed by my inabilities, so it’s a wonderful thing to be able to focus on a few things that I can fix and then cross them off my list. I need to work on spending more time on the fixable. Small accomplishments lead to bigger hopes. Small steps lead to greater faith.