Just yesterday my blog hit a record for most views in a single day. 195. And I haven’t posted anything in several days. Actually the last thing I posted, and I’m actually disappointed that this didn’t take the blogosphere by storm, is the piece “When Your Dad is Your Cousin.” I thought that such an honest exposition of the inner most depths of my identity would have resonated more with my readers. What is it that you people want?

Anyway, the only reason I’m getting so many hits lately is because of a post I wrote earlier this year entitled “Salvation is like a baseball bat.” As it turns out, you’d be amazed how many people around the world are googling “baseball bat” everyday. And especially lately. But I doubt they’ll find what they’re looking for on my blog, unless it’s a picture of a baseball bat, which I so thoughtfully include in case you can’t recall what one looks like.

So clink on the link above and check out the post that is bringing the most “readers” to my blog these days.

Or maybe you want to be unique, and spend some time on the fringes, finding those lesser-known treasures at the bottom of the barrel? You might want to check out some of the least-read classics, such as “The opposite of sin is not virtue but faith.” Or how about “Church-As-Society, Church-In-Society”? If the post about my dad being my cousin failed to please you, go on and take a look at “Great Aunt Mary and the Duck.” It would make a great bedtime story.

It’s looking like this record might be broken today. I’ve already got 75 views, with the baseball bat post making up 57 of those. I promise not to write another one of these posts if this is the case.

I’ve been away from the blog for a while because I’ve been so busy exercising my writing muscle for work. But in about another month or so I should reach a break and I’ll be able to pay more attention to this here Dwellers of the Dust.

Anyway, I’m doing well. I’ve actually laughed harder today than I have in a while. Part of my job is to transcribe my pastor’s sermons, and as I was transcribing he told a story that tickled me the right way.

Here’s what he said:

I saw this the other day, a 76 year old Bill Baker of London recently wed Edna Harvey, she happened to be his granddaughter’s husband’s mother. This woman’s grandfather married her husband’s mother. This is how she went on to describe it. “This has caused a lot of confusion in my life and in my home,” Lynn the granddaughter said. “My mother-in-law is now my step-grandmother, my grandfather is now my step-father-in-law, my mom is my sister-in-law, my brother is my nephew, but even crazier is that I am now married to my uncle and my own children are my cousins!” 

No, not only did I die laughing when I read this, but zipping down the hallway and laughing with my pastor’s assistant wasn’t enough either, so I called my sister.

I told her the story, and I laughed even harder reading it to someone.

But then we related it to our family. We have always joked about how my mom and dad are cousins. In actuality, they are step-cousins. When my father’s dad passed away, my grandmother married my mom’s uncle. And that’s how mom and dad met. So they are only cousins by marriage.

What we never realized, though, is that this means that my grandmother is also my step-great aunt, AND that means that my dad is my step-cousin!

And my mom is my cousin’s wife! Wouldn’t I haves liked to throw that at her when I was younger? “Why should I listen to you, when your not even my cousin, you’re my cousin’s wife??”

Anyway, once we realized this after all these years, it blew our minds and had me laughing so hard I was crying.

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I’ll be back soon with some more stuff for y’all to read.