Donald Miller's Blog, page 139

Lucy's Blog Post Pt 9 – The Thing About Death

Today I got to show Don around the ICU. I am feeling much better. Right now I'm the only dog being watched in intensive care. It turns out 90% of dogs who get salmon poisoning die within 14 days, and Don and the docs didn't figure out the problem till day 13. I came pretty close. Yesterday Don held me in his arms and even said goodbye. We sat on the floor in a little room and I slobberd on him and it hurt to breathe. It was nice to have him there. There is so much noise in the hospital that I...

Lucy's Blog Post Pt. 8 – What Sickness Taught me About Love

So I've been in the hospital lately. I didn't feel well so I stopped eating. I had a temperature. After a few days, Don brought me into the hospital. The doctors couldn't find out what was wrong for another two days, but then found out I got poisoning from a fish. I ate something when I was playing in the water and it made bacteria explode in my belly. I had an IV and a cone and the whole bit. Don had to spoon feed me baby food and I hated it. Finally they put a tube down my throat to get me ...

Let Story Guide You Pt. 1 – Would the Hero Say That?

In movies, the bad guy has to display he is the bad guy through actions. It won't do to have a subtitle come on the screen that says "this is the bad guy." A cliche, yet effective methodology is to have the bad guy belittle somebody who is weaker, poorer of less fortunate. A bad guy will belittle a servant, a waiter, a spouse or child. The reason screenwriters write these scenes is because, eventually, the bad guy is going to get killed, and they can't let anybody in the audience feel sorry f...

I'd Rather be Hated than Loved with Conditions

I'd rather be hated than loved with conditions. I think most people would agree. At least when people hate you, they are being intellectually honest. I mean you know where they stand. But we've all shared a political view or a struggle and had people take a half step back, or worse, reveal they no longer want the best for us. When this happens I get a hollow feeling and I associate that hollow feeling with the person and their ideas. So that begs the question, do we actually love our friends ...

Commenting on Anne Rice

I was contacted by Kirsten Powers Makarv this morning. Kirsten is writing an article for The Daily Beast about the recent decision by author Anne Rice to disassociate from Christianity. Mrs. Rice maintains her faith in Christ, and does so in an authentic and sincere manner, at least through tweets and blog entries. That said, like many, she grew more and more frustrated with "christianity" and has publicly said she wants no part of the religion. It wasn't a shocking decision to me, as many...

The Difference Between Me and Dan Merchant

I'm at the Echo Conference in Dallas, a conference for tech-minded communicators. It's a unique conference and certainly something I'd attend if I wasn't speaking. In fact, I've sat in on sessions. But that's hardly the point. The point is, they put the speakers up in a hotel near by, a big high-rise thing and they gave each of us a suite. The suite comes with a kitchen, living room, and a conference table for taking over the world. And enough closet space to move Kanye in.

The first thing I t...

Advice to Single Guys About Dating

A couple months ago I excerpted a chapter from Father Fiction about what women are looking for in men. Honestly, when I wrote that chapter, I wanted to write an entire book on the subject. I'm 38 now and it's not that I've figured out much, but if I could go back in time to my early twenties and explain a few things I'd have saved myself a lot of trouble. So today I was moving books to a new bookshelf and I came across my friend Steven Simpson's book What Women Wish You Knew About Dating.

Lucy's Blog Pt. 7 – How I Stay Fit Without Exercising

So if you've followed this blog at all you know I work as a writer but also as a private detective, basically tracking down cheating spouses and that sort of thing. That has severely limited my ability to keep up the blog. So on a few days a week my dog Lucy covers for me. Here are her thoughts on exercise:

I hate exercise. It's completely stupid. I'd no sooner stand around in a gym lifting weights than you'd eat your own poop. Eating your own poop makes complete sense because it's filled...

Andrew Peterson's Counting Stars, A Review

For years I've been listening to a kid from Nashville named Andrew Peterson. You're likely to have been listening to him too. He's the one with the voice as smooth as a cello, and the story-telling intuition of Garrison Keillor (Andrew is also an accomplished novelist).

These days, musicians are releasing what should be a record of b-sides with one or two decent songs. I don't blame them. There's not much of a commercial reason to stick a bunch of hits on one album. But Counting Stars is not s...

Lucy's Blog Pt. 6 – Building and Defending a Love Fort

My dog Lucy has been covering the blog for me lately, as I've been preoccupied trying to get some lint out of my belly button. It tickles so much but I can't get it all out. Anyway, here's her blog today. I'll be back tomorrow reviewing Andrew Peterson's new record, Counting Stars. It's a lovely record that makes you want to cut the top off your car and go driving at night through the hills. But for now, here's some thoughts from Goose:

So Don and I have a good thing going. It's just us up...