Juxtapositions

Seems like our lives are going in a lot of directions these days, leading to some interesting combinations.

Last Sunday, we spent the morning praising Jesus with these people, and Chris and I spent the evening heaping abuse on these people with these people.

Last night, I finally started reading my signed copy of Nick Hornby's latest, A Long Way Down. Chris and I went to the signing last summer, and even got to visit with Nick for a few moments when we came across him sucking on one last cancer stick before the event. I wrote an account of our "adventure", which included a stop at Oki Dog, here. (I'm "S.Bones" among the LA Riot Squad). My post prompted a good discussion on the nature of creativity and art. And Radiohead - always a touchy topic when Nick Hornby is mentioned. (And WARNING! - some of the guy's board avitars may be "not nice". I have them turned off when I read the boards).

The book is a comic novel about suicide, and begins with five people accidentally, or incidentally, or providentially, coming together on the same building (the aptly named "Topper's Hall") on New Year's Eve to kill themselves. Obviously, they don't kill themselves (which is not a spoiler, because Hornby is not a magic realist so if you kill off the characters in his books they just stay dead), and spend the balance of the book trying to figure out, together, how to resume and live their lives.

When I was done reading, I put the book down on the end table, only to discover this morning that it was stacked on top of Rick Warren's massively best-selling Christian "how to" book, The Purpose Driven Life, another rather odd combination. Many people have been helped by this book, and its success combined with his own earlier successes have made Warren very sought after and influential. We have even reached the point where even more amazing results are being attributed to the book. Last spring, we learned that when served with pancakes, readings from the book can make a killer and hostage taker repent and turn himself in, and just this month, we read that Warren thinks that "Purpose Driven" principles just may be the answer to poverty and genocide in Africa.

So, that got me thinking. What would happen if Hornby's five failed suicides began to live a "Purpose Driven Life"? Rick Warren may have the answers for American criminals and Rwandan genocidiers (sp?), but what can he do for four deeply (or shallowly as the case may be) unhappy English people, and one rather silly American. Stay tuned, and we'll find out together.