If you’d like to bring the Million Miles in a Thousand Years tour to your town, please read the following: In September, when A Million Miles in a Thousand Years hits bookstores, I’ll be setting out on a 65-city tour. We are just starting to figure out the route, and have certain cities we have to hit. But if you have a venue, or know of a venue you think would house about 1500 people (think of the churches or schools where you’ve seen lots of concerts) would you let us know? Chafee Management is routing the tour as we speak. Here is an early description of the evening, just so you can pass it along to those who would be housing the event: •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, An Evening with Donald Miller and Friends While turning his New-York-Times bestselling memoir into a screenplay, Donald Miller discovered his life was too boring to be turned into a film, and he decided to do something about it. In An Evening with Donald Miller, you’ll hear a hilarious and yet heartwarming story of one man who decided to edit his life, and as the audience comes along they [...]

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12Mar, 2009

When I first started writing I made the mistake of thinking I should be descriptive. I’d envision every scene and describe things, the trees as tall as flag poles, the wind coming across the field like music and all that flowery like this and like that. But in truth, many of the great writers don’t describe much at all. It’s true you’ll read Fitzgerald or Steinbeck and feel like you are in the scene, but when you take a second look at the description, there isn’t a whole lot there. Instead of adjectives, great writers often use verbs. Their characters do, and they are always doing. In this example from Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, a Mother and Father have recently lost a child to crib death, and the doctor has pronounced the child dead. Notice how the paragraph feels descriptive, but is actually more full of verbs than adjectives. “My father shakes his head. Doctor says he’ll have to take her to examine her and Dad signs a paper. My mother begs for another few minutes with her baby but the doctor says he doesn’t have all day. When Dad reaches for Margaret my mother pulls away against the wall. [...]

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05Feb, 2009

Most advertisers play on the psychological phenomenon of association/disassociation. An example of association/disassociation might be displayed in a comment like: “The trailblazers lost last night” when my team loses, and “We won last night” when my team wins. I disassociate from what I perceive as losing and associate with what I perceive as winning. I explain why I think we do this in Searching for God Know’s What, relating it all back to what really happened at the fall of man. But right now I want to address how we have all been duped by this phenomenon as it is used in Apple advertisements. Advertisers carefully position their products next to people who carry social commodity. Often, this is sexual, but it can also be wealth, power, humor and wit (which in ways are all sexual, too). Advertisers, then, are associating their products with our biochemical desire to reproduce and carry on our lines, and also with a relational insecurity we all have regarding redemption. Usually, this is subtle, an attractive man or woman using a certain dish detergent or driving a certain car is seen touting a products significance. Sexual fertility manifests itself in women in high cheek bones [...]

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04Feb, 2009

The Open Table Video

Like most people I have the most clarity in the morning. Literally in the first fifteen minutes, lying in bed, life makes sense, my delusions fall away, and I believe, perhaps more than I will for the rest of the day, in God. I don’t know what it is about morning. I’m sure it can all be explained through brain chemistry. The only other time I get that feeling of clarity is when I hear the gospel. I’m not talking about the gospel of Jesus you get on religious television, or the gospel presented that is really more about the person presenting than the gospel itself. I’m talking about the intrinsic idea there is something beautiful about life, but it’s not quite right. And the idea God is somehow making it right, and I can somehow be a part of that through a relationship with Jesus. This absurdity makes sense to me every time I hear it. And it hasn’t stopped making sense to me, though I’ve gone through waves of cynicism. Paul says the wisdom of God is the foolishness of man. And I can see both the foolishness and truth in the gospel. I’ve wanted to disassociate from [...]

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31Jan, 2009

Tomorrow, we will all sit around the television and watch Superbowl XLKI.4 and, for once, we won’t fast-forward through the ads. An ad came on several years ago, though, that has not been topped. The best superbowl ad of all time: The same company tried again, but you just can’t beat a herd of cats. And on the animal theme, this commercial was great, but they missed an opportunity for a laugh. At the end of the commercial, I think they should have focused on a small squirrel dropping on the road. What are your favorite commercials?

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