Because I promised I would

Ok, I don't really have an awful lot to say right now but I have to make myself do this or I'll get out of the habit again and I know none of us want that. I'm listening to Bob Dylan right now. I almost forgot how much I used to love listening to him when I was younger. I bought a tape of Dylan's Greatest Hits with one of my first paychecks from McD's when I was 16. I still have it in a shoebox somewhere. That's pretty rad I think. In other news, my bro graduated from Police school - he's out on the streets protecting and serving as I type this. My youngest son prays for him every night. His prayer the other night went something like this - "Dear Jesus please help uncle Justin not to get killed and please help me not to get stung in the eye by a bee - Amen". Amen, indeed.

Dark Waters

In the past week I have seen and heard some of the devastating effects that water can have in ways that I could not have imagined possible in my country. The most obvious example of this was, of course, the hurricane that decimated the Gulf Coast. I have watched and read and listened as the aftermath of this storm has devolved from a natural disaster of Biblical proportions to a hellish nightmare of men at their primal worst. Being from Kansas and growing up with the constant threat of tornados, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what destruction looked like. I have stood in the rubble of a trailer park after a monster tornado was through with it. Apparently, I hadn't seen anything yet. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what desperation looked like. I had seen it on TV in the faces of the Tsunami survivors and before that, in the faces of the 9/11 survivors. I hadn't seen desperation like I'm seeing now. I told someone the other day that it reminded me of one of some post-apocalyptic zombie movie. The people in New Orleans are the "living dead" right now. I am shocked and ashamed at the appalling slowness of our government's response to these events. We have been inundated with press conferences and promises but it took 4 days to get the national guard on the ground in New Orleans. We can get troops to Iraq faster than that. That we have allowed what remains of that city to be overrun by looters, thugs, rapists and murderers is a crime in itself and someone should have to answer for that. The fact that we live in the richest nation in the history of civilization and we have hospitals sheltering desperately ill and injured people with no food or water for over 4 days is unforgivable. We are seeing bureaucracy it its very worst and the people of Louisiana and Mississippi are dying because of it. There is no country on earth better equipped to handle an emergency like this than we are and yet they are literally dying in the streets.

In an event closer to home but certainly no less devastating, a little girl drowned last week in Arkansas City. She was 3 years old and left behind her twin sister, a 5 year old sister and both of her parents. I didn't know the family but I work with people who were close to them. As I listened to people relating the details of this awful event and the subsequent funeral, I began pondering what it must feel like to have your soul ripped away from your body like that. I was reminded of a line in an old Don Henley song:

In a New York Minute

Everything can change

In a New York Minute

Things can get a little strange

In a matter of just a few minutes, what began as a beautiful day at the lake turned into a nightmare that one family will not soon wake from. When I contrast these two separate events, Hurricane Katrina and the tragic drowning of little Maya Wells, I am left with one stark truth. We are so small and so not in control of our destiny. I'm reminded of another line from another song:

You were seduced by the wonder of your invention

then laid low by a flick of God's hand

We build extravagant cities with sea walls and levees and canals and somehow suppose that this can protect us from all of nature's God given fury. We build emotional walls and levees in our own lives to protect us from what we most fear. What we discover in every case though, is that these walls dissipate like wet sand when they are hit with the force of something like the drowning of a 3 year old child.

Of mullets and tears in my beer...

One of the ways my life has changed since I bought my mp3 player, is that I am now returning to some styles of music that I haven't listened to a whole lot recently. This week my genre of choice has been country. As I was browsing through my music service I came across this little gem from Joe Diffie. Not only does it contain great songs like "John Deere Green" and "If I had any pride left at all" my man Joe also sports without a doubt one of the all time great country music mullets.

I'm so sore...

I helped put a sprinkler system in my yard this weekend. I can tell you two things about the experience. First, installing a sprinkler system isn't complicated but it is without a doubt the hardest I have ever worked in my life. Second, you can measure the closeness of your friendships by how those friends react when faced with incredibly hard work that has no immediate benefit to themselves. My friend Curtis, who runs his own sprinkler installation business, spent the entire day with me, his brother Chris and my brother Justin installing a sprinkler system at my house. We worked for about 11 hours on this project. Not once during the entire day did any of these guys complain or act like they didn't want to be there. They did it just because I asked them to and because they all know that I would do the same for them. I have been blessed with some of the most giving friends imaginable and I thank God for them and the closeness we share. Even though I feel like I've been hit by a bus, yesterday was one of my best days ever.

I think I'm gonna be sick...

It's been a while since I felt physically ill after reading an article in the newspaper but this account in the Sunday edition of the Wichita Eagle did the trick. Fred Phelps is at it again and (if this is possible) his actions have become even more vile and reprehensible than you could possibly imagine. He is now picketing the funerals of American service men and women who are being killed in Iraq. He says that God is punishing America for a bombing that took place at his "church" several years ago. In addition to his old standard "God Hates Fags", he is now picketing with signs that say things like "Thank God for IEDs" and "They gave America over to fags, they're coming home in body bags". In case you're not aware, IED is military lingo for Improvised Explosive Device. The official warnings that were sent down through the ranks of the U.S. military indicates that they believe Phelps is attempting to incite some kind of violence against himself or his people, in response to which he would file a lawsuit in an attempt to win a monetary settlement that would serve to fund his groups future activities. To borrow a turn of phrase from Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald..."You unspeakable bastard". I have never seen a creature so filled with hatred for the world around him. How miserable it must be to have a soul so tormented with such obvious self-loathing. He reminds me of The Gollum only without any of the sympathetic qualities - he's just a creature who perhaps was once a man. Never was a soul so in need of the redeeming love of Christ...the tragedy of his life is that he has been so blinded by his hatred and by his perverted and twisted interpretation of the Bible that he may never see that need. Pray for the soul of Fred Phelps and all who wallow in his demonic doctrine of hate.

Love vs. Romance

During my nearly 2 hour commute every day I listen to a lot of music. (It's either that or talk to myself and I'm not planning on starting that for at least a few years.) Anyway, I've been listening to How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb by U2. One of the things that strikes me as both profound and a little surprising, given the state of todays music, is the distinction that Bono makes between love and romance. Although Bono is no stranger to recurring lyrical themes, I think it's interesting that he goes to the same well, so to speak, at least twice on this record.

In "Miracle Drug" (my favorite song on the album) he says:

"...I’ve had enough of romantic love
I’d give it up, yeah, I’d give it up
For a miracle, miracle drug"

In "A Man and a Woman" he says:

"You can run from love
And if it’s really love it will find you
Catch you by the heel
But you can’t be numb for love
The only pain is to feel nothing at all
How can I hurt when I’m holding you?

No I could never take a chance
On losing love to find romance
In the mysterious distance
Between a man and a woman"

Like any good song, these will mean different things to different people, but for me they speak to the temporary nature of romance in general. Unless we fight to keep it alive in our relationships it will naturally fade over time. That isn't to say the romance isn't an important part of love, but it's not all there is. It can't be. I think that what Bono is saying is that romance on it's own without anything behind it or beneath it is really quite empty and unsatisfying. That's not a perspective you hear much in today's popular music. I think it speaks volumes about the maturity and depth that U2 exhibits in their songs.

Harry Potter

Well, the new Harry Potter book is finally here. I say finally because I, like millions of people around the world, actually enjoy these books very much and I've been waiting for this one pretty much since I finished the last one 2 years ago. There is obviously a lot of controversy about these books, mostly being generated by (I suppose) well meaning fundamentalist Christians who seem to have the notion that the books and subsequent movies are luring young and old alike into a fascination with witchcraft and the occult. At the very least, they are uncomfortable with the subject matter and prefer to err on the side of caution. An approach that I think that is perfectly reasonable, by the way. (The latter, not the former). I just don't happen to share their views on the subject. One of my biggest pet peeves is people who spout off on books/films/music/culture without having any firsthand knowledge of what they are criticizing. I don't think that I could sum up my perspective on this any better than the author of this piece from ChristianCounterCulture.com.

Freda

Tragic news from the world of radio this week...Freda Wright-Sorce, wife of broadcaster Mike Sorce (aka Don Geronimo of the Don and Mike Show) was killed in a head on collison Sunday evening in Washington DC. For anyone who has listened to this show like I have through the years, Freda's name has become symbolic of everything that was good about the show. She seemed to me (and thus far all accounts of her seem to bear this out) to be a genuinely decent and kind hearted person. It probably seems silly, but radio is such an intimate medium that I actually felt like I had lost a friend when I heard that she died. Don and Mike bring so much of their personal lives to their show that you can't help but feel like you know them personally. Freda and Don fought constantly on the air, but at the end of their conversations you could tell that they really and truly loved each other. They were the epitome of honesty with their listeners and with themselves, even though that wasn't always pretty. My heart goes out to Don, Bart, Mike, Buzz and Robby during this tragic time.

Across the pond...

• First, I want to say that my thoughts and prayers are with our friends across the pond in the UK. I agree with GWB when he says that America has had no truer ally than Great Britain and it broke my heart to see what happened over there.

• Second, big ups to the G8 crew for stepping up to the plate and at least giving lip service to doing the right thing for the people of Africa. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, in case you had any doubts about how bad things really are over there, check out this link from MSNBC and pay close attention to the pictures that accompany each section. It's an interactive map of Africa that provides you a quick snapshot of the issues facing the countries most in need of assistance right now.

• Finally, check out this video clip. It's a flash animation piece set to a great song by my favorite singer, Ben Folds. It's really well done plus it's got hamsters which somehow makes it that much cooler. Shalom

Eminent Domain

Did anyone else find it slightly unsettling last week when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that "...that local governments have the authority to seize private land and turn the property over to private developers for economic development." Ok, I'm not a lawyer, but I do watch a lot of them on TV, and I have a basic understanding of the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution. Let me see if I can break down my analysis of this ruling into some easy to understand, non-legal type language: WHAAAAAAAAA????? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???? You mean to tell me that if my house happens to be in the way of the next GAP or Banana Republic or Heaven forbid, Starbucks, that my local government can just bulldoze my house with no regard for my rights as a property owner? Basically...yes. If the proposed building project will generate a larger tax base for the municipality (and it almost certainly will), the government can now condemn your home to make way for private development. Think about that this 4th of July.