And This Makes Sense?

This was on the Addiction and Recovery News blog last Tuesday:

‘Harm Reduction’ refers to policies, programmes and practices that aim primarily to reduce the adverse health, social and economic consequences of the use of legal and illegal psychoactive drugs without necessarily reducing drug consumption. Harm reduction benefits people who use drugs, their families and the community.
--International Harm Reduction Association

They point out at the IHRA web site that the idea of "harm reduction" came out of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the early to mid-80s. The purpose was to reduce the potential for contracting AIDS by handing out condoms and clean needles. The thinking- and correct thinking in most ways- was that people were going to be having sex and/or shooting up. Why put them at more risk? Reduce the potential harm.

It makes a lot more sense with AIDS than it does with alcohol and drugs. The answer is in one simple word- addiction. No matter how much harm reduction education you do, an addict or alcoholic will still be an addict or alcoholic. By definition they are not able to control their drinking. Sure, they might be able on any one occasion to stop, to reduce potential for harm. But an alcoholic or addict does not know how or when that will break down.

In fact, harm reduction, as defined above, doesn't seek to reduce drug consumption. It simply seeks to reduce the consequences and allow them to keep using. That doesn't make sense. Not as a general policy. Not as a public health approach to addicts and alcoholics. No, it doesn't make sense.

But I will be willing to say that there are times and places when elements of "harm reduction" might very well be socially helpful. There are places called "wet houses" where truly "incurable" alcoholics can live in a supervised environment and continue to drink, controlled by the house. I have not seen a great deal of information on this, though some say it has shown some success at reducing crime and homelessness.

Methadone treatment is another "harm reduction" model. This one has been around a long time now and has shown mixed success. There has been significant abuse of methadone maintenance programs but some evidence does point to reduction in negative consequences. Some programs in other countries are also using a harm reduction program that gives heroin addicts their heroin. In other words, it keeps them addicted so they don't have to go out and beg, borrow, buy, or steal to get it.

The IHRA is an international, not-for-profit NGO, incorporated in the UK. It has offices in London and Melbourne, Australia.

The IHRA website says:

Harm reduction ... is based on the recognition that many people throughout the world continue to use psychoactive drugs despite even the strongest efforts to prevent the initiation or continued use of drugs. Harm reduction accepts that many people who use drugs are unable or unwilling to stop using drugs at any given time. Access to good treatment is important for people with drug problems, but many people with drug problems are unable or unwilling to get treatment. Furthermore, the majority of people who use drugs do not need treatment. There is a need to provide people who use drugs with options that help to minimise risks from continuing to use drugs, and of harming themselves or others. It is therefore essential that harm reduction information, services and other interventions exist to help keep people healthy and safe. Allowing people to suffer or die from preventable causes is not an option. Many people who use drugs prefer to use informal and non-clinical methods to reduce their drug consumption or reduce the risks associated with their drug use.

My guess, anecdotal and based only on personal observations, is that very few people who are not alcoholic or addict die from these "preventable" causes. We are talking about allowing addicts and alcoholics to continue to use their drugs of choice, although hopefully at lower levels.

As a social policy, this sounds dangerous, to be perfectly honest. It opens up all kinds of "official" abuse and control of people deemed hopeless by the society or government or whoever. The social costs of drug and alcohol use is high, yes, and prevention and reduction programs are important. But as a policy of supporting negative behavior, "harm reduction" is not a preventative measure, as it is with HIV/AIDS. It may, if we are not careful, simply hide more of the social consequences and be more costly than we think.

Bravo, Ken Burns

A treasure house of superlatives.

That was what was used to describe the National Parks currently being celebrated in Ken Burns' newest film series on PBS- The National Parks.

It is another incredible achievement. No, it moves at the same pace as all Burns' programs- deliberate, panning still pictures, beautiful (!!) shots, celebrity voices bringing old words to life. But it entrances us as well it should.

Names: John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt, Stephen Mather, George Dorr
Places: Yosemite, Yellowstone, Acadia, McKinley, Grand Canyon

America's great idea- to preserve and protect land, special land, for all generations. It is truly an amazing achievement built on a deeply awed spiritual foundation yet very much a part of who we are. The Land has made us as much as our Declaration of Independence. One might even argue that such an idea of independence was easier formed where such spaces and places are available.

There has been so much already in the first three nights. So much more is to be seen. I am reminded why the words of America the Beautiful flow so wonderfully from our national voice and conscience.

O beautiful, for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

O beautiful, for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw;
Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law!

Monday Morning Quarterbacking: With Only Seconds

Okay. I have to bow in humble awareness that the Vikings' Starting QB was his old (note: OLD) self yesterday. With only one chance left to win and seconds left on the clock, there is still no way that you should bet against him. Yes, he makes playing football fun. And when your second favorite team is whoever plays the Vikings, you just close your eyes and pray that he misses.

Yesterday he didn't miss. It was right on and he looked like the kid he once was. He gives the Vikings an overall confidence they haven't had in years. In other words, they didn't give up in spite of bad breaks and the Starting QB's first interception of the year. This is why they wanted him. This is what has made him famous. But note: He looked tired, and every day of 40 years old, after the game. It will be week to week for him. He looked good at this point last year, too.

Final:
SF 24
Vikings 27

Meanwhile over in St. Louis, the Packers' QB was looking quite good as well. Yes, they were playing a team that they should beat, but they did lose to one of those teams last week. He remained cool and calm, ran for a TD himself and looked like he was in charge- which he was.

Final:
Pack 36
Rams 17

So, without the razzle-dazzle at the end, the week would have been a tie between the Vikes' Starting QB and the Pack's Starting QB. Unfortunately, the edge goes to the Old Guy. Let's see what happens next week when they face off. Should be fun.

BTW: Two other games of note. First, the team that the Starting QB left, the Jets, are now 3-0.

Second, Detroit is on a hot streak. Well, they at least won for the first time in 20 games.

And, oh- that Brett. I sort of remember something about him.

Which Direction to Look

Earlier in the week I ran across the following quote:

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

--Thomas Jefferson

It reminded me of a description of an old and dying church the writer Frank Peretti put into his lead character in The Visitation. He said about his church that

they were looking ahead to a glorious past.

How true that often is- and not just with church. It may, however, be with the church that we are most bedeviled by it. Yes, I choose that word with clear purpose. We are often challenged by the "good-old-days" memories. Every pastor has struggled with it in any church but a new church plant. Even there people bring the way they were used to, even when they weren't happy with the way they used to do it.

There are no easy answers. It is a challenge in politics, families, your local service organization, city council, or college. We often spend incredible amounts of time trying to recreate what used to work, but hasn't in a while as if trying harder will make it work next time.

It won't. That time, the time for those ideas is past.

Hence, I believe, God gives us prophets. No, not fortune tellers, but those who are willing to lead God's people (and others) into the dreams of the future that God lays out for us. Those who are willing to take the chance to present new ideas, new directions, new hopes from the God we claim to follow.

Robert Kennedy inspired a political generation with a quote of hope. I am haunted by it as I get older and find that it is true often in its absence.

Some see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not?

--George Bernard Shaw

Banned Books Week Begins

Banned Books Week

I will be doing more blogging on this important week later in the week.

Just a warning.

A 40-Year Memory: Beatles Winding Down

September 26 – The Beatles release their Abbey Road album, receiving critical praise and enormous commercial success.

They were barely a group anymore, but they still produced amazing music. Come together- right now.

As a Public Service....

Thanks to The Morning News for a very helpful article on How Not to Be a Statistic. With all the H1N1 worries going around, don't overlook the danger of SHC (spontaneous human combustion.) Don't let it happen to you.

This one is particularly good:

If you find your bath water suddenly starting to steam and bubble, it’s because your internal temperature is rising dangerously high. Have a family member pour ice cubes into the tub and then have him or her make sure the gas stove is off, so you don’t end up losing the entire house.

Link.

A Non-Swimming River Rat?

Yep, that was me. I talk a lot about water and the pull of water in my life. I called myself a "river rat" in a post last week. But I didn't go near the water if it got very deep until I was out of high school. In many ways I was afraid of the water.

Some of that came from my mother. She was a city gal- born and raised in Brooklyn. Wilderness was scary. Rivers and fast running streams were dangerous. So here she was with two sons living in the relative wildness of the northern Pennsylvania woods. It was a small town. There was no swimming pool available at that time. Stay away from the water was the word that she told us. You could get swept away.

The only way to learn to swim was for the local Park and Recreation group to pile you in a bus and take you about 18 miles up Pine Creek to the Little Pine State Park. There was a beautiful lake on Little Pine Creek behind a major flood control dam. There was a beach and a place to swim. Park and Rec took kids there and taught them to swim.

But Little Pine was wild. It was far away from civilization.

And, God forbid, what if you got tired and got pulled into the pipe that carried the water out the other side? Every few years someone would drown at the Little Pine beach, usually out of some stupid or reckless act. It only reinforced my mother's fears.


As a result neither my brother or myself learned to swim. I don't know for sure if he even knows how to now? Our mother died when I was 13 but our aunt wasn't a whole lot less protective even though she grew up there.

So the summer after I graduated from high school I worked at the new local swimming pool- as a cashier- and took private swimming lessons from one of the lifeguards. Jackie was patient with me and by the end of the summer she even had me jumping off the diving board. Many years later, when in my 40s, I took more lessons and now can at least keep on top of the water.

Yet, in spite of the fear, water still drew me. I find it amazing that the fear instilled by my mother didn't ruin the wonder and mystery of water for me. Perhaps it enhanced it. I was always aware that as a bi-ped with lungs, no fins or gills, that I was not made for water. I was made for land. It reminded me of the reality of water's power and ability. It was not something one should take lightly. I still don't. It is much too important to take lightly. It has never lost its ability to awe.

Mars on Earth

That could be a city found on Mars with the Red Dust. It is actually Sydney, Australia. The picture is from a Flickr group with a number of pictures of the incredible dust storm in Sydney yesterday. Amazing.


Link to Flickr

A Different Take on the postModern Problem

Leave it to Speaking of Faith to give us a broad and insightful show on Ramadan. A week or so ago they had a show with Muslims talking about their experiences of the Ramadan fast that just came to an end. What struck me as an excellent parable of the postModern experience for many was the way one of the speakers explained her story.

She made sure that she came back from a trip to Jordan before Ramadan began so she could experience it here- in the United States.

Samar Jarrah: I just got back from Jordan actually last night, very late last night, and my family was telling me, "Why can't you just stay a bit longer and spend the week from Ramadan in Jordan or in Egypt?" I said, "You will never understand this, but the best Ramadan I ever spent in my life is always in America because I feel sometimes I'm the only person fasting."

It's more strenuous. I feel like every day is a Jihad for me, the struggle to maintain my faith, maintain my fast despite the amazing food around me and the smell. If I go shopping or if I go to the mall, there is food everywhere. Everybody is eating except myself and this brings me amazing strength. I wake up very early in the morning. I can be lecturing, I can be driving to my class a hundred miles each way, I can be feeding the homeless, I can be doing amazing stuff that I would not be doing if I were living in a Muslim country because the whole country would be fasting and I would be one of many.
--Transcript

It reminded me of what friends who lived in what was then East Germany used to reflect when they visited us in the United States. They would always comment on the way we mix up faith and nation and how easy it is to be a Christian in the United States. Their experiences in an Eastern European country at that time highlighted the difference when making the decision to be a Christian and got to worship was an act of courage.

That is what Samar Jarrah was talking about. Her awareness of her faith was far greater when in the US since she was surrounded by non-faith the way she practiced it. That does not mean she felt like a persecuted minority. That isn't what she said. It is the amount of temptation that would call her to break her fast - or perhaps not even start it in the first place. This can be called assimilation- giving in to the temptations of not being quite so different.

Being different doesn't even mean being visibly different. No one could tell whether Samar was fasting or not. But she did. And God did. Which is what it is all about. It is a way of going into one's closet and praying in secret. Even when the culture is calling.

In the postModern concept that is one of the difficulties of faith. It is being challenged on all sides by non-faith or anti-faith or even just pure indifference to faith. How do we people of faith of all types keep our faith in the midst of that? How do we maintain our conscious contact with our God when the cultural static is so alluring? How do you do it?

Now an "Old" Boss? Nah.

Happy Birthday to The Boss.

Yes, today is Bruce Springsteen's Big 6 - 0.

Here from You Tube is one of the recording sessions from the Seeger Sessions album.

It's not the birthday song, but it is fun. Enjoy.

A Powerhouse of a Book

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell is one of the more remarkable books I have read recently. As I said last week I am surprised that I hadn't found out about it before the Speaking of Faith program a few weeks ago. It has been around for 13 years and has quite a following. I can see why.

In brief it is about the first human-alien contact, initiated by the Jesuits following the discovery of music from a planet in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri. Wikipedia adds:

Only one of the crew, Father Emilio Sandoz, a priest, survives to return to Earth, and he is damaged physically and psychologically. The story is told in framed flashback, with chapters alternating between the story of the expedition and the story of Sandoz' interrogation by the Jesuit order's inquest, set up in 2059 to find the truth. Sandoz' return has sparked great controversy – not just because the Jesuits sent the mission independent of United Nations oversight, but also because the mission ended disastrously.

Mary Russell is an interesting person in her own right. She is trained as a paleoanthropologist with excellent scientific credentials. She was born Roman Catholic but has since become Jewish, one of the topics discussed on Speaking of Faith. As a result of all this her book, as Wikpedia comments from Library Journal:

was mistakenly categorized as science fiction, and that it is really "a philosophical novel about the nature of good and evil and what happens when a man tries to do the right thing, for the right reasons and ends up causing incalculable harm".

It may be one of the more exciting theology books I've read in a very long time. In the midst of everything else there is a challenging exploration of "God's Will", the power of confession, being a "saint" and that powerful phrase from Aeschylus that wisdom comes through the "awful grace of God.

This is all found in the central character, Emilio Sandoz. In Sandoz is the search for faith that most of us never even bother to begin. It is one that comes from the depths of a soul battered and bruised- and in the end even broken. What does God have to do with all this? How does God even fit in? Sandoz was very aware of his own agnosticism, an important step of honesty in his faith. But he was also willing to cry with the ancient witness, "Lord, I believe. Help me in my disbelief."

Other characters, too, struggle. One of them, Dr. Anne Edwards, after the discovery of the songs from space wondered about how these could even be considered a sign from God. It may be one of the most important passages in the book to understanding what it is all about:

Once, long ago, [Anne had] allowed herself to think seriously about what humans would do, confronted directly with a sign of God's presence in their lives. ... God was at Sinai and within weeks, people were dancing in front of a golden calf. God walked in Jerusalem and days later, folk nailed Him up and then went back to work. Faced with the Divine, people took refuge in the banal, as though answering a cosmic multiple-choice question: If you saw a burning bush, would you (a) call 911, (b) get the hot dogs, or (c) recognize God? A vanishingly small number would recognize God, Anne had decided years before, and most of them had simply missed a dose of Thorazine.
The Sparrow, p. 100.

There's much, much more that this book will bring to conscious and unconscious thought. It is a work of remarkable grace.

(Note: There is a sequel, Children of God. I am not quite ready to jump in. This one has to do some settling first. Or maybe not.)

Water From the Skies

At right is the weather radar from Weather Underground from arond 9:30 pm last evening. This was the first rain we have had since August 26. That's 27 days. It was good to see.

A Season Almost Gone

Went to the Twins game on Saturday. A great event which we won with an 8th inning rally. But the numbers out there in left field are counting down to Zero. After Saturday's game there were only four games left in the old Metrodome. Today there are but three. My daughter and I will be there on October 4 when the number goes to Zero- Nada- Nothing. Next year, back into the great outdoors.

Yes, it is crazy to not have a roof of some kind. There will probably be a snow storm in April when we open the 2010 season. But I can hardly wait for next summer. Baseball - outside.

What fun. I hope.




Oh, here from Saturday's game is superstar catcher Joe Mauer rounding second after hitting a home run. Just thought it would be nice to put in.

Monday Morning Quarterbacking - Week 2

Okay. Even old guys can do great things on the football field. For NFL week 2 it was clearly the Starting QB for the Vikings who took the prize. A record 85.2% completion rate is nothing to sneeze at.

Yes, I know it was against Detroit who have now lost 19 in a row. But you have to give the guy his due. And it is still early in the season.

As to the Green Bay Starting QB, he almost pulled it out but didn't do as good a job of time management at the end as he could have.

So in my book now it is tied with each getting the recognition one week.

Anything New to Say?

Somedays it is just like this. There doesn't seem to be anything new to say. I've said it all. After all these years what more is there to say? Isn't it possible that all the possible permutations and combinations of thoughts and ideas have been said and done?

When we reach that point we then just try harder and harder to find something. The Internet has become a great way to do that kind of seeming research. Google something, anything, related to what you think all things have been said about.

And sometimes even that doesn't work. You see nuances and differences so slight that your mind goes numb in trying to figure our what they mean.

I did that with this morning's Gospel lesson on not being stumbling block, not doing things that put others into danger of turning away from Jesus. Which, when I was much younger, I was told was that while some things might not be forbidden to Christians, seeing a Christian doing them might cause others less protected to fall into sin.

But nothing I Googled gave me anything new. There was construction and deconstruction. There was interpretation and re-interpretation. What I didn't see in my quick search was something that came to me as I was looking at it one last time in wanting to write this post. I didn't see anybody talk about the fact that judging others who were doing good works in Jesus name might be what Jesus was talking about.

I realized that all this talk of stumbling blocks was perhaps the inner attitude that says if you don't do it my exact way then you are wrong is the biggest stumbling block around. It narrows the playing field of God's grace. It sets up too many boundaries- human boundaries- on God's will and work.

If they do it in my name, don't worry. My name is being praised.

I know- that was before TV preachers managed to mess that one up. Except maybe not. Perhaps Jesus did truly mean what he was saying. Stop trying to protect Him. He has all the ability needed to do that Himself. Each of us should be doing what it is we are called to do. Don't worry about them. In the long run it may be that the old Rabbi Hillel was right: If it is from God it will succeed. If not, well, it will fail in the end.

See, maybe there is nothing new.

De Facto Racism?

I almost hate to enter this debate. Obama disagreed with former President Carter on his statement that much of what has been happening is based in racism. And yet...

Back in the late 60s and early 70s I had the opportunity to learn a great deal about racism in a number of different settings from a colleague at the campus radio station who introduced me to jazz through southern students at Seminary. In that I learned several things:
1. I can be racist even when not realizing it because it at least was so ingrained in our American culture. This in spite of a very real and strong support of Civil Rights.

I learned this most clearly when I went to Germany in 1970. A black man came walking up the street talking to a colleague. As they passed me I had the very ashamed thought- "gee, I wonder where he learned to speak German so well?" I thought immediately of my DJ colleague who had often seriously challenge me on my white approach to life. "My God," I thought. "He was right." To have that first thought was not a conscious act on my part. It came from deep recesses of the mind where experience and culture- good and bad- had formed some basic "core beliefs." I was severely shaken.

2. A few years later I was in Seminary and a number of my fellow students were from the south. There I learned that there really were two kinds of segregation. Surprisingly the easier to deal with was the "official" type, de jure it was called. The other, much more subtle kind, de facto, was simply accepted as the way things are.

My southern friends would get quite upset when we northerners would begin to talk about the south and racism. All of these were liberal, civil rights supporting people. They didn't like the stereotypes that the northerners would perpetuate about the south being racist and the north not. They simply, but often vehemently, pointed out that there was far more racism in the north. It just wasn't visible because it was seen as "normal" and not involved with legal stuff.

As a result of these two events and my personal experiences over the years, I have come to believe that racism is far more common than we are willing to admit. And the reason often is that we are as blind to it as we are to other cultural baggage that is accepted as the way things are.

The recent anti-Obama rallies and attacks have been far too vehement, far too angry, even far too irrational to be based in simple politics of health care. While there are many important issues to talk about and work with, these are NOT what the arguments have been about. They have been about demonizing Obama and his plans. Too much time and heat has been expended on things that are not in the bill. They are touching a deeper issue. Deeper than even health care.

That's where I think the old idea of de facto segregation comes into play. We don't know we are doing it- and often honestly and sincerely- deny the racism. Only a southerner like Carter who has developed an amazing sensitivity to many things that cloud our culture, can begin to understand it. He was there in the old days that many of us don't know much about anymore. He saw the pain of racism, for example, as part of the Koinonia community of Clarence Jordan. He was able, like my southern friends of the 70s to see it in others before they may even be aware of it.

Am I still racist? Yes, I probably am. I'm white, grew up in the middle of the last century. This nation was built on racism. It is, as has been said many times in the past 233 years, our "original sin." We do not get rid of it in less than a generation. Instead of trying to justify or rationalize, let us rather accept it as part of who we are.

Let us then say that it has been a BIG, very BIG change in everything we have known to have an African-American in the White House. As I said on 9/11, it may be one of the gutsiest acts in recent American history. For many it is a threat to what they understand to be the core value of the United States. Not necessarily on a conscious level but at that deeper core level.

Part of dealing with that will be to be more aware of the extremes that seem to be arising in this debate. Let us seek to keep focused on what we are doing not on what our fears drag us into. Fear often leads to anger since we don't like to be afraid. There are always those who are afraid of what is happening in the government. In the 60s many were afraid of Johnson or Nixon and their fingers on The Button. Things at times got irrational. In both directions. Johnson and Nixon were called "baby-killers" and the protesters were told to go back to Russia (where none of them were from.)

The same irrationality has overtaken us in the current decade. What may make it worse is the drive for TV/Radio ratings - on both sides. Ramp up the debate and you will get more viewers. Ignore rational discussion and more people will be talking about you and then more people will watch and you can raise your ad rates. (Cynicism? Sure. And it works on both sides.)

Let's get the debate back to sensible discussions and not what tore us apart in the 60s. If racism is under it, unknown or conscious, let's at least try to set that aside and move into the freedom and liberty that we have celebrated and that many - of all colors - have died for.

Yes, I am passionate about this. That is the heart of the 50s and 60s that still beats within me. We have come a very long way in the past half-century. I celebrate that. Let's keep at it.

Body and Soul

Another snippet from the Speaking of Faith program on Yoga a couple weeks back:

Ms. Corn: In the practice of yoga what we're taught is that there is no separation between the mind and the body, and everything that we're thinking or feeling or experiencing over the course of a lifetime, or lifetimes, has an effect on your cellular tissue. So your body remembers everything and even though we have as human beings a gorgeous ability to reconcile or to reason, our bodies don't have that same ability to heal unless we're moving through experiences in our life in a spiritual way. So what I'm saying is if we're holding onto hate, blame, shame, anger, rage, sadness, or grief, something like that, those emotions can be as toxic on our physical body as a poor diet or as inertia and they manifest as tension, stress, and anxiety. So our physical body is actually masking the emotional resonance that lies beneath it.

Ms. Tippett: Holding it in somewhere and we're not aware of it.

Ms. Corn: Mm-hmm. We repress it.

And so I could feel the anxiety arise, so I came up with interesting tools to deal with the anxiety. And this is what most people in our culture do. Then when it doesn't work, they use drugs, sex, alcohol, power, caffeine, food, anything to self-regulate or numb out. And in the practice of yoga when you're releasing the tension organically through the practice of asana day in and day out, the emotions that are embedded in our cellular tissue begin to arise. Yoga is asking us to take the Band-Aid off the wound and be willing to heal it through a spiritual practice. [Emphasis added.]

Transcript Link.

What an amazing thought and so in line with so much that is going on in addiction research and treatment. We often speak in treatment that the "addicted brain" is "hijacked" by the addiction. We know that all that goes on in our brains is chemical in nature. The idea that "thought" is somehow separate from the physical is just not true. The mix and balance (or imbalance) of brain chemicals can- and does- produce many problems that we have always called "mental health." That does NOT mean that it is all "in your head" other than that is where your brain happens to sit. It is a real, physical- physiological- event.

So we also talk about "re-wiring" or "re-training" the brain. It happens to people who have strokes or injuries and need to re-learn how to do some very basic things. That is exactly what happens in addiction recovery. We learn "work-arounds" that help re-balance brain chemicals and processes that the addiction has hijacked. The result is recovery.

Hence, Yoga. It is often considered one of the pieces of the recovery puzzle. As Ms. Corn so clearly talks about, we can see why.

A Quick Review

Admittedly I am a Letterman fan. He is truly the heir of all the late-night legacy. Jay Leno has always been secondary. The Tonight Show under Leno often seemed forced and lacking in fun- and an edge. So it was with low expectations that I turned to the new prime-time Leno show.

If this is the future of prime-time NBC, it's worse than I thought. Jay tries much too hard. He takes himself and his place much too seriously. His jokes are, on average, so-so.

In other words, the new show is nothing more than a recycled Tonight Show with Jay Leno- and that was never on the top of my TV list. Sorry Jay, Dave is still the King!

Water Magnetism

Regular readers know that I have been a "river rat" since childhood. I grew up along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River in north central Pennsylvania. It doesn't look as big as it is since there's a mile-wide island sitting there on the left.




Just a few miles to the west was the confluence of the West Branch with Pine Creek, its largest tributary, heading south from the Endless Mountains. "Creek" is misleading. In many places this would be a river.




A few miles to the south was a short stream called Rauchtown Run going through Ravensburg State Park and an area we always called "The Rocks." It's only a few miles long before heading underground. But it was wild and scenic.


Put all three together and it's no wonder that water has been such a draw to me, whether it is river, ocean, or lake. I have lived near the Lehigh River, the Rock, the Minnesota and the Zumbro, and never far from the Susquehanna, the Delaware or the Mississippi. Water has something about it. Primitive and powerful or lazy and barely a trickle.

I was struck by this again on my last bike ride along the Great River Trail. Most of the trail is not right along the river. There is a wide wetland area between the trail and the Mississippi itself. But when you come south to Trempealeau, WI, down the hill into downtown- there it is.

Wide and blue-gray behind Lock and Dam # 6. It is a moment of awe as I felt drawn to a sacred place- a Thin Place where heaven and earth are barely separated by a thin veil.

Water. Great river or small stream; ocean or rocky run. It is water.



Along the Great River Trail itself you see the edges of the river in the marshlands and wildlife.





But you get near Onalaska at the southern end and there it is again, now at Lock and Dam #5, with people fishing on the spillway.

I am not much of a fisherman myself. I am not into the sport of catch and release. But I understand the fishing. It is somehow built created into us. Hunter-gatherer? Perhaps. We have seen pictures of bears reach in and grab the fish- and wish we could do the same. I like fishing in the Boundary Waters where we eat what we catch. Otherwise, give me a book along the shore with a sunset in the background- an opportunity unparalleled in "civilization."

Or that indescribable moment at the Atlantic Ocean when the sun rises.

or on the Gulf of Mexico as it sets.

There is something unique about water.

Evolution tells us that is where we came from.

Genesis says the Spirit moved across the face of the waters to bring forth Creation.

How can we not be attracted to water?

Now a Cover-Up?

The NY Jets and their former coach have been fined for "hiding" an injury to their Starting Quarterback in the last month of the season last year. He is now the Starting Quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings and is getting old. The NFL has rules about reporting injuries since it can affect how other teams prepare.

The Starting Quarterback was not fined. He apparently told the Jets that he would be willing to sit out if necessary, thus breaking his record setting consecutive games streak. He has already announced that the Vikings' winning is more important than his record. (Which may be true after this week when he sets the record for any player at 271 consecutive games.)

Who says this isn't an ongoing soap opera?

Oh - Brett who?

In Memoriam: Mary Travers

Mary of Peter, Paul, and Mary died today. Puff (the Magic Dragon), Blowin' in the Wind, and I Dig Rock and Roll Music among many, many others defined an era of folk and fol-rock music. They were the BIG name act that popularized many songs and kept many of us humming along. Mary was 72.

A 35-Year Memory

It was 35 years ago yesterday that I was ordained a minister of the Moravian Church. That's me on the right. Bishop Ed Kortz, the ordaining Bishop is in the center, and Dr. Thor Harberg, District President is on the left. The service was held at the Grace Moravian Church in Center Valley, PA, where I had been serving as student pastor for a yer. I had just started as full-time pastor on Sept. 1.

That explains why I have spent time looking at preaching and ministry this past week. I always took some time on these anniversaries to do that. Now that I am "retired" from the church's pastorate it still comes around as a memory worth noting and building on.

In addition, today, September 16, is the Day of Covenanting for Moravian Pastors. It was on this day in 1741 that the Synod in London, unable to find someone willing to be the "head" of the Moravian Church, decided by use of a "lot" that Jesus himself would henceforth be the Head of the Moravian Church. It was then, and continues today, to be more than just a nice little item of history. It forces many of us many times to stop and consider What would Jesus want us to do? It is not an empty statement but one that reminds us that we do not do this alone.

So, for me after 35 years and our church after 268 years, these words still act as a reminder of who we are and why we do what we do:

Jesus makes my heart rejoice,
I’m His sheep, and know His voice;
He’s a Shepherd, kind and gracious,
And His pastures are delicious;
Constant love to me He shows,
Yea, my very name He knows.

Trusting His mild staff always,
I go in and out in peace;
He will feed me with treasure
Of His grace in richest measure;
When athirst to Him I cry,
Living water He’ll supply.

Should not I for gladness leap,
Led by Jesus as His sheep?
For when these blest days are over,
To the arms of my dear Savior
I shall be conveyed to rest:
Amen, yea, my lot is blest.

--Cyberhymnal

How Did I Miss This Book Before?

A few weeks ago Speaking of Faith on public radio had one of their amazing interviews with author Mary Doria Russell, author of The Sparrow. I was so entranced by the show that I put the book on reserve at the library. When I dug into it a week ago, I was not disappointed. I am being moved beyond words. I knew what the book was about and a little bit of its thought from the radio program. But to dig into the book, is, as usual, the wondrous experience of exploration.

I realized quite early that I was reading about characters, people, that were about to experience something awful, and perhaps, awe-full. With alternating chapters decades apart we learn how things started and how they are going now with the two tracks converging on whatever the events that precipitated the second, more recent events. The tension of the flash-back; flash-forward style has grabbed me. You know that you are caught in impending doom and you read transfixed by that. It's that proverbial slow-motion train wreck that you don't want to watch but can't tear away from. The dread as I watch the people I am coming to know and like head toward something I am clueless to is difficult.

That's about as far as I am at this point. I am aware that in that final moment that somehow or another there is also going to be an act or redemption. Somehow as the two tracks converge and we move on in "our" story there will be something that makes it all worthwhile. There are enough hints in the story line which convinces me of this. Even in the doom there will be I am certain a moment when God becomes apparent if we are willing to be open to God's presence and possibility. So I keep going.

I then realized that this is truly a great deal like life. Don't tell me you don't know the ending. I don't think it will spoil the surprise for any of us to know that in the end it's the same for all of us. The time, place and details are all that differ. How we handle that journey is what our life is all about. I for one don't want to shortchange the possibility of God becoming more and more apparent as time moves on.

As to the book, I know that I didn't tell you a thing about it. This post isn't about the book- it's about the experience of reading an excellent book. As to the plot and ideas- well, I'll keep you posted as I finish it and then probably move to the sequel.

Winter Weather Forecast #1

Sunday on a ride along the Cannon Valley Trail, I saw the first wooly bear caterpillar for the year. For those unfamiliar with it, the coloring of the wolly bear is supposed to tell us what kind of winter we're going to have.

As this was the first, it seems to be showing a split winter, heavy at the beginning, then a good spell and back to cold at the end.

I'll keep watching for more and let you know.

Sound Forever

Sound is nothing more than air turned into waves. Moving air. But oh what you can do with that moving air is far from as simple as it sounds. Greg Milner in his book, Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music gives us a history of recording, producing, and reproducing the sound we call music. From Edison's wax cylindersto our latest MP3s it is quite a journey. The goal has been to get perfect reproduction- or has it? Sort of until multi-tracking became easier and easier. Suddenly you could produce music that exists only in the recorded world. Move from there to digital and you are in awhole new world.

We can't let my old medium of radio get off scott-free. The "loudness wars" in the New York metro market took sound and in a retro movement had CD music being processed in a way that made the CD sound like it was on the radio. Huh?

It is quite a history. There are passages and sections I skipped for the technical stuff that went beyond my skills or understanding. The people and in-fighting are part of a great ride.

You may even be surprised at the end at what may very well end up being the perfect sound forever.

Monday Morning Quarterbacking

I'm older than the Vikings Starting Quarterback so I thought I would do a Monday morning review of The Rivalry for this week. It could even be a weekly thing.

First, the Minnesota Vikings had a BIG win at Cleveland.
Vikes 34
Browns 20

Yes, but, the Browns have won only 1 season opener since 1999 and scored their first offensive TD since last November- with 28 seconds left in the game. Oh, and the new Browns coach was with the Jets last year when the Vikings Starting Quarterback was there. Adrian Peterson was magnificent. He is truly one of the great active ballplayers and if he stays healthy will be one of the all-time greats. No doubt about it!

It was not an impressive win considering the opponent. The Browns quarterback, in losing, was 21-35, 205 yds., 1 TD and 1 interception. The Vikings Starting Quarterback showed his old style but was fair in his opener. He was 14 - 21 in passing with 110 yds, 1 TD and no interceptions. More worrisome, I think, to any Vikings hopes is that he was sacked 4 times. Remember that the Vikings were sixth last year in allowing sacks. That does not bode well for a 40-year old body.

Game ball goes to Peterson with 180 rushing yds. Any of the Vikings QBs would have won today with him.

2) Then there's the Packers in a Rivalry game at home against Da' Bears. First half- one word- defense. The two top QBs in the division had trouble getting past the other team's defense. Turnovers by the Bears offense made the difference there. But then came the 2nd half. Both QBs continued to struggle against good defense. But Rodgers brought the Pack back. He did not look like his top form- yet. But it was impressive. He was 17 - 28 for 184 yards, 1 TD and no interceptions.

In the end, defense was the star of the game for both with the Packers looking good. It was an exciting start for the season.

Final score:
Chi 15
GB 21

PS) Oh, and did anyone notice that the Lions lost again. Anyone keeping count? (It's 18.)

PPS) Brett who?

Why Do I Like Preaching?

I preached in church last Sunday for the third time in about six weeks. One person came up to me after worship and commented that it was apparent I like to preach. I had to agree. For the past 18-20 months my preaching has been limited to an occasional substitute worship for a friend at a nursing home. More than that, I have not preached regularly for almost six years. I can't say that I wish I could do it every week. Not with a full 40-hour a week job that doesn't include 10-15 hours to write the sermon. I do miss it when I do it.

So I thought I would spend some time reflecting on preaching over two or three posts over the next few weeks or so. Part of what I have spent a great deal of time doing over these past 6 years is pondering the nature of the church, of church membership and being a Christian. Since I now sit in the pew as just another member and not the preacher, I have had many opportunities to reflect from this side of the pulpit. I wrote the series, If I Went Back which is linked on the right sidebar as a more general reflection over 2 1/2 years ago. There I talked about the things I missed and didn't miss.

So, why then do I enjoy preaching? Well, the cynical, smart-aleck answer is that I like the power of "Thus says the Lord" or the apparent "holier-than-thou" attitude that says I know something about God that you don't. In other words, perhaps, I like being the center of attention.

Another side of me says that I need the discipline of researching, praying and writing a sermon in order to work our my own faith. I began writing this blog the year we switched my ministry position to be more out in the community and my wife did the worship/sermon leadership. The blog and my journaling gave me the way to both write and share. Putting it out in public makes me more disciplined and hopefully more concise.

Some of what I like is the "teaching" aspect of sermons where I have the opportunity to give people new insights or open them (and me) to new, different possibilities. My hope in doing that is that others will grow more deeply into their faith and closer to their spiritual rootedness in God.

That was once reinforced after I announced I was leaving that congregation for a new call. A member and friend came up to me and asked, "Now how am I going to get my weekly spiritual therapy session." As we talked I realized he was talking about how my sermons helped him develop an inner dialogue and exploration. Someone else once commented that he felt when sitting in church and I preached that we were having a conversation in my living room. I would be asking him questions or sharing what's going on in my life for him and others to be able to share.

Such is the background for this several part series on preaching. This is what has spurred my thinking this time around. I hope to take a look at what the role of preaching might be. I will look at my style, particularly mine, and put it into some context. What that will be, we will have to see. More later in a week or so.

A 30-Year Memory - Sports TV

September 7 - The Entertainment Sports Programming Network, known as ESPN, debuts.
(OK, I missed it last week.)

Lowering Expectations- or a Fake-out

Well, tomorrow starts the season in full. The Vikings play in the afternoon; the Packers in the evening.

Well, earlier in the week the new quarterback for the Vikings made some comments which could be an attempt to lower expectations so when he gets hurt, doesn't play or throws too many interceptions, no one will say he didn't warn them. At the top of the list for this player is the longevity streak of (so far) 269 straight starts. He said that he may not play in all 16 games in the regular season. He wouldn't let his desire to extend that streak to record levels get in the way of his team winning.

FYI, he will tie the all-time consecutive starts Sunday when he plays in game 270 and obviously break it the week after that.

He could also be just playing Mr. Humble and trying to be just one of the guys. Or perhaps he is just trying to psych out the opponents.

So, I leave this with two things:

1) Let the rivalry really begin... and
2) Brett who?

Fascinating!

If you doubt the intuitive and way-beyond-human-perception genius of J. S. Bach, the video below can sure change that. Mark Frauenfelder, at BoingBoing, said it is a :

video of Canon 1 à 2 from J. S. Bach's Musical Offering (1747) being turned into a Moebius strip, then played in two directions at the same time.

If you don't understand a Moebius strip or Bach, don't worry, enjoy and know you are seeing something amazing. Bach was beyond understanding at the very depth of his musical soul.

Reminders from Space

As 9/11/2009 comes to an end a lot more calmly than did the one 8 years ago, some pictures from space posted at The Best Article Everyday, remind us of the magnitude of what happened as can be seen from even 250miles away.

Here's one from the Space Station:







LINK to page.

Eight-Years Gone

Those iconic towers in lower Manhattan in 1993, from the top of the Empire State Building at sunset.
Statue of Liberty barely visible in center of picture.

We knew that day eight years ago that things would never be the same again. In those few short moments of horror and disbelief we knew that what we had assumed since the end of World War II was gone. Our American self-assurance was challenged and we responded. Some of it good; some not so good; and some may one day be found to be ways that hurt us more than we were hurt. Yes, the world is different.

Skyline of lower Manhattan from Liberty Island, 1987.

I was struck in the picture above from Liberty Island, that the New York harbor haze made an interesting contrast in the picture, perhaps metaphorically. Over there is what isn't anymore. The Towers represent September 10, 2001 and before. We stand here in the still green grass of liberty and look back. We wonder and ponder and dream.

We can't go back. The world is different. We are no longer as separated from the rest of the world as we used to be. Even North Korea has talked about throwing missiles our way. We have gone to war twice in these eight years- Afghanistan and Iraq. Neither has turned out the way we hoped and Afghanistan is looking more troubling than we would like. Our nation is more divided than we have been since those turbulent 60s, both the 1860s and 1960s. We refuse to let our children watch the President of the United States on TV. THAT is division unlike we have seen in a very, very long time.

Yet- YET- we elected our first African-American President. We are surviving a difficult economic recession. We are still free. The liberals will say that freedom is in spite of Bush; the conservatives say it is in spite of Obama. Neither are right!! We are free because of Bush and Obama and our basic American freedoms that we have not lost. In difficult times as we have faced over the past 8 years those freedoms can get a little tattered around the edges. It is not the first time that our freedoms got shaky. They did in the Civil War when Lincoln suspended habeus corpus. They did in WW II when we put our own citizens of Japanese origin into internment camps. They did in the 1960s when we fought each other over the length of hair and whether you were born before or after 1946.

But that grass on Liberty Island is still green. It is not because of Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives. It is green because of you and me- the great American people. We may be cynical at times, wishing a pox on both of the extremes, wanting to be left alone to enjoy our liberties. We may be frustrated at times that things aren't moving as fast in some directions- and too fast in others. We are still proud that we elected an African-American president, even if we don't agree with everything he says, does, or wants. We want him to succeed as president, for if he fails- so do we, and it takes a lot of work to rebuild.

Overall we have not forgotten that we are Americans. Of that we are proud. We are proud that we can still help the least and the lost. In many ways we still believe the words on that Statue barely visible in the top picture. All of us except Native Americans have benefited from the liberty and freedom presented in those words...

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "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!"

—Emma Lazarus, 1883

Don't Serve Them - Meet Them

Speaking of Faith this past week was another remarkable program. As I said on Sunday's short post, I could probably write a week's worth of posts on different quotes and themes from the show. One that hit me the hardest was on "serving" others- or as I had just finished preaching less than an hour before- "mission."

The guest on Speaking of Faith was Yoga expert Seane Corn. She had been talking about her own journey and discovering through Yoga the essential need to reach out to others- to serve. She discovered an organization, Children of the Night, which deals with helping teenage prostitutes. She went and decided to teach them Yoga as a way of helping them and their self-esteem, body-esteem, etc. It was a disaster. Ms. Corn said:

you could just see the darkness on these kids, and they seemed to me in that moment as hopeless. ... I went into my car and I was really emotional and I was just thinking these kids are messed up. They're never going to get better. They're going to go back out into the world, you know, as criminals, and going on and on in my head. It always takes me a while to kind of, you know, where I always think spirit's saying, like, "You done yet? You going to wake up to this yet?" Because I realized that I had just met the part of myself that I had denied, that I called into my experience the child in me that had been, that is, defiant and angry and scared to death and has absolutely zero tools for healing.

That's where she began to describe for me what mission is really all about, what happens so often on short-term mission trips, and the problem with mission as we have almost always described it.

And, honestly, God is hysterical, and I get the joke really, really late always. Because I got exactly God was saying, "It's time. It's time. You can't deny this. If you really want to heal and open your heart to love, then you've got to find the places within you that's disconnected from God. And I'm giving you an opportunity. Go back. And don't serve these girls; meet them. Go and meet you. (Emphasis added.)

I was literally taken up short, that insight was so on-target. So many different thoughts came to mind. One was Jesus saying to his disciples, in essence, you are no longer servants, you are my friends. To serve others can set up hierarchy and position and, in these types of situations, a better-than-them attitude.

Second, if we are open to the Spirit saying "You done yet? You going to wake up to this yet?" we will turn and see ourselves and something about ourselves that needs to be healed. The places we go to work and serve, the mission we seek, is always one that is inward and outward, two-ways: me to you and you to me. Healing is found for our own needs that we didn't even know we had from those we thought were the ones in need. No wonder people always come home from short-term mission trips and say they got more than they gave. They discovered the mutuality of the faith and of love.

It doesn't matter whether we are talking about a faith-based service, a deep felt-need to help others, or some drive to do something. That drive comes from someplace where we may need healing or growth ourselves. That's what Seane Corn taught me in one short but powerful moment.

Under it all was the awareness that when we do mission we are not, repeat, not going as the ones with the answers to give to those who are less fortunate. We are going to meet others with whom we learn to live and work.

If it were Christmas, we would call that Incarnation.

Destructive Power

One doesn't realize the size of those California fires until you see them in context and HD.

Here's a link to a time-lapse of the smoke which looks like a huge volcanic eruption. Amazing.

A Pondering Post

Thanks to the blog, Pure Church, I came across this quote:

It is quite common for people to say they are looking for a church they are comfortable with. I think that is a scandalous statement. When were churches supposed to be comfortable places? There is too much need in the world for Christians to be comfortable.

--Ajith Fernando, The Call to Joy and Pain: Embracing Suffering in Your Ministry (Crossway, 2007), 1994

I have a hunch that for most of us in the "western" church this may be far too true for our comfort. It highlights for me that "church" has many different descriptions and calls to ministry. Like Jesus, for whom the "church" is his body alive in the world today, there are times to be a place of comfort- and definitely the time and place to be an affliction to those who are too comfortable in their own self-focused lives.

HT to Darryl Dash.

Nothing Short of Awesome

Latest from the re-furbished Hubbell telescope- a butterfly in space.

Hey Kids. What Time Is It?

It's

09:09.09

on

09/09/09.

Oops.

Missed it.

The Center of Our Own World

A "fingerpost" is one of those old signposts that point in different directions. As Wikipedia describes them they are "traditional British and Irish sign posts comprising a post with one or more arms — known as fingers — pointing in the direction of travel to named places on the fingers." Here you stand and there they are- how to get to where you are going.

Well, maybe. Or so it seems in the very interesting historical mystery novel, An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears. There is a murder and four letters describing the events around the murder. Each letter from one of the principals gives the story as they interpret it. There's an Italian physician interested in blood transfusions, a cryptographer involved in the 17th century English intrigues, a son attempting to clear his father's name, and an antiquarian, lost, it seems, in his musty books.

Are they who they seem to be? What are they hiding and what are they trying to reveal by making sure only the right information gets out? Pears gives us a remarkable treatise on the ways philosophy, science, theology and politics can interweave, conflict and be used for whatever purposes we want.

Underneath the mystery is the simplicity that not all signs point to the right thing. Each of us is limited by our own point-of-view and can even skew things to make sure they fit. The conflict in medical thought in the book is nothing short of creepy. We see the role of superstition in our human thinking and that is quite discomforting.

In the end we can see that we believe we are the center of our own worlds and make all judgments based on that simple self-understanding. Our core beliefs and values color all we see. As a result we can then be so wrong that we are blinded to the reality in front of us, the clues that point in other directions, the understandings that can be our hope or our destruction.

In all that, with the philosophies and discussions going in so many directions, if we can be so wrong in what we know- maybe our beliefs are not as safe and solid as we like to think. On less than that have wars been started.

In short An Instance of the Fingerpost is worth the read.

Breaking News Not to Be Missed

From The Onion:

Apollo 11 mission commander and famed astronaut Neil Armstrong shocked reporters at a press conference Monday, announcing he had been convinced that his historic first step on the moon was part of an elaborate hoax orchestrated by the United States government.

According to Armstrong, he was forced to reconsider every single detail of the monumental journey after watching a few persuasive YouTube videos, and reading several blog posts on conspiracy theorist Ralph Coleman's website, OmissionControl.org.

Finally, the truth is out. Next the ghost of Lee Harvey Oswald will disclose the other gunman. I can hardly wait.

The Holiday for the American Laborer

From Wikipedia:

The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on September 5, 1882 in New York City. In the aftermath of the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the US military and US Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with Labor as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. Cleveland was also concerned that aligning a US labor holiday with existing international May Day celebrations would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair. All 50 U.S. states have made Labor Day a state holiday.

The form for the celebration of Labor Day was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday: A street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations," followed by a festival for the workers and their families.

Interesting. Now it is simply the end of summer. If someone tried to do a day like that today for the original reasons they would be branded a socialist- or worse. Amazing how times change.

Labor Day Imaged

Cross-post with my pmPilgrim photoBlog:

Abandoned and forgotten, part of the old Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, PA. Someday even these will be lost to time. But the men and women who worked hard in these factories are every bit as much American heroes as anyone. The American worker- often out of sight and out of mind. Thanks, on Labor Day, 2009.
Date: July 4, 2004

Holy Ground

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Earth’s crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes -
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Source: Unknown

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

By Robert Frost

We dance round in a ring and suppose
But the secret sits in the middle and knows

Source: PoemHunter.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

By Dag Hammarskjold

At some moment I did answer Yes to someone—or something—and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, has a goal.

Source: Markings

Don't Miss This One

Just finished listening to this week's Speaking of Faith on Public Radio. It was amazing and I could do a week's worth of posts about aspects of the show. Wow. I know I will do at least one later in the week. It was on "Yoga- Meditation in Action."

If you get a chance, listen here.

This summer has been a kind of "greatest hits" reruns that have showcased the incredible depth and spirituality of this wonderful program.

Can You Name This Item?

I can. I had one.

It is a "slide rule."

It performed difficult calculations of many different kind.

It became an icon indicating what today we would call "geekiness."

It could be worn in a carrying case on the belt.

It didn't fit into a pocket protector. (I didn't have one of those.)

Well, according to the website The Awesomer it is now being produced for the retro-geek. The ThinkGeek company had to start from scratch since no factory exists anymore to make them.

Amazing.

Overheard in Recovery: Re-engineering

An optimist sees the glass as half-full
A pessimist sees the glass as half-empty
An engineer wants to re-engineer the glass.

Which is what recovery is all about. Optimism has its place, of course. It is the source of hope. But in recovery we discover that our lives are no longer able to hold the hope thanks to the addiction that has been hijacking our brains and flooding our neurotransmitters with false chemicals and signals.

So the only thing that we have to change - is everything.

In order to do that we have to work at re-engineering, rewiring the brain through new ways of thinking and acting. We turn our lives over to the care of a higher power- someone that can guide us when the old ways come back.

Then the longer we work at it, the better we get, the more the shape of the glass of our lives fits the new way of living- sobriety.

Imminent Fall

Last Sunday I passed 200 bicycling miles for the summer as I went 26 miles on the Great River Trail in Wisconsin again. This time I was looking for signs of fall. I found them.

I wanted to call the above picture, No Refills, as it was clear that the berries are disappearing from the bushes. And once they're gone, sorry, no more until next year.

Below the red was still subtle, hidden still by the brightness of the green. But it won't be long. Already the green was looking tired and worn out, ready for the colors to make their last fling.

Perhaps this is the best sign of fall... those trees and the ever so slightly dimmer sunshine and that tired green. But what day for a ride!!!!

Those Who Will Not See

There's an old English proverb that says:

"There are none so blind as those who will not see.

That of course echoes Jeremiah 5:21 (KJV)

Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not."

Reading a post last week on the blog Emotional Abuse and Your Faith these thoughts came to mind in sad and scary ways. Hannah talked about the awful tragedy sort of redeemed of the young woman kidnapped 18 years ago and held in captivity in her captors backyard. People knew something wasn't right. People knew a sex offender was living with children:

[A 33 year old woman} whose mother lives on their street, said she knew Phillip Garrido was a sex offender and that he had children living with him. Other neighbors knew, too, but they assumed police were keeping tabs on him.

"He never bothered any one, he kept to himself," Adams said. "What would we have done? You just watch your own."

She goes on with the money quote that shakes me up- and it should.

It makes me wonder how many other people are in similar situations under people's noses that they don't want to get involved in. How many others KNOW of molesters having children in their homes, and NOT wishing to call the police. We need to just WATCH our own!

Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil! isn't working.

No, this isn't a modern problem. It has been real for years- even back to the Biblical days.

• Jesus reminds us that the neighbor is the one to love as oneself.
• The work of the Kingdom is as much to the stranger as the friend.
• All the way back in Genesis 4, embedded in the very creation story that shows the world as it is we are caught up short- the comfortable being afflicted as God seeks to remind us that we are to comfort the afflicted not make excuses or turn the other way.The words of Cain become their own judgment:

And the Lord said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

God's clear answer is implied in the question itself.

Why yes. Of course you are!

You can't- and shouldn't- just "watch your own."

A 40-Year Memory: Show Me the Money

Actually I don't remember it, but it happened on this date 40 years ago.

September 2 - The first automatic teller machine in the United States is installed in Rockville Centre, New York.

Again on Ted Kennedy

"I recognize my own shortcomings -- the faults in the conduct of my private life. I realize that I alone am responsible for them, and I am the one who must confront them. I believe that each of us as individuals must not only struggle to make a better world, but to make ourselves better, too."

-- Sen. Edward Kennedy, in a speech at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Oct. 25, 1991

Found the quote at The Dude Abides and thought it would be the start for a few expanded thoughts on the passing of an icon, legend, and larger-than-life presence for 47 years.

1) The biggest complaints I heard in the past week about the reporting and coverage of Ted Kennedy's death was that no one was mentioning his shortcomings. It was almost as if doing so would have knocked Kennedy down a peg or two in the place he is taking in American political history. No more than Thomas Jefferson having a child by his slave can take away from his very considerable contribution or Lincoln's depression or FDR and Eisenhower (and others) having mistresses. Ted lived bigger-than-life for many reasons. He made mistakes which he somewhat readily admitted, but only as any of our clay-feeted politicians. His son, Patrick, mentioned his own struggles at the memorial on Saturday. These are the known situations. Larger-than-life people; great people; often have great flaws. How they live with them and overcome them says more about the person than we care to admit.

None of us can or will ever know what went on in the depths of Ted Kennedy's heart and soul. We will not know the pain that may have been part of his driving force, the remorse that ate at him but which he used as fuel for his desire for service. In that he is no better or worse than any of us who are driven by our own demons and angels.

The Dude Abides blog had this quote to sum this up:

In an Associated Press report from Dublin earlier this week, an Irish everyman -- Joe Drennan, a 68-year-old contractor from County Cork who was among those waiting in a line outside the U.S. Embassy to leave his condolences for the Kennedy family -- summed up Sen. Kennedy's legacy beautifully.

"He had his peccadilloes, like all of us . . . but boy, did he overcome them," Drennan said. "He overcame the biggest obstacle in his life -- and that was himself."

2) As odd as it may seem, it was only this past week that I realized that Ted was not the also-ran with his brothers. Death at an early age in the manner that Jack and Bobby died give them an immediate memory and presence. It is their shortened potential that makes us stop and ponder who they were and what they did. In my mind, Bobby will always be the big question of what could have been in so many different areas of American life.

But Ted who was always the "baby brother" managed to do what the others were able to do- make an indelible change by his own work. JFK and RFK continue to inspire and motivate some of us now aging boomers and '60s liberals. That's due to memory. Ted has inspired Gen X and Gen Y and Millennials. Ted has worked for equal rights and civil rights. Women, gays, minorities, the poor- the nation- have benefited. Among his good friends were poor people and Republicans. He modeled passion and care and ways of having fun. He modeled the willingness to stand up and do what one feels is needed- essential.

There were many stories of his care that came out in the past week, like his calling all families of 9/11 victims and keeping in touch with them. He made a life out of keeping in touch with people which was a deep and abiding part of who he was.

3) Listening to some of the commentary on Saturday morning public radio, they spent a good amount of time talking about Ted's faith and the wrestling he did with his understanding of how that plays out in life. One referred to his work as a way of living out the Kingdom of God as envisioned in Matthew.

Matthew 25:34-40 -- "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' (NIV)

They talked about how his views on issues at times clashed with official church positions. He never wavered from what he felt was right. He lived and breathed his faith as well as any of us, but did not allow other people's interpretations to sidetrack him when he was convinced. That, too, is something to hold up. He may not have been your typical "religious" person (whatever that may be. But he was as unashamed of his faith as he was of his political views.

It was good to hear such a balanced and knowledgeable conversation of faith and public life on the radio. No hysterics, no scare tactics from any side of the issue. It was a good example of how Ted himself would have handled it.

4) Overall, I felt like the past week was more a celebration of who we are as Americans than just about Ted Kennedy. His life and death, his place in our national life for so long, led us to that point. Just as Ronald Reagan's death a few years ago opened us to some of that same dialogue, any such national event will call into our awareness who we are as citizens of this amazing democracy. To watch both sides of the political aisle stand and praise Kennedy was to watch our American life in action. Let us hope that that era of American life never comes to an end.

The Real Threat...

The website Regret the Error from freelance journalist Craig Silverman regularly posts error corrections from papers around the world.

Here's one from The Justice which is a student newspaper at Brandeis University.

The original article provided the incorrect location of New York University’s new institution. It is in Abu Dhabi, not Abu Ghraib.