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 There have been few writers that have influenced my own writing, not to mention my belief in the goodness of people and my readiness to offer criticism of my own faith tradition, than Kurt Vonnegut. Not too long ago, when introducing him on his “Daily Show”, Jon Stewart commented that KV’s novels were one of the things that made his “adolescence bearable.” Amen to that. Mr. Vonnegut passed away, and although he would have found great humor in hearing it, I pray that he’s met God and they’ve shared a great laugh together at the irony of it all. As a believer in the vastness of God’s grace and mercy, I hope that one day I’ll share the same conversation. God bless you, Kurt Vonnegut, even if you don’t want him to.
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Sometimes, when I’m feeling both brave and disgustingly dirty, I have to take a shower while Anna and I are at home alone. I shut the doors to anything potentially dangerous, give her a pile of books to read, and sit her outside the door of the bathroom. Normally, she sits there quietly reading her stories, occasionally singing a song when she feels inspired, and I semi-enjoy the shower with the door open.
Yesterday, Anna was feeling a little livelier than usual (and she’s an energetic kid), and decided that stillness was not her style while Daddy showered. I heard a loud *thud*, looked out the shower curtain, and asked her what she was doing. “Jumping.”
“Right, but why are you jumping there? You might slip on the wet tile and hurt your head.”
“I’m trying to reach the top of the door.”
Of course. Why wouldn’t I have guessed that my 2-foot tall daughter had her mind set on reaching the 7-foot doorway? “Don’t you think it’s a little too high? Why don’t you wait until I get out of the shower and I’ll help you touch it.”
Her response: “I can do it. I’m growing.”
Rewind to the day before, when I was informed that not one, but two performances we had scheduled 2 weeks from now were being canceled Now, I have just a BIT of an artistic tendency, which means that occasionally I go through a “WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING ALL THIS FOR?” phase. The answer, of course, is that it’s my vocation. It’s not that I couldn’t do anything else (Lord knows I’ve gone through my share of supplemental side jobs), it’s that I feel like writing songs and communicating the Gospel through music is the very best use of the talents that God has blessed me with and that I try to continue to build upon. I get discouraged sometimes when I hear a song on the radio that has poor structure or cheap rhymes, and I wonder why I haven’t achieved the success of some that don’t work as hard or even as well as I do. Sometimes it takes a 2-year-old to remind me, though, that the reason I\’m not “there” yet is that I’m still growing. It’s not that our band hasn’t been successful, just not quite as successful as I know we’re destined to be. So, like the life pundit that I call my daughter, we just have to keep on jumping.
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