Sunday, December 04, 2005

Seven Sevens (Almost)

Both Charlie Lehardy, whose blog is called Another Think, and John Schroeder of Blogotional, have hit me with a meme.

For the uninitated, this is sort of like a chain letter in which bloggers are asked to respond to a series of questions.

The meme they sent my way is the by-now-famous, Seven Meme, to which Jan of The View from Her has also responded.

Seven Things I'd Like To Do Before I Die:
  • Write a book of practical inspiration
  • Write a book of history or biography
  • Record a collection of original songs
  • Write and host a Cosmos-like presentation of the Gospel
  • Travel (especially return to England and Germany and go to France, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and Japan, as well as to those US states I've not yet visited)
  • Orbit the earth in space
  • Sleep in the White House
Seven Things I Cannot Do:
  • Play an instrument (even though I do compose songs)
  • Change oil in a car
  • Paint a wall without dripping paint everywhere
  • Watch the ultimate scenes in It's a Wonderful Life, Field of Dreams, or Mr. Holland's Opus without crying
  • Find my way anywhere using a map (I need written directions)
  • Leave the label visible when I hang up a bath towel
  • Understand the appeal of the movie, Titanic
Seven Things That Attract Me to My Wife:
  • Her honesty
  • Her common sense
  • Her disinterest in receiving gifts
  • Our shared philosophies of life
  • Her integrity
  • Her commitment to Christ
  • Her impatience with phoniness
Seven Things I Say Most Often:
  • "Am I calling at a bad time?"
  • "I love you" (to my wife and kids and some of my friends)
  • "Let's just give it a rip and see what happens"
  • "I may have to blog about that"
  • "Does that make sense?" (said to make sure I'm not just jawing incomprehensibly)
  • "I've got a lot I want to get done today"
  • "How are you doing today?"
Seven Books I Love:
  • Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
  • Prayer by Ole Hallesby
  • The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (especially volume 7, The Last Battle)
  • Patriarch by Richard Norton Smith
  • Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
  • The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
  • Franklin and Winston by Jon Meacham

Nine Movies I Watch Over and Over Again:
  • It's a Wonderful Life
  • Field of Dreams
  • Bishop's Wife
  • The Sword in the Stone
  • Casablanca
  • Citizen Kane
  • The Philadelphia Story
  • Spanglish
  • Napoleon Dynamite
Seven People I Want to Invite to Join This Meme:
I won't list anybody here. But if any of the regular readers of this blog who are bloggers themselves want to participate, I would be interested in how you respond to these seven questions.

2 comments:

P_J said...

Mark,

Thanks for sharing this. We have a number of answers in common. I've linked to this and given my own answers at Conblogeration.

Deborah White said...

A movie I watch over and over, and never fail to tear up at the ending is "A River Runs Through It."

Of course, the old man in the end looks just like my beloved grandfather did. But the film is simply wonderful and wonderfully nuanced.