The National Anthem

We were talking, during a Thanksgiving get-together, about the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner. There are four verses to the song, but we sing only the first, most times.
I agree with whoever of my relatives said that perhaps the fourth verse SHOULD be the one we know and sing. What do you think?

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving Day. It is a national holiday, made so during the Lincoln administration. It is meant to be a time of thanksgiving. It has, as most things do over time, morphed into something far different than the original intent.

That’s not necessarily bad. As society changes, these kinds of things change with it. Some of the changes are seen as good; others as unnecessary or even bad. The great thing about the holiday is that families can celebrate it (or not) pretty much any way they choose. And that in itself is something for which to be grateful.

Tomorrow is Black Friday, the day where the world is supposed to go shopping and give new life, especially this year, to an economy that many think is in sore need of a boost. I don’t plan to go shopping tomorrow. I plan to work. I have not made all of my purchases this year, but know what I will be getting and will buy them when the opportunity presents itself. Besides, what I want to buy won’t be on any sales racks tomorrow anyway. When I’m ready to get my items, I’ll go the store, go right to the display, choose the item, and pay for it all in the expanse of (hopefully) less than 15 minutes. And I’ll be done. If that means I’m not doing enough to prop up the economy, then I’m sorry, but that’s the best I’ll do.

Sometime this weekend, I need to at least formulate a plan for putting up outdoor lights. I’m not looking forward to it, but think it would be “best” if I made the attempt. Once up, I enjoy them; I just don’t like to do the work. Maybe I should hire someone to do my lights for me. There are people that do that in the Wichita area. Hmm. That opens up a whole new thought process…I’ll have to give that some thinking time.

Actually, there are people in the Wichita area that will do just about anything for you. They’ll shop, clean, drive, poop-scoop, trim, haul, deliver, build, pet-bathe, sit, cook, winterize…you name it; someone here will do it for a fee.

Happy Thanksgiving.

What is Important

I was coming back from my brother’s place this evening after going there to use his router on a piece of plywood. He lives in the Valley Center area, about 12 miles from where we live. It’s a rather good drive up there and back, taking about 20 minutes in decent traffic.

I was thinking, in the darkness of the cab of the pickup, of where we were a year ago at this time. As you may recall, we were staying with my brother in their home because we lost our positions at the children’s home where we lived and worked. We had no house to go to, no place to call home, and had to find something quickly. We packed our things and moved them into my brother’s big shed, then occupied a 12 foot by 12 foot bedroom in their home for four months until we found work and a place to live. During that time, we took unemployment, got ourselves back together, enjoyed the safety and warmth of a home, looked for work, and made plans for the future.

Of course much has changed in a short time. I haven’t a clue how or why things happened (and continue to happen) to us as they did, but came away from that experience with a renewed sense of what is truly important and what is not.

Family is important.
Faith is important.
Things are not important.
Encouragement is important.
Self-motivation is important.
Appearances are not important.
Church is important.
Maintaining some semblance of normal living is important.
Being first (# 1, primo, or however you want to say it) is not important.

Other important things might be:

Being gracious, thankful receivers of help.
Being as useful as possible in whatever circumstance.
Continuing cultivating relationships with family and friends.
Sharing.
Continuing to give.
Willingness to serve.

Some things to lose all together, especially during times like that are:

Pride
Selfishness
Pity
Revenge/Payback
Complaining
Sense of entitlement
Laziness

Some list, huh? Take a look at them and decide what you need to work on BEFORE you find yourself in some kind of predicament.

More Random Thoughts

I’ve done a couple of “random thoughts” blogs lately, and kind of like that idea. Here are a few more thoughts that have been floating around among the cobwebs recently.

I have to think that God perhaps put within animals (I am thinking specifically about dogs) the ability to help humans with things that humans can no longer do. Seeing eye dogs, therapy dogs, and dogs that sniff out narcotics, petroleum products, bodies, and other things are invaluable. Dogs are now being trained to help combat wounded veterans with the activities of daily living.

We had inservice day at the home today. We did all of our required inservices at various stations, and employees came in and went from station to station to be inserviced. I had one of the stations, and had a chance to observe the parade of employees that came through. One or two were men; all the others women. I was taken by the diversity of our workforce and struck by the fact that many of these employees were living paycheck to paycheck, had basic needs that they could not meet, were in relationships that were not good for them, and were generally struggling with life and living. Even though I know that many people live less-than-stellar lives, I still would be surprised if I knew the life story of many of those I work with daily.

The sunsets the past several days have truly been superb!

My wife and I have been blessed far beyond what we have ever thought or imagined in our 34 years together.

Why does the Dillons brand of grape pop taste better than Pepsi or Coke at the end of the work day?

I think computer people purposely keep the operation and maintenance of software and hardware complicated in order to maintain jobs for themselves.

Sunday is probably my favorite day of the week. It wasn’t always so.

I’m not sure why, but it seems that the general population is getting younger.

On that same note, I am certain that there are doctors out there who aren’t yet 18 years old (at least they don’t LOOK 18).

I wonder how many people within five miles of our home will go hungry this Thanksgiving. I wonder how many are hungry right now with nothing to eat.

What, in heaven’s name, do I have to complain about?

Who Knows?

It has ended up a good day. This morning, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be part of this day or not; however, it ended on a couple of positive notes.

First, as I was going to my office, a resident stopped me and we chatted for a minute or so. She has multiple issues, and may never leave the home. Nevertheless, she seems to always have a good word, something funny, or just a smile for those who pass by. She wished me a good weekend, and I did the same for her.

Second, the computer guru for the place (our son) got the printer that we had tried to put on the network up and running. Now, we’ve said that before only to have it not work the next day. But I have good vibes about this time and think we (he) got it going for good. That’s been something weighing on me even though I wasn’t the primary person responsible for getting it going.

Shortly, we will go to my brother’s place for soup and a good time. We always get together on Friday evenings, and this time they’ve invited us all to their place. I look forward to the time.

Although much in the day was negative, or was something that nagged to be done, fixed, or dealt with, those two positives seem to outweigh all of the other and made the day a good close to the work week. Maybe that will carry forward on to Monday as I go into yet another work week. Or maybe not. Who knows?

I think I know, or should know. After all, I am the one who has charge of my attitude as the next work week comes on.

The Small Things

I want you to know that I started a blog about the thunderstorm moving through, and the power went off. Not having a UPS, I lost a couple of paragraphs, which I will try to recapture here.

As I sit here this evening, I am witnessing what may be the last true thunderstorm of 2008. The thunder is heavy and frequent, lighting is dancing all over the sky, and the rain is coming down heavily. The radar shows a line of thunderstorms moving through the area, with rather heavy returns on the radar echo.

Most of today, it has rained. It started about 9:30 this morning, and has rained more or less gently all day. But tonight, it seems that Someone wanted to flex some muscles, so we now have thunder, lightning, heavy rain, and just a wisp of hail on the roof.

(What follows will be the post-outage part of the blog.)

We are still experiencing thunder almost continuously, although it’s farther away than it was a few minutes ago. Lightning is still all over the sky, and it’s still raining, albeit slower.

I stood outside for a few minutes just after the storm started. I wanted to experience possibly the last display of spring/summer weather this year. I don’t know why; it just seemed important to me.

I seem to relish these kinds of things in life more and more. Smiles on children, orb spiders spinning big webs in the fall, pleasant smells, sunsets (I don’t get up early enough for sunrises), our music worship on Sundays, good coffee, rain, time with loved ones, and a host of other things that are for many routine, small, and unnoticed are for me some of life’s best moments.

I hope you are enjoying the small things in life. What are some of the small things you enjoy? Do you seek them out? After all, those small things are really, I think, God’s way of saying that He loves you and wants you to enjoy all that life has to offer. And we are blessed that it offers us so much; we are blind, ignorant, and idiotic in that we enjoy it so little.

Coming Together

“I can’t believe you’re here!” So was the exclamation when we moved to the Wichita area a few years ago, spoken by my sister, who has lived in this area for many of her years. It was, I think, an exclamation of happiness that three of the six of us siblings were now within a few miles of each other.

Still within a few miles of each other, we welcomed yet another family member to this area yesterday. And in some ways, I can’t believe he’s here. Yesterday, our younger son and his family (and our grandbabies) put their worldly possessions on a truck, and with the help of some family members, me included, drove it all to Wichita and unloaded it at a house that will shortly become a home.

Our family is close by any standard, and we enjoy the company of one-another. We have made a conscious effort, over the years, to get along, forgive, laugh, enjoy, cry, and revel in each others’ company. It started before our parents died, and the commitment only grew following their passing. No one in our family is a black sheep regardless of what they might have done in the past or are doing now, and no one in our family is an island, being alone. Even if someone would prefer to be that way, it would be very difficult to maintain that for any length of time because the love, I think, would be overpowering.

We are indeed getting older. We are not the young, vibrant, and energetic people we once were. Our reunions aren’t so much about going out and doing anymore as they are sitting, reminiscing, and catching and keeping up. We enjoy morning coffee much more than we used to, and think the grandkids have more energy than we ever had.

As we ate pizza just before we left town yesterday with our son and all of his stuff, a flood of memories came through my mind…so many memories that I couldn’t process them all. We’ve moved…a lot. And we’ve helped others move…a lot.

We have histories in several of the communities that we’ve moved to or from or helped someone move to or from. In our son’s case, my history with Emporia, Kansas where they lived began in the late 1950’s when my oldest brother moved there to go to school. It continued when next brother went there as well and continued when my niece on my wife’s side of the family moved to the area. Then our oldest went to school there, and our younger son moved there with his family shortly after that. You get the idea.

And it’s tough sometimes to let some of that go and live in the present. But do that we must, savoring the past and learning from it, growing all the time as we meld past experiences with present situations to create future decisions. It all comes together, and it all fits, somehow. The trick is to accept that at face value and just continue on life’s adventure as God continues to unfold to each of us our own personal and unique present tense.

A New Addition

Friday evening we had our family over for pizza. When sis arrived, I was out on the drive looking at a stray dog that had wandered into our neighborhood. One of my neighbors had earlier told me that the dog had been here for several hours and possibly a day or so, so his daughter put out some water for it. He said they called animal control to come and get it.
When I told my sister what I was looking at, she immediately saw the dog and tried to befriend it (I knew she would do that). One thing led to another and before I knew it, the dog was in our back yard and she had gone to the store for some food.
Coming back, she fed her and said she would be back today to take her to the humane society. When she came back today, that had changed to taking the dog to the vet to be checked out. It was obvious that the dog had been either homeless for some time or had been abused. But she was friendly and seemed to be behaved.
Saturday, the vet said that she was in basically good shape, didn't have heartworms, and had a bacterial infection on her skin that made her hair shed. She has several cracked or broken teeth, and is not neutered.
As of now, the dog (Lydia is her name, since she was found on Lydia street) is at my sister's house and is being medicated for the infection and treated to a bath (that should be interesting). Sister's hubby isn't too thrilled about this whole affair, but she thinks he will come around.
I know that sometimes it isn't worth it to save an animal like this. The cost is just prohibitive. However, it doesn't take that much to take it to the vet and have it examined...then make the determination as to what to do. I also know that it isn't possible for one person to take in every stray that comes along and do what Sis did.
But isn't it good to know that there are still people in the world who have compassion for those (animal or human) who are in need. There's an attitude there that manifests in deeds such as this...an attitude that is more and more being shoved to the background as greed and selfishness come front and center. Christians are called to be salt, light, and leaven. I don't have time to go into the theological explanations of that statement, but will only say that it is more critical than ever in this day and time that we truly become what we are asked to be.

Make a Difference

This afternoon was just drop dead gorgeous. The temperature was just right, the wind was a breeze, and the sky was clear blue as far as I could see. Fall is here, and the trees are shedding leaves that are brightly colored and hued. Native grasses are subtly beautifying the landscape with their seed heads and multi-colored stems. What could be better?

Well, a lot of things could be better, in my estimation. We could have a better election campaign season with ads that are not misleading or outright wrong. We could have a favorable international balance of trade. We could have elected officials that truly take our interests to heart instead of the interest of how to maintain their positions. Individuals could take others’ best interests to heart as well in the form of respect, dignity, deference, and humility.

I could go on and on about what is wrong with the world today. However, I must stop and ask myself, “What am I doing about it?” Yes, me. What am I doing about the elected officials, or treating people with respect, or the balance of trade? What am I doing about the issues that affect me and about which I complain? What can I do? How can I do anything about some of these? I feel so helpless and powerless.

I’m not going to give you any answer to the question of “What can I do?” Instead, I’m going to leave it to you to seriously ponder that question in response to the things you complain about, and find something that you can do to help alleviate that issue. It doesn’t matter to me if the issue is homelessness, the deterioration of morality, abortion, corruption, violence, or something else.

You can do something. You are not powerless. We hear and read regular accounts of people who have and are making a difference. Ordinary people in an ordinary position in life are making extraordinary differences in the world. If you still are clueless, Google “make a difference” and take a look at some of the URL’s that come up.

It’s easy to complain. It’s a lot tougher to find an answer and a response that is appropriate. But that’s your task right now. And if you’d like to tell me just one thing that you complain about and what you’ve decided to do about it, email me or comment on this blog. If not, that’s OK; just don’t complain to me about whatever it is that gripes at you.