As we approach the end of the year, everyone else is doing their “Top 10 of ‘08” and if there is something that I pride myself on, it’s doing what everyone else is doing.  So, I’ll begin with music, since it’s close to my heart and then I’ll take a look at some books, not all of which will have been written in 08 but i promise that I did read them all this year… you’re just going to have to take my word on that.

Here they are my musical favorites of 2008, in no particular order, besides the order in which I came across them on my playlists…

All Alright — Sigur Ros, from “Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust”
This album had me off balance for the first few listens; a departure from what I’ve come to expect from Sigur Ros.  But like many of my other favorite artists, reinvention has thus far meant new dimensions of beauty and artistry.

Your Love Is Strong — Jon Foreman, from the “Spring” EP
Jon’s work has always had a quirkiness to it reflective of his personality. The songs that make up each EP are even more sharply characterized in this way; this makes the power of songs like “Your Love…” more human and less lofty or inaccessible; a characteristic that marks far too much religious or devotional music.

Dangerous — Joshua James, from “The Sun Is Always Brighter
The album lags at times, but the highlights really shine, including “Dangerous.”  James’ delicacy as an artist stands in opposition to deep tensions in the song’s arrangement.

Hallelujah — The Helio Sequence, from “Keep Your Eyes Ahead.”
I really like the clash of electronic and pop-folk elements that meet in this song.

Closer — Kings of Leon, from “Only By The Night”
I didn’t think this stuff would grow on me the way it has.  It’s a little bit on the Jock-Rock side of my taste, but we all have our strange tastes.

I’ve Seen Enough — Cold War Kids, from “Loyalty to Loyalty”
This band’s performance in the movie “Call and Response” was one of my favorite moments in the movie.  The Cold War Kids find a way to draw the raw energy out of their songs.  In this case the tone of the bass track is the key to that energy.

Terror for Two – The Broken West, from “Now or Heaven”
This whole record is fun.  As a fan of 80’s and 90’s new wave, I liked the turn The Broken West took with production here.  As I mentioned earlier, a well thought out reinvention can make for some great moments.  This is another great example of that.

Can’t Go Back Now — The Weepies, from “Hideaway”
Just barely trailing Linford and Karen of “Over The Rhine,” I love this couple’s music.  Much like Eastmountainsouth, it is the combination of their talents and particularly their vocals that works so well.

Little Plastic Life — Sam Phillips, from “Don’t Do Anything”
If you are yet unfamiliar with Sam Phillips’ music, I really think she’s one of the most inventive and creative artists in music.

And finally, a holiday selection:
Can I Interest You In Hannukah? — Colbert/Stewart (from “A Colbert Christmas”)

Christmas detractors have often pointed out that Jesus was most likely born in June and not in December.  Often these detractors go on to point out that the inclusion of the tree and a few other factors make clear that the celebration of Christmas looks incriminatingly similar to pagan rituals which take place during the same season.  I happen to not care the least bit, to be honest, if the Christmas celebration has been shaped by these things.  I think there is something deeply right about the celebration of Jesus birth at this, the darkest time of year, rather than in June, when shadows are fewer and nights shorter.

Just two days before Christmas, December 23rd, I was at the memorial service for a friend of mine’s son, Ezekiel.  Ezekiel was only 26 days old.  He had been born several weeks premature and had, for the almost-month of his life defied mathematical odds and medical expectations.  His survival was considered miraculous, as is often the way we see our survival of the weak when set against the cold, statistical reality of the medical world. Then, late last week, Ezekiel died.

And so I find my standing graveside, playing “It Is Well With My Soul;” the officiating pastor reading scriptures associated with the celebration of Christmas … “Unto us a child is born” and then continuing .. “From D___ and M___ (the young couple) one was taken taken away…”

In the light of  the story we are more familiar with; the story that, for the hundred or so of those who have gathered here to mourn, is in front of our faces, resting in a casket small enough to be held in one arm… can we celebrate the Story that marks this Season?  A story that claims something new has been introduced to the world which will not be undone by time and eventually by death like everything else?  A story in which death itself is only a part; a character, a transition?  Can we believe such a story when the odds, our expectations and our very experience lead us to see only how long the shadows have grown and how deep the night is?  We hope.

We hope because we choose to;  We hope because we must; We hope because despair is the enemy, even if it is death that haunts us; We hope because some among us lack the strength to do so for themselves; We hope because to do otherwise is to cease being human in it’s grandest sense: in which case we defy and seek to disappoint the  dreary expectations of a world that strives to make sense of its own senselessness by eliminating hope altogether; we hope for a cure for cancer; we hope for the abolition of slavery; we hope for the end of extreme poverty.. And again NOT because the evidence of these things is already present but because it is not…  and because it is hope for these things that keeps our hearts beating during a season when survival is victory enough.

This is why I find it so fitting that we celebrate the Story the birth of Life Itself at the darkest point of the darkest season rather than during the long, light hours of summer.  Because it is here that we need it most.

Who would have ever thought we’d see the day when Trent Reznor would be mentioned in the same article as Barney the Dinosaur…?  This BBC article has done so with flair.

For the record, on the list of priorities for the next US president (even as they relate to torture in general),.. this issue probably ranks pretty low.

It happens once every couple years or so, or at least has happened that frequently since I started traveling; My body’s Central Command surveys it’s domain, finds something it does not like and issues the order: “everybody out!”  Every half hour over the next twenty-four hours finds me vomiting and… um… the other thing...  My entire body convulses and shakes as each of my internal organs, having received the order from Central Command, makes it’s own plea for why it cannot leave.  Spleen and pancreas tend to make the best argument, while my large intestine seems all to willing to make an exit. (Little known fact here: I never had my wisdom teeth removed surgically; they were simply asked to leave during one of these episodes and very quietly did.)

The first of these instances took place in Oklahoma of all places.  I was on a run of shows with Bebo Norman and had split off from the rest of the tour to do a pair of shows on my own.  On the drive in to OK from TX, Central Command issued the order and my innards began to organize themselves for evacuation.  It was directly after the performance that the evacuation began… and I mean d-i-r-e-c-t-l-y; off the stage, out the back door and I was “shout’n for Huey.”  That one landed me in the hospital overnight with and i.v. in my arm.  So much fun.

Other memorable run-ins with Central Command have taken place in Chanute KS, where I actually vomited into a backstage sink moments before I went on stage and then again into a bucket off stage right as soon as I finished my set, and in Jacksonville, FL, which is the only time I’ve missed a show in 10 years.

I’m at the end of this bout with the yucky-yuck, and had just about enough energy to blog.  In closing, I’d like to thank the inventors of modern plumbing, saltine crackers and Gatorade.

Often when I’m presenting Compassion, I will reference a short list of statistics in order to provide something of a framework for the conditions agencies like Compassion face when engaging poverty globally.

The list looks like this…
That’s not true.. The list really looks like this:

No, seriously, here is the list:

-5 million children die each year from preventable causes (hunger related)
-27 million people currently live in slavery worldwide
-40,000 people are trafficked into the US each year from foreign countries
-250,000+ trafficked within US each year, including US citizens
-300-500 kids are bought/sold in Las Vegas each day.

These statistics should be somewhat overwhelming and while I think it is important for those of us who live well to know that an enormous part of our human family does not, I am beginning to emphasize a more sustainable motivation for investing time, energy and resources in development work: Ultimately, we must not so much respond to the needs of the world, we ought to, instead, respond to the goodness of God.  Said differently …. But those words are French…

In other words: perhaps our generosity is more sustainable, more complete, more redemptive if it is not rooted in how bad things are around us but, instead, how good things are with us.  I really started to move in this direction after meeting Peter in Uganda.

It is this shift in heart and motivation that allows the work of Justice, Compassion an development to become redemptive for those doing the work as well as those who immediately benefit from it.   We become men and women like Peter, who say “God has been good to me; that is why I do what I do.”

I, along with a handful of other artists write a monthly spot for a media outlet called Soul-Audio.  I just posted a newie