Trail of the Month on Rails to Trails
Click Here for this month's Rails to Trails Trail of the Month. My readers will know this one!
Ramblings of a Boomer Pilgrim in a Post-Modern World.
Click Here for this month's Rails to Trails Trail of the Month. My readers will know this one!
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This was the news over the weekend, plus one more from the Olympics:
I really hope Tom Watson inspired other baby boomers as well. This is the time we must use our experience, our will, and some unflappable persistence to turn this thing around and get one more win before the end of our careers. Our experience should help us remember it was hard work, real labor, that sustained the economy. Our will should be strengthened by a determination to leave a better economy for our children. And our persistence should help us remember we win this thing shot by shot, never wavering, playing the conditions dealt us, and knowing that we can still win this thing. Tom Watson didn't show up in Scotland to be a ceremonial icon ... he went to win! Thanks Tom! And damn it, I really wished that putt had fallen!
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It was a Sunday. I was doing my regular summer Sunday afternoon radio program on WMPT in South Williamsport, PA. The TV in the production studio on the other side of the glass was on. We got the info feed down the radio line from ABC Radio network. We were given the time that the network would go live with the feed from around the moon.July 20 - Apollo program: The Eagle lands on the lunar surface. The world watches in awe as Neil Armstrong takes his historic first steps on the moon.
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It’s always interesting where you can find references to Jesus and his ministry outside the normal church-based places. As I was working on the sermon I preached this morning I followed a link on a study page and came up with an article by Martin B. Copenhaver from the Christian Century from 15 years ago, still posted on the Internet. The original location is not the surprise, obviously. It was that the whole article was posted on a business management reference library page. Jesus did not just teach us about heaven- he taught us about living everyday life here and now. In so doing, as the original article indicated, we also learn how to do ministry- and how not to.
The disciples need to get away.
Remember that they had just returned from their first mission trip. It had been their start at what was going to be a life-long journey and they discovered that in ministry they were able to do much of what they had seen Jesus do. They found power and hope, healing and strength. People responded. They weren’t just practicing in some training session- they had authority. They were successful.
But as they sat with Jesus they also found out that they were wiped out- exhausted. You can almost see and feel their strength seeping out of them as the adrenaline that has been pumping for so long disappears. They sink lower and lower into the ground.
Who among us doesn’t know that feeling. A long week at work or school or home. The boss is away and you have a crisis or three. One of the kids gets sick and the other two get ornery. The computer crashes just before you save the final draft of your homework. Find me the sofa, the remote, and let me become a couch potato.
So Jesus does what he knows is needed. He piles them on the boat and heads across the lake. Let’s find a deserted place where you can recuperate. It’s time for a retreat. Jesus knew what was going on. He himself has been careful not to let it happen to him. It is called, in our modern trend to give names to everything- compassion fatigue. It’s what happens when we just can’t muster even one more ounce of caring for anyone- often including ourselves.
A number of years ago we took a vacation to Jamaica to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We got a good deal at one of those all-inclusive resorts where you get your meals and refreshments and just about anything else you need in one package price. It was great- relaxing, refreshing, warm and sunny for New Year’s Day.
One day we took the shuttle into the nearby town to go through the local crafts market. Actually it was a section of a street set-aside with little shacks and lean-tos where local crafts people displayed their wares. They had some beautiful things, but all three of us were overwhelmed by the poverty and the begging that took place. Yes, some of it was part of the show- so to speak- but the poverty we saw was real.
All three of us had an incredibly strong reaction. Here we were staying at this great resort which did help the local economy, while within shouting distance was sorrow and fear that we couldn’t even begin to touch. We had compassion- but we were limited. There was only so much- and we weren’t able to give.
Even in the moment of their greatest success up to that point, they were stuck, too, when they got back home. No one, not even God’s appointed apostles can give constantly. Only God can do that. God never suffers from compassion fatigue. A wonderful gift He gave to Jesus.
Then what happens when they get to the other side? There were more people. It was endless. The needs go on forever. Literally, there is no stopping it. You help one person, two more are at your door.
This soon plays into a certain approach to life that can tear us apart. There are two conflicting thoughts- first- if it is to get done- I have to do it. The second- But I am sick and tired of doing it all the time.
How much more do we think we can do?
Sometimes the answer is nothing. Absolutely nothing. I’m done. Which is exactly what Jesus said to the disciples. When all those people showed up at the shore, now to see the disciples as well as Jesus, he told them to stay in the boat. Wait here, he says, I am rested and ready. You need to take a break. Let me do it.
In other words, it can happen without them. In fact many things do happen without us. Some of you may be familiar with the famous 12-step programs that have helped many over the past 75 years. The very first step of the 12- and the one that is often said has to be worked 100% is that we are powerless. Absolutely powerless over most things in our lives. I had one particular recovering friend who kidded himself about his old grandiosity and acting as if he had even the power of God. He would comment on how the world had changed- communism fell, the Berlin Wall was destroyed- all after he stopped playing God and let God do it himself. He was making a joking- but serious, commentary on our human tendency to want to control everything.
This is why I found the kernel for this sermon from a Christian magazine posted on a business/secular website. This is an important part of life- not just ministry. We cannot- must not- try to do this life alone. And by that I don’t mean that we just turn to God and ask God to give us more and more power to do it ourselves. We are not to forget that there are others to help us- and we are the others to help someone else.
God’s work as any work has to be a team effort. In the church we call this the mission of the community. We are in this together- not just the pastor or board members. We work in unity as Paul calls us in Ephesians: built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
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Labels: Gospel, Jesus, Sunday 0 comments
July 19 - The Marxist Sandinistas take control of Nicaragua.
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The book had a catchy title: Shop Class as Soul Craft. Never having been particularly talented at shop class but interested in "soul" stuff I wondered what Matthew Crawford had in mind. The subtitle: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work took it a little further. So I checked it out of the library.
Interesting premise. Crawford in a post-modern philosophy takes a step back into a world of craft and careful, care-filled manufacturing. He takes to task the western, capitalist corporate soul-less developments in manufacturing. He takes to task as well the Communist government controlled soul-less developments. At times I wanted to call him a post-Communist Marxist.
What gives him the credentials to do this? He is a PhD philosopher and thinker. And he owns a motorcycle repair shop doing true soul craft on engines. He uses his growth and experiences as a mechanic to highlight what he is talking about.
Through this he sets up several ideas that he works through:
to, or serves, some more comprehensive understanding of the good lifethan making money, or leisure, or whatever. He also says that
to be capable of sustaining our interest a job has to have room for progress in excellence.So I pondered, what is work, vocation, soul craft. One thing came through that it is possible to lose
There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart. Pursue those.--William Alexander, Hi, I'm Bill and I'm Old. Hazelden, 2008.
Posted by pmPilgrim
Labels: books, Life, play 0 comments
July 18 - Edward M. Kennedy drives off a bridge on his way home from a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign aide to his brother who was in the car with him, dies in the incident.This took place right between the launch and landing on the moon of Apollo 11. In the days before 24-hour news it was a minor story at first until details (and media attention) moved to cover it. Today they would do split screen coverage and analysis. Although admittedly Gov. Sanford was briefly helped by Michael Jackson's death.
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Labels: 1969 0 comments
Yes, I'm a couple years late for a 40th anniversary tour of Alice's Restaurant, but it's never too late (or early) to go to an Arlo Guthrie concert. It's been quite a few years since I was at one- it was back in Milwaukee a while ago. So when I saw that Arlo was going to be at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul on July 16 I had to go.
My wife doesn't quite get the allure of an Arlo concert.
(We've already seen him twice.
But that was a long time ago. So? And this from the person who watches reruns of her favorite TV shows over and over.
[Silence])
We went.
The Fitz (Garrison Keillor's home theater) is a wonderful place for a concert like this. Anywhere on the main floor is intimate and feels up-close and personal.
I was not disappointed.
The first bit of fun is naturally the crowd. A group that comes to see someone like Arlo has to be a little, well, different. Arlo has been around for over 40 years (which he loves to make fun of.) He goes back to an era that is better in memory than perhaps it was in person. He certainly gets into that in the concert, of course.
I talked a while with the guy in that picture on the right. This was his first time seeing Arlo in person. He made the T-shirt just for the concert. (Yes, like many of us he does listen to Alice's Restaurant every Thanksgiving. It's tradition. But not tonight. Not even a hint.

blends them together so well we sat and waited for the stories with as much anticipation as the songs. If he hadn't stopped in the middle of This Land is Your Land we would have been just as disappointed as if he hadn't sung it. Likewise with the stories of remembering Leadbelly or searching for his grave in Lousiana or reminiscences of Woodstock along with modern stories of meeting Secret Service agents in an airport or his rambling about writing songs with a pen that catches them as they float by. I laughed more and deeper than I often do as his stories touched many funny places.
I can go on for a long time about Arlo. He still represents to me what many of us in our generation still hope and pray for. But he does it with the humility of one who knows that it is more important to do the small things that work for peace than for the big things that only a few can do. He reminds us that doing good is not an option and that we can and should have fun while we do it.Posted by pmPilgrim
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July 17 - Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida.
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I was listening to Marketplace on Public Radio Tuesday when they had a story about the 40th "anniversary" of the war on drugs. They pointed out that most of the money spent in this war has been on the side of stopping the "supply" side of the issue, that is keeping the drugs from getting to the US in the first place. The speaker noted that this has had the effect of giving Colombian and Mexican forces new toys to play with.
Yet most studies and "experts" tell us that the best way to "win" this "war" is through decreasing the demand, not the supply. (And you don't do that by upping the criminality, no-choice sentencing, etc.) You do this through prevention and treatment. Prevention is education and cultural shifting that reduces the numbers who start in the first place. No, this is not a pipe dream (oops, sorry.) If 25 years ago I had told you that smoking would be outlawed in many public places you would have called me crazy. (No, I wasn't crazy enough to think it possible.) Yet that is what has happened. Who says it can't happen with other drugs?
Then there's treatment. This means providing the opportunity for good, solid, effective treatment for those who abuse and get addicted. Even if only 10 - 15% of those in treatment "get it" and stay clean, that would be a significant reduction.
Now I work on the demand side of this equation. I see miracles each day as people discover a clean and sober life. I see more than 10-15% of people "getting" recovery. Perhaps it is time to get rid of the war language. To imply or work from a violent metaphor when what we want is a far different lifestyle is to be working against ourselves. No wonder there are drug wars to keep the supply going. It's just the other side of the war fighting back.
In good synchronicity as I got up to get a coffee refill a moment ago I looked across the shop. There, sitting at the corner table, were two people in a significant discussion. On the table in front of them were two books- Alcoholics Anonymous (The Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. They were doing what this post is all about- staying sober. That is done with one alcoholic (or addict) helping another alcoholic (or addict) discover how to stay sober (and clean).
Isn't that a whole lot better sounding than waging war?
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Labels: AA, drugs 1 comments
July 16 - Apollo program: Apollo 11 (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins) lifts off toward the first landing on the Moon.And, for those of you who weren't around the first time- and for those who want to do it again- go to We Choose the Moon for a moment-by-moment recreation. It looks like a great site with sound and actual capcom and spacecraft communications.
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Labels: 1969 1 comments
Mentally- and in my journal- I have been working for a while on a number of water-related writings. I have written before of Norman Maclean's wonderfully magical line of being "haunted by waters." I, too, am such a person. One of the places where that has been true in the past is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota. They are a place of beauty made primal again by human withdrawal from their control. They are a wilderness returned from civilization to the wild. They are a place where soul can be enlivened. But not without work. Soul never is enlivened by sitting and doing nothing.
No, I don't mean some kind of "works" leading to "righteousness. I mean that work of being alive and allowing ourselves to become more alive. God calls us to work out our salvation in "fear and trembling" as Paul puts it. Nowhere have I discovered that more fully than in the Boundary Waters.
The lakes of the Boundary Waters are both the way to move- and the barrier to movement. You have to cross them to get where you want to go. In their reborn wildness they move us backward in time, even as we carry our modern conveniences of freeze-dried food and gas stoves. They move us to primal and primitive emotions.
On one of the trips we were faced on our journey into the wilderness with a howling gale force wind. It howled at and around us as we crossed the last lake of the day- working to stay upright against its own movement. It was a day we should have stayed at the camp. It was our civilized bravado- and perhaps impatience to get out into the wild. It was also dangerous bravado with relentless motion and feeling as if we were going absolutely nowhere.
Then we came to shore- the two of us in our canoe separated from the rest of the group. The two of us pushed into shore, paddling to little avail, afraid, but adrenaline pushing even harder as we fled the wind. We finally got to land- where we humans most surely belong. We rested before the very short journey across an inlet to rejoin our group.
In that was one of those unbroken circles. There was the power of the moving water which can change geography being pushed by the air moving across the waters. I no longer needed to ask why the ancient Hebrew word for Spirit was the same as the word for this fierce wind- ruach. It was this power- and much, much more out of which creation itself was born and is being reborn. Spirit was also in-through-with the water as well. The Spirit moves over the face of the deep forming and reforming- transferring the power of God to the creation.
It's been more than ten years since that wind-blown trip. It has become the stuff of myth. Not untrue, but truer than the facts; deeper than awareness allowed me at the time. At the end of the day - in wordless gratitude - one knew it was well with the soul.
It had to be because you knew that once you were out there, you still had to get back. You will once again have to push the body - against the elements- to make it back to the start. The middle of that trip was fine. Good weather. Good fishing. Good companionship. Good stargazing. But the week was always tempered by the unthought feeling- we have to go back.
Fortunately the wind, while back up was not what it had been on the way in. It took some work, but we were more ready. Isn't it odd, though, that I don't remember the return trip as well. Maybe it was because it ended back in civilized comfort.
Or maybe it was because the journey through the Spirit into the wilderness was what it was all about.
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Labels: BWCA, canoe, water 0 comments
From (The Customer is) Not Always Right:
(A customer walks in and places a box on the desk in our repairs center.)
Me: “Hello, how can I help you, sir?”
Customer: “Can you fix this for me?”
Me:*looking at box* “This is a toaster.”
Customer: “Yes. Can you fix it? It’s broken.”
Me: “I’m sorry, we only fix computers and computer peripherals here.”
Customer: “But if you can fix computers, surely you can fix a toaster!”
Me: “We don’t fix toasters, sir.”
Customer: “Please? I’m sure it’s easy.”
Me: “Even if we could fix it for you, you don’t have a repair warantee with us, so it would cost you £50 just for us to look at it. You could buy two new toasters for that.”
Customer: “£50?! What a rip-off! If it’s going to cost me that much, I’ll go elsewhere!”
Me: “Have you tried the store you bought it from?”
Customer: “Yes, and they wouldn’t fix it!”
Me: “So you thought a computer store would?”
Customer:*takes the toaster and walks out in a huff*
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--from Wikipedia
Yes, I have finished another baseball book this summer. (I think that's four for the year. So far.) This one was a unique search centered not on baseball but on A baseball. The baseball that Bobby Thomson hit out of the Polo Grounds in New York in October 1951. It won the pennant for the then NY Giants over Dem Bums- the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was a walk-off, bottom of the ninth home run and became known in baseball lore as The Shot Heard 'Round the World.
Well, Brian Biegel, from a long line of Dodger fans goes on an investigative chase to find the ball, the actual ball, long missing from any collection or even awareness. He calls it the Miracle Ball. But as in so many baseball stories (Field of Dreams comes to mind) this one is about much more than baseball. It is about a son and his father; it is about family; it is about mental health and the power of meaning; it is perhaps deeply about the power of cultural myths.
What Biegel goes through in his search for the baseball is fun to read. He even hires forensic experts to search the old newspaper photo of the ball sailing over the fence. Maybe they can find the person in that grainy old picture who caught- and has- the ball.
There's also good baseball lore. A fun book and one that I found interesting on a number of levels. No one will ever convince me that sports writing is any less profound or able to share meaning than other writing.
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I noticed the following on the This Day in History app over on the right today:
1967 The Who, opening for Herman's Hermits begin a U.S. tourI then realized that the opening act was The Who, arguably one of the more important of the British groups ranking right there with the Beatles, The Stones, Led Zepplin and, well, maybe that's it. And Herman's Hermits? Let us just say they had their day while The Who continue to live on.
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Yesterday on LiveScience they reported another one of those myth-busting and bad-behavior helping studies:
Swearing is a common response to pain..Which may be why James Lipton on Actor's Studio likes to ask what his guest's favorite swear word is.
"Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon," said Richard Stephens of Keele University in England and one of the authors of the new study. "It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain."
Stephens and his fellow Keele researchers John Atkins and Andrew Kingston sought to test how swearing would affect an individual's tolerance to pain. Because swearing often has an exaggerating effect that can overstate the severity of pain, the team thought that swearing would lessen a person's tolerance.
As it turned out, the opposite seems to be true....
The researchers think that the increase in pain tolerance occurs because swearing triggers the body's natural "fight-or-flight" response. Stephens and his colleagues suggest that swearing may increase aggression (seen in accelerated heart rates), which downplays weakness to appear stronger or more macho.
"Our research shows one potential reason why swearing developed and why it persists," Stephens said.
--Link
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I was watching one of the TED talks the other day from Isabel Allende, one of my favorite writers. She started out by quoting the old Hasidic Jewish question:
What is truer than truth?The answer, as any longtime reader of this blog might guess is:
Story.Only in story can we truly explore truth in all its dimensions. Only in story can we get to the heart of issues and concerns, told with a passion and hope and power that cannot be found when we have to stick to facts.
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Saturday from the Tour de France:
They clocked 4 hours, 31 minutes, 50 seconds for the 110-mile trek along three big climbs from the Pyrenean principality of Andorra to Saint-Girons.Let's see I did 31 miles in 3 hours 31 minutes. I wonder what my rank would be?
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Labels: cycling, fun 0 comments
First, from Nadia Bolz-Weber on Theolog, the blog of the Christian Century:
I serve a funky little Lutheran congregation, a liturgical and sacramental emerging church. Someone recently asked, "Do you think the church you planted will, you know, get really big?"Which connected quickly in my mind with one of the cartoons this past week from David the Naked Pastor:
I smiled broadly, looking up at the sky and then back at my friend. "Um," I said, "well...no." She looked at me, shocked at my seemingly low self-esteem. "There's just not a huge market for the message 'Jesus bids you come and die'," I explained. "People don't exactly line up around the block for that. But 'Jesus wants to make you rich!' seems to be doing really well right now."
Sure makes sense to me. I have come to realize since I am not preaching week-in and week-out that most people don't think very often of the possible consequences of truly following Jesus. To be honest I don't think I thought very much about it when I was preaching. I'm not sure many ever do. At least those of us who live in places where we don't have to worry if we are Christian.Posted by pmPilgrim
Labels: Gospel, Sunday 1 comments
Since I am from Wisconsin (though a non-native) the following headline on the Odd News on Yahoo! didn't seem so odd to me:
Drunk badger disrupts trafficThen I realized it wasn't talking about the football fans at Camp Randall.
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Periodically I get asked, sicne I work at a treatment facility, if we have seen an increase in treatment needs since the recession has started. Well, the answer is no. Things have been about normal. I came across this earlier this week in an email newsletter I get.
Drinking Habits Steady Amid RecessionSeveral things to note:
Sixty-four percent drink, unchanged; beer is still the preferred beverage
Gallup by Lydia Saad
June 29, 2009
PRINCETON, NJ -- Despite some anecdotal reports of a surge in drinking accompanying the economic recession, Gallup's annual update on alcohol consumption finds little change in Americans' drinking habits. The percentage of U.S. adults who consume alcohol is fairly steady at 64%, and there has been little change in self-reported drinking volume.
The June survey interviewed over 1,000 adults nationwide and had a sampling error of three percent.
According to the June 14-17 Gallup Poll, the prevalence of drinking in the U.S. adult population is essentially unchanged compared with a year ago. Sixty-four percent of Americans tell Gallup they "have occasion to use alcoholic beverages." This falls within the narrow 62% to 66% range seen over the past decade.
See the full release at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/121277/Drinking-Habits-Steady-Amid-Recession.aspx
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Labels: Alcoholism 0 comments
Study: Cognitive Functions Can Recover After Methamphetamine UseOf course my snide side wants to ask, "How much cognitive ability might there have been in the first place if they started taken meth at all?" But I'll be nice and not say that since I know it doesn't take much for some people to get hooked. But the temptation was real.
Join Together Online July 7, 2009
Research Summary
Researchers at the University of California at Davis reported that certain cognitive deficits resulting from methamphetamine use can be recovered, although recovery takes at least a year.
The researchers measured research subjects on their ability to direct their attention to specific tasks while ignoring distractions. They discovered that those who were recently abstinent (three weeks to six months) performed significantly worse on the cognitive test than those who had been abstinent one year or longer.
See the full article at: http://www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2009/study-cognitive-functions.html
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Labels: addiction 0 comments
Ooops. I missed this on Wednesday.
July 8 - Vietnam War: The very first U.S. troop withdrawals are made.
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Labels: 1969 0 comments
One of the things people in early recovery are often told is that they need to be cautious of extreme emotions- being really UP or really DOWN. Addicts and alcoholics have craved those extremes as the reasons for drinking or what they hope to have happen as a result of their drinking. It soon reaches the point where the only emotions one can feel are the extremes, say rage instead of anger; ecstasy instead of joy.
In addition in early recovery the emotions are often bouncing all over the place. Just stopping whatever substances were being used will let things jump all over the place. This too is dangerous since we are not used to such swings.
So one evening I heard a question being asked.
With all this talk of remaining calm and not going to extremes, will I lose my passion for things?I was struck immediately because true passion- caring deeply about things- is important. Recovery isn't about being dull or apathetic or boring. Recovery is about being "happy, joyous and free" as the Big Book says. Passion is not an extreme emotion. Passion is at the heart of enjoying life and caring for and about others.
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Labels: addiction, passion, recovery 0 comments
Last Saturday night was of course the night of the 4th of July.
And as usual for such events I took along my trusty camera.
I took lots of pictures and was pleasantly surprised by the wide range and styles that show up. Like the one above that made me think of Christmas with a Moravian star in the lower left corner.
Or the ones below that make a mixture of lines and stars that make it look like a bush or shrub.

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Cory reported the end of one of the first true cyber-communities- CompuServe. (To be honest I didn't even know it was still around.)
It started in 1979, 30 years ago as the forerunner to AOL and, in essence the World Wide Web. I first went on CompuServe in October of 1984. I bought my first "real" computer, a Tandy (Radio Shack) which was a surprisingly good computer. I bought a modem and the first night after purchasing a CompuServe membership I was online.
No graphics. Slow modem over a normal telephone line. Did I say no graphics? Just text on a blue screen (I think). But what a rush. It was the beginning of a long- and still active- hobby. Now we take it all for granted.
CompuServe- thank you. You were one of the true pioneers!
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Labels: computers, Internet 0 comments
Sunday was another great day for a bicycling ride. So I headed east across The River into Wisconsin to do 31 miles (roundtrip) on the Great River Trail.
It was a day for the normal, 
but special birds seemed to be around. Familiar birds, of course...


Posted by pmPilgrim
Labels: cycling, pictures 0 comments
Seen today on a bumper sticker:
Those who abandon their dreams will discourage yours.
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Labels: bumper sticker, Quotes 0 comments
As I worked out this afternoon riding a bike at the local health center over lunch I was honored with all the TV networks paying homage to Michael Jackson. From NBC to Fox News there sat these icons of newsiness waiting for the memorial service to start, showing family pictures, re-running the live video feed, etc. etc. etc.
I repeat, this is not headline level news. Sorry folks. It does not require the services of the top news anchors. It does not require the services of hours of commercial TV time. Yes, it is a story of interest, but to turn it into a world-class news event is going a bit far. Fortunately the sound was off and I had my iPod to listen to.
But I must admit I kept waiting to see if ESPN would switch to Jackson-mania. During my time, they did not.
Posted by pmPilgrim
Labels: News, personal 0 comments
This Celtic Daily Prayer felt just right for the day after a holiday. We take holidays to unclutter and simplify. Then we go back to making things difficult.
Lord, help me now to unclutter my life,
to organize myself in the direction of simplicity.
Lord, teach me to listen to my heart;
teach me to welcome change, instead of fearing it.
Lord, I give You these stirrings inside me,
I give you my discontent,
I give you my restlessness,
I give you my doubt,
I give you my despair,
I give you all the longings I hold inside.
Help me to listen to these signs of change, of growth;
to listen seriously and follow where they lead
through the breathtaking empty space of an open door.
Source: unknown
Posted by pmPilgrim
Labels: lifestyle, Quotes 0 comments

Not being a bike trail designer, I have often wondered how they do the impossible:
Make a flat trail go uphill in both directions and thenAmazing.
Add a head wind for the last 4 miles.
Posted by pmPilgrim
Labels: cycling, fun 0 comments
And they took offense at him. (Mark 6:3)
Of course they did. He was Jesus ben Joseph, the carpenter's son. How could they not. They knew him too well.
That's the standard way of looking at the passage- and probably right on target. But there is something really odd about what happens as a result of their taking offense at Jesus.
Jesus did hardly any healings among them. I won't go so far as to say Jesus was powerless in Nazareth, but it was sure a dark black hole that seemed to suck away all his divine healing power.
It would be tempting to say that in order for his healing to work people had to believe in him. But the Gospel narratives sure don't support that. It might be that the Devil was at work taking things away, but that isn't what we are told. Considering how willing the Gospel writers are to talk about the Devil and his campaign against Jesus my guess is that the Devil isn't to blame.
Ah, there's a hint at why we may have trouble dealing with this- blame. We want to blame someone or something for Jesus apparent lack of ability to heal in Nazareth. Blame isn't the issue, I don't believe. Rather I think some kind of spiritual law may be at work here. It may simply be that the people
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Labels: Gospel, Sunday 0 comments
pmPilgrim photo, 1983, Washington Monument.
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
--Link
Posted by pmPilgrim
Labels: United States 0 comments
They are re-opening the crown of the Statue of Liberty today, July 4.
The picture on the right was taken when a group of us went to the top back in 1993. We took the picture to prove that we made the hike- successfully.
Posted by pmPilgrim
Labels: NYC 0 comments
I guess there's been one of those periodic attempts to think about changing the National Anthem from The Star-Spangled Banner for any one of a number of reasons. Then last Sunday was a good op-ed piece in the Star-Tribune by Trudi Hahn Pickett. She writes:
What I'd really like to do is sing "The Star-Spangled Banner," preferably 1) in public, 2) with no microphones and 3) with a large group of fellow citizens.She goes on to say that this has become impossible because there are always guest singers doing it for us.
Currently, this is next to impossible for an American adult.
Posted by pmPilgrim
Labels: Music, patriotism 1 comments
Posted by pmPilgrim
Labels: politics 0 comments
Again I was listening to Speaking of Faith and again I was struck by an insight. The guest this week was Xavier Le Pichon who is one of the world's leading geophysicists, and his pioneering research on plate tectonics revolutionized our understanding of how the earth works. He has also spent decades living in community with people and families facing disability and has emerged with a rare perspective on the meaning of humanity — a perspective equally informed by his scientific and personal encounters with fragility as a fundament of vital, evolving systems.
Somewhere along in the show there was discussion on evolution and revolution.
Mr. Le Pichon: Communities which are very strong, very rigid, that do not take into account the weak points of the community, the people who are in difficulty and so on, tends to be communities that do not evolve. And when they evolve, it's generally by a very strong commotion, a revolution, I would call them in French.Two things jumped out at me in the conversation, or better put, two ideas came to mind. First was the idea of evolution vs revolution. It is an old sermon illustration to contrast the rigid trees that will sway in a wind storm and not break versus those that re overly rigid and tend to crack in those same winds. This week we in the US celebrate a revolution. Probably the first successful and democratic revolution. There was a rigidity in the British monarchy/parliamentary system in 1776 that made revolution the only viable way.
Ms. Tippett: You make that distinction between systems that incorporate fragility and evolve and then systems that become rigid and need revolutions to move forward.
Mr. Le Pichon: Human people are not adults in full possession of their means. Human people, it starts with babies, it continues with growing people, it continues with adults, it continues with older people and with great age and people who die. All of that is part of humanity and humanity is not complete if you have some of the spots out.
And the way to build the society is the way to integrate these people in a way in which they can interact and each of them can find out that they have their place, that their life has a meaning, that they are needed by the others. So often I have found, for example, among very old people that they have the impression that they are not useful anymore. You know, nobody needs them. And then they want to go. They want to go. So there is this problem that the society cannot live by itself, if it doesn't recognize that it heterogeneous and highly diverse.
And that the weakest have to get their place in there.
--Link to Transcript
Posted by pmPilgrim
Labels: change, faith, revolution 0 comments