The "Wisdom" of the Market

I am not an economist or financier. Whenever I have tried my hand at investing, the stock has almost invariably lost money. My father-in-law had an incredibly uncanny ability to pick the right stocks and seemed to be able to make money on the market when no one else seemed to. He died three years ago next week and I often wonder how he would have done in the recent recessionary market. Somehow or other he managed to figure out the ups and downs - ins and outs - of the market. He always said it was a gamble and you had to be willing to lose money from time to time. He said more than three years ago that the market would fall again.

Well in the past year we have seen one incredible roller coaster. It still isn't over. Even though the market is well up from its way down level, it still tends to move up and down in ways that make no sense. Which is just the opposite of what was supposed to happen a number of years ago when they began taking some of the controls off.

You see, as I have heard it explained, the "free-market" left to its own would always make generally wise decisions. It was controls that caused the problem. The "Market," when left to pure "Market" forces would work out.

What they didn't plan on was that

• there is no such thing as a pure market force
• political situations have more of an impact than thought
• greed is a huge negative force and most importantly of all
• the market is made up of humans who react to situations with a panic.

In short, the "wisdom" of the "market" isn't. It is more reactionary than it is able to have leadership. It depends on others and forces beyond its control to move. But that problem with the market then leads to other forces working against the progress which then upsets the market...

So one day there is good economic news and the market goes up.

The next day the news is mixed so the market goes down.

Next week the news looks really good and the market soars

Then comes the end of the quarter and people want to take a profit and the market drops.

And on and on and on it goes.

As I said I am not an economist but I ask, is this any way to run an economy?

But since I have no answers I will have to let others work on that. But what if, somehow or another, the market decided today that they were going to believe for the next three months that the economy is basically sound and will recover? They would then make cautious investments, but with an eye to a sane and acceptable profit and growth margin.

I know it is too much to hope for, but then maybe I would believe that the "Market" may be able to take care of itself- and the economy.

PS: On Wednesday, after I had written the above, I came across an item on Live Science that reported:

WASHINGTON -- A recent analysis of the 2007 financial markets of 48 countries has revealed that the world's finances are in the hands of just a few mutual funds, banks, and corporations. This is the first clear picture of the global concentration of financial power, and point out the worldwide financial system's vulnerability as it stood on the brink of the current economic crisis.

Maybe the "Wisdom" of the Market is to be found in the decisions of a few who are simply out to make more money.

Moments

As another months comes to an end for some reason the title of this video from RadioLab at WNYC and NPR seemed appropriate. Our moments come and go adding to our lives and then moving on.

Work of the People: A Short Thought

I discovered an interesting resource for worship called Work of the People. They say that they are

a community of artists who create visual media for the church to re-orient God's people around Jesus' good news and mission to make all things new.

They also have a channel at Vimeo. That's where I found this video. Be ready to be challenged.

HELL IN A HAND BASKET from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.

From a Land Far Gone and a World No Longer Seen

"There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai," William L. Calley told members of a local Kiwanis Club, the Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer reported [last] Friday. "I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry."

Calley...was the U.S. Army officer found guilty of ordering the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War. (Wikipedia)

8-Bit Lego Techno Music Video

No- it makes no sense, but it is fun to watch. Someone had way to much time on their hands.

Roger E. Breaks Anonymity

A wonderful, top-quality recovery post today from Roger E. about his membership for 30 years in Alcoholics Anonymous. I am sure he will get criticism from some in AA and the recovery community for breaking his anonymity. Some of that may or may not be justified. But he does a good job telling his own story with wit and grace, which he has plenty of. He is a wise essayist and worth reading. He also has some You Tube clips related to alcoholism from The Lost Weekend, Days of Wine and Roses, and Clean and Sober. He also does a nice job of moderating comments.

One thing struck me that may be the most important part of his story. Here is a guy who for 30 years has been hobnobbing with the wealthy, the elite, the celebrity in many places where alcohol is free and very free-flowing (Think Cannes and Sundance and Toronto.) In all that he has remained sober! No relapse. He says that AA has taken away the desire to drink. Some in AA will whine about a little party or sitting in a bar/restaurant and crave that drink. It overpowers them; overwhelms their senses.

Yet what Roger E. and many others will attest to is that it doesn't have to be that way. The desire and need and craving and urge to drink will be taken away.

For today, in this 24 hours, reading Roger's story is what my Higher Power has decided to send me. Roger at 30 years, me at 20+ still need each other and others to remind us

• what we used to be like
• what happened and
• what we are like (or can be like) today.

Thanks, Roger.

On the Trail Again

Well, I went a couple weeks without any bike riding. Weather and, well, weather got in the way. I did start walking to work, weather permitting, which has helped keep me moving. Although my scale is not showing any improvements in the downward direction.

In any case I managed a 22 mile ride last Sunday. Went up to the Cannon Valley Trail for the first time this summer. Did the eastern half from Welch to Red Wing and back. It was a remarkably beautiful day with almost perfect temps and sun. It was not a particularly photogenic day, which simply means that I was too interested in riding and listening, smelling and feeling the day while riding to stop and take pictures.

There were a few as I played with the camera.

But the best was getting to Red Wing and riding on down to the riverfront--

and right there in front of me, soaring and circling up the Mississippi was a Bald Eagle.

Yes, I am entranced by these amazing birds. Their size and grace as they glide and soar is magical. That they have come back from the brink of extinction is even more amazing here in our area- even in the city where I live.

This was the half-way point of the ride on Sunday and was worth it. I am seeing my cycling improvement, managing longer continuous segments with fewer and briefer stops. My goal by the end of the summer is to do the whole Root River Trail from Fountain to Houston- about 42 miles- in one day. I am aiming for Oct. 5, but that could change.

I do know that the purchase of my Trek 7000 last year was one of my best personal investments in a long time!

Now if my scale would only start showing some improvements.

First the Episcopalians, Now the Lutherans

Last Friday the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) became the second BIG church in the US to take a supportive yet controversial stand on gay clergy. In many ways for mainline denominations this issue outranks even abortion as a dividing line in our internal politics. Passions and opinions and arguments abound on both sides. It is not an easy one to work on. In fact, some people (like myself) have strong opinions but find ourselves torn between our support and love for the church's future and strength and a need to be faithful. Even that need to be faithful gets divided on both sides of the issue.

(Note: My own denomination, the Moravian Church in America, Northern Province has been on a 7-year moratorium on the issue. That may come to an end next June when our every four year Synod meets in Bethlehem, PA. Considering that we are in full communion with both these denominations may have an impact on our deliberations. Nothing said here should be construed in any way, shape or form as a position of the Moravian Church. It is all mine! And I will not be voting delegate next June.)

On one side is the issue of Biblical authority, interpretation and faithfulness to that ancient and powerful witness. I put this first since it truly is the heart of the matter for many. Even with my "liberal" opinions on the issue I still have that troubling place in the corner of my soul that says, "What if....." It is hard to go against 2000+ years of a Biblical witness on an issue that is so emotional.

On the other side is the awareness of the cultural boundaries and issues that are deeply embedded in the Biblical witness. Many of these we regularly ignore or interpret in ways that ease our felt need to "obey" the Bible word for word. Neither the fundamentalists nor the liberals are innocent of this. Each side just picks different passages and issues on which to be willing to be bound. In the end most of us in this area are not consistent. Why don't I have the same troubling place in the corner of my soul when I eat pork or lobster or get a tattoo?

Those two sides are not easily reconciled. Even when we know we ignore some of these ancient stands on a regular basis-

• we do not justify slavery through Biblical passages
• we do not justify a ban against interracial marriage
• we do not insist that if someone steals your coat you should give him your shirt too
• we are willing to accept divorce
• we justify the wealth we put away while ignoring many who are poor and suffering
  
• and on and on and on.

But this is about one of those SEX issues which always have a lot of baggage. It is almost as if we have to hang on so tightly to the Biblical "commands" as a way of attempting to keep ourselves in control. What's more, we often look on sex as "dirty" thanks to Augustine and others who developed the theology that Original Sin is passed on through sexual relations. To cheat on your income tax or ignore the homeless- that's okay.

I have heard preachers go to great lengths to justify why their overwhelming reaction to sexual issues is the right way. It becomes a greater sin- and they will even use that phrase- than other sins. It's like- well, here are Ten equal Commandments, but one is more equal than the others. Then add the homosexual word to it and you have the abominable sinner.

Then on another side is the issue of ministry to all people who need it. Very few, of course, will say that a gay person cannot join their church or that they don't deserve being ministered to. There are some who take that stand but they are not in the mainstream at all. The problem becomes in judging the behaviors and persons- and they become outcasts.

But we also have the issue of "Calling." It's been almost 35 years now that my denomination has ordained women. The same Biblical issues were raised then as now. Some denominations still feel that women should not be in any position of authority. Even with a deep awareness of the cultural baggage of patriarchal bias some cannot accept that change. Who can truly say that God has not called a particular person?

Another issue for me is that in many ways the incredible rift that happens over this issue has had a sad impact on the overall life of the church. It has divided us into warring camps at times. It has led to name-calling and angry words. It has taken energy away from our tasks of witness and ministry. It would be easy to point at the "other side" from which you are on to blame. But in truth we have not been able to find a good and healthy way to deal with the conflict. It is tough when both sides can be as "convicted" of their opinion.

In the end I come to that trite but difficult question-

What would Jesus do? [or]
What would Jesus want us to do?

Easier asked than answered. For me, though, it starts with the idea of grace and is filled with the promise of love as Jesus showed in His own ministry.

But that's for another time and place, but I have a hunch that is the place where these decisions have come from. At the least, I am impressed by the move of both the Lutherans and Episcopalians. I have a hunch they have made a brave move in an uncertain time. I know it will cause them problems in other parts of the world as well as here at home. But it may be that they are taking a step into an unknown future with faith and trust in God and Jesus as their Lord.

Time's Top 50

Time has posted their Top 50 Websites for 2009.

Link

Some look interesting. Many are still the ones we know and depend on in many ways.

The only one I missed seeing was pmPilgrim. Maybe next year.

In Memoriam: Ted Kennedy

It is truly the end of an era that has lasted 60 years. Ted Kennedy is gone.

He was the last of the four brothers and the only one to die of natural causes. He was a powerhouse of a man- able to compromise yet still hold to his principles. He was a man with more than his share of tragedy and trouble- some admittedly of his own making. Yet he kept going. He was a man of wealth and status who knew that these did not entitle him to leisure but to service.

For many in my generation his death marks the end of our history of politics. He may have been the last of the larger-than-life Senators of American history. He was the target of rage and ridicule yet did not allow that to keep him from working across party lines whether in Massachusetts where he worked with Republican Mitt Romney to get a health care bill or the Senate where his back-room negotiations were common. He was a "Liberal Democrat" who knew how to talk to "Conservative Republicans."

But that day is over. The deep partisan divides of today were no doubt quite painful to him. We may never know, of course, how he was working behind the scenes in these past years to get things done. I am sure, however, that he was doing just that on both sides of the aisle.

This is not the time to analyze the why and wherefore of his life or to look into the psychology of a man so powerful yet so driven to do what was roght. Rather it is a moment to pause and recognize the passing of a giant of a man whose greatness represented an era that has perhaps now past.

He was the last of his kind of politician.

Liquid Courage Promises

Anyone who has ever heard an inebriated person make promises knows the truth about what science is now proving. According to Wired Science last week "Emptied Flask Makes for Empty Promises."

It may seem obvious to most of us that drunken promises don’t mean much, but apparently two German researchers weren’t so sure. Using 60 undergrads as guinea pigs, they designed a randomized control trial to test the effects of alcohol on a person’s commitment to unrealistic goals.

“People may indicate being determined to reach their goals after having consumed alcohol,” wrote the researchers in the August edition of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, “but once sober again, they do not walk the talk.”

The researchers set up a fancy study with a placebo to show what happens. After four drinks they asked both groups to make commitments. Four drinks, to an alcoholic, is barely a good evening out. But to non-alcoholics it is the point past which you don't like to go very often. It definitely puts you into the binge drinking category and almost certainly into too drunk to drive.

Well, in no surprise to me and anyone who has ever worked with alcoholics, the results were just what you would expect.

[D]runk people ignore reality and think they can do just about anything, a condition scientists have aptly labeled “alcohol myopia.”

The researchers say their results can help explain why people who don’t have high hopes for success are more likely to abuse alcohol.

In other words people who are low in hope use alcohol to find it. And it seems, they have as much success as those who try to find liquid courage. They don't talk about any of the possible reasons in the article at Wired Science but those who study the physical effects of alcohol know the easy reason for this.

The first place alcohol affects is the "higher" brain processes- thinking and judgment, rational decision making, and the ability to use logic in a logical way. The result is what we often call the lack of "inhibitions" that keep us on an even, sane path with at least some semblance of logic.

One of the difficulties is that the more this happens, the more people seem to give over the rational control to the non-rational. In other words, it appears that the illogical aspect that alcohol initiates actually becomes in certain settings and situations the "Normal" or "Default" approach. Hence the levels of denial and minimizing that are symptoms of alcoholism/addiction. Hence the inability to stop even when things are going south more quickly than we would want.

As I have said before, though, one of the aspects of recovery is that we can learn to be able to utilize the logical processes again. The brain re-wires itself, so to speak, to allow the rational parts to be able to seriously and eventually successfully, challenge the illogic. AA for example begins to work on this at first by getting people to change their behavior- to act their way into a new way of thinking. (Keep coming back- it works.)

Cognitive behavioral training works on the thinking process itself. (as does AA with its Twelve Steps and group support.) Cognitive behavioral work helps people to catch the illogical thinking based on the lack of inhibitions, to slow down the time from thinking of using to actually using.

Put together these two are probably the best opportunities to develop long-term sobriety. In spite of what critics on both sides say, they are no mutually exclusive. In fact the 12-steps are a behavior modification program based on a cognitive model developed before cognitive therapy was in any kind of use.

In short. it does work. And a thanks to the researchers who over and over again prove what many of us see anecdotally which gives us all a sense of relief that we may know what we are talking about.

Things Don't Remain the Same

It's time for the annual Mindset List from Beloit College chronicling the changes in the entering freshman class of 2013. Each year it is a remind of the pace of change that continues to occur in our world. Here are some of the list that caught my attention.

# For these students, Martha Graham, Pan American Airways, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis, The Dallas Times Herald, Gene Roddenberry, and Freddie Mercury have always been dead.
# They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
# Margaret Thatcher has always been a former prime minister.
# Salsa has always outsold ketchup.
# Earvin "Magic" Johnson has always been HIV-positive.
# Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible.
# Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice.
# The KGB has never officially existed.
# They have never had to “shake down” an oral thermometer.
# Bungee jumping has always been socially acceptable.
# The European Union has always existed.
# McDonald's has always been serving Happy Meals in China.
# Condoms have always been advertised on television.
# Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.
# Christopher Columbus has always been getting a bad rap.
# The American health care system has always been in critical condition.
# Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.
# Desperate smokers have always been able to turn to Nicoderm skin patches.
# There has always been a Cartoon Network.
# The nation’s key economic indicator has always been the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
# Their folks could always reach for a Zoloft.
# They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.
# Women have always outnumbered men in college.
# We have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.
# Kevin Costner has always been Dancing with Wolves, especially on cable.
# There have always been flat screen televisions.
# Someone has always been asking: “Was Iraq worth a war?”
# Most communities have always had a mega-church.

A 20-Year Memory: A Baseball Ban

August 24 - Record-setting baseball player Pete Rose agrees to a lifetime ban from the sport following allegations of illegal gambling, thereby preventing his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

An article in Friday's USA Today reported that three out of four responding in a poll believe that the current steroid use is worse than Rose's admitted gambling. Rose continues to have around 60% support in the poll that he should be allowed into the Hall of Fame.

In my opinion, considering who is already there- a possible murderer and racist (Ty Cobb) and quite a few alcoholics (think Ruth and Mantle, at least) I would vote for Rose. He certainly earned his entrance without enhancement drugs. Ditto for Shoeless Jackson who was, many believe, a victim far more than he was a perpetrator of anything bad.

Perhaps some day.

Wondering About the Ways of God

By now you may or may not have heard about a weak (EF0) tornado that hit in downtown Minneapolis last Wednesday and did some damage to the steeple of Central Lutheran Church. To put that into a perhaps totally unrelated context this is right across the street from the Minneapolis Convention Center where the Lutherans (ELCA) were meeting for their convention. It is, you may know by now, the convention that made some significant changes to the church's stand on gay clergy.

Now we don't often see tornadoes in Minneapolis- or in downtown urban areas for that matter. Nor do we often see tornadoes like this one that took everyone by surprise. It was not a severe weather day. Hmmm.

It doesn't take a prophet to see where this could go, does it? Well, John Piper, pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church pondered it on his blog and took it there:

"The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin. Turn from the promotion of behaviors that lead to destruction."

This, of course, was just another in a long list of acts of God (or humans) that have been described as warnings from God. Piper himself even pondered that possibility with the collapse of the 35W bridge not all that far from Wednesday's event. You will remember, too, Katrina as the judgment on New Orleans and, a ways back, that AIDS was God's pestilence against Gays.

How sad. How scary. If I have learned one thing in my years it is that it is getting more and more difficult for me to know what is a judgment from God. In fact, I have the scary thought that it might be based on my own (or anyone else's) biases. If that tornado had damaged the steeple at Bethlehem Baptist instead of Central Lutheran it would have been ignored as nothing more than another weather event- or as an act of Satan against the successful ministry of Bethlehem Baptist.

We humans are quite adept at looking at things from God's point of view more often than it is possible, basing it on our point of view. We ascribe to God our understanding, our political positions, our desires and projects. Many years ago now I read Mark Twain's devastating book, The War Prayer. According to Wikipedia it is:

a scathing indictment of war, and particularly of blind patriotic and religious fervor as motivations for war.

An unnamed country goes to war, and patriotic citizens attend a church service for soldiers who have been called up. The people call upon their God to grant them victory and protect their troops. Suddenly, an "aged stranger" appears and announces that he is God's messenger. He explains to them that he is there to speak aloud the second part of their prayer for victory, the part which they have implicitly wished for but have not spoken aloud themselves: the prayer for the suffering and destruction of their enemies. What follows is a grisly depiction of hardships inflicted on war-torn nations by their conquerors. The story ends on a pessimistic note: the messenger is ignored.

I was shaken to my roots when I first read it. It is the grandiosity of humans and the seemingly unshakable certainty that what I want is what God wants. I am afraid that John Piper is doing the same thing from a different perspective but with the same result.

Now I have to admit that God of course could use tornadoes and hurricanes or anything else in all creation to chastise or encourage us. But when it always is happening to other people who think and believe differently from me- maybe I better look at my certainty a little more closely.

In Memoriam: Les Paul

Arguably the father of rock guitar thanks to his inventive nature, Les Paul died last week. Here is part of a documentary on the Wizard of Waukesha....

World Record Holder

This was one of the great posts at The Best Article Everyday:



They didn't give a source, but it was funny!

Another Daily Non-Post

Came across this one yesterday. It is a video by sportswriters that was done a few weeks ago. Amazing how prophetic is was.



(Hmmm. How did the color get set to green?)

Bad Idea? Good Idea? Fair Compromise?

I have waited a couple of days since the announcement about the health care compromise that might get rid of the "public option."

My first reaction: No way! There is no reform without some way to insure the uninsured. It remains worse than a scandal that people can go bankrupt because they get sick or lose their jobs and hence their insurance. And how many of the people who are against the public option are willing to take Medicare and Social Security?

My second reaction: It's not the right way. Again, the scandal of the uninsured looms over the whole issue. But I can begin to see why it might have some short-term political value. Yes, maybe the "public option" needs some tweaking, but we need something. It is essential.

My third reaction: Well, maybe. If we have to. It's better than killing the whole bill and it may bring the Democrats in Congress together enough to pass it.

But if he thinks it will ease the Republican campaign against it- not a chance. We are not talking about bi-partisan compromise here. Not in your life. A few moderate Republicans who already are generally in favor will now be more certain. The conservative Democrats will jump on board. But the others will stay just as locked into their anti-Obama approach as ever. Probably even more so as they may not get what they want.

So, I realize I may have to live with it, but someone absolutely needs to do some serious work on the issue. The "co-op" idea will work as well as insurance has. And if anyone believes we don't have medical rationing by the insurance industry now, just try and get something if you are outside the box.

In short, the least and the lost will be the ones hurt by this compromise. I for one am deeply saddened by that. Let us not forget them.

Everybody Gets a Piece of the Action

• Ticket prices for the Packer game at the Metrodome on October 3 on re-sale sites have gone through the Dome's roof. Peanut heaven tix in the end zones that were re-selling for $75-90 last week are starting at $189 today. I guess this year I will have to watch on TV.


• It is really interesting to read today's newspapers in the Twin Cities. You would think that a cure for everything from cancer to the world economy to lutefisk overdose has come to Minnesota. Although one columnist did say that the new quarterback for the Vikings looked more like the Unabomber when he arrived at the press conference.


• Even in Milwaukee on the TV station that bills itself as the Packers All the Time station went from the NBC Nightly News to the live press conference in the Twin Cities since it was "Breaking News."


• Around here this all makes the hype over Michael Jackson's death look calm and sensible.

In Memoriam: John Hughes

He took the "teenage wasteland" and made it real. Director John Hughes gave the 80s a chance to reflect its time. I worked with lots of teens in the 80s and Hughes' movies were great discussion starters- and revelations of secrets we 30 and 40 somethings could learn.

This montage made the rounds a few weeks ago when he died. It uses The Who's Baba O'Riley as a soundtrack of the cuts from Hughes' movies.

Enjoy.

Not Again! Brett Who?

I now have an even better idea why the Packers were so willing to let a superstar go. Talk about self-centered and selfish and all about Brett. Yes, his teammates will love him if they win a Super Bowl as the result of all this. But they will only love the money in their pockets. They will still resent the person who jerked them around.

In the end, regardless of team affiliations and all, it is truly about the money.

Nothing else.

Or perhaps revenge against the team you think did you wrong.

Brett was a remarkable quarterback. But he did only get to two Super Bowls and only won one. As a Packer fan I will be forever grateful to him for that. But enough is enough. Stop jerking people around. Stop making it all about you.

As I read somewhere this afternoon- there is no Favre in team.

Will it work? Will the Vikings make it to the Super Bowl- and win?

I doubt it. But I have been wrong before. I don't think he will be able to work a miracle in the 'dome. After all, he never could play in the Metrodome before.

Enough, then. Let's see what the season brings.

And come January it may very well be again- "Brett? Brett who?"

Moving Water

The other week on Speaking of Faith, Krista Tippett had an interview with author and artist James Prosek who has been interested in trout and fishing for years. In one segment they discussed standing in a stream while fishing. What I heard and where it took me was interesting.

Moving water- rivers, creeks, and streams- are in many ways alive. They move. They are definitely not static. You stand; the water moves. In essence you become a place in the stream, but not a part of the stream. It has its own life and movement.

The water- the eternity- moves around you and on its own way. Yes, chaos theory would say that you will have an impact on what the water does somewhere downstream. That butterfly in China changing the weather in Minnesota applies to you in the stream. We don't see what it is, of course. A few extra molecules of water entering the atmosphere where you are, an eddy or wave beginning to move around you are far beneath our ability to see or understand. That is the mystery and magic of moving water.

Like so much of the magic and mystery around us it remains out of sight and out of mind. One of the dangers of too much analysis or too much skepticism is to lose sight of mystery. When mystery has left our world, we will not long survive.

Naturally I don't mean mystery that can be explained or measured or observed. That is not mystery. Mystery lies behind those observations. Magic is what may bring them about in the first place. The origins of the universe remain locked behind mystery. Even when we can posit something like a Big Bang, there is still that prior moment- BB minus one nanosecond. As anti-spiritual as some have come to see the Big Bang, when it was first developed, it was seen as too mystical by many.

Let us be careful then not to lose the awareness of mystery. It gives us the unanswerable, the unseen, the uncertainty and allows us to enjoy its presence.

Just like that water in the stream tickling between my toes.

Back to the Garden

I know I already posted about Woodstock yesterday, but there is so much there, it deserves more. As I was thinking about it the natural tendency was for the words from Joni Mitchell to come to mind. It is the iconic song for the festival, written by Mitchell, according to Wikipedia, while she sat in a hotel room in New York watching what was happening.

The song expresses the depth of feelings that many had for Woodstock and the whole movement of the day. For some reason there was a yearning that became embodied in this event of half a million people on a New York State farm bonding into a new "nation."

It is not a surprise that there is a spiritual angle...

I came upon a child of god
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm
I'm going to join in a rock n roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm going to try and get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

I know there are many ways to accept or challenge this idea. This feeling of being oppressed as seen in the next verse wants to cry out against the war and the world. The feeling of alienation that supposedly drove it all was- and is- one of those underlying human drives. And it had nothing to do with Nixon or Vietnam or civil rights or the right to do sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It was in the last two lines which became the mantra of the song.

And we've got to get ourselves
back to the garden.

The biblical image is not an accident, of course. As a metaphor it is powerful. As a yearning it is deep. As a myth- it is what drives us. In the church we have always called this alienation and drive to return to Eden the result of original sin. Some of the ways that sin was affecting her (my) generation in 1969 come next..

Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe its the time of man
I don't know who I am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

The poisoned environment (smog) or the basic identity crisis (I don't know who I am) become the paradigms, but are but placeholders for whatever else may come next. Also seen is the hope for growing community- the child of God as the partner that we can walk along with to this new land. It has become a pilgrimage. Did it have a real goal or was it just a pipe dream? Was it an opportunity for something new to begin- or was it just a passing fancy?

By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

No, we didn't know, but many dreamed. Like Joni and most other people, I was not there in person. But it did become that same hope and celebration of peace and love with bombers turning into butterflies an ultimate example of metamorphosis, a 20th Century renewing of Isaiah's dream to turn swords into plowshares.

For one brief shining moment we hoped.

But as always in this human realm it proved to be a moment in passing. Less than four months later it fell apart as the Hell's Angels turned the "garden" into what it often becomes- a place of death. When 300,000 gathered at Altamont in California the Woodstock Nation was found to be premature. Nixon remained in office, protests continued and escalated, Kent State was less than six months away. As Neil Young would later write:

We're finally on our own.

But that was later. On that Woodstock Weekend we lived in hope while at the same time affirming some very basic ideas about our humanity and what it means to be human. Joni captured it in those haunting chorus lines:

We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Am I making too much out of this? Is this just another of the countless examples of the Baby Boomers taking our experience as transcendent? Are we all making Woodstock's Three Days of Peace and Love into some world changing event?

Let me rephrase that as I see it from the vantage point of AARP land. The truth of Woodstock is not in its uniqueness but in its sameness to all that has gone before. It may be a better example of the human pilgrimage into the deeply spiritual that always fights against what is and leans to what could be. It is an expression of the youthful idealism of any era. We just had the ability to gather in New York and let the whole world watch.

• Twenty years earlier it had happened as a previous generation went to war in Europe.
• Twenty years later it happened again as another group tore down the Berlin Wall.
• Last year we saw it in the groundswell that carried Obama into the White House.

We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

I'm not sure we can do it all alone. I firmly believe in grace and God helping us in the project... but the Garden is there and waiting. Each shining moment like Woodstock shows us it is worth working toward.

A 40-Year Memory: Woodstock Nation

August 15–18 - The Woodstock Festival is held in upstate New York, featuring some of the top rock musicians of the era.

No, I wasn't there. I won't even claim to be in my dreams. But I did see the movie in New York City when it opened. We were late for the midnight show and ended up sitting in the front row of the theater. That counts for something, doesn't it?

Actually, at the time I wished I had been there. I was upset that I had chosen to attend the Atlantic City Pop Festival two weeks earlier. I could have been present at history.

In reality I would have been, as Arlo Guthrie once called it, a spaceball with my feet stuck in the mud. With the wisdom of age, distance, and forgetfulness, I would have been miserable but would have had to pretend I wasn't. I did have a friend who went, though. Funny. I didn't see him in the movie.

Mental Flypaper?

Here is an interesting animation that was inspired by a quote from Norman Vincent Peale. Beautiful and thought provoking.

A HT to The Awesomer.

Obsessive-Compulsive?

Well, maybe it is a little OCD but I seem to have this thing about noting patterns and streaks. So I don't want to miss this one. Sunday, August 14, 2005 was the last day I missed a post. We had been traveling, arrived in Tampa late and the motel's WiFi was down. In other words, I have now gone 4 solid years of at least one post a day.

That and my debit card will get be a cup of coffee at my local Caribou.

Listening With Your Ears, Not Your Eyes

Two things came up in synchronicity over a 12-hour period the other day.

First was an article in The Week magazine that was from an article at Live Science. In short the research suggests that

the brain regards creepy music as even more frightening when eyes are closed rather than open, scientists now reveal. ...

These findings were not seen when volunteers were placed in complete darkness with their eyes open. This suggests these effects are not related to vision alone.

"It seems when you close your eyes, your brain has this reflexive response to go into a different state of mind that results in the amplification of certain information," Hendler said.

As I read that my thought was:

Listen with your ears, not your eyes.

It also explained to me why I will often sing a hymn in church or even listen to a reading with my eyes closed. There is something about it.

Then on Sunday morning I was listening to American Routes on Minnesota Public Radio and an interview with trumpeter extraordinaire Clark Terry. Terry had been in the military during WW II where he played in a Navy band. The military was, of course, segregated at that time and host Nick Spitzer asked Terry if he thought that such musical groups helped in desegregating the military in the long run. Terry responded that he thought so.

People learned to listen with their ears more than their eyes.

Now That Makes Sense

I no longer remember what I was taught when young about Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) and why he did what he did with all those apple seeds etc. Maybe I thought he was some kind of proto-environmentalist. In truth he may have been kind of a kook. A couple years ago Mental Floss Blog had a post of four things you didn't know about Appleseed-Chapman and linked to it again last week. So with apple season really getting underway in the Upper Midwest I thought I would link to it as well.


Link

And to no one's surprise the reason for all those seeds on the American frontier: Hard Apple Cider.

Don't Confuse Me With Facts

We all have a way of believing "Old Wives' Tales." They are part of our cultural stories. We believe them even when we know that they may not be true. Sadly it isn't just cultural things. I am currently reading An Instance of the Fingerpost which takes place in 1600s England. Part of what I have already read has some discussions and arguments about the human body, health, and healing.

For example, the "modern" thinker stands against some of the folk remedies that doctors prescribed- but also believed that the stars and astrology could impact health. On the other side the old-timer who puts noxious stuff on his eyes to "cure" them thinks astrology is bunk. So in the end some kinds of cultural baggage informs many things we believe.

One I remember is the old saw that you don't go swimming for an hour after eating. We would sit along the beach waiting for that hour to be up. It made sense, of course, that the body needed everything to digest the food in the stomach.

What to my surprise then about 20 years ago when a friend and trained lifeguard/water safety instructor told me that this was no longer considered an issue. I was upset about all the hours wasted out of the water.

There are of course many of these "old wives' tales".

By the way, what and where did this phrase come from? Ultimately, to no surprise, from the Bible.
Here from Wikipedia:

An old wives' tale (often mispronounced as old wise tale) is a type of urban legend, similar to a proverb, which is generally passed down by old wives to a younger generation. Such 'tales' usually consist of superstition, folklore or unverified claims with exaggerated and/or untrue details. Today old wives' tales are still common among children in school playgrounds. Old wives' tales often concern pregnancy, puberty and nutrition.

In this context, the word wife means woman rather than married woman. This usage stems from Old English wif (woman) and is akin to the German weib, also meaning woman. This sense of the word is still used in Modern English in constructions such as midwife and fishwife.

Most old wives' tales are false and are used to discourage unwanted behavior, usually in children. Among the few tales with grains of truth, the veracity is likely coincidental.

The concept of old wives' tales is ancient. In the 1st Century, the apostle Paul wrote to his young protege Timothy, "But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness" (I Timothy 4:7).

Anyway, this is just a long introduction to a link from The Best Article Every Day website where they recently debunked 10 Old Wives' Tales.

But I'm not sure they are right that the full moon doesn't cause more problems. Some old wives' tales must be based on something from anecdotal evidence. (Or do I just want an excuse for my weird behavior every 28 days?)

Oh, and note their support for debunking the swimming tale is from the Mayo Clinic. Must be right!

Wise Beyond Her Years

One from (The Customer is) Not Always Right from a few months back.

(I’m a painfully shy 13-year-old, and a customer somehow mistook me for an employee.)

Customer: “Can you help me find something?”

Me: “No.”

Customer: “NO?!”

Me: “No!”

Customer: “Why not?!”

Me: “… I’m not allowed to talk to strangers.”

A Sunday Moment to Pause

By Ernesto Cardenal

God’s call, vocation, is twofold. God calls us saying, ‘Come and follow me.’ We arrive and then we must follow. We find but must go on seeking. God’s call is a never-ending call, to the unknown, to adventure, to follow him in the night, in solitude. It is a call incessantly to go further, and further. For it is not static but dynamic (as creation is also dynamic) and reaching him means going on and on. God’s call is like the call to become an explorer; it is an invitation to adventure.

Source: Love

-from Inward/Outward

A Blast from the Good Old Days

Mental Floss Blog posted the video below from an old David Letterman Show. Crazy, off-kilter and just plain funny as Dave and Casey Kasem give you the Top Ten numbers between one and ten. Don't think you know #1 just because you think you know the numbers.



That's why I have always loved Dave.

It's Been Back to Work

Well, that finishes three days back from vacation. What a great break it was- nine work days and four weekend days. We stayed at home. A lot easier to do these days when we don't live in a parsonage across the street from the church. I pretended that it was the good old days. You may not remember them. That was the time before e-mail access. Yes, I could have checked my work e-mail any time during those 13 days. But I didn't. I told myself I was out of touch. It worked.



We cleaned up my computer room so I can go in there and read and relax. That doesn't mean there's not more to do with the boxes of pictures and memorabilia in the closet- nicely hidden. But I can go in there now and not feel overwhelmed. My wife did the same in her sewing room.

We did some road trips to the Mississippi and Minneapolis. I biked 62 miles. We had fun with an old friend who came to visit and had a good evening meal with our daughter and her boy friend. We also got up when we wanted, went to bed late, read a bunch of books, and took naps.


Hey, isn't that what vacations are all about?






And I took a lot of pictures. As usual.

A Couple Novel Reviews

I know I haven't been posting many book reviews, but two novels I have recently read deserve mention.

The first is Leif Enger's latest- So Brave, Young and Handsome. It is storytelling at a high level from the author of the even better Peace Like a River. It is the story of lifetime criminal Glendon Hale finds an unlikely companion in struggling novelist Monte Becket as he seeks redemption from what to him is his greatest sin, leaving his wife decades earlier. Along the way the story unfolds with grace and quiet hope even when facing unusual villains and heroes who are not always what they claim or seem to be.

Enger is a master storyteller and this does not disappoint. It is a tale of the old west when it has become too old to be what it once was. As his previous novel, Enger paints a portrait of grace at work- and reminds us that in the end grace is not about what you do- it truly is about a hopeful nature of the world. His seemingly simple story-style fools you until in the end you, too, will realize you have been graced.

The other novel is a mystery by Iain Pears, The Immaculate Deception. It is an "art" mystery where a painting is stolen, ransomed and returned. But nowhere is it that simple. Police and security, politicians and crooks and even the Prime Minister of Italy get involved. It is a well-paced novel that in its own way becomes a page turner.

How I to looking at this book is an example of the nature of how books become popular. A friend had posted on Facebook his list of 15 books that were transformational or important in his life. Another of Pears's books was on the list and someone else suggested this one as well. Since Pears was an unknown to me, I picked the shorter and probably more accessible of the two. That simple.

Now that I have finished this, I am about to start the other, longer volume, An Instance of the Fingerpost. I will let you know what happens I think about it.

Overheard in Recovery: Turn It Over

Here's an oldie but goodie from the recovery tables:

Surrender is not giving up

Of course the first response is, "Right," filled with all the sarcasm and snide-ness possible. But stop and think about it for a moment. You get to that moment in your life when at the center of who you are you know there's no hope if you keep going in the same direction. You may not be willing to admit it out loud, but you know the truth in your gut.

So that leaves you with a couple choices:

• Keep fighting to the bitter end even though the end is anything but pleasant
• Stop fighting.

Sounds like an easier choice than we make it. It is called surrender. Unconditional surrender because we know the end is worse than we can probably imagine.

Surrender then really isn't giving up. It is realizing that there is a better way than the way I have been going. It simply means:

Stop fighting.

Nothing more and nothing less. It will also probably save your life.

Bring Some Cheese---

Here's the whine....

I am going back to work tomorrow after a great two-week vacation.

(Did you hear the high nasal sound as the vowels were dragged out as long as I could?
Did you see the long, droopy face?
Good.)

Whine completed.

Sixty-One

It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who we are. We face surprises. And disappointments. The crucial fact is that we are different from anybody we know and admire…. It takes all one’s courage to be the person one is, fulfilling one’s odd and unique possibilities.

By M.C. Richards
Source: Opening Our Moral Eye

And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,
no matter how long,
but only by a spiritual journey,
a journey of one inch,
very arduous and humbling and joyful,
by which we arrive at the ground at our feet,
and learn to be at home.

By Wendell Berry

Source: The Collected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1957-1982

Learn again how to play. One in touch with the vitality of the inner child throws himself into life. He is free to move spontaneously from intuition. His actions are neither dependent on the validation of others nor blocked by his own self-censure. No longer a mere observer or spectator, he actively participates in his life. This childlike spirit of engagement is the road to life’s work. As Thomas Merton said, “A man knows he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and begins to live.”

By Laurence Boldt
Source: How to Find the Work You Love

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that I share this date with the Prez. What is odd, though, is that my wife shares her birthday with the last Democrat president. What are the odds?

Okay, enough. Time to go back to work tomorrow.

You Learn By Surprises

You think you know how you're going to respond to things. Things like growing older, what it's going to be like. But you don't. You end up getting blindsided by your own reactions. In fact those reactions, feelings, responses are so surprising that you get defensive. You defend what you did or felt- even though somewhere down in the depths of the soul you know that something isn't right- and that something is probably within you.

That happened again a few months ago. I stepped around it and through it but those great psychological words- transference, counter-transference, etc.- described my reaction to things that I thought I knew how to handle.

Loss- the sense of it is a big emotion.

Grief- something I have never been good at; never have gotten used to it. It goes all the way back to 6th grade when I had my first awareness of mortality. We had been on a class trip to the circus that we had been working on for months. It was wonderful, exciting, lots of neat things- an adventure. But the next morning, a Saturday, I woke up and had a deep sense of sadness, loss. I would never have that experience again. It was great- but it was gone.

I didn't have a word for it, but looking back it was grief at growing older. Things happen- and things pass. "This, too, shall pass" had a strong negative feeling.

Or perhaps it went back two years earlier to my Dad's surgery for a brain tumor on my 10th birthday. That was 51 years ago tomorrow. The sense of aloneness and loss and fear were more than real. Fifty-one years.

Literally- a lifetime.

It is only natural, I am sure, to become more aware of grief and loss with the passage of years. More and more- people I have known have died. Last week a high school classmate died of cancer. Others have died in accidents, of AIDS, of war.

A lifetime.

But it is not morbid. It is what we begin to think about. Garrison Keillor is making a good living at being an old curmudgeon. I am just dealing with cleaning out closets and desks and boxes of pictures. Downsizing. Books that were important to me no longer hold on. I hold on to some simply because at one point in time (over a decade ago now with some; 40 years with others) they were life-changing books. They opened new worlds and new insights. They helped define who I was and who I was becoming. I hang on to them simply because they are there.

I guess this happens every year when the birthday comes around. Life moves on. Grief is real; loss is common. So deal with it.

Which is what I continue to do while also remembering to live and enjoy life. So I will go out on a bike ride after I finish this and by the time you read this later in the evening I will have finished band practice and getting ready to enjoy one more day of vacation on Tuesday.

A lifetime. Yep- and worth it!

No Spin- Confess

Remember the Air Force One New York City flyover debacle earlier this year when citizens panicked thinking another 9/11 was in progress? Well, last week more details were released.

In the series of e-mails obtained by CNN and others was an assessment of what was happening and what to do about it. In one of those powerful understatements you can find only in official language the conclusion was:

No positive spin is possible. Admit mistake.

How much nicer could things be - and a lot more honest - if we adopted that as a motto!

Bread and More Bread

--Maria d.c. Zamora, Claretian Resources, Philippines

John 6: 33 - 35 -- "For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,
and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Up and down the line
From heaven to earth and back
From birth to death and life infinite
Comes bread.

Yet we do not live by bread alone,
So said the Rabbi at the Bar Mitzvah,
But by every word that proceeds from
The Mouth of God.

How unknowingly wise and even prophetic
That such words themselves were a source
Of Bread that came down
And became a starting point for a different
Life in the Spirit.

Up and down the line of life
When you least expect it
And perhaps when you need it most
From heaven to earth and back
From birth to death and life infinite
Comes Bread.

A 2-Year Memory

It was two years ago today that the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed. We pause to remember today.


There is now a new bridge which we hope was built with more thought and engineering behind it.

A 40-Year Memory: Pre-Woodstock

August 1 - 3 - The Atlantic City Pop Festival is held at the race track in Atlantic City, NJ featuring many of the same rock musicians that will be at Woodstock two weeks later. There were 110,000 in attendance.

No, it isn't my ticket. I wish I had mine. Yes, I was there! And yes, it was only $15 for the weekend.

According to Wikipedia (and my somewhat hazy memory) here is the line-up and some notes:

o American Dream
o Aum
o Booker T. & The M.G.s
o Tim Buckley
o Paul Butterfield Blues Band
o The Byrds
o Canned Heat
o The Chambers Brothers
o Chicago Transit Authority
o Joe Cocker
o The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
o Credence Clearwater Revival
o Dr. John
o Cass Elliot
o Iron Butterfly
o Jefferson Airplane
o Janis Joplin
o Lighthouse
o Little Richard
o Lothar and the Hand People
o Hugh Masekela
o Buddy Miles
o Joni Mitchell
o [Tracy Nelson] & Mother Earth
o Procol Harum
o Buddy Rich
o Biff Rose
o Santana
o Sir Douglas Quintet
o Three Dog Night
o BB King
o Frank Zappa

o Biff Rose was the MC and filled in for Joni Mitchell when she started to cry and ran off stage in the middle of her 3rd song when the crowd was not paying attention to her performance. It seems she was placed in the rotation directly after Mother Earth featuring Tracy Nelson and the crowd wasn't ready to hear her mild act.

o Crosby, Stills & Nash were originally on the lineup but ended up as a no-show, Nash supposedly had polyps on tonsils (but sang at Woodstock two weeks later). The Chambers Brothers were a last-minute substitute.

o Moody Blues were scheduled but weren't there.

o Johnny Winter was present but did not perform because his equipment did not show up.

My memory was- and is- that it was a remarkable program- and a lot more comfortable than Woodstock would be a few weeks later. It was the three days before my 21st birthday but my roommate and two other friends and I were there for one purpose- the music. We all loved the music. We argued about whether Janis Joplin was really all that great (but I loved her version of Summertime. Frank Zappa kept us entranced with a 30-minute jam.

But two unknown groups stole the show for me:

• Chicago Transit Authority (later known simply as Chicago) and
• Santana

As I remember it these were the first real big shows for both and their albums were not out yet. But when they took the stage they took over. Chicago's album had been released a few month's earlier and this was a great kick in the pants for a trumpet player like me to see them.

But Santana. Their album was a couple weeks from release and got a big push from Woodstock. I remember, though, the excitement their music brought to the place. As it still does. Just watch Woodstock and you begin to get the feel. I bought the album as soon as I could and was not disappointed!

That isn't to ignore the other great performances, both famous and otherwise. It was a remarkable weekend. In many ways far less of an EVENT than Woodstock was to become, but just as powerful and exciting a weekend for those of us who were there. As many have called it, it was the great festival that no one has ever heard of.

--E-Rockworld
--Atlantic City Pop Festival 40th Anniversary