I Can't Resist Talking About It

Aaahhh!

After a winter with a record number of consecutive days with 10 or more inches of snow on the ground, and one of the longest strings of days below 40 (F), here in the unFrozen Tundra is having Spring.

Early.

We have just finished the first March in recorded history where there was absolutely no snow.

Today's high temp was the normal high for May 31, not March 31.

My bike is in the shop for a spring tune-up and will be ready when the temps rise permanently.

So I will just enjoy it. It is what it is.

To Build

Caribou Coffee has a new image/PR scheme in their stores. They have these poster signs that have neat slogans which are also on their cups, etc. Things like

• Give a kid some crayons
• Sleep under the stars
• Get there on two wheels.

But one that caught my attention the other evening is

• Build communities, not empires.

That really does sum up what should be a goal for us.

• Empires rule, communities share.
• Empires conquer, communities build.
• Empires seek power, communities seek partnership.

Yes, I know that we over use the word community. It is often a buzz word that we throw out to spin our group, organization, or clique into some semblance of borrowed honor. I also know that communities in the broader and common sense of the word can be just as difficult as empires. But to think about the possibilities of communities is to grasp a new way of life that can bridge differences- if we let them.

So I can dream can't I?

(Note: As of this writing, Caribou has not yet adopted the scheme for their website.)

A 30-Year Memory: The End of the Line

March 31 – Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad operates its final train.

And the Rock Island Line was a very fine road.

Here's Odetta with a fine version:

Why Not to Go To Church?

Actually, it's a bunch of bad reasons to go to church in the first place. David Fitch at the blog Reclaiming the Mission posted 6 very good reasons not to go to church. Since this is Holy Week leading to some of the largest church attendance of the year, it might be a good time to review them. These reasons, Fitch says, are really ways that keep the church from living in a sense of mission. Here are the first two he mentions:

1. Out of Duty/Obligation
2. Because This is What it Means to Be a Christian.

Maybe a 7th reason this week is:

Because It's Easter.

Actually, the post reminded me of a time a number of years ago when our church was doing one of those periodic all-member phone visits to see if they were still members, interested, etc. One of the phone callers got to talk to an adult member's mother. The member in question, by the way, hadn't been in church the whole time I had been there as pastor at that point. Maybe 8 - 10 years.

"Does ***** still want to be a member of the church?" the caller asked.
"Sure," was the immediate response. "They want to go to heaven."

I think Fitch missed that one, too.

But on the other hand, there is always the hope that no matter what the reason they come, the act of being in church and participating even minimally in that experience may make a difference. We should never underestimate the power of God's Holy Spirit to work miracles. In fact, I remember hearing preacher extraordinaire Fred Craddock talk about Overhearing the Gospel, the title of one of his books. He said that the best way to do evangelism is for the church to simply live it's life and let those who are not yet Christian "overhear" the message.

Hopefully this Sunday that will happen again, no matter what the reason they are in church in the first place. May the Church be ready to do that well.

There May Be A Connection

Last week a friend sent me one of Jay Leno's classic Jaywalking pieces. It was the "Best of" that he did the first time he ended his run at the Tonight Show. It was the typical one, scary, that people don't know who the first US president was, etc. You walk away shaking your head, wondering how people could be so uninformed. What has happened to our American self-awareness? What is being taught in schools? (More on that one another time.)

During the discussion I remained polite. I didn't say what I was thinking. While this kind of thing may easily become a funny bit for Jay Leno, there is a deeper and much darker side of the misunderstanding and lack of knowledge.

According to a new poll this past week...

• 57 percent of Republicans, and 32 percent of Americans overall, believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim.
• 45 percent of Republicans, and 25 percent in the overall survey, agree with Birthers that Obama was "not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president."
• 38 percent of Republicans, and 20 percent of Americans overall, agree that Obama is "doing many things Hitler did."
• 24 percent of Republicans, and 14 percent overall, agree that Obama "may be the antiChrist."

--Seattle PI Blog

THIS is why I am scared by what I see in Leno's Jaywalking bits. A lack of understanding of even basic facts is missing. Catchphrases (things Hitler did) and scare tactics (Anti-Christ) never advance any hopeful discussions. The less we know, the more lack of facts we show of our own history, the easier these new scary misconceptions will catch on.

And be sure that no one ever gets confused by the facts.

Palm Sunday

As he approached Jerusalem the walls rose ahead of him. Walls for protection. Walls for boundary setting. Walls for politics.

The green of the palm trees stood in colorful contrast to the tan-gray walls.

The blue of the sky gave a framework over and around it all.

The people lined the street. Some were in the trees. Children ran along beside the donkey and between the disciples accompanying him.

But he was alone in the middle of all the noise and hub-bub. The palms laid in front of him got brushed aside by all the movement.

Was he smiling? Was he praying? Was he periodically looking toward heaven wondering what in God's Name he was doing this for.

He passed the garden at the bottom of the hill, rounding into the valley before making one last ascent to the Golden Gate ahead of him. Olive trees ancient already gave a brief shadow from the strong spring sun.

He was triumphant. Or was it an illusion? Was it an act of what we now call "guerrilla theater" or was it a defiant throwing down of palm leaf gauntlets?

Here I am.

I Am.

Is Mauer (or Any Player) Worth It?

The Twins last Sunday finished a contract with their MVP superstar catcher, Joe Mauer. $184 million over 8 years with a no-trade clause. It is the 4th largest contract in MLB history. (A-Rod has both #1 and #2.) The Twins have never been in this kind of situation. They have never been known to spend a lot of money on players. In a smaller market (that Bud Selig tried to downsize out of ten years ago) it was always tough for Twins management to justify big salaries.

Now there is the new Target Field. (Oh what a field it is!) Double the number of season tickets. Many games already sold out for this year. Money looks like it will be more available. So after reading the writing on the wall, they made the BIG move to keep their own home-grown superstar right where he is.

Twins fans have been generally ecstatic. Most could see no way the future had any hope without the bat and presence of Mauer. But it didn't take long for concerns and grumbling to be heard. Maybe Garrison Keillor could give a good explanation for the Minnesota personality that leads to this, but here we are, less than a week later and I have heard concerns.

The biggest? It ruins the Twins. They used to have a "moral" stance against paying the big bucks. None of those shenanigans for these Midwesterners raised on good old-fashioned values. "You won't get me to a game now" one person told me. Which got me thinking about the questions such huge contracts raise....

Is he worth it?

• Is anyone, really? This has always been my gripe with the mega-salaries. I have difficulty thinking about ticket prices that go to make mega-millionaires wealthier (players and owners!) No one is worth their salary, except maybe the President who gets a lot less than the pressures and responsibilities call for.
  

What if the market (i.e. the team owners) supports these salaries?

• Oddly enough it is the owners who really go along with the whole process. Now. They hated it at first. They fought allowing players to be anything but highly paid indentured servants. Curt Flood's famous challenge of the Reserve Clause opened those floodgates. It wasn't long before many owners began to see the value of free trade. They could now offer big bucks to get big players. The advantage of the big market teams was only enhanced.
  

Have the Twins betrayed their own frugal (or cheap?) history?

• While many explained the lower salaries of the Twins as a reflection of Midwestern values, it was, in truth, a combination of being cheap, not having the kind of monetary (TV and fan base) that could afford it. The value was not Midwestern any more than the Yankees represent Eastern Establishment values. It was a plain and simple reflection of financial reality. That is changing. Nothing is betrayed.
  

Is it pure market capitalism at work, except Joe was selling himself, not some goods?

• This is actually more of a statement than a question. The question is in the second half. We have trouble with people selling themselves this way. It seems selfish. It feels greedy. Joe Mauer has the talent to command this kind of salary. He is at the top of the game. There are few who has been able to do what he does. In the great scheme of Major League Baseball today, if anyone is worth this kind of money, Joe Mauer has shown he is in that stratospheric league. Whether salaries should be that high is not Joe's issue. He deserves to be in that group.
  

What if he gets hurt?

• Ah yes. Under it all is the question of fear. A lot is being put into one man. He is only one man. He is not The Team. But at this moment in time he is the franchise. He plays a difficult position. He has done things in these past years that absolutely no catcher has ever done. But then, life is a gamble. I can still remember the front page headline in the New York Daily News when their great catcher Roy Campanella was paralyzed in an auto accident. You can't not take chances.
  

Is it okay to keep paying cheap salaries and not participating in the escalating salaries even if it means you continue to have less than A-Level teams?

• Okay, this is the reverse question, really. It is spoken by a fan who would like his team to be champions and win the World Series. If you can afford to join the money race, but don't, is that being faithful to the fans and communities you live in? The fans want to celebrate winners. Even true-blue, dedicated to the end fans would like to see winning teams. (All those drought years in Green Bay after Lombardi left hurt. We didn't abandon the team, but it would have been better to win!) Twins fans have been loyal. The past decade has seen a significant change. Here we are in the chance of at least half a lifetime. Go for it! To not do so would be to tell the fans that it is more important for the owners to make money than to have a team that moves up in the possibilities of winning the World Series.

As you can guess I have no problem with the Joe Mauer contract within the current system. Yes, there are risks. Yes, there is a great disparity. Fans who earn in a year what Joe will make in four innings supporting these salaries has a certain obscenity. Maybe we are crazy. Maybe changes are needed in the whole economic system of professional sports.

But one move by a team in Minneapolis won't change that. If the fans want to be part of winning, here is a chance. Beyond that, the issues are far too great to be decided by us. I don't know how those will happen short of complete revolt. But that has never happened with sports.

So, with 9 days until the first game of the season, at least we Twins fans can sit back and relax knowing that Joe is around, barring catastrophe, for another 8 seasons. Maybe we can get a World Series in Target Field in that time.

(And, just to note it, Joe will make almost twice as much per year as the Vikings' Starting Quarterback did last season. Which, in comparison per game is quite a bargain.)

A 20-Year Memory: Telling Great Stories

March 26 - Academy Awards

Best Picture: Driving Miss Daisy
Best Actor- Male: Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown)
Best Actor- Female: Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy)

A 10-Year Memory: Different Stories

March 26- Academy Awards

Best Picture: American Beauty
Best Actor- Male: Kevin Spacey (American Beauty)
Best Actor- Female: Hillary Swank (Boys Don't Cry)

Overheard in Recovery: When Shall I Awake

Someone recently told me about this passage fromProverbs 23:29ff. If ever there was a scripture passage that describes the alcoholic pattern, cycle, and life, it is this. Who says the Bible is outdated....

29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?

30 Those who linger late over wine,
those who keep trying mixed wines.

31 Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup
and goes down smoothly.

32 At the last it bites like a serpent,
and stings like an adder.

33 Your eyes will see strange things,
and your mind utter perverse things.

34 You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
like one who lies on the top of a mast.

35 “They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt;
they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
I will seek another drink.”

And in spite of it all the closing is dead on. It is the powerlessness of the alcoholic heard loud and clear in that age-old question and just as old answer.

I will see another drink!

A 30-Year Memory: A Voice Silenced

March 24 – Archbishop Óscar Romero is killed by gunmen while celebrating Mass in San Salvador. At his funeral 6 days later, 42 people are killed amid gunfire and bombs.

Whistle and Strum

One of the truly revolutionary TV shows of the 1960s was The Smothers Brothers Show. Mason Williams was one of their comedy writers and an accomplished musician. (Williams wrote Classical Gas.) Williams wrote the Smothers Brothers theme song, which to me is still one of the best whistle and strum songs. Here's a video of Williams performing it in 2006 along with another of his songs.

Enjoy.

Bypassing the Dome

It's a whole new baseball world in downtown Minneapolis!





For the first time in nearly 30 years the Twins have a real, honest-to-goodness Baseball Stadium!




And what a Stadium it is.

Inside and Out!









It even has real concourses where you can still see the game going on. What a concept.











Yesterday was an Open House on a cool spring afternoon with the sun making for a perfect day. Yes, I know there's no roof. Yes, it can snow in Minneapolis in April and October. Yes, it is smaller than the Dome (seating-wise.) But it is for baseball. The seats face toward the pitcher's mound. Outdoors. But it is a perfect, cozy field tucked into downtown Minneapolis. It is a true gem!!!

(More pictures to come as we near The Day- April 12. No, I don't have tickets for that game, but I will be there for a game sometime soon.)


Oh and just as important: Joe Mauer signed an 8-year contract!!!!! Yesterday was a good day.

(pmPilgrim Photos.)

I Am Afraid....

that these are not unrelated.

Headlines on Saturday:

Boy, 16, made racial comment at NJ Walmart
(Hijacked the PA system and "ordered" all Blacks out of the store.)

Protesters call Georgia's John Lewis 'nigger'
(Lewis is an esteemed Civil Rights veteran who
marched with Dr. King)

A frightening atmosphere may be brewing. I pray for sanity and hope.

Finding Humility

I preached this morning for a friend at the Nursing Homes where he is chaplain. I thought I would share my sermon here. The need for humility is one of those human callings. We don't usually think of Paul in that light, but in today's assigned readings the comparison between him and Judas was striking. So I picked up on that and found the basic faith at the foundation of Paul's self-understanding.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Honesty is one of the hallmarks of the Bible. Even the greatest heroes have clay feet. Just look at what's often written there... lying, adultery, brotherly hatred, murder to hide an affair. And that's the GOOD GUYS. Would anyone attempting to paint a great picture of the history of their organization do what the Christians did?

Two of the interesting people in the NT- other than Jesus are Paul and Judas. There is a reality to each of them that goes beyond the words. No one would make up these stories about their history....

Paul- A great church planter, Christian evangelist among Gentiles, the founder of the church as we understand it. Yet he

• Started as a passionate hater of the Christians
• Stood by as Christians were martyred
  
• Became an even more passionate supporter.

He's been called many things.

• Self-centered?
• But certainly self-confident.
• Over confident perhaps.
• One who could make GREAT pronouncements about himself, others, God, Jesus

Here from Philippians 3:

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: a Hebrew of Hebrews; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

Amazingly honest!!!!

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

Honest humility. I have gained nothing. I can do nothing. I am lost on my own. Pointing somewhere else out of a depth of faith that I can only begin to imagine.

Then there's Judas....

Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages. He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. (John 12:3-6)

On the surface he's a trusted friend and supporter. He's even in charge of the money. He is caring and compassionate, isn't he? Look as he gets upset at Mary for wasting money on expensive ointment instead of giving it to help others. See the halo he is trying to place above his head. If Jesus trusts him, why not trust him.

But we know, thanks to the words of John that this just ain't so. He's a crook. An embezzler. A betrayer. What he says isn't consistent with what he does. Look at me, see me, I am perfect.

Judas followed his own ways. Judas wanted fame and fortune and power. James and John went up to Jesus and asked to sit at the seats of honor. Judas connived and cheated and finagled to do that behind the scenes. He thought he had it all figured out and was standing in the center of the universe with Jesus.

How very human. Which is why Judas is so scary. He can remind me of so many people- and even myself when I try to think of myself more highly than I ought to. He is anyone of us when we think we have the power and glory within ourselves. Humility? Forget it.

But back to Paul again....

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

He's not grasping for anything- except his own salvation as has already been given to him through Jesus.

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

A great prize- and for that he presses onward following Jesus.

Sure Paul is as human and fallible as Judas or any of us. Only Jesus deserves the title "Perfect One." But he knows it and is willing to put it down there in black and white. He bows his head in front of those who think he's so great and says "NO- look over there. That's who I'm following. Don't follow me- follow him along with me."

May I be able to find that in myself.

A 30-Year Memory: Boycotting Sports

March 21 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

An Ambivalent Pacifist- Huh?

Well, this war is now at 7 years. It remains an active war though people have said that things may be changing for the better. The elections came off well. The process of becoming a democracy appears to be moving in the right direction. The people of Iraq, in general, are living some kind of better life than they were 7 years ago (although that admittedly is an arguable statement to some.)

Do these apparent signs of progress support the war's existence in the first place? Do these possible gains say that the lies and false pretenses of the road into the war are excusable? Does the democratization of Iraq give the okay to the un-democratic, painful, divisive and illegal actions during the war within our own nation?

If all's well that ends well, do the ends justify the means?

That's a question that will be debated by historians, scholars, and politicians for many years to come. It is possible that Iraq will become the Vietnam of this generation. Ethicists will say one thing - military strategists another; conservatives will celebrate - liberals will remain uneasy. Everyone will have some kind of opinion.

As a pacifist I have many concerns about war- any war. I am disturbed by what war does to young men and women on both sides of the fight. I am saddened to my soul that innocent people by the thousands (non-combatants) die, lose their homes and families or at best(?!) live in terror. I am angered that I am lied to in order to achieve some unknown goal of vengeance or profit. I am embarrassed that all this is done in my name- from death to torture.

As a follower of Jesus I cannot under any circumstance say that war is good. It can never be good. At best it is a necessary evil when all else fails. As a follower of Jesus I have to be concerned about the people on the other side since I am commanded to love my neighbor- after all even the most evil can love their friends. As a follower of Jesus I am called by the Prince of Peace to proclaim the possibility of- and work diligently for- peace.

When war becomes reality we must all recognize the awful things it gets us to do and support. When war becomes reality we must all see that we are being tempted into death and destruction. When war becomes reality we must work for the resumption of peace within us and around us. Caring for the soldiers' families and the soldiers themselves is essential. Caring for the wounded on both sides is required. Keeping our nation AND our opponents in prayer is a non-negotiable. Overcoming hatred and prejudice wrought by war is an important calling.

I know and am more than painfully aware of all the arguments on both sides of the pacifism issue. Each one of us has to come to terms with all of these in our own lives and keep our own spirit and soul focused on life. Even when death is around us, life must always be the goal, the mission, the promise. No matter what is happening I believe we must keep the choice given to Moses in our awareness:

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.
(Deuteronomy 30:19; NIV)

12:32 PM, Central Time

The Vernal Equinox.....

It's spring fever.... You don't quite know what it is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!
--Mark Twain

One Generation Speaks About Another

The more things change, the more they remain just as crazy. I was in the midst of a group of people in my general age group a few weeks ago. I sat in stunned silence as the conversation got around to

This Younger Generation Today.

Slackers, lazy, uncommitted, always looking for the ways out of work. Not like our generation when we had to work hard doing things like stocking shelves in grocery stores, de-tasseling corn, even mowing the lawn. For a few brief moments I was sure that the greatest dream of science fiction writers had finally been invented. The Time Machine. I was convinced I was listening to my parents and grandparents and their generations talking about that large and oh so lazy and unwashed group called The Baby Boomers. The group that every one in that conversation belonged to.

People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Just because we get around (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
--Pete Townshend and the Who (Wikipedia)

My, oh my. Have we such short memories? Or is this an absolutely normal growth of narrow-mindedness as one's brain ages, synapses fire differently, and years of rock and roll erode the ability to remember? Is it impossible to trust anyone under 30. I'm actually wondering if we can trust anyone over 60 to look at the youth and see them as the future us just as they are a real remnant of the memory we have tried to glorify of what we were.

We look at them and the glowing memories are tarnished. We are brought back to reality. We come to issues of mortality and try to make sense of it.

As for my experience of the younger generation after working with youth for most of the past 45 years in one capacity or another? I think the future is probably in damn good hands. Perhaps even better than ours have been these last 45 years. But then again, maybe that's early senility creeping in.

So turn up the volume.....

There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Are now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!
--Pete Townshend and The Who

History NOT Made

Well, Lehigh didn't make history last night. The 16th seeded Mountain Hawks didn't defeat the #1 (overall) seeded Kansas Jayhawks. But they sure looked good. They kept it close enough that the AP said that Kansas had to "struggle." It was just neat to watch Lehigh on CBS.

Way to go, Lehigh!

Now to the Women's tournament where Lehigh (#13) will play Iowa State (#4) at 9:30 (EDT) on Sunday.

Go Lehigh!

Better Ideas Through Chemicals

In one of my e-newsletters I get about things relating to alcohol and drug news there were two articles this past week:
First is from the Star-Tribune

The Minneapolis specialty beer Finnegans is using St. Patrick's Day this week to launch its rebranded look. The nine-year-old Irish Amber brew, which donates all of its profits to charity, has new green (of course) packaging and signage developed by the Martin/Williams advertising agency. Whimsical posters and banners remind drinkers of the beer that it's "Charitably Delicious" and that "Every time you don't buy one a leprechaun dies." The rebranding also includes an interactive website with a contest called a "Pint-a-thon," which gives players credits in heaven for the number of Finnegans they consume.
-Link

Re-branding is fine, I am sure. But what a weird bit of gaming. If you DON'T drink, a poor defenseless leprechaun dies. And all these years after Darby O'Gill and the Little People, I wouldn't want to be the one who killed one of those little people. Even more so is to get credits in heaven for how much they consume. Yes, I get the idea- it is a charity beer so you get points for helping other people- and the drunker you get the more people you help.

"Come on. Let's go. You've had enough to drink."

"Come on, just a few more. I'm helping my favorite charity."

Oh well. Maybe it's over since it is now after St. Patrick's Day. So we move on.

Well, the second item comes from the Military Times and AZCentral.com

WASHINGTON - Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a Vietnam veteran and former war correspondent who now chairs the Senate panel that oversees military personnel policy, seemed to endorse the idea of letting troops in war zones drink alcohol as a way to relieve combat stress.

At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services military personnel panel, Webb asked defense and service officials about mental health issues facing deployed service members and, in particular, about a recent Military Times investigation into the military's use of anti-depressants and other drugs for treating mental health issues.
-Link

If I am reading that right it sure sounds like having a few drinks to relieve combat stress is being presented as a way of keeping the troops from having to take those medications. Medications, by the way, that probably will work as anti-depressants. As compared to say, alcohol, which is an anti- anti-depressant. In other words, in spite of opinions to the contrary, it is now, and always has been a depressant.

As I remember hearing stories from Vietnam, I'm not sure it worked all that well there either. And tell me again what happens when drunkenness and weapons come together?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

No green beer, just the Chieftains, a mandolin player with the name O'Brien, step dancing and music.

We all become Irish when this music starts.

Go ahead. Dance to your heart's content.

When I Say "Take It" Watch Out

The Smothers Brothers. A whole universe of comedy and political satire is included in their name. I just picked up a book at the library by Fresh Air's David Bianculli, Dangerously Funny. It is about the Brothers and their CBS show in the mid-60s. So I went surfing to You Tube and found many posts. What better way to start than their most famous routine with rules and beasts and boiled cabbage.

Enjoy. More to come, I am sure.

"Pop" Quiz

Name the one that doesn't belong:

• The Hollies
• Jimmy Cliff
• Genesis
• ABBA
• Iggy Pop's Stooges

(The list is those who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last night. Any opinions made here are entirely mine and are not meant to reflect on Sweden. I hold no grudges against them.)

A 40 (and then some) Year Memory: Dangerous

Dangerous? Well, that's the word that a college friend and radio colleague called the look in a note to me last week. That look would be the one that said, "Watch out! I'm up to something." (Which is why I never play poker.)

That picture is from 1968 when I was working as a student DJ and GM of the student radio stations WLRN and WLVR at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. WLVR 91.3 FM has since gone over the air in the Lehigh Valley and has a really high class reputation for quality college radio.

What prompts the picture post here is that the Lehigh Alumni Bulletin which just came out has a really good article on WLVR and its history. The picture, and quotes from yours truly among others are in the article. Follow the link and see where I learned some of my ability to be who I am.

Link to Lehigh Alumni Bulletin page.

Humanity vs. Biodiversity

I have been impressed reading the editorial cartoons in El Pais from Spain. Here's the latest that caught my eye....

It's All About Who?

Found this on Revitalize Your Church. It is from George Barna, the Christian polling guru....

For most Americans, worship is to satisfy or please them, not to honor or please God. Amazingly, few worship-service regulars argue that worship is something they do primarily for God; a substantially larger percentage of attenders claim that attending worship services is something that they do for personal benefit and pleasure. -- George Barna.

The "feel good in worship" attitude has been enhanced by our individualized approach to faith (it's about me and God). That's the one extreme. That's often found in pietistic approaches and modern "contemporary, pop" worship music.

Oddly enough the other extreme is often found in the same places. We see it in the hands-in-the-air style (of which there is nothing wrong- if it is appropriate to the setting and music) and those breaks in contemporary Christian music concerts which are often referred to as "worship" times.

Actually I am not sure it is an either/or proposition. There is, in reality, a whole bunch of reasons, many of them, that make up why we attend worship services. A quick look through the Psalms would more than prove that it is communal, personal, and about God and us. From the depths of despair to the heights of mystical ecstasy, it would seem that all of these are part of worship. To be limited or to narrow the nature and purpose of "worship" to one strand would be to diminish our spiritual life and our connections with our Creator and Savior.

Dancing in the Big Dance

From Lehigh University News:

Women's, men's hoops squads earn NCAA Tournament berths

The Lehigh women's basketball team won the Patriot League title and earned its second consecutive NCAA Tournament berth by beating American University 58-42 Saturday night at Stabler Arena.

On Friday night, the Lehigh men's basketball team advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in school history following a 74-59 victory over archrival Lafayette at Stabler.

Way to go!! Of course the men's team is seeded 16th and gets to play #1 overall seed Kansas on Thursday. (The women's selection show isn't until tomorrow evening.)

Just to get to the Dance is quite an accomplishment!

And as a Midwesterner I also have Wisconsin, Marquette, and Minnesota to watch for. But no one expects too many upsets this year. We shall see. We shall see.

How to Have an Award Winning Trailer

We all know that there are formulas and themes and basic templates for so many things. With the Academy Awards over for the year, it may be time to contemplate how to put together the Perfect Trailer for a movie. Fortunately we don't have to do that. We just have to go to You Tube. From the obvious protagonist, through the never-to-be-forgotten quotes to The Kiss, here is all it takes to win the award.

Overheard in Recovery: Collateral Damage

One of the things about addiction is that it has a way of numbing feelings. Many people get in the "habit" of using as a coping mechanism for feelings they don't like. So it comes as no surprise that when you numb feelings, you end up losing touch with all feelings. It came as no surprise, then, when I overheard the following:

Good feelings are collateral damage in addiction. You lose them just like you lose the feelings you are trying to hide from.

No wonder people new in recovery don't know what it really means to feel "happy." The only way any feelings could break through the Numbing Wall of Addiction was to go to extremes. So it turned out that in order to feel

• anger one had to go to rage
• sad one had to go to grief
• happy one had to go to euphoria

and so on. Normal range emotions fall by the wayside. They don't break through. We don't even know we have them. I remember sitting in a group many years ago with the members focusing on one of the other people. The leader kept asking the person on the "hot seat" what he felt. Over and over and over, a broken record, he kept saying, "Well, I don't know."

Pretty soon the group members got fed up and started challenging. "What do you mean? You have to know. Everyone has feelings." On and on it went for about 5 or so minutes. Different scenarios and questions were posed. No luck.

Finally the counselor stopped the discussion. He looked at the group and in a quiet, caring voice he simply said, "He's not lying. He really has no idea how he feels."

That was a numb way to live. It was collateral damage to the process of addiction. Fortunately it doesn't have to be that way. Recovery gives us the ability to feel again. We don't like all those feelings. They are strange. They don't make sense. But once we learn to live and cope with them it becomes a sense of comfort to once again be in touch with what is happening in our lives and souls.

Bummer!!!

Joe Nathan pitching against Detroit in September 2008. pmPilgrim picture.

From Nick Nelson's Twins Blog

Between 2004 and 2009 Joe Nathan has been one of the most consistent forces in baseball, annually posting elite numbers from the closer position while remaining remarkably healthy and durable.

Nathan never appeared in fewer than 64 games and never pitched fewer than 67 2/3 innings. He never posted an ERA higher than 2.70, and never posted a WHIP higher than 1.01. He's had his blips from time to time, but for the most part Nathan has been a model of consistency.

In those six years, he racked up a whopping 246 saves, the highest total of any closer in baseball during that span. That figure places him just eight short of the Twins' all-time saves leader, Rick Aguilera, so Nathan seemed certain to claim his place in the franchise history this year.

Now, that won't happen this season. And it might not happen at all.

Opening Day is less than a month away. Opening Day at Target Field is 32 days ahead. But Joe Nathan won't be in the bullpen. They keep throwing the words "only" and "a miracle" around in the same sentence when talking about whether he will be able to play this year. He is injured and may need surgery.

What a way to start a season. In fact it hasn't even started.

And Joe Mauer isn't signed yet.

Twins fans might be getting a little nervous.

Meeting At the Extremes

David Brooks in the NYT last week had an excellent piece about the Tea Partiers and the 60s New Left Movement which he called The Wal-Mart Hippies. Here are some of the points that hit me.

In the 60s there was the New Left. Today,

the people we loosely call the Tea Partiers also want to destroy the establishment. They also want to take on The Man, return power to the people, upend the elites and lead a revolution.

There are many differences between the New Left and the Tea Partiers. One was on the left, the other is on the right. One was bohemian, the other is bourgeois. One was motivated by war, and the other is motivated by runaway federal spending. One went to Woodstock, the other is more likely to go to Wal-Mart.

But the similarities are more striking than the differences. To start with, the Tea Partiers have adopted the tactics of the New Left. They go in for street theater, mass rallies, marches and extreme statements that are designed to shock polite society out of its stupor. ...

But the core commonality is this: ... Both movements are built on the assumption that the people are pure and virtuous and that evil is introduced into society by corrupt elites and rotten authority structures.

Because of this assumption, members of both movements

• go in big for conspiracy theories;
• they spend a lot of time worrying about being co-opted.
• they both have a problem with authority.
• Both have a mostly negative agenda: destroy the corrupt structures; defeat the establishment.
• They don’t seek to form a counter-establishment because they don’t believe in establishments or in authority structures.
• They believe in the spontaneous uprising of participatory democracy.

After putting this all together he makes the point that the Tea Partiers are, in essence, not truly "conservative" for conservatives don't trust the people to do what is right. They believe in original sin. People are, by nature, prone to sin. So in that way the people-based idealism of the New Right is as idealistic and unrealistic as the New Left of the past generation.

As I read all this I found myself, as one of the old New Leftists, nodding in agreement. In explained to me why the whole Tea Party movement is so familiar looking. The biggest difference may be that this time around there is a media support that is pushing the process. Somehow or another that trust in the Glenn Becks of the media establishment may be its ultimate downfall.

Success will breed a slowing, conservative brake. The extreme will become more extreme- and potentially more dangerous. (See history for The Weathermen or others.) The co-opting will occur. And it will come from the people who agree with them, not the opponents.

Such is the world of politics. Perhaps even the world of people.

Seven Years

and an itch?

This blog started seven years ago today.

What a long, strange trip it's been.

But Is It A Pilgrimage?

Calling myself a postModern Pilgrim would assume that I also see what I do here on the blog as part of a pilgrimage. I guess I have had a personal understanding of what a "pilgrimage" is. But then recently when doing some reading on traveling I came across this quote from Rory MacLean on Rolf Pott's blog:

Pilgrimage seems to be a means of reinforcing certainties of faith. Independent travel can be about challenging one's ideas of living.

All of a sudden my purpose and understanding of being a pilgrim was brought up short. Perhaps I wanted to get defensive over the use of the word "reinforce." That makes a pilgrimage sound like a journey to support beliefs one already has. It doesn't sound like an attempt to find out new or different visions of one's faith. It doesn't sound like a way to awaken or deepen one's understanding of faith.

So I went to Wikipedia and found:

In religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance.

Okay, that fits. I can accept that. A journey of great moral significance. First is the journey. It is a trip from somewhere to somewhere. It is a getting up and moving from what was to what will be in a metaphorical or physical way. It is movement. Something happens. Something occurs. Somethings change.

Second is the environment of the journey- moral significance. In a pilgrimage one is traveling to find out what is important in life- and in particular what is important in one's own life. As a result a pilgrimage will from time to time shatter preconceived notions. Or at other times will reinforce and reaffirm the underpinnings of ones faith.

In other words if one goes on a "pilgrimage" to reinforce their preconceived notions, they will find it. If they go with an openness of mind and soul one never knows what will happen. If it is a religious or spiritual pilgrimage as a Christian, one would expect to find a closer understanding of Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit. But how and where one does that may be a bigger surprise and challenge to one's preconceptions than would be expected.

It depends on one's openness.

Over these past seven years of this blog pilgrimage I have attempted to be that kind of open. To live, in my opinion, is to be on a pilgrimage. The world we live in, this postModern world of uncertainty and confusion and conflicting ideologies is where my pilgrimage is being done. I hope it hasn't been simply to reinforce my beliefs, but to verbalize the challenges of the world. It is different each day. I have been open to times and places and people.

I hope to continue traveling in this same manner. There is so much to see and discover in the world. So much of it is in the mundane, day-in-and-day-out events that can be easily missed because it is so common. To travel beyond one's comfort zones, mentally and physically, is to bring back into focus what is important in one's life.

So here we go, starting the 8th year of this journey.

And as a last aside in this, the Iraq War was about to start when I started this blog journey. After the elections this past Sunday, perhaps the blog can finally outlive the war. May it be so. May it be so very soon.

Beginning a New Week

I am going to pat myself on the back and accept all the applause you are willing to send my way....

You see I am an incurable night person. Well, actually, I have been an incurable non-early riser. Getting up in the morning was close to the worst thing on my daily schedule if it happened before 9:00 am. The favorite button on my alarm is "Snooze" which has historically been used at least twice each morning. Often more. Not that I didn't get up earlier when I needed to. Sure I did, but it was a chore.

Well, today I began the 7th week of an exercise program. The fifth in a row since vacation. In order to maintain a regular daily schedule for the exercise the only way it would work was for me to get up and go to the health center before work. I didn't have to get up much earlier- only about 5 minutes- in order to catch the shuttle to work, do my workout, shower and get to my office which is conveniently located one floor above the health center.

I have wanted to do this in the past, but the body and will conspired every morning to keep it from happening. Until now.

I started an exercise program using the Body for Life program. I have taken it easy. But I have been doing it. And no one, absolutely no one is more surprised than I am. I don't know why it is working this time. I don't know why I have been able to do this every weekday morning for 6 weeks. Other than the simple fact that for some reason or other I really want to do it and I am feeling good.

I have not lost weight. I have gained stamina. I have not become Mr. America. I have gained strength. It is worth every morning.

And I haven't hit the snooze button once.

(And I tell you this to keep myself honest. I promise to keep you posted.)

This Is No Surprise

As a Midwesterner this map only verifies what simple observation can often prove. See all those red areas? Those are places where there are more bars than grocery stores. The other places are where there are more grocery stores than bars.

It's hard to not add that you may never guess which parts of the country have the highest binge-drinking and alcoholism rates. But that would be unfair.

From The Daily Dish Map of the Day.

Link to Floating Sheep where this was first discovered.

Third Sunday in Lent: Real Temptations

This morning I thought about temptation and forgiveness. Well, actually mostly about temptation. I was listening to the radio on the way to church and an author was talking about one the characters in her novel. He was the father in the family and he did things which caused problems. But, the author mentioned, he thought he was doing the right thing. Sometimes temptations are in the small things.

I have said before that if we really wanted to be honest about the problem of sins and temptation it is not the BIG ones that we should be railing against. I think, in reality, the overwhelming focus we place on these BIGGIES gets in the way of most of us dealing with the real presence of sin in our world and our lives. Just listen to any preacher when he or she begins to rail against sin and you will often be able to sit back in relief that they are not talking about you.

But take a step back and think of the "tradition" of the Seven Deadly Sins. Here they are:

• wrath (inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger, including denial of truth)
• greed (a very excessive or rapacious desire and pursuit of wealth, status, and power)
• sloth (failure to utilize one's talents and gifts, seen as laziness and indifference)
• pride (desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self; often seen as the original sin
• lust (excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature)
• envy (insatiable desire and resentment that another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking, and wish the other person to be deprived of it)
• gluttony (over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste) (See Wikipedia.)
  

All of a sudden the definitions of sin have changed. Suddenly my life is filled with sin. I am not blameless. When I look at that list I see that it is more than just a list of some things I might fall into someday. In reality they are things that I can- and often do- fall into just about every day. (Okay- EVERY day.)

What is the way to handle all this? Honest self-inventory. Searching moral inventory. The founders of the 12-Step movements were onto something important when they wrote Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory. In fact when they wrote their second text, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, they talked about the Seven Deadly Sins as the list to use to think about those things. They are universal.

All this means that my life needs to be self-honest and not judgmental of other people. To use the Seven Deadly Sins reminds how easy it can be to move from good to bad, from hope to sin. I do it daily. So daily I need to remind myself that there is hope and forgiveness. That is what my faith is all about. I don't have to be a prisoner to these. I can be freed.

Thanks be to God who gives me the victory in Jesus Christ.

And I Quote.....

Time for a quote day. These four seem to fit the bill today. I'm not sure why, but they just look good on the unprinted page....

What better place to start than the always quotable Mark Twain.

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."

For some reason the next quote from Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson seems to speak to the same situation. Only with a different angle:

"People who get nostalgic about childhood were obviously never children."

Entertainer and comedian Emo Phillips goes right to the source of all these problems identified by the quotes above:

"I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this."

And finally, a quote from an unnamed New York City detective who gives but one more example of how we are so willing to fool ourselves into doing, thinking, believing, and just plain being blind:

"I've gone into hundreds of [fortune-teller's parlors], and have been told thousands of things, but nobody ever told me I was a policewoman getting ready to arrest her."

I Have to Admit....

...It Makes Me Wonder

The AP reported yesterday that Toyota, unlike other major automakers, has routinely been secretive about information it has obtained from "black boxes" in their autos. Toyota attributes that to it being "experimental", etc. All in all, it would seem to me that Toyota (or any other manufacturer in their position) would be more open and sound less like they were stonewalling than they appear.

For the moment all this has certainly been helping US automakers. Ford had a profit and the others are making moves. But in the long run, when a company like Toyota, with a previously good image, falls like this, the whole industry could be affected. What's more it is an American jobs issue as well. After all, many Toyota's are made right here in the USA.

Unfortunately many big companies have the same kind of problem. Some of it is industrial secrets to protect the brand. But, like Wall Street and the Big Banks, it is also about making sure that the rich get richer and the rest get put in their place. I have the feeling that it doesn't need to be that way.

But when faced with something like this, it does make me wonder if there is a real helpful solution where everybody can feel like they are winners.

Caribou on Fast Company & More

It's my favorite coffee shop. It has real coffee and lots of other stuff. It has, above all, coffee that doesn't taste burnt and bitter. It is Caribou Coffee, based right here in good, old Minnesota. They are the 2nd largest coffee shop chain in the country, admittedly way behind that Seattle-based one.

Well, Fast Company website had a post Tuesday about Caribou's image makeover. Here are the new cups with a new logo and font and fun. They have a good sense of humor and that down-home kind of atmosphere in their redesign that fits many of their stores.

Hmm, maybe it's time for some.

Then you find news on the Health Day Website where you discover that a series of reports were given at American Heart Association conferences in SF that:

Coffee Is Generally Heart-Friendly
But it may be linked to a slight rise in high blood pressure, researchers say

Not bad. Not bad at all.

It's A Small World After All

No, not the mind-numbing Disney song, although the idea is there. But in this day and age the world is no longer a bunch of loosely connected places (if it ever really was.) First we know things more quickly thanks to rapid communication. We also are now used to things coming from varied places.

So it should have come as no shock yesterday when I picked up the bag of grapes at the local grocery store, looked down as I set them in the cart and saw:

Producto de Chile.

It was a shock. All of a sudden an earthquake the other end of the world was right there in my grocery cart. I wondered if the people who picked these grapes or the shipping depot workers or the truck drivers were okay or even alive. They may still have been nameless and faceless but they were part of the few degrees of separation that the modern world depends on.

More on Travel in a postModern World

Last week I posted some thoughts on travel and tourism in the postModern world thanks to the book Marco Polo Didn't Go There by Rolf Potts. Since I love to travel and experience different ideas, cultures, etc. I have been taking a mental journey in this whole idea. One of the things that Potts talks about is the difference between those travelers with backpacks, the ones who are supposedly getting a more "real" experience and the tourists.

On the surface it's a simple distinction: tourists leave home to escape the world while travelers leave home to experience the world. -Rolf Potts, p. 8.

He doesn't accept that idea and throughout the book by retelling his own stories he shows that this isn't the case. Everyone who leaves their "home" and travels somewhere else brings their own baggage with them. They see through the eyes of their own cultural and personal experiences. There's not much we can do about that. He expertly exposes his own naivete and says, in essence, that we are all bound in one way or another by our lives and expectations and simple ways of our lives.

Regardless of one's budget, itinerary and choice of luggage, the act of travel is still, at its essence, a consumer experience. (p.8)

I may deal with some of this when I blog about my recent vacation to a resort in Mexico, the ultimate in the consumer travel experience (kind of like a cruise on land.) Did that mean my life wasn't impacted by the travel. Of course not. I think Potts shows that we are all affected when we leave home and travel. If we are open to it, it can always be an enriching and important experience. But more about that later.

Potts does a wonderful job with his stories. If you like travel writing, look for it. It is fun.

Where to Make A Difference

From last week's Speaking of Faith on Public Radio.

Robi Damelin and Ali Abu Awwad, are part of a gathering network of Israelis and Palestinians who've lost loved ones in the crisis between their peoples. We speak this hour about their unlikely friendship, the difference between being right and being honest, and the human possibility behind violent headlines.

Robi Damelin is an Israeli who lost her son to a Palestinian sniper. Ali Abu Awwad is a Palestinian who lost his brother to an Israeli soldier. But in their unlikely friendship and determination, these two defy headlines of despair. They are part of a citizen-led movement to turn pain into hope.

In the program Robi talks about their movement to make a difference by bringing together people from both sides of the conflict to share in their common humanity and common losses. They were on a movie promotion and exhibition tour of the US when Krista Tippets interviewed them. Robi mentioned an incident that had just occurred. Here from the transcript.

Ms. Damelin: Do you know, a woman came to me yesterday in the seminar and she said, 'I'm a student and I really want to do something, but I'll have to travel overseas.' So I said, 'Why? You live here in — where are we?'

Tippett: Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Yes.

Ms. Damelin: Milwaukee. There are enormous problems with crime; there are enormous racial problems here. This is the most wonderful place for you to begin a journey of making a difference in your own community and in yourself, because you can't go out and start changing things if you're not willing. Does it have to be in a pink room that you can experience making a difference?' And I'm really glad that I said that. It wasn't to be clever. Because she suddenly looked — there were three black women standing next to her — at them, and they looked at each other and they said, 'Let's meet.' And, you know, it's really strange but it's not that we're two evangelistical people rushing around the world, trying to change, you know, like make people belong to a religion. But I think that what we really want to do is to make people understand that they have the potential to change things within themselves, and they don't have to be politicians to be able to do that. That's the whole message of what we are doing.

Gives a deeper meaning to the bumper sticker:

Think globally;
Act locally.

If we all would do that. Wow.

March Has Arrived

Yes, it is now meteorological spring.

Yes, the temperature went above freezing yesterday for the 2nd time this month and above freezing highs are forecast for the whole week ahead.

And yes, today is the deadline to get ice houses off the lakes in S. Minnesota.

But it is still Minnesota. Yesterday Garrison Keillor reminded all us Minnesotans that to wish for anything different than winter, even in March, is not the way the order of nature is. Just because it's March does not mean spring.

We have March to let non-drinkers know what a hangover is like.

Oh well.