What is it? Really?

Much has been written on the debate over exactly what is Christian music. Some of the focus has been on artists who, while Christian in their faith, may not have an overt witness in their music.
I’ll not name names but you are undoubtedly familiar with many top contemporary Christian songs and artists whose lyrics may not mention God or Jesus or exhort listeners to do anything about their faith or spiritual life but simply have a hummable, singable tune.
But I have not come to bury Christian music or to praise it but to offer another perspective on a distant cousin of this genre.
What about artists who make no known or public profession of faith in their life but nonetheless their lyrics may offer up some ray of spiritual hope or a nugget of truth?
I keep running across these more and more. (Disclosure: I listen to lots of different types of music – not just Christian and at this point in my life the percentage of Christian music in my daily diet is dwindling. I should also point out that it comes in fits and starts.)
For the discerning listener I would like to offer up a couple of examples of music that comes from some unlikely sources. (A qualifier: only God can truly know the hearts and minds of men and women so I don’t mean to imply that any or all of these folks don’t have a real relationship with God and Jesus Christ. It is just not a known or at least public part of their life.
I think it was in the spring or summer of 2004 that I first heard Ollabelle. I was on my way to work listening to NPR. Yes, I do believe you can be a Christian AND listen to NPR. I can see their liberal perspective a mile away but I also appreciate their arts, music and movie coverage. It was in a story about some young folks in Greenwich Village that I heard the music of Ollabelle for the first time.
These six – four men, two women – have an unusual music pedigree and perhaps and even more eclectic style.
Ollabelle got their start in a Sunday evening singing at an East Village club called 9C. Seems singers and musicians gathered on Sunday nights and started having “gospel jam sessions.” Over time the six people who make up Ollabelle began to perform together and the patrons kept asking for more.
Ollabelle is a mix of spiritual (in the 19th century sense), folk, blues and some songs that might be called pop or rock. Think Robert Johnson with a little bit of …
Jesus On The Mainline could almost make it as a modern worship chorus in many churches. Simple but profound and true lyrics.
And in what has to be the oddest “gospel” song ever written or perhaps the one with the oddest origins is “I’ve been waiting” written by those stellar examples of the … oops I said I wouldn’t do this – written by none other than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Draw your own conclusions. I checked out the original version on the Rolling Stones project Aftermath and Ollabelle does it better. (By the way what are we supposed to call “albums” these days? For obvious reasons, Album doesn’t work. With the proliferation of downloading, iPods and MP3s; CD almost seems out-of-date. I like the term project. We speak often of an artist’s work, so why not for a recording artist, their project? Food for thought and you probably didn’t hear it here first.)
Andrae Crouch gets a dusting off with his old tune “Ain’t nobody, do me like Jesus.”
Can I say this without being castigated and never permitted to write for this publication again? I am a southern born white male. If GRITS can be short for Girls Raised in the South, then I am a BRITS: Boy Raised in the South. With that said I think some of the best Christian or Gospel music and musicians are African-American in origin. Listen to Ollabelle and tell me you don’t expect to see some people of color on their CD jacket. Keep on looking because they are all Caucasian. Not all American – one is from Australia.
Talent not-with-standing we owe some thanks to T. Bone Burnett for bringing Ollabelle to our attention. Mr. Burnett is largely responsible for the resurgence of so-called “roots music” that characterized the rather unusual movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and the subsequent “Down From The Mountain” tour and numerous other attempts to take us back in musical time.
Seems Mr. Burnett heard Ollabelle in the rough, flew to New York, signed them to his label, invited them to his studio and the result is their self-titled debut project “Ollabelle”.
Amy Helm provides some of the pedigree mentioned. Her father – who takes a turn or two on the drums – is Levon Helm, formerly of the Band, those lads that spent some time backing up a big name in folk music, Bob Dylan.
Noted archivist and folk music historian Alan Lomax is responsible for two of the tunes. The Carter clan (yes, those Carters!) contribute another. Many are traditional songs arranged by Ollabelle. It would be tempting to call their music traditional but for me it doesn’t quite fit the mold. I haven’t come up with a name for it. A read of several reviews finds the words - - - used frequently.
But if that label sticks, Ollabelle will be a one-project group that we won’t hear much about in the future. I doubt if they are getting any radio airplay with the homogenized Clear-Channel playlists so prevalent in secular (oops didn’t mean to use any more of those words!) and I can’t imagine my local Christian DJs giving it a spin. So the only way you might hear them is to visit one of their concerts or if you can listen to a community radio station. Note I said community, not public. I’ve found in my travels a few that I would call community that play an interesting mix of music. My guess is Ollabelle is heard here or there if they are heard at all.
I’ve strayed far from my point but which is I guess, that you can find your gospel in unlikely places.
With that segue I must mention Bruce Springsteen’s project “Devils and Dust”. Two words of caution before you rush out and buy this. One song (Reno) has some graphic references that involve prostitution and another drops one of those four-letter bombs. Be forewarned.
Without too much digression here. Mr. Springsteen must have seen the Passion of the Christ. "Jesus Was an Only Son" cut # 8 -This song conjures up (at least for me) so much imagery that must have been inspired by this movie. You can not listen to this song without wondering what is going on in the spiritual side of Mr. Springsteen’s life. Lyrics here. I began to wonder about him after repeated listenings to “The Rising”; his post-9/11 project that so vividly reminds us of the suffering of so many at that time. With the lyrics –written by the Boss himself – I can’t help but wonder, in spite of his obvious liberal positions on many social issues, exactly where he stands with his Maker.
Based on comments he made at a concert in 2005 – my daughter gifted me with a trip to St. Louis to see him at the Fox – I’d say he is struggling with exactly what he believes and about what. But I think down inside he knows something about the truth. I figure if he is at least talking about it – something’s going on.
An update about Ollabelle. They have a 2nd project out. Not as good for me as the first and probably less spiritual in lyrics and style but I’ve also found that with repeated listenings, it grows on me. Since this was originally written I’ve gotten XM Radio – a great buy at only $12.95 per month! And occasionally I’ll see there name pop on on channel 50 – the Loft or channel 45 XM Café – two places I spend a fair amount of my drive time.
I’ve strayed far and wide of any point about what exactly makes Christian music but maybe given some food for thought.

2012; a look ahead

I’ve always been one to plan ahead and yet I like spontaneity as much as the next person. But this is about something much bigger than me. It is about the future of the party (G.O.P. in this case) and our country (U.S.A. in this case.)
I give up on 2008. Hillary can have it. She is going to win so why bother. Yes Ginsburg will retire sometime in 2009 or 2010 and Hillary can have her one Supreme Court appointment. Unless Breyer or Kennedy decides that there is no time like the future (2009-2013) present to give it up.
Why give up when it is only 2007? Take a look around. What do you see? Quick, name one Republican who has great national name recognition? Bona-fide conservative creds? Millions of dollars in the bank? No skeletons in the closet?
Pretty short list huh?
What about Rudy you ask? See above.
What about McCain? Well he probably meets the criteria listed above but somehow McCain is so yesterday’s news for me. He can’t run on being the patriotic voice of a tortured Vietnam-vet anymore. Plus he’ll be like how old in 2008? Reagan pushed the age thing but somehow got away with it. Not sure about McCain.
Romney? Handsome guy. Like McCain above but the Mormon thing? This is not intended to be about religious preference but … Al Smith paved the way in 1928 for the first Catholic president who was elected in … 1960. Wait how many years did that take?
Last year I would have said Rick Santorum should be on the short list but come on – if he can’t get elected in his home state, what chance does he have on a national scale?
I have a really far-fetched idea. Pass a time-limited provisional Constitutional amendment that allows foreign-born citizens to run for President (but only in 2008). Then Ah-nold can run against Hillary in 2008 and get it out of his system and we can move on to 2012.
I’ll take a really big aside here and remind Karl Rove that I wrote him a letter urging him to take at look at the future of the Republican party back in 2003 BEFORE Dick Cheney was announced as the running mate for the 2004 election. I begged him to ask Cheney to step aside into some sort of advisory role so the G.O.P. could use the V.P. slot to prepare someone for the big time in 2008. I recommended he find a minority – preferably of the female gender. But instead of listening to me he spent his time worrying about Valerie Plame or some such thing. Now look where we are!?
So why 2012? I think the G.O.P. will waste a lot of resources trying to defeat Hillary. Unless there is a miracle in Iraq. Unless the economy recovers and … you get the picture. There is just enough baggage that is going to stick to Republicans like so much Mississippi mud.
Surely in the next few years or so, we can find someone who has true conservative bona-fides, moderately young and winsome, with broad appeal to women and minorities and who maybe between now and then can become Governor or Senator of a state large enough to have double-digit electoral votes.
It’s going to take someone like this to give Hillary a run for her money after her first term. Just as people eventually tired of her husband’s antics after 8 years, I think Red State America and even perhaps a few of those blue states will realize they need a shift back-to-center after four years.
I spent some time thinking about this while on the way to work this morning and couldn’t come up with any other names. Condi? Apart from her being loyal to Bush, I really have no idea where she stands on domestic or social issues and she’s never held any type of elected office.
Roy Blunt? Popular in this home state because he manages to bring home the bacon quite regularly. But now that he’s not even majority whip, I think his platform has been reduced.
One part of my letter to Rove years ago was to suggest establishing a program to recruit and train minorities – women, Hispanics, African-Americans to the G.O.P. Just like the Major Leagues have a farm system to groom players not ready for “the show”, the Republicans need a system to find, nurture and promote the best and brightest of the younger minority generation.

P.S. This just for Hillary. You’d better either make a deal with Barack now OR line up someone like Harold Ford for your ticket in 2008 or you may be in as much trouble in the primaries next year as the Republicans are likely to be.

Ice is (not) nice & will suffice

This old line comes from (I think) an Yvon Chouinard article years ago about ice climbing in the Patagonias or somewhere and has absolutely NOTHING to do with what I am about to write. I just remembered it. I used to read a lot about mountain climbing but apart from a couple of 14'ers in Colorado as a kid with my dad ....

Yesterday (OK by now a few days ago) power was restored to our home after being in the dark and without heat for 4 days. I am not simply another BMW. (If you don't know what that means - ask anyone who text messages a lot!)

Those who know me probably know that our home was hit by the March 12, 2006 tornado. That was a devastating experience and one I don't want to repeat. I think parts of my life will always be measured in a sort of twisted B.T. and A.T. We still talk about it a lot. We have only lived in our newer home since the end of March and occasionally we will unpack a box of clothes or something and find insulation that was blown in by the tornado. It is hard to forget and yet I have a bit of that amnesia that comes from anesthetic where you aren't sure what you recall. But my point here was to NOT talk about the tornado.

I think that ice trumps a tornado.

Beginning on Jan. 11 a major ice storm moved into the Ozarks and left layer upon layer of ice on everything - trees, power lines. I guess there were actually three waves of the storm. Since that Friday people begin to lose power as lines sagged and eventually broke under the weight of the ice. Or lines came down when trees fell from the ice. Our turn came on Sunday.

Day one wasn't too bad because we were actually prepared - somewhat. Living in a rural area means our water comes from a well which needs electricity to pump the water out of the ground. Our heat (at least some of it) comes from a wood burning furnace in our garage. It has a blower (electric) which feeds the heat into our regular electric furnace ducts to circulate hot air into our house. Day one temps were in the 20s or so and most people probably don't realize it but walls, furniture and things hold some heat. So our first night started to get cold but it was sort of like camping. My wife and oldest daughter thought to fill pots, jars, the bathtub etc. with water ahead of time so we were also ready with some supply of water for drinking and flushing toilets, etc.

Day two - which was Martin Luther King holiday - began the drop in temps. By that evening we were in single digits. Hard under normal circumstances but almost unbearable when there is no place to get warm. We have animals - 40+ sheep and way too many dogs that need feeding and water so for three or so days I spent maybe 3 to 5 hours hauling water, cleaning out pens, putting straw in dog houses. One fortunate thing is our above ground swimming pool. We have a small one but it still holds several thousand gallons of water. So two or three times a day I'd break the ice (by now 2 - 3 inches thick) with a sledgehammer and scoop out water in buckets. I'd fill these and bring them into our garage and set them by our wood burning furnace. My wife would fill a few metal pots and kept these warm on top of the furnace. Occasionally she warmed or even cooked our food on top of the furnace.

Night #2 was miserable. The following day I spent a great deal of time looking for more propane tanks, D-cell batteries and a generator. I found one locally and bought it. By 2 a.m. the next morning it was up and running (see another blog entry for that story!) It allowed us to make coffee and run a microwave the next morning. But as for heat - it did allow using the blower on the wood furnace but that only blew warm air into the duct work of the house. But there was nothing to push the air around. It made only a few degrees difference in temp. Probably just enough to keep our pipes from freezing. This made night #3 not much better.

Day 4 - hallelujah! Power was restored. My wife was ecstatic and life began to return to normal. No more "if it's yellow, let it mellow."

But the saddest thing, some things may never return to normal. It is as if the Ice-gods (no such thing I know) decreed that no trees should be over a certain height. After our tornado experience, one of the sadder things were the trees that had been toppled. But the tornado path - while plenty big for anyone in it - did not cover a huge area. I've heard that this ice storm was perhaps 100 miles wide from north to south and ran from Oklahoma (and probably beyond that to the west) all the way up to St. Louis moving northeast. It seems that few if any trees survived unscathed. Springfield, where I work, looks like a war zone still. Thousands of trees are down along with power poles and lines. Out in the country it is just as bad but more spread out so you don't notice the damage as much.

I remember as bad as the tornado was for us and many others, we just lost stuff. Stuff can be replaced. Now anyone who knows me, knows I am not a tree-hugger but it is sad to think that we and probably not our children either, will be able to see these trees come back. It is going to take decades and careful planning for any place to ever look as good as it once did.

I feel guilty that as I write this, many are still without power. We tried to do our part. Last weekend we invited one family over for some hot soup etc. to give them a hot meal and a place to warm up.

On Sunday a camo Jeep drove up in front of our house, backed up and pulled in the drive. It was the National Guard out checking on people and providing drinking water. I went out to tell them thanks but we were fine so they could go on to our neighbors who were still without power when my wife stepped out and hollered to ask if they wanted some hot chocolate. I repeated the offer and lo-and-behold they said OK. And one of the guys radioed a Humvee and pretty soon we had a group of 7 Guardsmen and two locals serving who were serving as guides. I had wondered how the guard knew where to go and how to get around.

They came in. Drank some hot chocolate and we talked a little. If I have it straight, three of them have been in Iraq already and three more are going soon. One of the young men looked too young to shave - let alone be in the guard. I think I embarrassed him. He was so young and small. And these are the guys that are thousands of miles away giving up their families, and (maybe some) their lives every day. We appreciated their stopping by and I hope they enjoyed some company and a warm place to be for awhile.

They did share that this experience in the Ozarks was much better than their last storm work in St. Louis. Apparently the folks up there were not nearly as appreciative of their help as Ozarkers have been.

I hope they never have to come back here. I hope they never have to go over there again either.

Customer Service

Just a brief note about a recent experience - not a good one - with customer service.

During the recent ice storm that hit southwest Missouri, I bit the bullet (OK mastercard bit, I'll just nibble at it.) and bought a generator. Our home was without power for 4 long days - how long? They must be more than 24 hours long when you have no heat, no running water, no power, using water out of an above-ground swimming pool (after you break the thick ice) to flush toilets and water animals.

I got home one evening with the generator and after dinner by lantern light, chores in the dark, I began to put it all together. Normally - and my wife can attest to this - I don't spend a whole lot of time with directions. But on something that could be potentially life-threatening if I do it wrong, out come the reading glasses and I peruse the fine-print. In this case maybe I shouldn't have.

This is a Coleman Powermate 5000 which has a Briggs and Stratton engine. Basically a generator is like a lawnmower without any blades and it somehow takes that motor energy and turns it into electricity. I followed every step in the manual to the letter and I get to this part about oil. having made a mistake once with another piece of expensive power equipment (putting in too much oil) I paid VERY close attention. I wanted to see exactly how much oil to put in. Short version of this part - you fill it up until you can see oil in the throat of the pipe where you put oil in. Have you ever tried to measure exactly 21 ounces out of a 32 ounce black plastic bottle? But the rub here is that the instructions that come with the engine say if temperatures are below 40 degrees, use synthetic oil. Well folks, the temp about now is somewhere in single digits and dropping. It is also about 10 p.m. on a Monday night which in addition to being Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday (God rest his soul.) is day three of a terrific ice storm that has perhaps 100,000+ people without power, businesses, schools, even gas stations are closed - and did I mention this is 10 p.m.? I have lots of 10W-30 oil, some 5W-30 oil but synthetic? I'm from Texas, OK? Down there synthetic oil is a four-letter word. My daddy, who taught me everything I know about cars (which is not very much - my fault; not his) but one thing he drummed into me was never use synthetic oil.

Plastered on the side of generator and in the manual is the 24/7 - 800 # for customer service. So I call Coleman. After listening to a few ads and some bad music, a gentleman comes on the line. I ask him about the synthetic oil thing and he says basically to use any good 5W or 10W oil I have. I mention to him about what the manual says and he responds with "I'm won't argue with Briggs and Stratton, so you'd better ask them." Of course B&S only has people answering their phones from about 8 - 5 Mon-Fri as if they were a bank or something. I call a couple of friends with knowledge of such things AND generators to ask their opinions and can I please, pretty please borrow some synthetic oil. No one is familiar with the syth oil dilemma and no one has any to lend.

Fearing that use of the wrong oil could damage my generator - it says so in the manual - I decide not to use regular. I start calling around to find some. Did I mention that it was now past 11 p.m. and the temp is dropping and we have no power, no heat, etc.?

A Wal-Mart 45 miles away (God Bless Sam Walton) has some and they will put some aside for me. My wife and I climb into the van and head to town. She is THAT eager to get out of the house after 2 days at this point of no power. We drive 45 minutes, venture inside and yes, waiting for me at customer service are three quarts of synthetic oil. Man is that stuff expensive! The good-ole boys in Texas should have started selling this stuff years ago. 45 minutes back home and I'm ready to fire up the genny.

Not quite. I have one more question for the Coleman Powermate people. Ringy-dingy. I get a different voice and this time no ads, no bad music. Why? This is their after hours answering service. It is now after midnight. While unfailingly polite, the young man who answered the phone knows less than me about generators and he is simply supposed to take names and numbers for call-backs tomorrow morning. I decide to take my chances without further advice.

Now I have to ask: I always thought 24/7 meant - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not 18/7 or some other such numerical acronym.

Trust me - as soon as I had my internet back, Coleman got a piece of my e-mail mind. One - for not knowing exactly precisely what their own cotton-picking manuals said for their products and two for advertising a 24/7 line for help that is NOT. To their credit they got back to me in a day or so and you know what? The guy still said using regular oil was OK. So why does the manual say otherwise?

One post-script: a friend and co-worker had offered me the use of a generator but had to rescind when someone else needed it more badly than me. But then a day later it had to go to the shop because it wasn't working. The culprit? Most likely using regular oil at low temperatures.

Second post-script. The genny worked just fine but until I get some sort of connection, switch etc. that allows me to feed my power back into my house, I can use only extension cords and power just a few things. It was almost enough and fortunately we got power back within two days.

The World May be Flat, and Always on but …

In the summer of 2005 I heard of a credit card company losing some computer back-up tapes (back-up tapes; that sounds sooo ‘80s!) which contained (as usual) the credit information for thousands or more consumers. I mentally checked-out and promptly forgot about it. Until…
In late July I received an e-mail from a major-credit-card-company company asking me to call them right away due to an urgent matter regarding my account. I take these types of messages in about the same way that young men in the late ‘60s took letters that started “Greetings …” I immediately thought the worst – I was late on a payment and here comes the major late charge. But I also thought that if it was urgent; wouldn’t they call me?”
I called them to be informed that my credit card data had been lost and possibly compromised in some mishap (see paragraph one above) and the company needed to close my account. New cards with new numbers would be issued while they monitored my account for possible fraudulent activity.
Permit me to take an aside here: how, in this world of identity theft, banking scams from Nigeria and ubiquitous e-mails asking me to please, please send my password so someone, somewhere can verify their information about me, can we be sure who we are talking to or hearing from? Maybe I was wrong to even call but what choice did I have?
Several weeks passed after the initial conversation with major-credit-card-company and no new cards. But I did have some problems with charges incurred BEFORE the change of account but that must have been posted AFTER the old account was closed. How, without sounding like every deadbeat on the planet, can I explain that major-credit-card-company closed my account and I am waiting on new cards? That sounds suspiciously like I just might have some bad-credit issues?
Another phone call to major-credit-card-company to ask about the long-awaited new cards. I was politely told they would be sent the third week in August. I was also politely told they would be coming in just a couple of days. I did indeed receive two brand-spanking new credit cards with new account numbers later that same week. However these would expire in less than one month.
On August 15 I received two more brand-spanking new credit cards but ooops! These were for my old AND NOW CANCELLED account number. Apparently the left-hand-side of major-credit-card-company that handles issuing cards didn’t get the message from the right-hand-side that my account may be having some issues. Another call to major-credit-card-company to find out what is going on. I’m still told that my cards should be coming in the 3rd week of August and oh by the way we made a mistake in sending you those first new cards.
If I make a mistake in sending my payment or God forbid go over my credit limit, I am immediately slapped with some sort of onerous charge for my slip-up. But let the major-credit-card-company make one mistake (how they handle data for thousands of customers) then make at least one other (assuming I am the ONLY account that got old-number-cards by mistake) and what do I get?
That leads me to The World Is Flat reference. In Mr. Friedman’s lengthy and informative tome, we are told that one of the great world-flatteners is the ubiquitous fiber-in-the-ground that has led to the outsourcing of customer service to companies in India. That may be all well and good to save money for the major-credit-card-company but what about me the consumer/customer? Once I get past the heavily accented English (and I confess I don’t always understand everything the cheerful person on the other end of the line is saying) how does one begin to explain the nuances of why having your credit card account closed and not having any new cards or account numbers is a real problem? How do you explain that a trip to someone’s office is required to further explain that I really DO pay my bills on time and that this whole mess was created because major-credit-card-company lost my credit information? Everyone is unfailingly polite but I get the impression they have a database of FAQs to consult and can only pull answers off this list. When something doesn’t fit they consult a supervisor. Every time I asked a non-standard question I was put on hold – often for several minutes. They were likely calling the U.S. to get some help. Why can’t they simply patch me through to the U.S. person at major-credit-card-company so we could work things out?
Mr. Friedman also gives an example of a McDonalds that has outsourced the ordering at drive-up windows in much the same way. I don’t have a problem with that if it speeds up my order. But what happens when I order “off-menu”? What if I asked for my Big Mac, well-done? My daughter paid her dues at a local McDonalds and a regular customer would order a hamburger but with no bun, nothing but meat – for her dog. Imagine trying to handle that with an outsourced-order-taker?
By September I still had no cards. Another call to major-credit-card-company started well. The accent on the line actually sounded familiar. But once we were past the “How may I help you today” and similar boiler-plate-pleasantries, I realized I was once again consigned to an “out-source-ee”. I was again told my account was still under review. I somewhat sarcastically commented on how amazing it was that my account was still under review, no new cards had been issued etc. but somehow major-credit-card-company managed to get my bill for previous charges to me on time with the usual due dates etc. and no acknowledgement that there was any problem or concern whatsoever about my account.
Here’s the latest. One more try with major-credit-card-company. Another phone call gets me someone with a southern accent (I can say that; I’m from the south). Is it for real? Are language classes in India getting regional now? Glory be! The young man actually understands me and I, him! No less that one week later I find a small envelope on my front porch (Now why major-international-freight-company left such an important package on my porch without getting so much as a signature from someone in my house or at least handing it to a real-live person is another story altogether – see paragraph one again re: missing data tapes.) which containing two shiny new credit cards. The system can work after all!

How did they do that?

As mentioned elsewhere I consider myself a student of TV & Film – having worked in it, taught in it and as a consumer for decades. So I can’t watch anything without picking it apart. I’m always looking for transitions in the script. I am a continuity freak. I hate it when news programs cut away to the over-the-shoulder or reaction shot and it so obviously doesn’t match the shot before – usually in terms of lip movement. (watch 60 Minutes and see how many times they do this in one interview.) I realize as a sometimes shooter that with one camera, turnarounds have to be done at a different time. But at least try to match things up. Still I understand the limits of local one-man-band television stories. But I can’t understand how it ever happens on TV or in movies but I think I’m going to start making a list of every time I notice a continuity problem.

My most recent case in point is more than just continuity.

The older parts of my family watch Shark – the latest Thursday night drama that follows CSI. Now this is a procedural or courtroom drama that should be fairly predictable in style, order – those sorts of things. Well somebody decided to ratchet up the action with a hostage situation and a shoot-out. My first thought about all this is that the whole crew must not have ever shot a gunfight scene before.

OK now to get picky.

I pick up where a cop-gone-bad exits a warehouse holding a little girl (his hostage). A multi-member LA swat team awaits; they have the place surrounded. So far so good. I know the guy will look like swiss cheese when it is over.

I tried to describe this shot-by-shot but on paper you can’t spot the problem. The main two problems are: 1) numerous shots are fired but somehow only three hit the bad guy and at least one hits an innocent person trying to help. If this is indicative of the quality of an LA Swat team, it is a good thing Keifer Sutherland and CTU are based in LA. 2) the scene lasts about 1 minute 50 seconds. No dialogue. No continuity. It drove me crazy. So crazy I watched it several times at normal speed then watched it once frame-by-frame to see if maybe I had missed something. I missed something alright – it is a mish-mash of action but very little to tie it all together. I guess somebody thought it they sped things up, fired lots of bullets, nobody would notice that the scene didn’t make any sense. But before you know it, the bad cop is dead and the innocent attorney who was just trying to help is down and seriously wounded. (SPOILER ALERT: He dies in the following scene.)

Anyway, this kind of stuff drives me crazy. Maybe after this week’s re-run they’ll return to just badgering the bad guys and each other and get back to the business of being lawyers. I feel sorry for the guy that died. Hopefully for him he had another better series and this allowed him off the show. Or maybe he was being difficult and the producers decided he had to go.

Dead Presidents

Any man was once a little boy and every little boy remembers haircuts. And with them, barbershops, the smell of witch hazel and talcum powder. But this is not about those icons of the 50s and 60s.
Some may recall those absolutely hideous (OK, maybe to you they were funny) calendars and other wall hangings featuring a group of dogs playing cards. There was usually a Carduid calendar (I still don’t know what that is but I think it had something to do with regularity - a word you don’t hear much these days!)
But in almost every barbershop and many other businesses for that matter - was usually a picture of Dwight Eisenhower -Ike, at the time our president and not dead yet. Within a few short years his portrait was either replaced or joined by John F. Kennedy.
Where did they all go? I haven’t been to a barbershop in maybe 20 years - OK a hair salon maybe - and these usually have pictures of waif looking young women or slick looking young men modeling their hair and whatever they happen to be wearing.
Now my step-grandmother (don’t ask me to explain that term) Nonnie, kept two pictures on her mantel: the Pope and JFK. She was Catholic so that is at least part of the explanation. But I don’t see many of these pictures any more. There are probably a few Reagan’s around but can you imagine a portrait of Bill Clinton or George Bush hanging anywhere (Federal Government offices excepted)? Didn’t think so. OK recently I saw a hand-drawn crayon rendition of Pres. Bush in an elementary school classroom.
So what happened to our culture between the 50s and now? That’s way too big a question for this little essay but how come we don’t see pictures like these on the wall anymore?
Did television make everyone too familiar so we don’t need a visual reminder? Did it have something to do with admiration? I am always surprised at the names that make it onto the Ladies-Home-Journal-Most-Admired-List every year and to be quite honest, even though he arguably might be doing a better job that anyone ever thought him capable of, I don’t really admire President Bush. I like him, voted for him, but admire? Not yet.
Eisenhower, JFK and the Pope were larger-than-life characters. I still remember the day Kennedy was shot. Our school in Dallas was almost empty because so many parents took their children out of school to go line up along the President’s fateful route through town. President Bush has been to our Missouri town several times and maybe a few hundred have gone to watch him land, drive or takeoff. Well, I forgot about one stump speech he gave for then-Senator-Talent and the place was packed.
I think I can answer my own question: Presidents are just that. President. Yep we have only one but with 24 hour news channels, we can see him several times a day without even trying; so why would we put his picture on the wall? I’m not even sure where you can go to buy a picture of the President. E-Bay?
If he wins the war on terrorism, finally figures out what to do with Iraq and somehow figures out Social Security and the Mexican border before his second term ends; perhaps in the next decade or so we’ll find a few pictures of Pres. George Bush in your corner barber shop; that is if we still have barbershops.

The Measure of a Man

Listening a lot lately to Black Cadillac the latest project from Roseanne Cash. Yes, that Cash. This is not a review of her album but it is a very interesting collection of songs. Maybe more about her at another time. Listening to it has made me think about a lot of things – a little about the man himself.
I spent part of my growing up in the 50s – I like Ike, duck and cover and of course country music. But as much as it would be cool to say I’ve always liked Johnny Cash’s music; that wouldn’t be true. I was more of a Duane Eddy fan if I liked anything country at all. Our family didn’t have much in the way of records but we did have a Duane Eddy and one Ernest Tubb. Guess which one got played?
I didn’t care much for Johnny’s style. The guitar work was a little too simple for me (see Duane Eddy) and I wasn’t too big on the quasi-talk style of singing.
In my formative music years, one just didn’t listen to country. Those were the years of the Beatles, James Taylor, Hendrix, Zeppelin et al.
And I think Johnny went off the radar screen for a decade or two or three.
But then next thing you know he’s back and an icon with the younger set to boot! I think we can thank MTV and Tony Bennett for this. Don’t remember the year but Bennett did one of those MTV Unplugged things and all of a sudden kids are raving about this old guy and his music. Go figure. My chronology may be slightly off but soon after Johnny makes a comeback. Diehard country fans would say he never left.
So he makes a video of a Nine Inch Nails song. Hooks up with producer Rick Rubin. And enjoys a revival. New albums, fans of all ages. The man in black is cool. Then he dies. Go figure again.
When he died there was a lot of talk about what a great man he was; especially from the Christian side of things. And apparently in his later years he really returned to perhaps the faith of his childhood or a new-found faith as a mature adult. Doesn’t matter to me. At first I was worried about all the attention to the religious side of Johnny Cash. Would he bear up under the scrutiny? Was he really a good example for us to hold up? After all here was a man who left his first wife under less-than honorable circumstances, slept with a woman who was not his wife, had well-known problems with drugs and alcohol, and was less than a sterling father figure to his kids.
So what is my point in all this rehashing of history? In many ways I think it is perfectly fine to hold up Johnny Cash as a good example of a Christian man. Why? Because he tried. He failed. He got back up and tried again. Both professionally and spiritually. One of those more interesting things I ever heard about Johnny Cash was a story about he and producer Rick Rubin taking communion together over the phone. Maybe doesn't exactly fit our picture of the Sunday-morning ritual but his heart was certainly in the right place. I don’t think he was mis-using or abusing the sacraments. I think he simply saw it as his way of saying; ‘Look here is something that is particularly meaningful to me spiritually. I’d like to share that with you.’
So often Christians are criticized because they want everyone else to be perfect when they/we/I so often aren’t. Johnny Cash was who he was. Just a man in black; and sometimes white.

This may sound like a silly way to start but when I was younger, I always wanted to be either Jewish or Catholic. That was way before I really had any idea of what either of those meant. I grew up in a pretty boring Presbyterian to Baptist to Christian Science (for a very brief time) back to Baptist household; eventually to Assembly of God; which is where I am (sort of) today.
I always felt like we had no tradition in our church. We did the same things every week in exactly the same way, sang the same songs, went through the same routines but it never felt like it meant anything.
I didn’t (knowingly) meet a Catholic until I was in High School. And this changed my mind about being a Catholic. He was rude, profane – in general not someone I wanted to be like and since he was the only one I knew …
Then comes college and I meet and become close friends with someone Jewish. Somehow as different as we were, we always got along and are friends to this day (more than 30 years).
My reasons then and sometimes even now for that youthful desire was for some history, some sense of tradition, some sense of … for lack of a better term; respect.
Both religious traditions seemed to have all of those things going for them, which the protestant churches I belonged to didn’t. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been in some great churches with great ministers, great friends, and in many case those churches provided great support emotionally and morally and spiritually when I needed it. Yet in many cases each of them also disappointed me greatly in those same areas and more.
I’ve seen ministers up close fall into moral dis-repute (so many ways to say sexual sin but maybe that is a new one). I’ve been involved in ministries where “many souls were saved” and yet the same pious folks were so caught up in money or power or something that the “ministry” often became nothing more than a business of souls. No heart.
During all this I’ve probably become more liberal than many of my current AG brethren and sister-en. I have of course met many Catholics and Jewish folks since my high school days. What I’ve learned is that there are a goodly number of nice folks and jerks alike.
Getting back to the Christian to Catholic point of this response, I was in a discussion with a co-worker who once blurted out in a lively discussion “Can a Catholic really be a Christian?” Of course they can. But just like professing to be a Christian doesn’t always make somebody (act like) one , every Catholic is not automatically a Christian either. My belief is simply that espoused in the Gospel of John – we must believe in the saving power of Jesus Christ, the atonement through his blood sacrifice for us and accept that. Beyond agreeing with that core, I’m not going to argue much with you about particulars.
I’m reminded of a cartoon once that had two people sharing their specific doctrinal positions and after agreeing that they shared the same beliefs on everything they got to something like “pre-dispensationalism” or some such heavy duty word I don’t even pretend to understand. At this point they realize they are now on opposite sides of the fence. One turns to the other and says “heretic!”
I’m also reminded of a sermon by Charles Stanley where he drew a circle. Inside the circle were those core things I mentioned earlier that I think are essential to the Christian faith. Then he started listing lots of other things and each time he listed something he made a dot. Each dot was falling outside the circle. His point was that we will disagree on most of those things outside that circle. We need agreement on the core values.
So where am I? Some of the things in the Catholic tradition bother me. But I see all those things as outside the circle. I don’t agree with everything taught in the Assembly of God church I attend. But I doubt I’d agree with everything taught at any church. We have to find a place where we can be challenged, fed spiritually, find like-minded friends and hopefully go out into the world and make a difference.
I don’t think a label makes all that much difference any more. Hundreds of churches now claim no denominational affiliation and many even within my own AG world don’t advertise their affiliation.
I think there is much to be admired in the Catholic tradition. The reverence for the sacraments. I think many of us take them too lightly. The Catholic church’s consistent pro-life stance is to be admired and copied.
There is plenty wrong with fundamentalism, Catholicism and dozens of other –isms. But the problem often rests with those who practice those –isms and take portions (or all) to some extreme.

Spears, Missionaries and Movies

this is from January 19, 2006 but expresses something that seems to frequently happen.

OK, I love movies. I’ve always wanted to make a movie. But for a whole host of reasons, I never have. It’s not for lack of ideas. Could be living in the Midwest and taking care of a family, a small sheep farm and working one of those City jobs might just be keeping me busy with other things.
So most of the time I either read about them or watch them.
But, and I caution you that I’m not making this up, I had the idea to make Schindler’s list before Steven Spielberg. OK, I can’t prove that but I read an abridged version of the book Schindler’s Ark in the mid-80s and immediately thought, ‘this would make a great movie’. But seeing as how I didn’t have several dozen millions lying around, I quickly dismissed the thought. It was years later when I heard the movie had gone into production. My point in this is to say I usually have a good eye for stories that work well as movies.
My career as a wanna-be movie maker started in the 1970s. Surprisingly enough the movie that kicked off this desire was “The Hiding Place” and even more surprising is that I didn’t actually see the whole film. I just always felt that the best way to communicate the Gospel was through stories. After all it seems much of what Jesus did was tell stories. We religious folk call them parables but essentially they mean the same to me.
I got sidetracked and apart from a few student films and working on one “B” movie in Dallas, I never worked on a feature film or any film for that matter after 1975.
Sidebar – I went to school with a Ron Judkins. Now that name may not mean anything to anybody outside a very narrow niche of film people but he has two or three of those gold things called Oscars on his mantle – or wherever people keep them. I read that Emma Thompson keeps her two Oscars in her bathroom. I digress.
Ron and I took classes together for two years and worked one very hot Texas summer on a low budget “b” movie that if produced today would have gone straight to video. In the 70s it went nowhere. We worked for very little money (can you spell “deferment?”) but had a great time. I learned that on movie sets, there are flurries of activity and periods of inactivity. The classic hurry-up-and-wait. We were both lowly grips.
He spent his spare time hanging out with the sound crew. I gravitated to the camera crew. In one of our chats, he told me that he wanted to work sound on motion pictures. Sure. And I wanted to be a cinematographer for Jacques Cousteau. So what?
Fast forward to sometime in the 90s. I was reading Mix magazine, a periodical for audio professionals, and they did a profile on Ron Judkins. Low-and-behold the same guy. And what was he doing? At that point I can’t recall specifics but suffice it to say he had achieved his goal. In 1999 I met him for breakfast in LA and by then he was the primary sound recording guy for one Steven Spielberg and had won Oscars for Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List. Check him out on IMDB to see his full filmography.
My point here? Some people know exactly what they want to do and simply go do it and some of them (obviously) very well.
How does this relate to me? Other than an extreme amount of envy it relates in that I’ve never been quite crystal clear on what it is I want to do. In the back of my mind I always recall that idea of working in movies and using them to help share the Gospel. I’ve spent a goodly portion of my earthly years working in Christian television and – I’m sorry. When I look at Christian TV now (and I don’t do this often), I can’t believe I did that. But it seemed like a good idea at the time. I’m not angry about this; just that I don’t think I could do that again.
I think early Christian television was pretty good – and by good I mean it did what it was supposed to do. Share the gospel and be reasonably entertaining. But somewhere along the line it evolved into this large beast that had to be fed and the energy and creativity that could have gone into evangelism and teaching and the like, had to go for food.
So I spent more than 20 years at this before I found myself looking for work and wound up working for a city government. It is reasonably fun, pays the bills and keeps me off the street and out of trouble. But this was never on my short list of what I wanted to do with my life.
So much of my life just happens and that frustrates me. I don’t know if I am adult ADD or what but I have trouble staying on track or sometimes even getting on a track.
In between all this I have managed to stay married for 30 years, raised two girls and adopted three more, moved enough times to almost qualify as a military family, travel quite a bit of the U.S. and even see a number of foreign countries.
So back to making movies. I read a lot. Maybe too much because all my reading probably keeps me from doing. But all this reading gives me lots of ideas. Sometimes original ideas and sometimes ideas that say what I’m reading really should be made into a movie or a television program.
Another one of those nagging things was the desire to write. Even if I never did well in literature or English classes (lot of ‘c’s). Then I started thinking about trying to combine the two – my love for movies and the desire to write.
It wasn’t until 1999 that I actually did something about that. Oh, I wrote plenty of things. Little essays on this or that and even sent a few of them to magazines etc. I got published a few times. In 1999 I wrote a spec teleplay for the TV show “Touched by an Angel.” I did it for a class in grad school which gave me a sorely needed deadline to get something done. I wrote it and then began an 18-month process of trying to get people to read it. Numerous letters to agents etc. and only two responded to my queries. One promised all sorts of things but never delivered. Before anything happened, the show went off the air.
During this same time my pastor preached on taking action on your dreams. I had read a book by John Grisham called The Testament. I remembered well my Schindler’s Ark experience and didn’t want to go through that again and kick myself for not trying. So I began trying to find out something about this book. All his books are bestsellers and even some have been made into movies but this one hadn’t gone anywhere. I thought it was one of the best portrayals of the restorative power of simply living out the Gospel. I sent letters to Mr. Grisham. I wrote his agent several times. It was over two years before finally someone got in touch with me to tell me that Mr. Grisham was not interested in granting an option for that book. Sorry. I still tried but I guess not hard enough. Eventually I gave up on this one.
In 2001 I listened to an audiobook of Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides. This story riveted me for two reasons: it was just so compelling that I didn’t want to get out of the car while listening and I had an uncle who was a Japanese POW. He would never talk about his experiences, so I could and would not ever know exactly where he was during his POW time. I imagined him at Cabanatuan – the very camp that is liberated in the book. I decided to move faster this time but quickly found out that Miramax had already snatched up the movie rights. I waited and waited and it wasn’t until 2005 that I learned there were actually TWO versions of this story being made into a movie. Too bad. I’ve not seen either one but understand neither was very successful.
In mid-2005 I ran across the diaries of Jim Elliot and the story of his (and three others) massacre at the hands of the Auca Indians. I was fascinated with this almost 50 year old story. The search and the race was on again. I began to Google Jim Elliot, Auca etc. to see what I could come up with. Surprisingly nothing except his books and those of his still living remarried widow. I couldn’t believe this story had not been made into some kind of movie. I knew we were not talking Hollywood blockbuster material but at least something along the lines of The Hiding Place.
Before you think I’m an idiot I know that on Jan. 20, 2006 “The End of the Spear” was released in theaters across the country. Now for some backstory:
Having not found ANYTHING on this subject related to a movie I figured my best bet was to first get permission. I wanted to get at least the blessing of Elisabeth Elliot, widow of one of the four slain missionaries. It took a few days but I got an e-mail address. The e-mail dead-ended. I got a snail mail address. (When was the last time you wrote a real letter?) So I wrote a very polite letter to Mrs. Elliot (actually Mrs. Gren.) A week or so later I got back a real live letter from Mr. Gren (apparently Mrs. (Elliot) Gren is not in good health) who informed me that I had their blessing to proceed and that if I could somehow come up with $4–5 million, I could do a nice movie. He referred to several who had been trying without success to get something going.
I need to point out that between writing my letter and the receipt of Mr. Gren’s I did more googling and found that not only was there already a documentary circulating on the 1956 events but a feature film, “End of the Spear” was going to be released in January 2006 (my efforts being in the early fall of 2005). I don’t know how I missed this in my first go-round but I’m equally puzzled by the apparent lack of communication between the movie-makers and one of the key subjects. I have to concede that age, memory and other factors may have simply come into play.
But once again I feel the proverbial “day late…” My goal for 2007 is to take some chances, research better and see what can happen.

Just imagine.

I check out a blog by Barbara Nicolosi every so often to see what insights she has into entertainment and spirituality. I listened to a podcast (The Artist and the Sacraments) of a talk she gave to some fellow Catholics about how to meld their faith into their work – which in this case happens to be Hollywood. This may sound oxymoronic but it is not and listening to her, reading her, helps me understand this better. You need to check it out for yourself – don’t take my word for it. In this podcast (available here) she encourages everyone to go to daily mass. I’m talking 6 a.m. daily mass. I don’t care who you are and what you believe but getting up and going to church or mass at 6 a.m. requires some sort of major commitment. But that isn’t the only thing that struck me about her comments. She further suggests that folks arrive early so they can meditate on the scriptures of the day. I didn’t even know there was such a coordinated thing. She speaks of the power of 1 billion Catholics all meditating on the same scripture around the world at the same time. The sheer magnitude and potential of that really hit me! Can you imagine the unity of believers if we all just spent a little time each day focusing on the same scripture? Forget whether we are Catholic, evangelical, Baptist – if we could just find some to agree on (not those pesky ones that everyone argues about all the time); some simple ones like “Love thy neighbor” and “turn the other cheek”. If one billion Catholics could do this, imagine if all the Baptists and the Methodists and the Church of Christ and all the rest were doing the same thing every day?

Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence

Somehow years ago I got a free subscription to Edutopia magazine. It was started by George Lucas and was supposed to showcase the latest techniques (visual or otherwise) in education. I no longer get the magazine but one of the last issues they sent me had a guest editorial by Norman Lear. It made me angry at the time and this is my response. If you want to read the actual article he wrote you’ll have to go to here. Read his words then read mine. Maybe I’ve over-reacted. You be the judge.

From early 2006

Dear Norman Lear,

I may not qualify as an educator by most standards, I (used to) teach only part-time at a small college in southwest Missouri but feel I must respond to your article “Declaration of Independence” in the recent Edutopia magazine.
You start out benign and humble enough. I will not question your artistic abilities. You will go down as one of the pioneers of 20th century television.
Your shows made us think. You hit us square in the face with our own stereotypes. You (for good or not) forced us to confront things that were becoming a part of our everyday lives; abortion (Maude), racism and bigotry (All in the Family & the Jeffersons) and the problems faced by a single mom (One Day at a Time) and may have, if my decades old memory serves me right, presented us with the first openly gay character in prime-time television.
I admit to enjoying many of these programs. Until I read your short bio I didn’t know you had anything to do with Fried Green Tomatoes. All anyone in our family has to do is say “Towanda” and we immediately identify wherever we are with the Kathy Bates character. We even named one of our oversized sheep by the same name – Towanda, not Kathy.
But before I idolize you let me also remember and put in perspective your other life; founder and patriarch of People for the American Way; apart from the ACLU, one of the more active liberal (There. I used the word.) organizations working against many conservative (I used the other word.) causes.
I imagine I part company with many educators reading this magazine at this point (if not already).
My purpose in writing this lengthy introduction for a simple letter to the editor is to respond to a few of your statements.
You rightly assert that the media, of which you once played a very large part, is now assailing our children. The Edutopia editorial page even admits that some parents park their children in front of such stellar educational tools as Grand Theft Auto. I’m sure that you would decry this tactic and in the same breath PAW would defend to the death the right of GTA’s producers to be as vile and violent as they possibly can and that any attempts by the same parents to restrict this first amendment right are woefully ill-informed.
But I digress. My point here has to do with independent thinking, as you put it. You are obviously not a proponent of intelligent design and I confess I’m not exactly sure of everything lumped under that particular title. But why, if you are such a proponent of independent thinking, are you so adamant (as are many others) or afraid that any teaching or even consideration of an alternative to the theory of evolution will cause our student populace to somehow fall even more behind than they already are in terms of educational achievement?
If we trust our students to somehow make informed decisions (Do I want to buy and play Grand Theft Auto?) shouldn’t we expose them to the choices (Oops, another loaded word.) out there?
If you and so many others are convinced that evolution is a fact and not theory (and no matter where you sit on its validity, you still have to admit it IS a theory) why then are you afraid of anything that might be taught under the label of intelligent design or creationism? I’ll be one of many Americans to admit that based on what I know, accepting any or all of the tenets of biblical teaching about the creation of the universe requires a leap of faith. It is one I have taken. And according to a recent CBS News poll, 51% of Americans reject the theory of evolution. That doesn’t mean they have taken the same leap of faith. I don’t expect you to either. But for an educator to include other theories in their scientific instruction does not mean we are mixing religion and education in an inappropriate manner. Well I guess the Supreme Court did say that in 1987. Sorry ‘bout that.
You state that the Religious Right wants science teachers to teach creationism as scientific fact. Most Christians I know would not teach it as fact but take it back to that matter of faith. In a country where God (at least for now) is on our money, our pledge (at least for now) and our calendar (OK I realize if you are still a practicing Jew, yours does not) acknowledges an integral part of religious faith and history (that little A.D. thing) is it so wrong to accept that some elements of that faith are a part of our past, present and future?
I’m not sure I’d want just any teacher trying to approach a subject like ID or creationism if they couldn’t at least teach it with an open mind. I imagine proponents of evolutionary theory would not want me to be responsible for teaching a middle school science class where evolution was taught.
I think most parents of faith simply want some respect for their beliefs and just as they may choose (or not) to allow their children to play Grand Theft Auto, they’d like some say in some of the components of their children’s education. Folks always say if you don’t like what is going on in the schools, run for the local school board, get involved in the PTA etc. but as soon as someone disagrees with the current status quo they are labeled as some sort of fanatic trying to cram religion down every student’s throat. But it seems perfectly OK for educators to make the choices that may include teaching subjects or theories that are anathema to the religious practices of those same parents.
I’m not here to convince you or anyone that my beliefs are right and that the world must fall in line or else. Our country is much too diverse to assume that one size fits all. But if you truly believe in the power of independent thinking, then you have nothing to fear from the faithful few who merely want their voice to be heard and their opinions to be part of the discussion.

Who was that still small voice?

from January 18, 2006

Last winter I’d been reading Donald Miller of “Blue Like Jazz” fame and while I didn’t always understand or agree with everything in his books, he has challenged me to re-think what I am about as a Christian and a religious person. These two terms do not have to be mutually exclusive.
If nothing else, to be more sensitive to what is happening around me and to me.
Diving right into this: I believe in prayer. I don’t understand prayer, but I believe it does something. So I pray. A lot. Everyday. I’m not an ascetic or Thomas Merton or anything weird or mystical but I do spend some times in prayer throughout the day. Everyday. Not at any specific time although taking my morning shower is usually one of those times. I also pray out loud. This can be embarrassing at times. I catch myself walking down the street with my mouth moving and … wonder what the passers-by are thinking? But something about hearing my own words helps me pray. It may also make it harder to listen; but at least not this time.
Today (OK not really today but it was today when I started writing this down) I was praying – out loud again – for my usual suspects (a short list of people with very specific needs that I manage to pray for almost everyday) when I stumbled over a name and a different name came out. Literally. My first instinct was to correct myself and move on but then I remember my first prayer instinct which is whenever, wherever God, the Holy Spirit, whoever puts a name in my head, I pray for that person. I don’t like generic prayers or to pray for people I don’t know. I’m not very good when the pastor asks us to pray for missionaries or someone I don’t know. I try to find something or someone specific that I can relate to and focus my prayer on that. Sometimes in those situations I don’t pray at all (don’t tell my pastor!) Yet I do pray for lots of people I don’t know; the young man who said hi to me from his wheelchair in Wal-Mart as we passed in the aisle. My regret? That I didn’t stop and engage him. Back to my shower experience.
Instead of correcting myself, I stopped and prayed for the name I had just spoken audibly. I didn’t know what to pray. I hadn’t spoken to this person in a couple of years. We used to work together but he moved away and our communications at best have been an annual e-mail or two and perhaps a Christmas card. So I prayed one of those generic prayers; a sort of “God Bless … (you-know-who) and help them with (you-know-what.)
A couple of hours later I am at work and a co-worker sends me an email. (Not to get hung up on the time-space-continuum thing but he had probably sent it the night before. I was reading it in the early morning.) One of those with a link to a web site embedded so all you do is click on it. He didn’t say what it was for. I clicked. Up pops a sort of yellow-pages-on-the-internet directory-listing for a company run by, you guessed it; the friend I had prayed for earlier. I guess I was not feeling very spiritual at this point (separation of church and state and all that – I work for a City government so one must be careful about those sorts of things!) so all I thought was “How ironic?” I dashed off a quick email to my friend, told him what had happened, that I prayed and all that and pretty quickly forgot about it.
Until my phone rang a few hours later. I have a little caller ID screen so I looked at the number, didn’t recognize the area code, wondered who it could be, picked up the phone, hello, etc.
“Hi, this is (insert friends name here)”. I had just eaten lunch with my wife and kids and while it was good, I was once again not feeling super-spiritual or anything. I’m back at work remember? We talk. Q&A a little etc. when he drops the bombshell. He and his wife are getting a divorce after 20 some years of less-than-wedded bliss. (Did anybody see that feather?)
My mind starts racing in two directions at once. Like I can’t believe he is saying this and I can’t believe the series of coincidences that have led to this moment. While his situation is I’m sure far from under control and I did nothing concrete to help him on the phone (What could I say except “I’m sorry”?), he admitted that between a meeting he’d had with his pastor and finding out that someone far off was praying for him (under rather unusual circumstances), maybe he needed to re-think what he was doing before making things final and irreversible. As I recall he was going to visit his attorney later in the day. He did not make that visit.
Needless to say my eyes started watering a little while I’m sitting there on the phone in the middle of this, this, thing. When we finished our phone call I had to close my office door to gather my composure. Then I had to call my wife and try to explain, “You won’t believe what just happened to me.”
Like I said earlier, I don’t know for sure who puts these ideas and thoughts in our minds and hearts. I just try to be honest and respond as best I can. I was blessed and hope I haven’t spoiled it by sharing with others but I hope somebody out there who struggles daily to depend and trust on God, can glean something of help from my simple but profound (at least for me) experience. Maybe this kind of stuff happens to you all the time. Maybe never. For me it is a once-in-awhile thing. But when it does – wow!
God can talk to me in the shower anytime. The line is open.

Postscript: As of early 2007, they have gone through some counseling but are still moving toward a divorce. Go figure!

beginnings

I've been wanting to blog for quite some time. I have mac-file folders full of stuff that has no place to go, probably will never get published but are my outlet for whatever thing happens to be tickling my brain on a particular day. Topics may be about politics, sheep (we raise them), writing (something I try to do), music, movies - probably all over the map; hence the name scattershooting. Hope it doesn't put anyone to sleep.