Are We Still Cool? » the Life

Somehow we feel like we’re the coolest that we’ve ever been

cool dad — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:22:58 +0000

The Lord works in mysterious ways, and we are Exhibit A. We have so many things going against us being cool.

Both in our thirties. Cool Mum is 30, and I’m the oldest that Jesus ever got, 33.
Have a toddler and are expecting our second bouncing, pooping baby boy in the near future.
My latest attempt at redefining myself with a cool hairstyle ended like my attempt to pass the ’skipping’ portion of the kindergarten curriculum: a miserable failure. (I was told that I was ‘galloping’. Well, sorry that I really looked up to horses when I was younger. Mr. Ed had a profound impact on my life.)
We feel that the purchase of new underwear is cause for celebration.

But despite the mountain of evidence against us, we feel the coolest yet. Much like the redemptive qualities of The Island on LOST, Manhattan is redeeming our past offences against coolhood. In a city known for rude neighbors and service with a scowl, we are reaching new levels of coolness (as least in our minds).

Since moving to the Cool Duplex, we’ve been able to connect with people more than we ever have. Each week, our place hosts a rhythm of family dinners, playgroups, bible studies, spontaneous meals with friends, and LOST-watching parties, all with a refreshing variety of New Yorkers: established residents, newbies, singles, marrieds, all hailing from various parts of America and the world.

Many churches preach about community and many of us desire it. We feel blessed and pretty cool to be living in the middle of it. Thank you, Lord.

And even if we’re not any cooler than before, or even less so, there’s no denying that this is so cool, it’s ridiculous:

Sunglasses, plus cap from another country worn sideways, equals a strollerful of cool

Community made Saturday a very cool day (and I don’t mean the TV show)

cool dad — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:03:07 +0000

I had a good feeling about Saturday. I even proclaimed that it would be an “awesome” day on Twitter before I even got out of bed. The day did not disappoint, and I only left our apartment for 30 minutes.

On Saturday mornings, I meet with a few guys to talk about the week and life with God. I went to the store to get some breakfast ingredients and, on my way back, rescued the sweet ride featured in the last post from an eternity in an out-of-state landfill. The guys came over and we devoured chocolate chip pancakes and bacon. More importantly, we had good talk to invest further in our friendship.

A couple of hours after they left, we hosted a few friends for a BBQ. It was 70º and clear, quite fitting for the first day of spring. We slowly dined on burgers, chicken, couscous, guac and chips, and lots of ice cream on our backyard deck. We enjoyed the fine company of our friends whom we haven’t seen in months and friends of friends that we were meeting for the first time.

After they left, CM wondered jokingly who would be coming over next. If the day’s fellowship ended there, it would have been a success. Then with the uncanny timing of a sitcom, one of our roommates walked in with a friend that we are still getting to know. We were happy to hand her some BBQ chicken and fun conversation. And while we were talking, new neighbors from upstairs rang our doorbell, asking about the best groceries in the neighborhood. They came in, and we showed them around.

For some, a quiet weekend to yourself is refreshing. For us, refreshment is found in connecting with people. It’s reinforcing the bonds of community, and it’s why we moved into a converted 3-bedroom with roommates. In New York, it’s possible to live a lifetime among 8 million neighbors and feel desperately alone. We’re trying to fight that feeling with our evenings and weekends.

Saturday was an awesome day. We can’t wait to see what the next one brings.

Thanks and the City: The first Cool Thanksgiving

cool dad — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:44:09 +0000

For our 8 years of wedded bliss, Cool Mum and I have always been Thanksgiving visitors. Either with our families in Florida or strangers (now friends) last year in NYC. This year, we’re hosting our very first Thanksgiving – if I can get get off the computer and go buy a turkey. Just kidding, we’re all sorts of prepared, having bought everything we need from the store before it closed last night.

Just as the first Thanksgiving was a melding of cultures, the first Cool Thanksgiving will be a multicultural event (minus the taking of land and relocation to reservations). The nations of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Japan, and the Philippines will be represented, along with the European melting pot that is Cool Mum. To the right is the feast that will feed us later today. For our Japanese friends, this is their first American Thanksgiving. At least we can say that there’s nowhere to go but up for their future Thanksgivings.

The feature of the feast is Slow Cooker Turkey Breast. Last night, I picked out a frozen turkey breast with gravy at the surprisingly chill grocery store (lots of people have left NYC for the holiday). I was afraid that it might not thaw in time, but I thawed it in the sink with no problem. This morning, I put the turkey breast and gravy in the crock pot, and it should be all done by 3:00. I took a lot of liberty with the recipe, like stirring onion soup mix in with the gravy. But onion soup mix is like the type O negative of ingredients, and slow-cooking is nearly foolproof.

The sides will include stuffing that I’m still debating when to put in the turkey breast, peas, corn, and sweet potatoes with cinnamon and brown sugar. To drink, we have Coca-Cola beverages, like Coca-Cola (and nothing else), sugar-free Hawaiian punch, and tap water with ice. Dessert will be a fresh-baked, long-frozen Sara Lee pumpkin pie and Fla-Vor-Ice.

This Thanksgiving meal would probably bring Paula Deen to tears, but we’re not sweating it. We’re just looking forward to spending good time with our friends and thanking God for everything He’s done, which is every good thing in our lives.

The Cool Fam wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving! What are you doing today?

Introducing our Cool Compassion Child!

cool dad — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:55:39 +0000

A few weeks ago, we introduced the idea of getting a group of AWSC? Readers together to sponsor a child through Compassion International. I’m very pleased to announce that the idea has become a reality, and that we’ve now ‘met’ our sponsored a child!

We chose to select the child who has waited the longest to be sponsored. Upon signing up, we didn’t know anything about him – no name, picture, or where he was from. We all met him together when I made a video of myself opening his information packet and shared it with the CCP members. Now, we’d like you to meet him as well.

This is our Compassion child, Josué. He is a 6 year-old boy from Ecuador. We’re thankful to God that Josué was selected for us. We hope that the CCP will be a blessing in his life. We’re positive that he will be in ours.

If you’d like to participate in the Cool Compassion Project, it’s never too late to join! Just let us know.

Mistakes I made as a new Christian

cool dad — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:56:54 +0000

Children make mistakes. It’s not a statement of their competency or mental capacity. They often just don’t know any better.

The same can be said of babes in Christ. No, I don’t mean the current iteration of the Swedish One-Piece Team (someone please comment that you got that). I’m talking about new Christians, who are in the infancy of their faith. As a new Christian, I made some stupid mistakes that not only reflected poorly on Jesus, but they damaged friendships.

I vividly remember talking with a friend outside of the Reitz Union on a sunny Florida afternoon. I was a new Christian, fervent in my new faith. The topic turned to partying, and I recall proclaiming that he shouldn’t drink. We were 21 by this point, and my friend asked why not. I was such an infant that I didn’t even know any verses to support my bold sideswipe of a claim.

My rock-solid reply: “Because… you just shouldn’t.”

If only a time machine could be invented so I could step into the past and kick myself. I poured my friend a frosty mug of baseless legalism.

This is just one of several screw-ups in my life involving friendships and faith. I don’t think that I’ll make this a series because

A. You get the point.
B. Even my self-deprecating spirit can’t take reliving so much shame.

What are some mistakes that you made as a new Christian?

My ongoing attempt at coolness: My band ’six days from Sunday’

cool dad — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:10:09 +0000

Ever since I picked up a guitar in high school, I wanted to be in a band. It was a dream of mine. In my 4th year of college, God made that dream a reality. And 11 years later, we are still together (but I’m not referring to Cool Dad Crew).

We are six days from Sunday, and I play lead guitar. My band bros are Robert Privette (acoustic/vocals), Paul Privette (bass/vocals), Jeremy Jester (drums), and Chris Privette (rhythm/aux). The most fitting bio for us is:

Five guys who consistently prove the existence of God because there’s no other reason why so many people would like us.

God has done a lot with this little band. He’s blessed many people through our music over the years; we only know that because they told us so. Because of the band, I met Cool Mum, and my cool drummer met his cool wife. One of our songs was played at a funeral in Wisconsin because the deceased loved it so much.

We’ve done the obligatory touring around US in a busted beat-up Chevy Suburban. We’ve played in Canada and Europe a couple of times. We stepped foot into Mexico for about 30 minutes.

The hardest part about leaving Florida was leaving the band behind. I’ll always have my family, and we see each other now as much as we did before The Move. But gone are the road trips, last-minute gigs, and Spirit-filled jam sessions where songs were borne from riffs.

I praise God that while I left the band in Florida, I haven’t left the band. Since moving, I’ve flown down a few times to play events. And I just booked plane tickets to a camp in Colorado that we’re doing in a few weeks. I talk with them on a regular basis and do some freelance work with our lead singer.

But enough boring Cool Dad talking, let’s hear some playing! First, you can stream our last album Bigger Than We Are on Last.fm. It’s rock – sometimes mellow, sometimes raw, hopefully sometimes cool.

And for video lovers, here’s our rendition of ‘How Great is Our God’ that we did last year at a camp in Pennsylvania. This is just my camcorder perched on the balcony, but the audio is OK. I’m a little biased in that this is my favorite version of the song, and it just might be God’s, too.

So, that’s six days from Sunday. It’s hard to envision a time when we won’t be a band, but it’ll happen someday. But beyond that, I believe that we’ll always be friends. I’m glad that you could meet them, and you’ll probably see them again soon. Rock on!

The Cool Compassion Project is a go

cool dad — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:25:44 +0000

The Cool Compassion Project set out to gather at least 30 of our subscribers to sponsor a Compassion child together at the cost of $1 a month. So far, we have 6 participants, and we’re going ahead with it anyway! Hey, $5 a month to meet a child’s physical and eternal needs is a sweet deal.

We’re figuring out arrangements for money and selecting a child. I hope that by next weekend, that will be all taken care of, and God will have given us a child to support through Compassion International.

New participants are always welcome, so just comment here or email us if you want to join in.

The first 6 participants of the Cool Compassion Project are:

flyawaynet of This Walk
Hip Mama of Hip Mama
Luke and Sarah of A Case of the Mundys
Mary of Giving Up On Perfect
Shannon and Elizabeth
us

We’ve gotten exciting feedback from bloggers who are experienced with Compassion. At first, I was worried that this might be an impractical or risky idea, but we’ve only received encouragement. We like encouragement, and hopefully the Cool Compassion Project will receive a lot and pass on a great deal more.

The Cool Compassion Project: Should we sponsor a child together?

cool dad — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:02:49 +0000

I’m an idea guy. Sometimes, I’m also an execution guy, and when I am, fun things happen like my first completed screenplay and what I believe was the first-ever Nintendo Wii tournament for charity. However, the backburner usually gets loaded with so many ideas that the stove breaks.

The Compassion bloggers are back from India after another uplifting and heart-wrenching experience among children in poverty. There are countless children who need Compassion’s help, but there just don’t seem to be enough sponsors. $32 a month can be a burden, especially in this economy.

I LOVE connecting people with each other and utilizing the power of a group. Well, we have a group of 100 or so subscribers, so if I may channel Sally Struthers:

For only $1 a month, you can help change the earthly and eternal lives of children in poverty around the world.

My idea: Why can’t we sponsor a Compassion child? If every subscriber popped in $1 a month, this blog could sponsor 3 kids. Hence, the birth of the Cool Compassion Project.

I won’t go into guilt-tripping you into forsaking Starbucks to pull this off. I know that I would struggle with giving up my Chocolate Trucker Sandwiches from the Treats Truck every week. But I think that we all can sacrifice $1 a month to participate as a group and make eternal differences around the world.

Again, I’m an idea guy, and this takes planning. Here are some quick thoughts. Please shoot holes in them and offer better suggestions.

To stay in contact with the child, you all can send us notes that we can pass along. We’ll then post the responses here.
To pay for the sponsorship, you each can send us $12/year via Paypal. This would be easier to manage than 32 or more $1 transactions every month.
I’m not sure how we would go about choosing a child or children to sponsor.

Finally, while $1 a month is a tiny commitment, participating in this project means involvement in the physical and eternal welfare of a child in poverty. It will be a fun experience, but one to take on with great importance as well.

So, please give your feedback. Is this even a good idea? Is it risky, impractical, unwise, gimmicky, or unethical?

If it is cool to do, would you participate?

Where should believers live? Some tough questions.

cool mum — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:23:31 +0000

In the US, most of us have some degree of control over where we live. For some, there is a choice of which country. Others may be confined to a certain city/town, but have control over which neighborhood. This leads to a question running around in my mind:

Should your beliefs have an impact on where you live?

Common sense leads me to believe that there are “good” areas and “bad” areas. Anyone who has the means to live in a good area should do just that. Good areas have better schools. More well-behaved kids will become our kids’ peers. The actual housing is nicer. The neighbors are people just like us. There is a level of peace, comfort, and safety. The neighborhood cars have mufflers (a personal favorite of ours).

Some of the above reasons for choosing good areas may be vital to certain things that you feel God has called you to do. But many times, in my life, they have merely been the result of good old common sense and societal pressure. And I don’t like that.

One of the refreshing things about our decision to move to New York (to me) was that it certainly was not a result of common sense. But, from the moment we stepped out of that first cab with our suitcases, you had better believe that our choice of neighborhoods was. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy sitting next to older ladies in fur coats while I’m riding public transportation. Or seeing the rich French moms and their kids dressed to the nines in the public sandbox with Cool Baby. I feel safer in my little corner of the Upper East Side than I have ever felt anywhere. But is that a good reason to stay?

Right now, we are at a crossroads regarding where to live. It’s pretty much down to NYC or near my family in Florida. So far, life here does not look too sustainable financially, especially with additional monthly expenses coming up in June. A recent conversation with a new friend here reminded me to think about this decision in terms of my beliefs about who Jesus is and what he did on earth. Yikes.

Common sense enters the scene and says, “Sure, you could’ve been Mother Teresa back when you were single and childless. But things are different now. You have a child who is solely dependent on you for protection and teaching.”

Okay, but where do I draw the line? I could use the I-have-a-kid excuse in my mind for virtually anything, and often have. Does having a kid make you no longer accountable to God for helping and loving your neighbors? Maybe I’m only allowed to serve neighbors who are just like me? Is having a kid a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to living in a “bad” area by choice? (The large missionary families around the world would probably say no.)

We are all called to different things, so the specific places and reasons will be different. There is no basis for judgment. But I think we all face this issue at one time or another. For me, perhaps I have taken my calling of stay-at-home-mom a little too literally.

I’m a little nervous about where this train of thought is going. I am reminding myself that just because an idea sounds dangerous and uncomfortable, doesn’t mean that God is calling you to it. However, I also need to remind myself that just because an idea sounds dangerous and uncomfortable, does not mean that God is not calling you to it.

Any thoughts?

Take Care Now – our non-profit organization

cool dad — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:37:03 +0000

Since today is Earth Day and you now know our names, we’d like to share something that’s been a part of the Cool Fam for the past couple of years.

In the spring of 2006, we had just gotten back from a trip to Europe when we wondered why Americans don’t live as energy- and space-efficiently as Europeans. One reason is that we just have a whole lot more space, energy, and everything else to live off of. But we felt convicted that this is God’s earth, and we should be mindful of how we use it.

So after some planning (and I’d like to think prayer as well), we started a non-profit organization to promote caring for the earth and our neighbors on it. We named it Take Care Now.

We were excited about the prospects of having our own non-profit and had some great ideas. We got stickers, reusable shopping bags with our logo, and a website. We were spreading the word, and people agreed. But then Cool Mum got herself preggers–I think I’m partially to blame. Our lives’ priorities shifted.

Take Care Now is still “together.” Our Facebook group retains its 100 or so members. Our website was up until just last week, when some silly blog took over the hosting plan.

We’ll talk more later about TCN – what we did, what we hope to do. For now, I’ll leave you with the text of the old About page. It’s a good explanation of what Take Care Now is all about.

Take Care Now exists to inspire Christians to act on their faith through care for neighbors and stewardship of resources out of love for God.

We think that the earth is a very cool place to live. And we think that we as Christians should take care of it. Here’s why:

You’ve probably heard of stewardship, the wise use of what God has provided. There is stewardship of one’s talents, finances, and time — but what about the natural resources that God has given us?

Jesus said that the greatest commandments are: Love the Lord your God with everything that is in you and love your neighbor as yourself. Where does environmental stewardship fit into this? Being mindful of creation shows love for God and our neighbors.

By caring for the earth, we show our love for God by appreciating His glory that is evident throughout creation. Romans 1:20 teaches that God’s power and divine nature can be seen by what has been made. Psalms 24 and 89 declare that the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. This incredible place in which we live is a gift, and we should honor and maintain that gift.

We show our love for neighbors by helping to keep this place wonderful because we all live here and share it. This also helps the poor (some of Jesus’ favorite people to love) by fighting air pollution, water contamination, and the increasing accumulation of waste, as they don’t have the resources to shield themselves from such problems.

We don’t have to force environmental stewardship into our lives as Christians. It should be a natural part of living lives of love. We know that God wants us to be good stewards of all He has given us. Likewise, we know that our decisions affect our neighbors now and in the future. The next step is to act on this knowledge! There are many ways to do this that don’t take much time and can help you be a better steward of other resources as well.

We don’t want to exalt God’s creation, nor do we believe in devoting your life to saving the earth. There are simple choices that can make a difference. We believe in exalting God through showing love in actions and in truth, as stated in 1 John 3:18.

We’re excited about starting this movement to care for God’s earth. It’s like a new world of ways to show our love for God has opened up to us. If this sounds good, we hope that you’ll join us in honoring the Creator by caring for His creation!