Some Politics

For the Republican debate this evening, Bloomberg News ran a blog showing some of the claims made by the candidates, along with a “reality check” of the background and the facts of the matter (at least as Bloomberg sees them…I make no representation that these are “really” the facts, but it’s interesting to get another opinion.) By the way, if I find something similar for Democrats, I will do the same. I have reprinted that blog below:

The Claim: Mitt Romney said that the federal government, using its “friends” on the National Labor Relations Board, is telling Boeing Co. “you cannot build a factory in a non-union state.”
The Background: The NLRB’s acting general counsel sued Boeing in April over its decision to locate a 4,000-job factory in South Carolina, saying the move was intended to punish union activity at its base in Washington.
The Facts: The NLRB didn’t say Boeing had to close the South Carolina plant. It called for increasing production at the plane maker’s commercial hub in Washington state to an equivalent level as planned for South Carolina.

The Claim: Mitt Romney said that President Barack Obama's health-care law raised spending by $1 trillion.
The Background: The 2010 health-care law that Obama signed included a mix of pending increases and cuts.
The Facts: The law increases spending by $788 billion over 10 years, while cutting spending by $931 billion over the same time for a net deficit reduction of $143 billion, the Congressional Budget Office estimated in March 2010.

The Claim: Representative Michele Bachmann said that she was a "lone voice" in Washington urging Congress not to raise the federal debt ceiling this summer. Bachmann said she opposed giving "Barack Obama another $2.4 trillion blank check to spend."
The Background: Following a contentious and partisan debate, Congress voted to raise the federal limit on government borrowing this summer by as much as $2.4 trillion, in exchange for an agreement to find at least that much in budget savings over the next decade. Bachmann and many other Republican lawmakers opposed the agreement, saying government needed to curtail spending in order to stop borrowing.
The Facts: The debt ceiling, which stood at $14.3 trillion before being raised this summer, covered obligations and spending Congress had already authorized. If Congress hadn't raised the limit by early August, the government wouldn't have been able to meet up to 40 percent of its obligations. President Obama would have been forced to decide whom to pay -- choosing among Social Security recipients, veterans, investors in U.S. government debt and others. Although the debate has often been testy, Congress had always raised the debt ceiling.

The Claim: Herman Cain said Bloomberg News' analysis of his 9-9-9 plan is incorrect. "The reason it's incorrect is because they start with assumptions we don't make," he said.
The Background: Cain's proposal would eliminate the current U.S. Tax code and tax sales transactions and gross income for individuals and businesses at 9 percent while eliminating levies on capital gains. It also ends the payroll tax that funds Social Security and corporations wouldn't pay a tax on dividends.
The Facts: Cain said his campaign has received an independent revenue analysis of his plan, though that analysis hasn't been publicly released. He also hasn't detailed the specific assumptions his campaign is using. Working with the only data publicly available, Bloomberg News calculated that the 9-9-9 plan would have generated about $2 trillion if it were in place in 2010, compared with the $2.2 trillion the government collected that year. Cain's plan would generate $922.1 billion from the sales tax, $912 billion from the individual income tax and $127.7 billion from the tax on corporations. Cain said that his plan would win passage in Congress. Congress has been reluctant to eliminate some of the most popular tax benefits currently in the code, such as the mortgage interest deduction, which survived the 1986 tax code overhaul.

The Claim: Michele Bachmann said Obama's health-care law will be run by a board of 15 political appointees who will "make all the major health-care decisions for over 300 million Americans."
The Background: Bachmann was referring to the ``independent payment advisory board," a panel of 15 health-care authorities established by the 2010 health-care law to help curb Medicare spending. Beginning in 2015 the panel will begin proposing cuts to Medicare if yearly spending exceeds targets set by the law. Congress could overrule the panel only with a supermajority in the Senate or if it comes up with an alternate plan that saves an equivalent amount.
The Facts: The board only has authority over Medicare, in which about 48 million elderly and disabled Americans are now enrolled, not the 300 million Bachmann mentioned. The law doesn't grant the panel power to make health-care decisions and prohibits the group from cutting benefits, changing eligibility rules or increasing beneficiaries' premiums or cost-sharing. Instead, the board's main tool for cutting spending will be reducing payments to providers. Link to the law: http://docs.house.gov/energycommerce/ppacacon.pdf

The Claim: Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, said the economic meltdown "can be traced back" to federal government housing policies like the Community Reinvestment Act and the implicit backing of mortgage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. She also said that the Dodd-Frank Act ``institutionalized all of these problems that were put into effect by the federal government.''
The Background: In 2008 the U.S. financial system was on the brink of failure in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis. A $700 billion bank bailout was required and lawmakers, economists, academics and federal regulators spent much of the next three years attempting to identify the causes of the crisis, which accelerated in 2007 and reached its height with the September 2008 failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
The Facts: While Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were seized in 2008 by the federal government, played a large role in the mortgage crisis due to the volume of loans they purchased that went sour, nine of the 10 commissioners on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission agreed that the two mortgage firms were not the cause of the crisis. The majority FCIC report, signed by six Democratic appointees, blamed banks and federal regulators for the crisis. A dissent by three Republican members blamed the crisis on 10 factors, with the inflation of the credit bubble by the Federal Reserve serving as the leading catalyst. Fannie and Freddie were not a primary cause, the three Republicans said.
Research published by the Federal Reserve Banks of San Francisco and Richmond concluded that the Community Reinvestment Act, a 1977 law aimed at increasing mortgage loans to lower-income Americans, had little to do with fueling the subprime mortgage crisis.
The Dodd-Frank Act, enacted by President Barack Obama in 2010, did nothing to institutionalize a government guarantee in the mortgage market. The law largely ignored the mortgage giants.

The Claim: Republican candidate Herman Cain pledged to present a balanced budget a year after taking office. He said the only way to bring down the national debt is ``the first year that I'm president and I oversee a fiscal-year budget, make sure that revenues equals spending. If we stop adding to the national debt, we can bring it down.''
The Background: Cain, the former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza with no experience in elective office, is seeking to demonstrate a command on the economy and fiscal issues to compete with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
The Facts: A proposal by the heads of President Barack Obama’s debt commission to cut the budget by $4 trillion wouldn’t wipe out the deficit for more than 25 years. According to a research group, the Bipartisan Policy Center, there will be an $830 billion deficit in fiscal year 2013 assuming current policy such as the extension of tax rates. To balance the budget in fiscal year 2013 through spending cuts alone, it would require a reduction equal to 25 percent of all spending, the policy center said, citing Congressional Budget Office projections. That would be more cuts than it would take to eliminate one year's spending on Medicare and Medicaid.

The Claim: Michele Bachmann said that ``nine years from now the Medicare hospital Part B trust fund is going to be dead flat broke."
The Background: Medicare Part A pays for inpatient hospital services. Medicare Part B pays for outpatient services such as doctor visits.
The Facts: The hospital trust fund is Part A, not Part B. Part A is estimated to be exhausted in 2024, not in nine years, according to the Medicare trustees' annual report released this year. Under one set of estimates by the trustees, the Part A trust fund's expenditures begin to exceed income in nine years, but will not be ``broke.'' In the report, the trustees said the Part B trust fund is ``adequately financed over the next 10 years and beyond.''

The Claim: Texas Governor Rick Perry said he will offer a plan “for getting America independent on the domestic energy side.”
The Background: Presidents since Richard Nixon in 1973 have set a goal of U.S. energy independence. Oil imports have risen since then and accounted for 49 percent of U.S. consumption last year.
The Facts: The U.S. had proven reserves of 19.12 billion barrels of oil, compared with 1.33 trillion barrels in global reserves as of 2008, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The agency forecast in April that the U.S. will rely on imported fuels for 42 percent of consumption in 2035.

The Claim: Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has ``in secret spent hundreds of billions of dollars'' on bailouts of financial institutions and that nobody in the news media has demanded transparency from the central bank.
The Background: The Fed stretched its emergency powers during the financial panic of 2008 to rescue Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc. It also created unprecedented lending tools to provide funds to banks, mutual funds and large corporations.
The Facts: The Fed made loans to financial institutions -- it didn't spend any money, and has said it has incurred no losses. While the central bank kept much of the information on the identity of borrowers confidential at the time, the Dodd-Frank Act and lawsuits by Bloomberg News and Fox News resulted in disclosure of the recipients in late 2010 and early 2011. The Fed has separately spent $2.3 trillion purchasing housing and government debt as part of monetary policy.

I don't know about you, but I have seen these codes, called QR codes, in many places. They are, as one descriptor says, two dimensional analog equivalents to bar codes. I don't have a phone (or anything else) that can scan or utilize these codes...yet.
As an older person, I'm always a little skeptical of things like this, fearing that somehow I'll be carried somewhere I don't want to go or that someone will find out something about me that I don't want them to know. Yes, I know they are, for the most part, innocuous. But one never knows, and maturity also carries with it a sort of built-in skepticism meter that tends to go off when things like this present.
I wasn't aware until not long ago that there are free URL's where one can make his own QR code. That's what I did here...it's my own.
I don't know if you'll want to scan it to see what it is or not. I won't tell you, though, just in case.

The Test of Time

James Dobson, in an old video called “A Father Looks Back”, tells of one time when he was playing Monopoly with his family. As the game progressed, he became more and more wealthy and successful in the pursuit of the game. He talks of having hundred-dollar bills tucked away here and there…of his opponents landing on his properties with hotels and houses on them, and generally being quite the bragging winner.
Then the game was over. He had won handily, and by this time the rest of his family wasn’t too interested in helping him put the game away, so he began to do it himself. As he began to dismantle the game and put the pieces back into the box, he was struck by the similarity to real life.
We work hard. We accumulate much. We win at the game of life in terms of what most people would call win. Then one day it’s over. We die. And it all has to go back into the box. We take nothing with us. We use none of our accumulation of things to pay our way anywhere. Our money, houses, automobiles, jewelry, and all the rest are useless to us. Someone packs it up and puts it all back into the box.
Dr. Dobson ends this segment of the video with these words, “The conclusion that I’ve drawn that outranks all others is, ‘Nothing in life matters except love for God and His Son Jesus Christ, and love for mankind, beginning with my own family.’”
I don’t know about you, but in my view, the lesson here is crucial and the message here is timeless. And it applies not only to fathers, but to all who live in this creation. Yes, it is important for us to care for ourselves and our families as God blesses us. Yes, it is important to be good stewards of what God gives us. And yes, it is important to work and be productive.
But when all is said and done; when I enter into eternity on the other side of death, what will matter is not whether I have accumulated a certain amount of material possessions or whether I have a great retirement plan. What will matter is my relationship with the One who made me and has my eternal destiny in His hands. “Well done, good and faithful servant,” is the one thing I want to hear. Nothing else really matters and nothing else can stand the test of time or of eternity.

Are We Listening?

The monarch butterfly migration has been in full swing for a few weeks now. It will continue on until about the end of October, or the first freeze, whichever comes first. I was interested in the migration cycle of the butterfly as I knew that most butterflies only live a few weeks at the most in the adult stage. What I found was incredible.
Monarchs winter in either central Mexico or, for those west of the Rockies, in southern California. Those butterflies start northward in the spring, and while on the way lay eggs and die. The eggs hatch and form butterflies in three stages (caterpillar, pupae, and adult) in about a month. Those butterflies continue on their northward migration.
Those adults live just a few weeks (six to eight), mate, lay eggs, and die. That cycle repeats itself at least three times during the summer months. The fourth generation of monarchs is somewhat different from the other three in that the adults of that generation have the ability to live as adults for six to seven months.
They do that because they are the ones that begin the migration south, winter over, and start back north. They lay eggs and die sometime after they start back northward and the generations and the cycle continues.
It is not known how the butterflies that are born in the north know where to migrate to, when to leave, or how the fourth generation knows it is different than the others and will live for several months rather than just a few weeks. It is known that the butterflies can possibly utilize the earth’s magnetic field, although they cannot tell the north magnetic pole from the south. It is also thought that they can utilize ultraviolet light in some way.
I don’t know about you, but this is another one of those “gee whiz” scientific truths that just boggle the mind. Oh, we mostly just shrug off these things, but I think they are in our universe for a reason. You may disagree with me, but it seems that Someone is trying to tell us mortal humans something. I wonder if we are listening?

Down By the Riverside

I had to take a book and some papers in to our church office today. In case you don’t know, our church abuts the Arkansas River in downtown Wichita. They have put walking paths, etc. along the river behind our building and it’s a rather nice place.
After I finished my business, I went back to the river and sat on a rock and just enjoyed the cool breeze. It was a little after the noon hour and there were several folks using the facilities at the river.
There were all kinds of folks there. Some were walking solo. Others were in groups of two or three. Some jogged. One or two were pushing baby carriages as they walked or jogged. One stopped across the river and rested for a short time. Some acknowledged me as they went by with a smile or a turn of the head. Others pretended I didn’t exist.
One old man shuffled very slowly up the walk. He was carrying a bucket in one hand and dragging something on the sidewalk with the other. I thought at first he might be homeless, as we have some of those in that area of town. As he went past, however, I noticed that the bucket had fishing stuff in it and he was dragging a couple of fish behind him. They were 15 or more inches in length, and appeared to be some kind of carp, although they didn’t look quite like the carp I’m familiar with. They weren’t catfish; they were scaly.
I sort of wondered where he was shuffling off to. I watched. In what seemed like an eternity, he got to the end of the walk and went to an old car that was parked in the back corner of our church lot. He put his stuff in the car, but stuck around doing not much of anything.
I enjoyed the time outside. I enjoyed as much (or more) being able to watch people as they exercised on their lunch hour, walked from this place to that, or dragged fish to their car. It didn’t really bother me that some didn’t acknowledge me. That happens in a larger urban area.
As it cools more on into the fall, the number of walkers/joggers will diminish, but not completely go away. The river is used a lot, it seems, and I’m glad I have a place I can easily access it.

Do Something

I got tired of not feeling like my voice was being heard when I contacted my congressional representatives (Senators Roberts and Moran, and Rep. Pompeo) with some comment on an issue. I wondered what I could possibly do to at least feel like someone was listening. It seemed that when I sent an email I would get a letter or email back that was canned and not really on topic.
I looked up the local offices of each of the representatives, (they all have offices in Wichita) and decided to make a personal visit to each of them. I had called an office once in a while in the past and knew that there were people there whose job it was to visit with constituents and answer questions and pass along concerns.
My first stop was Senator Roberts’ office downtown. I told the woman at the first desk that I had a question or two and would like to visit with someone. She was that someone. I found her to be engaging, knowledgeable, and interested in what I had to say. She said that they talk with the Washington office a couple times a week and she would summarize our conversation and send it on.
Next, I found Senator Moran’s office on the far east side. It wasn’t nearly as easy to find, and when I asked the young man if I could visit, he was somewhat tentative as if he thought I would yell at him (can’t understand why he would have thought that). We too had an engaging and beneficial conversation regarding the issues I brought up and digressed more than once to other issues.
Today I went to Rep. Pompeo’s office. The young man there was not nearly as knowledgeable regarding the opinions and positions of his employer, but readily visited and hopefully took some notes. He said he appreciated my stopping in and would pass along my comments.
I asked the same questions of all representatives. Responses varied, but I came away from each encounter with the belief (albeit perhaps false belief) that I had at least been heard and that I engaged with someone who had the ear of the representative.
It took some time and energy for me to find the offices, and a little nerve to walk in and ask for an immediate audience. I was well-received, however, and was able to immediately visit with someone. I think it pays to have some factual information (info from Fox News doesn’t count, folks) in mind and a pleasant attitude. It also helps to be able to converse with someone you don’t know well, and listen engagingly to responses. Those I visited with were refreshingly candid and did not often spout the party line or the same tired catch phrases one hears on news sound bites.
I know some are not close to a congressman’s office. I know it would be quite a trip to go to the nearest one. But some day when you are close, stop in and pleasantly engage the person there. You might come away surprised and a little better informed, besides feeling like someone really does listen.

My Heroes

Major Heather Penney. Colonel Marc Sasseville. Do you know either of these people? You should if you don’t. These were the two fighter pilots who took off from Andrews Air Force Base on September 11, 2001 to find and if necessary take down what later would be known as Flight 93, the other airliner that was still in the air and heading for Washington D.C. that day.
The only thing is, they took off in jets that were unarmed. They didn’t have time to arm them, and didn’t have any that were already armed at the time. So the two pilots made the decision that one would ram the cockpit and the other would ram the tail section in order to assure the flight did not complete its mission.
Major Penney stated that she would essentially be a Kamikaze pilot in order to complete her mission. The interviewer pressed her and asked her specifically if she was prepared to sacrifice her life in order to take down the plane. She looked at him and only said, “Of course.” Nothing else.
She’s not the only hero of that day, or of other days for that matter. The world is filled with heroes that never make it to C Span, MSNBC, or the New York Times. She, however, epitomizes the concept of hero.
There are knuckleheads on the Internet that are downplaying or discounting her story. Let them. Feel sorry for them. They need to get a life and get a grasp on reality. People really do things that are sacrificial and beneficial to society. People really consider others more important than themselves. People really know what it means to be a human being.
Ms. Penney said her daughters do not yet know her story. They are relatively young, and I understand why they don’t fully know yet. But one day, they should know. They should hear of their mother’s sacrifices, her willingness to go all the way, to assure the safety of hundreds of people at the risk of her own life. They need to know what their mother is made of and that they too have within them what it takes to follow in her footsteps.
This is for all of the Heather Penneys and Mark Sassevilles. Thank you so much. You are my heroes.

(By the way, if you want to see the entire interview, go to C Span's website and download it.)

The Adventure Continues...(It Never Ends)

Sometimes I wonder why I say “yes”. Let me explain. A few weeks ago, one of the church staff asked if I would be interested in starting a new life group for our church. Now, for those who don’t know, a life group is a small group. Our church has a small group ministry where groups of folks get together regularly, usually Sunday evenings. The agenda can be Bible study, a service project, food and fun, or whatever the group would decide to do. The group usually consists of eight to fifteen people.
Of course, I said yes. I’ve been part of a small group for several years, and we enjoy the time we spend with our groups. This group, however, will be a little different in that it will consist primarily of families with teens. The object will be to involve all members of the family in group activities and study. That is going to be the hard part, I think. And it’s just a little bit scary.
We’ve raised our family. Our boys haven’t been teens for over a decade. Things change. I’m not real certain just what this is going to look like or what we will be doing. We will have to have a lot of help from the rest of the members of the group, and I hope and trust that will come about.
On the one hand, I am somewhat nervous about this; on the other, it is an opportunity to be involved in an aspect of life I am no longer used to, and a chance to stretch a lot of things that have not seen much exercise lately. Being in a rut is comfortable, but tends to lead to isolation, stagnation, and inner rot, in my view. I’m not ready to rot (not just yet), and am looking forward to the possibility of this relationship with the small group to keep me energized and active.
Our first meeting will be this coming Sunday. We’ll have burgers and fixins. I plan to visit with the group to see what they might like for us to look like as we forge ahead with this. Hopefully we all will be able to put something together that glorifies our God and at the same time edify and encourage us.
The Adventure Continues!

No Complaints

It has been a tough summer. For some, that could mean they were unemployed, lost jobs, or are under-employed. For others, that could mean they lost a friend or loved one. Still others may relate to loss of health, wealth, or some other asset. While I readily agree that these are all relevant to the statement, my intent is to talk about the weather.
Yes, the weather. Many places set records this year for the highest temperatures, the most temperatures above a certain level, the highest average temperature, or some other heat-related record. Air conditioners ran at peak capacities, electric utilities were strained, budgets were strained, and everything seems to be exhausted from battling the heat of the summer.
Trees don’t look good. Grass is dry. Animals are stressed. It seems that the whole creation outside has aged several years in just a few months. Many areas are short of rainfall. What rain that fell was quickly evaporated or absorbed by the thirsty environment.
Humans too had to fight. Yes, many of us have air conditioning nowadays. Many of us spend thirty seconds in the Dillons parking lot walking from our air conditioned auto to the air conditioned store and complain about the heat. I know many of us have it a lot nicer and better than even a generation or two ago. Yet not all people had the advantage of air conditioning. Not all were able to hibernate in cool lower levels of nice homes while the heat raged outside. Not all could avoid excessive sweating and the general wearing-down of the elements. Some had to work outside in the daytime. Others lived outside all hours of the day and night. And some, although they had a home, did not have air conditioning. It happens…regularly.
Today was beautiful. The front came through during the evening past. Today was dry, not a cloud in the sky, and cool. Refreshingly cool. I wasn’t even certain that these kinds of days existed anymore. And it looks as if it will last awhile.
“Thank you, God,” seems to be so little and so trite. Yet that’s all I can think of to express my gratitude that perhaps the 100 degree days are over for this year. Yes, it will get warm again before it gets colder. No, the weather won’t be ideal very often the rest of the year. Yes, I’ll complain again. But today, there are no complaints. Only gratitude.

Sick Again

I was reading the Monday edition of the Wichita Eagle today and noticed an article regarding FEMA diverting funds originally set aside for the Joplin tornado over to the East Coast hurricane relief. As I read through the article, it was apparent that FEMA funds for disasters were beginning to run low.
This past Saturday, according to the article, House Appropriations Committee Chair Harold Rogers of Kentucky said this of the Obama administration: He said that the Administration “has let the fund reach critically low levels, putting continued recovery at risk, without a plan for the future or a clear method for dealing with new disasters.” Mr. Rogers is, it seems, lambasting the Executive for not having more funds in the FEMA account.
OK. Let’s have a Civics lesson here. Last time I knew anything, it was the Congress that authorizes expenditures, appropriates money, and lays and collects taxes in order to fund those appropriations. The Executive branch, to my knowledge, although it may request funding, does not have the authority to provide that funding. The job of the Executive is (in a perfect world) to see that the laws of the United States are “faithfully executed”. The Executive doesn’t make laws; it enforces them.
“Well,” you might say. “If the Congress doesn’t know that the Executive needs more money, how can it appropriate more?” Good question. Except the article goes on with these words: “In anticipation of a shortfall, FEMA began providing congressional appropriators with weekly updates on funding levels in May; daily updates began this month.”
So, if the article is to be believed, Mr. Rogers has known since May on a weekly, and now daily basis, that FEMA funding is running low; yet he blames the Administration for allowing the account to go under the recommended amount (one billion dollars). Business as usual.
This is what I talk about when I say I am sick to death of the politics going on right now. I don’t care if Mr. Rogers is a Republican or Democrat; nor do I care if the Administration is Democrat or Republican. This kind of talk serves no useful purpose. It only inflames. It is counter-productive. It does not provide more funding for disasters. It only tells part of the truth. It is deceptive.
The more truthful comment from Mr. Rogers would have been something like this: “Although the Administration has provided weekly, and now daily updates on the status of FEMA disaster funding, Congress has not yet acted to fill that gap. I call on the Congress to shorten their month-long congressional vacation, and provide funding for the natural disasters that have plagued our nation this year, and do so as quickly as possible.”
No wonder the congressional approval rating is sitting at 13%.

The War of all Wars

I was talking with Scott, our minister to adults at our church recently. Our conversation got off-track, and we started conversing about the unseen world that is described in places in the Bible. A little background is in order here.
Paul and Peter both talk about God delivering his people out of darkness and from the power of evil (I Peter 2:9 and Acts 26:18). This occurs when we become Christians, followers of Christ by the power and grace of God.
Paul in Ephesians chapter 6 talks of putting on the armor of God so that we may stand against the principalities and powers (world forces) of darkness (Ephesians 6:11-12). Other places in the Bible also allude to or talk about this unseen spiritual world in which there is great struggle between good and evil. It is this unseen world of the principalities and forces of darkness and the struggles that go on there that we were discussing.
It is interesting to note that R. C. H. Lenski in his commentary on Ephesians 6 says this about this struggle: “The darkness is not merely the absence of light; it is the absolute antagonism to light and thus denotes the fearful power that is hostile to god who is ‘the light’ and whose are the ‘children of light’ (Ephesians 5:8). From ‘this darkness’ and the dominion of these ‘world tyrants’ Christ has delivered us; hence their war is waged in order again to subjugate us under their tyranny.”
Scott and I were talking specifically about a passage in Daniel 10 where Daniel had received a vision, but didn’t understand it. He prayed, asking God for understanding (10:12). The entity that came to Daniel (evidently an angel of God) told Daniel that from the first day, he had been sent by God to Daniel, but had been delayed 21 days in coming because “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” was withstanding him. Although we don’t know exactly what was going on here, most scholars agree that what was being described by the angel of God here was a conflict in the unseen spiritual realm that prevented him from completing his mission as sent by God until Michael, another angel of God, came to his aid.
Just think of that for a minute. If the scholars are correct, here is an angel of God, given a mission by God Himself, yet was unable to fulfill it until given help by another angel of God. Can you imagine what kind of conflict that must have been to have prevented this angel from completing his mission for three weeks until someone came to help?
Scott and I also talked of Paul saying in the first Thessalonian letter (2:18) that he wanted to come to see the Thessalonians, but “Satan thwarted us.” What that consisted of we don’t know with certainty. But we do know that Paul wouldn’t have written this had it not been true…evidently, Satan somehow kept Paul from going back to these people. You may be able to think of other places in the Bible where the “principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness,” and so on, are mentioned.
I don’t know what you think, but there is enough in scripture, including the armor of God passage in Ephesians 6, that tell me that there is one hellish war going on in a realm we only glimpse faintly through the words of the inspired writers. I have to wonder if one reason we see things happen in our reality that seem to defy logic or explanation (mass killings, abuse, torture, etc) is that these are times when that war breaks through the barrier, so to speak, between the spiritual and the material worlds, and we see the results.
I don’t have the answers, and working with topics like this brings more questions than I originally had before I started. Yet, it is worth a look from time to time; if for no other reason than to understand that we don’t understand...we don’t know. We do know, however, that God loves us passionately, intensely, and forever. Ours is to return that love as best we can and know how, and to work just as passionately and intensely to bring God’s kingdom to every place we go and to every person we meet. For when we do that, we help in the great battle going on in the unseen realms…the war of all wars.

Time for a Brain Change

I am posting this because of a comment made by my sister on FB regarding her brain being full and it's only Tuesday. Several years ago, I wrote a column for the Hays Daily News when we lived out that way. What is below is one of those columns. It uses an email my sister mailed to some of us regarding a "brain change." Read and enjoy.

We are turning into a nation of old people. Life expectancy is as high as it's ever been (except in the Garden of Eden), people are healthier, and life is generally good, or at least tolerable for most of us who are over 50. The one thing that there seems to still be a problem with is the capacity of the human brain to keep up, at times, with life and the culture around us older folks. So we tend to make our own lives and culture in which there is a palpable deliberation in our lives. We take more time to go to the store, go to the bathroom, go to the church…just about everything we do takes awhile. And while the youngsters around us become frustrated at our deliberate pace, we tend to dig in our heels even more.
We can transplant hearts, livers, teeth, lungs, and who knows what else. We can fix our eyes, ears, and other assorted parts of our bodies with assorted parts gleaned from laboratories, pigs, and organ donors. One area, however, has remained rather off-limits. We still have no clue how to transplant a brain or get new memory.
I have two sisters. One lives in Michigan and the other lives in the other end of Kansas. (I also have three brothers, but that is beside the point for this column.) We all communicate rather frequently by means of email and an internet messenger service.
Not long ago, my sister in Michigan discovered that her computer needed more memory in order to operate a genealogy program she wanted to use. Her old PC, which runs Windows95, needed an update in the RAM memory area. Yes, I know. They don't support the 95 version any more and she needs a new computer. They are raising small children and just can't quite afford that right now, so she opted for the memory upgrade.
She removed her one memory stick, took it to the Office Max place nearby, and asked for more memory similar to what she brought in. After some conversation with the nice computer teenager at the store, in which there was evidently mention made of "old" and "outdated", the nice computer teenager found a memory stick that would work in her machine. She took it home, installed it without incident, and now has an old PC running on a WIN95 platform that does everything she wishes to do. The stick cost her $10.
She wrote to my sister in Kansas by email, explaining the process of opening up the PC and removing and installing the stick, a first for her. My sister in Kansas, bless her soul, is always quick of wit and penned the following response to Sister Linda in Michigan. And since there's no way on God's green earth I can improve on what she wrote, I'll sign off and let you read it for yourself without further comment from me.

And Linda, heavens. Installing memory! Wish we humans could do that…can you imagine taking your spouse in to the "Human Max" store:
"Can I help you?"
"Yes, I need some new memory here for this brain." (Opens skull, removes corroded memory stick.)
"Hmmm. That's an old one there! They don't even make those anymore! Frank! Come and look at this!"
"Wow, Mr. Bass, you've got a real antique there!"
"Well, she quit working a week ago, just sputtered and konked out as she was trying to remember the recipe for biscuits and gravy. What can you fix me up with? I'm starving!"
(Checking parts list...) "Looks like we can fix you up with a Super Duper Memory Capacity Chip-it'll run you about $300.00. You want us to install it?"
"Yeah, and can you also install the backup files? I need her to remember that I got her flowers for our anniversary 53 years ago."
"No problem. Can you leave her with us for a couple of hours?"
"Yeah, but I'm getting an entire brain replacement myself in a couple of weeks. Call me if I don't show up to get her in a few days!"

A Little Catching Up

I haven’t written in awhile. My, has it been since 5 August? Sometimes feelings get in the way of the catharsis of doing something one enjoys. And that seems to be what’s happened here. Although I can’t explain it, and am not sure I want to try, it seems that I just haven’t been worth much lately. However, it’s time to get out of that mode and into a mode that is more attuned to life and living than being and existing.
One thing that has helped that considerably was being at the last performance of our church’s black light puppet troupe last night. For some reason, and somehow, I knew that there was no better place for me to be and nothing better for me to experience than what was going on there at that time. Although I have some difficulty with some of the music and lyrics (understanding them…didn’t they say the same thing about us back in the 1960’s?), the energy was palpable, the crowd was delighted (and delightful), and the environment was electric.
The new troupe needs to get organized and have a show ready for Oklahoma by October 2. That’s only about 6 weeks, and will involve some intensive planning and practice. And with the flooding in our church basement ruining some of the puppet props, there is an urgency that wasn’t there before to make sure everything is ready to go.
Everyone involved has a lot of other things to do besides puppet shows. The kids are starting school; parents are working and maintaining a family; staff has other duties including a new Sunday School year, and everyone seems to be going 3 miles a minute. Somehow, though, in all of this, I suspect that the new show will be a hit and folks will come through in spades.
I am excited about the new church year (although our fiscal year starts February 1, I think of our church year starting when school starts), and am looking forward to watching and participating in God’s working in the lives of His people. The Kingdom of God is, I believe, wherever God is, and He is alive and well in His Kingdom in Wichita, Kansas.
So, come with me this next year. I can’t promise I’ll write twice a week, or that I’ll tell you all that is happening. But this promises to be the “day the Lord has made.” We will indeed “rejoice and be glad in it.”

An Adventure

OK, I need to tell. We went to a reunion in Kentucky this week. I didn’t want to say anything on line, and didn’t have the means to get on line at the resort. I think I’ll do a little mulling over some things I saw and experienced in this adventure.
First, it is also hot in places other than Kansas. Western Kentucky actually has Kansas beat in terms of the “feels like” temperatures because the humidity is even higher there than it has been here. Temps were 100 or better and the humidity made the feels like temps close to 120 degrees. Humidity stayed high overnight, too. Windows in the cabins fogged over due to the humidity and temperature differentials.
There were no mosquitoes, however. Oh, once in a while we’d get one buzzing around, but for the most part, damp as it was and close to a lake as we were, it was really pleasant outdoors, except for the heat. I’m not sure why the bugs weren’t there, but it was really kind of weird.
Parts of Kentucky (and Illinois and Missouri) are pretty, to be sure, but places where the forest is thick don’t lend themselves to beauty, in my view. After all, if you’ve seen one tree, you’ve seen ‘em all, so to speak. I longed for the plains of Kansas where I could see more than just a few feet away from the asphalt of the roadway.
I did wonder how the explorers and settlers blazed through the thickness, swampiness, and steaminess of the land. No wonder they used the rivers to a great extent. There’s no way a person could go more than a mile or so in a day in that forest. And there were swamps that were so large I wondered it they might actually be lakes of some kind.
I don’t like to run down a place of business, but when one finds a salamander in the room where we were staying, the place automatically obtains the designation of “rustic” in my view. Additionally, we had burned out light bulbs, a pull-out bed that was broken down (we also found a pair of handcuffs in that pull-out bed…hmmm), and carpet that could definitely use a steam-cleaning. It certainly wasn’t worth the price we paid.
High temperatures and high humidity make for an interesting reunion. We couldn’t do much outside because of the heat and humidity, and there wasn’t much of a place for thirty five people to gather in the cool. We had to visit and catch up with one-another as we could during the time we had.
They trim the grass very short there. Seems like it’s cut no more than an inch or so high. I also don’t know what kind of grass or grasses grow there. It was different, to say the least.
Our old car made it just fine. It has about 200K on it, and with the work we had done on it, we were hoping it would work well, and it did. We need to get several more months (or a year or two) out of it before we do anything rash. Cheap insurance, cheap taxes, and not that much in maintenance. I like it.
Traveling with a family that has three pre-school kids makes for more stops and longer stops. ‘Nuff said.

Wonderful World

My sixteen year old nephew has entered the wonderful world of politics. We've been sparring back and forth on Facebook. As his comments are on the web, he won't mind, I'm sure, my posting one of his postings here and my response to it. I think you'll find his thinking rather mature for a sixteen year old.

John, my nephew:

Garrett, I think government could get rid of the defecit pretty easily if it diverted unnecessary spending to paying off the defecit. However, I don't think Obama has any intention of doing that. He's added I don't know how many trillion to it and i think all he's gonna do is say "that's not my problem" and then pass on the defecit to the next guy, and whether or not anything gets done about it will depend on whether the next guy is a republican.

Jay, ultimately it is Obama spending the money, though, right? He's the one who makes the budget.

i apologize for the misinformation (i didn't know the dates cuz i was 13 back then and didn't give a hoot about politics), however i'm pretty sure republicans would not do anything so obviously harmful and unrealistic/idealistic as telling mortgage companies they can't deny anyone.

the way i see it, democrats don't want to cut anything, because they think spending is the purpose of government and that somehow, the economy will be fixed if government spends enough money. also, i think that democrats are more emotional and ideological than republicans. i think more often than not republicans have economical benefit in mind as reasons for there viewpoint, whereas democrats (my friends and family who are participating in this debate seem to be in the smarter portion of democrats when they want to be) try to reason with emotions or divert attention by saying "look at that heartless republican trying to kill grandma!" or whatever.

There is more than enough money to pay the pledged money without raising the debt ceiling if, for example, government cut spending on shrimp treadmills.

we agree on one thing, politics is a very complex game, and its easy to sit on the sideline and yell at the players.

Also, nobody has commented on the fact that there is no recovery like the liberal media is trying to tell everybody, so I'm assuming that you guys agree on that one, right?

My response:

Yes, John, Mr. Obama spends the money, but he does so because Congress passes a law that tells him that he must do it. They tell him sometimes in broad terms how to spend it, and sometimes very specifically. Sometimes the law says that (and this is only an example) the Department of Fish Security (hopefully there is no such thing ) is to spend two million dollars this year. Mr. Obama, or his subordinates, then decide how many employees this department will have, how much office space to rent, how many fish to secure, etc.
Other times the Congress writes into the law specific items, such as nine million dollars to build a new six lane bridge that is 1,200 feet long and 65 feet high over the Missouri River on Interstate 70 in Kansas City, or two million dollars to fund shrimp treadmills. Sometimes the law is permissive…you can spend up to this amount…sometimes it is specific…you have to spend this amount. But it’s the Congress that writes all of that and passes it. The President then either signs the laws or vetoes them.
The point is that ALL spending is authorized and funded in some way (taxes or raising the debt) by the Congress. Mr. Obama’s job is to “faithfully execute” the laws that are passed. He can suggest laws. He can suggest spending or cutting. He can submit a suggested budget to Congress. But he cannot unilaterally make those decisions without the Congress. And if he spends money the Congress has authorized, but now doesn’t like, they can always cut funding for that specific item or items. And they have done that from time to time.
Yes, there is more than enough money to pay the pledges. But the Congress has to pass a law that nullifies previous laws that have been passed to spend money. Mr. Obama cannot just unilaterally cut those things out; otherwise he would be violating the law.
You are correct in your assessment that Democrats are more “touchy-feely” and tend to want to “make investments” in this or that, which in plain English is “spend money.” You are correct also in your assessment that Republicans in general wish to hold the line on spending and taxes. There are all kinds of exceptions, however, and the lines that used to define Republicans and Democrats are becoming more blurred all the time. Both Democrats and Republicans are ideological; however Democrats are generally more willing to compromise, in my view, because of their more liberal leanings.
Yes, Republicans have economical benefit in mind; but their idea of that, in my view, is to allow the wealthy to keep more of their wealth in the prospect that they will spend it and so power our economy. Democrats also have economical benefit in mind, but they tend to want to tax the wealthy and redistribute those funds to the poorer and middle classes. Which is right? It all depends on which class you are in.
Although Mr. Obama seems to want to do so, neither party in the Congress seems to be interested in funding the IRS, CMS, and other agencies with enough money to catch those who cheat on taxes, submit fraudulent billing to Medicare, or otherwise scam the government. It has been said that for every dollar the IRS would spend on finding tax cheats, they could take in an additional ten dollars (source: The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030106451.html) Also, Wiki has an article titled “Medicare Fraud”. You might want to read it.
Liberal media, conservative media. Listen to them all, then make up your own mind. Thanks for your reasoned response, John. It is discussions like this that enable all of us to learn more. It’s videos like what were posted a day or two ago that only inflame and divide, in my mind. See you Sunday.

Stretch

I attended a funeral today. It was for one of the members of the church where I too am a member. It was actually a memorial service as the graveside was first and had already been completed. The folks who conducted the service did very well and I learned a lot about the deceased that I had not previously known. That’s not really unusual in a larger church. Many times we don’t know much about someone else in the church except for their name, and perhaps something of their family.
Funerals aren’t my favorite cup of tea (or is it coffee…). I normally don’t like to sit through them, and suspect that many people feel as I do. However, it is good to do from time to time, because funerals tend to make us think of our own mortality and the legacy we leave when we leave this life.
There are other things we don’t normally like to do that are actually good for us. One is to visit someone in a nursing or care facility. Another is to do something for someone who is “down and out” that involves direct contact of some kind. Still another would be to volunteer at some kind of service or charitable organization.
Now, I know that for some folks those things are not an issue. But for most of us, those kinds of things are things that we feel a little “uncomfortable” doing. And that’s really the good thing. It’s good for us to stretch our comfort zones and take on something that we are not used to doing.
So next time there is an opportunity to do something you don’t normally do or maybe don’t particularly like to do, remember that you can usually be of service to someone else in times like these, and stretch yourself a little. You’ll be glad you did.

An Answer?

Let’s see. Three people plunge to their deaths over a waterfall at Yosemite National Park. They went into the river above the falls to have, we think, their pictures taken. There are warning signs and barriers to warn people not to go into the river. However, when one person slipped on a rock in the river and began to be pulled away, another in the river tried to get him and a third then tried to rescue the second. All three perished. Their bodies have yet to be recovered because the river is flowing too swiftly for the safety of rescuers.
I have yet to develop the ability to fathom such a scenario as the above; yet it happened in just the last day or so. And it happens regularly, all too often. And people die. And people’s lives are changed forever.
It just saddens me to hear about such things. And yet I know that I’ve done boneheaded things in my life. I’ve just not been caught as these people were, and paid for my deeds with my life. I cannot cast stones at these folks because I’ve been there, done that.
What makes people like this? Why do we think we can get away with things like this? What are we thinking? Or are we thinking? Someone have an answer?

Economics 101

The specific information that follows is courtesy of the Wichita Eagle Sunday, July 17, 2011. The commentary is mine.

We Kansans as well as virtually everyone else on earth, think Kansas is an agricultural state, and so it is. However, there is a wide range of manufacturing that goes on here that is really unnoticed by most except those who work in those sectors.
The following is a sample of things manufactured in Kansas and the companies that have located here. I have omitted the obvious…aircraft plants and most agriculture.

Chance Manufacturing—world’s leading manufacturer of amusement rides.
Pioneer Balloon Co.—nation’s largest manufacturer of latex & foil balloons.
Celestaire—Leading exporter of sextants for air & sea navigation.
Russell Stover—Boxed chocolates and other products.
Miller’s Professional Color (film developing)—Largest professional lab in the U.S.
Siemens—Wind turbine nacelles.
Flint Hills Solutions—Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)
Tramco, Inc. —Conveyor systems
Aerosol Co. —Original packager of aerosol products. Now makes aerosol cans.
Dessin Foumir—Top manufacturer of furniture.
Brookover Feed Yards—Has fed more cattle than any other yard in U.S.
Cobalt Boats—Leading manufacturer of luxury power boats.
Grasshopper Co. —First viable zero-turn-radius mower.
Moon Marble Co. —Marbles of all sizes and kinds.
Sonoco—Recycled paper products.
Krause Corp. —Top manufacturer of tillage equipment.
Titan Trailer Mfg. —Distinctive trailers.
Stafford Co. Flour Mills—One of the last independent flour mills in the nation.
Hospira—Leading pharmaceutical manufacturer of pain management medicines.
Ferguson Production—Hummingbird feeders (made 10 million in 2010)
Bradbery Co. —Roll-forming and steel coil processing machines.
Tony’s Pizza—What else…pizza.
Philips Lighting—Light bulbs.
ElDorado National—Largest manufacturer of small to midsize transit busses.

This isn’t a full list, but demonstrates the diversity of our economy and the resourcefulness of our residents. I hope this has been as enlightening for you as it has for me.

A Great Adventure

We got back last evening from a quick trip to Colorado Springs to see our niece retire after a great career with the Air Force. Stationed at the Academy these last several years, the ceremony was an appropriate and dignified way to close out her career. I am grateful we were able to go. The weather was, of course, cooler and nicer there than here. It was enjoyable to be able to take in some cooler temperatures and drier air.
On the trip out and back, we noticed that several areas that normally are very dry this time of the year (Northwest Kansas, Eastern Colorado) have had at least some good moisture. The grass is still green and the dryland crops seem to be doing OK (not great, but OK). Central Kansas, however, is very, very dry and in the midst of a severe drought, as are many other parts of the country right now.
We stopped to visit a friend in Oakley for a few minutes over lunch. The Colonial was about as it always has been, with pretty much the same menu on the buffet as always. For less than nine dollars, however, and just off the Interstate, it was a good deal. I am glad we were able to make that connection with Kathy. She has been, and continues to be a true friend and fellow servant of God.
On the way back, we stopped, as we usually do, at Vernie’s Hamburger House in Hays. Our relationship with that place goes way back to the 1970’s when Vernie himself would make the chili and cook the burgers. Having passed away several years ago, his widow and daughter now are at the helm and have kept things pretty much as Vernie had them many years ago. It was good to re-make that connection as well.
Things do change, however, even when they seem to stand still in time. People get older, buildings get creakier, and prices get higher. Businesses close, people move, and some folks just aren’t with us any more. I was reminded at the retirement ceremony that Angie’s Grandad would loved to have been there…a wounded WWII Marine vet; he would have been, no doubt, the guest of honor. He passed on awhile back.
Life goes on. And as we get back into the thick of it, I am filled with gratitude for the privilege I have of seeing life from my perspective and for those who are going through time and space with me. It’s a great adventure; one that is unique and awesome. Thank you, Lord, for your love.

Full Volume

Today as I was running errands, I had the radio in the pickup on PBS (as usual). The piece that came on when I turned on the ignition one time was obviously the 1812 Overture by Tchaicovsky, formally known as The Year 1812, Festival Overture in E flat major, Op. 49. The overture does not celebrate the War of 1812; rather, it commemorates Russia defending Moscow against Napoleon’s advancing armies in 1812.
The music is familiar to most of us, even if we don’t know for sure what it is called or who wrote it. Some truly appreciate music like this; others tolerate it. It all depends upon one’s taste in the arts and music in particular.
When I heard what was playing on the radio, I immediately turned the volume up full. My speakers can handle that volume without distortion, and it isn’t loud enough to cause ear damage. However, one can more fully appreciate some of the more obscure runs and instrumentation that comes out more audibly when the total volume is high.
I know some who might ride with me might not appreciate the volume, but no one was with me today, except a fly that was clinging for dear life to a window. I truly enjoyed the performance, as I do many of the classics at that volume level, performed by those who are the ultimate professionals.
Thank you, PBS, for providing people like me with the music I like, and a variety that expands my horizons.

If You Haven't Done the Research...

If, for some reason, you doubt that there is any redeeming value in young people today, I urge you to check it out for yourself and not just take someone’s word for it. Check out an upper level, college prep class at the public school. Volunteer at a high school cross country meet this fall (or just attend one). Check out a JROTC program. Ask someone in scouting about the latest Eagle Scout and his project.
And check out this URL http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/fromthetop/pages/ sometime. PBS has a show called “From the Top at Carnegie Hall” that features young people performing a wide variety of music on a wide variety of instruments. Watch any episode and you’ll be amazed, gratified, and pleased with how these young people have ordered themselves with discipline, grace, and use of ability and talent. You may not appreciate music as some do, but you’ll certainly appreciate the message of the show.
My wife and I had the privilege of chaperoning a part of our youth group on two trips to help other churches conduct a vacation Bible school. There were fourteen or fifteen youth and several of us sponsors who traveled to Minnesota and also to Central Kansas for these projects. The young people overall behaved quite well and worked hard to see that the experience of those attending was as it should be and we reached our goal of providing good religious education to the kids.
No, not all youth are of this caliber. But then, not all adults are of a high caliber either. All too often we hear the bad news and haven’t a clue what is happening that is good and decent and right. And all too often it is due to our own laziness in accepting what someone else (FOX, MSNBC) wants us to know rather than finding out for ourselves. If you haven’t done the research (Listening to cable news is NOT doing research), don’t express the opinion.

Independence Day

Well, it’s Independence Day. Once a year we especially remember the beginnings of this nation and what it has meant for not only us, but for the human race. This year, comments on Facebook run the gamut from ours being the greatest nation on earth to ours being the last hurrah before the unwashed hordes overrun us and we drown in debt, immorality, and corruption.
I admit that I readily do not know which way we are headed. Nor does anyone else, for that matter. We are all entitled to our opinions; however, rather than being orators of doom or paradise, maybe it would behoove us to do the things in our corner of the world to make the world a better place for our having been here.
Even that sounds like something from a fairy tale fantasy at times. But the reality is that we all have ways that we can influence not only our environment, but also those we contact in our everyday lives. Whether family, friends, retail sales people, classmates, the taxi driver, or someone else, virtually all of us have some kind of contact with the environment and with other people on a daily basis. It’s what we do with those routine contacts and interaction that collectively make the difference.
Life is seldom glamorous and glitzy. Routine, boring, and ordinary are all good words to describe what most of us experience on a daily basis. Many times, life seems to be patently unfair. Yet it is the possibility of the future, including the hope of a life that is eternal, that makes it all worthwhile.
The signers of the Declaration of Independence, “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence”, made the decision to “mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” They saw the possibility of the future. Many of them also knew the hope of a life that is eternal. That, friend, is what made it worthwhile for them, and even today calls us to service and sacrifice.

Quite Inert

I started thinking today about a new Christian I had heard about via email. I began to wonder what this woman has already learned about the Christian faith and what traditions and dogmas she has been taught. Now, don’t misunderstand. A tradition or a dogma is not necessarily a bad thing. A dogma is simply a belief that a religion holds to be true. And without tradition, we often feel ungrounded and blown about in the sea of life.
There is, however, a tendency for us to allow tradition and dogma to take on roles not suited. And we sometimes mix up dogma and tradition, making dogma tradition and making tradition dogma. We should have at least some idea of the difference in the two and know within ourselves which we hold to be truth and which we merely practice as tradition. In the world of faith, tradition should never be held to the same standard that dogma should be held. We err greatly, I think, when we allow that to happen.
The higher reaches of the particular “brand” of religion we practice should also hold those two separate and truthfully tell its adherents which it believes to be what, and why. All too often, I fear, we who teach others fail to grasp the significance of failure to do this, and the effect it has on those who are being taught. For if we teach tradition as dogma, we then are at some point compelled to explain why. That tends to force us to use the standard by which we measure dogma (for most of Christendom, that is the Bible) to measure tradition and make the standard “fit” our argument that our tradition is really dogma. This, of course, necessitates either changing the standard (New World Translation of the Watchtower Society, for example), or interpreting the existing standard in such a way as to make it work with our teaching. Either way causes the standard to cease to be the true standard and become merely our tool to persuade, control, and manage those we teach.
The Christian faith should be a faith of child-like wonder and a never-ending curiosity that is never quite fulfilled; never quite satisfied. It doesn’t matter if I am 16 or 96, my faith should continue to spark new questions, new thoughts and ideas, and new notions about the God who created us all. If I ever become comfortable in my faith to the point that I ask no questions, think no new thoughts, or never re-examine what I believe and why, then my faith has died within me. I’ve become quite inert and probably odious to my God as well.

Glitz and Glamour

We talked some in class this morning of God working in us through the routine and mundane of our lives. In other words, most of the time God works in us as we go about our normal, ordinary routines of life, work, and relaxation. I’ve taught this before, but it’s always kind of an eye-opener to understand yet again that God often doesn’t come to His people in flashes of brilliance and extraordinary accomplishment (although that certainly happens, I think), but rather in the ordinary things of raising a family, working, going to school, and even more specific things like driving kids to a ball game, fixing lunch, or talking on the phone (that betrays my age…no one actually TALKS anymore).
We many times think of our lives as a boring monotony, broken by the only occasional laughter, fear, or apprehension. I think God may see our lives as anything but boring monotony. And we would do well to understand that as God opens doors for us to walk through, we can always have in the back of our minds the sense of adventure and the promise that our faith, in taking that step through the open door will somehow result in glory coming to the God of all gods.
God gave the promised land to Israel, but He didn’t do it in just a few days or even a few months. The text says that Israel fought “a long time,” and God himself said that it wouldn’t be a quick thing, but it would be a sure thing. I’m sure Israel grew tired of the “routine” of battle and the fact that they couldn’t settle down in the promised land for many years following the beginning of the conquest. Eventually, however, Joshua dismissed the tribes to the land that he apportioned to them and as the text says, “The land had rest from war.”
We want things done now, right away. We want things done in a flashy, almost magical time frame and with all the glitz and glamour that even Vegas would be proud of. Yes, God can be glitzy. God can do glamorous things. Most of the time, though, He does things in His own time and in His own way, with people whose lives are spent in the routine and ordinary…yet doing extraordinary things by the power of God.

Some Visiting

Yesterday, we went to Pratt, then to Hesston to visit relatives. Our first stop was in Pratt at the local care home where our first cousin, once removed, was living. Now, you might ask why we went all that way to see a cousin that is “once removed”. We do things a little differently in our family. Folks who are related to us are important to us. They are our connection with our ancestors, our heritage, and our upbringing, all of which we value very highly. We also know that she has no other close relatives besides a son who has not visited her in many years. And we know she provides a valuable link to a part of our family that we know very little about.
We then went to Hesston and saw several relatives…an uncle by marriage, a blood uncle and his wife (our aunt as certainly as if she was a blood relative), and a first cousin. We also happened upon a woman in the hall of the assisted living complex who was our first cousin once removed from the other side of our family. She was someone we previously had not known, and know very little about her parents…her mom being our great aunt. She was very willing to visit and invited us back for another visit and look through some of her old photos, etc.
We seldom go as far as third cousins or some such, as that gets rather far afield, although we certainly recognize them and their lineage as it relates to our common ancestor(s). We have a genealogy person in our family who likes this kind of thing, and we sometimes are able to gather bits of data for her. All in all, it was a good day and very satisfying for us. I trust it was for the folks we visited as well.
Each time we visit, I am struck yet again by the stories we tell of those relatives now gone. They lived good lives, but life was in many cases hard and sometimes seemingly cruel. Survival during the Great Depression often meant gathering berries from the roadside in order to have something to eat, or frying a flour and oil concoction in a pan and calling it a meal. Medicine was primitive by today’s standards and quarantines were not unusual. Nor were illnesses like scarlet fever, mumps, measles, or tetanus. Running water and indoor plumbing were not always available and starting over in life was an all-too-routine thing to do. Medicare and Medicaid were but a dream in a progressive’s eye.
These people lived, in good part, with reliance on and faith in Someone greater than themselves. They knew they were at the mercy of the elements, the depression, and the illnesses that plagued them. Yet they persisted, they persevered, they finished the course in this race called life. And for that example, we “moderns” owe them a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid.

Just A Short Time

Sometime soon, my sister and I will make a trip to Pratt to visit a cousin who is in the nursing home there. From there we’ll go to Hesston and visit a couple of uncles, an aunt, and cousin. I have somewhat mixed feelings about these visits and I’ll tell you why.
On the one hand, I am eager to see these folks. They have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. For them to honor me with their time is a blessing almost beyond words. But on the other hand, visits like this remind all of us of the inexorable march of time and the toll it takes on the creation and the created.
Our cousin in Pratt is from a branch of the family that we don’t have much contact with anymore, and I haven’t seen her for well over 10 years. Now, that’s my fault, not hers. She has always been in the Pratt area and I just haven’t taken the time to make the trip until now.
The family in Hesston we see more often. We last visited there just a few months ago, it seems, and we enjoy the time we have together, even if its just a short time with lunch thrown in.
Of course, on the way to and from, sis and I will talk of times gone by and reminisce about what we remember (or don’t remember) about these family members. I’m sure they do the same with us when we’re not there…conjuring up what now may be fuzzy images of times long ago gone.
Already, those younger ones in our family are starting to reminisce and remember things that happened with us…can it be that it will be just a short time until we too wait for the visits by the younger ones to brighten our days?

A Bad Day

I went in to my local doctor’s office today to pay a bill that has been outstanding for a month or so. When I went in, I went to the receptionist for my doctor. She was on the phone with someone, so I waited. She mouthed to me during the call that she would be “right with me”. The call took a couple of minutes, but it ended.
I said to her, “Ma’am, I’m John Plank (my legal name), and I’m wondering if I have a balance due on my account, and I know there is a balance on my wife’s account. I’d like to pay anything I owe.”
She starts digging in a drawer beside her that has file folders in it. I’m thinking the drawer contains account information, although I wonder about that since the office is modern and computerized. She can’t seem to find what she’s looking for, turns to me and says, “Do you have an appointment?”
Now I realize that the drawer had all of the day’s patient records in it and she was searching for mine. I said, “No, ma’am. I’m just here to pay my bill.” I’m just a little puzzled by now, thinking I may not be dealing with the brightest bulb on the shelf.
The phone rings again. She asks if the caller could hold. Evidently not, because she listened for a minute or so, then they talked some. During this call, the second line began ringing, but someone else answered it. She hung up her call, and started typing on her keyboard. The first line rang again and she again asked if the caller could hold. This time the caller held.
She punched the keyboard for a good period of time while trying to talk to another staffer about the prior call. She finally told me that I owed $20 on my account, and also told me that my wife owed $134.05. I reminded her of her caller on hold and told her she could go ahead and take the call since I wasn’t going anywhere. I figured that no faster than we were going anyway, it wouldn’t matter much. She looked at me quizzically, then at the phone, saw the blinking button, and answered the call.
Following the call, she went to the back and asked a woman how she should process the payment since I was paying on two bills at once. They wanted to know how I was paying. I held up my credit card and they talked some more. The woman told her to run the card for the total and note the separate numbers on the receipt that they would keep.
I gave her my card after she came back to the desk. She turned toward her calculator and started punching in numbers. I wondered what she was doing, since the two numbers were $134.05 and $20.00. That easily totals in one’s head to $154.05. I thought she might have found some other charges. No, she turns to me after at least 30 seconds at the calculator and says, “The total is $154.05.”
The rest of the interaction was relatively uneventful and I left, thanking God for the ability to add in my head and multi-task. I would never disparage or make fun of anyone who does not have those abilities (although I admit to having done so in the past), but I have to wonder why someone like that is working in a position that requires some proficiency in those areas. Hopefully, she was just having a bad day, and it got better…quickly.

We Go On

Wow! Has it really been since the fourth of June that I’ve written? Well, now that I’m retired and have nothing to do (cough cough), I should right every day, huh.
So much water under the bridge (so to speak) that I won’t bother to summarize, except to say that Minnesota was much, much cooler and more pleasant than the weather currently in effect in Southern Kansas. We even slept with the windows open, and were very comfortable there.
One would think that with retirement would come hours and days of nothing to do. Nothing could be further from the truth. Already my social and work calendar is being filled with this place to go, that thing to do, etc. The honey-do list has started (replacing the kitchen sink and faucet) and I am struggling to find time to do some of the things I wanted to get started on right away.
Of course, the heat outdoors is keeping some of the outdoor work and activity at bay. The mosquitoes are also bad now, with the big black ones attacking, not even circling, but zeroing in on exposed flesh like a dive bomber. Thankfully, they are large enough that I normally can feel them land and have a chance to swat at ‘em before they take a liquid meal. And they strike even in the heat of the day, to say nothing of early morning and evening.
So we go on. Mosquitoes and heat notwithstanding, we trundle on in life, only somewhat cognizant of what lies ahead, or what we’d like to lie ahead. We hurtle on into the great abyss of the future in faith that it will all work out OK; that things will make themselves known at the right time; that our faith will carry us through to the end.
To borrow a phrase from Linda Ellerbee, “And so it goes.”

I Know

I had opportunity today to think back over my work career. I don’t know if you’ve ever done something like that or not, but it might be worth the effort. I must say that my career has been varied, both in location and vocation, and I’ve had wonderful opportunities to do things and touch the lives of others in ways I would never have imagined at the start of my vocational endeavors.
I learned customer service early on through work with one of the corporate giants, the 3M Company. I learned that I had the capability to take on projects and be successful in what I did through my work at a radio and television station where I was responsible for the physical re-location of the studios of the radio station in an overnight move. I also had responsibility for all remote broadcasts (which were done frequently back then) and had that procedure down to a science.
Other jobs taught me that life wasn’t always fair; that superiors don’t always appreciate competence, and that people can be difficult to work with and are surely illogical and unpredictable. I also learned that I wasn’t perfect; that I didn’t have all the answers, and that I sometimes was just flat wrong in my assumptions about some thing or some one.
I learned the value of developing relationships with vendors, consultants, and people in other professions who could be helpful, and the knack of calling on those folks at the right time for the right reasons. And I learned that it can be a lonely experience at the top, and that “been there, done that” isn’t such a bad thing to say after all.
I know that I can do almost anything I set myself to do. I have the capability to learn on the fly, and can be quite successful when I decide to do so. I can also slough off and get by, and have managed to become quite good at that as well.
I am becoming aware that I have a life of experience and living that many people do not have, and am willing to share that wisdom with others who ask for it. I’ve learned that some people actually do ask that I share what I know, and seem to be grateful for the advice and counsel.
It’s been a great ride. Most of my experiences I wouldn’t trade for a hundred million dollars, but I have no desire to ever do them again. As I go into the next phase of life and living, I hold to the past in some ways, but look forward to what lies ahead in other ways. And whether that future is one day or one decade long, I know I have been blessed.

Just Take Me To the Home...

OK, P.J. Just take me to the home now. I don’t want to pass go. I don’t want to collect two hundred dollars.
I went to Wal Mart this morning to pick up an item or two before we went to central Kansas for a memorial weekend lunch with relatives. When I came out of the Wal, I couldn’t find my pickup anywhere. I knew where I had parked it, as I parked right next to a handicapped stall.
I went up and down the line and even over a line or two just to make sure. I then called Pat and told her. She said she’d come down my way to get me. Meanwhile, I called 911. The nice woman took my information, then transferred me to the place where those reports are taken. I must have been waiting for ten minutes or so for someone to pick up the phone to take my report, all the while thinking about my red pickup going off to God only knows where with God only knows who in it.
Having a vehicle stolen is not a good feeling. I can testify by firsthand experience.
While I was waiting for whoever to answer to take my report (only after I give the report will they broadcast the information to the beat officers…by now it could be in Newton), I looked one more time at the stall which now had another vehicle in it.
I glanced at the tag number of that vehicle and it seemed familiar to me. “Oh, it’s a silver car just like ours. It IS ours!” I had forgotten that I took the car instead of the pickup and had red pickup on the brain instead of silver car.
So I called the nice woman at 911 (after I called Pat and told her to not come…she already knew what had happened because when she went to the garage to come get me, lo and behold, there was the pickup) and just told her that I had found my vehicle. I did not tell her that I forgot which one I was driving.
So, just come visit me in the memory care section of the nursing home. I’ll be there watching reruns of “Rio Bravo”, cheering when the Duke blasts some bad guy because it’ll all be fresh…every time.

Shrimp on a Treadmill

A friend of mine suggested that I could comment on the “shrimp on a treadmill” video on YouTube. I dunno. Is that worth a comment? Let’s see. Even that shrimp on a treadmill has political overtones because it’s done by the National Science Foundation and is part of a research project costing half a million dollars. At least one Senator thinks it’s dumb.
I don’t know if it’s dumb or not. What I do know is that sometimes the unusual, or to us the very incongruous can reveal knowledge that is inestimable.
Now, I don’t know about this specific experiment, nor do I know anything about the research project. I’m not qualified to comment on any of this either yes or no. Besides, my opinion doesn’t matter in the great scheme of things anyhow.
But, the sight of a shrimp on a treadmill does bring a smile and a kind of “who would have thought” notion. I mean, come on. Have you ever in your life thought that you’d like to see a shrimp on a treadmill, or that such a thing could reveal some scientific fact that could benefit the human race? I’d guess not.
I also suspect that if you could look long enough on YouTube, you’d find just about anything you could (or could not) think of, including shrimp on a treadmill. I don’t pretend to know much about what’s on YouTube. I do confess to checking out some things, usually old television shows or entertainers now long gone. It’s a great part of the Internet, but like everything, it has its bad side as well as its good side.
So, shrimp on a treadmill? Bring it on. And while we’re at it, let’s see a fly on a ladder, a roach driving a snowmobile, and a mouse giving a cat a bath.

When They Handed Out Brains...

I dunno. This latest craziness going around is all the hullabaloo over the supposed end of the world that will happen tomorrow (if it really happens, you probably won't be reading this, but that's another story...) and all the things that go along with it. I could probably go into a long litany of why I think the guy's a freak show, but won't. What I am wondering is why anyone cares.
Think about it for a few seconds. If the end of everything comes, it'll truly all be over. You won't be able to do anything about the coming of the end; nor will you be able to change anything once it starts. Everything will be "scripted", so to speak. You don't have to know anything, do anything, or be anything...you will be given to know what to say, do, etc. as the need arises. And if the end never comes, you'll be dead and not able to change anything either.
YOU CAN'T CHANGE ANYTHING. Why worry about it? Why even think about it? And for heaven's sake, why send money to some quack? Even if he's correct, for what does he need money? If the end is coming, why is he asking for donations?
The reason we're told to be ready at any time is so when it does happen, we will be ready. Seems to me that's a logical and fair way to live life. Make plans, buy and sell, have a family, etc. If the end comes at some time during that time, it won't matter anyway. What will matter is whether or not you are ready.
When they handed out brains, some people didn't get a full load. Either that or they put 'em some place besides in their heads. And sometimes I think modern journalism is short some neurons as well. What's the deal with covering this like it's the first manned Mars launch? Let the guy wallow in his own little group of followers. Don't encourage him. Geez.

No Man Is An Island

I don’t write in this venue as often as I used to write. I don’t know why not. Much is happening in life and living, and I often find myself as somewhat of an observer of my own life and reality, wondering why this is happening or marveling at that happening. I try, I think, to keep a “low profile” and not cause too much of a ruckus in the realities of other people (and myself), but I sometimes have to wonder how successful I am at that.
Have you ever thought just how much influence you have on the realities of others? In the course of everyday life and living, do you have any idea how many people you touch in some way? Do you know even a small part of the situations in which you have changed what someone else was about to say or do by virtue of some interaction you may have had with that person (either direct or indirect)?
Our existences are so intertwined, so co-mingled that it is very difficult to truly be an island. A guy by the name of John Donne, who lived long ago, is thought to have said it first and best: "All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Of course, Simon and Garfunkel’s “I Am A Rock” says just the opposite; “I am a rock; I am an island, go the refrain.” However, the last two lines of that song are, “And a rock feels no pain; And an island never cries.” We might long and try to be closed off from everyone else, but we also close off our humanity.
The world is full of lonely people, even people who are in the midst of millions of others. We were created for meaningful interaction with both the creation and the humans who inhabit it. We are less than complete when we isolate ourselves, and we are less than human when we isolate others.

We'll Go Back

For Mother’s Day, we went to a Japanese restaurant in East Wichita. We had never been there before, and I wanted to go to a place that wasn’t crowded or noisy. We found this restaurant in a strip mall and went in.
We appeared to be their first customers (they opened at noon). They asked us if we wanted traditional dining or hibachi. I opted for the traditional. As we sat, we received menus. We looked over the menus and discovered that we had no clue what most of the items were. Pat looked at the first page of the menu, not knowing there was a second page, and wondered if she wanted anything at all.
Deciding that I didn’t want the eel entrée or one of the meals that I had not a clue what I was getting, I opted instead for the salmon teriyaki, which I did know, and Pat opted for the chicken teriyaki.
We were pleasantly surprised that the meal was great, the atmosphere was calming, and the presentation was in keeping with the restaurant theme. As garnish, among other things, I had a carrot slice that was carved to look like a crab. Pat had one on her plate that looked like a rooster. The soup was good as was the salad.
By the time we left, there were more people there, but the place was still virtually empty. The only thing I wasn’t sure of was whether there would be a fork available or not. The napkin had only chopsticks rolled up in it. The waiter asked if we wanted forks, however, and we readily agreed.
No hamburgers. No steaks. No baked potatoes. No green beans or corn. We’ll have to go back there again.

A Good Performance

We went out this evening and saw “To Kill A Mockingbird” at the Wichita Community Theater. I must say that I wasn’t really all that enthused about going, as I have trouble hearing in a theater setting. I can hear the noise of the dialog, but many times there is an echo or the actors speak too quickly, or for some other reason I cannot understand what is being said. I am pleased to say that is not the case at this venue.
The theater is housed in what appears to be an old church building in a residential neighborhood in East Wichita. The entire building is probably no more than 3,000 to 4,000 square feet. The stage is actually at and below audience level and is about 30 feet by 20 feet. The audience sits “in the round” and no seat is more than about 25 feet away from the stage.
The performers as well as the director, lighting, props, etc. are all volunteers. Cost is $12 per ticket. Seating is extremely limited. The theater can hold no more than about 110 people.
I was impressed with the acting, the props, the lighting, and in general the whole experience. I’m not a theater critic and don’t pretend to know the nuances of what constitutes a good performance. I do know what I like and I liked this performance.
Awhile back they did “Driving Miss Daisy”. I missed that and am not happy that I didn’t know about it, or would have seen it. There is a comedy playing in June. I’d like to go back.
If you have a chance, take in a performance at the Wichita Community Theater.

The Adventure Continues

Well, I did it. I turned in my resignation a couple of days ago. I am entering a new chapter of life…one without a full time job to identify me. It’s kind of scary, yet at the same time a rather freeing thing. The final day will be June 10. As I hurtle toward that day, I am reminded of times past when uncertainty reigned in my life.
Uncertainty. Now, that’s a rather unsettling word. We humans like to have things under control. We like to know what’s coming around the corner. We have a need to have routine and order in our lives. But when things happen like job changes, moves to a different house, taking in a new family member, or one of hundreds of other scenarios, that word (uncertainty) creeps into our thoughts if not our conversations.
We sometimes lay awake nights in the dark and quiet thinking about the ramifications of it. We ponder it over lunch or a cup of coffee. And we do everything we can to NOT think about it during most of our waking time. Yet there it is, the elephant in the room.
No, I don’t have a job. Yes, we have some money. Yes, we have a plan. No, that plan is not laid out in certainty. Yes, it is subject to change. And no, I really don’t have a plan B. I think we do, however, have a lot of options open to us as we go along.
We’ll see how this all shakes out. We may have to make some lifestyle changes. We may have to change our direction. We may even have to move to a less expensive home. But I am ready for this. I am willing to do what I need to do to make this work.
Oh, I left out one important thing. I believe this change is something that is a God thing in my life. I think He is behind all of this. Now, I may be wrong. I may have let my emotions and selfish desires get a hold on my thought processes and distort my perceptions of what God is and isn’t doing in my life.
But I don’t think so. I’ve been working with this for many months. The culmination came just a couple of days ago when I actually submitted my resignation to my supervisor. This wasn’t a knee-jerk decision. I sought counsel from people whose opinions I value. And I’ve talked with God regarding what I need to do.
So we’ll see in the coming months. As the blog says, “The Adventure Continues”.

What Will You Do?

Tomorrow is Good Friday for the Christian world. My guess is that it’s just another day for the rest of humanity. That’s not a condemnation of that segment of the human race…it’s just the way it is. But for those of us who profess, in some way, Christian beliefs, tomorrow is second only to the Sunday following Good Friday in importance.
You see, all of the Christian faith hinges on the belief that Jesus died a certain death at the hands of the Romans, and by the power of God was resurrected from the grave. Without the death and resurrection of Jesus, who is, we believe, the Christ of God, Christianity would be just another religion.
However, Christianity is singularly unique among the world’s major religions in that its crux is the death and resurrection of a man who is not that only, but also is fully God on earth. Just the thought of the truth of that founding principle is astounding, and to wrap one’s mind around it fully is impossible for the mortal. To truly believe it is indeed an act of faith supported by the evidence of the changed lives of those who personally knew him, the written words of some of those same people along with others of that time attesting to the truth of the claim, the archeology of the Holy Land and key finds, and the simple, yet profound logic of the premise itself.
And the age-old question still must be answered by all who breathe…”What will you do with Jesus?” Will you think him a bald-faced liar who’s claim to be God is a pipe dream? Will you laugh him off as a crazy man who didn’t know what he was saying when he made those claims of divinity? Or will you believe him to be what he says he is?
There are no other options. You cannot state that he was a good man and teacher, but only a human. If you do that, you ignore his bald-faced claims to be divine…good men and good teachers don’t lie. You cannot state that he never existed, because there is too much secular evidence to the contrary. Nor can you truthfully say that he was the greatest perpetrator of fraud of his time. The evidence just won’t allow that.
So where do we go from here? Back to the question. “What will you do with Jesus?” You have to make a decision. Even if you ignore him, you’ve made a decision. I challenge you to look at the evidence. Look at the facts. Make up your own mind as clearly and in as much of an unbiased manner as you can muster. Millions of honest, intelligent people have done just that. And they have found something that for them is their reason for living and their hope for all eternity. What about you?

Today

I’m sitting here at the computer desk on Saturday morning with an empty coffee cup (just a sec…I’m gonna fill it), the washer and dryer going, music from channel 940 on digital cable (Classical Masterpieces) on the stereo (does saying “stereo” date me to the 1960’s?), having cleaned up from last night’s birthday bash for my niece (it really was in pretty good shape…just needed some touching up), and no one on FB or Messenger (at least no one I care to interact with right now).
I sent off an email this morning to my insurance agent asking about the 18% increase in our homeowners insurance and am THINKING about going outside to do some lawn and yard work so desperately needed.
Oh, and I have the ruglets (I don’t know what you call those little carpets in the bathrooms on the floors in front of the toilet/shower) picked up and ready to go in the washer…and am washing the bed linens as well, including the blanket.
Am I a busy boy, or what? Probably more like “or what”. I need to work on my Sunday school lesson for tomorrow and would like to peruse the hardware store for one of those little tillers that are good for small areas. And I’d like to clean out the garage and cut down the dead pampas grass out by the fish pond. Before you say it, I’ll say it; “I’ll let you know how this all works out for me.”
We had some storms rumble by us last night, but they didn’t drop any rain. So I’m also watering part of my yard that looks especially parched. Yes, we have a sprinkler system and yes, it seems to work fine, but I think that area has some very tough soil and it gets dry rather quickly there. I will make adjustments to my sprinklers later on when it’s warmer, because one always gets soaked when doing that.
We’re looking forward to summer and a little slower pace. The wife doesn’t have as much going on in her work and that’s going to be a nice thing. We plan to go to our family reunion in Kentucky this summer and we also plan to help our church teen group with one or possibly two trips to other communities to help with VBS. One will be in Minnesota and the other in Colorado.
All in all, much to look forward to, both today and in the future. God is good. His mercy endures forever.

We Are Who We Are

It’s interesting to me to see the dynamics of families where I work. I know that most families are (and have been) under stress when they arrive and as they work with their loved one who is there for recovery of some kind. Different people tend to deal with that stress in different ways.
Some work very hard, going beyond what is asked of them regarding exercise, strengthening, conditioning, etc. It’s as if they are saying, “If a little does some good, then a lot will do a lot of good.” These people are relatively small in number, however.
Other residents and families are in some kind of denial. They don’t like to (or refuse to) take part in therapies, question why they are there, and generally are uncooperative. What they don’t always realize is that their insurance will not continue to pay for them to be there if they refuse properly-ordered therapies.
Some residents and families are angry at the world. Everyone is out to get them, and they appear to be alone against all odds. These people struggle mightily, and expend a lot of time and energy in behaviors that are unproductive at best.
There are those who are the manipulative ones. They play one staffer against another or one medical provider against another. They stir up other families and residents with half-truths. And they work the system as much and as long as they can.
And then there are those residents and families who take their situation in relative stride. Or at least they appear to do so. They are mostly cooperative, and seldom gripe or complain. These are the compliant ones and usually cause the least issues.
Come to think of it, as I look at the above, that’s a good description of humanity, isn’t it. Whether we’re in a job situation, a medical crisis, have a family problem, or are in some other environment, these emotions and behaviors tend to come forward and have to be dealt with by the others who are involved. And we all at times exhibit these behaviors in some way, shape, or form as we hurtle through life and living.
People are people. Being human is being human. And although some of the behaviors I’ve listed above are not good, and although we constantly try to eliminate these behaviors from our lives, it is comforting in a way to know that the human race is still human…we are who we are.

Time

I seem to have gained, it seems, some followers of the blog. So I’ll just come out and say, “Has it really been two weeks since I’ve written?”
“Well, yes it has,” if I can answer my own question. So here we are two weeks later than before. Spring is definitely in the air; March Madness (basketball) is well under way; I am already behind in my spring yard work; life seems to hurtle ever more quickly down the line of time.
Time.
Sometimes, I feel like I’m at the side of the time stream, looking on as a bystander. Other times, it feels like I’m right in the middle of it and it is carrying me downstream more quickly than I ever wanted to go. And there are a few times when the stream seems to be thick as molasses and I’m stuck in it and can’t get out.
This thing called time is an ever-changing chameleon, never predictable, always going somewhere. It is at once a friend and an enemy. It soothes and gives peace, and it grates and makes life miserable. It is cussed and praised. It is real, yet not tangible. We don’t know what it is or how it works, but we live with it, see the results of it, and keep track of it with clocks and watches.
Einstein proved that time is (or appears to be) a variable. He also showed that we should think of space-time…not space and time. Yet we calculate to the nth degree the span of a second.
We compensate for variations in the span of time in our satellite communications networks (GPS, for one). Yet we all age at the same rate and are all similarly affected by the passage of time.
We don’t know the future, try to forget the past, and don’t appreciate enough the present. We waste time, kill time, pass time, and mark time. We all have the same amount of time in a day. Yet some of us are much more productive than others of us and some of us seem to have an endless source of time to accomplish what others could only imagine.

It’s a great gift, this gift of time.

Carry Yourself Back

I don’t know about you, but there are certain sounds and songs that bring various memories and incidents to my mind. I think most people react this way to, say, a love song or the song of a certain species of bird, etc. Then there are songs that tend to take one way back to simpler times in childhood.
One such song for me is the Captain Kangaroo theme song. As many of you know, Captain Kangaroo was a children’s show that ran on CBS for many, many years in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. I don’t know how long…you can Google it if you like.
The Captain was always polite…always entertaining…always even somewhat predictable. He taught manners and proper behavior and enlightened us with various animals, special guests, and by other means. His Treasure House was filled with wonderful, wondrous things, both living and inanimate. Bunny Rabbit, Mr. Moose, Dancing Bear, Grandfather Clock (To wake Grandfather Clock, he would always say, “On the count of three, I want you to say ‘Grandfather’, but say it softly so as not to startle him.”), Mr. Green Jeans, Dennis, Tom Terrific, and many others.
The theme music for the show, if you recall, always played when the house keys were off of the hook, and stopped when the keys were put back on the hook. Most of the time, one heard only a portion of the theme music, but once in a while, for some reason, much of the theme was allowed to play.
I recently found the theme as I remember it on the show. The song is entitled “Puffin’ Billy” and can be found at http://www.gocek.org/sounds/captain-kangaroo.mp3
Go ahead and take a listen. Carry yourself back to the simpler time.

Mish Mash

I think I saw a "first" today. Our guest speaker at church used an electronic gadget (I don't know what it was) to store and retrieve his lesson notes. Instead of shuffling cards or papers, he poked on the screen from time to time to bring up new pages. I wonder how much longer it will be until I have something like that for the lessons I teach.
Other things I've recently seen/heard/found out:
The downtown Topeka business district has many closed storefronts. I don't know if it was the recent recession or not, but Kansas Avenue between 5th Street and 10th Street has probably 20 or more storefronts that are empty. It makes the downtown area rather dreary compared to what it was a few years ago.
On a related note...the restaurant that was on 6th Street downtown also has closed. That's the place I talked about in one of my earlier blogs...http://hubblefan.blogspot.com/2006/06/downtowner.html That's kind of a sad thing. I had wanted to eat there yesterday while we were in town.
I did eat at the Hanover Pancake House on Kansas Avenue. It's been there for years. I ordered bacon and three eggs with pancakes. Oh, my goodness! Four large slices of bacon, three eggs cooked in butter over medium well, hashbrowns also fried in butter that were crispy just right, and two of the largest pancakes, yet so very good pancakes with warm syrup and more butter. It was every breakfast junkie's dream.
There is value in bookstores one can go into and touch the merchandise. Online is fine, but sometimes I need to peruse a book before buying. I'm glad the Christan bookstore in West Topeka is still open. Got a Joshua commentary there that I can use in my next adult class.
The Topeka library has restricted computer access to patrons with library cards. So much for being able to stop there and check email, etc. Non card-holders can still peruse periodicals, though, and they have IRS forms and booklets there yet.
I wonder how many toll roads and turnpikes have an exit called "cattle pens". The Kansas Turnpike does. And the exit is exactly what it says it is, in the middle of the Flint Hills. If you Google "cattle pens kansas" you'll find three or four short articles about that exit and the pronghorn antelope heard that is being re-introduced into that area. Makes a good short read.
The Supreme Court upheld freedom of speech this past week. You know the group, which hails from Topeka. For what it's worth, that decision was a foregone (and correct) decision. I don't like their speech any more than you do. But I want that freedom there, intact, when I have something to say that someone else doesn't like. If they are ignored long enough, they'll go away. Really.
A good friend and former co-worker passed away suddenly yesterday. Makes one aware that no one knows "the time".