Julie and I spent the latter part of last week in Nashville, Tennessee to celebrate our daughter Taylor's graduation from Vanderbilt University.

Taylor earned a degree as an English & History major as well as Communications Studies minor. She did it all with an excellent GPA and the kind of maturity that never caused us worry over her life choices.

Vanderbilt's graduation ceremonies have a number of unique features, the most memorable one being a Strawberries and Champagne reception immediately following Commencement. That's where we were able to view the University's President up close and personal, meet a few of Taylor's professors, and compare notes with other parents of graduates.

And it's also where we got to see the largest mountain of strawberries on planet earth:

Enough of theological reflection, leadership development, church advancement, and even musings on the much deserved demise of a terrorist mastermind.

How about some good old fashioned rock & roll?

Along with Led Zeppelin and the Eagles, the Rolling Stones were the soundtrack of my youth.

Which means that they are still the soundtrack of my adulthood.



So here goes . . . my top five all time favorite Rolling Stones songs:

5. One Hit To The Body -- An overlooked tune from the much-maligned Dirty Work album (1986). Yet there's something about the frantic urgency and unbridled aggression of this song that I simply love. I may be the only one, but I can't help it.



4. You Can't Always Get What You Want -- The closest Mick Jagger ever gets to being theological. We used to use this line with our children as part of telling them "no" to some request -- "you can't always get what you want, but if you try some time, you just might find, you'll get what you need." They failed to appreciate either the reference or the humor.



3. Brown Sugar -- Regrettable subject matter, unforgettable riff. The riff wins out.



2. Beast Of Burden -- This one came out just as my junior year of high school was beginning (1978). It makes me think of Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Maker" in that it is atypical of the band's style, yet infectious in its appeal.



1. Gimme Shelter -- For sure one of my all time favorites, regardless of the band. Haunting and apocalyptic, it makes you feel the frenzy & fear of the late 60s all over again. And are there better background vocals anywhere in rock & roll?

Since I went to bed early this past Sunday night, I was completely unaware of the US military's successful raid against Osama bin Laden until I opened the newspaper (yes, I still read one)on Monday morning.

Which got me thinking . . . what are some other major stories and events that I have slept right through?

I'll go ahead and give #1 to the bin Laden story. Here goes some of the others . . .

2. George W. Bush - Al Gore "Draw" in 2000. First, Gore was declared the winner. Then, the networks told us Bush had won. That's when I went to bed. I awoke to a tie. Chad-gate ruled for the next six weeks.



3. Texas defeats Southern Cal in the 2006 National Championship Football Game. OK, this pales in imortance compared to the demise of a terrorist mastermind or the election of a president. Yet the game was a big deal: Vince Young vs. Reggie Bush, southwest vs. far west, Texas' attempt to recapture glory vs. USC's attempt at a third national championship in a row. Southern Cal was ahead mid-way through the fourth quarter and it was time for bed. So I missed Vince Young's timeless run for the winning touchdown.



4. Last week's tornado assault on Alabama. I was in Kansas City last week for a Methodist meeting -- a town that you'd think was vulnerable to late spring tornadoes -- when the unprecendeted storms hit the deep south. Since I was reading more than watching television, I had no idea of the devastation until I got up the next morning.



5. The iPod. So the iPod's exploding popularity in the early part of the last decade (did you know they were not marketed until after 9/11?) wasn't an overnight story. Yet it still caught me oblivious . . . because when the iPod came out I still listened to music on cassette tapes. For real. Pitiful, I know.

Though it's been almost 16 years since DC Talk released "Jesus Freak," I've been listening to it all over again.

And that recent listening shows why it remains in my view the signature Christian rock album of all time. Here are the top five things I like about it:

1. Who would have thought that one band could meld the haunting atmosphere of U2, the sonic assault of Nirvana, and the rap-infused creativity of the Beastie Boys into something fresh and original? Yet that's what DC Talk does here.

2. The courage to title a song "Colored People."

3. Rap that people who don't like rap can like in the title song.

4. The vocal arrangement of "In The Light."

5. The question we all need to ask in "What If I Stumble?"