Some of you may not know that my wife and I try to avoid eating meat.

We practice something akin to vegetarianism in the same way that a five year old writes in MLA format.  Rather then having a reason not to eat meat or a set of rules to follow, we found that when we removed meat from our meals we filled the void with more of the stuff we should have be eating in the first place.  For instance taking the chicken out of a taco and replacing it with squash and beans, eating more of the stuff we didn’t eat before because we treated meat as an entree and not a portion.

Until last night this approach has been fairly risk free and harmless. Enter the transgressor.

I haven’t eaten artichoke in a long time.  It’s apparently one of Cara’s favorite dishes though I still can’t decide if that’s more because of novelty or taste.  My previous experience was something akin to gnawing on a maple leaf (apparently the “choke” in question had been terribly over-cooked) and had ventured no further into finding other organic items to suck/chew on.  Like all foods artichokes have their own little set of rules for preparation and I pulled out the other bible in my home (The Joy of Cooking) to make sure I followed all the steps.

The book forgot one very important and treacherous characteristic of this edible sprout.

Thorns.

Actually something more like needles on the tips of the petals.  About halfway through my portion I reached across the table to grab a napkin and was impaled by my malevolent foodstuff.

Possibly the worst thing about the initial encounter was that I had no idea what had happened.  I recoiled, obviously in pain while Cara just stared at me as I danced around the kitchen rubbing my hands together.  After running through a few scenarios of what just occurred in my head (one involving terrorists and poisonous needles, hey, I was panicking)  I re-examined the offensive piece of green, sure enough right at the top of one of the petals was a 1/2 inch thorn! (I could be exaggerating but that’s how I remember it)  At this point there was blood, not enough to really mention but it makes me feel like the pain I was experiencing was at least vaguely justified for hopping around the kitchen.

All said I learned my lesson, stick with vegetables I’m familiar with.

Today started out like any other day.   Cara was opening the coffee shop so she got up first and I got up around 7:00 and woke the dog up (who always growls/snaps at me in the morning…) and started a pot of Ethiopian.  Let me preface what I’m about to say with this: I basically live in a retirement home.

Our condominium complex is full of ole’ peeps.  To the amount that when Cara and I moved into our 26 unit building we only lowered the average age to a robust 65 years.  I won’t go on too much of a rant here, most of our neighbors are adorable, one even brought us an apple pie the other day!  But, not all are so… thoughtful.

Which leads us to this morning.  I walk out to my car, sit down, turn on NPR and drink some coffee while I wait for the engine to warm up a bit.  Obviously not in a hurry.  I slowly pull out and start driving out of our complex and see two ladies walking in the street towards me.  Now, they weren’t walking in the middle of the street but they were not on the shoulder either, like 4 feet from the curb.  So, I give them a wide berth, in fact at this point I’m straddling the center line, pretty much a non-event right?  Apparently not.  As I’m approaching them (driving in the now center of the road)  the younger of the two pushes her friend into the grass and runs to the curb, I mean she really pushes her, not so much that she falls down or anything but she starts waving her arms in the air like she’s swatting at an invisible bee.  Their actions, though comical, even made me want to turn around and look in the rear view mirror to see who was out to get them, wait, apparently it was me.  So while the woman in the grass is disoriented her friend cups her hands to her mouth and shouts “slow down!” right at me.  I honestly have no idea what’s going on now, I was smiling this whole time and actually getting ready to wave hello at them.  All of a sudden I’m the rationale to their roller derby antics?  So, instinctively I look down at my speedometer in a “oh-no” moment.

“How fast am I going!?”

“How reckless of a driver am I to make old ladies jump out of my way!?”

20mph. In the middle of the road.

Yes, all I can do is laugh and know that I’ll now be known as Mad Max at the canasta games.

This past weekend I got the chance to join some pretty cool people as they threw a benefit concert for Mercy Ministries, if you haven’t heard of them yet I encourage you to check them out.  Mercy Ministries is on the forefront of the mission field here in the USA (and other countries) they act as a “safe haven for girls seeking freedom from such life-controlling problems as drug and alcohol addictions, depression, unplanned pregnancy, eating disorders, abuse and self-harm.”  In short, Mercy Ministries changes and transforms lives giving hope to thousands of young girls worldwide.  I carried my new Flip Mino around with me as we hung out with Brooke Barrettsmith and her band behind the scenes.  Brooke’s newest LP came out a few months ago and if it’s not on your iPod yet you should check it out soon.

http://www.vimeo.com/2084548


Joyce Meyer Ministries partners with Mercy Ministries throughout the year and it is awesome to see what God is doing through both organizations!  In the upcoming months I’m going to be hanging with some people from the Mercy Ministries house right here in St. Louis and I’ll fill you in a bit more as to how to get involved in a ministry dedicated to transformation!

New: Brooke just got a Twitter account, you can follow her here, and don’t forget to follow me too!