Miracles!

Here's Madison ...and Madison.  Madison's friend in this picture, Madison, is the daughter of the executive pastor here at the church, and Madison just loves hanging around with her.  Actually, today, Madison loved hanging around with everyone.  She spent a lot of time here, playing with all the employees and helping Mommy out with her costuming and display case work.  The set, as you can see above, looks great.

On one occasion, I had to keep Madison busy, so I invented a little project for her:  take as many creative pictures as you can.  I gave her a digital camera and sent her off on her way.  What an interesting recon mission!  She went off for a while and returned with about sixty pictures taken of the auditorium, hallways, pictures, signs, and a few of Mommy down in the prop room!  Here are just a few of Daddy's favorites:

Speaking of self-expression...
It was a late night.  Daddy's been working into the wee hours, and all the while watching on the computer screen the Burning Man event in Nevada.  So here's the non-burning man beforehand:

He's standing up there, quite nervous.  This event appears to be somewhat like the Gävle Goat in Sweden, actually.  Only everyone here actually wants to burn this man down.  Apparently, it's some sort of artistic expression event where people gather in the middle of nowhere to listen to music, dress in wild Mad Max fashions, and drive around in cars shaped like giant squid, river boats, viking ships, ufos, and ginormous sharks (no joke).  And yes, they gather to burn this guy down.  But they don't just burn him down.  They blow him up too:

These are images from the webcast I was watching while I was working.  You can see they are launching a lot of fireworks off, which happen to be setting the guy on fire (upper right image).

Still, I am not entirely sure why they burn this person.  Nor why they burn a lot of the other things they have there.  It's supposed to have something to do with "radical self expression."  So to express themselves (radically), approximately 60,000 people (not an exaggeration) show up in the middle of the desert to ride around in parade floats, slink around with torches, and watch a large statue of a man burst into flames.  Yep, that's what I would have thought too.

Watching people dance with torches, you get the feeling you're watching some sort of pagan celebration somewhat prohibited in the Bible.  Especially when you see the priest-looking people wander by with the flames, these guys wearing large cow skulls on their heads, complete with antlers, and taking their job very seriously.  Yes, it's quite a different torch and ceremony than the one at the Olympics.  We were all working here late, and laughing periodically at this or that.  Self-expression can be pretty funny sometimes.

I heard the event was this weekend and had to check it out online.  I think I first read about it in an issue of X-Force #75.  It wasn't exactly the same location, but the same idea was there:  a bunch of people gathering in the middle of nowhere to watch a statue of a guy burst into flames.  Fascinating to watch, in some ways like watching an Ed Wood movie, and in other ways an attempt to unravel the mysteries of radical self-expression.

Madison, if you're reading this later, I'd prefer you not attend.