Auld Acquaintences

What a year.

• Ups, downs, overs, outs, and everything in between. An historic inauguration, mega-winter storms, H1N1.

• Conspiracy theories, Sarah Palin, Captain Sullenberger.

• New terrorism threats, old wars still going on, health care reform, reformed and to-be-continued.

• The economy.

• Births, deaths.

• Infinity.

All in 365 days.

So wish it farewell. Send it on its way. We have nothing else we can do.

Hold on to the good. Learn from the bad. Seek to find better ways in 2010.

A Hat-Trick of Movies End the Year

We saw three movies last weekend. We had a triple play of excellent movies. The third was George Clooney and Jason Reitman's top quality and not-to-be-missed Up in the Air. (Tomatometer: 90%; IMDB) This was the movie that came into the year-end season with the most positive buzz having been premiered earlier. Everyone was putting it on their best of the year list before it was even released. I can sure see why.

Clooney is at his best. Reitman keeps getting better and deeper. From the satire of Thanks for Smoking to the cuteness and challenge of keeping Juno from being too cute, Reitman has shown that he has top shelf directing chops in a comedy/drama with a serious message tempered by humor and characterization. I am amazed at Clooney. He never looks like he is acting. He is himself- or is he? The roller coaster his character rides in this movie is seen in his actions and reactions. He is never false. He grabs you.

So does Vera Farmiga as Clooney's love interest. She is the person you see. Or is she? You are never sure since she is a gender-different version of Clooney. She too pulls you in and grabs you. You are there with her. No spoilers here. Go see it.

Something you don't see as often in movies any more- an opening title sequence. This one was fun to watch as they used shots from the air as a plane traveled across the country. The theme was used throughout the movie in introducing each new landing of Clooney's character. It was a thread that tied the movie together and let you know that things were changing even as they seemed to remain the same.

In short, I was blown away by the movie. Reitman and Clooney show that you can make a major motion picture that is serious, Academy Award level and still be accessible. You don't need fancy computer graphics or even levels of violence to blow you away. People can do that simply by being people. Good actors, good scripts, good direction can knock you from your seat as much as a blue-world from someone's imagination.

Invictus shows you the power of humans in changing the world. Up In the Air is about people and what life can do to them. Both show that great movies can be found in the stuff of every day life. Go see them!

Sports As More Than Metaphor

Movie #2 over the Christmas weekend was Invictus, the latest from director Clint Eastwood. (Tomatometer: 76%; IMDB) Inspirational, well-acted and well-directed Invictus is part of the story of Nelson Mandela, former prisoner of South Africa and later its first Black president. I have to disclose that Mandela has been one of my heroes for many years. This film only cements his place in my list of people who have made the world- and my life- a better place.

In brief, Invictus is the story of an almost all-white South African rugby club in the early year of Nelson Mandela's presidency. Mandela, played to perfection by Morgan Freeman decides to enlist the captain of the team, Matt Damon, to make the Springboks a World Cup winning team as a way to unite the country. This in spite of the Springboks have been a hated symbol of the hated apartheid, even to the teams colors.

From the beginning the story isn't about rugby, though director Eastwood does some remarkable directing and editing around the game. It is the story of a nation working to right itself from a dark, stormy, hate-filled past. Mandela, as we all know, managed to do that with grace, finesse, and a great deal of personal courage and modeling. We see this told in scene after scene. There is the merging of white and black security details. There is a visit by the rugby team to the prison cell where Mandela spent 27 years of his life. There is the team teaching poor blacks how to play rugby.

We often use sports as a metaphor for all different life experiences. Here the genius of Eastwood showcases the truly outstanding genius of Mandela to use sports as a means in and of itself to change the world. That doesn't happen very often. We can probably name only a handful or so of such events: Sandy Koufax declining the start of a World Series game because of a Jewish holiday, Chariots of Fire, the Brian Piccolo story had small impacts on a greater world.

Jesse Owens winning at the 1936 "Nazi" Olympics in Berlin or the raised black power fists in 1968, and the awful devastation of the terrorist attack in 1972 in Munich raise these greater issues. They did have great impact on many. But the story of Mandela and the rugby squad set a tone for an entire nation's recovery. They simply went out to play a game and became true champions.

It is easy to wax eloquent about events like this. Eastwood, Freeman and Damon bring it all to life. It takes courage- and vision. This movie gives us a glimpse at one who had that and its amazing results.

This is a not-to-be-missed movie.

No Movie Left Behind

1 Year
342 Movies
7 Minutes
Lots of things get blown up
Lots of people get shot
Lots of robots and other non-human things show up...

So just

Relax and watch.....



Link to list of all the movies.

Overheard in Recovery: Perspective

Working in the addiction/recovery field I often meet people in those very early days of abstinence. One of the most difficult things to get across is that sobriety is not meant to be a punishment. The fact that a person sees it as that is one of a number of indicators that they may have a problem. So it came as refreshing to hear someone I was talking with have the following excellent change of perspective:

Sobriety is a gift to be enjoyed
Not a cross to bear.

It all depends on how you look at it. In some ways it is dependent on how you are willing to shift your perspective. One of the early changes any alcoholic or addict has to make is that huge movement from punishment to gift.

Sadly it is an extremely long jump for some to make. It feels like something important is being taken away, something that has felt like the very center of their lives even though they would never admit that. In reality that is exactly what is happening. But in the process, if they can see how much was taken away by the addiction then they can make the movement toward that shift which is essential.

It doesn't happen overnight. Cravings, desires- grief over the lost past- are real and need to be dealt with. But if one is to stay clean and sober the awareness that life will be far better than you ever thought possible has to be planted and allowed to grow.

Sobriety- like life- is a gift. Look at it from that angle and things begin to change.

An Untold Story

Capt. EDW Pine Nut of the 12th Nutcracker. The elite "12th Nut" is Santa's personal bodyguard detachment and provides both ceremonial and combat support to the Santa. Photo by Ed Hunsinger

Did you know there was a "Santa's Little Secret Service?"

Me neither.

But thanks to The Awesomer website, I was able to see pictures from their Operation Yule Storm. It took place on 12/12 at 1212 hours. It escorted Santa, Jesus, and other VIPs. An important task, to be sure.

Looks like fun in San Francisco.

Blogging and Cooking in the Movies

With the extra time on Christmas Eve we watched a movie. We wanted one that was entertaining and wasn't some BIG, HEAVY movie. Julie and Julia fit the bill. (Tomatometer: 75%; IMDB.)

Two words best describe it: Meryl Streep! What a joy to watch her act, this time in the persona of Julia Child as the story of Child in France is set against Julie who blogs about cooking through Julia's recipes. Streep no doubt will be nominated for some Academy Award again. She deserves it.

It is also a good movie. Well done, interesting, and well constructed and directed. It is based on two books and two true stories. The parallel story-telling allows for some interesting connections although they are not as central to the story as one might assume. Each has its own charm and characterizations and the links are built around writing more than cooking. Julie is less certain of herself than Julia whose ego and bombastic personality takes over the screen as it did when she was on PBS a generation and more ago.

As a blogger I found the blogging section only somewhat interesting. I was more entranced by the cooking Julie did. At one point it made me think about what it would be like to go take a real cooking course at a community ed program. Since I am already having enough trouble losing weight that idea didn't stay alive for long. But for me it was the excitement of cooking that both Julie and Julia lived that attracted me.

Overall it was a fun evening with good acting and directing. (Stanley Tucci as Julia's husband is just right for the role.) The story hung together and was never dull. Who would have thought a movie about blogging, cooking, and writing a book could do all that?

He Got a Wake-up Call

Consider this:

Urban Meyer
45-year old
Super-coach at Florida
Five seasons
Two national Championships
56-10 record

According to the AP, by stepping down, Meyer leaves a program that has become one of the jewels of college football and at a time when he is considered one of the best coaches in the nation.

Announced he is retiring for health reasons.

There are times when things fall into place and you have to make decisions that go against the flow. As I believe John Lennon once said,

Life is what happens when you are making other plans.

UPDATE: Then he changes his mind. Was the first decision done too hastily? Did someone offer him more money? Now he is on a leave of absence and feels he will be back on the sidelines in the fall.

Just interesting.

The Sunday After Christmas: Another Christmas Miracle

(Image from FreeFoto.com)

The Sunday After Christmas

'Twas the day after Christmas and the phone rang. A vacationing pastor answers the phone with great fear and trembling.

"Hi, it's Marilyn. Do I have news."
"Hi, Marilyn. What's up?"
"A true Christmas miracle."
"Okay."

There is uncertainty in the thoughts going through the mind. Miracles seem to be everywhere at Christmas. Everyone sees them. Everyone wants one. The only time of the year when we actually, truly look for them. The rest of the year a miracle can hit us in the head and we'll think the sky is falling. At Christmas the ordinary becomes miraculous.

"This was really something. Christmas Eve the door opened and in walked my oldest son, followed by my daughter. They haven't spoken in thirty years."

My mind shot back to the story on Christmas Eve. It was about connections and family and roots. It was about the people we touch and who touch us as we pilgrimage through life. But I didn't mean it like this.

When Christmas becomes real, it is hard to admit and accept. We're just too cynical most of the time. We're just too unable to accept the wonders of God's life and promise. Yet, right here it was, on the phone.

"I just had to share this with you. It was much too good to keep to myself."

Connections. The church becomes the place to share. The church becomes the community of connections. I hardly know Marilyn's children. They are grown and gone from the home and have found another church home for themselves. I think I met them once at a funeral, naturally. But Marilyn has to share it with me. She HAD to call someone else.

It makes my Christmas. I know that sounds like the typically mushy response. But it does make my Christmas because I am connected. It isn't the same, of course, as if it had been a close relative who has been out of touch for years. It won't make or break the day for me. But it does restore the faith in Christmas miracles. Even for a pastor who is always talking about then, always wondering where the next one is coming from.

Until it comes.

What is a miracle but the ordinary seen from a different light. What is a miracle but a baby born again this year, a relationship renewed, a connection repaired. What is a miracle but simply seeing the work of God and knowing that it is the work of God.

I have a friend who, when asked if he believes in miracles responds, "Believe in them? Why, I depend on them." I want to argue with him, too. I want to say that he is putting too much stock in miracles and God doing for him what he should be able to do for himself. But I stop short everytime he tells me. I stop short because I know the statement is true. I just don't like to admit it for myself. If I depend on miracles, what is there left for me to do? If I depend on miracles how will I maintain control over my life?

So a baby is born and I didn't have anything to do with it. So a star appears in the heavens and I stand in awe. So a family is reconnected after years of discord and all I can do is answer the phone on a December morning and know that Christmas has done it again.

Never One Like This One

• The last time my wife and I spent a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day without our daughter with us was 29 years ago, in the last month before her birth (and I would argue she was with us in that one, too, but you know what I mean).

I was aware of the changing of life. Another way to say my aging. Time moves on. Sometimes it takes many years- nearly 3 decades in this case. But things change. They do not remain the same. We try to hold on to traditions and rituals since they are bits and pieces of comfort. They treat our brains to pleasure; they remind us of things that are worth remembering. Sometimes we hang on to these things to avoid seeing the changes; sometimes they are part of our denial system.

In any case, more often than not, and sooner or later, the rituals change. People change or move or pass on. It is at a holiday that we become most aware.

• The last time my wife and I spent a Christmas Eve together without going to church- well, it has never happened before.

What an unusual holiday. The big storm playing hide and seek with the Upper Midwest and doing all kinds of weird weather things brought about the cancellation of the church's Christmas Eve Candle Service. It will be tomorrow afternoon at 5:00 so it will be dark enough to enjoy the candlelight. One of the most consistent rituals in our life is Christmas Eve.

That meant that in the 38 Christmases we have had together, this one was totally unlike any we have ever had. There was always church. Then there was always church and family. This time it was just us, sitting at home, watching a movie and then the news and then finally a couple church services.

Christmas morning we slept in then opened our presents for each other. Christmas Day with our daughter was postponed by the storm and will be held next Friday, New Year's Day. So we rested, did wash and dishes, I took a nap, and we went to a movie.

Such is what happens in life, I am discovering. Things never remain the same. No matter what we want or do, change is the constant.

But in its own quiet way, it was still a good Christmas. After all it wasn't about me.

Christmas Day in the Morning

Lord Jesus, master of both the light and the darkness, send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas. We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day. We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us. We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom. We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence. We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light. To you we say, "Come Lord Jesus!"

--Henri J. M. Nouwen

pmPilgrim Photo
Boe Memorial Chapel, St. Olaf College
Northfield, MN

O Christmas Eve

pmPilgrim Photo

If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: "God with us." We tend to focus our attention at Christmas on the infancy of Christ. The greater truth of the holiday is His deity. More astonishing than a baby in the manger is the truth that this promised baby is the omnipotent Creator of the heavens and the earth!

--John F. MacArthur, Jr.

For This Night

From David Hayward, at the Naked Pastor Blog, challenging our narrow visions, even on Christmas....

A 30-Year Memory: Is There a Lesson to Learn Here?

December 24 – The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.

Advent Calendar: A Broken Dam

Two Days Until Christmas

Late on a sleepy, star-spangled night, those angels peeled back the sky just like you would tear open a sparkling Christmas present. Then, with light and joy pouring out of Heaven like water through a broken dam, they began to shout and sing the message that baby Jesus had been born. The world had a Savior! The angels called it "Good News," and it was.

--Larry Libby

pmPilgrim Photo
Grace Moravian Church, Center Valley, PA

Closer to the Truth Than We Admit

Naked Pastor David Hayward does it again. He never leaves our biases alone!

Not a Surprise

LiveScience certainly didn't have to guess at this one:

Teens who listen to music that mentions marijuana are significantly more likely to use the drug, a new study finds.

The research was based on surveys with 959 ninth-graders.

"Students who listen to music with the most references to marijuana are almost twice as likely to have used the drug than their peers whose musical tastes favor songs less focused on substance use," said University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researcher Dr. Brian Primack, who led the study.

"Interestingly, we also found that exposure to marijuana in music was not associated with other high-risk behaviors, such as excessive alcohol consumption," Primack said. "This suggests that there is a real link between the marijuana lyrics and marijuana use."

It reminded me of a situation a number of years ago now. In one of my confirmation classes I asked the youth (all 7th graders) to name their favorite music. One in particular, with a look of defiance or something resembling knowingness, looked me straight in the eye and said in a solid, confident voice:

Bob Marley.

It was clear what he was telling me. I didn't miss the message. Before any big Bob Marley/Reggae fans take offense, I have a great deal of respect for Marley's music, creativity, and power! However, I have a hunch he is an acquired taste and many 7th graders are not in that class.

And for any 7th graders who are not marijuana smokers and like Bob Marley- just don't get any ideas. In the long run it is not worth it to start. Just enjoy Redemption Song or Buffalo Soldiers for their message and practice the diversity tolerance Marley was preaching.

More Like a Nightmare?

If you

• Live in the Upper Midwest and


• Are dreaming of a white Christmas

Stop already!

Anywhere from 12" - 20" of snow is forecast to fall between now and Saturday morning with freezing rain mixed in at times in some places. Some are calling it a "Mega-Storm." Christmas may be cancelled because of too much white. A lot of us may be staying home and waiting for Santa.

Advent Calendar: Final Preparations

Three Days Until Christmas

In the same manner in which we clean and prepare our homes in the anticipation of welcomed guests and family members this Christmas season, let us also prepare our hearts in anticipation of the Lord's coming. Christ, our most honored and eagerly anticipated guest, desires to meet with us in a heart prepared for his arrival. So eager is he to meet with us that he offers to help us with our spiritual housecleaning, working with us; creating a resting place for Himself within our hearts.

--Katherine Walden

pmPilgrim Photo
Covenant Moravian Church, York, PA

I Just Liked the Headline

Druids, pagans mark shortest day of year

About 700 people went to Stonehenge this morning for the Winter Solstice. According to the Associated Press it included pagans and druids.

As for the rest of us in the Northern Hemisphere "temperate" zone, I guess we just shivered.

Snow From Space

Wired.com posted a picture from space of the Big East Coast Blizzard centered on Washington, DC. The folds of the Appalachian Mountains can sure be seen and the Susquehanna River flowing through them. You can also see the lower edge of the snow cover in the southern Delmarva Peninsula. (NASA link to Hi-Res picture.)

Maybe another midwestern storm for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Still uncertain as to the track, but they have posted a Winter Storm Watch headline.

Advent Calendar: The Gift

Four Days Until Christmas


This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ.

--Frank McKibben

pmPilgrim Photo

Will It- or Won't It?

Our blizzard a couple weeks ago never had all this uncertainty. So, I wonder what Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will bring...

ALL OF THE ATTENTION WILL BE ON A MAJOR WINTER STORM WHICH WILL BE AFFECTING THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY FROM WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT. WHILE IT CONTINUES TO LOOK LIKE THE AREA WILL SEE PRECIPITATION FROM THIS SYSTEM...THE PRECIPITATION TYPE AND AMOUNTS REMAIN UNCLEAR DUE TO THE UNCERTAINTY ON THE TRACK OF THIS STORM SYSTEM AND THE AMOUNT OF WARM AIR WHICH MAY WRAP INTO IT. THOSE WITH TRAVEL PLANS DURING THIS TIME PERIOD WILL WANT TO STAY TUNED FOR THE LATEST ON THIS WINTER STORM.

So True, So True

Thanks to El Pais newspaper....

[The world before the first cup of coffee in the morning.]

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

(Image from FreeFoto.com)

ICU Angel

Had she never spoken I would have assumed she was a simple variation on the bag lady wandering in off the street to sit and get warm in the ICU waiting room. Biases dies hard. I of course knew she wasn't. She was probably someone's sister, mother, aunt. The Neurological Sciences ICU waiting room isn't that accessible to the street people of Madison.

She was carrying a bag with her. It looked like it contained some bananas and a few sundry boxes or packages. She was sitting reading the newspaper when we returned from the ICU. We had just had a prayer together as the pastor and family. Time was uncertain, prognosis for recovery was dim. All the major decisions had been made and time was all that was left to wait with.

"Is this yours?" She spoke in a raspy, forced voice. Her eyes didn't seem to focus on us. She squinted and one eye was off center from the other.

"Yes," answered one of the sons of the woman in ICU, "but we're not going to read it right now.

" He turned and walked out of the room, following most of his family as they paced in the hallway.

I sat with a sister of the patient. Silence was the bond, the language of the moment. Pastors sit in these places all the time, but even over twenty years does not give one the answers. Any pastor who easily has them at that point has never struggled with the pain, the uncertainty, the fears.

Silence, no answers- these are not signs of lack of faith. They are signs of trust- trust that answers, if needed, will be there. This is a trust that answers may not be what we need.

But all that is standard pastoral theology. This newspaper reader in the center of the room was not. The sister and I sat.

She finally broke the silence. "Even with all the faith we have, it's still impossible not to ask 'Why?' "

The raspy voice started before the head was up from the newspaper.

"I'm taking catechism right now and the Father and I had a long talk about evil just the other night."

That was not what I needed to hear. My pastoral sensitivities went into action. I glanced at the sister as the pseudo-bag lady kept talking. This isn't what someone needs to hear at a time like this. She is breaking into the sanctity of the moment- the terrible, fearful, sad sanctity of impending death. Why is she here?

She kept on talking. "Satan... Evil... Father and I disagreed..." Her eyes never looked directly at us as she rambled on in her monologue. Some inner voice directing her. Some inner compulsion leading her to say these words to two strangers in response to a non-question.

"But you know, Father said that it doesn't matter in the end. What matters is that no evil can keep God from doing good for us. Yep, that's what Father said."

She turned back to the newspaper and the crossword puzzle. Then in a twinkle she looked up, put the puzzle next to the bananas and was summoned out of the room.

Silence resumed. A holier silence now. A pastor awed into silence by the presence of a holy one. This was not deep theology. This was not some great act of pastoral care. This was a woman who couldn't help but overhearing and responded. There was no agenda. I'm not even sure she was talking to us directly. But she spoke her words and went her way.

The sister continued to sit. Family members walked in and out waiting that lonely wait of ICU. I eventually had to leave and go about other duties. But God had been there in that brief moment with a word- THE Word. Incarnation.

Cheesehead Legalese

With a Packer game this afternoon, it is only appropriate to post this information found originally on Boing Boing and WKOW-TV27/News. (Even Microbe World picked it up):

MADISON (WKOW) -- You may know Wisconsin's state animal (the badger), the state bird (the robin), or even the state dance (the polka). Now Wisconsin lawmakers want to name an official state microbe.

It's called Lactococcus Lactis, and it's the microbe that turns milk into cheese. Supporters presented Assembly Bill 556 Thursday to the Committee on State Affairs and Homeland Security.

...

"We call those people who oppose it lactose intolerant," joked Gary Hebl (D-Sun Prairie), who is behind the bill.

...

"I think other states would try to think of other, cooler microbes to pick but I don't think they could find one, so they'd be jealous," said Regina Whitemarsh, a microbiology student at UW-Madison.

Don't accuse Cheeseheads of having no sense of humor.

Advent Calendar: Time

Six Days Until Christmas


"Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present."

— Edward Hays

pmPilgrim Photo
Berea Moravian Church

Advent Calendar: Pilgrimage

Seven Days Until Christmas

Curiosity does, no less than devotion,
pilgrims make

--Abraham Cowley

pmPilgrim Photo

There When You Need Them

Thanks to The Best Article Every Day we can get information like this news item......


Wherever the place was, they sure can respond to the real emergencies.....

Trailer Mash, Not Trash

With the awards season starting, movie trailers come to mind. Here, thanks to The Awesomer, is a 50-movie trailer montage. Hold on to your seats and press start....

Advent Calendar: What We Are to Be

Eight Days Until Christmas

Man is ever in a struggle and he’s oft misunderstood;
There are days the worst that’s in him is the master of the good,
But at Christmas kindness rules him and he puts himself aside
And his petty hates are vanquished and his heart is opened wide.
Oh, I don’t know how to say it, but somehow it seems to me
That at Christmas man is almost what God sent him here to be.

--Edgar Guest

pmPilgrim Photo
City Square, Chaska, MN

Back to the Future With FUN

The Muppets. A world of entertainment in those two words. From Sesame Street through their own movies and TV show, the Jim Henson creations are nothing short of fun and laughs. Well, they're back. The Muppets Studios (part of Disney) are trying to bring the brand back through - of course - You Tube.

It is working. Their version of the old Queen hit- Bohemian Rhapsody has over ten MILLION views in just 2 weeks.



And in just their first two days, a truly hilarious video of Ringing of the Bells was almost at 200,000 views.

The Movie Awards Season Has Begun

AFI's Top 10:

• Coraline
• The Hangover
• The Hurt Locker
• The Messenger
• Precious
• A Serious Man
• A Single Man
• Sugar
• Up
• Up in the Air.

Best Picture:
Los Angeles Film Critics Association; Boston Society of Film Critics; New York Film Critics Circle.

• The Hurt Locker

Golden Globes Best Picture, Drama:

• Avatar
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
• Up in the Air

Golden Globes Best Picture, Musical or Comedy:

• (500) Days of Summer
• The Hangover
• It's Complicated
• Julie & Julia
• Nine

It seems like Up in the Air and The Hurt Locker are in the lead right now, but James "King of the World" Cameron has hardly been heard from yet. It is looking like quite an awards season, especially since the Academy Awards will now nominate 10 pictures for Best Picture. I guess it's time to go back to the movies.

I Just Can't Resist......

Woods voted top athlete of the decade

According to the Associated Press

(and

Hustler Magazine?)

Sorry. Mea culpa.

But it made me laugh.

Advent Calendar: Strength in the Light

Nine Days Until Christmas


Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.

--Helen Keller quotes

pmPilgrim photo
Bethlehem, PA

Overheard in Recovery: Fake

In a discussion about the bio-chemical issues that underlie addictions we were discussing how the mood-altering chemicals that people use mimic actual natural neurotransmitters. Someone said,

Yeah, they're fake chemicals that lead to confusion.

I was immediately transported back to a statement a psychiatrist once said to me when discussing addiction:

Confusion is always a sign of the disease at work.

I always understood and accepted that. It made a lot of sense. In the past 21 years of hanging around in this recovery field I have seen it happen in myself as well as others. Confusion, as opposed to trying to make a decision with several options, is a way of keeping one from being conscious, aware, of the real possibilities. Instead false choices seem to take over.

It was only when I heard the line about fake chemicals that I recognized at least some of the reason for that. The "addicted brain" has been hijacked by fakes. The chemicals that mimic the natural chemicals are part of that. But that leads the brain to live in a state of confusion. What's real? What's fake? These alien chemicals look sort of like the real thing. They act sort of like the real thing. They even fit into the neuro-receptors like the real thing.

But they aren't the real thing. Confusion begins to set in. Even though the pleasure centers of the brain like them, they are still "artificial", alien. Confusion grows. Meanwhile the brain's chemistry changes some more. The natural chemicals are forced out. The receptors change. Confusion takes over.

Voila- addiction. And confusion.

Advent Calendar: Light the Heart

Ten Days Until Christmas


There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart...
pursue those.

--Michael Nolan

pmPilgrim Photo
Ronald McDonald House, Rochester, MN

Imrpov Everywhere for the Season

Improv Everywhere is one of those fun guerrilla theater organizations. For this Christmas Season they had a Guerrilla Handbell Strikeforce on Lexington Ave. in NYC.

Here's their video.



Follow this link to see the behind the scenes and other Improv Everywhere videos. Perfect for a Christmas season evening.

Advent Calendar: Present God

Eleven Days until Christmas

I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.

--Madeline L'Engle

Picture by pmPilgrim
Berea Moravian Church

It's Just Water

Thanks to Fast Company's Infographic of the Day for this. What have we done to ourselves? What are we doing? What will we do>

Presented by Online Education


Link to graphic

The Third Sunday of Advent

(Image from FreeFoto.com)

The joy of the Advent Christ be with you all.
And also with you.

He comes to liberate prisoners,
and to open the eyes of the blind;
to lift up those who are ground down,
and to pour love upon believers;
to watch over homeless refugees,
and stand up for widow and orphan.

Even the arid wilderness shall be glad,
and the desert blossom like the rose.

PRAYER
Holy God, Source of abundant love, peace and joy, we worship you with grateful, happy hearts. As we continue our Advent journey, help us to trust you more fully, to enjoy you more freely, and to serve you more eagerly. Let all our preparations be focussed on going to meet you as you speedily come to us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen!

--from Resources by Bruce Prewer, Uniting Church in Australia

A Classic For All Time

Gillette had one classic statement yesterday in the Tiger Woods saga. They said they were pulling his ads in order to keep with his wish "for privacy." They said they were helping him take "a lower profile." Double-speak at its finest.

Part of that may, of course, be true. As long as people keep seeing Tiger in ads, they will continue to think about him. In continuing to think about him they will be reminded of the past two weeks with revelation and scandal building on revelation and scandal. So to pull his ads will help get him out of the spotlight.

It will also help Gillette keep its own image as Brand Tiger Woods goes into hiatus.

It no longer surprises me when big name celebrities in all walks of life end up like this. I continue to be surprised that the news media and the general "public" reaction is one of shock. We were watching a program on Washington, D.C. scandals the other evening on one of the cable stations. A large section of it was concerned with J. Edgar Hoover who kept a very detailed and very large file of information about just about every legislator, politician, etc. No one was safe. Which probably means that no one was innocent.

Including Hoover himself, no doubt.

In any case, I congratulate Gillette and their PR department for a truly classic response for all time.

Advent Calendar: Peace

Thirteen Days Until Christmas

May the forgiving spirit of Him to whom we dedicate this season prevail again on earth.
May hunger disappear and terrorists cease their senseless acts.
May people live in freedom, worshiping as they see fit, loving others.
May the sanctity of the home be ever preserved.
May peace, everlasting peace, reign supreme.

-Soundings, Vol. 2, # 12

pmPilgrim Photo

Not Grandpa's Subway

Or New York's either.....

DesignBoom posted a series of pictures from what Fast Company called the Nine Coolest Subway Stations in the World. Astounding is another adjective that would fit.

Moscow’s Komsomolskaya Station

St. Quiren Platz Station in Munich

Olna Centrum Station in Stockholm

See all the pictures and the other six stations HERE.

A New Story - 20th Anniversary

This year is the 20th anniversary of the first in a long series of Christmas Eve stories. Christmas Eve, 1989, I decided that instead of a short homily for the Christmas Eve Candle Service I would write a story. The idea came when we took our daughter and a friend to see the movie Prancer. A line jumped out at me about the baby Jesus from the school's nativity scene was lost. I thought, "A Lost Jesus" and a story was begun.

Come Christmas Eve that year I pulled a stool into the center of the chancel while the congregation looked at me as if I had lost my mind. I gave some brief introduction about this being my Christmas gift to them, sat down and told the story. I skipped the next year and then wrote another in 1991- and didn't stop. It became a Christmas Eve tradition. Even non-members mentioned it to me recently when I was back for a funeral.

We moved in 1999 and the tradition continued through 2003. That was the last story when I went into "secular ministry" outside the parish January 1, 2004. So, it has been six years since I last wrote a Christmas Eve story. One kind of started a year or so ago, but it went nowhere. I decided that this year it would. A couple weeks ago I sat down and started to write.

Then I realized that I am preaching this Sunday in Waconia. I was going to take one of the old ones and share it. But why? Here is a new and perfectly good one. Why not?

So a tradition is renewed. I will tell the new story this Sunday. I am kind of surprised by how excited I am by it. I know the people in this congregation have no idea what this would be all about. It's not part of their tradition. But it is mine and I hope that a story can give some new insights.

After all, stories are where dreams and visions can be brought to light. It is where Truth can be experienced and shared in ways that don't have to be limited. I have written here a number of times about the power and importance of stories. I hope that some of that will come through on Sunday.

Maybe someday I will even work on some stories that are not just for Christmas anymore.

Advent Calendar: Fire in Prayer

Fourteen Days Until Christmas

Advent, like its cousin Lent, is a season for prayer and reformation of our hearts. Since it comes at winter time, fire is a fitting sign to help us celebrate Advent…If Christ is to come more fully into our lives this Christmas, if God is to become really incarnate for us, then fire will have to be present in our prayer. Our worship and devotion will have to stoke the kind of fire in our souls that can truly change our hearts. Ours is a great responsibility not to waste this Advent time.

-Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac, p. 187

pmPilgrim Photo
Berea Moravian Church

Advent Calendar: Silence

Fifteen Days Until Christmas

See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...we need silence to be able to touch souls.

--Mother Teresa

pmPilgrim Photo
Boe Chapel, St. Olaf College

Rocky Road?

The decline of the old mainline denominations has been chronicled many times over the past 25-30 years. Nothing has stopped it. Here is the latest from that front as reported by Crosswalk.com from Barna.

Report: Mainline Protestant Churches Face Rockier Future

The Christian Post reports that a new survey from The Barna Group shows that mainline denominations did not decline as much as expected in the past decade, but may be "on the precipice of a period of decline." The report found that mainline church congregations average about 89 to 100 people, but that only 15 percent of American adults identify with a mainline denomination. The Barna Group considered American Baptist Churches in the USA; The Episcopal Church; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Presbyterian Church (USA); the United Church of Christ; and the United Methodist Church "mainline denominations." Today, these venerable denominations account for only one-fifth of all Protestant congregations today.

But Barna himself has this to say at the end with some hopefulness:

George Barna ...commented that mainline Protestant churches seem to have weathered the past decade better than many people have assumed, but that the future is raising serious challenges to continued stability. He identified the quality of leadership provided – especially regarding vision, creativity, strategic thinking, and the courage to take risks – as being the most critical element in determining the future health and growth of mainline congregations. He also indicated that the approach that many mainline churches take toward some current social issues – e.g., environmental challenges, poverty, cross-denominational cooperation, developing respectful dialogue, embracing new models for faith expression, and global understanding – position those churches well for attracting younger Americans.

Advent Calendar: Sweet Voices

Sixteen Days Until Christmas

When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow, we hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago, and etched on vacant places are half-forgotten faces of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know.

-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

pmPilgrim Photo
Chaska, MN

An Amazing Occurrence

Well, it looks like the National Weather Service was right on target from the word "Go!" with this blizzard. I have been a weather geek for decades and I don't ever remember a storm where the forecast never changed. From the very first headline of a blizzard watch on Sunday afternoon through the beginning of the storm last evening the NWS never once waffled, hedged their bets or even changed the forecast information. Not once did they use the time-worn weather phrase that the track of the storm can affect the final path of the heaviest and worst weather so stay tuned for later forecasts.

From blizzard watch through blizzard warning and now about to become blizzard waning for our area, the track of the storm and its intensity, it has not changed a bit.

The weather systems and computer information must have been remarkably unified for that to happen. I am impressed.

Sadly, I don't get snow days where I work. What a shame. This was a classic.

A 30-year Memory: An Illness Gone

December 9 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first and to date only human disease driven to extinction.

Advent Calendar: Whispers

Seventeen Days Until Christmas

Angels descending, bring from above,
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

~Fanny J. Crosby

pmPilgrim Photo

No Change

When the details of a forecast headline haven't change since it was first issued as a "watch" you begin to think that it may actually happen. Snow started to fall earlier this morning. It has only just begun.

What fun- and I don't get snow days.

A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TODAY TO MIDNIGHT CST WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

* THE HEAVIEST SNOWFALL SHOULD OCCUR TONIGHT. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 8 TO 12 INCHES ARE EXPECTED BY THE TIME THE SNOW ENDS WEDNESDAY.

* NORTH WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE TO 20 TO 30 MPH LATE TONIGHT AND CONTINUE THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING...WITH WIND GUSTS UP TO 45 MPH. THE HIGHEST POTENTIAL FOR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WILL BE LATE TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING.

* FALLING TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH STRONG WINDS SHOULD PRODUCE WIND CHILL VALUES OF 15 TO 20 BELOW ZERO WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

* IMPACTS FROM THIS STORM INCLUDE WHITE OUT CONDITIONS...ROAD CLOSURES AND IMPOSSIBLE TRAVEL...ESPECIALLY FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING.

Advent Calendar: No Fear

Eighteen Days Until Christmas

Though my soul may set in darkness, It will rise in perfect light, I have loved the stars too fondly To be fearful of the night.

--Sarah Williams

pmPilgrim Photo
Berea Moravian Church

Let's Hope Not

A BLIZZARD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH
WEDNESDAY EVENING.

BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WILL BE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE AREA TUESDAY
NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY AS THE FIRST SIGNIFICANT WINTER STORM OF
THE SEASON IMPACTS THE AREA. SNOW WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA TUESDAY
MORNING AND THEN BE HEAVY TUESDAY NIGHT BEFORE DIMINISHING LATE
WEDNESDAY. STRONG AND GUSTY WINDS WILL HIT THE AREA TUESDAY NIGHT
AND WEDNESDAY WITH SUSTAINED SPEEDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH AND GUSTS UP
TO 40 MPH. THIS WILL PRODUCE WHITE OUT CONDITIONS FROM
CONSIDERABLE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS
OF 6 TO 12 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS.

As I have said before, it is often not the ones we see coming that are the worst.

The Second Sunday of Advent: ICU Incarnation

(Image from FreeFoto.com)

The Second Sunday of Advent

Had she never spoken I would have assumed she was a simple variation on the bag lady wandering in off the street to sit and get warm in the ICU waiting room. Biases dies hard. I of course knew she wasn't. She was probably someone's sister, mother, aunt. The Neurologigal Sciences ICU waiting room isn't that accessible to the street people of Madison.
She was carrying a bag with her. It looked like it contained some bananas and a few sundry boxes or packages. She was sitting reading the newspaper when we returned from the ICU. We had just had a prayer together as the pastor and family. Time was uncertain, prognosis for recovery was dim. All the major decisions had been made and time was all that was left to wait with.
"Is this yours?" She spoke in a raspy, forced voice. Her eyes didn't seem to focus on us. She squinted and one eye was off center from the other. "Yes," answered one of the sons of the woman in ICU, "but we're not going to read it right now." He turned and walked out of the room, following most of his family as they paced in the hallway.

I sat with a sister of the patient. Silence was the bond, the language of the moment. Pastors sit in these places all the time, but even over twenty years does not give one the answers. Any pastor who easily has them at that point has never struggled with the pain, the uncertainty, the fears. Silence, no answers- these are not signs of lack of faith. They are signs of trust- trust that answers, if needed, will be there. This is a trust that answers may not be what we need.
But all that is standard pastoral theology. This newspaper reader in the center of the room was not. The sister and I sat. She finally broke the silence. "Even with all the faith we have, it's still impossible not to ask 'Why?' "
The raspy voice started before the head was up from the newspaper.
"I'm taking catechism right now and the Father and I had a long talk about evil just the other night."
That was not what I needed to hear. My pastoral sensitivities went into action. I glanced at the sister as the pseudo-bag lady kept talking. This isn't what someone needs to hear at a time like this. She is breaking into the sanctity of the moment- the terrible, fearful, sad sanctity of impending death. Why is she here.
She kept on talking. "Satan... Evil... Father and I disagreed..." Her eyes never looked directly at us as she rambled on in her monologue. Some inner voice directing her. Some inner compulsion leading her to say these words to two strangers in response to a non-question.
"But you know, Father said that it doesn't matter in the end. What matters is that no evil can keep God from doing good for us. Yep, that's what Father said."
She turned back to the newspaper and the crossword puzzle. Then in a twinkle she looked up, put the puzzle next to the bananas and was summoned out of the room.

Silence resumed. A holier silence now. A pastor awed into silence by the presence of a holy one. This was not deep theology. This was not some great act of pastoral care. This was a woman who couldn't help but overhearing and responded. There was no agenda. I'm not even sure she was talking to us directly. But she spoke her words and went her way.
The sister continued to sit. Family members walked in and out waiting that lonely wait of ICU. I eventually had to leave and go about other duties. But God had been there in that brief moment with a word- THE Word. Incarnate again.

A 40-Year Memory: How Quickly It Ended

The Woodstock aura, that is. Four months...

December 6 – The Altamont Free Concert is held at the Altamont Speedway in northern California. Hosted by the Rolling Stones, it is an attempt at a "Woodstock West" and is best known for the uproar of violence that occurred. It is viewed by many as the "end of the sixties."

Advent Calendar: A Conspiracy

Twenty Days Until Christmas

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!

~Hamilton Wright Mabie

pmPilgrim Photo
Berea Moravian Church

Now, Get Back to the Gym, Pilgrim

I have been working at the renewed body program I set out on about a month ago. So far I have managed to lose a total of 10 pounds, then gained 4 back on Thanksgiving weekend. I have also not been doing the "gym-thing" as regularly. No excuses. Just do other things instead. So this from LiveScience should be one more incentive.

A new study proves the old Roman saying, "A sound mind in a sound body" — the more fit one's heart is, the more one's brain seems to benefit, scientists now find.

As I said I will keep you posted. Now, if that would only be an incentive.

Advent Calendar: Reborn Pleasure

Twenty-one Days Until Christmas

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!

~Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836

pmPilgrim Photo

Hallelujah! Priceless!

Thanks to Street Prophets for the link to this amazing rendition of Handel's classic.

Lonliness- You Get it From Crowds

Well, maybe not crowds, but you can catch it from others. According to LiveScience the other day:

Loneliness, like a bad cold, can spread among groups of people, new research finds.

While a runny nose might spread through handshakes, people likely catch the loneliness bug through negative interactions. A lonely person will be less trusting of others, essentially "making a mountain out of a molehill," said study researcher John Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago. An odd look or phrasing by a friend that wouldn't even be noticed by a chipper person could be seen as an affront to the lonely, triggering a cycle of negative interactions that cause people to lose friends.

The upshot: A lonely person is likely to lose touch with another person, who in turn gets cut off from others, and both end up on the fringes of a social group.

So, stay away from negative others to not get lonely? Or something like that. Actually, it makes sense, I think. Maybe.

Anyway, I found the idea interestingly paradoxical- you catch loneliness from others.

Advent Calendar: Awareness

pmPilgrim Photo

Twenty-two Days Until Christmas

"Take time to be aware that in the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ’s birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present.

"An old abbot was fond of saying, ‘The devil is always the most active on the highest feast days.’

"The supreme trick of Old Scratch is to have us so busy decorating, preparing food, practicing music and cleaning in preparation for the feast of Christmas that we actually miss the coming of Christ. Hurt feelings, anger, impatience, injured egos—the list of clouds that busyness creates to blind us to the birth can be long, but it is familiar to us all.

--Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac, p. 196

A 20-Year Memory: The Dominoes Kept Falling

It started in East Germany, spread to Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and other eastern bloc countries. Now it was the Big Domino itself.

December 3 - Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between their nations may be coming to an end.

A 30-Year Memory: Deaths in Ohio

December 3 – Eleven fans are killed during a stampede for seats before The Who concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio.

This was later memorialized in a touching episode of the wonderful TV series, WKRP in Cincinnati. A tragic event in music.

Advent Calendar: Subtle Music

Twenty-three Days Until Christmas

We clasp the hands of those that go before us, And the hands of those who come after us. We enter the little circle of each other's arms And the larger circle of lovers, Whose hands are joined in a dance, And the larger circle of all creatures, Passing in and out of life, Who move also in a dance, To a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it Except in fragments.

--Wendell Berry

Picture by pmPilgrim,
Downtown Chaska, MN

Overheard in Recovery: Past Dead

One evening a long-sober person in recovery was talking about his journey and the fact that even when a person gets sober and into a strong program their disease continues to grow. Silent. Deadly. Patient. Like with cancer or such diseases if it recurs, goes out of remission, it is often stronger and more virulent than it was before.

This sober individual was talking about how he would probably have been dead ten years ago if he had continued drinking. Then with an awareness of the remission potential and danger he stopped. Paused with a sense of awe- and knowing insight. He looked around the room and simply said:

Wow. I am ten years past dead.

No, he didn't talk about borrowed time, he was talking about the life he would never have lived. Ten years.

And still counting.

Such is recovery.

A 40-Year Memory: A Classic Debut

December 2 – The Boeing 747 jumbo jet makes its debut. It carries 191 people, most of them reporters and photographers, from Seattle, Washington to New York City.

I still consider the 747 as the premiere jumbo jet. It's design is as distinctive as ever. It's gracefulness in the sky is unmatched. An enduring engineering marvel.

Advent Calendar: Ponder the Light

Twenty-four Days Until Christmas

When was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing - just sitting and looking at the sea, or watching the wind blowing the tree limbs, or waves rippling on a pond, a flickering candle or children playing in the park?

--Ralph Marston

Picture by pmPilgrim
at Berea Moravian Church

A 40-Year Memory: The Draft Lottery

December 1 – Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II

Oh do I remember that night. The night that made so many things change for so many people. People hung by the radio to hear what their birthday would be in the number list. Number 190 was the cutoff for 1970. Lower than that,you were drafted. You were in the army and perhaps headed to Vietnam. Higher and you were not. The deferments were disappearing. It was supposed to get more fair. So simple. So nerve-wracking.

Of course it never went that high again. The volunteer army became the norm.

I am surprised that anyone of my generation even plays a lottery today.