Edutainment

I am somewhat convinced that Kirt changes my cell phone on a regular basis just to keep me off balance. It actually makes me giggle a little to see the great fear and trepidation in his eyes when he hands me a new device. I have only thrown one of them so far. My theory is that if I can't figure out how to answer the darn thing, then it deserves the pavement.

But because he loves me and wants to keep me from throwing things, he updates my contacts and puts apps on there with every new one. He also gives me a ten second tutorial on how to use it because he knows I stop listening after that. I don't use any of the apps, but I did laugh when I saw the Kama Sutra on there. He said that was for religious edification.

The point of this way too long introduction, though, is the dictionary app that gives me a word of the day. I was initially excited about this. I love words and I'm hoping to expand my vocabulary so I don't use sh%# so much. I can use it as a noun, verb, adjective and adverb. We also used it as a term of endearment growing up, but I realize that it doesn't fly in polite company so I'm working on a stron

ger vocabulary.

The first couple words of the day were not rich, enthralling words, but I thought that was just a bad run. Then the word of the day was "edutainment" and I came close to throwing my phone. If I wanted to expand my vocabulary with stupid words, I would just swear more (there is some irony here because stupid is one of the three forbidden words in our home).

Edutainment? We went to an edutainment park in Malaysia. It was a tour of mosques from around the world. Exploring the mosques and their history was actually educational, and riding in the tiny train back to the entrance was entertaining, but I don't feel like we need to make up a stupid word to describe this experience.

So I'm taking the app off of my phone as soon as I motivate myself to figure out how to do it. And I'm reading more Agatha Christie to my children. Talk about a word of the day. Agatha knew how to describe people and situations in engaging detail. Words like phlegmatic (calm, unemotional), truculent (aggressively defiant), and indefatigable (persisting tirelessly) pepper her stories and develop resplendent scenes and people.

That's truly why I want to expand my vocabulary. There are so many complex aspects of the world, people and God that I need a better grasp of vocabulary to communicate particularities with greater clarity and insight. Sh%^ will only go so far.

It doesn't mean learning big words just for the sake of using big words, but learning how to communicate what God is doing in this world, what we are doing in this world with language that unlocks imagination. Seems like a good thing to work on for a loquacious preacher.