Forthcoming from the Author

The state of romantic relationships (friends and my own), has been pretty prominent in my mind lately. This has lead me to do things like post the last weblog entry, or post "Girls 101: Ask the Experts" on the hall bulletin board. (It's a Breakway magazine interview with four 18 year old females about the qualities they look for in a guy.) In the midst of all this, however, I can't help but wondering if, to paraphrase the song "American Pie," Satan's laughing with delight over the campus's romantic obsession. As the saying goes, "Too much of a good thing is bad." Have we elevated something as good as finding a spouse to idol level? I think we have.

I've come to the general conclusion that considering the current state of affairs here, there probably isn't a girl for me currently here at Boyce. That may sound a little dire, and yes, "probably" leaves a chance for a much welcomed surprise ("One and a million... So you're saying there's still a chance!"), but at the same time, it's also surprisingly freeing. It allows me to be a brother to my sisters, and I think that the more brothers a female has, the better, with the same going vice versa. What a novel concept, friendships for the sake of edification and life together. Glad I thought of this first. As an added note, I think that true, genuine friendships which spend much of their time in groups and quality time one on one or in smaller groups allow for the birth of pure romantic relationships. Not that this is their goal or even their consideration, but rather, a possible, and if it occurs, a welcome result.

It seems to me that in relationships, as in any fact of life, we walk on a tight rope strung over a chasm. It doesn't matter if you fall off on the left hand side, sin masked as freedom (1 Peter 2:16), or on the right hand side, sin masked as morality and piety (Colossians 2:20-23). Either way, you fall. It doesn't take a deep intellect to recognize the destruction that mercenary dating has unleashed, it just takes open eyes. It also doesn't take deep philosophy to recognize that our Muslim-esque segregation of the genders is unhealthy either.

"Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." - Gal 6:2 (HCSB) This applies to so much more then confessing sins. We must do life together.

If you're Mike Hilliard or John Letoto, you might wonder what the "H" the title has to do with the contents. One "Family Movie Night" at the Butterworth household, my brothers and I made the huge mistake of letting our parents go to Rent-A-Flick without a proper chaperone. As a result, they rented The Princess Diaries, starring Anne Hathaway, the legendary Julie Andrews, and Mandy Whore. I survived. After watching it, I thought about how unrealistic it's view of romance, beauty, and all those things was. It's the Disney ethos: "If you're life is cruddy just say Bippity-Boppity-Boo and some fairy godmother will make it all better." It inspired me, and the next day I sat down and wrote a short fairy tale about true love. It's called The King's Own. The story needs some major revamping to bring it slightly out of Josh Harris's shadow, not to mention a major stylistic overhaul. Getting to the point, once I have finished the editing process, I will post it here.