we have a beautifully strange little group of people at eikon church. (i tell them this often.) we certainly embrace our quirkiness and a couple nights ago at our weekly gathering, i was able to express that uniqueness in an unexpected and fun way.

you know those times when you just keep getting hit over the head from multiple, disconnected directions about an issue or value or lesson you need to learn?

yeah, this is a post about that.

i love elbow.

and i’m not talking about the body part.

looks like we’re having déjà vu all over again…

yes, in fact, just a few weeks ago, i was raving about the new track—lippy kids—from elbow’s forthcoming album, build a rocket boys!, due out on march 7th.

it’s no secret to long-time blog readers that i love big love. rarely is there a show that completely engrosses me like it (the only other show that does that for me is breaking bad). throughout the last 4 seasons, i’ve felt like a part of the henrickson family (which isn’t always a good thing…) as i’ve watched with growing anticipation.

if you listened very closely a couple days ago, you could hear the collective gasp of the residents of little rock, the state of arkansas & the entire south. why?

because it snowed.

yesterday afternoon, the philadelphia eagles were defeated by the green bay packers in the wild card round of the nfl playoffs. last year, i really wouldn’t have cared. in fact, in the past, i’ve actively rooted against the eagles (especially during those terrell owens years…). as a niners fan, the eagles have done little more than stand in the way of our success. so, yesterday’s loss should have been a meaningless one for me.

but it wasn’t.

i was rooting for the eagles. rooting hard. rooting for them to march to the super bowl and pull off the unlikely championship.

and quite frankly, me rooting for them came down to one single player. a player who is both vaunted and hated by legions of football fans and non-fans alike. that player, of course, is the oft-debated, michael vick.

but wait, before we talk too much football, let’s talk about beauty and the beast. yeah, that’s right, beauty and the beast.

for long-time readers of this blog and those who know me in real life, it’s no mystery that i’m quite the proponent of public schools. famously (ok, that may be a strong word…but you get the idea…), i’ve written a couple posts that highlighted this value and it’s certainly gotten me in some hot water. largely, the hot water, of course, has come from my criticism of private schools. but in the last few years, a new player has entered the fray here in little rock and stirred the waters of debate: charter schools.

most notably, estem public charter school arrived in 2008 and has set the stage for quite a debate, drawing the proverbial line in the sand for both traditional public and private school proponents. the drama ramped up last march when the little rock public school board decided to take legal action against the state’s department of education for violating its policies regarding desegregation by greenlighting a growing number of charter schools. no doubt, the lines have been drawn and people have begun to choose sides.