The World You Want (aka "Welcome to 2017")

I'm kickin' up the pieces
I'm trying out adhesives
I'm trying to fix a place that feels broken
All my words they fail me
My voices don't avail me
I'm trying to say the hope that's unspoken

Is this the world you want?
Is this the world you want?
You're making it
Every day you're alive
Is this the world you want?
Is this the world you want?
You're making it

The world feels so malicious
With all our hits and misses
Feels like we're in the business of rust
It's when I stop to listen
All the moments I've been missing
I finally hear a voice I can trust

You change the world
You change the world
You change the world
Every day you're alive
You change the world
Honey, you change the world
You change my world

You start to look like what you believe
You float through time like a stream
If the waters of time are made up by you and I
If you change the world for you, you change it for me

What you say is your religion
How you say it's your religion
Who you love is your religion
How you love is your religion
All your science, your religion
All your hatred, your religion
All your wars are your religion
Every breath is your religion yea

Written by Jon Foreman • Copyright © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, The Bicycle Music Company

Note: I received this album for Christmas... and was listening to it New Years Day as I drove to be part of the set-up/tear-down team at church. This song floored me.

Yes, I know that Switchfoot is no longer the cool, young, hip band. Their big hit album (The Beautiful Letdown) was released 14 years ago... and I've been listening to them since their first album (The Legend of Chin) back in 1997. That's right, 20 years ago. 

I'm not cool or hip - now or two decades back. (I was younger.)

But regardless of my personal status as a oh-so-trendy setter of trends, the song is what I needed to hear as I face the personal circumstances of my life and the larger issues that face me as both a citizen of the U.S. and a citizen of heaven.

Give it a listen.

Brothers & Fools

We must learn to live together as brothers

or perish together as fools.

Commencement Address for Oberlin College

By Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

June 1965, Oberlin Ohio 

 

It's Still Personal - My Five & Dime List for 2016

Hey, campers... I may have stopped collecting the Five& Dime stats for everyone else - but I haven't stopped collecting my own!

Here's my own personal Five & Dime list (the games I played 5+ and 10+ times in 2016).

 

Games with an asterisk [*] were on my Five & Dime list last year, games with two asterisks [**] have been on my list for the past two years, games with three asterisks [***] have been there for three years, games with four asterisks [****] have been there for 4 years, games with a plus [+] have been there 5 years... and games with a plus & an asterisk [+*] have been there (wait for it) for the past 6 years!

Quarters

• Star Realms 29 **

Dimes

• DC Comics Deck-Building Game: Rivals - Batman vs The Joker 19
• Sentinels of the Multiverse 19 ****
• 7 Wonders Duel 16
• Summoner Wars 14 +
• DC Comics Deck-Building Game:  (includes Teen Titans) 13 **
• Descent: Journeys in the Dark (2nd edition) 13
• The City 11 ****

Nickels

• Colony 9
• Fabled Fruit 9
• Favor of the Pharaoh 9
• Among the Stars 8
• 7 Wonders 8 *
• Epic PVP: Fantasy 8
• Race for the Galaxy 8 +*
• Bear Valley 7
• Can't Stop 7 **
• Codenames 7
• The Dragon & Flagon 7
• GUBS: A Game of Wit & Luck 7 *
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Deckbuilding Game 7
• Pandemic Legacy (Season One) 7 *
• The Pursuit of Happiness 7
• Skip-Bo 7
• Twilight Struggle 7
• Dastardly Dirigibles 6
• Qwixx 6
• Snow Tails 6
• Stellar Conflict 6
• Blöder Sack 5 *
• Catan 5 *
• Cry Havoc
• Fast Food Franchise 5 ****
• Machi Koro 5 **
• Quarriors 5
• Roll for the Galaxy 5