As of today, Marci and I have been married exactly twelve-and-a-half years.  Where we come from, such a date is not such a special occasion.  But here in Holland, it seems to me that the 12.5 year anniversary might be more celebrated than the 10th anniversary or maybe even the 20th anniversary.  And why not?  We're now half-way to 25 years.  A quarter of the way to 50 years.  And in any event twelve-and-a-half years from where we started.

It's been a beautiful adventure.

Today is Thanksgiving Day "back home" in America, but here "at home" in Amsterdam it's just a regular fall day.  Olivia's class recently created a music video about the fall that seemed like a worthy way to celebrate this fall day in Amstserdam.  Even if you don't speak Dutch, I think you should be able to enjoy the video.  Olivia is in the middle and slightly to the left in the group shot from inside the classroom.  She also makes a couple of appearances with her umbrella.  Hope you're having a great day, whatever and however you're celebrating!

My friend Andrew recently sent another one of his intermittant field reports from Africa.  In it, he featured a new artistic project that he's working on, and I thought it was absolutely beautiful.  I asked him if I could share some of it here, and he said it'd be fine.  So here I give you one of Andrew Breitenberg's Psalms on Zimbabwe...

If you'd like to support Andrew's art and/or his ministry in southern Africa, please feel free to contact him via his website:  Breitenberg.org.

Almost every day, I ride my bike down the Rokin in central Amsterdam -- and for the past several months, this means I've been riding past this "uitkijkpunt" (look-out point) that's been set up for people wishing to check on the progress of the city's North-South metro line.  But I've never bothered to stop and experience it for myself... until this week.

I wish I would have stopped sooner.

Once you go through the turnstile (designed to regulate traffic for a maximum of 30 visitors at a time), you walk down three flights of stairs -- through a winding passageway of steel and concrete -- until you come to an opening that gives you a view of the massive tunnel that's being burrowed directly underneath one of the busiest streets in central Amsterdam.  A grid of massive steel tubes (each perhaps two or three meters in diameter) spans the distance and obscures the view -- but even so, it's a pretty impressive sight to behold.

From the uitkijkpunt (which, remember, is already three stories below street level), visitors can look down another 20 or 30 meters to the bottom of the tunnel, where construction workers in hard-hats and massive pieces of heavy machinery (back-hoes, bulldozers, etc.) toil away like a colony of ants.  And it stretches out seemingly to infinity, in the direction of Centraal Station.  It's a marvel of engineering, and it's happening constantly, underneath the surface of the city.

It feels like there's some kind of metaphor there for the taking -- about all the activity that happens inside of us, deep down below the surface level -- but metaphors aside, it's just a really amazing thing to see.  If you ever get the chance, I'd encourage you to give the Noord-Zuidlijn Uitkijkpunt a look.

It's Sinterklaas season again.  A pretty predictable subject for my blogging through the years.  I've already done plenty of explaining and reflecting over the course of the previous seven seasons of observing this unique cultural celebration -- which I'll index here below -- so with this post, I just thought I'd share a few pictures and random and casual observations from this year's Sinterklaas festivities...

Random observation #1 - Sinterklaas season is different from the American holiday season in that you'll regularly find children dressed up as the holiday characters they so greatly adore.  In the picture above, you can see the majority of children watching the arrival of Sinterklaas are wearing little berets like what the Zwarte Pieten wear.  Some have even gone so far as to have done their faces up in blackface!  It's not nearly as popular to dress up as Sinterklaas (though this is also done, as seen below).  At any rate, if I really stop and think about this, it feels kind of strange to me.  Most kids in America don't dress up as Santa Claus or Christmas elves or reindeer, do they?  It's just one of those quirky little differences that I've noticed...

Random observation #2 - Sinterklaas is really for 4-7 year-olds.  This season, I've noticed that Elliot (age 8) is really starting to grow out of the Sinterklaas fanatacism.  It still lingers in him and his peers a good bit, but it seems to have definitely peaked for his age group.  On the other hand, Cor (age 3) is still unsettled by much of the Sinterklaas hysteria.  He's freaked out by the Zwarte Pieten -- in a recognizable way that our other kids have experienced as well.  And in general, he's just not familiar enough with the celebrations that he can really get into them.  Olivia (age 6), however, is totally in the prime of her Sinterklaas fascination.  Among children her age, the fanatacism is intense (as you can see from the picture below)...

Random observation #3 - The Sinterklaas Journaal has to be one of the dumbest television programs of all time.  I've developed a certain amount of respect -- and even personal sentimentality -- for the holiday itself; but I just can't handle the Sinterklaas Journaal anymore.  In previous years, I've tried to follow the televised storyline along with my kids -- but this year, I just can't.  The plotlines are so predictable, and the antics of the Pieten are so annoying, I just have to occupy myself with something else while the kids are watching the Sinterklaas Journaal...

Anyway, to find out more about Sinterklaas (and my American expatriate perspective on Sinterklaas), here are a few posts that I've written in the past (chronologically-arranged from oldest, back in 2005, to most recent):

• Zwarte Piet
• Surprises
• Holiday Season
• Me and the Munchkins
• Sinterklaas (for the English Speakers)
• Fever
• Sinterklaas Intocht (2007)
• Sinterklaas Parade
• The Joys of Holland's Holidays
• The Joys of a Full Day
• Misunderstandings Perpetuated
• Sinterklaas... Again
• Scrooging on Sinterklaas
• David Sedaris on Sinterklaas

Also, if you want to see any more pictures from this year's celebration of Sinterklaas's arrival in Amsterdam, you can check out the Family Pictures section of the website.

This post is brought to you by the Proverbs 365 project...

Stay away from a foolish man, for you will not find knowledge on his lips... He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who is kind to the needy (Proverbs 14:7, 21).

A shepherd boy was tending his flock one day when a voice called out to him from the nearby forest.

"Boy! Hello, there -- boy!" The voice was low and gruff. "Would you please come over here for a moment?"

Not accustomed to hearing voices in the lonely pasture-land far away from the village, the boy looked about him with confusion and caution. He could see no one anywhere within sight. So he shouted, "I beg your pardon, but who are you? And where, pray tell, are you?" He peered into the forest, searching with his eyes for the source of the voice. "I cannot see you for all the trees, and yet I dare not leave my flock unattended in this territory prowled by wolves and bears."

"Over here, boy," called the voice. "Beside the large rock."

The shepherd boy looked over to the large rock, just twenty paces to the right of where he stood, and there he saw an enormous gray wolf. In an instant, he withdrew his slingshot and loaded a rock to protect his master's sheep from the beast.

But before he could aim his shot, the wolf spoke to him in the same low, gruff voice that had called out to him moments previously. "Please, good shepherd boy, do not shoot me. I mean you and your flock no harm." The wolf wolf stepped out from the shadow of the forest. "I request only your help for a poor and needy soul, separated from his pack these last three days." The wolf's eyes were yellow, and his teeth gleamed in his mouth as he spoke; but the sincerity in the wolf's voice caused the shepherd boy to hesitate from firing his slingshot. "Please, I beg you..." the wolf flattened its ears against its skull and hung its tail between its legs. It certainly appeared to be a very sad and lonely creature.

"But you are a predator," the shepherd boy said. "And it is my responsibility to protect my flock from predators."

"Nay, certainly not," replied the wolf. "I am not a predator. I am simply a creature in need. I have not eaten in a week, and my strength is failing me. I assure you that I mean you and your flock no harm. I ask only if you might have a little something to eat for a poor, needy creature such as myself." The wolf took a tentative step towards the shepherd boy.

The shepherd boy took a half-step backwards, and wrung his hands in front of him. After another moment's consideration, he started fishing in his bag and found half of a mutton sandwich that his mother had packed for him before he left for the fields. He had already eaten his full less than an hour previously, and he decided that it could do no harm to offer the wolf his leftovers. While holding his slingshot carefully in his right hand, the boy flung the remainders of his sandwich to the feet of the wolf in an awkward motion with his left hand.

In one, quick motion, the wolf snatched up the mutton sandwich and swallowed it whole. Licking his lips in satisfaction, the wolf exclaimed, "Thank you, boy! Oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You have made a tired old wolf very happy, and I wish you many blessings for your kindness." And with that, the wolf faded back into the shadows and disappeared from sight.

The shepherd boy relaxed his tensed shoulders and hands and smiled while gazing at the rock where the wolf had been standing. For the rest of the day, he saw no other sign of the wolf, and when his older brother came to replace him in his shepherding duties later that evening he decided against telling his brother about his act of altruism towards the shaggy beggar. And while eating supper in his parents' home, he forgot all about the incident. But again the following day, when the shepherd boy was once again tending the flock, the low, gruff voice of the old wolf called out to him from the forest.

"Boy! Hello there -- boy! Would you please come over here for a moment?" Sure enough, the wolf was standing by the large rock, looking at the shepherd boy with hungry eyes. And once again, after the wolf had reassured the boy that he was merely in need of sustenance and the boy ascertained that he had half of a sandwich to spare, the pattern of the previous day was repeated. And for two more days after that, the wolf would call out to the shepherd boy; the shepherd boy would provide him with half a mutton sandwich; and the wolf would thank him most graciously as he returned to the shadowy forest. But on the fifth day, as the wolf emerged from the forest and walked towards the shepherd boy, it was clear that he was not going to be satisfied with half of a mutton sandwich. Instead, he stalked closer to the pasture where the sheep were grazing and licked his lips, looking out over the flock. Several of the sheep started bleating in fear and trepidation, and the boy reached for the slingshot which had been resting in his belt.

"Boy, boy, boy..." said the wolf, in a tone that was meant to be reassuring. "Do not fear. Remember: I am merely a creature in need. While your sandwiches over the last several days have been most kind, I'm afraid that a creature of my size cannot be completely sustained by such offerings. Surely you must have a sheep that is so old or decrepit that its death is imminent and unavoidable anyway. Do you not?"

The shepherd boy gripped his slingshot and steeled his resolve.

"My dear boy," said the wolf. "Do you take me for a fool or a degenerate?" His eyes appeared sad. His mouth hung in such a way that suggested he had been offended by the boy's hesitation. "I would never dare encroach upon the choice sheep or lambs of your flock, after such kindnesses as you have shown me. But certainly there must be some old ewe whose flesh would be too tough for your taste and whose wool has become too wiry for wear anyway. Thus why would it be better for such a creature to die in a ditch somewhere and go to rot -- while a needy beast such as myself is forced to go hungry?" The wolf spoke quickly, with passion and conviction in his voice.

For a moment, the shepherd boy seemed swayed by the great wolf's words. But then in an instant, he shook his head and raised his slingshot. "You shall not touch the least member of the flock!" he said, while trembling. "I knew not if you were devil or an angel-unawares. I could not determine if you were a fool to be avoided or a humble beggar in need of kindness. But I have just seen the look in your eye, and I now know that you cannot be trusted within a mile of my father's flock." With that he cried out, a battle cry beyond his years, and he fired his slingshot in the direction of the enormous gray wolf. The wolf bolted towards the forest and yelped when the stone stung his backside, but it was not a fatal blow. As the shepherd boy loaded another stone into his sling, the wolf escaped into the forest, and he was never seen or heard from again.

I recently heard an amusing observation about ministry in the Dutch culture (though, honestly, I think it may be applicable to any post-modern ministry context).  Basically, it was said that ministry in the Netherlands can be particularly difficult when you find yourself playing the role of the Good Samaritan (as described in Luke 10:25-37), ministering to someone who has been injured and is lying by the wayside.  As you're tending to them in their pain and misery, the injured person will look up at you and criticize you for the brand of oil that you're using to treat their wounds.

Again, I don't know if it's completely fair to apply this anecdote uniquely to Dutch culture -- but I thought this observation was both amusing and insightful.  Ministry can be challenging, regardless of the context.  But that doesn't mean that it doesn't need to be done.  It's good to remember that criticism and good motives are not mutually exclusive.  Today, I'm praying for special encouragement to those who are dealing with cranky victims of society...

I've been busy since returning from my two-week vacation.  In particular, I've had to catch up on a good bit of e-mail correspondance... But I've actually been surprised by the fact that it hasn't been more of a burden than what it's been.  Because I'm a bit of a nerd, I tracked some of the statistics related to the two weeks' worth of e-mails, and I thought it might be interesting to other nerds out there, so I'm copying it here:

• 224 - the total number of messages received over my two-week e-mailing hiatus
• 132 - the number of messages remaining after deleting the stuff that could be categorized as "pure junk" (vacation replys, advertisements, double e-mails, etc.)
• 58 - the number of messages remaining after filing away all of the quick read-and-file type messages (FYIs, events that had already happened, etc.)
• 5 - the number of e-mails in my inbox right now, still awaiting reply or action on my part -- after an estimated four hours worth of correspondance.

Does this fall in the category of entirely useless information that only becomes circulated because of the ease of "publishing" in electronic communication (i.e. Facebook status updates about what I ate for breakfast)?  Maybe.  I try to stay away from that type of needless narcissism as much as possible.  But maybe this isn't total fluff after all.  There are actually a few things that struck me from these statistics:

1. It may be that I actually don't spend as much time e-mailing as I often feel like I do.  I honestly expected that I might have as many as 500 or 700 e-mails waiting for me to respond to; so 224 total messages sounds really sounds like a no-big-deal kind of number to me.  At times, I'd say that it feels like I'm spending two or three hours a day doing e-mail correspondance... However, the last two weeks suggests to me that such time commitments can't actually be true.  It seems to me that maybe it just feels like I'm doing so much e-mailing because it's mixed in with other garbage-surfing (checking sports scores, reading blogs, popping in and out of Facebook, etc.) -- and because it's an administrative task that I generally put in the "not fun" category of my life.
2. A surprising amount of the stuff in our inboxes is useless chaff.  My two-week, non-scientific test (for whatever it may be worth) suggests that 41 percent of the messages that hit my inbox (i.e. messages that make it past my relatively stringest spam filters) are completely useless... And an additional 33 percent of the messages are very simple read-and-file types of communication.  That means only about a quarter of all the e-mails which make it to my inbox require any really meaningful response from me.
3. The more e-mails generated, the more e-mails received.  I'm guessing that if I tracked statistics during a period of actual e-mailing, my total number of messages may very well be significantly higher.  Since returning to the world of electronic communication, I'd estimate that my daily average of incoming messages has been roughly double of what it was during my days of vacation.
4. With a little bit of concentrated effort, a stack of e-mails can be whittled down in a relatively short amount of time.  It's good to remember that overgrowth of the e-mail jungle can be conquered with a little bit of time and focus.  And it feels really good, too, when it all gets cleared away.

That's about it for the profundity that comes from two weeks without e-mail... Not much, honestely.  But if it's interesting or useful to you, so much the better.  Happy e-mailing!

Another month has recently passed, so I'm due for another review of my Proverbs 365 project. Ever since the first day of 2010, I've been taking a Proverb for each day of the year and then trying to consider it and apply it for 21st Century living. Sometimes the daily entries take the form of an essay or a more traditional devotional meditation; other times, the entries have been more in the form of short stories and allegories. Each day it's something different!

Looking back over the month of October, I'm honestly wondering if it may have been one of the best months yet for the Proverbs 365 project.  Certainly one of the most creative.  If I do say so myself, the posts have a very visceral sense of scene and connection to the fall season.  There's a strong emphasis on story (and less of an emphasis on essay).  Many of the visuals that accompanied the posts really added something beautiful.  And in any event, I feel like October represented some of my most honest, most emotionally-grounded writing.  Because of all this, I had a hard time narrowing it down to my top three favorites from the past month (as I try to do each month), but here is what I came up with for the month of October:

For starters, I enjoyed something of a stroll down memory lane, when I read Proverbs  chapter 13,  and applied it to my reminiscence of the fall of 1993, when my wife and I first fell in love.  In particular, I connected our personal experiences from that fall with verse 12 which says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life..." But then I went on from there to extend the reflection to the first year of our marriage, five years later, in which we also had to learn the tough truths of Proverbs 13:19, which says, "A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but fools detest turning from evil".  To me, these two Proverbs capture and distill the learnings of much of my experience in dating and marriage -- both good and bad.  So I wrote about the experience in P1312 - Hopes and Longings.

A bit later in the month, I came up against what I suppose is a pretty much inevitable question, during the course of a one-year daily writing project -- but even so, I was struck suddenly last month with the question of "How much am I really being impacted by this year's intensive study of the Proverbs?"  I was forced to deeply consider the goals of this writing project, when I was confronted with the message of Proverbs 22:17-18:  "Pay attention and listen to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach, for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips." As I considered that Proverb, I made the painful realization that a lot of times it "feels like I'm just completing a homework assignment... just doing the minimum to find a Proverb that I haven't used yet, try to squeeze out 500-750 words, and then get on with my life."  In response to these thoughts, I wrote P2217 - Reality Check.  And that's really what that particular meditation did for me.  It gave me a reality check and a fresh level of commitment to genuine heart application -- which has, I think, resulted in much richer reflections on the Proverbs.

Thirdly, I thought I might feature one of the short stories that came out of this month's study of the Proverbs.  Sometimes writers talk about a story taking on a life of its own -- with the characters revealing themselves through the course of a piece and making decisions and taking actions that "surprise" the author himself.  And honestly, the thought always seemed a bit hokey to me.  But I think I actually experienced a small dose of this phenomenon when I wrote the story P2909 - A Scottie, a Volvo, a Plaintiff, and a Fool.  The story was based on Proverbs 29:9 -- where it reads, "If a wise man goes to court with a fool, the fool rages and scoffs, and there is no peace." As you'll see from the story, this is exactly what happens to a man who had the misfortune of accidentally running over his neighbor's dog.  Right now the story is a little bit rough and raw, but someday I hope to revisit these characters and this storyline, to see if I might be able to expand it a bit further.  In the meantime, though, I hope you can enjoy it as is.

Finally, for a complete listing of October's content, here are the titles of all 31 entries, along with direct links to the rest of the content:

• P128 - The Last Battle
• P220 - Caught Up in the Embrace
• P325 - How Am I Supposed to Have No Fear?
• P408 - The Big White Couch
• P520 - Why?  Seriously, I Mean Why?!?
• P604 - Hunting for Release
• P706 - Red Lights
• P835 - Wisdom or Death
• P901 - Club Wisdom
• P1012 - Perspectives
• P1113 - Betrayed by a Lack of Betrayal
• P1226 - Vulnerable and Defended
• P1312 - Hopes and Longings
• P1417 - Anger Management Dilemmas
• P1508 - Twin Anniversaries
• P1611 - Honest Scales
• P1712 - A Survivor Speaks
• P1813 - Misverstand
• P1906 - Happy Joe's
• P2012 - Ears to Hear
• P2130 - The Ultimate Trump Card
• P2217 - Reality Check
• P2329 - Awful Addiction
• P2405 - Igor's Intuition
• P2513 - The Joy of Faithful Friends
• P2601 - The Pain of Faithless Friends
• P2702 - What If No Praise?
• P2820 - Pushing
• P2909 - A Scottie,  a Volvo, a Plaintiff, and a Fool
• P3011 - Bad Guys
• P3130 - Letter to a Single Friend

November, of course, has already started -- and the Proverbs 365 project keeps moving along with it. Please visit http://proverbs365.ericasp.com to keep up on all the latest. Also, please feel free to spread the word, too... One of the distinct advantages of the Proverbs is that it's easy to tune into them, whenever one might so choose. It's not like if you missed the first ten months, then you're "behind" or anything like that. The Proverbs are just like these little power pellets that can be consumed and digested immediately. It's never too late to start enjoying them!

Also, for what it's worth, some of you may have noted that I made the unfortunate decision to disable the comments section on Proverbs365.  For some reason, it had become more susceptible to spam comments than my regular blog -- dozens, and sometimes even hundreds, of fake comments every day. And since it was a smaller number of comments on that section of the website anyway, I shut it down.  From here on out, I guess you could provide your comments (if any) via these monthly reviews.

I just recently saw the film "500 Days of Summer," and I especially enjoyed this scene encapsulating the way that it feels when you're really having a good day:

The scene is so over-loaded with clichés that it becomes fresh and fabulous:  strangers smiling, nodding, and glad-handing as you walk down the street... Han Solo winking at you in your reflection (included in the original scene but not in this particular YouTube clip that I was able to find)... fountains shooting higher into the sky as you walk past... choreographed dancing through the park... hitting a game-winning home run... impromptu marching bands joining in the celebration... a special visit from the blue-bird of happiness, animated just like from Disney's Song of the South... And all of it set to one of my favorite songs from the 1980s.

I thought the scene was very funny but also just a lot of fun.  To me, it's what it really feels like to be on top of the world, having a good day.  Wouldn't you agree?

I realize that not everyone may like the idea of looking at the pictures from someone else's vacation... But for those of you who may well be interested, I've posted a few in the Family Pictures section of the website.