New Coldplay album for Christmas

My one new CD a year came from my little sister in Pennsylvania–Viva la Vida. Over all, it’s an under-whelming performance by Coldplay but there are some killer lyrics on “Death and all his friends.”

“Oh I don’t want to battle from beginning to end/ I don’t wanna cycle a recycled revenge/I don’t wanna follow death and all of his friends.”

As I’m pondering what is a holy lifestyle and what kind of consumer should I be in this world, those lyrics hit me hard.  My choices either harmonize with the earth and with the poor in the Third World or they create chaos and suffering.  These are some of the themes I’m exploring for my next book.  How does my everyday life impact the poorest of the poor?

Are the kids alright?

“Marketing is especially powerful in the lives of our teens. The teenage years are characterized by change. Because the change brings confusion, kids spend time wondering where the changes taking place in their lives are going to end. And, they wonder if the ending for them will yield something that leads to their acceptance by others. Consequently, the teenage years are marked by an insecurity that leads to them being easily influenced if an influence promises to help them fulfill their hopes, dreams and emptiness. In other words, teenagers are perfect targets for the marketing machine.”

Walt Muller of The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding

Thabo Mbeki on an “African Renaissance”

“It will only succeed if its aims and objectives are defined by the Africans themselves, if its programmes are designed by ourselves and if we take responsibility for the success or failure of our policies.”

Thabo Mbeki, South African president, 1998

Unbreakable

M. Night Shymalan’s character, Elijah Price or “Mr. Glass,” from the movie Unbreakable says this at the end of the movie.

“Do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world, to not know why you’re here.  That’s…that’s an awful feeling.”

I’m working on a new book about finding our purpose and how charity is one of the main keys in that search, so it was odd to be watching this movie yesterday and hear these words.

I want to be grateful today

Dostoevsky’s said, “The best definition of man is a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful.”