The Real Impact
While the “Meth Epidemic” is real and deserves a lot of attention in some parts of the country, I hope that it doesn’t hide a deeper and more devastating drug problem that is even more widespread and dangerous. Here is a selection from the Minot, ND Daily News as found in the Policy Impact Daily Digest:

Alcohol Packs a Punch
By: Ken Crites Minot Daily News September 25, 2005
MINOT, ND - Minot Police Chief Dan Draovitch says drugs and drug abuse don't compare to the effects of alcohol. Draovitch said, "In my 37 years plus service on the police department, I haven't seen anything that causes more problems than alcohol."

The chief was responding to questions about driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs (DUI). "It's a problem all over our state," he said. "Forty to 50 percent of drivers involved in fatality accidents are drunk behind the wheel. It only takes one accident to kill or injure someone.

"I'll go so far as to say that alcohol is the number one problem in the state of North Dakota," Draovitch continued. "It's just too accepted in our society. You just can't hardly have a social event without booze. Sometimes social drinking turns into some awful circumstances. I see it as a problem all over the state."

He said the last Legislature spent a lot of time debating the extension of drinking hours in the state to 2 a.m. "I'm glad the beverage dealers didn't do it here. In this city and county, we just don't need another hour to drink."

He said with a 2 a.m. closing of bars, there isn't much time for the effects of alcohol to wear off. He said a body loses about one ounce of alcohol an hour. "Somebody who drinks 15 beers doesn't have much time to get it out of their system before going to work the next day.

"That's not a popular view, going against alcohol."

He said alcohol also causes problems for young people, specifically underage drinkers. He said it's a parental responsibility, but with all the commercials on TV extolling the glamour of alcohol, it's tough to get the point across, especially if the parents are also drinkers.

"If they see their parents drunk," he said, "the chances are excellent the young people will do the very thing they hate.

Copyright 2005 Minot Daily News
From Policy Impacts Daily Digest

Make no mistake about it, meth is a major and serious drug, public health, and addiction problem. It tears people and lives and families apart. Children in such families are at HIGH risk. I am NOT meaning to downplay the problem in many parts of the country where the meth problem is exploding.

But we cannot and must not overlook the more profound problems that alcohol and tobacco (the #1 and #2 drugs of choice!) have on our whole society. From drunken driving to incredibly high medical costs in diseases related to both, we as a country are paying over and over and over for these. Not that we should go back to prohibition. That sure didn't work! But a broader and better funded prevention program and a broader and better funded treatment program will work. It has already with tobacco in spite of the attempts to sabotage it.

We are in need of comprehensive and broad-culturally aware programs for all of this. It will cost some money, but it will, if even moderately successful, bring down health care costs for many.

Not to mention giving a greater quality of life to many!

I Am A Commuter
For my entire adult working life (35 years now) I have lived in the same community where I have worked. As a pastor I often lived next door to the church, but never more than a couple miles away in the same town or city. It was a basic and essential part of my working life to be a part of the community where I worked. I am a strong believer in such community involvement. Where you live is an important part of your life. That is where you get involved.

Even for the past 22 months of working in the school as a chemical health counselor, I have worked in the school district where I live. I wanted it that way. I know the community. I pay taxes in the community. I need and want to be part of that bigger picture.

Well, at the beginning of next month that will change. I will be commuting for the first time in 35 years to work in a different community in a private clinic as an addictions counselor. That is a whole new idea for me to wrap my mind around. Most of the teachers and even county workers I have worked with in the past 2 years have been commuters. Now I will be, too. That is not meant to indicate a “bad thing.” It simply means that I will have to be more aware of my need to be in community and find the community both where I live and where I work. My community investment will have to be lived out in new ways.

I think I can now understand a little better why commuters have some difficulty having a “home.” Maybe I’m wrong- and I hope I am. But it certainly is a new way of life for me.

Music Meme:1966- Music Beginning To Turn
OK, Andrew, you hooked me again with music. Here are the rules for this meme:
1. Go to musicoutfitters.com.
2. Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year.
3. Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate and underline your favorite. Do nothing to the ones you don't remember (or don't care about).

I am surprised by what a wide variety of music is on the list. Some are unforgiveable (#1, for example) but certainly fit the times which were just about to be a-changin'. It was a transition year for the Beatles and exciting for Simon and Garfunkle and the Beach Boys with their arguably best hits of the decade. There are also some "guilty pleasures" on the list, marked with [gp].

So, then, here's the Top 100 from that great year, 1966.

1. The Ballad Of The Green Berets, Sgt. Barry Sadler
2. Cherish, Association
3. (You're My) Soul And Inspiration, Righteous Brothers
4. Monday, Monday, The Mama's and The Papa's
5. 96 Tears, ? and The Mysterians
6. Last Train To Clarksville, The Monkees
7. Reach Out I'll Be There, Four Tops
8. Summer In The City, Lovin' Spoonful
9. Poor Side Of Town, Johnny Rivers
10. California Dreamin', The Mama's and The Papa's
11. You Can't Hurry Love, Supremes
12. What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted, Jimmy Ruffin
13. These Boots Are Made For Walkin', Nancy Sinatra [gp]
14. Born Free, Roger Williams
15. Strangers In The Night, Frank Sinatra
16. We Can Work It Out, The Beatles
17. When A Man Loves A Woman, Percy Sledge
18. Winchester Cathedral, New Vaudeville Band
19. Hanky Panky, Tommy James and The Shondells
20. Good Lovin', Young Rascals
21. Paint It Black, Rolling Stones
22. My Love, Petula Clark
23. Lightin' Strikes, Lou Christie
24. Wild Thing, Troggs [gp]
25. Kicks, Paul Revere and The Raiders
26. Sunshine Superman, Donovan
27. Sunny, Bobby Hebb
28. Paperback Writer, The Beatles
29. See You In September, Happenings
30. You Keep Me Hangin' On, Supremes
31. Lil' Red Riding Hood, Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs
32. Devil With A Blue Dress On and Good Golly Miss Molly (Medley), Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels
33. Good Vibrations, Beach Boys
34. A Groovy Kind Of Love, Mindbenders
35. You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, Dusty Springfield
36. Born A Woman, Sandy Posey
37. Cool Jerk, The Capitols
38. Red Rubber Ball, The Cyrkle [gp]
39. B-A-B-Y, Carla Thomas
40. Walk Away Renee, Left Banke
41. Daydream, Lovin' Spoonful
42. Time Won't Let Me, Outsiders
43. Hooray For Hazel, Tommy Roe
44. Sweet Pea, Tommy Roe
45. Bus Stop, Hollies
46. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, B.J. Thomas and The Triumphs
47. Ain't Your Puppet, James and Bobby Purify
48. Ain't Too Proud To Beg, Temptations
49. Dirty Water, Standells [gp]
50. Elusive Butterfly, Bob Lind
51. I Am A Rock, Simon and Garfunkel
52. Crying Time, Ray Charles
53. Secret Agent Man, Johnny Rivers
54. The Sounds Of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel
55. Lady Godiva, Peter and Gordon
56. Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?, Lovin' Spoonful
57. You Baby, The Turtles
58. Barefootin', Robert Parker
59. Homeward Bound, Simon and Garfunkel
60. Uptight (Everything's Alright), Stevie Wonder
61. Bang Bang, Cher
62. Sloop John B, Beach Boys
63. 19th Nervous Breakdown, Rolling Stones
64. Wipe Out, The Surfaris [gp]
65. Beauty Is Only Skin Deep, Temptations
66. No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach Is In), T-Bones
67. Just Like Me, Paul Revere and The Raiders
68. Love Makes The World Go Round, Deon Jackson
69. The Pied Piper, Crispian St. Peters
70. Coming On Strong, Brenda Lee
71. Somewhere My Love, Ray Conniff and The Singers
72. Almost Persuaded, David Houston
73. If I Were A Carpenter, Bobby Darin
74. Don't Mess With Bill, Marvelettes
75. Cherry, Cherry, Neil Diamond
76. Working In The Coal Mine, Lee Dorsey
77. Message To Michael, Dionne Warwick
78. Love Is A Hurtin' Thing, Lou Rawls
79. Barbara Ann, Beach Boys
80. Gloria, Shadows Of Knight
81. Dandy, Herman's Hermits
82. Rainy Day Women #12 And 35, Bob Dylan
83. Guantanamera, Sandpipers
84. Psychotic Reaction, Count Five
85. Land Of 1,000 Dances, Wilson Pickett
86. Oh How Happy, Shades Of Blue
87. Woman, Peter and Gordon
88. Five O'clock World, Vogues
89. Black Is Black, Los Bravos
90. Hungry, Paul Revere and The Raiders
91. My World Is Empty Without You, Supremes
92. Baby Scratch My Back, Slim Harpo
93. She's Just My Style, Gary Lewis and The Playboys
94. The More I See You, Chris Montez
95. 634-5789, Wilson Pickett
96. Yellow Submarine, The Beatles
97. Nowhere Man, The Beatles
98. Zorba The Greek, Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass
99. Shapes Of Things, Yardbirds
100. I Fought The Law, Bobby Fuller Four

The Ragged Clown Behind
One of the things about Bob Dylan’s writing is the incredible use of imagery in his songs. They may not always make logical sense, but at they get the point across. The words to Desolation Row or A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall do not progress in any (to me) logical format. Dylan may deny some of the meanings people have given to them over the years. But they grab you and kick you in the rear with a power than you cannot deny. They are of biblical/epic/prophetic proportions.

They're selling postcards of the hanging
They're painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They've got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they're restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row
--from Highway 61 Revisited, Copyright © 1965; renewed 1993 Special Rider Music

And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin',
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin',
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin',
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin',
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
--from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

Yet one of the enduring images I have found in Dylan’s words is the clown/troubadour. I can’t help but put them together in my mind. Whether it is from the circus image in Desolation Row or the clown crying in the alley in Hard Rain, there is often such a figure lurking in the songs. I can’t help but think of it as Dylan himself.

I see him lurking around the world, the society, the day in and day out life of people on the edges or at the centers of power. I see him sounding the tambourine of protest (even as he doesn’t like that idea.) I see him crying through the words as we all just keep ignoring hope and those who are outside. He was not the “voice of a generation.” His words and insights are much broader and much more mysterious than that. (There- I keep using that word- mysterious. How else can I describe it? How else?) They are primal even when he is having fun (Subterranean Homesick Blues) or crying over lost love (Like a Rolling Stone.)

So for me the enduring image of Dylan is in Mr. Tambourine Man, which seems to be a picture in a mirror of Dylan himself- the ragged clown behind. Keep following us, keep writing, keep performing. He may not want us to “pay it any mind,” but we do. We need it.

In Memory: M. Scott Peck


Author of The Road Less Traveled and People of the Lie. An interesting and challenging thinker even though he became portrayed as a "pop psychology" guru. His faith and understanding of the world brought some exciting ideas to light in the relationship of religion and psychology. I heard him two or three times and found him fascinating. He died of cancer today at age 69.
(Picture from Beliefnet.com.)

Bits and Pieces of Today

In Yahoo! News today:

Pope Meets With Dissident Theologian

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
VATICAN CITY -
Pope Benedict XVI met with one of his fiercest critics, the Swiss dissident theologian Hans Kueng, in yet another sign the pontiff wants to reach out to prominent Catholics who fell from grace under his predecessor.

In an interview with The Associated Press from his home in Tuebingen, Germany, Kueng called Saturday's meeting "extraordinary" but said it was wrong to speak of reconciliation.

"I am sure that this will be seen in the Catholic world, and even more than that, as a hopeful sign because it shows that he (Benedict) has more positive intentions than maybe what was seen at the beginning," Kueng said.

Fall Web Cams Link
WXNation has some links to Fall Foliage webcams around the country.

Dylan, Part 1
Dylan. The amazing, eclectic, always mysterious Dylan. No, this show does NOT demystify him. As I have heard from many reviewers, this only adds mystery to a remarkable American musical icon.

Part one tonight gave us insights and mystery, as expected. The contrast between all these people talking about his greatness and Dylan simply being himself, is at the heart of the show. Dylan does what he does because he is who he is.

For me the image that best describes Dylan (and has for years) is that little half grin he gives. You never know whether he's being serious or having fun. He's a troubador, giving us stories that he wants us to hear, challenging us to think and then smiling that hidden smile of the storyteller who knows he knows as little as we do.

Wait until part two when I have a hunch we will see more of the tambourine man:

Though you might hear laughin', spinnin',
Swingin' madly across the sun,
It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin'.
And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind,
I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're
Seein' that he's chasing.
--Mr. Tambourine Man, Bob Dylan, 1964, 1992

Paving The Road to Hell
Yes, the sound you hear is Jesus rattling my cage again with another parable. (Why does it always have to be about two brothers?) Again a man had two sons. He simply wanted work from them both. One said,

Sure, Dad, I'd be happy too.

But he didn't go. The other said,

Hey, I have better things to do today.

But he changed his mind and went. So which one did his father's will? The one who said he would- and didn't; or the one who said he wouldn't- and did?

It's a no brainer, of course. The one who did his father's will is the one who DID his father's will, not the one who said he would. Can we be harsh on the first one? (Well, yes, but let's not.) He had great intentions. He was going to do it. But you know how things come up. Maybe next time, huh, Dad?

No wonder I have been told since I was a child that the road to hell is paved with just such good intentions. You have to live them, not say them. You have to do them, not promise them. You have to make them real, not just wishful thinking.

Oh, how easy to live in the intentions. How easy to make a promise and then lose sight of it. How simple to be willing but not do it.

Passion is one thing. The long haul to do it, Ah, but that's another altogether. Maybe that's why I should, at times, be president of my own hell-road paving company.

The good intention, the “Yes,” taken in vain, the unfulfilled promise leaves a residue of despair, of dejection. Beware! Good intention can very soon flare up again in more passionate declarations of intention, but only to leave behind even greater desperation. As an alcoholic constantly requires stronger and stronger drink, so the one who has fallen under the spell of good intentions and smooth-sounding declaration constantly requires more and more good intentions. And so he keeps himself from seeing that he is walking backwards.
Soren Kierkegaard posted on Bruderhof.com from Provocations available FREE in e-book format.

A Football Update-
The Big Ten and NFC North
Well, well, well. The Upside-Down Big Ten. After the first week of Conference Play here are the standings:

TEAM Conf W-L [Overall W-L]
Michigan State 1-0 [4-0]
Minnesota 1-0 [4-0]
Penn State 1-0 [4-0]
Wisconsin 1-0 [4-0]
Ohio State 1-0 [3-1]
Indiana 0-0 [3-0]
Purdue 0-1 [2-1]
Illinois 0-1 [2-2]
Iowa 0-1 [2-2]
Michigan 0-1 [2-2]
Northwestern 0-1 [2-2]

Only we crazy Badger, Gopher, Nittany Lion fans would have really thought this was possible. Of those 4-0 teams, only Michigan State was ranked (#17) last week. (AP Rankings. This week's not yet available.)

Meanwhile in the NFC North- (Please, be kind to us. We're trying to do it right.)
Before today's games:

Chicago 1-1
Detroit 1-1
Green Bay 0-2
Minnesota 0-2

After today's game:

Detroit 1-1 (Bye week)
Chicago 1-2
Minnesota 1-2
Green Bay 0-3

Oh, that hurts! This is the first time since 1988 that the Pack has started 0-3. The NFC North is not looking all that good, even with the win by the Vikings today.

Oh, well.

Who You Gonna Serve?
With the Martin Scorcese documentary on Bob Dylan airing on PBS next week, I thought this would be a good time to post the following words from Dylan...

Serve Somebody
Bob Dylan

You may be a state trooper, you might be a young Turk,
You may be the head of some big TV network,
You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame,
You may be living in another country under another name...

You may be a construction worker working on a home,
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome,
You might own guns and you might even own tanks,
You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks...

You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride,
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side,
You may be in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair,
You may be somebody's mistress, may be somebody's heir...

Might like to wear cotton... might like to wear silk,
Might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk,
You might like to eat caviar, you might like to eat bread,
You may be sleeping on the floor, or in a king-sized bed...

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody.
It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.
Originally released, 1979, on Slow Train Coming.

I'm looking forward to the show. Bob Dylan is truly one of the giants of American music. With Scorcese directing, it can only be a remarkable experience of the man and his music. No matter what he has sung- from protest to love to spiritual and just plain wierd, he captures so much it is hard to describe. A remarkable artist.

Life On a Thread
How fragile is our hold on life at times. How thin the thread tha we live on in this world that is far larger than we are and far more powerful.

Those were my thoughts earlier today as I watched the coverage of Hurricane Rita on TV. A levee breach in New Orleans refilling parts of the city. "Too much water coming much too quickly" is how the CNN reporter put it.
Downtown Houston a ghost town on a normally busy weekday morning.
Stone seawalls built in Galveston after the great hurricane of 1900 looking like they may not be high enough for Rita.

It isn't just Rita, of course. We had some major storms move through the north Twin Cities metro area on Wednesday with schools closed as a result on Thursday, lots of electrical outages, and a man killed by a falling limb. In a few months we will hear about winter weather in various places. There will be fires in California. Mud slides. Tornadoes. Perhaps earthquakes.

The governor of Texas says that we were prepared so "we will get through this."

Yes, but.... it is only a fragile getting through. I have written about it before and I hate to sound so pessimistic, but we have to have a certain reality about it. In the long run it is a tenuous hanging on that we have. The powers of nature are far more powerful than we can ever be. Katrina, Rita, the Tsunami- take your pick- they remind us of our weaknesses.

Humility is a proper response. Humility will keep us from getting overconfident and expecting perfection. Humility will remind us that in the end it is not about us as individuals, but about us working together to support and care for each other in light of powers beyond us.

And turning to The Power that I believe will be with us no matter what. May God's grace always be in mind and in the place of need.

Now These Are Fans
Ingenious. This from Yahoo!News Odd News:

Fake plane emergency lets Gambians see match
By Marco Aquino Thu Sep 22, 8:38 AM ET

LIMA (Reuters) - A plane carrying Gambian soccer fans to Peru made an unauthorized detour and faked a fuel emergency to land in time for the West African nation's game in a world youth tournament, officials said Wednesday.

The Rum Air plane carrying 289 fans bypassed immigration formalities in Lima by landing in the northern city of Piura about two hours before the African youth champions kicked off against Qatar in the World Under-17 Championship Tuesday.

And, after a long day today, that's about all my mind can grasp.

A Thought

If we only look for what we want instead of what God wants to give us, we will end up short-changing ourselves and missing out on a lot of life.

What a wonderful thought- and challenging one at that. I heard it in passing at a meeting the other night. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

It was the word if wisdom that I needed to help me make the final decision to change jobs. Up to that point it was all about "Me!" and how "I!" loved what "I!" was doing and how great a job "I!" was doing and how "I!" would miss it and "I!" would feel lost and how "I!"....

I think you get the picture. I had gotten into one of my tunnel-vision modes even though it was clear that this was more than just a job offer. (Re-read yesterday's post!) I had lost sight of how much more there is to life than I can even begin to imagine and if I allow my narrow wishes and desires and visions to be all there is, well, I'm going to miss a lot.

That is an amazing insight. It is behind the story of the workers in the vineyard on Sunday. The all-day-workers were stuck in their vision of "fairness" and lost sight of God's vision of justice and grace which offers them even more than they realized. To get lost in my comfort zone, to be unwilling to take a chance and move to something relatively unknown even when being led by God- that shows an incredible lack of trust that God has something God wants me to be doing and I have no reason to know what or why.

It is what pilgrimage is all about. It is the journey of faith. It is life lived on God's terms, not mine.

Praise God for His amazingly powerful grace.

In Memory: Simon Wiesenthal
News from The Herald

Simon Wiesenthal, who has died at the age of 96, was the conscience of the Holocaust. Not only was he determined to bring the perpetrators to justice, he spent the later decades of his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people.

Wiesenthal, who himself lost 89 relatives in the Holocaust, spent more than 50 years hunting Nazi war criminals, speaking out against neo-Nazism and racism, and remembering the Jewish experience as a lesson for humanity. Through his work, he said, some 1100 Nazi war criminals were brought to justice. "When history looks back I want people to know the Nazis weren't able to kill millions of people and get away with it," he once said.

Here was a man of great dedication. He knew the pain of prejudice first-hand and was unwilling to let it get the upper hand.

May he rest in peace at last!

Change Is Always Hard
I have resigned one job for another.

I have spoken here - and many other places - of how much I love my job working as a chemical health specialist in schools. To be on the front line with youth is a remarkable, challenging, humbling, exciting, scary, and frustrating experience. It is more than any I could have hoped for in the past 21 months.

But it is time to move.

In a few weeks I will be working in a private counseling center as an adult chemical dependence counselor. For the first time in my adult life I will be working full-time in the "private" or "for-profit" sector. It is a big change. I wrestled greatly and have mourned the change deeply. (Even good change brings grief!)

But when God puts all the pieces in place and hands them to you and says, "Weeellll, it's your move!" you move.

It came out of the blue. I didn't go looking for it. I was happy, satisfied, in the midst of all kinds of plans. Which is usually the way it happens. My wife is in the midst of a major change that takes her from a full-time position to a part-time pastoral position in a rural church. That meant a significant pay cut for her (and for us.)

It was 40% to be exact.

The same day she said yes to that- in fact at almost the exact time she was preparing to say yes - I get an email from the director of this counseling center. He has wanted me for a couple of years. This times he makes a new offer. A very clear and specific offer. With a significant increase in income over what I am currently earning.

It was 40% to be exact.

"Doh! What do you want, pilgrim, an engraved invitation?"

It took me a week to make up my mind. I'm still a little slow on these things. I don't want to appear greedy or anything. And as I said, I have loved the job. But it appears that God wants me to move on. It's time for something new. It's time to accept some entirely new challenges out there in the world. It's time to follow God's leading into a new area of work and- yes- of ministry.

I'll keep you posted on how it all goes. But it is bittersweet as all such times must be. Life is always moving and changing. I don't like change- unless of course I initiate it. But sometimes it is possible that comfort in one place means that I may have stopped growing. So, off to a new challenge and new visions.

And I wouldn't have traded these past 21 months for anything.

Riding Along In My Automobile
A sunny, late summer Sunday afternoon. The sun is awesome in its light and warmth.

Across the open fields the bean plants are green and gold (Packer fans?) with blue and white as a sky-full backdrop.

The sound of the tires on the road, windows open for rushing air (oh, for a convertible on a day like this!)

Into the CD player goes a collection of flatpicking guitar that seems to move to the sounds of the road.

How many shades of green do I see? What are the different colors of gold and yellow and tan spread across the fields? God's creation is truly a great place to be on a day like this. It's hard to get any better!

Yes, I know I write something like this every year. But you know what? Every year I am re-surprised by it. It is new each and every time because it is also different. As life moves by, so the experiences are always new. I am in awe each and every season as the images change and are unique to each moment.

Yes, I am truly blessed in so many ways on a day like this- as on any day with my Lord!

blogs4God Rises From the Dead
Once effectively silenced by spam, Dean Peters has returned and with him comes the new version of blogs4God. Here's a paragraph from the good news:

On September 19, 2005 blogs4God.com will rise from the dead and re-open its doors as the "Semi-definitive list of Christians who Blogs." The site will offer a variety of user-friendly features such as daily-aggregations, moderated categories, website reviews and ratings, a site-wide search engine and daily blogs on the front page.

As Mr. Peters likes to put it "there is no need for Christian bloggers to hide their light under a basket as long as blogs4God is around."

P.S - for those of you who have been patiently waiting - yes, you may now register!

I'm pleased and look forward to some great stuff again. Thanks, Mean Dean!

Forget Being Generous, They Didn't Earn It!
Among the many parables that Jesus told to upset all of us who tend to act human, the one about the workers and their pay ranks almost up there with the Prodigal Son for upsetting reactions. If you work from sun-up to sun-down you certainly deserve more pay than those lazy ones who didn't get out in the field until a hour before the end of the day whistle goes off.

'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.'

Neither union nor management would want to put up with that. Management would want to save money; union would want to be fair. That's the way it's supposed to be, of course. You earn your pay. None of this freebie stuff and handouts, etc.

But the owner has other thoughts. He wants the work done and is willing to pay. Who says he has to be fair when grace is so much better.

'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?'

As a matter of fact, yes, we do begrudge you your generosity. It isn't fair to me- and that's all that counts. Especially since we see ourselves as the all-day workers. We would never consider ourselves the late-comers. We've always been here. We've always been faithful. We'ver been hard workers in that vineyard.

Hmmm. Now it is beginning to sound like the Prodigal Son. Why can't we be gracious? Why can't we accept the grace given to others? Because we are unwilling to be gracious?

Because deep down we have trouble accepting unmerited favor- grace!

A Short Saturday
From the quotes email I get daily, this one was from a while ago, but it made sense to me today....

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
--Mahatma Ghandi

It really expresses the paradox that while our lives are, in the great scheme of things fairly insignificant, our lives really are important to us and those around us. The world of the universe is immense and far beyond anything any of us can imagine. But that world is made up of many tiny parts - you and me.

Think how one tiny, tiny, tiny error in a gene will cause a great birth defect. That little gene is truly insignificant, yet to the person who has it- well, it could be life-shattering. The so-called "butterfly effect" says that the movement of a butterfly's wing on one-side of the world, could cause tragic weather consequences on the other side of the world. It doesn't take much, is what it is trying to tell us.

So stop and think. It may be more important than you realize.

A Friday Thought
Here's another thought I found a few weeks ago at Bruderhof.com. Something to ponder again as the outpourings of assistance head to the Gulf Coast. It may not take a lot, but whatever it takes must be accompanied by the community behind it.

Even with a Crust
Dorothy Day

We cannot love God unless we love each other. We know him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet, and life is a banquet too - even with a crust - where there is companionship. We have all known loneliness, and we have learned that the only solution is love, and that love comes with community.
--Source: Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness

A Lot of Water Under the Bridge

It was thirty-one years ago today that I was ordained a pastor of the Moravian Church, Northern Province. A lot has happened in those years (how’s that for a cliché?) and things keep right on happening. As I look back, perhaps the biggest change for me is the major shift I have had in my view of the “ordained” or “professional” ministry. I am not sure I even understand it anymore.

The professional position of “minister” or “clergy” or “pastor” has received a great deal of mixed reviews over the years. Yet it has maintained a position of prominence in the church. The cynical side of me likes to say that this is because the clergy have kept the church in need of them. The other part of the cynical side says that many lay people like it that way since it means they don’t have to do it themselves.

But cynicism usually gets one nowhere. Perhaps there are still clergy around because the human psyche/spirit/soul needs spiritual guides in human flesh to walk with them and help them. While we may misuse and abuse those positions and our opinions of them, they speak to a necessity. All cultures have had their “holy ones” whether they be shamans or gurus or clergy or priests. All cultures for some reason or another elevate a particular group of people to a spiritual status of some type. It must be an important need for it to cross cultural lines as broadly as it does.

But one does not have to be “ordained” by a particular “official” religion or religious group to have the characteristics of the “spiritual holy one.” In fact, some of the every day powerful spiritual leaders are the people we meet in our lives who have that special spiritual quality. Many of them are not ordained. We may work with them, be a student of theirs, visit them in a nursing home. They may be young or old, male or female, of any race or clan. They may or may not be “religious.” But they will be spiritual. And we can know that when we see it even if we can’t define it.

Well, today, thirty-one years after ordination, I am ending my second full year outside the church’s ministry. Even there things are changing for me and I will fill you in on that as it happens. I guess ordination is still necessary for the organized church to have its ability to say who is and who isn’t appropriate. But today I also look more widely and deeply for the spiritual people. They aren’t as common as clergy…

No, I think they are more common. It’s just that we haven’t been willing to let them guide us since they are not ordained.

I Am Not Yet Finished
Not finished. Not by a long shot.

That is the powerful message of the middle line of the following prayer from St. Anselm. I found it thanks to Maggi Dawn. So what if one is closer to 60 than 50 (let alone 25)? So what if someone is facing uncertainty in a shelter in New Orleans. Deep down we have been told for years it is the awareness that life isn't finished with me yet- and I'm not finished with life yet- that gets us through the world of each of our days. Viktor Frankl said the same in his magnificent book Man's Search for Meaning about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. It is always true if we are willing to take that risk that the things I have been created to do are still ahead of me....

O Lord my God
teach my heart
where and how to seek you,
where and how to find you.
O Lord you are my God
and you are my Lord
and I have never seen you.
You have made me and remade me,
and you have bestowed on me all the good things I possess
and still I do not know you.

I have not yet done that for which I was made.

Teach me to seek you
for I cannot seek you unless you teach me
or find you unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire,
let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you,
let me love you when I find you.

St Anselm

That Is Not a Good God
I have been struck again since Katrina by the incredibly narrow and hateful image of God that some people can have. Whether it is the preacher who says that God was finally getting rid of the wickedness so New Orleans could start all over on a better footing to those who might think that but simply say that God's ways are greater than ours, I cannot begin to accept that view of God.

It is of course the problem of "theodicy" which the Book of Job so poetically wrestles with. Yes, Job ends with the "God's ways are inscrutable so challenge them only when you are as powerful as God" approach. I must admit that some of that IS for me the best answer among a lot of bad ones. But to put into God's plan the wanton destruction of innocent lives is to talk about a "god" I have trouble falling.

And yes, I hear the chorus calling out- "But no one is innocent. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Yes, but God took care of that on the Cross, not another Flood. God works on grace we proclaim so loudly. THAT is not grace.

As I was surfing yesterday I came across the JumboJoke.com site. But one post after Katrina was not a joke, though we wish it were. The first paragraph is by the writer of the joke site, explaining where he got this. It says it with far more power than I am able to.

Among my many friends I count Paul Myers, an ad copywriter and Internet marketer. After Hurricane Katrina flattened New Orleans and many areas near there, he sent out a message to his newsletter subscribers, of which I am one. This isn't a joke, and isn't meant as one, but it is an interesting and thought-provoking item. It's reprinted with permission, and Paul's site is linked at the bottom.

---

I'm not a religious guy, but I've always believed that the best neighbors you can have are real libertarians or true Christians. (Either group can be of virtually any religion, if you think about it.)

Note that I said true Christians.

There's another variety out there that I call "Born Against" Christians. A lot of those people are saying that this disaster is a message from on high.

Well, I've got a message for them:

To the alleged "Christians" who believe "this is God's punishment on the people of New Orleans for their wickedness and evil," I offer this thought:

If you believe that your God punishes the wicked by drowning the poor, the sick, the very old and the very young, alone in their beds and their attics...

If you believe that your God requires that mothers watch as their children die of dehydration as penance for the "sins" of others...

If you believe that your God would willingly drive people to starvation, hopelessness and despair to make a point...

If you believe any of this, I suggest that you might be confused. True, there is an entity in the Christian faith that would do all of these things, but...

Its name is not God.
--
©2005 by Paul Myers/TalkBiz, Inc., reprinted with permission.
Found at JumboJoke.com

Another Day- Another Joke
No, I'm not giving up on writing things myself. I was surfing around earlier and came across a joke site that tickled my fancy. As they (have you ever seen THEY?) say, sometimes laughter is as good a way to pass the time as anything. (Or at least THEY say something like that!)

Anyway, here's the one that I thought was good (and I was willing to publish here.) Perhaps it should be about a FEMA boss?

One of Microsoft Network's finest support techs was drafted and sent to boot camp. At the rifle range, he was given some instruction, a rifle, and a few bullets.

He loaded the rifle and fired several shots at the target.

The report came from the target area that all attempts had completely missed the target.

The tech looked at his rifle, and then at the target. He looked at the rifle again, and then at the target again. He put his finger over the end of the rifle barrel and squeezed the trigger with his other hand. The end of his finger was blown off -- whereupon he yelled toward the target area:

"It's leaving here just fine; the trouble must be at your end!"
--found on JumboJoke.com

Remembering

It is an old word trick of preachers to take Jesus' words, "Do this in remembrance of me" and play with the word "remember." It can mean "bring back" or "put back together."


Re - member.



Today let us both recall and put-back-together.
To recall the events of 9/11/01 would be to recall the fears, the confusion, the uncertainty that we all felt as we watched or listened or read about the events...

To recall the heroes of the day, both living and dead as well as those who have performed similar acts of heroism in the many days since, including on the Gulf Coast...

To recall the thousands of innocent people who lost their lives by being in the wrong place at the wrong time...

And in remembering we also:



Put back together the promises of freedom and life that the attack sought to destroy...


Put back together the sensitivity of the meaning of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island that were threatened by the attacks as we seek to keep out those who are "different," a sensitivity that the Statue and Ellis Island are bold reminders of...


Put back together unity and strength of a country that knows how to disagree and yet remain united in freedom.




Much has changed in these past four years.

They said - and we all knew - that it would. May these changes not remove freedom and hope but strengthen it. May these changes not make us a closed and cold people living in fear, but strengthen our resolve to live the ideals that Emma Lazarus's words on the Statue of Liberty so proudly- yet humbly- proclaim:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Here's To Weather Geeks
One of the interesting things about weather is that a lot of people are interested in it and interested deeply. It often has nothing to do with the potential weather in their area, but a deep and abiding fascination with the weather. Such "weather geeks" - and I number among them - believe that the keys to the kingdom were handed out when the Weather Channel went on the air over 20 years ago and that heaven itself came to earth when the Internet allowed almost real-time access to weather radars, maps, and all the other cool, geeky things that come with weather.

Weather geeks are also good at flying by the seat of their pants. They look at weather systems and make "guesses" based on "intuition" about what they are seeing even when it doesn't make "scientific" sense. Brendan Loy, the Irish Trojan sitting in South Bend, Indiana, is a weather geek like that. On his blog he correctly projected what he though would be a major problem storm in Katrina while the weather service was still officially uncertain. So did my friend, Ben, a couple days before the storm hit.

I have been known to go to bed completely convinced that the "blizzard" being predicted for the next day would fizzle. More often than not I have been right.

Many years ago when I lived in Pennsylvania, Joe Bastardi (today an Accu-Weather forecaster) on Penn State's daily weather program, Weather World, started on Monday to predict a BIG SNOWSTORM that would hit the following weekend. No one else agreed with him. None of the computer models agreed with him. No one was predicting it. All week long he kept pointing out the differences between his thoughts and those of the computers. As the storm roared up the east coast on Thursday and Friday Joe Bastardi had every right to say, "I told you so."

Sometimes the computer models are just too divergent to come up with good "science-based" forecasts. (Just look at the past week's changes in forecast with Hurricane Ophelia!) Other times it is just purely good guessing.

The reason for all this weather geekiness is to give a tip of the hat to the fact that there are times when good old intuition is far better than scientific reasoning. I will readily admit that there may be more times when we geeks are wrong on a daily basis, but it is the Big Storms where we can often be seen grinning with a certain after-the-fact gloating.

Time for a Joke
It has been a tough couple of weeks in our country and for many of us. So, as a public service, (mostly for myself, I think) I went looking for a joke that caught my attention. Here it is, even if it is slightly unpolitically correct. Sometimes it's just fun to laugh....

Nutty Guys Go To A Baseball Game

A doctor at an (insane) asylum, decided to take his patients to a baseball game. For weeks in advance, he coached his patients to respond to his commands. When the day of the game arrived, everything seemed to be going well. As the national anthem started, the doctor yelled, "Up nuts!" and the inmates complied by standing up. After the anthem he yelled, "Down Nuts!" and they all sat down. After a home run he yelled, "Cheer nuts!" and they all broke into applause and cheers.
Thinking things were going very well, he decided to go get a beer and a hot-dog, leaving his assistant in charge. When he returned there was a riot in progress. Finding his assistant, he asked what happened, "what in the heck is going on"?.
The assistant replied, well...everything was fine until some guy walked by and yelled,

"PEANUTS"!!!

--from DangGoodJokes.com

Sticks, Stones, and Words
One of the controversies swirling in the New Orleans aftermath is what to call those who have been made homeless by Katrina. "Refugee", it seems, is the one that has the most reaction to it, although "homeless" strikes some raw nerves as, most naturally does "those people."

The first time I heard the people at the Superdome or now in tha Atrodome referred to as "refugees" I did a double take. Refugees are forced to leave one country and go to another for various and sundry reasons. At least that's the way we have always seemed to use it. Well, here's the dictionary definition:

Refugee -
1 : one that flees to a place of safety; especially : one who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecution in his own country or habitual residence because of his race, religion, or political beliefs
--Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (8 Sep. 2005).

Then the other day I heard an interview on NPR with a woman in one of the places of safety reacting strongly to the word. In no uncertain terms she let the reporter know that she was NOT a refugee. She was an American and she was still in America. "I am a survivor," she said proudly and powerfully.

Now I get worried about some of the political correctness that borders on word play, but I agree that this one is a real and serious issue. In spite of how we may think we are using the word, refugee does have a negative impression. So does homeless. Both may invoke anger, shame, fear, or pity. This woman on NPR didn't want any of that. She wanted to be seen for who she was. A survivor. A person who stands up and gets through the trouble.

When we were young we were always told that name-calling shouldn't affect us. You know,

Sticks and stones may break my bones
But names will never hurt me.

We know today that is hogwash. Names, negative and perjorative names are hurtful. Words have great power. They may not break bones, but they sure can break spirits and souls. I for one applaud that survivor for her stance. It is not being picky about words. "Those people" in New Orleans and along the whole Gulf Coast:

They are survivors!

It Takes ALL of Us
The Search Institute here in the Twin Cities has developed what they call the Forty Developmental Assets that help grow healthy children and youth. A number of these relate to the community that the children (and all of us!) live in. Johann Cristoph Arnold at Bruderhof.com had a post a few weeks ago about computers and their potentially deadening impact on children. While I don't entirely agree, he ended the article with a wonderful plea to all of us who have the opportunity to spend any time at all with children. What he said fits right in with the Search Institutes findings. It is a cliche to say that "it takes a village..." but it is a cliche because it is true.

The students are back in school, but that doesn't mean that they need the rest of the community any less....

The next time you meet a child, stop to say hello and ask them how they’re doing. Get them to talk and laugh—and laugh with them. The children around us need our attention now. Noticing them and spending time with them should not be postponed, and will pay back dividends that computers never will.

For the Start of School
The students returned today to our local schools. It is good to have noise and movement, people and excitement again. I sat many hours in my office this summer lulled by the silence. But neither I, nor the administrative staff, nor the teachers are there to pass the time quietly for ourselves. We are there for the students who have returned for another year. Bruderhof.com had the following a couple weeks ago. It says it well.

For the Coming School Year
Gabriela Mistral

Many things can wait.
Children cannot.
Today their bones are being formed,
their blood is being made,
their senses are being developed.
To them we cannot say “tomorrow.”
Their name is today.

One Small Voice
I know I am but a small voice in a big universe. I know that what is said here doesn't have much impact pretty much anywhere beyond this page. I don't have big influential readers in high influential places. I don't have the gazillion hits a day like Brendan Loy or Jeff Jarvis.

But I have to say this....

I am sickened, appalled and downright angry by what I have seen happening in New Orleans. There is absolutely no excuse for it. Much of the reason, I hate to use the word blame, much of the cause, is FEMA and its lack of management. (Racism may also play a part in it, but that is hard to prove!) It is time, now, for Mr. Bush to show all of us that he is serious about his offer to help. It is time for Mr. Bush to forget about his pal, "Brownie" who he says has done "a heck of a job." Step up to the plate, Mr. President. Be the leader the people who voted for you thought you were.

Fire FEMA head, Michael Brown, and do it now.

Here is a post from Jeff Jarvis this morning that has quotes from some other voices:

NPR this morning reviewed his background, which prepared him not at all for this job: He spent almost a decade at the International Arabian Horse Association, though his FEMA biography says nothing of this. Knight-Ridder does likewise:

From failed Republican congressional candidate to ousted “czar” of an Arabian horse association, there was little in Michael D. Brown’s background to prepare him for the fury of Hurricane Katrina.

But as the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brown now faces furious criticism of the federal response to the disaster that wiped out New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast. He provoked some of it himself when he conceded that FEMA didn’t know that thousands of refugees were trapped at New Orleans’ convention center without food or water until officials heard it on the news.

Bush says: “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”

The Times-Picayune calls for his firing in a strong and eloquent editorial and open letter to the President on its newsblog:

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, “What is not working, we’re going to make it right.”

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism….

… the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame….

Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, “We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day.”

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, “You’re doing a heck of a job.”

That’s unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too….

Hear, too, the emotional appeal from Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard on Meet the Press:

MR. AARON BROUSSARD: We have been abandoned by our own country. Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst storms ever to hit an American coast, but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history. I am personally asking our bipartisan congressional delegation here in Louisiana to immediately begin congressional hearings to find out just what happened here. Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired? And believe me, they need to be fired right away, because we still have weeks to go in this tragedy….

It’s not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now….

Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn’t need them. This was a week ago. FEMA–we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, “Come get the fuel right away.” When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. “FEMA says don’t give you the fuel.” Yesterday–yesterday–FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, “No one is getting near these lines.” Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America–American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn’t be in this crisis….

The guy who runs this building I’m in, emergency management, he’s responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, “Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?” And he said, “Yeah, Mama, somebody’s coming to get you. Somebody’s coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Friday.” And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night….

Nobody’s coming to get us. Nobody’s coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody’s promised. They’ve had press conferences. I’m sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.

And he cried.

Yes, there may be a lot of other reasons and sources of the problem. As Jarvis said, they will be handled by local people in future elections. But with so many people dead and dying, if a person can't do his job with honesty and integrity, it is time for a change.

Treat Them Like Pagans
Huh?

Yep, that's what Jesus said. When you discipline someone in the church, as Matthew recounts it, the church must then treat them like pagans. Outsiders. Those not yet in the Body.

Which means what? Exclude them? Push them away? Ignore them? Send them a letter telling them to mend their ways before they set foot back in church?

No, I don't think so. How did Jesus treat the pagans?

You mean.....

Yep, with love and compassion, just as ready to die for all of them as He did for the non-pagans.

Oh.

Sarah at Dylan's Lectionary Blog put it this way:

So when you meet someone who's really difficult, someone who pushes your ability to stay present with them, stay in touch, and stay focused on God's love, rejoice and be glad in that day: you get to love them, in the process you get a sense of how God loves you, and folks looking on get to see how much you mean what you say about the church being entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation.

A Very Brief Thought
Been saving this one from a Quotes Blog from a few weeks ago. After this past week, it is one worth considering..

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice;
In practice, there is."
Chuck Reid

Another Day of Chaos-
But There Seems to Be Movement
Random Finds and Thoughts.....

First, from Reuters, via Yahoo:

Storm disaster fuels doubts over US terror plans

I have to admit that thought also crossed my mind. What would happen if.....? The relatively slow response, which took until today to seem to make a difference does call into question the idea of "rapid response" in the event of a major terrorist attack. And with Katrina, we had a warning. No sneak attack here. I hope that this is a sadly learned lesson for some important people to learn quickly!

Second, from the Associated Press, via Yahoo:

FEMA Head: Lawlessness Not Anticipated

As far as I can tell in my awareness of human nature, you put thousands of people in high stress, without food, water and comfort, then ignore them for several days as things seem only to get worse... well, what can we expect. I don't care if it is New Orleans after Katrina, Los Angeles of San Francisco when the San Andreas Fault lets go with the BIG one, Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein, or wherever. The possibility of lawlessness should always be anticipated in emergency management planning. To not do so is carless and dangerous.

Next, from an opinion piece by Andrea Peyser in The New York Post, via Yahoo:

PARALYZED BY INACTION AMID APOCALYPSE
...yesterday, there was scarce sign of order on the street, and few to enforce it.

Oh, yeah, there has been a handful of National Guardsmen. Like the one who was observed pushing a man to the ground outside the Superdome after he ignored his order not to return into the fetid building without first clearing a security checkpoint — which was accessible only through a street flooded with deep water.

Promises to send in tens of thousands of guardsmen have been alarmingly slow to materialize. And comes a report from Canadian TV that an elite unit, poised to fly in fresh water and medical supplies, has as yet been refused permission to help by the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security.

At the same time, local authorities have taken to commandeering the few working vehicles that refugees hoped to ride out of town. Don't they have vehicles of their own?

This great nation is capable of making order halfway around the globe. We have the resources to launch humanitarian missions in remote regions of the world.

But now, our own back yard is flooded.

It's time to take action. Now

Well, it appears as if that has happened today.

Varied Thoughts for Thursday

1. Before and After Pictures
Here from NASA, two pictures only a couple days apart...

2. Life Goes On
Yes, for most of us that is true. Perhaps we don't try to think about what has happened and is still happening along the Gulf Coast. We have our everyday lives to lead. We can't become paralyzed by events beyond our control or even imagination. But the pull of the news has been real. You mention the Hurricane and everything gets quiet. The reminder of our mortality? The fear that it could happen to me? Being so overwhelmed by the massive size of the destruction that it no longer sinks in?

It can't, of course. We can't think that big. We can't grasp such a quantity of images and data. We are experiencing overload.

3. One of the Heroes
I know he doesn't see himself that way, but Brendan Loy, a 2nd year law student at Notre Dame has become one of the blog heroes of this past week. His blog, Irish Trojan, has been bringing us insights and aggregation of news since last weekend. He is just another concerned human being whose passion has made the whole thing more real and more personal. Thanks, Brendan!

4.A Beautiful Reflection
Brendan last evening had a chance to reflect on what he has been involved in. His post says in greater beauty than mine yesterday what he was feeling. Go read it.

5. The NBC networks will be having a benefit concert Friday evening including my hero, Wynton Marsalis as well as Harry Connick, Jr. and Tim McGraw. Just thought I would mention that as I listen to his new album, Live at the House of Tribes, on Rhapsody. What an amazing musician! What a wonderful way to remember a New Orleans that will never be the same. Hopefully it will grow into a new and wonderful reincarnation for a new generation.

6. Another New Orleans music icon, Fats Domino, has been rescued, according to CNN.