No pain yet...

Day two of my experiment in simplicity has come and gone, and I'm not even sweating it yet.  I came home for lunch today, and Katie greeted me with the idea of a picnic. Now, since this is an experiment in ridding myself of barriers to God's love, I will be completely forthcoming and admit that this would not have been in my top ten list for lunchtime activities today. But, I will set aside my own idea of what a lunch hour looks like and take my wife and child out for some Vitamin D. And besides, what could be simpler than packing up a picnic and trying to eat it with a 9 month old? 

Wow...Melanie Knox Larson sneak into this picture?! (one of our friends from college, and Katie's sister from another mister, uh, mother)

As it usually goes with things like this, I ended up grateful for acquiescing to Katie's idea.  The wind was actually pretty chilling in the shade under the gazebo, just perfect for me, and Avonlea was pretty stinking cute as usual.  A simple family picnic, nice.  Just look at those smiles. I'm a lucky guy!

Now to business.  My second cull of the season will be in the "entertainment" category.  I wouldn't say that I have a large DVD library, but I've got plenty.  One of Richard Foster's challenges in simplifying an existence is to consider our passion for owning things instead of borrowing or appreciating things without needing to control them.  If we see something we like, we usually desire to own it, bringing it into our realm of control.  Now, I love me a movie night, or movie marathon even, but we have a little something called Netflix, so I took a look at the ole' collection tonight.  Here are five movies I can live without owning anymore:

Faith like Potatoes - never seen, don't know what I'm missing. May be a fantastic movie, change-my-life caliber...I'm learning to pass up the opportunity cost of an idea, as well. Sounds deep? It is. I'll talk more about this concept of passing up opportunities later on; it's something I read about in a book called Stuff.

Bowfinger - ugh. Why did I own this in the first place? I think someone gave this to me. Or paid me to take it.

The Man in the Iron Mask - file this under "Movies I may never see again and will still live a full life" category.

Training Day and Full Metal Jacket - two of the most violent movies I own. Not anymore.  Though Training Day does have an interesting and very good lesson on how to live life, treat people, and do what's right no matter what, I would/could never show this to my youth kids. And if I wouldn't be willing to show them, why would I watch it myself...?

A fairly easy night tonight. It was definately harder to go through my movies and find some to get rid of than my shirts, and hopefully it won't be my last pass through them, but these five are out of here and I will still sleep tonight, if AJ lets us ;-)

Peace.