Well, how many months has it been now? Almost five, it seems! This semester has been interesting, and my hours at work never seemed to drop below 50/week until the last 2-3 weeks… Any way… I wrote this for this morning’s service and thought it was worth sharing with everyone…

Romans 8: 18-39 (NIV)

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Music has always been very important to me. And generally I like just about all kinds. In high school, I’d always ‘bragged’ about how my record library ranged from Beethoven to Bacharach to the Beatles… and everything in between! And even though most of what I listen to today is on cd instead of albums, that adage is still very much true!

And I have to say that that was one of the things I liked most about driving over-the-road… the opportunity to put in and listen to an entire cd straight through with no stops and no interruptions. Indeed, I made it a point to never start one unless I knew I would not be stopping before it was over. And when you had days that found you driving 8-10 hours non-stop, that was usually pretty easy! But you also had days where you would be making two-or-three runs back-and-forth between the same places. One such run was what we called the ‘slurry run’.

Briefly, one of the by-products of grinding wheat at the mill in Keokuk, IA was a solution of pasty wheat-powder suspended in water. The plant would generate between 45-48,000# of this stuff every two hours of operating, and only had storage tanks for about 5 hours worth. This meant that there had to be a steady stream of tankers arriving every two hours around the clock to haul it off, and the company I drove for had had the contract to do so for some years.

Occasionally, I would get send up there to fill in for a day or two… or three or four… Now, this stuff started fermenting almost immediately… a fact that was very apparent from the little that dripped out of the hoses as they coupled and uncoupled them… and so, the destination for all of it was the old Hiram Walker plant in Peoria. This plant is still very-much in the business of converting corn into alcohol, but now, instead of little glass bottles to be sold in plain brown paper bags, it is put into gasoline for you and me to drive on.

This ‘slurry’ that we hauled in is used as the catalyst to help the corn ferment faster, thus speeding up the process, and it was used up as fast as the other plant made it! So it was very important to keep to the scheduled pick-up times as much as possible, and since I usually got to fill in for the night guys, I had no choice but to keep moving, driving back and forth between Keokuk and Peoria all through the night on a series of twisty, curvy two-lane roads. The only thing that got me through each night was my music!

Now, I had had a two cd collection of Harry Chapin’s songs for some years, but since his biggest hits were all on the first cd, I had never really listened to the second one… until one night I chanced to start it as I left the plant in Keokuk. As I crossed the bridge over the Mississippi river in the dark, the genius that is Harry Chapin came to me out of the darkness. I rode through the night with my mouth open, literally shocked by words and stories that spoke so much of the realities and harshness of life that it was as if they slapped me across the face like a cold, wet towel! I suppose I was about Macomb when these words came from the speakers…

“It is an early Monday morning
The sun is becoming bright on the land
No one is watching as he comes a walking
Two bulky suitcases hang from his hands

“He heads towards the tower that stands in the campus
He goes through the door, he starts up the stairs
The sound of his footsteps, the sound of his breathing
The sound of the silence but no one was there

“He reached the catwalk, He put down his burden
The four-sided clock began to chime
Seven AM, the day is beginning
So much to do and so little time

“He looks at the city where no one had known him
He looks at the sky where no one looks down
He looks at his life and what it has shown him
He looks for his shadow it cannot be found

“He laid out the rifles, he loaded the shotgun
He stacked up the cartridges along the wall
He knew he would need them for his conversation
If it went as it he planned, then he might use them all

“He said ‘Listen you people I’ve got a question
You won’t pay attention but I’ll ask anyhow
I found a way that will get me an answer
Been waiting to ask you ’till now
Right now!”

“The first words he spoke took the town by surprise
One got Mrs. Gibbons above her right eye
It blew her through the window wedged her against the door
Reality poured from her face, staining the floor”

Intermixed between these verses were supposed cuts of news interviews of his parents and teachers and others who had known the Sniper… each saying just how strange and moody he had been as a child, and how they all tried to just ignore him. As I was researching these lyrics yesterday, I came across a blog containing an article written by a Sean T. Collins and published October 06, 2003… I’d like to read a part of it, if I may…

The scariest song I’ve ever heard is by Harry Chapin.

“Yes, that Harry Chapin–the one who did “Cat’s in the Cradle” and “Taxi” and “Circle” and so forth. (And no comments from the peanut gallery about “Cat’s in the Cradle” being scary enough, okay?) Harry Chapin was always a very, very big deal in my family. A fellow Long Islander, he was one of those musicians that both my rock-centric Dad and easy-listening show-tune-weaned Mom could agree upon. Moreover, he was always playing live shows at local Long Island venues, where my folks saw his surprisingly theatrical singer-songwriter styling’s up close and personal many times. (They still sing the praises of his bass player’s stage presence.) In fact, they had tickets to the benefit concert in Eisenhower Park on route to which he died, at age 38, in a car accident on the LIE. Rare was the Sunday afternoon when Harry Chapin songs wouldn’t be playing on our stereo.

“What motivated my mischievous Dad to play the song “Sniper,” from Chapin’s second album Sniper and Other Love Songs, on one such Sunday afternoon is a mystery to me. I guess he figured I’d get a kick out of how crazy it was. Indeed I did. But it’s more than crazy–it’s inventive, insightful, piercing, and, to me at least, unforgettable.

“For starters, it really is about a sniper. It’s a vaguely fictionalized account of Charles Whitman’s August 1966 University of Texas clocktower rampage–an unusual topic for the man behind “Sunday Morning Sunshine.” But the earnestness with which Chapin imbued his folksy love songs serves this macabre subject well. Chapin is no more able to hide behind irony or ambiguity here than he is in his more romantic work, forcing the audience to come directly to terms with the horror of the sniper attack, and the tortured character of the sniper himself.”

Mr. Collins goes on to describe how for almost ten minutes the genius that is Chapin used music to build and weave and elevate and deflate all of the emotions and supposed reasoning of a deranged mind, and finishes by saying…

“That listening to a song afforded me insight into and understanding of a human struggle makes it art. That that struggle involved an unblinking, unrepentant killer makes it horror.”

Some years back I wrote an article about another kind of tragedy that had just occurred… I’d like to read it now, if I may…

          I’m sure by now you’ve seen the headlines. Twenty-some people were crushed to death in a stairwell in Chicago, while later that (same) week, almost a hundred died in a blaze in a Rhode Island club. Aside from the needless loss of life, why does any of this bother me? Because it has all happened before!

          In 1940, 198 people died in a fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Miss. Two years later, 492 were burned to death in the Coconut Club in Boston. 1990 – 87 dead – New York City… 1928 – 40 dead – West Plaines, MO… and the list goes on.

          My point is this… in each of these instances lessons were learned and changes made. And still, these things happen! Why? Because we either forget… or we fail to teach the next generation!

          In the December 2002 issue of Readers Digest an article written by David McCullough describes how we are losing our history. Among his examples is an undergrad who never realized that the original thirteen colonies were all on the eastern seaboard. And he goes on to explain that without knowing our past… without knowing not only WHAT happened before, but also WHY it happened… these people will be doomed to repeat the same mistakes!

          Each generation must learn from the one before and build on that knowledge. If we ignore the lessons of the past then we must, forsooth, repeat them!

          We are all prone to feel so much more intelligent than our predecessors that we fail to accept ANY of the teachings they offer us. And that is a very dangerous mistake! That is why these news stories bother – nay, scare – me… they are such blatant proof that we haven’t learned anything!

          The Old Testament records how God’s ‘People’ would repeatedly forget and wander away from Him until He decided to ‘remind’ them… usually in a very strong way! Unless we are very careful about passing on the lessons and words of Jesus, the very same thing could happen here!

          The proof is in the headlines!

And what more proof do we need than the headlines we have all seen this week? I’ll not try to delve into the reasoning’s of a mad man… I’ll not try to ‘prove’ that those around him maybe should have seen and read the signs and been able to prevent it… if you have any interest at all in that sort of thing there are ample sources for it online, in the papers, and on TV! I’ll not even plead for prayers for those who died or were injured, or for all of those left to deal with it all… I’m sure you are already doing that, each in your own way…. No, the point that I want to make this morning is this… We all know that in the end God will win this battle of good vs. evil… but a case could sure be made that it seems as if Satan is winning this particular skirmish!

Look around us… we are surrounded by evil at every turn! And worse, we have come to accept the idea that there is nothing ‘we’ can do about it! But in accepting that concept, aren’t we really just furthering Satan’s work?

Ignatius Loyola once wrote, “I beg of you for the love and reverence of God our Lord to remember the past, and reflect not lightly but seriously that the earth is only the earth.” What he means, I think, is that whatever happens during our time here… all of the joys… all of the pain… all of our triumphs… each of our failures… are only a part of our lives here on this earth! As I listened to the words of this song for the first time… and, often, each time since… I was struck by how much I could relate to the emptiness and frustration that this person must be feeling… I have been there! I think, in some ways, each of us have been there! Yet, none of us have ever entertained the notion of doing anything like this… Are we ‘special’ in some way? What is the difference between us and them?

The difference is right here!!! (Hold up Bible)

Let me read these words of Paul’s again, this time from The New Living Translation… and listen to how they so aptly apply to us even today!!!

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)

          And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

          What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

          Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?(As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

          And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This was written for the December 2002 Christmas newsletter…

      Just before starting at SIUE the fall after I graduated from high school, one of my best friends told me about being accepted into the elite choir there and asked if I would be interested in trying out as well. (He was the one who always knew the right people and had the ‘contacts’ to find out about such things.) I said ‘sure’ and even though the auditions had already been closed officially, Dr. kkkk (the names are camouflaged to protect the innocent!) agreed to meet me at his home and run me through the rigors of his tests.

      Since I had studied music theory in high school and had been actively singing in choirs and choruses for many years, most of what he ‘dished out’ I was able to handle with equanimity. However, the kicker was when he had me sight read the bass line from one of the hymnals sitting on his piano. Little did he know that I had been doing that at my church since I was old enough to read! He would ask if I knew the song that we were doing (I didn’t), and would then try another. Finally, with no further ado, I was asked to join the SIUE ‘Concert Chorale’ on the spot!

      I don’t believe I have ever been a part of any choir whose members were more experienced or professional than those in this group. After all, most were music majors, while the rest were at least getting a minor degree in it! I recall one warm autumn afternoon when we decided to rehearse outside. We learned a new song, and rehearsed some others, all without the aid of any instrument (Though it did help to have one person with perfect pitch to give us our starting notes!) Then, for whatever reason, someone broke into singing the Hallelujah Chorus and we all joined in. No music…no instrument…we all sang our parts from memory! It was just expected that people of that caliber knew it!

      An awful lot of the music that we did back then was religious in nature. For the dedication ceremonies of the (then) new Religious Center we performed the entire Missa Secunda (Second Mass) by Haussler. One song that we learned that fall had been written for a European church that had a seven-second echo. As beautiful as it was in our rehearsal hall, when we performed it on tour at a cathedral in Belleville that had a five-second echo, the effect was just astounding!

      Dr. kkkk was always coming up with exciting things for us to do. Shortly before Christmas that year he had all of us meet for rehearsal in the open pit area of the Student Union building. There, as other students sat and watched, or stared as they passed by, we learned and rehearsed a very difficult version of The Little Drummer Boy that none of us had ever seen before. At the end of that hour’s session we ‘performed’ it for everyone who had gathered to watch. That is still the version that I remember in my head whenever I hear that particular song.

      Music has always been a very important part of my life, but never more so than at this time of year. The ‘sounds of the season’ begin to be heard around Thanksgiving and grow in usage until reaching a continuous climax on Christmas Day, only to be silenced altogether the day after (except in those churches that don’t allow them until after Christmas!) And that truly is a shame, because many of them are very beautiful songs.

      Again, I recall when a very special friend of mine (at least I always wanted to think of her as special) was to perform O’ Holy Night as a solo during one of our high school Christmas concerts. The sound systems back then were very primitive compared to today’s solid-state automated. For normal speaking you could just set your volume and watch to make sure nothing untoward happened. But someone using the microphone to sing required a person to sit with his fingers on the knob and his eyes on the decibel meter. The trick was to continuously control the volume so as to get the most sound at all times without getting so loud as to cause distortion or feed back. Needless to say, this was a very delicate operation and not everyone could do it well. As an officer of the Technicians Club I had appointed myself as the only one qualified to ‘control’ her solo that night. As she left her place in the choir to head for the microphone, I also left my seat with the basses and took my position in front of the amplifier. I remember the tenseness as my fingers touched the controls, but I can only say that her performance was flawless. And as preoccupied as I was, I still remember her voice singing the most beautiful rendition of that song that I have ever heard, even to this day!

      Many ‘Christmas’ songs deal more with the season itself…White Christmas, Jingle Bells, and Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer are three that come to mind. But for every Frosty and Rudolph, there are hundreds of Silent Night’s and Joy to the World’s. It goes without saying that most Christmas songs are, indeed, about the birth of Christ. And whether performed by traditional artists, pop stars, or ‘New Age’ enthusiasts, the messages in them have never changed.

      This season, take a few minutes to really listen, again, to the words of some of these. It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, O Come All Ye Faithful, What Child Is This, We Three Kings…and countless others all tell the story and the Glory of that night two-thousand some years ago when our Lord came into this world in a lowly stable as one of us and was laid in a manger. They tell of angels singing and rejoicing…of kings and shepherds…and of the promise of peace on earth and goodwill towards men.

Listen to the music! Listen to the words! Open up your heart and your head, once again, to what the season is really about…the birth of Jesus!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Life just keeps getting more and more busy! Between my taking classes every morning, working long shifts driving a truck in and around St. Louis, and dealing with all of the intricacies of living alone, I just have not been able to keep this up like I want… I’ll try to do better! For those ‘newbies’ just getting started here, there is LOTS of material already posted!

I did take time to upload some of my songs from my Electronic Music Production class last spring… check ’em out in my Audio file…

I wrote and used this article in the November 2001 newsletter, and felt it was appropriate for today…

 

St. Louis was known, in the early ?60’s, as having been the ‘starting place’ for such celebrities as Vincent Price, Tennessee Williams, Harry Caray, and Scott Joplin, to name just a few. Alton was famous for having been the site of a Lincoln/Douglas debate, the first violent conflict regarding slavery (the burning and destruction of Elijah Lovejoy’s printing press), and for having been the home of Robert Wadlow, the world’s tallest man. Hartford had its celebrity, too. Clint Walker starred in such movies as Baker’s Hawk, The Bounty Man, Send me No Flowers, None But The Brave, Yellowstone Kelly, and The Dirty Dozen, but was best known for his role as ‘Cheyenne Bodie’ in the television series ‘Cheyenne’. And he was born in Hartford!

I can still recall his coming back for what must have been our Fourth of July parade two years in a row. I remember because Dad was on the Hartford Police force on a part-time basis, and he always got to put on his uniform and stop traffic during Clint’s visits. But after a couple of visits, he started sending his sister to fill in for him, and finally, nobody came at all. I’m not exactly sure where I got the notion from, but it seemed like he was just too busy and important to mess with the likes of us poor common folk.

For years afterward there was an empty lot with a huge oak tree in one corner that had a sign identifying it as ‘Clint Walker Park’. I never knew, but I always envisioned that our ‘mayor’ dedicated the park in Clint’s honor on one of his first visits. At first the grass was kept trimmed and neat, although there was never anything else there but the tree and the sign. After a few years though, the weeds began to grow tall enough to cover the sign, and the whole place was just an unsightly embarrassment. Twenty-odd years later I would drive by when visiting the town and note that at least the weeds were being mowed fairly regularly again, but I could never be sure if the sign was still there or not. Today, the oak tree is gone and a new house stands on the lot. So much for fame.

As I began my research for this article, I came across an interview that Clint gave in April of 1999. In it, he corrected the interviewer, who had asked him about being born in Alton, by stating that he had actually been born in Hartford, and raised in nearby Alton. I guess he does remember! I learned that he had started out at age nine working as a water boy and such for any traveling circuses and carnivals. Later on he worked on the riverboats, pushing barges from Chicago to New Orleans. He sold vacuum cleaners and insurance door-to-door, and, due to his size, eventually became a security officer in Las Vegas. There, he came in contact with actors and other screen people who kept telling him he should get into movies. He was introduced to Cecil B. DeMille, who liked him enough to give him a part in his current epic film, ‘The Ten Commandments’. (He’s the helmeted guard who towers over everyone else in the scene.) In short, I learned that he really was just a ‘regl’r’ guy. I also learned that during the time period that Hartford was wanting him to come, his studio had him under such a tight schedule that he really couldn’t get away. And he gave credit for his being able to play an honest, sincere cowboy on screen to his actually being an honest, sincere Midwesterner (my words, not his, but that was the gist of it).

From the tone of the interview, I think it is safe to infer that he was very thankful for having been born and growing up where he did, because of the values that he learned and used throughout his life, both on and off screen.

How many things in our lives do we take for granted? Our birthplace? Our hometown? Family? How about the clothes that we wear, or the food that we eat? A roof over our heads and a warm bed to sleep in? Every one of these things God either helps us with directly or gives us the skills and tools we need to obtain them for ourselves. He is blessing us everyday and we just get too busy to acknowledge it!

Some blessings are easy to see…a new child, a successful career and/or marriage, or the myriad of ‘things’ that most of us have. But even these can be too-easily relegated to the look-what-I-did file. So what happens to all of the daily blessings like food and clothes? Do we get so accustomed to them that we begin to ignore or forget them?

This is the month that we set aside one special day to consider all of the blessings that we have in our lives, and to thank God for them. Some may look at the turmoil that our country is in right now and wonder what we have to be thankful for. Let me tell you of at least three things!

1. LIFE – we live! We are breathing, eating, and thinking individuals. And whatever else might happen, “Where there is life, there is hope.”


2. FREEDOM – we have the freedom to live our lives in any way that we see fit as long as that freedom does not infringe on someone else’s freedom.


3. JESUS CHRIST – from the teachings of Christ we learn what it means to be alive, and in what direction we should use our freedom. And through His death and resurrection, we are cleansed of our sins and made whole.

If there were absolutely nothing else to be thankful for, I could still spend all of Thanksgiving Day praising God for just these three things. But when, in addition, I consider all of the wonderful, miraculous things that happen all around us everyday, then twenty-four hours is not enough! Twenty-four days is not enough! Twenty-four years is not enough!

This Thanksgiving, take time to reflect on all of the things that God has done for you and yours that are taken for granted. Then you will begin to realize…

just exactly how much you have to be thankful for!

Well, I finally took time to put my 64-bit PC back together so I can work on this sight again… I built it last spring, and for the most part it is fine… it’s just that 64-bit is still all ‘beta’… which means that there are very few drivers for it, and when you have a problem, you’re pretty much on your own figuring it out! I have several Macs I’m rebuilding, and two regular PC’s I’m putting together for friends, but this 64-bit I built for me! And so, I work out the bugs as I have time…

Anyway, this article is from the September 2004 newsletter…

 

 “It was the best of times… it was the worst of times…” At least that was always how Septembers seemed to me as I was growing up.

‘The best of times’ was because it was (and still is!) the month of my birth, and so was the month that I got such things as my first new bicycle (8th birthday), and my first driver’s license (16th birthday… duh!). However, it was ‘the worst of times’ because it was also the month that school started back each year… and I hated school!

Now, don’t get me wrong… I love learning! I have always loved reading and studying about all sorts of things over the years that have struck my fancy at any given time. And I can never seem to get enough of going to various museums and zoos and such to see, study, and learn all that I can about the different exhibits and animals and so on… whether it be a historical museum, with artifacts and history of the local area, a natural history museum, with skeletons, stuffed animals, rocks, and plants from all over the world, or a science museum, which usually combines historical scientific breakthroughs and history with current and on-going studies and findings. Yes, I truly love to learn… I just hated school!

Now, some people might say that all of that was caused by bad teachers (possibly), poor curriculum (it was the ‘50’s and ‘60’s!), or just a ‘bad attitude’ on my part. And the truth is, each of these things probably played a small part in forming my opinions about education. But mostly, the truth is that it is just the way I am… free thinking and proud of it! And I didn’t appreciate somebody trying to tell me what or how I was supposed to think and learn… I wanted to do it for myself!

In Fritz Lang’s 1926 futuristic masterpiece, the black-and-white silent film Metropolis, the ‘workers’ of the world have all been conditioned to think, act, and behave exactly like one another. In one of its most striking scenes, the masses are all marching in perfect step and unison as one set marches in to work and the other marches out. All are dressed alike… all act alike… and all have that same bland, empty look on their face… there is nothing more to their lives than the job that they have been taught and conditioned to blindly do and accept. They have no freedom to think for themselves, and thus have all but lost the ability of free thought! And what really bothers me about watching this film are the comparisons that I see coming to fruition in our society today!

If I were a youth attending school today, I would probably be sent to various counselors, doctors, and psychologists to determine just why I wasn’t conforming to ‘expected norms’! And if I were to continue behaving ‘abnormally’ I would probably be treated with various drugs and ‘behavioral counseling therapies’ until I did come to behave like a ‘normal’ person!

And you know what? All of that scares me, no end, for I have to wonder whose idea of ‘normality’ is being used! I am so happy that none of that ever happened… because if it had, I would not be who I am today!!!

God has made each and every one of us to be special! He never intended for any of us to be ‘conformists’… at least not in the way that many people seem to think today. That’s why He gave each of us a mind to use as freely as we wish… that’s why we each have the freedom of choice to do His will or not. And yes, that’s why we are sometimes assailed with doubts and fears and questions about life, how we are to live it, and why things are the way they sometimes seem to be.

But that is the beauty of God’s plan. For, how we deal with those doubts and questions helps form the basis that our relationship with God is built on… we learn and are strengthened in these trials and uncertainties… and if all goes well, we become better Christians and servants of God!

God wants us to think for ourselves! He does not want us to all be ‘perfect little Christian machines’ all marching in step and turning together at His beck and call. We are not forced to attend services on Sunday morning… we are not commanded to believe in and follow Christ… but we are each given the opportunity to do so!

And after each person takes advantage of that opportunity… after each accepts Christ as their Lord and Savior… what we do can be as different as each individual mind might make it… to a point!

Because, when a person takes advantage of the opportunity for salvation that Christ has given us, each also accepts these three directives…

             1: Love the Lord above all else…

             2: Love your neighbor as yourself…

             3: Go out and make disciples for Christ…

You see, even though God has made each of us to be as unique as our fingerprints, and expects us to make use of that uniqueness to His glory as fully as we can… He also expects us to accept His Word as law!

For, if we truly love God above all else, we will accept His Word as He has given it to us… we will not modify it in any way to make it more acceptable, or more ‘politically correct’… we will do all that He wants us to do! Not because everybody else is doing it… not because we are commanded to… but because we want to!

And isn’t true individuality about doing what you really want to do?

Sorry I haven’t been posting more often… classes started last week, and I’m still using this Mac, which isn’t xanga friendly! Anyway, this article of mine was published in October of 2001…

I coined a new word this summer. At least I’d never heard it before. Meism. (me-ism). That’s what I’ve started calling the mind-set of people who are prone to think that they are the center of the universe. Well, maybe not the universe, but at least of everything around them.

You know the type that I mean. Someone who goes to a meeting so that everyone there can hear what they have to say. (Wait a minute! There have been times that I’ve done that.) Well, how about those who get up on stage in plays and stuff so that everyone will see them? (…I’ve done that, too!) OK, let’s talk about those who sometimes ask God to help them get what they want. (Now hold on! This was not supposed to be about ME!)

The truth is, we are all prone to a little ‘meism’. Most of us have been so blessed by living in this land-of-plenty that we assume it was all put here just for us! With apologies to JFK, we seem to say, ‘Ask not what you can do for your country… ask what your country can do for you.’

Many of us today have never experienced a real time of need. Our lives are full of such abundance that even our poor and destitute seem far better off than people in some other countries. Many of our ‘downtrodden’ have only one car or one TV, and we feel bad for them and try to help them all that we can. The truth is most of us, from the ‘Baby-boomers’, to the ‘Gen-X’ers’, thru the ‘Millennials’, could all be classed into one homogenous crowd – the ‘Me” generation!

When I first coined the term ‘meism’, I was applying it to the problem that I sometimes have with trying to superimpose my wants and desires onto God’s will, and onto His plan for my life. As hard as I try to be open to Him and His direction, I still have to question everything that I do to determine if I’m doing it for Him or for me. And I’m sure that that is a problem for everyone from time to time. But, it seems that our entire lives have become self-centered!

“It’s a dog eat dog world.” “Never give the other guy an even break.” “Winning is not the main thing…it’s the only thing.” These are all sayings that we’ve heard, and probably repeated, over the years. And while we may have meant them as humorous at times, the underlying reality was always there.

Let’s face it! This country has been built on the rights and the abilities of the individual. As such, we have all been taught from birth that what we do with our lives is up to us. Whether we succeed or fail in anything that we do depends more on how we perceive ourselves than our abilities. Our world revolves around us… because all that we see of the world is that part which directly involves us.

At least that seemed to be the case for most people in this country until the morning of September 11, 2001.

As the walls of the World Trade Center in New York and at the Pentagon came down, so did the walls of isolationism that each of us had built around ourselves. Suddenly the importance of ‘ME’ gave way to the importance of ‘US’! Instead of “What can I do for myself today?” we began to hear, “What can we do to help?”

We were no longer Germans, Irish, or Dutch. We were no longer English, Pakistani, or Japanese. We were no longer white, dark, red, or yellow. We were all Red, White, and Blue. We were all AMERICANS! And further, we were no longer Baptist, Catholic, or Methodist. We were all part of God’s family!

Throughout the New Testament are references to God’s ‘family’. We are called sons and daughters, brothers and sisters…family! In Matthew 23:8 and 9, Jesus tells His followers…

                   8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. (NIV)

It is said that before the Civil War, this country was always referred to as ‘these United States.’ It was only afterward that we became ‘THE United States.’ In the hundred-odd years since, we have seesawed back and forth in understanding what the difference is. But in this time of unthinkable tragedy, we have let ourselves once again become a nation of united people. We have overcome our ‘meism’ for now, and replaced it with Patriotism.

At the same time, we have begun to realize that we are ALL part of God’s family, and of His ‘Master-plan.’ We have seen what we can do when we come together in His name. And we have begun to see that some of our ‘differences’ are maybe not as significant as we thought.

All of this is good and noble, but…we have been ‘individuals’ and ‘isolationists’ for a very long time. How long can we sustain this openness to work with others… to work for the common good… to be a part of God’s entire community?

Our world has changed! If we are to survive as a people, we must change with it. The idea of everyone working together to help one another must continue to be more than just an idea. It must be a reality. ‘Meism’ must not be allowed to be a part of our make-up. The cry of “One for all, and all for one!” may not be Biblical, but the concept is!

                         And it is a cry that we all must heed!!

This appeared in the April 2003 newsletter… I have left it untouched as to dates, etc. Obviously, some things have changed since then…

 

    Last September, my wife and I had a chance to see Elvis & the Superstars in a small theatre in downtown Branson, and enjoyed it so much that we took my mother and son there over Christmas. The first half of the show consisted of a very good impersonation of Elvis doing songs from different times of his career, while the second half was the same guy doing such artists as Roy Orbison, Tom Jones, and Liberace. One song put him as Neil Diamond and one of his lady assistants as Barbra Streisand together on stage doing their big duo hit ‘You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.’ They did it very well, but I really wanted to tell them that in reality, that scene had probably never happened!

 

     You see, I have a record (you remember records… about 12’’ across made out of very flat vinyl with a small hole in the center?) of Neil Diamond doing that song solo that I bought some years before the duet was released. Amazingly, the music and his parts are identical to the later release! I’m sure that it was a case of somebody saying, “Hey, this would be a great song for Barbra to join in on!” Then it would have been a case of, “Have your people contact my people,” and eventually Barbra recorded her part in a studio probably not too far from home. Then the engineers got together and, through the magic of technology, removed Neil’s’ voice and added hers in some places, while mixing the two together in others. The ‘picture’ of the two of them standing in the same recording studio and singing together never happened. It was all fabricated… an illusion created just for us! And this was in the sixties!

 

     In the seventies, almost all of the special-effects in the very first Star Wars were done with clay and/or plastic models and mockups. In the latest one, Yoda used the ‘force’ to full effect as he jumped and dodged all around the room. And, while it all seemed very believable, it was, of course, all computer generated… it wasn’t real! Indeed, for the animated film, Shrek, the ‘artists’ had to ‘tone it down’ a notch… the princess looked TOO real!

 

     The fact is, in today’s world it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between what is reality and what somebody wants us to believe is reality. In fact the entire culture of this country sometimes seems to center on creating the illusion in people of wanting or needing something… that’s the JOB of advertising! And so, it comes to us to determine what is real and what isn’t.

 

     For example, much of today’s rock music isn’t ‘real’, in the sense that it is made with real musicians playing real instruments… it’s all done electronically. That doesn’t mean it’s bad… I kinda’ like most of it! But I tend to admire a well thought out computer program differently than I do a superb live performance! I mean, yes, the newest cut of Big Yellow Taxi is a lot ‘zippier’ than the original, but knowing that Joni Mitchell wrote and arranged it, and accompanied herself on the guitar as she performed it was just much more impressive!

 

     One would think that if there was one place in today’s world that one could find unquestionable reality, it would be in the church. Unfortunately, even this isn’t always the case. One doesn’t have to go back very many years to remember seeing television evangelists in court being sentenced to jail terms for defrauding the public. Seldom, though, are the abuses that blatant.

 

     The ‘feel good’ emphasis of our society has grown to the point that, over time, many religions and religious personages have attempted to minimize the ‘negative’ aspects of the Bible and concentrate only on those that people ‘want’ to think about! And in many instances this has reached the point where some teachings are not only ignored, but are ‘rewritten’ in the name of updating… in other words, some people are claiming that Jesus didn’t really mean to say what’s printed, but something else altogether different… something that would make modern people feel more comfortable with their own lives if Jesus had, indeed, said it! If everybody knew their Bible the way we all should, these falsehoods would never stand a chance. But, too many times, too many people accept what they are told without question… after all, maybe that person really does know more about it than we do!

 

     The time has come that we all must begin to question almost everything around us. Are the lyrics of that song scriptural… or merely lyrical? Are our Bible studies and devotions based on the fundamental truths of God’s word… or on the dreams and longings of a modern-day spiritualist? Are our missionaries and mission trips about doing God’s work… or having fun?

 

     In today’s world we can no longer trust what others tell us… indeed, it is sometimes difficult to trust our own eyes and ears. We must seek out for ourselves what is real. And we must use the Word of God as our ‘rock of reality’ … the measuring standard with which to judge all other standards. After all…

 

the only real reality is GOD!!!

This is something that came to me some years ago over the internet… I don’t know it’s original source. Each summer the choir at Wesley Chapel UMC (outside of Jacksonville, IL…) would take a siesta , and during that time, someone different would get up each Sunday and usually perform some ‘special’ musical number. On one such Sunday I, instead, played some ‘Windam Hill’ songs in the back ground as I read…

The Mystery Flu

 

The day is over, you are driving home. You tune in your radio. You hear a little blurb about a little village in India where some villagers have died suddenly, strangely, of a flu that has never been seen before. It’s not influenza, but three or four fellows are dead, and it’s kind of interesting, and they’re sending some doctors over there to investigate it.

 

You don’t think much about it, but on Sunday, coming home from church, you hear another radio spot. Only they say it’s not three villagers, it’s 30,000 villagers in the back hills of this particular area of India, and it’s on TV that night. CNN runs a little blurb; people are heading there from the disease center in Atlanta because this disease strain has never been seen before.

 

By Monday morning when you get up, it’s the lead story. For it’s not just India; it’s Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and before you know it, you’re hearing this story everywhere and they have coined it now as “the mystery flu.” The President has made some comment that he and everyone are praying and hoping that all will go well over there. But everyone is wondering, “How are we going to contain it?” That’s when the President of France makes an announcement that shocks Europe. He is closing their borders. No flights from India, Pakistan, or any of the countries where this thing has been seen.

 

And that’s why that night you are watching a little bit of CNN before going to bed. Your jaw hits your chest when a weeping woman is translated from a French news program into English: “There’s a man lying in a hospital in Paris dying of the mystery flu.” It has come to Europe. Panic strikes. As best they can tell, once you get it, you have it for a week and you don’t know it. Then you have four days of unbelievable symptoms. And then you die.

 

Britain closes its borders, but it’s too late. South Hampton, Liverpool, North Hampton, and it’s Tuesday morning when the President of the United States makes the following announcement: “Due to a national security risk, all flights to and from Europe and Asia have been canceled. If your loved ones are overseas, I’m sorry. They cannot come back until we find a cure for this thing.”

 

Within four days our nation has been plunged into an unbelievable fear. People are selling little masks for your face. People are talking about what if it comes to this country, and preachers on Tuesday are saying, “It’s the scourge of God.”

 

It’s Wednesday night and you are at a church prayer meeting when somebody runs in from the parking lot and says, “Turn on a radio, turn on a radio.” And while the church listens to a little transistor radio with a microphone stuck up to it, the announcement is made. “Two women are lying in a Long Island hospital dying from the mystery flu.” Within hours it seems, this thing just sweeps across the country. People are working around the clock trying to find an antidote. Nothing is working. California. Oregon. Arizona. Florida. Massachusetts.

 

It’s as though it’s just sweeping in from the borders. And then, all of a sudden the news comes out. The code has been broken. A cure can be found. A vaccine can be made. It’s going to take the blood of somebody who hasn’t been infected, and so, sure enough, all through the Midwest, through all those channels of emergency broadcasting, everyone is asked to do one simple thing: “Go to your downtown hospital and have your blood type taken. That’s all we ask of you. And when you hear the sirens go off in your neighborhood, please make your way quickly, quietly, and safely to the hospitals.”

 

Sure enough, when you and your family get down there late on that Friday night, there is a long line, and they’ve got nurses and doctors coming out and pricking fingers and taking blood and putting labels on it. Your wife and your kids are out there, and they take your blood type and they say, “Wait here in the parking lot and if we call your name, you can be dismissed and go home.”

 

You stand around scared with your neighbors, wondering what in the world is going on, and that this is the end of the world. Suddenly a young man comes running out of the hospital screaming. He’s yelling a name and waving a clipboard. What? He yells it again! And your son tugs on your jacket and says, “Daddy, that’s me.” Before you know it, they have grabbed your boy. “Wait a minute, hold it!” And they say, “It’s okay, his blood is clean. His blood is pure. We want to make sure he doesn’t have the disease. We think he has got the right type.”

 

Five tense minutes later, out come the doctors and nurses, crying and hugging one another … some are even laughing. It’s the first time you have seen anybody laugh in a week, and an old doctor walks up to you and says, “Thank you, sir. Your son’s blood type is perfect. It’s clean, it is pure, and we can make the vaccine.” As the word begins to spread all across that parking lot full of folks, people are screaming and praying and laughing and crying. But then the gray-haired doctor pulls you and you wife aside and says, “May we see you for a moment? We didn’t realize that the donor would be a minor and we need … we need you to sign a consent form.”

 

You begin to sign and then you see that the number of pints of blood to be taken is empty. “H-h-h-how many pints?”

 

And that is when the old doctor’s smile fades and he says, “We had no idea it would be a little child. We weren’t prepared. We need it all!”

 

But—but…

 

“You don’t understand. We are talking about the world here. Please sign. We … we need it all … we need it all!”

 

“But can’t you give him a transfusion?”

 

“If we had clean blood we would. Can you sign?”

 

Would you sign?

 

In numb silence you do. Then they say, “Would you like to have a moment with him before we begin?” Can you walk back? Can you walk back to that room where he sits on a table saying, “Daddy? Mommy? What’s going on?” Can you take his hands and say, “Son, your mommy and I love you, and we would never ever let anything happen to you that didn’t just have to be. Do you understand that?” And when that old doctor comes back in and says, “I’m sorry, we’ve … we’ve got to get started. People all over the world are dying.” Can you leave? Can you walk out while he is saying, “Dad? Mom? Dad? Why are you leaving me? Why … why are you forsaking me?”

 

The next week, there is a ceremony to honor your son. Some people sleep through it. Some people don’t come because they go to the lake. And some folks come with a pretentious smile and just pretend to care. Would you want to jump up and say, “MY SON DIED FOR YOU! DON’T YOU CARE?”

 

Is that what He wants to say?

“MY SON DIED FOR YOU. DON’T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I CARE?”

       First published in June 2004 

“Roll.. out.. those.. lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer…” Is there anyone over the age of five who doesn’t look forward to this time of year? As the days become longer and warmer, and schools begin closing for the season, who among us doesn’t long for those ‘lazy, hazy’ days? Whether our memories are from last year or of decades gone by, those days of enjoying all of the carefree fun of childhood remain etched on our brain cells forever.

Many… but certainly not all… of my memories of summers long ago seem to center around the park and wading pool that the little Village of Hartford had at the time. The park was roughly a block away, diagonally, from where I grew up, and so was a convenient place to meet friends or just go alone to see what was going on. Besides the slides, swings, and monkey-bars was a fairly large self-powered merry-go-round. There were ‘pump’ handles for three people, but you were usually lucky to get one to help… and until I was much older, I just didn’t have enough ‘oomph’ to get going very fast. Indeed, as I recall, I was more prone to push it around up to speed then jump on and bravely try to pump the handles… until it slowed down again.

One of my favorite memories, though, is of the pool just across the street from the park. It was only about twenty-five by fifty feet, and maybe fifteen inches deep at the center… but it was our pool, and we loved it! Whenever it was open, you could always be sure of finding it full of screaming, laughing, happy kids enjoying the cooling treat… (remember, few houses had air-conditioning back then… it was our only way of cooling off!) There were also two pipes towards the center of either end that had fountain heads on them, and every once-in-a-while the ‘powers that be’ would turn them on for something special, and again, we would all make the most of it!

Aahhh… life was so simple and uncomplicated then. Bike riding, puddle jumping, tree climbing, rubber-band airplanes…  it seems to me as if the strongest and fondest memories occurred, roughly, between my first and sixth grade years of school… before that, I was too young to appreciate and remember a whole lot of specifics, and afterwards the sophistication of the world was making inroads to my consciousness.

In Matthew 18:2-4, Jesus, “…called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”

I’ve often wondered about that… I mean, did He intend for us to become as simple or naive as a child? Of course not! What He means is that we are to learn to trust as a child does… openly and without reserve! We are to learn to love as a child does… with our entire being! And we are to become as obedient as a child… humbly, and with an open heart!

Let me quote some examples from the Life Application Commentary…

 

• With your money, avoid schemes which play to your greed (get-rich-quick stock funds) and cooperate with programs that really help the poor, foreigners, and the sick (food pantries, ESL centers, cancer research).
• With your mouth, avoid gossip, backbiting, and lying for advantage. Be someone who tells the truth without exaggeration, who doesn’t bad-mouth friends.
• With your mind, avoid teachers whose foundational commitments exclude the possibility of God, sin, or human freedom. Learn all you can about science, the arts, history, literature, and foreign cultures from teachers who respect biblical ideas or, better yet, who embrace the Bible as true.

Loving Jesus is not about helping ourselves to further our grown-up ambitions… it is about helping and serving others with all of the innocence and devotion of a child. With apologies to J. F. K

‘Ask not what Jesus can do for you…

ask what you can do for Jesus!’

As promised, here are four papers I’ve written for classes so far this summer, in the order that they were written… (obviously, they loose some format when posted here.) 

Steve




Psych 131

May 29, 2006 

Five Big Issues – Nature vs. Nurture

            In his book The Dragons of Eden Carl Sagan puts forth the idea that many of our basic feelings of fear, danger, and excitement are rooted in the oldest, most primitive part of the human brain. For example, he explains such things as our instinctive fear of heights and using the color red to indicate danger as stemming from our ancestors roaming through the tree tops trying to avoid the open (red) mouth of tyrannosaurus-rex and his descendants. And while I must agree, in principle, with a lot of his proposals, I feel very strongly that mankind has evolved and grown far more through the nurturing and educating of ourselves… a never-ending process which only begins with our youth.

            If we stick, for the moment, to the elemental essences of fear and instinct and assume that Dr. Sagan is entirely correct in his reasoning, then one would think that no child would ever burn his fingers in a flame. Fire has existed on earth since the beginning, and animals of all kinds have been burned and/or killed by the flames. Surely something that elementally dangerous would be passed down from species to species, through generation upon generation! And yet, virtually every parent has had to deal with the sufferings of a child reaching into a flame to see what it was!

            Human consciousness, or personality if you prefer, is far, far more than instinct and heredity. The concepts of right and wrong, what is considered acceptable behavior and what is not, even the way we perceive ourselves as individuals or social beings is a part of what we learn… sometimes intentionally, sometimes merely through example… and become.

            Much has been made of studies where twins separated at birth still maintain many similar traits throughout the years, and I know firsthand that some of that must be true. However, I expect that the twins in the studies were raised in similar environments, i.e. placed with families of the same color, etc. I’m sure that if one were placed with a family of Mexicans in Colorado, say, and another with a family of Swedes in Minnesota, that many more differences would appear.

            Frankly, as we stated in class, it is almost impossible to narrow down a cause-and-effect for any one of these ‘Big Five Issues’… we are each who and what we are because of a number of determining factors throughout our lives. But the idea that one person cannot help being a certain way (use homosexuality as an example) because of genes is totally false. A person may very well have natural (or un-natural) tendencies in any given area, but if the training and teaching received is proper and strong, then those tendencies are easily overcome.

            Some years back, I asked a guide at Lincoln’s home in Springfield, IL. what he thought of Carl Sandberg’s biography of Lincoln. He said that as a biographer, Sandberg was a very good poet. On the whole, I believe that as a psychologist Sagan is a very good astronomer! However, given the complexities of the human mind, the uncertainties of a linier existence, and the necessities of living life ‘live’ everyday, then everyone of us might be considered ‘good astronomers’ when it comes to understanding ourselves… even the true psychologists!

            
 

ENGL 132 T2

June 17, 2006

Updike, A & P, and 1961

            As Madd magazine pointed out in their March issue of the year, 1961 was the first ‘upside-down’ year (a year that reads the same upside-down as right-side up) since 1881 and the last until 6009. J. F. K. held the first live televised press conference, while ‘Mr. Ed’ and ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ joined ‘The Andy Griffith Show’, ‘The Wonderful World of Disney’ and ‘My Three Sons’ in coming into America’s living rooms each week. It was a time of perceived purity in America… what many have termed the ‘Camelot’ of our history. Yet, for all of the professed and proclaimed innocence of the day, there was an underlying tone of uneasiness… some might have called it a sense of awakening… pervading the world, in general, and the United States in particular. No where is this more prevalent than in John Updike’s story  “A & P”.

            In a time when Fred MacMurray (My Three Sons) dealt with living in a house with five men and no women, and the whole country believed that Rob and Laura (The Dick Van Dyke Show) slept in separate beds in the same room each night, A & P begins with “In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits.” (981; all page references are to the class text, Thinking and Writing about Literature: A Text and Anthology. 2nd ed.). Sammy, the narrator, goes on to describe in great detail such things as “…a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit…” (982), and the swimsuit with the straps off of the shoulders which allowed “…as a result the suit [having] slipped a little on her, so that all around the top of the cloth was this shining rim… With the straps pushed off, there was nothing between the top of the suit and the top of her head except just her, this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down from the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light. I mean, it was more than pretty” (982), all of which skirt and dance around a word that was not uttered in polite society during that time: sexuality.

Indeed, the tone of the entire piece seems to center on the sexuality, or lack thereof, of each of the characters in turn. From the comments of Stoksie (“Oh Daddy… I feel so faint”) (983) and Sammy (“Darling… hold me tight.”) (983) to McMahon at the meat counter appraising the girls’ bodies like he would a piece of meat, each person in turn is shown in some kind of sexual connotation. The old lady that Sammy accidentally overcharges is “a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows,” (982), the mother in the parking lot is merely a “young married screaming with her children about some candy they didn’t get…” (985), while Lengel, the manager, comes off as prudish because of his Sunday-school connection. So one’s first impression is that the piece is merely a blatant attack on the accepted values and ideologies of the day and flung into the faces of those who voice and police the right-and-wrongs of society. But was it?

Social norms are constantly under attack, and such was surely the case in 1961. In this country alone, the lines between good and evil had been blurred by such things as the rise of industrialists and railroad barons like Carnegie, Gould, and Vanderbilt at the turn of the century, the glamorization of gangsters and flappers during the 1920’s and ‘30’s, and the spin that Hollywood and Broadway put on being rich-and-famous. All manner of sins and sexuality came to be viewed as bad only if you weren’t rich enough to enjoy the notoriety to get away with them. In 1953, Playboy joined in the fray with the express intent of spreading these values to the masses as well. So the ideas expressed in A & P were hardly new. Frankly, they have been around since the beginning of man-and-womankind. What was still unexpected in 1961 was for them to be expressed so openly and frankly in such an open format… and especially by one so young as Sammy. One begins to suspect, then, that there was a deeper purpose in the ink-lines and type-set of Updike’s words. Perhaps the shock value generated by such bluntness was less about exciting the libido of his male readers than in inciting his female audience to arms.

First, we have the brazenness of the three girls in walking in, for all intents and purposes, undressed for the occasion. Their whole attitude while in the store seems to be more one of defiance than of anything else. They parade around the store, knowing full well that all eyes are upon them and that they are causing quite a stir. We see how the two subordinates follow and cling to Queenie in such lines as “She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round.” (982) and “[She] buzzed to the other two, who kind of huddled against her for relief” (983). The impression too easily comes that the whole episode was planned, probably by Queenie, as a stunt intended to cause a scene and a confrontation. The lackadaisical way they sauntered down each aisle, the way they made a point to ask someone for directions so as to verify their fabricated story, and to walk up to the checkout with, of all things, a can of Kingfish Fancy Herring Snacks in Pure Sour Cream. Surely this item had been calculated to fit into their plan on at least two levels. One, it was something that would lend an air of sophistication to them. Sammy noted that “All of a sudden [he] slid right down her voice into the living room. Her father and other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big glass plate…” (984). And two, it only cost 49¢… Queenie had intentionally stuffed the dollar bill into her cleavage ahead of time so that she could be seen removing it from there, and their purchase had to be within that $1 parameter.

Contrasting the girls’ brazenness, we have the blatant chauvinistic attitudes of nearly every one else in the story fully on display. Some of Sammy and Stokesie’s comments have already been addressed, but one must surely note Sammy’s sexist comment when he, as an aside, says “do you really think it’s a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?” (982). The older men, too, react with sexist attitudes, albeit the meat man’s, who doesn’t know he is being observed, is very different than the manager’s, who feels the need to publicly assert his moralities. Even the women shoppers react as we read “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle… were pretty hilarious. You could see them, when Queenie’s white shoulders dawned on them, kind of jerk, or hop, or hiccup… A few houseslaves in pin curlers even looked around… to make sure what they had seen was correct” (983).

Did Updike intend all of this brashness to merely excite his male readers? Was Sammy truly meant to represent the ideals and ideology of the youth of that day? Or was everything presented in such an open fashion so as to show to all people the dangers of letting these ideas run unchecked? Were the girls meant to represent the beginnings of a new, free-thinking way for women? Was the prudishness of the manager intended to show the closed-mindedness of the religious authorities? The answer must be yes to each of these questions, though undoubtedly to a varying degree.

In A & P we can find the first rays of dawn in what was to become the women’s liberation movement of the 1960’s. True, there had been many false starts over the years, and indeed over the centuries, but in Updike’s story we see not only the first open signs of women wanting to change societies perception of themselves, but what that perception had been, what they wanted it to be, and what men’s attitudes and reactions to it could be expected to be. Looking at it from that point of view, A & P changes from a sexually charged story about young teenage boys to a story of budding women’s rights… a concept destined to turn more than just the year upside-down.

 

Psych 131

June 23, 2006 

The Floggings Shall Continue Until Moral Improves

            Sometime during the late 1960’s/early ‘70’s a person went out to their Cub Cadet riding mower, started it up, and went to mow the yard. Unbeknownst to them, their toddler, wanting to be close to the parent, came out of the house and started walking along behind. While making a normal mowing maneuver, the parent backed over the child with the mower, killing it. The manufacturer of the mower was sued and paid out a multi-million dollar settlement… which eventually resulted in the company having to sell off most of its assets and restructure itself, as well as redesigning all mowers built subsequently to shut off when in reverse. While admittedly graphic, this story illustrates the length to which individuals will go, particularly in this country, to avoid admitting any personal responsibility or guilt to any negative aspect of their lives. And while it seems many in the field of psychology would tend to agree, Scott B. Patten, MD, FRCPC, PhD., would probably not.

In his article “Does Almost Everybody Suffer From a Bipolar Disorder?” Dr. Patten addresses those studies and arguments that support the idea of establishing a wider spectrum of diagnostics regarding bipolar disorder. As he points out, the DSM-IV currently lists only three levels: BD I, BD II, and cyclothymic disorder. Many researchers have discussed and recommended a broader spectrum, even though “There is no formally accepted definition of what is meant by the term bipolar spectrum” (par. 3. All references are to the article “Does Almost Everybody Suffer From a Bipolar Disorder?” attached).

Arguments noted as being in favor of broadening the guidelines used in diagnosing BD include such things as some patient’s episodes lasting for a shorter period of time than the stated standard, the impact of including a family history of BD into the diagnosis, and the fact that some test subjects technically not within the DSM-IV parameters nevertheless respond to chemical treatments (par. 2). Disagreements exist, however in whether to merely augment the existing standards as listed in the DSM-IV or establish an entirely new set. Further, many in the field feel the need to make those changes immediately and use them to treat patients at once.

Dr. Patten agrees that changes are necessary, but cautions that they must be based on established principles of research and observation. He notes such things as “In the area of depression, dimensional symptom ratings are considered poor guides to clinical action, since a high score on a symptom rating scale may indicate [either] a completely normal occurrence, such as a bereavement, or a serious disorder” (par. 6). His conclusions are that researchers should stem the rush to make unorthodox changes based only on the perceived benefits of proposed theories in favor of doing the proper and accepted scientific research necessary to document the wisdom… or folly… of those changes. I would agree.

“The floggings will continue until moral improves.” A t-shirt I have credits that statement to Captain Horatio Stark while in command of Fort Madison, now in the State of Iowa, in 1811 (though I could find no other corroboration of that). Whatever its origin, there can be little doubt that there once was a time when such sentiments were deemed to be true and valued attitudes in dealing with people. Indeed, the entire science of psychology… and with it, what understanding of the workings of the human brain that we have… has only come into being in the last century-and-a-half. Have our ideas of motivating workers changed any since then? Of course they have. In fact, an entire industry has grown up around the notions of happy people being better employees, and colleges have turned out several generations of psychologists trained in accomplishing that very thing.

But none of that was accomplished overnight. Indeed, none of it was accomplished without first doing observational studies, research, and experiments to learn what truly motivated people and how best to achieve that motivation. Dr. Patten’s comments and thoughts about the importance of not making changes without first doing proper research are entirely correct. I must needs, however, add my own thoughts to his and return to the story in the opening paragraph.

Our society has already reached a point in which no one accepts responsibility for their own actions. A thief is a thief because of society’s attitudes towards him/her when growing up… a child-molester was raised by a child-molester… alcoholics and drug addicts are physically inclined to be the way that they are… indeed, I cannot think of one negative example that someone has not found some way to explain and/or excuse. That is not to say that there are not true instances of mental illnesses, chemical imbalances, and unfair social issues to deal with. But it has become far too easy and acceptable to excuse any form of bad behavior as being something other than just plain bad behavior. What we do not need are more guidelines aimed at including more of us into the ranks of the mentally ill.

We are too rapidly becoming a medicated nation, and the world is sure to follow suite in time. The song ‘2525’, from the late 1960’s, gives a description of mankind’s decline over the coming centuries. One verse tells us that we “Ain’t gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies./ Everything you think, do and say, is in the pill you took today.” Let us pray that that is only a song.

 

 

ENGL 132 T2

July 9, 2006

Silence or Solitude

            Though probably made most famous in the 1960’s song of that title, the phrase “Silence is Golden” is said to have been first recorded in 1848, and is actually part of a much older proverb, “Speech is silver and silence is golden.” The word ‘silence’ appears in the King James Bible thirty five times, including Ecclesiastes 3:7, which reads, “A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” And a casual reading of Robert Frost’s “Mowing” would seem to suggest an overall theme of silence.

            From the opening line “There was never a sound… but one” (line 1; all line references are to the poem “Mowing” on page 121 of the class text, Thinking and Writing about Literature: A Text and Anthology. 2nd ed.), through the closing line “My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make” (line 14), Frost seems to be relishing the silence surrounding him (assuming we place him in the role of the speaker) as he goes about some of the daily chores and work associated with subsistence living, i.e. living on a farm. Lines 2, 3, 5, 6, and 14 each either contain the word ‘whispered’ or talk about “the lack of sound” (line 5). And as noted, silence is, and always has been, a welcome… nee, necessary… part of life. Yet, the measure of any good literature, poetry included, is its ability to cross the lines of time and appeal to audiences of all years and all sophistications.

            Having grown up and worked on a farm and with farm machinery most of my life, I can attest that mowing hay has changed a great deal in the years since this poem was penned. With the incessant chattering of the sickle mower as the knives are stroked back-and-forth hundreds of times per minute, the whirling of the conditioning rollers and reel as the hay is drawn in and crushed and crimped to allow faster drying, the sound of the PTO drives, chains, belts and pulleys that make it all work, and the overwhelming noise of the tractor engine, hydraulics and drive system, mowing hay today is anything but silent. And yet, I can relate to Frost’s thoughts throughout most of the poem… hence, the idea that its overall theme is silence is negated and relegated to that nether land of nothingness that many first thoughts and ideas are consigned to. Silence is merely the lack of sound. What Frost is describing and reveling in is being alone… alone with his thoughts, his dreams, and his life… the joy of solitude.

            Solitude is far different from silence. It is more about separating oneself from all of the external commonplace routines that make up much of our existence and reaching inside of the self to find that place of peace and comfort so desperately needed from time to time. And though many equate solitude with being alone… Jesus would seek it on the mountains… some people can be in a crowded room, sporting event, or even a classroom and still be able to separate themselves from their surroundings and find a sense of solitude. Frost is describing the joy he feels in submersing himself in that solitude as he works at the day’s chores. The scythe is not whispering just so as to not make noise, but out of respect and deference to the mood of the man yielding it. That man finds peace as he goes about the days work… an inner peace brought about by the accomplishment of a job well done. We gather a sense of this when Frost writes “It was no dream of the gift of idle hours, Or easy gold at the hand of fay or elf” (lines 7 – 8). While he appreciated the ‘gift of idle hours’, the dreams from them and the ‘unearned gold’ from undeserved sources did not mean near as much to him as the satisfaction received from a days work well done and the time it allowed to spent reflectively considering ones life and/or life in general.

            Those dreams that occur during idle hours are also more imaginative and fanciful. The realities of existence are far easier to comprehend when in a state of solitude: hence, we read how “Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak” (line 9). The act of working while thinking forces one into an economy of thought, of sorts, in that no energy wants to be wasted in frivolity or nonsense, and so it is the “earnest love [of life] that laid the swale in rows” (line 10). There is also, sometimes, great danger in solitude… a danger of thinking ‘too much’ or carrying an idea too far which can lead one into depression instead of enlightenment, and we find that danger represented here as well in the form of “a bright green snake” (line 12), a symbol universally recognized as a form of fear.

            And so, “Mowing” becomes a poem for all time. Though modern man must needs replace the scythe with, perhaps, a pen, computer, or truck, the idea of “the sweetest dream that labour knows” (line 13) is still paramount to us all; that sense of accomplishment in a job well done. And if that job can be accomplished in such a manner as to allow us the opportunity to look inside of ourselves… the whole point of solitude… then life is good and our minds are at peace. May we each be able to look at a day’s work and think how “My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make” (line 14).

 

Some of you may have wondered why I have never posted any of my current writings or musings on here… I have my reasons. But perhaps this sermon, written for and delivered today, will help explain.

 

 

My mind is clearer now…at last…all too well…I can see where we all soon shall be.

          If you strip away the myth from the man you will see where we all soon shall be.

          Jesus, you’ve started to believe the things they say of you…

          You really do believe this talk of God is true!

          And all the good you’ve done will soon get swept away…

          You’ve begun to matter more than the things you say!

 

With these words I began my very first Sunday morning sermon. In case you don’t recognize them, they are from the rock-opera Jesus Christ Superstar. I was fifteen years old and taking my first turn in the pulpit… and it was this very pulpit right here at what we then called the Church of Christ in Hartford.

 

After quoting these words, I stated that, while I did not accept the entire opera, I felt that parts of it could be used, and went on to concentrate on some of the teachings of Jesus, the ‘Things that He said!’ I quoted a number of Jesus’ adages and wrapped up with these very words…

 

          “I should be at peace with my fellowman because, if I love him, how can I fight Him?

 

          “I should be at peace with myself because, if I am satisfied with what I’ve got, how can I want anything?

 

          “I should be at peace with God because, if I love Him above all else, I will do as he directs.

 

          How can you get more out of life?

          Be at peace with yourself…

          Be at peace with your brother…

          Be at peace with God…  through…    LOVE!

 

Yes, friends, it was the late 60’s and I was standing in a pulpit and preaching about peace and love…can you dig it? 

 

          Some of you may remember a short-lived TV series of the mid sixties called, I believe, “The Sons of Will Sonnet”. In each show, it seemed, Walter Brennen would be explaining the ‘facts of life’ to someone and finish it up with saying “No brag – just fact!” I mention that only because I intend to use that phrase this morning and I want you to be aware of where it came from.

 

          A lot of things have changed in the 38 years since I gave that first sermon. I have loved deeply and lost soundly… I have been married three times, but never, it seems, for the right reasons… and I have a 28-year old son who is a computer engineer and is so much like me his mother can hardly stand it sometimes.

 

          The world, itself, has changed! At the time I gave that sermon, the horror of Vietnam was coming into our living rooms every evening, and for the first time many began to question the reasoning of our leaders. Indeed, I would say that the whole culture that I grew up in was based on questioning everything around us. Let me read an excerpt from an application I once wrote when I first was moving into ministry up north.

 

      I grew up in the Church of Christ in Hartford, IL, a small town southeast of Alton. At that time, the Hartford church was considered to be one of the ‘leading’ Churches of Christ. As a youth I attended all three weekly services as well as any special events. I grew up believing fully in God and Jesus and what the Bible said. As a teenager, I would attend Church Camp at High Hill, MO, and a study held over Christmas vacation in a western suburb of St. Louis. But the really big event each year was the Easter study held at Hartford. Kids from all over Illinois and Missouri would come to Hartford for three days and literally pack the small building. They would all be put up in family homes, and everyone would pitch in to take care of feeding and educating them during that time. Many of my memories and much of my Christian growth were influenced by these events.

 

          I then list a few of the things I did to participate in services back then and talk about how I had considered a life of ministry and the reasons why I hadn’t pursued it at that time. I then wrote…

 

     Eventually, as a ‘child of the sixties’ (I graduated high school in 1971) I developed a ‘mistrust’ of any kind of organization. Political, social, it didn’t matter. But that mistrust extended to what I considered to be ‘organized religion’. My reasoning went something like…“I feel closer to God standing in a forest or field made by His hand than in any building built by a man.” As I got older and out on my own, I began attending church less and less until, finally, I quit going at all.

This doesn’t mean that I gave up my beliefs! All of my life I have tried to live by the ideals and ideas that I learned from my Sunday School teachers, Elders, and parents. I may not have always succeeded, but I did try. And I can’t say that my life went smoothly. There were bumps, hills, mountains and cliffs. And every one of them, it seemed, I had to face alone.

 

          That was written in 1999. And time, as they say, marches on.

 

          James tells us to “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

 

But what did I know of God’s wisdom? An article I once wrote, and is posted on my website, tells how in spite of my upbringing in the church, I was more prone to believing the words of a popular song than I was to the Bible because I heard it more often and it said what I wanted to believe! And so, when Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Pilate says to Jesus, “But what is truth? Is truth unchanging law? We all have truths… are mine the same as yours?”, I ate it up and adopted it as a motto of sorts. I mean, what IS truth?

 

Let me read some more of that application, picking up with that last bit…

 

And I can’t say that my life went smoothly. There were bumps, hills, mountains and cliffs. And every one of them, it seemed, I had to face alone.

Until one Sunday, which chanced to fall on New Year’s Day, when my wife and I attended services next door. Though we had been married in that building, we did not attend any church for some years. But on that day, I would have sworn that the Pastor was talking just to me! Slowly, we both began to ease our way back to God. At first, I would even refuse to partake of communion when it was offered because I knew that my heart was not yet right with God. Eventually, though, I came to grips with my doubts and understanding of God, and soon was asked to participate in Sunday School, then to sing in the choir and so on. And when I came to look back over my life I realized that God had always been there! Just like the poem says, even during the times that my faith and belief were at their lowest, I could see the things that He had done, or tried to do, to protect me.

 

          I then listed a number of things and projects that I had done, and was doing, in the church at that time and added that I had “made a commitment to God to use whatever part of my life He can use best”.

         

          Sounds really good, doesn’t it? And when I said it, I meant it with all of my heart and soul! And still do! But, again, time marches on.

Almost three years ago, that great ‘love-of-my-live’ I mentioned earlier came back into my life. And to be truthful, I didn’t handle it very well. And so, here I am today, living back down here, going to school, and stressing out about the same little blond who gave me ulcers in high-school and college! I was driving through Belleville a few weeks ago on my route and was struck with the feeling that none of the last thirty-five-odd years had even existed… it was all for naught! And I had to really think about all that I had done!

 

          In my years of living in Jacksonville, I become one of the most well-known and sought after Case tractor mechanics in ten counties… no brag… just fact. I recall one four-wheel drive tractor that would lock-up all four wheels whenever it was shifted into anything above 6^th gear… another dealer had had three technicians out there for three days and couldn’t figure it out… it took me three hours! Starting from scratch and with no money I built up the largest outdoor-power equipment dealer in the area… no brag, just fact! Whenever I went to the different conventions and dealer meetings the big-dogs of the companies always seemed to know who I was and stop to say a word or two. And when I first started as a lay-speaker at the little Methodist church in Lynnville, they had an average attendance of 4-5 and were discussing the ways and means of closing the doors… When I left there last summer we averaged 20-25/Sunday and were becoming an involved congregation again… no brag… just fact!

 

          And yet, if you go to my website and note my list of expertise, you will see that I include sinning… for that is something that I just can’t seem to get away from!!! Sometimes I truly feel like the man that James is writing about when he says, “he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”

 

I have always seemed to have a problem remembering names… when I had my shop and a regular customer of mine would come in, I would almost always have to ask their name, and I would apologize by pointing at the name on my shirt and saying, “I have to look here at least once a day to remember mine!” So, as I look out at all of you sitting here this morning, I recognize many faces, but remember very few names… and I, again, apologize for that. But what I do remember is that almost each and every one of you have played some part and hold some memory in my growing up and becoming what I am today. (Whether that’s a good or a bad thing remains to be seen!) But there is one very important one who is not here this morning… she was laid to rest just yesterday. And if ever there was a person who personified what it meant to be a Christian, it was her! Let me read some of these verses from James again as you think about how much it describes Corine…

 

Blessed is the man (or woman) who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

 

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

 

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it — he will be blessed in what he does.

 

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

 

          Would that I could pattern my life after the likes of her! However, I fear, I far more resemble James’ words when he says, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

 

          Each of us are human. Each of us makes mistakes. If we’re lucky, we learn from those mistakes and don’t repeat them. And if we’re really lucky we may even get to help others avoid making the same ones! But sometimes it’s hard to see and/or admit those mistakes… sometimes it’s hard to understand or accept God’s reasoning in allowing them to happen because we have become so absorbed in ourselves and our own wants and wishes that we refuse to accept that we might be wrong! That’s where I am in my life right now… and I thank God for people like Corine and those of you here that I can look at as a shining example of what a true acceptance of God means and how it shows in your own lives and all you touch.

 

          But… if there are any here this morning who feel like they are less than shining… if there are those who feel more akin to me and my struggles… let me just say that there is hope for us! I mean, that’s what we’re here for this morning! That is what Jesus is all about! Jesus came for you and me and all who struggle with life’s issues and problems! Which, when you get right down to it, is… truly… every one of us!

 

          Oh… there is one last thing that I would like to make absolutely clear. As to the words of that song that I opened with… WHO Jesus is… the Son of the Living God… is at least as important as what He taught us!