disciples

What The Church Can Learn From The Masters

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

IMG_4995This is the first time in over 20 years I won’t be spending Masters Week as a resident of Augusta, GA. I have to admit I’m missing the sights and sounds of the spectacle. It’s the biggest holiday on the calendar for the city.

If you’ve never lived in Augusta, there’s nothing really to compare Masters Week with.

I guess the closest thing would be to when a city hosts an event like the Super Bowl. But even then it’s a different city every year.

For 7 days every year the city of Augusta totally transforms. Washington Road becomes the golf capital of the world. Golf Carts are lined up in front of every business. Even members of One Direction show up.

Corporations take over abandoned buildings and parking lots and turn them into pop-up party tents and memorabilia shops. Thousands of residents flee the city, renting out their homes to tourists and travelers and the golfers themselves.

For one week the city of Augusta becomes a spectacle. Then, the Monday after the tournament, everything goes back to normal. Continue reading →

Snow Day Blues

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

IMG_1927Every Snow Day must end.

As kids (and sometimes as adults) we pray each winter for the conditions to be just right for a glorious interruption of our daily routine, even if only for a day.

Of course, if the wintry flakes of wonder could fall on the right day, that would be even better. The day of the big test, or the big presentation, or whatever day you may be dreading.

Then, every few years (if you’re lucky), the special day comes. The weather reports turn out right.  You wake up to the sight of snow on the ground and iced over roads and the best news anyone could ever get: school and work are cancelled.

But a Snow Day is not the solution to your problem. Continue reading →

What You’re Missing By Missing The Reference

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

I know a few serial movie memorizers. It’s kind of a generational thing. Our parents didn’t have the chance to watch and rewatch their favorite movies on demand like we do.

Since now anyone can watch the Austin Powers Trilogy every night before they go to bed, movie quotes have become their own sort of lexicon. To twenty-somethings (especially males), learning to quote movies is an essential foreign language.

I don’t memorize movies well. I watch a lot of movies. I enjoy them. But I don’t rewatch a lot of them. And I don’t ingrain the dialogue to my brain. (Not judging those who do – in fact I’m often jealous of them.)

I’ve got a handful of go to movie quotes. But they’re not that original. I usually end up sounding like the recent slew of news anchors profiled on Conan who all thought they were being quite clever covering the news of Mike Myers’ new addition: Continue reading →

One Easy Way To Tell If You’re Crazy

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

Here’s a test to answer that looming question we all ask ourselves at one time or another – Am I crazy?:

Look in the mirror.

Do you see a reflection?

If yes, then you are crazy.

We’re all crazy in our own little ways. It’s just a matter of figuring out which type of crazy we are.SilverLiningsPlaybook_620x350

Silver Linings Playbook (the best movie I’ve seen from 2012) is a movie about mental illness, the different ways people cope with their craziness, and how they find the silver linings amidst all the negative turns life takes.

Everyone in the movie is unbalanced in their own special way. There’s Bradley Cooper’s bipolar divorcee, and Robert DeNiro’s obsessive-compulsive football fan, and Jennifer Lawrence’s unhinged widow. Even the psychiatrist waves his crazy flag as a face-painting Philadelphia Eagles fan.

I liked the movie so much because I think it’s pretty true to life. God didn’t make any person perfect. He created us all a little quirky. Continue reading →