Hugh’s Notebook

Honestly, these are awesome, very rich, not way too sweet fudge brownies.

NB: The lack of baking powder is intentional. You will not need it.

No Comments » Posted by Hugh / Uncategorized

I recently submitted an article to Jesus Manifesto, a website that exists to “subvert the Empire (wherever it is found). But more importantly, it exists to call people to embrace the Kingdom of God.”. Sounds like my sort of people.

In any event, they published it. I thought I would share it with you here, before it goes on the portfolio page.

No Comments » Posted by Hugh / Writing

As I have said before, I have wide and varied interests and hate to be tied down. However, I feel that right now, my conversation is scattered. And that is simply no good.

So, here is the deal (for now, anyway). This is my hub, if you will, on the Internet. It is where I will post personal bloggings and so on, but it will also serve to link to my other writings elsewhere.

Here I am free to be political, to be tired, to say ’shit’ (sorry mom).

It means a lot to me that you guys tune in to listen to me ramble. I appreciate it more than I can say.

If you want to keep up on my postings on Jesus, theology, Incarnational Ministry and so on, I recommend you go to my other blog and subscribe to the RSS feed.

No Comments » Posted by Hugh / Blogging

In the movie The Godfather, the opening line belongs to the undertaker Bonserra who is trying to justify why he has allowed injustice to happen. His defense is “I love America”.

Over the last few years, I have come to appreciate that scene more and more. Like Bonserra, growing up, I put my trust in America. I believed that we were the greatest country on earth, that God had ordained us for greatness because we were a “Christian” nation, that having a president in the white house that opposed abortion was the single most important campaign issue and that our wars were just and, even I am ashamed now to admit it, holy wars.

However, over the last 5-6 years I have called into question all of those beliefs and outright rejected many of them. Like Bonserra, I too have come to realize my belief in America was misplaced.

One big change for me was on the topic of war. In my old belief system, any war in which we were involved was, by definition, a good war. About 5 years ago, I heard a song that made me question that for the first time.

My life has not been the same since…

No Comments » Posted by Hugh / @me

Yesterday was Renee’s birthday and, honestly, it was not going so well. You see, she was in the hospital after a weekend of scary heart issues and she was a bit depressed at the prospect of spending her birthday in the hospital.

Around noon, some friends of our stopped by and that cheered her up. Then the doctor came by and told her she could go home, and that really cheered her up.

As we were packing up to leave, some friends called and said they were coming by the hospital, but I told them we were leaving, so they planned to come by my house instead. We are not home long, when they show up, complete with birthday cake and ice cream and presents and birthday cards. Renee was glowing at this point…

And then, some more friends dropped in to see her (and eat birthday cake and ice cream) and then more friends stopped by and brought more cake and hugs and well wishes. And while all this was happening a friend who had been out of town called to say she was dropping by the hospital on her way home, and we gave her the good news.

After everyone left, we went out to eat at one of Renee’s favorite restaraunts and then stopped at a coffee shop and reflected over a latte at how awesome our friends are. As we pulled up in my driveway, the friend who had been out of town pulled up behind us and came up and we all sat, and laughed and reflected and laughed some more and played with kittens. When she left, Renee turned to me and gave me a big hug and told me that this had ended up being her best birthday ever.

The remarkable thing about all of this is that none of it was planned or coordinated. It all just happened out of genuine love and affection for us. That is the value of community.

To all our friends who emailed, prayed, visited, brought cake, ate cake, called and visited… thank you for making my girl’s birthday special and thank you very much for loving us.

No Comments » Posted by Hugh / friends

Well, they have sprung us from Wake Med. All that is left is signing a bunch of papers and packing up our stuff and we are out of here!

The final word is simply, we do not know why her heart did what it did. It just did it. This scares me a bit, and that all I got for an answer when I asked “what should we do if this happens again” was to call her regular doctor tomorrow scares me as well. I mean, if he does not know, who does?

Renee asked me to thank all of you for your prayers and well wishes. It was scary for us, but knowing that we were loved and being prayed for made all the difference in the world.

1 Comment » Posted by Hugh / family

Well, we survived last night in Wake Med.

The good news is that Renee’s heart resumed a normal rhythm last night about 11pm. What this means in terms of her going home, however, is a bit uncertain.  Of course, as we know anything, we will let you know. We were just told that the cardiologist will be by “sometime today” to let us know what is going on.

Also, those of you on facebook reading this as a note: The hospital has blocked facebook as a “dating site”, so I cannot log on.  If you want to comment or send me a message, please click on the title of this note and it will take you to my blog site, where you can comment (and I can actually respond). Likewise, if you want to send me a message, please use plain old school email (address can be found here).

No Comments » Posted by Hugh / @aside

Right now Renee and I are sitting in the Emergency Room at Wake Med. Her heart started doing weird things early this morning and when they did not stop, we came on in to the hospital. Something similar happened back in January, resulting in surgery and a weeklong stay in the hospital, so we were a bit reluctant to come in.

It looks like we are here for at least a few days. They are admitting her this afternoon as soon as a bed opens up.  Right now they are adjusting dosages, consulting people on the telephone and, for all I know, checking the magic 8 ball. Hopefully, they will get this resolved quickly.

And, to add insult to injury, tomorrow is her birthday and it looks like we will be spending it here, eating cafeteria food and wishing we were wherever you are.

I don’t know any more than that right now, and my cellphone will not work here in the hospital, so don’t call me. If you have not already gotten an email from me about this and you want to know the room number when we get it, shoot me an email and I will add you to the list.

Thank you in advance for your love and your prayers and I will let you know something real soon.

No Comments » Posted by Hugh / friends

It makes me sick that the media is in attack mode over Sarah Palin’s daughter being pregnant. I don’t care how unqualified you think Sarah Palin is to be Vice President, families are off limits. And the only appropriate thing to tell a woman when you find out she is pregnant is “congratulations”.

(Please note comment #3 below, where I made some clarifications)

6 Comments » Posted by Hugh / @aside

If anyone is trying to reach me today (Monday), I will be out of pocket until at least tomorrow. I have been in bed (well, mostly in bed) with the mother of all stomach viruses.  I know there were people I was supposed to call, emails I was supposed to respond to, as well as a picnic I had planned on attending, but instead, I am staying at home, drinking boullion and watching old movies. Just finished one of my favorites, Harvey with Jimmy Stewart, moving on to The Godfather later this afternoon, after a nap. Hopefully, this is a 24 hour thing and I will be bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow.

1 Comment » Posted by Hugh / @aside