wandering in the woods

balanced birding

2012-01-19T22:00:00.000-05:00

When it comes to birds I’m becoming more obsessed. It’s really become my passion and what I want to do with my time when I am not with my family or at work. I’m not sure how equally busy people do it. With 8 hours at work each day why would I want to spend time away from my family? This year – I’ll be looking at that balance as I fuel a passion for birding and a desire to spend more quality time with my family. No, this isn’t my New Year’s resolution. This is every birders’ nightmare: I’m stuck at work and can’t look at birds. Even beyond that for me is wanting to use the little time that I do have (that is, the time I am not sleeping or exhausted - I have a 4 ½ month old) birding or thinking about birding.

The great thing about birding is that you can see anything anytime anywhere. It can be that great. That is also what makes it so difficult – to find anything in the trees or the bushes or out at sea. It takes more than a keen eye to identify a bird sometimes. For me, I want to get better at identifying birds and in these cold winter months when migrants are enjoying South America or just the Miami sun I’m eagerly waiting their spring arrival.

crazy like your baby

2011-12-02T17:45:00.000-05:00

As a new parent I’ve noticed that our culture has created aworld where we take care of babies like crazy people. No? Don’t believe me?Here are my four reasons why. You can make a judgment after.

1. Backin the day people put their babies in these crazy dangerous contraptions calledcribs. People wrapped up their babies in blankets to keep their baby warm andput toys in the crib to help the baby entertain himself when need be. Today,the “crib” is a highly sophisticated place to keep your baby safe. That includes having nothing in thecrib with the baby. The toys: a danger. Even blankets are considered choking-hazards.Simply put, the only thing in the “crib” is the baby. The baby is kept in asafe “crib” or “room” alone with nothing to harm himself. Does that remind youof anything?

2. Sinceparents are not allowed to keep anything in the crib with the baby includingblankets, the popular alternatives today are cocoonblankets. You know, those blankets that you wrap around your baby to keephim warm. The blankets that have excessive amounts of Velcro to keep your babyfrom getting his arms out of the blanket. In adult terms, this “blanket” issimply called a straightjacket.

3. In arecent NPR story many parents today are going to their pediatrician to demanddrugs for their babies reflux “problems”. The story stated that parents wantedsimilar drugs that helped adult reflex for their babies. It concluded with theadvice from a doctor to parents, suggesting that they not depend on drugs, butfirst change the baby’s diet. The doctor affirmed that this worked most of thetime. The alarming part was in the middle of the story when NPR stated thatresearch on the infant reflux drugs indicated that they didn’t work any betterthan placebos or sugar pills and in some cases aggravated the problem. In aworld where we are increasingly giving people more drugs for their problems,this story substantiates the idea that in some cases we are helping people inthe wrong way.

4. Backin the day… Can I use ‘back in the day’ again? Anyway, back in the day peopleused to just throw their kids in an open seat in the car and just drive off.Not anymore. Babies have to be put in the back of the car, facing backwards,all locked up and secured. I find it eerily similar to this.

crazy compassion, or lack there of.

2011-11-21T13:00:00.000-05:00

Have we all gone crazy? Has the world lost its compassion? Is ‘God dead’? In this brave new world these are the questions that people are asking of us. Has the world lost its compassion? In September of this year a crowd cheered for the death of another human being who theoretically couldn’t afford health insurance. Similar people are calling for the murder of illegal immigrants who cross into the United States. And on Fox News this past month Ann Coulter has brought us straight back to the age of slavery! (Please note my exclamation point. I don’t use these often.) She claims, “Our Blacks are better than their Blacks.” This, the exact propaganda rich slave owners’ declared for their right to enslave African Americans and promote racism in the United States.

All these obscenities make it feel more like 1811, not 2011. Ann Coulter’s directly racist comment, uttered to make Herman Cain look better than Barack Obama, is an injustice to the decades of work African Americans have put forth to stop this direct racism. Furthermore, when people want to see illegal immigrants murdered because they cross over the United States border for a better life, it is a world that doesn’t reflect modern civilization, but a world in which we used to chase and murder thousands of Native Americans from what was their land. The New World invaders are now mad at the new invaders for coming into a land that they themselves took from someone else. (Invaders: a term used by many of the Right to describe illegal immigrants.)

And let’s not leave the obscurities to politics. Just last week after the firing of coach Paterno at Penn State, many of the students rioted not for the abused children but for the firing of their legendary coach.

Where is the compassion? Herman Cain who is now dealing with sexual harassment accusations, although an unrelated topic, has taken a similar stance when addressing the situations. Cain didn’t fire back at Coulter to boast that all African American are equal and none are of lesser quality. He didn’t take any higher ground – something that not only demeans himself, but affirms Coulter’s comments.

In all of this can we claim that humans are more civilized or enlightened? People are valuing such insignificant and finite objects such as money, sports, and politics over the life of fellow humans. The basic needs of life- health, shelter and safety - have been abandoned. Maybe the world has gone crazy.

finally a blog

2011-10-12T20:50:00.000-04:00

I’ve skipped over about seven weeks of becoming a new parentto go straight to apple picking in October. Why? Because I haven’t quite figured out how to write about it.Instead, I’m going right to apple picking. Last weekend the three (3) of uswent apple picking. We found the closest place, which happens to be about fortyminutes away and pick some apples. It is one of our favorite pastimes. We alsohappened to miss the annual family apple picking in September. We went toAcushnet, which is part town-next-to-New-Bedford, and part farm country. Iassociate Acushnet with winding country roads, their Country Whip, and the townwhere we can apple pick and cut our own Christmas tree.

The place was surprisingly busy. It was also surprisinglywarm and sunny. The parking lothad four long rows of muddy spaces. (It had rained the night before.) Rightaway Isaac was hungry. We decided to feed him before walking to the entrance.Two seconds later a couple cars pulled up next to ours. They looked odd andnone of the passengers were getting out of their cars. After a few moments (akafive minutes) of seeing if the people were actually going to pick apples orjust sit in their cars I decided to kick the car in reverse and find a moreprivate parking spot. We found a more secluded spot after driving around to thefront again and finally we were ready.

After skipping around to avoid the mud, we reached the bigbarn-like structure at the entrance. Key word being “like”. In the backgroundyou could see the apple trees. In front of the barn were picnic tables wherepeople were eating the popcorn and other treats they had bought. The three ofus went on into the barn. Right up front was a lady handing out plastic bagsthat you could put your apples in. Right there I should have known this wasn’tgoing to be good. Everyone knows you aren’t supposed to go apple picking withgrocery store plastic bags!

Once inside - plastic bag in hand - I looked off to the leftwhere all the goodies were. No donuts! How can they have no donuts? The two gohand-in-hand. Apple picking and donuts! Strike two. I walked out of the barndiscouraged but not broken. Right away were the three rows of pumpkins. Not aspectacular display of pumpkins but I know we would find an adequate one forthe house from what was available. But that would be after the apple picking.

Walking down the dirt path to the apple orchard was thehighlight of the day. To the left was an empty field with a hand painted signfor “Potato Land”. No digging – use your hands. Definitely never seen thatbefore. It was something unique. Alas, the hot sun was getting to me and Iwanted to press on to the shaded apple tree area.

The trees (or, should I say the ground) was full of apples.It was clear that the farm had been hit hard by the hurricane that went throughat the end of August. It was hard to fill half the plastic bag. I’m not surehow all the other families were doing it. It was disappointing, but it wasn’tthe farm’s fault. On the way out we picked out our pumpkin and got in line forsome apple turnovers and cookies. Very good.

All in all it was a good day. We learned a lot. One: try notto nurse in the car next to weird people. Two: always try out potato land.Three: hurricanes impact crops. Four: hot weather for apple picking is anoxymoron. Five: always take photos even if you are hot and looking out forthose weird people from the cars.

a holiday from church

2011-08-08T20:15:00.005-04:00

Last week at church there wasalmost not a service, or at least that is the way it looked. The serviceusually starts with a hymn. Instead, a gentleman (who we would find out laterwould be leading the whole service) stood up at the front and proceeded to tellus in the most lugubrious voice that the guestpastor who was supposed to be there in place of the current pastor who was on amonth long vacation was ill and could not make the service. They had just foundout that morning so they would be piecing together the service on such shortnotice. And pieced it would be.

We never did get to the openinghymn – which may have been a good thing because later on we would sing an awfulversion of “Amazing Grace”. After the little speech we somehow got through the liturgyuntil the sermon. The same gentleman, a paid administrator at the church,decided he would be the one doing the sermon. I guess there was no one elseavailable - or more likely - no one else was asked to help lead Sunday worshipor the sermon. I’m not quite sure how there could not have been someone withmore experience leading. Was there not a second in charge, or third in charge?Was there not a deacon or extraordinary leading in the church on this Sunday?Apparantly not.

Now I’m not saying church hasto be done a certain way. On the contrary. It was actually really neat to seethe congregation go through the service without its usual leader and to worshipcorporately anyway. There wasn’t someone “qualified” to bless the communion,but we did it anyway. It was out of the box – and it showed that doing churchcan be done in many different ways.

This all leads to the importantpart of the day: there really should have been a leader giving the sermon thatday. Why? The reading for the day was the feeding of the 5,000. Standing at thefront of the church he said he didn’t believe the feeding of the 5,000 happenedbut that its a good life lesson. It is an insult to the real miracles thathappened 2,000 years ago and to the Savior and Lordship of Jesus as God, and tothe general Christian belief in God. Later he claimed he believed in SantaClaus – pronounced “Santy” Claus. (In all fairness he meant the general idea ofSanta Claus as a way of giving around the holidays.)

In the end what was a goodservice was indeed church gone wrong. I hope no one went away with anythingfrom that un-thoughtful sermon.

---------------------------------------------------

In related news. We first wentto this church at the beginning of March. There were lots of kids and it wasLent. It truly was in better times. Now I’ve noticed throughout the entiresummer that all the kids (including their parents) are no longer attendingduring the summer. They’ve taken church off for the summer. For me this is acomplete knock at God and the Christian community.

In more related news. The other churchwe were interested in finally got a new pastor which means we can try thatchurch again. Which we will be doing as soon as possible since the other churchseems to be taking a holiday from God.

close to home

2011-07-29T17:40:00.004-04:00

A week ago, Norway had a devastating tragedyhappen to them. For me it brought to light that even countries as far north asNorway have issues and conflicts with immigrants and multiculturalism. Secondly,it was a reminder that a madman will kill until no one is left. There isclearly, though, a larger issue at hand. That was apparant when I learned thatthe killer was captured and did not kill himself. He wanted to start arevolution against multiculturalism.

It’s an idea that is not far from Nazi ideals. InAmerica it’s not far from the modern day KKK and neo-Nazi movement. Luckily,these groups have not created such carnage in years. I think there is a muchmore frightening thing going on right now in America that is really not thatfar from what happened in Norway.

In places like the state of Arizona they arecreating laws to do almost whatever they can to keep immigrants out. In NYC thecity is divided over whether to let a Mosque be built near the site of9/11. And all over the UnitedStates people have a similar hatred (a strong but accurate word) for immigrantsand Muslims (among others). This really isn’t a new attitude. However, theextreme or counter-cultural ideas are now becoming more mainstream and normal.A quote from a normal “Christian” on Facebook:

“If you cross the N. Korean border illegally, you get 12 yrs. hard labor.If you cross the Afghanistan border illegally, you get shot. If you cross theU.S. border illegally you get a job, a driver's license, food stamps, a placeto live, health care, housing & child benefits, education, & tax freebusiness for 7 yrs. No wonder we are a country in debt. Repost if you agree.”

There are a couple alarming ideas in this post. First, it’s stating thatthe debt problem is coming from the over abundance of illegal immigrants.Ironically, illegal immigrants have been providing cheaper services at hotels,restaurants, and the like for years. The same capitalism these “legal” citizens believe in has only created aspace for cheap illegal labor over American labor. The idea of debt is also ajab at the Democrats, which as the NYT has pointedout is less of a Democrat problem and more of a Bush era problem of cuttingtaxes to only the rich and many years of war – two things Republicans keependorsing as good things. It’s also sad to think that people have forgottenjust how bad it was during the Bush era (also proved by the NYT graph) and howmuch damage was caused especially to the economy, and yet still think Bush is asaintcompared to Obama.

Second,this Facebook post is endorsing the idea of killing people for beingimmigrating illegally. The idea is not far from those of the tragedy thathappened in Norway not 4 weeks afterward. This person - perfectly “normal” - issaying that the death of people is better than life. The ideas of the UnitedStates used to be far from this of course. Just take a look at a quote on theStatue of Liberty: “Give me your tired,your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” For many American’sthis no longer applies. It was nice when white Europeans were immigrating, butnow that it is mainly immigrants from places like Mexico the same attitude doesnot apply.

That isn’t to say that some type ofimmigration reform isn’t needed. I’m just not sure death is the answer.Unfortunately for us the Norway killer’s idea of revolution has already startedwithout him. I’m sure this person on Facebook would still post the theirmessage and would want people to repost it. I am equally as sure that this person – and the manywho agree - would also like the U.S. to default on their credit to pay fortheir bad spending habits. Habitsthat, again, ironically don’t come from the current president, but from theRepublican president before him who spent billions on national defense whilecutting taxes only for the rich and corporations. For the rest of us, we canonly hope that the killer’s revolution raises an alarm about the importance ofvaluing all people.

3 weeks left

2011-07-27T19:45:00.000-04:00

baby boom

2011-07-27T09:00:00.000-04:00

With the increase in social media it seems easier for people to get jealous, sad, envious (or happy) about others people’s fortune of having a baby. Back in the day people’s circles were closer. When you learned about someone getting pregnant or having a baby it was either from someone you directly knew or had weekly contact with, or a relative of someone you knew like a co-worker or family member.

Today – you can know just about everything about anyone you have ever met. Now you know when people from high school or college or from the previous town you worked in are having a baby. In some ways it is really neat. I get to learn about the lives of people who - after high school or after I moved away - I may never have heard from again.

In other ways it can be tough. For someone who has just lost a baby, is barren, unable to adopt, or is undergoing fertility treatments, is something like Facebook good or bad? Does it bring sadness or hope? Both? There seems to be very little tragedy on Facebook or at least with the 300+ friends that I have. The statuses of people either contain good or happy things (30%), pointless things (65%), tragedy or sad (5%). This is all anecdotal of course. I think it points out something crucial about social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter – they aren’t building better relationships.

One way I’d like to see if a church is really authentic during their prayer requests (or Sunday School, etc) is if people give real prayer requests. What do I mean? For those who haven’t been to church before or have not witnessed this in many churches prayer requests can be “surface-y” and vague and people don’t show any real meaning when they share a request. Prayer requests that are authentic or real involve the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Without that on Facebook we can never relate to those who may be grieving, only to those with the happy life. For me I think it would be difficult to be grieving and use social media as a tool (at least Facebook). I think the same can be said about similar situations such as job loss. Back in 2009 when everyone seemed to be losing a job little of it was on Facebook.

In some ways I think social media is bringing people closer than they ever would have been otherwise. In other ways it will never replace, nor do I ever think social media sites ever intended it to replace, real authentic relationships. In still other ways I think social media can be a tough place to be in the midst of such surface-y relationships. But hey, that’s just me.

not suitable for suburbanites: a review of death by suburb

2011-07-25T20:30:00.000-04:00

I haven’t had a book review on here in a while, but couldn’tresist writing about one I read recently. The book in question is Death BySuburb by Dave Goetz. My first confession:I didn’t finish it. Or to be more precise I couldn’t finish it. I was so repulsedby the writing I finally had to say I’d had enough. I received the book a fewyears ago from a free bin or something like that. After closer examination ofthe book I realized the book was discussing how to live in the suburbs andstill be a Christian, not how to get out of the suburbs because they areruining your life. As a result, I put the book off. I finally got the courageto read the book that said the ‘burbs were okay - something I was notokay with.

My worst dreams were realized when I began the book, butGoetz kept making a few good points, and I would keep reading. The basicpremise of his book is six “spiritual” practices to help you really live in the suburbs. I’ll get to the practices in amoment.

Of course the whole idea of the book doesn’t mean you haveto live in the suburbs. The book more reflects the moods of a typicalmiddle-class American. If someone has so much money they aren’t worried abouttheir neighbors new BMW, because they already have one, or aren’t worried abouttheir mortgage payment because they paid cash for their house this book isn’tfor you. Neither is this book for you if you aren’t worried about your kid’seducation or grades because they are already on a fast track to Harvard. Thisbook also isn’t for you if you aren’t worried about this month’s rent, butworried about this week’s rent, or you are worried about sleeping in your car,or what food you may or may not be able to afford to eat today. Basicallyeveryone else: this book is for you in some way – that’s why the middle classis so big. It encompasses a lot of people.

The book touches on the aspects of the toxic life that issuburbia. The life of having to have the biggest SUV (or maybe the hippest newMini or Prius). The life of having 2.5 kids and a yellow lab. The life of greengrass and great equity. The life of kids that have good grades and that aregood at athletics. Goetz actually makes some important points highlighting thefact that we shouldn’t be envying our neighbors in this way. The envy causes usto have a mortgage we can’t pay for, high hopes for our kids that will never bemet, or a SUV so big and with so little MPG that you actually have tocontinually fill your car with gas (much like a plane being refueled in theair).

This book is more about how not to be green with envy thananything spiritual or Christian. Case in point is Goetz’s third of his eightpractices: friendship with the poor. It’s a practice that will keep you fromenvying your neighbors’ life Goetz states. And this is precisely where he goeswrong. Goetz goes on to write that to help yourself from envying your neighbor’shouse, car, kids, or wife, you should instead look at the poor sap down thestreet with a junky house, a beat up car, dumb kids, and a wife he just can’tseem to get along with. The idea to not envy your rich neighbor is great, eventhe idea to not think about yourself or your ego. But of course looking at thepoor neighbor down the street is only going to boost your ego and pity him. Anidea I don’t recommend. There is nothing good about hanging out with the poorto make yourself not be envious and is only cruel when you have alternativemotives.

Secondly, Goetz goes on to the subject of your kids. Frombirth parents are always saying their children are the best and the brightest.Of course, that’s fine until you realize they aren’t the best or the brightestand then it is just a letdown. A true hit to your ego and parentingskills for sure. Goetz basically says you should be okay with your kid getting “C’s”or being so un-athletic they can’t even make the JV team. He suggeststhat you should be okay with it because if your children are getting “A’s”, itslikely that you are only happy because it makes you look better at PTOmeetings. The only problem is that this really isn’t the core problem, isit? I mean, is the kid trying? If the “C” he gets in Algebra is his best, thenawesome! Why not be proud? But, if it isn’t than should we settle? This isn’tabout being envious or proud this is about wanting your child to learn. Becausein the end that is what it is all about and what is most important.

I think what really got to me was Goetz’s take on being amissionary. Today, much of Christian international missions are more about themissionaries themselves than about who they are helping. Not everywhere, but inmost cases. Today, mission work is about partnerships and and buildingrelationships. While working for the missions department of a small Christiandenomination I learned that we were not going over to save the world, but towork with other Christians of the same denomination in other parts of theworld. In places like Sudan and Nigeria there were already Christians, andoften in bigger populations than in the States. There were also people who werecapable of building wells for water, homes for families, and churches forvillages. There was no need to have white Americans come over and do what theywanted to do, because the Nigerians had the same skills. It therefore was notabout saving or building, but about relationships and learning.

This is the same with short term mission trips. A group ofchurch goers that travel thousands of miles and spend thousands of dollars eachto go to a small village where they spend a week building something are not goingbecause the native people cannot do it themselves, and it certainly isn’t forthe money. It would be wiser to use all that airfare money and give it directlyto the building fund or other project. The reason of course is for theexperience - what the church group learns and gains and can bring back to theirchurch.

Back to my main point. Goetz meets a lady at a wedding thatrecently came home for a furlough as a missionary. He asks the lady how it mustbe so strange to come back to the States and just be okay and fine with howeverything is. The lady replies back that when she is in Africa she is inAfrica and when in the States she is in the States. She learned to disengage.What!? And Goetz’ lesson from this? That we should live according towhere we are. When in Rome and all that.

As if we should ignore the blatant health problems in onecountry while we are enjoying the blatant greed of another country. How couldwe ever be the same? How could we not want to change the world? How could wenot beg our rich neighbors for all their money so we can give it to a few whoneed adequate healthcare or quality drinking water? These are fundamentalneeds that we can easily take for granted. How can we not be thankfuleveryday for the amazing blessings we have and not want the same for ourneighbor?

I don’t want to disengage from my neighbor – I want to lovemy neighbor whether he is a millionaire who I despise with a big gas guzzlingSUV or a homeless man who smells and goes around collecting cans around town. Ican’t just cross the street or look away from these people – I must be theirneighbor.

Goetz misses the mark in this book. Maybe he has beenengulfed in the suburbs himself too long. His writing is like confusingAristotle for Pauline’s ideas. Although they may seem similar in some aspectsthey are far different and engulf opposing worldviews. We can’t settle forAristotle when we have Paul. We can’t settle for Goetz when there is so muchmore out there.

mls club map

2011-07-22T14:35:00.003-04:00

click for larger view

apple...apple...apple...

2011-07-18T19:20:00.001-04:00

There are a few lessons I’ve learned so far before becominga parent. 1) People, whoever they are, however smart they are, wherever theyare will give you advice about how to raise or take care of your baby. A lot ofit… are things that a certified nurse is telling you the complete opposite todo. 2) My life will never be thesame again, and it’s a good thing. I’m not sure why people always have to add“and it’s a good thing” after they say, “It’s going to change your lifeforever.” Once people here that you are pregnant everything bad about childrenand babies comes out through the whole of history. It makes you wonder whypeople even have babies or that the Shaker movement never became more popular.

3) I’m not sure what stage of raising a child is the mostdifficult. Is it taking care of a newborn, getting through the terrible 2’s,trying to teach a child how to behave in the world, trying to keep yourpre-teen from stalking the latest pop idol, or hoping your teenage doesn’t burndown the town? 4) Babies don’t come with instructions or warnings which isstrange considering everything else does in the world. 5) People have literallyrun out of names for their babies. When and why did people start naming theirbabies apple or seven? Seriously? Would you want that name? Unique? Yes. Stupid?Even yesser!

In the end though, the best way to figure out your child’sname is to test it out. While camping in Illinois a few years ago, a fathertaking his children camping on his own was having some trouble. Across the camproad all you could hear was… “Joseph… Joseph… Joseph… Joseph… Joseph… Joseph… Joseph” I think you get thepoint. The test works. Let’s try it with apple first. “Apple… Apple… Apple… Apple” I’m imagining aperson staring at an apple on a picnic table trying to call it to him orherself. Were you? Again let’s try it with seven. “Seven… Seven… Seven… Seven…Seven.” I think if I heard a person saying this over and over again in acampsite I might think they escaped the local mental hospital.

Of course I am pondering this same test as we try to pick aname for our child.

settling into a church

2011-07-12T22:45:00.000-04:00

It’sbeen a while since I’ve written about searching for a church. After a longhiatus in June due to moving and painting among other things we got back in theswing of searching for a church. We returned to the church from way back in week1 at the beginning of March. It was a promising church with manypossibilities. After experiencing many other churches (including one churchthat seemed that it might be thechurch to go to, but ended up being the craziestof them all) we have fallen back to the church from week 1.

Ifanything it feels like we have settled for this church. Not because it is a badchurch. But because we know what we want and we know the possibilities outthere. The other part about shopping for a church now is that it is summer. Andfor anyone that has gone to church before during the summer months it is a lotdifferent than the rest of the year. Many churches go from two services to one.The pastor, many times, is on vacation along with half of the congregation.Overall there is a different vibe to the church. It’s not good or bad it’s justdifferent.

Withthat said, how do you know what a church is like if it is different during thesummer months? For now this is the best we’ve seen in the area. We’ll continueto look, but at the moment we are settling into a church.

hot election

2011-07-06T14:26:00.000-04:00

With the summer heat upon us I thought I would bring some hot topics to today’s blog – the election. I’ve broke it down into topics in three segments on why I think and don’t think Obama will be re-elected. I don’t really understand the American public and much of its voting practices, but it’s fun to think I do.

Why he might lose

ECONOMY – Lack of recovery and return on stimulus

At the beginning of November this may be the only point voters really care about. With an economy that’s been busted way before Obama has been office, it seems (to me) that the nation is looking for Obama to fix it. If the economy doesn’t improve a significant amount by Election Day I don’t think Obama will get re-elected. The days of Roosevelt economic policies are no good anymore. With the government’s spending at a max does anyone want the government spending more money for a recovery?

JOBS – Unemployment is still too high

If the economy doesn’t sink Obama in the election, jobs (and next on the list gas prices) will. Although unemployment is down, and the job growth is better than the job decline of his predecessor, the job market hasn’t improved well enough for the voters.

GAS PRICES – Remember when

It was okay to reelect a president when gas prices were high when the vice president was so influential in the oil business. Now with a recession it is just harmful. With no relief at the pump in a while, Obama can only hope that opening up U.S. oil reserves will help, not hinder him at the polls. Republicans? They are already blaming Obama for high gas prices just as Democrats were doing to Bush eight years ago.

FREEDOM – Fear of the red

Who really knows how many Americans think Obama is a socialist or communist. Various polls range from around 30% to anywhere around 55-60%. Considering he compromised to continue to give tax breaks to the richest in America that’s a very high number. Fear that Obama is a communist or works with many communists is one of many misconceptions that Obama’s administration has to deal with on a daily basis.

WARS/GUATANAMO BAY – Speaking of promises

One wave that Obama rode into his election was that he was going to end the Iraq war and close Guantanamo Bay. Iraq? It’s ending sometime, but much slower than anyone probably thought. Guantanamo? In a failed attempt it looks like Guantanamo will be staying open. What about Afghanistan?

IMMIGRATION REFORM – Kick them out… kick them out… all out!

In the end this topic won’t make or break many votes. For both sides though immigration reform hasn’t been changed or challenged. Anyone looking to vote solely on immigration reform may be upset at Obama. In the end though, Republicans don’t offer a better alternative.

THE ISSUES – just not getting done quickly enough

When you say you are going to bring a soda machine into the school you have to deliver. The hope and enthusiasm that Obama brought to many voters has left them upset at many things they thought would happen. Although he is the President there are still so many check and balances that you can’t blame Obama solely on not being able to deliver on all his promises. To see how Obama is doing on all his promises go here.

BAD PRESS – Who says any kind of press is good press

In 2006 and 2008 Democrats seemed to take control, and to me it looked like Republicans were going to struggle for a while. Not only did they do a complete 180º in 2010, but have even created bad press to the masses leading up to the 2012 election. The Obama administration has not been able to combat all the bad press with many of the good things the administration has done to both independents and Republicans.

CHANGE - keep the change you filthy animal

People afraid that the Obama administration is going to take away their guns, money, and freedom have put on a full scaled launch against Obama. Ironically it has been the banks and other business that they have been deregulating for the past 30 years that have been taking the most money and freedom from them.

Why he just might win

COMPROMISE

One way to win is to compromise. I’ve seen Scott Brown do it in Massachusetts, and Obama can only hope that independents see that he can work with both Republicans and Democrats. Obama has shown considerable compromise in taxes, in a bi-partisan cabinet, and others. He really is a centralist, but nobody knows it.

DADT

It’s not going to change the outcome of the election, but the repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy is a step that many Americans see as good.

START security treaty

The treaty with Russia shows that Obama can work with international leaders and work toward a nuclear free world.

AUTO BAILOUT – Vroom vroom

Republicans hate the auto bailout. And it’s not something you want to see a government do all the time. In the end though not only did the bailout save companies like GM and Chrysler, the many suppliers that work with those car companies, and the thousands families who depend on the car industry it actually was a good “business” move for the U.S. government who made money off of the bailout.

TEA Party

The TEA Party keeps growing in popularity. Unfortunately for Republicans the independent voters they are trying to sway aren’t swayed like TEA Party Patriot like Michele Bachman. The Republican Party, if it really wants to win the election, will have to have a more central candidate unless the Republican Party wants another debacle like the TEA Party Patriot, Christine O’Donnell in Delaware.

I’m on the fence

OBAMACARE

The fact that the new healthcare law has been coined “Obamacare” makes me think that it will hinder not help Obama’s election campaign. On the other hand there are many good things about the new law including:

1. Eliminate lifetime limits on insurance coverage
2. Prevent health insurance companies from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition
3. Allow young adults to remain on parents' insurance until age 26.
4. Provide subsidies for individuals and families and are not covered by an employer to purchase their own insurance.
5. Creates healthcare exchanges for uninsured people to purchase coverage at competitive rates.
6. Gives people on Medicare new access to free preventive services such as screenings for cancer and diabetes.
7. Closes the "doughnut hole" gap in Medicare Part-D by 2020.
8. Slows spending increases for Medicare beneficiaries to 2% per year, from the current rate of 4% a year.

Of course many of these changes won’t take place until after 2012 election which makes many of the good things about the law unsubstantial to voters.

What won’t matter

Reagan’s poor economy verses Obama’s poor economy. Some think that because Reagan won with a poor economy that Obama can do the same. It was a different era and a different mood of the country. I don’t think people can depend on this comparison to think that Obama can win.

A face to the Republican nomination. As of yet, there is still no strong face to the Republican Party. The people who are going to determine the election don’t care if there is a face or not. They want the best person to improve their lives. And whoever presents the better case will win.

Osama bin Laden. It makes Republicans not question Obama’s leadership for about 3 seconds. Those 3 seconds are over. With the rest of the country it has had a bigger impact on the view of Obama. In the end, no one will remember this in the voting booth in November.

Other impacts

Besides the economy the outcome of congress voting on raising the debt ceiling in time or defaulting may have a huge impact on how voters view Obama. By the U.S. defaulting it creates a huge problem for the U.S. In terms of the election it creates animosity towards both sides of congress, but a bigger impact on the President.

Overall I still think the election is a wide open race as to who will win. Obama has a lot riding on the economy and gas prices. If they both don’t improve significantly in the eyes of American voters I’m not sure he can win the election. Sometimes disappointment, disapproval, and disdain bring out the most voters as we saw in both 2006 and 2008. I’m not sure Obama can depend on his supporters to come out even more as they did for Bush in 2004 to re-elect him. He will need to re-convince many of the same independent voters he won over back in 2008 to win.

We're #1

2011-06-28T09:00:00.003-04:00

We’re number 37! We’re number 37! We’re number 37! Every four years the U.S. is able to chant “We’re #1!” during the summer Olympics. Let’s face it: the U.S. dominates the summer Olympics. It is easy to get caught up in American’s need to always be number one. Despite the recession and poor economy the U.S. is still ranked one of the best economies. Despite a car bailout GM has re-taken the #1 car spot over Toyota.

But, despite always having to be number one the United State ranks 37th in life expectancy in the world. Regardless of what Fox News would probably say we did not go from #1 to #37 when “Obamacare” was put into law. In fact, the new healthcare law is trying to combat some of the very reasons why we are ranked number 37.

In truth the U.S. does have some of the best healthcare in the world. The only problem is that it isn’t for everyone. It is easy to find these disparities. A quick look at the decline in cancer deaths in the U.S. is one example. Although cancer deaths are declining inequalities persist. Elizabeth Ward of the American Cancer Society, states “‘People of a lower socioeconomic status are more likely to smoke and less likely to get access to care where they can get screened for early detection.*’" Without giving everyone access to healthcare, including preventative healthcare, these discrepancies will continue and we can continue to chant “we’re number 37!”

In the latest finding from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations at the University of Washington it was concluded that in many parts of the country life expectancy is declining. Two of the biggest factors? Obesity and smoking. Although the U.S. ranks #1 in spending on healthcare, the way healthcare is done now its not reaching everyone.

Some are less likely to get cancer. Some aren’t. Some life expectancy is going up. For others it is going down. If we really want to chant “We’re #1” we need to make healthcare more comprehensive, accessible, and affordable for everyone. Not just the rich.

*June 17, 2011 article from NPR
Also check out the report from the U. of Washington.

food wars

2011-06-15T08:00:00.008-04:00

Is the next great political war food? It’s not an ongoing issue like the economy, jobs, or war, but it may be the next big thing. As we’ve found out in the past two years not everyone in the United States wants every citizen to have quality health insurance or any at all. The problem of course is that in the end our tax money that has to pay for the care of people that can’t afford health insurance or quality insurance ends up costing us more in the end. A fact sorely neglected by many people. This same idea has shifted to the food wars.

I first took notice of the food wars when the First Lady, Michelle Obama, began advocating for food change and policy. The changes: the basic idea is nutrition education. Other aspects are providing better school lunches, farm-to-school school programs, less deserts, more food security, etc. This all sounds good to me. Apparently though this is infringing on people’s “rights” to get fat and have more heart attacks and cases of diabetes, the first and sixth leading causes of death in the United States respectively.

Former half-term governor, tv star, book selling, motorcycling, history expert Sarah Palin retorts to the First Lady, “get off our backs” in response to the Let’s Move program. I guess moving is too much to ask.

I’m not surprised by Sarah Palin and millions of others like her who are upset about the idea of better food programs and education to help people eat healthier. I’m surprised, because in a time where it seems cigarettes, something that was widely celebrated in the United States at one point in time, is widely attacked by city, state, and federal laws. Of course cigarettes are not illegal, but in many places such as restaurants, schools, hospitals, public buildings, and now even parks, parking lots are even banning cigarette smoking. Cigarettes are heavily banned in many places, there is hardly any advertising, it is taxed enormously, and it has wiped out the tobacco industry. And people on both sides of the line seem okay with it. Cancer awareness advocates can be proud.

Even more surprisingly to me is the idea that someone like Ron Paul can advocate that a dangerous drug such as heroin should be legal. His logic? Well, if we made it legal no one would use it. The same logic could be used for murder but we wouldn’t make that legal, would we? The government makes a drug like heroin illegal not to infringe on people’s rights, but to protect people from a drug that has damaging effects to a person’s brain as well as possible dangerous effects to family, friends, and strangers.

Doritos, McDonald’s hamburgers, and fried foods are never going to stop being sold. But it would be nice to educate people that a slice of pizza does not have a serving of vegetables, or that drinking a bottomless amount of soda or sports drinks is not good for people, especially adults. If initiatives such as Let’s Move teach children to eat healthier and help small farms bring food to schools - in turn helping the next generation to have less heart disease and diabetes - I’m all for it. Nutrition and what we choose to eat is vital to a healthy life style and the ways it affects our body for good or bad.

closing time

2011-06-14T14:00:00.002-04:00

There is something wrong when less than thirty minutes later after closing on a house you find that the kitchen faucet is broken and leaking everywhere. It’s even better to find out that even though the faucet looks fancy the sprayer design is the problem and the leak is easily fixed. That’s what happened to us on Thursday when we closed on the house. A stressful moment that was easily fixed.

I think for some closing on a house is easy. For others it must be extremely stressful, difficult, and downright not worth it. We had a little of each when closing on our house. Much of the process wasn’t stressful or difficult, especially for a short sale. I think this was in part because of realtor and mortgage broker who kept moving things along and had a positive attitude. (It also helps to have a competent lawyer working on the short sale too.) The short sale took about three months. That’s about as short as it gets, too. Many of them last six months to a year, and some even longer.

At the beginning we were told a closing date of May 13. Unfortunately, this number was more of a goal than anything concrete. Fortunately, the goal was not too far off. The paper work seemed to be going through, the banks approved the short sale. And at the end of April it looked like we might move on the 13. By the beginning of May we met with the mortgage broker again who said that we should have a closing by the end of the month. We moved our moving date to Memorial Day weekend. It was better this way. We had a long weekend; it didn’t coincide with work that I had the previous weekend. Then the title, the last part of the process, was found incorrectly processed from the previous sale of the house and it needed to be done correctly. We found this out the Tuesday before the Saturday move. There would be no way to move on the weekend.

Again we had to postpone our moving date. This time it was not a good change. All the help that we had before now couldn’t come. We were frantically looking for help. So much so that we begrudgingly used Facebook to ask for help. Not only that, but the change in date meant that we would be moving in a different month. We had told our landlord we would be out by the end of May. In the whole process we were blessed that the new renter wasn’t moving in until June 8, and we were able to stay in our rental for a few extra days.

We were told that the closing would be the Tuesday or Wednesday after Memorial Day at the latest. The closing? It was done the Thursday after Memorial Day. This brings us back to the beginning where after finally closing and getting to go in our new house – the first thing we find is the faucet broken.

Well, it’s all better now. And so is the house now that the main two rooms are painted. There are still boxes everywhere, and the lawn still isn’t mowed. The walls though, they look good.

when church is downright awesome

2011-05-09T18:55:00.000-04:00

It’s hard church shopping. Especially when you know theperfect church is just 45 miles away. Especially when the variety of churchesis so few. This week was no exception. It was the third time visiting thisparticular church. It will probably be the last – at least for a while.

This Sunday it started with a hymn sing. - a chance for thecongregation to choose a few songs and sing them. It was welcoming. After thewelcome and announcements the bell choir did a rendition of Mighty to Save, which was excellent. Everything was gravy, untilthe (interim) pastor spoke.

It started off good enough. Talking about the death of BinLaden, an interesting story about a crazy group of Millerites. The pastor evenmentioned that it was horrible to rejoice in an enemy’s death, even one likeBin Laden. Then it happened.

Let me preference this by stating that I’ve been to a lot ofchurches before and heard a lot of sermons. I’ve heard a lot of bad sermons,sermons proclaiming the prosperity gospel, even a pastor who demeaned Hispanicsand women throughout a service.

Today, the pastor claimed that the verses 9-20 in Mark 16 where Jesus comes back to the disciples after his resurrection didn’t happen.His claim, from his mentor, was that if it couldn’t happen today, it couldn’thappen then. Of course his logic would not only conclude that the verses inMark were untrue, but in fact much of the Bible.

As a visitor I was ready to bolt. We didn’t though. Westayed. I’m glad we did. Toward the end, during prayer requests, one of thechoir members called out the pastor’s sermon. I’d never seen a member call-outa pastor during a service. It was awesome! The courage that this particularmember had to call out the pastor on such blasphemy was remarkable. I was proudthat the member had done that. I can only hope that the other members felt thesame.

The pastor is an interim, and we don’t know how long he hasbeen there. From the response from the choir member, he hasn’t been there long,or this is one of the first times he has said something like this. The churchis in the middle of a pastoral search. For now we are going to skip the church– we’ll have to try it out again once they have a new pastor.

journey for a church: not it

2011-05-06T20:50:00.000-04:00

Sometimes there are just better churches. This past Sundaywe went to a new church in Plymouth. We had already been to a church inPlymouth, but this time the church was in the middle of the tourist area. Wecircled around a couple times and found a free spot – this time. As the touristseason really heats up we pondered the thought of having to either pay forparking or parking far away and having to walk quite a distance to church.

The church itself was a typical New England looking church –white with a large steeple. From the front doors you walk into the churchnarthex next and a large fellowship hall. Staircases on both sides of thenarthex lead to the sanctuary upstairs. The sanctuary upstairs was large andcould easily fit 400 people, maybe 500. The church had a good attendance of 100 people, but looked empty in sucha large church that was probably full back in its heyday.

The church was traditional, yet different from anothertraditional service from the same denomination that we attended weeks ago.There was a large choir, acolytes, and yokes. There was a normal liturgy, greathymns, and we even said the Gloria Patri. I am not sure I have ever been to a church that has done that.

The sermon, or should I say communion meditation, was good.It incorporated relevant biblical verses and real life situations. The pastoreven had a high school student read much of the service as a way to involve andteach the young people of the church.

Even so, the church didn’t seem ‘it’. Can a church evenhave an ‘it’? Can a church be judged on thebasis of its essence? I don’t know, but it was done on Sunday.

piping plovers

2011-04-29T20:55:00.000-04:00

I’m not one of these people that is trying to ever growtheir [bird] life lists. Those are for those birders. If you’re not familiar with life lists – it’s the listcreated by a birder of all the birds he has ever seen. Sometimes its justmentally kept in someone’s head. I keep a casual list for my own recollectionand history. Others keep a list for the sake of making a list - a list of everexpanding birds that can only be satisfied by traveling the world and making acheckmark next to each name. You know these people when you bird with them:after they see a bird they are already racing on to see the next bird. It’s notthe bird they are satisfied with but the number.

I say this because I was able to add a notch to my life listthis past month. And it was exciting! Earlier this month the bird club went outfor a Piping Plover search. Often the bird club will go out in specific searchfor a certain bird. Many of those times we come up empty handed. So, when Iread the email that we were looking for Piping Plovers - a species which I havenever seen - that are federally protected, and which beach-goers would ratherrun over than protect, I was excited but had reservations. It was early April,and still cold in Southeast Massachusetts. The Piping Plover is a small bird. Idid not really expect it to have arrived yet, and according to ebird.com itdidn’t look like anything had arrived yet (that anyone posted). My only hopewas that in years past these birds had arrived around the same dates on whichwe were searching.

When we got to the beach on West Island in the morning itwas fairly empty – only a guy walking his dog in the far distance. It was sunnythat day, but we had some snow flurries earlier in the week. We began to walkthe beach toward the man and the dog. There didn’t seem to be any bird on thebeach let alone a hard-to-see Piping Plover. My hopes were fading that not onlywouldn’t we see a Piping Plover, but not much of anything else, either.

Well, that was until Mike, the bird club president, spotteda Piping Plover from across the bay. How he saw it is beyond me and the rest ofthe group that was there that day. All of a sudden though, the day was lookingup. We all stopped next to the water and peered off into the distance to try tofind it. Indeed it was a Piping Plover, or at least that was what Mike wastelling us. We saw a bird flying back and forth, but even with binoculars itwas still just a speck in the sky. Only Mike, an experienced birder, could tellat that distance it was definitely a Piping Plover. [How could he tell? Fromthe way it was flying.]

We got our short glimpse. For me though, I had to have more.We began to walk slowly up the beach toward the bird. We had spotted threebirds initially. A few minutes later we saw them fly away peeping as they wentby. Our excitement was almost gone, except that only two flew away and notthree. We continued to walk. Finally, we got to a reasonable distance were wecould really see the birds. And boy, were they hared to see, almost exactly blendingin with the sand. No wonder they are federally protected. Not only do theadults look like the sand they live on, but their eggs look like small rocks inthe sand.

We got closer and closer until basically we couldn’t get anycloser because they were so close. It was our lucky day. The Piping Plovers hadprobably just flown in during the night, and were exhausted. Although theywould walk or fly away if you got too close, we were able to see the birds at aclose distance that is usually unattainable. Not only that, but because theyhad just flown in, they weren’t going anywhere. We were able to watch them foras long as we wanted - real enjoyment for a birder.

Although we didn’t see a wide variety of birds that day, itwas probably one of the best birding days I have ever had.

Here are some photos from the day:

it's a race to the finish

2011-04-21T12:00:00.002-04:00

I’m so excited! It’s that time of year again when we analyze why or why not someone should be president. I used to think that you had to have lots of money and political connections to be president, then Sarah Palin almost became Vice President, and my mind was forever changed about who the American public would/will elect.

The 2008 (or November 2007) election came down to McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden. I remember when they first announced Palin as McCain’s running mate. The buzz on McCain was huge – and for about two weeks I thought he might win. Then Palin decided to talk and have an interview with Katie Couric and the rest is history. I said it before here and still stand by it – I think if McCain had a different running mate such as Mitt Romney he would have won, even with the War in Iraq looming over the Republicans.

The 2012 election is a lot different for the Republicans. Much like how the Democrats swept through the house and senate in 2006 the Republicans embarrassed the Democrats in the 2010 House elections. There is no War in Iraq looming on the backs of the Republicans. Now, Obama has the economy on his back. This is what I think the key issue is: the economy. If the economy continues to improve, which includes jobs, the housing market, and lower gas prices I think Obama will win. If the economy continues to improve slowly like it is, I think Obama will not win.

Some analysts are already saying Obama has won this election while others say he has already lost it. I’m sure in the weeks and months to come we will see more photos of Obama with turbans and more accusations about his birth certificate, but let’s hope this election spends less time on that and is more focused on the issues.

what does mary have to do with palm sunday?

2011-04-18T18:15:00.002-04:00

We decided to try the week 3 church again this week. Thefirst time we visited there was a guest preacher. We also went to thetraditional service. This time we went to the contemporary service – which wewere told would have more kids, and indeed it did. It was Palm Sunday so younever know what to expect. Will the church have a normal service or does thechurch do something extra special that day? From what I could tell this churchhad a little of each.

We got to see the interim pastor on Sunday, who was not therethe first time we visited. He looks like Barney Frank, a House Democrat inMassachusetts, and if we heard him the first week we may not have come back.His sermon - certainly nothing to write home about. Even his closing words leftus unsure if the service was really over besides the fact that the congregationgot up and began conversing with the people around them.

There were a few odd things to note. First, the church ishaving a dramatic reading for their Good Friday service. Nothing unusual there,except that it was noted in the bulletin and by the pastor that Mary of Magdala- one of the dramatic people being betrayed - is believed by some to have beenthe wife of Jesus. A common misconception by Christian skeptics and Da VinciCode enthusiasts at best, it was no place to bring up such an idea. Also oddwas the fact that the pastor kept saying “common era” (C.E.), also a phraseused by people who can’t stand the phrase A.D., a Christian calendar that theWestern world still uses today.

There was still some liturgy, which Jess and I both like. Acommon prayer was said aloud by everyone. There was also a good skit that wasput on by the kids at the church, and a song by the praise band. All-in-all westill like the church, but some concerns were raised at this service. If theconcerns are common practice we will probably move on, if not we do really likethe church.

42... and counting

2011-04-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

Once again it is Jackie Robinson Day. This year it correspondswith the week of the 150^th anniversary of the beginning of the CivilWar. I’m sure the slaves didn’t think that African Americans would still bebreaking the race barrier in 1947, over 85 years later. It wasn’t just thatRobinson was a difference maker on the field, but also off the field.

family church, as opposed to that other kind of church

2011-04-06T19:45:00.000-04:00

Week four we decided to try our second church in Plymouth.The first week in Plymouth didn’t go so well (you can find more on that here).We were hoping this week would be better. We walked in, were greeted, andhanded an eight-page bulletin, front and back.

Although we had already been to this denomination in aprevious week we added it to the list to create a better variety of churches.Unfortunately, this time neither Jess nor I liked this church. There wasnothing particularly bad about it, but there was nothing particularly goodabout it.

One thing that was unusual is that every first Sunday thechurch has a “family” service. Many churches have family services a few times ayear. I am sure others even haveit as frequently as this church. This Sunday there wasn’t even a normal sermon,just a homily for the children. I have never been to a church that has totallytaken out the sermon in a service.

This church usually full of Catholic rejects and delinquentsseemed as if it wasn’t full of that particular population but rather as if theyjust had the wrong sign on the outside. Lots of kneeling, sitting, standing,sitting, kneeling, back to standing. For an hour and a half. You get the point. It just wasn’t forus.

On the bright side, the two reverends seemed nice, smart,even funny. But, it just didn’t feel right. After church we shook off our shoesand left.

baby money

2011-04-01T20:00:00.001-04:00

Families are much smaller today than they use to be.Families with eight or ten children were much more common a few decades ago.Today, it is very rare to see a family that size. Well, unless it is ontelevision of course. Why? I believe one of the main reasons is money. Thatisn’t the only answer. Otherwise we would see a lot of millionaires with hugefamilies. Culture also has a lot to do with it too.

While at the midwife’s office waiting for our appointment to start, I grabbedone of those parenting magazines. Browsing through it I noticed a surveyquestion that asked, “How many kids would you have if money wasn’t anissue?” Two things were clear bythe results. 1) People still didn’t want ten kids, but 2) they did want more.

Now faced with the reality of fatherhood I will also befacing the challenge of providing for a child. Like the majority of peoplethese days we can’t afford to have one person at home to take care of the baby.Therefore, the challenge is to find not only someone you can afford to pay totake care of your baby, but also someone whom you trust.

I wasn’t worried at first when thinking about the idea ofdaycare. At least not until I actually started looking into pricing. First, welooked into the locations that are convenient to where my wife works. It wentfrom disconcerting, to frightening, to down-right stressful. The prices werejust way beyond what we could afford. It wasn’t looking good. Then I called anational daycare chain. My wife let me call this one. It was a hundred moredollars than the local places. Worrimentstarted to set it. Not even half way through the pregnancy and I thought I mayhave to bring the baby into work with me. (Later Jess would point out to methat the national daycare chain is more because they pay their workers more andpay for their benefits, etc.)

I knew the search was getting desperate when Jess started toget worried. But, all was not lost. Not even a week later a co-worker of Jess’gave her a daycare listing from a local paper. Jess gave a call immediately.Not only is the daycare affordable but it is close.

journey for a church: week 3

2011-03-27T17:20:00.001-04:00

In the age of unwelcoming churches, have congregationsturned a corner? With last week off, this week we attended a new church inSandwich that, much like the first church and the End Times church, was welcoming. Surprising indeed. The churchis not a seeker church – it’s in fact a church that has been around since thefirst Europeans arrived in Massachusetts and rich in history.

We went to the traditional service. Like many mainstream‘traditional’ churches it had a welcome, liturgy, and hymns. Some uniqueaspects of the service were a liturgical prayer and a Lenten moment thathappens each week. There weren’t any awkward moments and as visitors we weren’tasked to raise our hands.

Of course the one problem about visiting different churchesis that when you arrive you aren’t sure whether the service or the regularpastor will be there that particular Sunday. This week the normal pastor wasgone and a visiting pastor gave the sermon. The sermon was wonderful, but itdoesn’t reflect the regular week-to-week service. Although I suppose if thevisiting pastor had a bad sermon it may reflect badly on the church.

We really enjoyed the worship. But we will have to revisitthe church to get a better overview during a regular Sunday. Look for a blog onthis church again in the future. Next time we go we will be attending thecontemporary service. We’ll be looking for little kids (none of which were atthe traditional service) and the regular pastor.

life

2011-03-22T10:00:00.003-04:00

slashing budgets, slashing ecology

2011-03-19T15:20:00.000-04:00

With all this talk about slashing budgets whether it is ona national, state, or town level – public funding is taking a big hit. Why? Well,simply so we don’t leave a huge gaping hole in our children’s children’spockets. One problem with this thought though, or at least a bit of irony, isthat many of the same people who are trying to reign in government and publicspending are calling for the opposite in the way we look at our futureecologically.

And no, this isn’t just about greenhouse gases or windturbines – although that is a big part of it. The way we are tearing apart theearth our children’s children’s pockets may be nothing to worry about if thereis no land or resources to be had, whether it is that the land is gone throughbuildings, houses, giant malls, etc, or through laws (or lack thereof) thatallow companies and people to destroy and pollute the land at will.

Through over-killing of such animals as the beaver,buffalo, and fish, many animals are scarce, some even extinct because of humaninteraction. Here on Cape Cod a huge complaint is in regard to fishlimits. They complain but don’t acknowledge their ancestors overfishing fromthe past making their living more difficult today. The laws for catch limitsare there, in fact, not to keep companies and people from making as much moneyas they can, but indeed to make sure that their children can continue to fishin the future.

Once upon a time places where animals and birds could be seenin abundance were plenty. What can you see in those places now? Homes,grocery stores, or even abandoned strip malls. Sprawl is everywhere and iscausing a gaping hole in our children’s children’s ecological future.

journey for a church: week 2

2011-03-14T19:45:00.002-04:00

It was supposed to be an easy Sunday – a mainstream church, a contemporary service – no surprises, right? At least that is what we thought. We arrived early and were able to have our pick of any seat. It didn’t look like the seats were going to fill, but eventually many of the seats in the pews began to fill as the first worship song began.

It was a little awkward at first. The worship band was not singing loudly and neither was the congregation. After the first song though the worship band seemed to be a little more comfortable and everything seemed normal – sort of. Then the worship leader began to walk down the aisle. Back and forth singing the whole time. I was afraid to stop singing or give eye contact in fear that I might get called out by the worship leader to sing louder or to start jumping up and down and raising my hands like he was. Luckily, eye contact was not given.

After avoiding awkwardness was the welcome time for visitors. The pastor asked for any new visitors to raise their hands. So awkwardly enough both of us raised our hands and received a small welcome packet.

Then – the sermon. On the projector screens appeared up a collage of photos – a little kid with a bowl of water, a couple other photos, and an Apache helicopter. You might be wondering, “Why an Apache helicopter?”. It might become clear when I explain that with the four photos is also an intimidating caption - “A Study in The End Times”.

The first week of Lent seemed like an easy enough Sunday to attend. But alas this church decided to coincide Lent with a series on the end times. It went from awkward to just plain bad. With the word rapture being thrown around I was holding myself down from walking out of the church. In all fairness there were a couple points made during the sermon that were theologically correct – from there urg. At the end the pastor went on to describe that if you didn’t do your devotions, prayers, tell your friends about the gospel each day, and if you instead decide to make up your own gospel, when you come to a huge crisis in your life the cross you’ve “made” won’t be big enough to withstand this huge crisis. Compare that analysis with the idea that it is God and not yourself who is in control. The pastor’s sermon completely contradicts the knowledge that love does indeed conquer all, and that forgiveness is not something that you can count (Matthew 18:21-22).

We walked out disappointed, much like the rainy day in Plymouth.

journey for a church: week 1

2011-03-08T17:45:00.004-05:00

I’mnot sure where to begin. So, I’ll begin with the ending.

Aswe left the beautiful red doors of church number one I was pleasantly surprisedthat I was not disappointed by the service. In actuality, I was surprised howinviting the church was among other things. I think it helped that it was sunnyand 60 for the first time in months. It also helps that the town of Sandwich isa quaint Cape Cod town. How did we get here?

Itdid not start with a new house (but it did end there). No, it started with thefact that driving to Attleboro every Sunday just became too far and too timeconsuming. In fact, Attleboro is not even the closest Evangelical CovenantChurch to our house in Wareham. Except, we had already established arelationship with the church before moving down to Wareham, and it was not thatmuch further than the other Covenant churches that were a little closer.

Theidea of actually becoming a part of the church was just not possible from thatfar away. Additionally, with the looming of a baby on board (along withgasoline prices escalating again) we knew we had to switch churches. It wasnice to go on Sunday morning, but simply impossible to go any other day of theweek. We decided to look for a collectionof churches near our new home. We came up with eight churches in Plymouth andSandwich. Later, the list was cut to seven because one of the churches hadmentioned only supporting men in leadership on their website.

Overthe next several weeks we will be going from church to church trying to find ahome. I won’t be giving out specific church names or denominations until theend, but hints will be in each blog. The series will go eight weeks (I’ll haveto find an additional church to make it eight again). However, the series couldend or be extended if we find a church or if the eight weeks are not enough.

Church1

Itwas a warm sunny day in Sandwich on Sunday. It made it easy to walk to thesmall New England church from the side street where we had parked the car. Wecould see the big red doors of the entrance as we crossed the street to thechurch.

Wewalked in to see that the procession of clergy were making their way to thefront for the beginning of church. Everyone was singing the first song. Asimple wrong turn to the church had made us a minute too late. The churchobviously started right on time. After the procession went past we (and a fewothers that did not quite make it on time) stepped into the sanctuary to findour seats.

Fromthe beginning it was obvious and no surprise that this was high church, withstrong emphasis on liturgical worship. This didn’t faze either of us. Well, notuntil I was singing along with the first hymn and noticed that there were notitles in the hymnal. Finding this peculiar I moved on.

Onto the sermon. The sermon can be make-it or break-it with me. In thiscircumstance I was not persuaded either way. The pastor gave great examples offaith and one not so good example, Augustus Caesar. It wasn’t gripping withtheological problems, but it didn’t get me off my seat in awe. All in all itwas good.

Atthe end was communion. Not just communion, but communion with a wafer. It wasdifferent and not how I would do it. However, they do have communion each week,which is missed out, even in most Covenant churches. At the end of the servicewe had a very friendly couple come up to us and talk for a few minutes. This aswell does not happen in many churches. A welcome sign from a welcoming church.

the great stresses in life

2011-03-03T21:30:00.002-05:00

Iremember in 8th grade (or maybe it was 9^th) learning about the Holmes andRahe stress scale in health class. I remember this long list of events,some horrifying, some not so horrifying. Of course they have two lists: one foradults and one for non-adults. As a non-adult, I remember being able to list afew that were going on in my life at the time, like a change in school and somethat I had gone through in the past like the death of a family member. Years later, I am not sure I would haveguessed that I could have already buzzed through some of these stressfulsituations by this point in my life. This test is not just listed with badevents, but good and even great events. To this: over the next few months andthen in the years to come I will be sharing in two of these great events – homeownership and parenthood.

Oneis the greatest materialist achievement for most people. The other, thegreatest human achievement. They both involve stress, but they also both bringjoy. I hope to share some of these events in the months and years (dependingupon when blogs become archaic) to come.

Fornow enjoy the growing of life:

15 weeks

red state, blue state...

2011-03-02T21:15:00.006-05:00

I live in a blue state. But here on Cape Cod it’s a littlemore conservative. So much so that I frequently hear people say, “Oh, thatObama - he’s a jerk.” There’s no evidence surrounding the claims of course. Itis a mere comment after some extraneous other comment. You know, like liberalsexclaimed for five years – “There are no WMD in Iraq. Why are thousands ofpeople dying over this? Why are billions of dollars being spent over this? Bushis a jerk.”

The biggest complaints I hear though are why liberals areliberals: healthcare, environment, education, and difference on economicviewpoints. Point number one: healthcare. “Obama’s a jerk because he is takingmy hard-earned money and using it for someone else’s healthcare.”Unfortunately, in today’s society not everyone is able to afford healthcare.Should they not be able to have check-ups every year? Should they forgo thesame rights as people who can afford healthcare? Do we dare play Darwin withother human beings?

Point number two: environment. “Obama is a jerk because hewon’t let us drill every inch of the United States to unearth oil.” Well, asRepublicans often ask their Democratic colleagues, ‘Do you want ourgrandchildren and great-grandchildren left when this debt?’ Well, do you wantto leave Plant Earth destroyed for an unsustainable resource for ourgrandchildren and great-grandchildren?

Point number three: education. “Obama is a jerk because hepays those teachers so much money.” With Republican Governors and state rungovernments it looks like people may not have much longer to complain aboutteachers’ pay being “too high”. Although, I find it ironic that the rally cryto rein in teachers’ pay is led by Glenn Beck who made $32 million in 2009. IfGlenn Beck can make $32 million for speaking on the radio and tv, I think it isokay for a teacher to make $30-40K for educating our children.

For me, I am thankful that Obama hasn’t found any yellowcake. I’m thankful thathe sees education as a key to our future, and thankful that his wife finds educatingpeople about healthy eating a key issue as well.

in search of a meadow

2011-02-25T19:30:00.003-05:00

2010 was a good birding year. I had plenty of life birds.Over 70 according to my ebird.com records. (A few of those I have seen previousto entering my bird sightings into ebird.) Even so, a huge number. Last year Isought out four specific birds: three birds, however, completely eluded me. TheHorned Lark, Eastern Meadowlark, and any species of owl. Technically I heard anowl – but never saw it. The Horned Lark and Eastern Meadowlark I did not evencome close to. These two birds love prairies, meadows, and open fields - featuresthat in many parts of the community are endangered because of the everexpansion of human growth.

How do I plan to find these two birds? Persistence. I hopeto be able to see some by tracking the sighting of the two birds in the area andscoping out fields in town. I’ve got 309 days to find these two pesky birds.

help wanted, no benefits, no pay

2011-02-22T15:23:00.005-05:00

The Middle East is making history - erupting over freedom and economic opportunities. Egypt, among other countries, is fighting for its jobs and rights. The U.S. - who since 1776 has declared freedom and democracy - is fighting for the same thing in Wisconsin today. In Wisconsin, and soon to be other parts of the U.S., teachers will be fighting for their rights like Egyptians have been for weeks (many for years).

For years teachers have been at the bottom of the pay scale. Also for years unions have been fighting for teachers’ rights. Now, in Wisconsin the Republican Governor is trying to take on the last great union – teachers. The economy is bad and we are attacking teachers? Forget the banks. Forget the Bernie Madoff’s. Forget the housing problem that is not even close to being fixed. Forget unemployment. Forget China taking over the #1 spot in the world. Forget country after country ranking better than the U.S. in education. When did teachers become the problem for our economic woes? Why do teachers get to sacrifice when banks get a bailout? Knocking down the teacher is not going to improve our educational system.

Somehow, by a miracle, the universal healthcare law passed through the government. Our society is proving though, through the TEA Party and budget crunching Republicans that indeed we don’t want universal healthcare. As a society we would rather have a few of us pay really well for excellent healthcare while the rest don’t have any. This fight in Wisconsin is the same fight. A fight to continue to have great public education throughout the United States so good teachers can continue to teach everywhere. We can’t continue to have teachers sacrifice while the Bernie Madoff’s of the world are ruling the world. Otherwise our education is going to be great for a few of us while the rest of us don’t have any.

where is the back door: a short story of faith

2011-01-27T20:45:00.005-05:00

When it comes to Christianity these days, non-Christians don’t seem to be too enthused at the idea of Christianity. Faith and belief in a higher power - yes. The bureaucracy, hypocrisy, and all the guidelines, etiquette, guilt, etcetera that comes with it is just plain not worth it. As someone that does believe, I have seen all these things first hand and it’s not pretty. In fact, it is quite ugly and disturbing. When I see this or when these acts have been done to me I’ve stepped back from the institution or person(s) on numerous occasions. As a person who believes, I move on from the establishment, because I know the establishment is not what I believe in. But, for the non-believer is there a back door that they can enter because the front door has been closed to them?

At the end of my junior year I was criticized heavily by one of the Intervarsity leaders about not being any good at evangelizing and not bring enough people to Intervarsity’s Large Group on Thursday nights (Large Group was an evening of worship similar to a Sunday church service). I remember feeling that I had failed at being a good Christian and that I was not doing enough to be one.

Three years earlier I was at the beginning of the height of my involvement with Intervarsity. With no job my freshman year I had plenty of free time. I used my free time to attend prayer groups multiple times a week, was mentored by an upperclassman, attended two Bible studies, and ironically went out to do campus evangelism once a week. My second semester I was added to the Large Group planning team and was groomed to be a small group leader my sophomore year.

My sophomore year I did more of the same (minus the planning team) and lead a Bible study for one of the freshman groups. The small group never really expanded beyond six people. A low number compared to some, but it was a solid loyal group who attended the whole year.

My junior year I started a job so that I could pay for gasoline to get around town and pay for books. I also began some leadership roles in the residence hall I was living in. I still attended prayer groups and Large Group, but my time was now being mixed between Intervarsity, the residence hall, and work. It may look like my leadership role diminished with Intervarsity, and it probably did. That year I helped lead a book study through Intervarsity called More Than Equals. It challenged me, the people who attended, and it challenged Intervarsity. Many people in Intervarsity found race and faith something that was not important or core to their faith. I found it right at the center of my faith as an American Christian. That dilemma would come up again and again my junior year.

At the end of my junior year Intervarsity decided to completely change the way they did things on campus. Book groups like the one I lead my junior year were left on the side for a different method of grooming Christians. Large campus-wide prayer groups through Intervarsity were left out for individual small groups in the residence halls to decide whether they did them or not. The idea was modeled after a successful small group that did Bible study, prayer group, evangelism all within their group. The group was very productive and grew exponentially. With little success of the new model my senior year I deemed the change as a failure.

With leadership roles changing and only small group leaders as the main leaders, as a senior I was left without a senior role and the support of Intervarsity leadership. This leads us back to the beginning when I was left at the end of my junior year felling like a bad Christian. I still remember the talk quite clearly. I think the conversation was meant to get me moving and to make sure everyone I had ever had contact with made it to an Intervarsity Large Group. In the end it made me feel like everything I had done and worked for in the three years on campus was for not.

My senior year I was less involved in Intervarsity than I had ever been. Prayer group was left to the small groups and ours didn’t have one. So, there was no corporate prayer that year. There was no book club, because there was no interest for one. I rarely attended Large Group because of a coinciding class at the same time. All we had was a Bible Study and a poor one at that. I was disappointed at the (lack of) depth and focus the group had.

I did a lot of things through Intervarsity and it all ended with a short conversation at the end of my junior year. The issue had nothing to do with character or lack of service, or even a difference in belief system. These harsh realities of guilt and hypocrisy are real within Christianity and they are closing the front door to non-believers. Many people don’t even want to deal with Christianity - not because of what the beliefs are, but because of who the people are.

robot, must destroy

2011-01-18T22:45:00.003-05:00

With the Republicans changing the term from job killing to job destroying in reference to their "refutal" to the health care law in light of the recent events in Arizona, does that mean the Democrats can change their term from the human killing to the human destroying health care repeal bill?

man vs machine

2011-01-09T16:50:00.000-05:00

In the Terminator the cyborgs revolt against thehumans. Now in an increasing ageof technology the ideas from the movie Terminator are coming closer. Robots have been doing people’s jobsnow for decades. Just look at thecar industry and the decline of workers being replaced by robots. More recently, people have been makingrobots to give people messages, to teach in classrooms, and well just abouteverything – i.e. Google. Thedatabases on Google (and less reliable sources such as Wikipedia) are beginningto take regular jobs out of commission. For now people love it. They don’t have to buy a newspaper or watch the news at 5 o’clock. They can go online and find what theyneed instantaneously. A quick lookat the newspaper industry shows where technology and jobs are going.

The real question is when the war between humans and cyborgsbegins, will it be the cyborgs that start it, or will it be humans who revoltagainst cyborgs? With jobunemployment at nearly 10% and with more jobs being replaced by machines it’sonly time before humans begin revolting against their replacements. It’s only time before the war begins.

by the numbers: my cape cod morning commute

2010-12-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

A year and a half ago I wrote a by the numbers with my commute in Chicago. Below, my commute on Cape Cod.

15 minutes to get ready

1 stop sign to the office

10 lights to the office

28 miles to work

40 minute commute

a simpler rotary

2010-12-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

There’s something nostalgic about rotaries on Cape Cod. They resemble a simpler time when Cape Cod was at its height, and the Cape loves looking back at simpler times. Today, the rotaries represent exactly what the Cape is today – overcrowded in the summer and out-of-date every other waking moment of the day.

Whether they are overcrowded or out-of-date they are unique, just like Cape Cod.

guns, hunger, & eisenhower

2010-12-15T08:00:00.002-05:00

It’s December. Which means at the end of the month the Bush era tax cuts will either expire, or be extended. And if any Democrat wants to be reelected I am sure we will all see the tax cuts extended. But that’s enough about what a payroll tax or estate tax would do for some, and nothing for a whole lot more.

With all this talk about where everyone’s tax money is going, it made me ponder a quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower that I heard today: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

First, with the rising of the Tea Party, do we let tax money go toward defense, or toward people who don’t have food or shelter? Or, do we let those who cannot fend for themselves be susceptible to Darwin’s theory of evolution? Second, if we can move beyond the idea of killing off the weak, is Eisenhower right? Is the idea of ‘every gun…made’ theft from those who are hungry? Finally, can we bring justice to Eisenhower’s idea? Can we feed those who are hungry, warm those who are cold, and clothe those who are not?

merry christmas

2010-12-14T21:40:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone enjoys this holiday season.

a difference of opinion

2010-11-18T18:30:00.006-05:00

Oneof the biggest conversations on racism in my college sociology classes waswhether racism still existed. The professor would show the class forforty-five minutes how racism still existed today and how for people of colorit is harder to get a quality education, job, car, you name it, than someonethat is white. Of course the last five minutes of class a person whoraise their hand say “I grew up in a poor family and I pulled myself up by myboot-straps”, completely ignoring the discussion of the previous forty-fiveminutes.

Iused to think that person was just one person in a mix of an overwhelmingmajority of people who saw existing racism and wanted to do something about it. It seems as though racism, although still existing, was not as bad.

Andit’s not. There is no slavery or Jim Crow laws. But over the pastdecade or so persisting prejudice and overt racism against illegal immigrants(most coming from Mexico) and people of Middle Eastern decent (Muslim or not)is getting worse. Maybe it has been a big problem before that, but thisis my perspective. The classic case of this is from just last month whenNPR fired their news analyst Juan Williams, who on said on Fox News madeseveral blatantly prejudiced comments about Muslims.

I’mnot here to discuss whether NPR was right or wrong to fire Williams, butwhether we should be tolerating what Williams said, how he acted, and accept aculture that promotes racism against other human beings.

Althoughwhite people have mailed bombs through the mail, bombed world trade centers,and murdered hundreds of people in the United States there is no racialprofiling against white people – yet people today not only think but are actingto perform racial profiling for illegal immigrants and people of Middle Easterndescent to the point of detrimental heartless acts and death.

Itmakes me sick to my stomach the way we treat others in this country and peoplearound the world. Only education, awareness, and building relationshipswith people that are different than us will truly make the world a better place– a place full of peace and well being.

dogs and chickens

2010-11-17T22:00:00.004-05:00

A few years ago when he was caught for illegal dog fighting,the world turned on Michael Vick. He left football and went to jail. For most people it unearthed underground dog fighting that happenseverywhere in the United States. It also reinforced the fact that 99.9% of people think that dog fightingis wrong.

In the United States, cock fighting is also illegal. Much like dog fighting it is inhumaneand cruel to the animal. Like dogfighting, 99.9% of people find it wrong. However, that’s not the only inhumane thing that happens to chickenseveryday and almost all of us do nothing about it.

Most Americans, every time they eat chicken, don’t know howthe chicken was raised, fed, and treated from birth until mealtime. The chickens can be injected withdifferent hormones and fed food that fattens them rather than food that ishealthy. The chickens are kept inconfined dark places with no opportunity to walk. Many of the birds are even unable to walk. After the chickens are finally ready tobe processed and slaughtered they are transported, again in confined spaces,crammed into a semi by the hundreds.

It’s a quick overview of the inhumane manner in whichchickens are raised to be eaten. The chickens are not raised as chickens, but are processed more like abag of Doritos on the grocery store shelf. Why, as a people, do we find cock fighting immoral andillegal – where only a small numberof chickens die each year - but find it okay to treat thousands of chickenseach year inhumanly through the way they are raised?

It is not a question of finding cock fighting as somethingthat is good, because it is not. It is a question of this: why are we sitting around and letting ourchickens be treated so inhumanly without considering it to be immoral?

For more information on the treatment of chickens and otheranimals I recommend FastFood Nation and Food Inc (book& movie).

will the real news media stand up

2010-10-22T13:30:00.003-04:00

Juan Williams says NPR was just looking for an opportunity to fire him for being on Fox News. I say Fox News was just looking for an opportunity to attack a real fair & balanced news media.

my social commentary on the three tiers

2010-10-18T21:40:00.003-04:00

What tier are you on? Do you have an h or j extender? No, this isn’t some jargon for architecture or engineering. It’s my own made-up language fordifferent steps in life. Tiers are- of course - the different milestones in life that people reach. They include such things as graduatingfrom high school or college, getting a job, getting to sit at the adult tableat Thanksgiving, etcetera. Ofcourse through all the accomplishments we can really narrow it down to threetiers and two extenders. Tiers inAmerican life are the staples to existence. They are what make people, people. They are what set us apart from other people. The tiers are as follows (and I don’tthink there will be any surprises): singleness, marriage, and children. The extenders? They don’t define a person completely,but instead can set someone apart from another person. The h extender is for house, as in The AmericanDream. The j extender is for job, as in “I have a really great,prestigious, and/or well paying job”. Therefore, if person a ismarried and person b is married,but person b also has a higher paying job we therefore can conclude that personb is higher up in tiers. This is at the heart of being greenwith envy – this is at the heart of American culture.

The tiers start with singleness. Why? Because that is where everyone starts. And we all know we can’t move up at the adult table atThanksgiving until there is someone serious in our life. It doesn’t matter if we are twenty orforty we will be sitting with the seven and nine year olds until we are in arelationship. Singles are at thebottom. It’s almost a lower tierof civilization or an under-developed country. For example, the industrial revolution is less advanced thenthe modern age, or because America has golden roads and cars to drive them onwe are more civilized than other countries. That doesn’t make us more civilized of course, but that isnot the point.

Singles are friends with singles. Well, until a single is no longer a single when they becomemarried. Then they are on to tiertwo: marriage. In betweensingleness and marriage for many people is often an in-between phase:engagement. It can be hours andsometimes years, but most of the time it is just months. Engagement makes singles extremelyjealous and married people only look down on the wishful couple with contempt(and jealousy for their “new” love). It’s tier one, like elementary school is before high school. And once we are in high school we don’tdream about what we learned in elementary school. We look at how easy and simple it was in elementary school –and how difficult and demanding life is now in high school. The singles rarely mingle with themarried people. The phrase “thethird wheel” wasn’t coined for nothing. They can try of course and some of them do, but in the end the groupsare too divided. If the singlesdon’t move up into the next phase they will just fall behind, and be left downin the lower social Darwinism tiers.

Alas, most people avoid this fate eventually by gettingmarried and moving into phase two. By moving into phase two there is the instant gratification of knowingthat now you have surpassed the singles in tier one. The legal paper now states that you somehow know more aboutrelationships and what it means to be in a real committed relationship. The tier brings a notch of pride. You now cast off your single friends orpersuade them that they too should get married soon, and now make completelynew friends who are also at tier two. Now only married people are good enough. After a brief high, though, and finally “making it” to tiertwo, there is the sudden realization that all your new married friends (or nowold single friends now married) are moving on to tier three and leaving youbehind. Now the baby-makers instage three are no longer friends with you and are instead making friends withother baby-makers.

The stage once loathed and avoided at all costs by singlesis now being enviously looked upon. Once tier three is complete everyone is looking up to you. All knowledge about everything isknown. There are also twoadditional semi-tiers that can add to your tiers. At anytime in the three tiers, owning a home or having a jobwith status raises you above others in your own tier, and in many cases, caneven raise you above people in other tiers.

Now that I’ve established the tiers, I should state thatI’ve seen first-hand tiers one and two. I’m sure you’ve at least experienced some of the scenarios I’vedescribed above. It makes sensethat as you move through the various tiers – or backtrack – you find yourselfrelating most closely with others on the same tier. They alone know how it feels to deal with the difficultiesthat accompany singleness, the challenges unique to marriage, or the fears andjoys of becoming a parent. So,embrace the tier you are on. Andtry not to let the green-eyed monster get you down or up.

Written in conjunction with Jess

summer birding highlights

2010-09-27T17:45:00.002-04:00

The summer was full of birds. The warm summer months of July and August brought a hugevariety of shore birds, especially in August when the shore bird migrationstarts back down south. July wasnothing to write home about, but once August began the birds were almostfalling from the sky. Luckily,none were injured.

In the second week of August, the local bird club traveledto Fairhaven, Mass, along the coast to look for shorebirds. To our benefit it was low tide in themorning. Low tide is the perfecttime to look for shorebirds. Asthe tide goes out, it uncovers mudflats and - more importantly - an array ofcreatures that shorebirds like to eat.

The day was filled with a variety of shorebirds, whichincluded the sighting of over 40 SemipalmatedPlovers. Along with theSemipalmated Plovers were two Black-belliedPlovers, SpottedSandpipers, GreaterYellowlegs, Willets,Ruddy Turnstones,Sanderlings,LeastSandpiper, and a Dowitcher.

Also during the morning we saw a GreatBlue Heron, GreatEgret, SnowyEgret, GreenHeron, and a rare bird for the area: ajuvenile Yellow-crownedNight Heron.

With the many shorebirds, rare sightings, and life birds, itwas a great morning for birding.

Bird of the week: Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Life birds: Saltmarsh Sparrow, Spotted Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover,Sanderling, Least Sandpiper, Black-bellied Plover, and a Yellow-crownedNight-Heron

one trillion dollars: cue pinkie to mouth

2010-09-03T17:45:00.001-04:00

One trillion dollars is a lot of money. So much money that you could buyeveryone in the state of California a Subaru, and still have money leftover. Fox News has claimed thatthe Obama stimulus package will actually cost more than the eight-year Iraq War. These accusations, although mostdefinitely false, do assert that the stimulus bill is a lot of money – hundredsof billions of dollars. However, Idon’t think the stimulus bill is a good comparison to the Iraq war. I mean, the Bush Administration triedseveral stimulus packages, but those are not talked about in thecomparison. And of course we don’tknow what Republicans would have done if they had a majority in office. Maybe they would have implemented astimulus similar to the Bush Administration. The accusations about the stimulusseem to be more over politics than anything else. Similarly, the Democrats made an outcry over the Bushstimulus. In addition,Republicans, even if they did provide another stimulus, would not have spent asmuch money as the Democrats, right?

I think a better comparison would be to comparethe Iraq War with the new Health Care bill. Both are stated to cost around one trillion dollars. And both Democrats and Republicans seemto reprove the decision of the other. The choice is then between an unwinnable, unjustified, fake war, thatwas started under false pretenses of securing WMDthat never existed, or a bill that is helping millions of people have healthcare coverage that normally would not have it.

Now I am not going to get into all the reasons why peoplehate the Health Care bill. Youknow forcing people to have health coverage, a trillion dollars of tax payer’smoney going to “welfare health care patrons”, etcetera. Nor am I going to get into why theHealth Care Bill is good: it covers donut holes, pre-existing coverage, andgives people a chance to have health care when they’ve never had a chancebefore. Nope, not going to dothat. Just the basics. If you had one trillion dollars and youcould spend it on either the Iraq War or health care, which would youchoose? And no, the money couldn’tbe spent on option C - the improvement of public education. Or option D – not spending themoney in the first place. Then theAmerican taxpayers could do what they do best – spend the money on themselves.

america the beautiful

2010-08-31T10:30:00.002-04:00

As many border walls “we” want to build, laws to enact, and rallies at the Washington Mall “we” want to hold: this will always be my America.

land of the free, well for some of us anyway

2010-08-24T11:15:00.006-04:00

There is a war going on. And it is not in Iraq or Afghanistan. It is going on right here in the United States. No, it is not immigration legislature. That’s not a war, it is just descendents of former poor immigrants refusing to let current immigrants into the country. Racism apparently did not end with the Civil War, Civil Rights, or with the election of a Black president. The war is actually going on in New York City and the issue is over whether to build a Muslim Center near Ground Zero.
Nearly nine years ago 9/11 happened over terrorists who were - and are still - upset over Western and Christian ideals. Just in the news recently a few doctors overseas were not allowed to continue their practice because the authorities thought they were Christians trying to proselytize. Once the powers-that-be figured out that they were not Christians, just citizens trying to be doctors, they let them continue without any problems. Forget freedom of religion.

In a country that demands freedoms to do just about everything, much of the country wants to take that same freedom from other Americans in the form of not allowing them to build a Muslim Center in New York City. In a country that prides itself above everyone else for its laws on freedom - especially freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, religion, etcetera – it is not allowing freedom of religion to its own citizens.

It is ironic – in a horrible, awful way. A country that was founded on freedom over 230 years ago, who fought for freedom, who sat on buses and had sit-ins for freedom now has many people who want to stop fighting for that right. They essentially want to eliminate the freedom of religion for some of our citizens – the very thing that we claim as a country that makes us different.

The Muslim Center is bigger than bricks and mortar. If it is not allowed to be built any claims of freedom will be a hoax, our progressions as a society will be a hoax, and bringing freedom to other countries will be a hoax. The foundations of freedom of 1776 were stained with the blood of Native Americans and Slavery, the Civil War stained with decades of Jim Crow Laws and Exclusion, the Civil Rights stained by a continued ambiguous racism. The freedom of today seems to be for some, but not all.

this drink you are about to consume is hot

2010-08-18T14:45:00.008-04:00

Caution: the beverage you are about to consume is HOT! Yup, it’s true that when you don’t order iced coffee you should expect it to be hot. But of course we live in a world where someone can win a lawsuit for dumping hot coffee all over themselves and being rewarded money from the company because the cup did not say, “Caution: the beverage you are about to consume is HOT!”
It got me wondering. What other products could I stop using my brain stop using common sense and be rewarded money for the consequences?
Here’s my list:
Those pesky toothpicks in your sandwich. How has someone not sued over this yet? A sharp object plunged into your food to keep it together. The brown of the wood usually blends in with the brown of the sandwich bread. And the little color at the top of many toothpicks is hardly an indicator that there is a sharp object in my food. This seems to be a total oversight by the toothpick companies. I recommend that they start printing on their toothpicks, “Caution: Do not eat me.”

And what about some decent signage while merging onto the highway? Why hasn’t anyone sued over this? On the Cape the on-ramps to the highway are twisted just right so that cars are unable to build up enough speed to really merge onto the highway at a safe speed that is comparable to that of the highway traffic. Many times cars are merging at 30 mph and immediately merging onto the highway instead of building speed in the merge lane before merging onto the highway. This causes many drivers to dangerously slam on their brakes or swerve into the other lane to avoid a crash. Clearly, if someone is trying to merge onto a highway at 30 mph they don’t realize that they are actually entering one. Perhaps they have lost their way. Signs should be posted stating, “Highway – Caution!”

There are a lot of bald men walking around. Many of those men have tried products to try and grow the hair they have lost. Of course we all know that it doesn’t work. How do we know? Well, we wouldn’t see so many bald men if it worked. Why hasn’t anyone sued over this? There isn’t a disclaimer similar to those on psychic commercials that state at the bottom, “For entertainment purposes only.” Why not have the same disclaimer at the bottom of the hair products and for the commercials on television?
Gas stations seem to be a hot bed for stupidity. I’m not sure what people are thinking when they pull up to a gas pump with a lit cigarette and then continue to handle gasoline. Sometimes you see signs that say “no smoking”. But maybe people don’t understand why they shouldn’t be smoking. I figure that instead gas stations should be posting big signs with images of fire and explosions and in big bold letters that say, “Smoking Causes Explosions”.

Speaking of unhealthy habits. You never see any warning signs posted at fast food restaurants. Nothing that says, “these foods are unhealthy” or “warning: these food may clog arteries and cause heart attacks”. There aren’t even calorie counts on foods that have hundreds of calories, or notes about how much fat, sodium, or cholesterol is in each item. The only thing that is listed, of course, is the low price that beats out the prices of the fruits and vegetables of the grocery store next door.

Hot beverages already have a warning. What about cold beverages? I mean, if when we order a hot coffee we need a little warning on it that says the beverage is hot, why not have a warning that says the beverage is cold when we order a cold beverage? Imagine the potential of people suing coffee shops when they spill an iced coffee all over themselves and discover that not only is the beverage cold, but wet. Their two hundred dollar suit or dress is now covered in coffee and now they are cold and wet. My recommendation? They should add to cold beverages, “The beverage you are about to enjoy is cold and wet.”

Finally, everyone has one of the most powerful tools on earth. I urge everyone to “Use them at your own risk.”

new pages

2010-07-16T21:30:00.004-04:00

The two new page links (community and maps) are in the works and hopefully will be completed in the next few days. For now they are under construction.

three generations, one passion: maine trip part 3

2010-07-16T21:20:00.006-04:00

[This is the third and final installment of my birding trip to Maine. You can find the first two here and here.]

The next morning we relaxed and ate breakfast as we discussed where we should go to see a few more birds before making our way down the highway home. A few places jumped out, but were too far out of the way to visit. We decided to stop at Mattawamkeag Wilderness County Park, a campground and picnic area. It wasn’t too far off the highway and still north enough to possibly see the Cape May.

Before we left the cabin for the weekend I would get the best singular view of a bird all weekend.  We decided to go for one more trip about the area of the cabin to see what we could get for the morning.  As we made our way up from the lake to the cabin following breakfast there was a flurry of activity from a group of Chickadees high up in the trees nearby.  Mike decided to see if he could phish them down to get a closer look, and see if any other birds would come to see the action too.  The Chickadees and Red-Breasted Nuthatches immediately began to come closer.  They made their way from the tops of the trees to 3/4^thsof the way down and began to make their way closer from 40 yards to only 20 yards away.  The Chickadees began making more racket: “chicka-dee-dee-dee, chicka-dee-dee-dee”.  The birds began to swarm around us to see who the invaders were.  They began to fly down to branches only slightly higher than our heads and only feet away.  A cluster of ten Chickadees and a half-dozen Red-Breasted Nuthatches swarmed us.  A Pine Warbler way off in the distance also began to make its way closer along with a Blackburnian Warbler, with it’s fiery orange and black face that was close enough to clearly see with the naked eye.  Out of the whole trip this was clearly my favorite part.  As the birds realized that a predator was not present or, at least, had flown off, they made their way back up into the tree-tops.  And we headed out to the road to see what could be found across the street.

With that came the unmistakable double drum and quick flight into the woods of the Pileated Woodpecker.  We followed and drummed on the trees with a rock to see if it would come closer. After a few tries there was no response.  It had flown off.  Another bird however flew into sight – a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  It’s easily distinguished by its call and white-striped back that differentiate it from a Hairy Woodpecker.  After everyone got a good view of the bird and realized we were being eaten by mosquitoes we headed back to set out for the day.

Finally on our way home we drove south toward the park.  Arriving at the park - like everywhere in Maine – when we got there we had to drive down an extensively windy dirt road to get to our destination.  After about fifteen minutes of driving (which we later realized was only about 1/3 of the way into the park) we decided to stop at the side of the road and meander into the woods to see what we could find.  What was the most random stop of the whole trip ended up being one of the best birding opportunities of the weekend.  We could hear birds everywhere.  Black-throated Green Warblers were singing in every direction, along with Ovenbirds.  We spotted our first and only Eastern Wood-Pewee of the trip.  (You know the bird that sounds like, “pee-ah-wee”.)  We tracked down a Nashville Warbler by sound, but were never able to grasp the bird in our binoculars.  It would elude us again further down the road.  Later actually in the park we would see a Scarlet Tanager.  It would only be a few minutes later after the Tanager that it began to rain.

The rain at first was drivable.  Then it began to fall harder and harder until I found myself looking from the backseat out the windshield unable to see anything.  We were looking for signs for I-95 and ended up missing our turn.  As we turned around I suggested that maybe we stop for a while until the rain slowed down.  Ed was determined to keep going.  We made our turn, and in front of us (or at least what we could see) was a bridge.  It’s not the scariest time I have ever driven over a bridge, but it was a close second and looking out the front I was unsure how Ed was able to see anything.  We thankfully crossed the bridge safely and decided it would be a good time to stop for awhile.  After the rain subsided we were on our way again in search of the highway headed south to Massachusetts.

We stopped for lunch and realized that we had been away from civilization for the duration of our trip.  We were now entering civilization again.  Stores everywhere, people everywhere, stuff everywhere.  It was a wake-up call.

After lunch we moved south again.  For the weekend we were at around 65 different species found in Maine for our trip.  Our goal for the trip was 72.  We knew we could get a couple more before we hit the New Hampshire border, but we began to realize that if we didn’t stop at one more place we would not reach our goal.  And at this point - missing the Cape May - we all wanted to get to our goal.  We grabbed maps and begin to look for a place to stop before crossing the state border.

Cathy noticed a small wildlife refuge in Wells just north of the New Hampshire border.  It’s near the ocean so we figured we might be able to see some shore birds to add to our list.  We pulled off the highway, drove a few miles, took a couple wrong turns, and eventually turned into the parking lot.

At this point it’s getting late in the evening, so it turns into speed birding.  Spot. Go.  Spot.  Go.  Mike spotted a Willet and Tern from afar.  Then a Killdeer was spotted.  Then a White-breasted Nuthatch began to call.  What was a spot and go ended up being a real birding experience.  We spotted what we thought were two Snowy Egrets, but were not sure.  They flew out of view, so we frantically walked through the trail to another open area and got another view of them – we confirmed the Snowy Egrets.  Their bright yellow feet could be spotted from even far away.  Eventually we reached our goal and more.  As we were completing the last leg of the trail toward the car we observed a couple Eastern Phoebes learning their call, “phoe-be”.  We left Maine satisfied, but unfulfilled thanks to the Cape May.  The trip was a success.  It was three generations of birders from different walks of life all with one passion: birding.

up the mountain: maine trip part two

2010-07-13T18:25:00.001-04:00

[If you have missed part one of my trip up to Maine go to my July 1 entry.]

After relaxing for a little bit with our generous hosts we had trout stuffed with crabmeat.  Before leaving Massachusetts we imagined that we would be sleeping in a small fishing cabin in our sleeping bags on the floor.  When we arrived we were treated like royalty with everything from delicious food and drink to the comfortable sleeping arrangements, to the view of lake.  We set our plans for the next day and went to bed early in preparation for a long day of birding.

We packed our bags full of water, granola bars, bug spray, and bird books and set out for Baxter State Park at first light.  After leaving the cabin and driving down the dirt road we quickly realized we were not going to make it to the park at 7:00 a.m. as we had hoped.  Getting to the park late, the park rangers took down all of our pertinent information and let us journey through the park. On our way to the parking lot luck was on our side as a Ruffed Grouse went scampering across the road in front of us.  Was it to be a sign for a successful day ahead?

As we got out of the car and began to scope out the area we could see American Robins, Downy Woodpeckers, and Cedar Waxwings fly-catching on a tree.  Then Mike heared "che-BEK" and immediately started walking towards a big oak tree.  Mike already knew what the bird was, and also knew that he had never seen one before (and, as it turns out, I've never seen one before) – a Least Flycatcher.  With its distinctive call, eye-ring, and nervous tail flick it can be easily distinguished from similar flycatchers.  After a few minutes Mike still couldn't find the bird.  And after a few more minutes we moved on.  We moved to some more birds calling on the other side of the camp area.  After finding a few birds the "che-BEK" was still calling to us.  We gave it one more try.  After increasing frustration at not being able to find the bird through the leaves I finally spotted it through a tiny hole between some branches.  I called everyone over to find it.  The hunt for the Least Flycatcher was over.

We gathered up our things and followed the trail north towards Katahdin. We heard Black-Throated Green Warblers everywhere and an elusive Winter Wren, which could be heard, but not seen.  The first gem of the park came next – the Bay-Breasted Warbler, an uncommon warbler whose chestnut throat makes it unique to other warblers.  After that the warblers kept coming: the Black-Throated Blue Warbler, Common Yellow-Rumped Warbler, and Common Yellowthroat all made an appearance.  After a couple hours up the trail we were finding lots of birds, just not the one we came for.  We took a little break to re-fuel and then head back town to hopefully find the Cape May.

On our way down it was unusually quite until we heard a "tee tee tee" in the distance.  Was it the Cape May?  We quickly tried to find the bird, but it was quickly apparent it was deeper into the woods.  Venturing further in we could see flashes of a bird, but nothing clear.  After a while we weren't sure if it had flown away or was just being quiet.  Then, the bird flew.  Mike and Ed saw it, or at least kind of saw it.  From their quick glance they came to the conclusion it was not a Cape May, but a similar sounding bird - a Golden-Crowned Kinglet.  We moved on.

Farther down we heard the same Swainson's Thrush that we had heard earlier going up the trail.  We had given up the first time, but this time we were devoted to finding it.  After a long while we found the bird.  Back and forth along the trail the bird would keep flying, hidden among the leaves on the trees.  It finally stopped on a bare branch for all of us to see.  For many of us it was our first sighting for this species.

After nearly seeing what we thought was a Cape May and find the Swainson's Thrush we gathered up lunch at a shaded picnic table and replenished our strength for the afternoon.  We talked and watched a brazen little chipmunk gather food around the picnic table.  After lunch we set our sights on a less elevated trail in hopes of more birds.  Our hopes of seeing the Cape May were depleted, but not extinguished.

We were to be thwarted again.  The afternoon trail would be sunnier and hotter, and the deer flies began to find us, unlike the morning hike.  After crossing a few bridges over rivers and bogs and stopping by a lake that over-looked the mountains the afternoon was pretty much a bust.  No new birds – and by the end we were tired and exhausted from all the hiking and heat.  The day was done.  Even though we were unable to find the bird of the day we still felt it had been a good day.  We had seen a Least Flycatcher, Swainson's Thrush, and a Bay-Breasted Warbler.

We headed home for the day and had a relaxing dinner.  After dinner Mike collapsed on his bed for a short nap, which ended up being for the rest of the night.  Cathy, Ed, and I were not satisfied with the day – we wanted more.  So, we decided to go owling.  The three of us grabbed flashlights and set out for the night.  Unfortunately, as we learned later, it is easier to find owls when you phish (phising is the act of luring a bird out with sound such a bird recording or bird call) them out.  We didn't know this and were unable to see or hear any owls.  Instead? We decided to walk down to a nearby pond and look for peepers who were making a lot of racket.  Once we were satisfied with the frogs we had found we headed in for the night hoping to find some more birds the next day.

independence day extravaganza

2010-07-04T15:25:00.004-04:00

My wife, who is a humble children’s librarian, could havedone many things as a career: a beautiful musical, a comprehensive editor, anauthor, or a producer. Here’s avideo she has produced for today, Independence Day. [Click full screen for enhanced enjoyment.]

we're not dorks, we're eccentric: maine trip part one

2010-07-01T16:00:00.002-04:00

[This is part one of my travels to Maine in search of the Cape May Warbler. Stay tuned for more.]

Itall started with a conversation about dorks.By the end, after rolling into the park-and-ride in Mattapoisett, it wasconfirmed that we were not dorks, but eccentric. Birding hasn’t exactly goneviral, but today it is a more acceptable hobby and is in fact a money-makingindustry with everything from a simple bird book to excursions around the worldto see birds. A few months ago a trip was set for the local bird club to driveup to BaxterState Park in Maine to try to see the CapeMay Warbler and other boreal birds. The trip consisted of four adults: theleader, Mike; Cathy and Ed who are an older couple, and myself. It was threegenerations of birders. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the trip except thatthere would be birds – and lots of them.

Weleft for Maine about 10:00 AM to have plenty of time to make it up to the cabinin Millinocket, just south of Baxter State Park. Baxter State Park consists ofthe highest point in Maine, Mount Katahdin, the application trail, andapparently an elusive little wood warbler, the Cape May. Although the park attracts people to itfor those reasons and may others, you clearly leave civilization just a few milesnorth of Bangor.

Onthe way up the four of us talked about birding. We talked about the birds wewanted to see: the Cape May, the Boreal Chickadee, Three-toedWoodpecker, Black-BackedWoodpecker, Grey Jay,NorthernGoshawk, and SpouseGrouse, among others. Then we began into birding stories. Cathy and Ed, whohave traveled all around the world because of work, have been able to see someof the most beautiful birds around the world, including birds in Zimbabwe,Thailand, and Peru, and they have the stories to go with them. They talkedabout everything from painting flies about the tree lines in the mountains ofColorado, to feeding elephants in Africa, to sleeping under the stars on theBaja Peninsula. They’ve seen hundreds of birds, yet don’t have a life-list.

What’s a life-list? It’s what Mike, the leader, has been adding to for over 40years of birding. Although birdershave different criteria for their life-list, it is basically the list of birdsthey have identified and seen. It usually consists of size, shape,flight-pattern, sound, habitat, color, behavior, etc. Mike is someone who is seen as an obsessive birder. He livesand breathes birds. As the leader, he makes it fun. He also has a keen ear forbird sounds that makes it easier to find a bird. Although Mike has an extensivelife-list, one bird that has eluded him throughout the years is the Cape MayWarbler, a bird that nests and is seen frequently in the black sprucetrees in Baxter State Park.

Wedecided to take a count as to how many birds we would see in Maine. The guessesranged from 74 to 90. I guessed an optimistic 80, a number that far outreachesany number I have seen in a day or trip. Once we crossed the border we staredcounting. The count started with common birds like the Crow and Grackle, andled into Tree and Barn Swallows. Even before we got to Millinocket we werebuilding quite a list. Before we arrived at the cabin, we decided to stop by arest area in East Millinocket. Next to a small lake we were hoping forsomething good. We got out of thecar and began to walk into the woods. Not much noise as we entered. One of thefirst things we would find, though, were Pileated Woodpecker holes, althoughthroughout the trip the big bird would elude us at least two times.

Wedidn’t hear anything in the woods and began to make our way out to see if wecould see anything near the lake. No luck there, either. As we went to the car, Mike hearedsomething. Hello, Cheerio. We walked slowly into the woods to locate what wewere hearing. We tracked where the bird was coming from. It was a blue-headedvireo (formerly known as the Solitary Vireo), and a first for me. It’s asmall beautiful songbird with, as its name says, a blue head. Next Mike spottedthe sound of a black-and-whitewarbler, which gave us a nice show of its stripped black and whitehead.

Aftergetting our fix, we stopped by the local Hannaford’s, picked up some grub forthe next few days and moved on to the cabin where we were staying for thenight. We followed our hosts forthe weekend who insisted on leading us to the cabin instead of giving usdirections to the place. We foundit odd, until we continued on un-marked dirt roads for the next half anhour. After traveling for whatseemed forever, we finally arrived.

birding in may

2010-06-17T23:45:00.001-04:00

May is one of the best months for birding, and this year was no different. Besides the more common migrant birds that start popping up like a catbird, other species have been in abundance such as the eastern towhee.

But the real treasures lay in the beauty of the inimitable migrant birds. The first and well known is the Baltimore oriole. Its song in my neighborhood is heard throughout the day and can often be seen in deciduous trees looking for bugs to eat. Its bright orange body makes it unique to other bland blackbirds, along with its song.

Along the shore the greater yellowlegs and American oystercatchers can often be seen. This month has also been full of new birds. I saw my first tern, which is like a slimmer sleeker gull. I also saw a prairie warbler for the first time, which I tracked down in the woods from its distinguishable ascending buzz-like song. Keeping in-line with warblers I got a fantastic view of a yellow warbler, which puts the yellow of an American goldfinch to shame.

The real show for the month though was the ruddy turnstone. It’s a small shorebird that’s brown, black, and white with a pattern that distinguishes it from any other bird. Its name of course comes from the bird often turning over stones looking for food. The second was a great view of a common yellowthroat, a beautiful warbler that is easily distinguished by its black mask on its head.

2010-05-24T23:00:00.000-04:00

Three years ago I asked myself why I work so far away. Three years later I am asking myself the same question. And like three years ago, the answer is the same: “I don’t know.” Although the answer is both more simple and more complicated than that.    The simple answer is this - I needed to pay the rent, cover bills, and buy food.    The complicated answer is well… more complicated.    After looking for months for a job in the city (and with no luck) I expanded my search to the outer reaches of the ‘burbs. I received a job and for two years I decided to reverse-commute quite a few miles to work. What is reverse-commuting? It’s commuting the opposite of everyone else of course. Everyone is commuting from the suburbs into the city. I was doing just the opposite - from the city to the suburbs.

Many people who live in a city can walk or bike to work. For those who have to go a little farther, some can take a bus or a train. If you’ve read this blog at all, you know that I try to be environmentally conscious. During my years of Chicago suburb employment, I looked into taking public transportation to work when carpooling was not an option. If I had done that it would have been over two and a half hours from the time I left my apartment until I arrived at work. And that’s a conservative estimate. With all the transfers each day from a bus to another bus, to a train to another train the cost adds up as well. And even if I did want to spend five hours commuting every day, the buses and trains don’t operate early enough to get me to work on time. So for two years, I was asked how I could drive that far each day. Believe me, it wasn’t easy. But I was committed to the city. I was dedicated to its ideals, its people, and its lifestyle. Ultimately, I was devoted to livingand working in the city. It never worked out. I moved out to the south coast of Massachusetts before I could ever find a new job in Chicago.

Now in southeast Massachusetts after six months of exhaustive job searching I found another job. It’s a commute again. The drive, although only a few miles shorter in distance than my last commute, is much easier. It seems shorter, it is less stressful, and is easier on the car. Plus, the scenery is much better than the back-end of Chicago suburbs and giant billboards.    Instead I drive through Cape Cod, along a tree-lined highway. Such is life, I presume. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to walk, bike, or have a short commute to work. Not all of us are able to get a job in the same town we live in (or the next town over). Sometimes we have to commute. Unable to find work in my own town to pay the bills –I have to commute. Although I think commuting should be kept as short and simple as possible, sometimes life isn’t that simple.

looking beyond prevention to quality of life

2010-05-14T09:20:00.006-04:00

[The latest post is a synopsis I've written up for Alzheimer's Services on the National Institute of Health (NIH), at the NIH State-of-the-Science Conference.]

At the end of April, the National Institute of Health (NIH), at the NIH State-of-the-Science Conference made public their independent report on preventing Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline. There were a few statements that came up again and again: "currently no evidence", "inadequate to conclude", "insufficient evidence", "quality of evidence was low", and so on. In a nutshell the studies that have been done on prevention of Alzheimer's are inconclusive and more randomized controlled trials (RCTs) need to be done (among others).

What the research panel states without hesitation is that 'Alzheimer's disease exacts a significant toll'. There is no doubt that the financial costs and the physical and mental well-being of the caregiver are being exhausted and need support. In the recommendations, the NIH state that caregivers are a valuable source of information about the daily function of the elderly person with Alzheimer's disease.

Not only are caregivers taking the brunt of the disease, but they are also one of the keys to better research in prevention. With the NIH concluding that the current research is inconclusive, the support of the caregiver is still the key to Alzheimer's disease and other related dementias. Support services such as respite, education, and support groups are still the life-blood of people with Alzheimer's disease, their caregivers, and their families. On the Cape & Islands this is especially true. We need to provide the best care possible for the 10,000 individuals living with a dementia.

We encourage you to read the full report by the National Institute of Health. FULL REPORT

massachusetts says no to yankee fans

2010-05-05T13:00:00.000-04:00

A recent copycat of Arizona’s immigration law, the State ofMassachusetts has enacted a new immigration law of its own. The bill, the first bill to ever beunanimously voted for by both democrats and republicans will go into effectnext week. The new law gives theright for any police office to ask any Joe (or Jane) Baseball if they are aYankees fan. If they are, thepolice officer is permitted to burn all of their Yankees gear and they aregiven thirty days to leave the state. The bill has already created buzz in other New England states. Possibly by the end of the year NewEngland states will no longer have to deal with “resident” Yankee fans. On the negative side of the recentbill, the New York governor has informed New York residents - and all Yankeesfans - that they are at liberty to boycott Massachusetts and any other statethinking of enacting this law. Inresponse the Massachusetts governor retorted, “This is a ‘Red Sox Nation.’ Goodluck.”

inherit the wind

2010-05-04T21:25:00.006-04:00

I am not completely soldon the idea of putting a massive windfarm in Nantucket Sound. A hundred and thirty wind turbines are in theworks to be constructed in Nantucket Sound, and would span 25 square miles. Iam not sure how the new turbines will affect the fishing industry and generalsafety of boaters, commercial and personal. Then of course how does it affectthe marine wildlife? Is this goingto affect the whales, or does something like this have no affect on theirbreeding and migration? And lastly, how does this affect local tribes? Is thewind farm impeding on a past or present agreement with tribes?

Of course the economicalcircumstances are always going to upset someone. Are energy bills going to go up, or are they going to godown? What will a hurricane do tothe turbines? What abouttourism?

Some of the local outcryseems to be over ruined viewsand a deterrent on tourism. If you go to Cape Wind’s website (thecompany who is supporting the wind farm) they have made photo-shopped photos ofwhat the turbines may look like from various points along the Cape andIslands. If these photos areanywhere close to being accurate then the turbines that are about 5 miles outwill in fact not ruin any Cape Cod sunsets. As for tourism – I think the turbines would only create abuzz instead of becoming a deterrent. Of course for others, imagining the idea of having to look at 130 windturbines is too much.

Beyond tourism andeconomics though lies a real issue: where the future of energy is headed. The same week that the wind farm wasapproved, one of the largest oil spills in U.S. history happened. It has even caused some to rethinkoffshore drilling. And just weeksbefore, the coal industry had another massive safety issue which resulted in 29deaths.

We are never going to beable to depend fully on wind power. But, if we are to ever progress in energy freedom, wind power needs tobe one of the foundations so that there can be less oil spills and fewer deaths,and substantially decreased dependence on fossil fuels.

2010-04-25T21:00:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday, in the rain, I traveled to East Wareham to a marsh to see which birds were also braving the weather. As I got out of the car, I realized it wasn’t just raining - it was cold. I wasn’t sure I was going to see much except for a few gulls. But then a red-breasted merganser flew into the marsh area. After that I saw my first great egret for the year. If you haven’t seen a great egret before, they are tall and white. They’re hard to miss. After the egret, I turned around to find an osprey sitting on a rock along the bay.

After the marsh, I traveled to Lyman Reserve, a reserve I pass everyday on my way to work to see what I could see there. Although it is a small reserve area I did see a few things of note. I saw an osprey hovering over the river trying to find breakfast. And although I didn’t see much besides a few song sparrows looking for food, in a small island along the river a mother goose was on its nest. Other birds I saw that day:

Canada Goose, Osprey, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Red-breasted Merganser, Great Egret, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, American Goldfinch

Bird of the week: Great Egret

First sightings of the day: Great Egret

(Life) Birds I want to see this year:
American Kestrel (seen on 2/27/2010)
Horned Lark
Eastern Meadowlark
An owl

trash day

2010-04-22T16:22:00.005-04:00

Earth Day, much like Earth Hour, is meaningless if we don’t do anything about it. Whether you believe in global warming or not, the idea of Earth Day is important. Just take a walk (or a drive) around town and look for all the random trash that is splattered along the road, or in the park. Drive along a major thoroughfare or a highway and you begin to notice all the McDonalds bags, Dunkin Donuts cups, Shaw’s bags, and cardboard boxes along the road. If we do not take Earth Day seriously, not just on April 22 but every day, the trash will not just be in the dumps and splattered along our roadways, but will continue to build up in the places we visit ever day that do not have trash.

For now, it is easy to turn a blind eye to the Earth. The ice caps are melting thousands of miles away. Last year’s cold summer caused even the biggest combatant of global warming to second-guess himself. Water pollution is covered up, or towns make unsubstantial excuses to as why waste treatment plants or paper companies (etc.) had to dump their excess into the local river.
Trash, for now, is nearly contained in dumps and for the most part those dumps are contained away from the rich and left in poorer areas (i.e. Chicago’s South Side). But, the land will run out eventually. The trash will begin to show. How long will it be until someone notices, until someone cares?

growing arugula

2010-04-20T13:00:00.016-04:00

The seeds are really starting to grow and sprout now. After a couple weeks, the herbs are coming along and some of the cucumbers and pumpkins are ready to be transplanted into bigger containers. All of the arugula and carrots are really starting to sprout, and it's exciting to see how much they have grown in such a short period of time. The onions on the other hand (for the most part) did not make it. Except for a few, the onions will have to be replanted.

Cucumber

Pumpkin

Arugula

Carrots

The few onions to make it

demanding apologies, demanding history

2010-04-19T22:10:00.007-04:00

334 years after King Philip's War, a war which killed 3,000 natives (or 15% of the population) and was the beginning of the end of a forced expulsion of the natives from Massachusetts land, some residents of Middleboro are demanding apologies from local Native American tribes. The demand is over a casino building plan in Middleboro. For a few years now, the casino planners have been going back and forth on deciding whether or not to have a casino in Middleboro. Residents are apparently fed up and don't care either way if the casino goes up or not – they just want a decision.

Now they are demanding an apology from the local tribe responsible for the casino development. It takes great audacity to demand an apology from a group of people that were forced off their own land. But nevertheless, some residents have neglected and ignored the past and are demanding it.

This is just another reason why history is important and has such an impact in today's society.

42

2010-04-15T17:42:00.002-04:00

Today, if you didn’t know, is Jackie Robinson Day. In 1947, Jackie Robinson re-broke the color line into major league baseball. That’s right, re-broke. After the Civil War, during the reconstruction period, African Americans and whites played on the same field. But as more and more teams began to exclude black players from their teams, the league became exclusively a white sport. By 1890 the league was completely white. The baseball field reflected what was going on in towns all across America. Not only were baseball fields becoming exclusively white, but stores, jobs, housing, and even whole towns were as well. Jackie Robinson - in 1947 - shows a glimpse of the progression towards equality after decades of regression in the United States.

for the birds: lifebird!

2010-04-12T22:00:00.001-04:00

"Hmmm.  What's that gull over there?  It's got a dark back and it's head looks black too."  My hands grab the binoculars, and bring them up to my eyes to see the mysterious bird closer.  "Its taken flight.  What is it?  It is making a wheep sound.  That doesn't sounds like a gull.  It's coming closer."  A little rush of excitement comes as the three birds come close and I realize I will be able to identity the bird.  I shout, "Lifebird!"  My wife looks on in humored amusement as I punch my fist in the air.

The long, slim, flat red bill with a black head means that it can be no other bird: it is the American oystercatcher.  It is the first time I have seen an oystercatcher, and five of them at that.  The whole time as I watched the five of them, they flew in circles around the seashore, being very noisy – in keeping with their behavioral characteristics.

Oh, and I saw a mockingbird for the first time, too.  It was just your run-of-the-mill day at the ocean.

wandering unemployment

2010-04-09T16:30:00.005-04:00

If you have been reading my blog for awhile you might have noticed that there was a long absence of new blogs.  And since February the blog finally has life again.  Of course this is no coincidence. Out of work for six months my blog was virtually frozen.  With more time on my hands than ever, the ideas were not flowing.  And now that I am back to work, the wellspring of ideas is finally starting to come back.

This made me think of how other out-of-workers are doing around the United States and the world.  I was fortunate enough to have been supported while unemployed, but others are not so fortunate. How long until grief and depression set in?  When does pain become too unbearable to move from one day to the next?  Unemployment benefits may be one thing, but what about the psychological effect on individuals and societies?  Cycles of chronic unemployment and homelessness set in and the greater society has not been equipped to help them (if they even do).

Luckily, I have been carried by a greater support system.  Others have not been so lucky.

garden blog: rain and sprouts

2010-04-08T23:00:00.001-04:00

After we planted the onions, two nor'easters decided to come in and flood southern New England.  It created flooding problems in Rhode Island and parts of the South Coast of Massachusetts.  We managed to stay dry, although that is mainly because our house is on cinder blocks.  In any case, our onions look like they might not appreciate the rain and have not sprouted yet.  In the meantime we have added to the garden.

Of course some things don't get planted in the garden yet, but do need to be started in trays.  Over the weekend we planted cucumbers, tomatoes, and pumpkins in mini-seed trays.  We also started three herbs: basil, parsley, and chives in their pots.  The herbs will stay in their pots, but will continue to be out in our porch until it is warm enough to move them outside.  That goes the same for the cucumbers, tomatoes, and pumpkins until they are ready to transplant to the garden. Outside - we planted carrots and arugula.

Not even a week later, the pumpkins, cucumbers, and arugula have already started to sprout.  For now the garden looks great – we just need to get those onions sprouting.

Herbs planted

Cucumbers, Tomatoes, & Pumpkins

Cloche to help the newly planted arugula and carrotts

two worlds collide

2010-04-05T18:55:00.005-04:00

Two worlds of mine have recently collided.  I am almost done with a book on the history of World War II.  And even though the book does not talk much about the holocaust (as it is a book on military history), you cannot help but hate the man in the book named Hitler.  It is not even hard to hate him without reading about the holocaust.  He was a fearful leader with few - if any - morals.  His hatred does not just come out toward Jews, but toward Russians, and anything he deems a worthy scapegoat.  There is even a wartime paradox as he allies with the Japanese.

My world of hate yesterday collided with the world of resurrection – Easter.  The world of resurrection is the Kingdom of God, and if we are to live the resurrection, then the kingdom of God has come.  If I am to live the prayer of “your kingdom come” then I must live a radical and loving life.  A life that is so radical that it can even love and forgive someone as vile as Hitler.  For if God not only sent Jesus to earth, but died and rose, then that is love that is extended to everyone.

Of course it is still easy to hate Hitler.  There is no sign he felt remorse, regret, or had any actions of reconciliation in anyway.  But, two worlds have collided.  The one we live in, and the Kingdom of God.  It is a world in which Jesus sat with sinners, talked to Samaritan women at wells, and did the impossible.

new Jesus video uncovered in Qumran

2010-04-01T17:55:00.001-04:00

Earlier today, in the same area that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, an authentic video was discovered in a clay pot in cave 5 in Qumran of Jesus and his disciples. The video sheds much life on what Jesus and his disciples not only really looked like, but also what they sounded like. Archeologist say this could be the greatest discovery sinceÉ well the discovery that Jesus was not in the cave he was buried in some two thousand years ago. The video, which is just over two minutes long, has Christians all across the globe proclaiming to the world, ÔHere is your long awaited evidence non-Christian worldÕ, while non-Christians are claiming that Jesus sounds kind of funny. Found just days before Easter, the holiest of Christian holidays, it is more than mere coincidence. To view the newly discovered video, click below.

betrayal & bread

2010-03-31T22:35:00.003-04:00

Does anyone else feel bad for Judas Iscariot?...  Probably not.  I mean he is named the one who betrays Jesus.  But, is Judas really worse than the other disciples?  Gosh, there’s doubting Thomas.  And what about Peter, the rock?  He has a chance to stand with Jesus, yet denies him not once, but three times.

And just after we learn that Judas is the betrayer, the disciples are arguing between themselves who will end up the greatest.  Even in the last moments of Jesus’ life, he still has to take a moment to teach the disciples about humility and servanthood.  In the end Judas hangs himself.  With all the sorrow of teenage suicides today, I’m not sure why we don’t find the story of Judas more saddening.

All the disciples have a story after Jesus’ resurrection.  I wonder what Judas’ life could have been. In the midst of breaking bread for the first time, one of the holiest acts of Christians, the betrayer is marked.  The disciple Judas is no more.

for the birds: greater yellowlegs

2010-03-30T22:15:00.006-04:00

The Nasketucket Bird Club does a bird count once a month at the Bay Club in Mattapoisett. I did the count back in January. It was my first time birding with the club. For a cold January day we saw quite a few birds. In anticipation for the bird count this past weekend I expected to see even more birds for the bird this time. Saturday ended up being one of the coldest days of the month, and definitely colder than then the day we went birding in January. My fingers were cold, but the birds were plenty.

After the bird count, we headed to Mattapoisett Harbor to find some shore birds. We parked our cars and walked the beach, crossed a river using a not so common footbridge, and meandered through the marsh where we spotted four greater yellowlegs. It being the first time I have ever lived in an area with shore birds, and never seeing greater yellowlegs before, was excited about the sighting. We also saw the first osprey for the year. And had the chance to see the osprey in action as it dove and came up with a fish from a local river. Those weren’t the only birds we saw that day:

American Robin, Downy Woodpecker, American Goldfinch, Brown-headed Cowbird, Tufted Titmouse, Red-winged Blackbird, Dark-eyed Junco, Northern Flicker, Blue Jay, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Herring Gull, Northern Cardinal, Black-capped Chickadee, Canada Goose, White-breasted Nuthatch, Osprey, Common Grackle, Mallard, Bufflehead, Tree Swallow, Red-tailed Hawk,Carolina Wren, Mute Swan, Black Duck, Double-Crested Cormorant, Red-breasted Merganser, Greater Yellowlegs, Great Black-backed Gull, Song Sparrow, Mourning Dove, House Sparrow,Turkey Vulture, and an Eastern Bluebird.

Bird of the week: Greater Yellowlegs. A bird often found in April and May, this bird was a great find for a cold March day.

First sightings for the year: osprey, greater yellowlegs, and turkey vulture

Life birds: Greater yellowlegs

(Life) Birds I want to see this year:
American Kestrel (seen on 2/27/2010)
Horned Lark
Eastern Meadowlark
An owl

garden blog: weeds out onions in

2010-03-29T19:10:00.016-04:00

The garden? Itwasn’t in the best condition when we started; full of weeds and covered inleaves. The soil probably hasn’tbeen turned in a few years. We hadto first rake out the leaves and pine cones that had collected over the gardenarea. After that, well, we weededof course. The dirt needed to behoed, and then we finished up by smoothing out and distributing the dirt evenlyin the garden.

It is really still to early to start planting anything. But, green onions were on our list tobe planted, and apparently they can be planted in the early spring season evenwith potential frosts. They aretough seeds. We planted a weekago. In a couple weeks – we’ll seeif the little seeds are indeed tough and can breakthrough the dirt and startsprouting.

The Garden Before

The Garden After

Jess raking the garden

Me - tilling the garden

Our first planting, green onions

so i took the donkey out

2010-03-26T17:20:00.003-04:00

Lent, for some reason is a clash between being legalistic and well… looking like I never gave anything up for Lent. It’s a microcosm of my life I suppose. Trying to live a life like Jesus, but knowing full well sometimes it is okay to take a donkey out of a hole on the Sabbath (Luke 4:15).    
This year? Giving up television for lent has been one thing, doing it is completely another. Depending on how I look at it, I am doing really good or not so good. Or maybe in the midst of the struggle I am living just how I am supposed to be. The television has definitely been on during Lent. I am not even going to try to lie about that. It was on during the Olympics; in fact more than it was before Lent. After that, it was Netflix and more Netflix. And then in the in-between days it might be the one episode of Lost or The Office that we didn’t get to watch on Sunday. Well, that’s the struggle.

But, there has been much less television, especially during the early evening hours. There has been more talking and more reading. There has been more game playing and more music in the house. There is still the occasional Netflix watching as I knew there would be, but since Lent has started there hasn’t been any Friends or The Office (besides watching the latest episodes as I said above). All-in-all someone might give me a “D” for effort, but everyone is graded on a different scale, and I feel good at where I’m at during this Lenten season. It’s not perfect, but my focus and deliberation has been in the right place.

for the birds: osprey hunt

2010-03-24T19:45:00.005-04:00

For whatever reason I have decided to record my bird sighting and experiences on the blog. Last Saturday, the local bird club went osprey hunting. The osprey usually arrive on the south coast of Massachusetts toward the end of March. We traveled around the towns of Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, Marion, and Wareham (map) and checked the local osprey platforms for any activity. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were hoping to see the first glimpses of the osprey for the year. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any osprey.

We did however see lots of other birds. We listed for the day:
Common Loon (in breeding plumage), Double-crested Cormorant, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Mallard, Bufflehead, Common Merganser, Red-tailed Hawk, Killdeer, Herring Gull, Gull, Great Blacked-Back Gull, Mourning Dove, Northern Flicker, Tree Swallow, Carolina Wren, American Robin, Blue Jay, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, American Goldfinch (in basic or winter plumage), House finch, Song Sparrow, Common Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, and the very common House Sparrow. 27 Species in all.

Bird of the week: Double-crested Cormorant. It was the first one of the year for me. And I spotted its head near the shoreline before anyone else.

First sighting for the year: Double-crested Cormorant, Common Merganser, and Tree Swallow

Life Birds: None

(Life) Birds I want to see this year:
American Kestrel (seen on 2/27/2010)
Horned Lark
Eastern Meadowlark
An owl

the american woodcock

2010-03-19T10:00:00.003-04:00

The American Woodcock. It’s not a normal or common bird. It’s not a bird that someone is going to see in their backyard or while going for a walk around the block. It’s an unusual looking bird. It’s kind of stubby looking with a long bill. It’s a bird that hangs out in bushes in marshy areas. Most birding books write that it is a secretive bird. In spring though, at dusk – if you can find it – the woodcock gives a nasal beezp, just before he flutters to the air for an aerial display. He lands in the same area and goes through the routine continuously while trying to find a mate.
On Thursday, the local bird club went searching for this unusual bird and display. And let me tell you this is one of the coolest little birds and unique bird displays I have ever seen. It’s also a life birdfor me. If you haven’t seen one of these birds, it’s a must see. It’s a cute bird that looks shy (that is if a bird can look shy). And in the spring, it has an amazing courtship display that you usually only see on the television.

documenting spring

2010-03-18T22:15:00.001-04:00

So, I’ve decided to document Spring. Well, two parts of Spring - my garden and birding. I will be documenting my garden from the beginning: from raking the dirt to planting the seeds. It will document the progress of my garden as I try to grow vegetables for the first time. Birding? Well, that will just be me documenting the birds I see as I go out birding and the experiences I have.

rainy day video

2010-03-14T12:05:00.004-04:00

It's been raining here in the Northeast. So, what do you do on a rainy day? You make a Rube Goldberg machine of course! And what's one of the best examples of it today? A music video by OkGo.

swingvote

2010-03-12T21:20:00.006-05:00

Yes, it’s only a little over a year in to President Obama’s presidency, but things aren’t looking too good for him for reelection. He might be taking down democratic colleagues with him as well. It’s odd that the president before can completely make up a reason to go to war with a country and gain popularity and be reelected. For Obama, who is trying to hammer down universal healthcare for everyone in the United States, the issues are just as divided as the divisions between the people who have healthcare and who cannot afford it.

Unfortunately for Obama, he overestimated the American public in thinking that they would want to pay for healthcare for the truly disadvantaged. Only four years after the democrats took power in the house and senate, and two years after Palin single-handedly brought down Republican credibility, it looks like Republicans are back on the upswing and with the Democrats’ help.

The bad publicity and longevity of trying to pass the healthcare bill, whether it passes or not, does not look good for Democrats or the President. In the end, I think, this could once again swing power on the capital.

What’s with all my negativity? Simply put: talk radio. And, it’s all Republicans doing the talking. “Down with wind energy.” “Down with taxes.” “Too many taxes.” And on and on. Just the other night I heard a lady complaining about a city raising its parking meter costs to $10. Except she wasn’t complaining about the outrageous price increase, but rather how the city is just doing it to get taxes. I’m scared of all this outrageous slander, but more scared that people believe all of it.

2010-03-07T22:20:00.001-05:00

Last week, during Sunday School, the scriptural focus was on the story of the woman at the well (John 4).  Afterwards as the pastor was speaking during the service, my mind wandered back to this character.  Take a minute to read the passage if you have never read it before, or if you haven't in a while.

I think we often see ourselves as the disciples in this passage.  Or at least I do.  I think it is the typical place a Christian poses him or herself in the passage.  As followers of Christ wouldn't we put ourselves in the story as followers of Christ?  But really though, shouldn't we be seeing ourselves as the woman at the well?

The woman, as it is stated in verse six, is at the well at mid-day.  And she is by herself.  There is a reason for that.  All the other women were already at the well in the early morning to avoid the mid-day heat.  The woman is a Samaritan, and according to this passage she has been around the block a few times and is avoiding the other women.  And as Jesus so poignantly demonstrates, that is indeed the reason the woman is so late in going to the well.

We're the woman at the well.  Whether churchgoer or not, we're all sinners.  We don't all have it together.  We're struggling everyday, searching for the living water Jesus offers to the woman at the well – and to all of us.  In this season of Lent I can't help but to think of myself, the church, and all of us, as the woman at the well – a woman who no longer has to get her water at midday, but with all the other women in the morning.

season of Lent: forty days of sacrifice

2010-02-23T18:00:00.003-05:00

The text from Church this week was Luke 4:1-13. It's the testing of Jesus in the wilderness for forty days. I don't think it is a coincidence that this text is at the beginning of Lent. It may be some inspiration for all of us who, now five days into Lent, may want to be giving into a temptation that has been set before us. Some people think of Jesus as someone they can't relate to because he never sinned. It seems that they are overlooking this passage, where he faces incredible temptation. For in these forty days, Jesus was tempted with the whole world (Luke 4:5-7).

The temptation of Jesus is a great inspiration throughout Lent for us to sacrifice and to find strength in Jesus' own temptations and sacrifice. Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness. We spend forty days giving something up for Lent.

During Lent the things that we give up - the sacrifice and the accompanying temptation - bring us closer to God. Many people often think about or pray to God more. Some people read the Bible more. Some people come closer to God through the mere act of surrendering. It's in this season we often learn a lot about ourselves and at the end we celebrate Easter.

We're taught in this hardship to come closer to God. But during Lent we pick our “hardship”. We choose not to eat chocolate or drink coffee for those forty days. Some of the things we choose when we look back at it are really more of a nuisance than anything. They aren't like the temptations Jesus had in the wilderness, or during the hardest times in our own lives.

In the biggest hardships of life and during the biggest temptations we often fail at loving God and loving others. We break under the temptation. When we lose a job or lose a loved one, our faith is tested. And many of us fail. We blame God, we blame others, our anger is out of control, and we lose our hope and faith in God. It may be some of the smaller temptations like choosing work over spending time with our children, or choosing a movie over catching up with friends. Temptation has gotten the best of us.

In the hardships and temptations that we don't choose, it is in these hardships that our faith should grow. Sometimes these hardships are forty seconds, forty minutes, or even forty days, or forty years - but in the midst and at the end we need to remember the life of Jesus, and his death and resurrection. In this - we have hope!

season of Lent: substituting gummy bears

2010-02-20T12:00:00.002-05:00

I wonder how much substituting goes on during Lent? I mean if someone gives up chocolate do they substitute that fix with gummy bears? What if I want to sacrifice driving everywhere? I decide I will ride a bike places, walk, or take the bus. But what if sacrificing taking my car places is substituted into bumming rides off my friends. By the end of Lent my friends aren’t celebrating Jesus’ resurrection anymore, they are celebrating not having to give me a ride everywhere.

When does sacrificing become sacrificing? When do we truly give up what we intended to give up? How do we know? When does the sacrifice lead us to think about God?

Is it a sacrifice if we aren’t? I’ve given up my fair share of things over the years. Things I really enjoy like chocolate, ice cream, and soda. For forty days though it didn’t seem like a problem, just some temporary time away from some of my favorite foods.

Maybe food isn’t the best thing for me to give-up then. I can’t be alone in this. People must be able to just breeze through Lent without giving it another thought. For others though food is the right thing to give-up. So much so that I hear stories every year of people failing after a week into Lent of eating McDonald’s fries or having to eat a cupcake on Friday after a long week at work.

Is there a way to make sacrificing harder or easier? And that leads me back to this: what is sacrificing? Can we really fail at Lent? I know there are more questions here than answers. This is only the beginning of my Lenten journey. I hope you are thinking of some questions, and if you weren’t, I hope you are now.

season of Lent: i have a confession

2010-02-19T17:45:00.000-05:00

I have a confession to make. Television is not totally out of the picture. 1) The Olympics are on for the first week and a half of Lent. And I will be watching them. I’m not sure if this defaults what I was giving up or maybe that I’m not taking it seriously enough to completely give it up. But I also know that being legalistic about doing or not doing something is not good. It often takes the meaning out of the very task you are doing. 2) I have Netflix. Netflix costs money and to not watch any of the Netflix coming in seems like not being a good steward of money.

With that being said. Netflix will only be watched on the weekends and no instant watch with the computer will be used. This still involves less television watching without wasting money for two months. I think. I’m sure there is a better way about this. For me though, it works.
I think the overall objective here is still pure and met. Less television (which is always good) and more time with God and with others.

the road to something...

2010-02-17T22:00:00.004-05:00

(Click to enlarge)

Recently the Bureau of Labor Statistics came out with the latest unemployment and job loss numbers. You can find the numbers here. You can also find the numbers on a much easier to read graph at NPR. The graph, at least the job loss graph, showed up on Facebook promoting the Road to Recovery under the Obama Administration. That graph is here. The Road to Recovery graph looks quite nice. The graph shows this great dichotomy between the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration. It’s almost as if the changeover was the cause for less job loss. And maybe it was. But maybe it wasn’t.

You’ll notice that one of the two graphs from the BLS site and NPR site is missing. It’s the unemployment rate graph. It’s the graph that shows unemployment shooting up over 10% toward the end of 2009. I’ve created a similar chart (it’s shown at the top of the post) showing the unemployment rate that is similar to the Road to Recovery graph.

As you can see the graph isn’t as flattering as the other one. Indeed you could almost say the changeover created more unemployment. Of course we all know that’s not true. Obama in a speech acknowledged the continued problem of unemployment. The road to recovery is getting better. That’s clear from the fewer jobs being lost month after month. But there’s still a lot of work to be done. That’s apparent by the second graph. And Obama won’t silence his many critics until he lowers that second graph.

Lent: thoughts beforehand

2010-02-17T08:00:00.002-05:00

So, many people this season are giving up Facebook. I’ll be looking for something far more useful and meaningful to give up, or in actuality, to take on. For me there is no need to give up Facebook, because giving it up would 1) not be hard, and 2) wouldn’t lead me to think about God.

Food is usually the primary candidate for items that people give up during Lent for practicing and non-practicing Christians. I’m not sure if that’s more because of tradition or possibly because it is simpler to give up a specific food compared to other aspects of life.

I know I have given up my fair share of foods: chocolate, ice cream (a few times), soft drinks (when I used to drink soft drinks), desserts, and last year not buying store bought cookies.

This year? Well, I won’t be giving up any food, but television. Stuck inside during the winter, it’s easy to turn on the television and relax. It’s not hard to find other things to do. That’s not the problem. It will be that moment of getting home wanting to sit down and relax for a little bit and just zone out. Instead of course – it will be something else.

And, I’ll be taking something on as well. I’m continually trying to read the Divine Hours, a type of daily devotion, but alas neglect the book many nights. I’ll be taking on trying to do the devotion each day. Our pastor as well has encouraged each member of our church to recite the greatest commandment (the pastor quoting the author Scot McKnight calling it the Jesus Creed) Mark 12:29-31 each day. Along with that I’ll be reading Scot McKnight’s 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed.

40 days of the best towns

2010-02-08T20:25:00.002-05:00

By no means am I a world traveler or even someone who has traveled throughout the United States extensively. But - I have been to my fair share of cities and towns. Some unique and some… let’s just say I’m glad it was only a visit. For now, sticking to the theme of 40, here are my top forty cities (in no particular order) that I love and a reason or two why.

1 Chicago, IL – It’s a place I lived for four years and have come to love.
2 Detroit, MI – It’s probably on most people’s bottom 40 cities. But for me Detroit will always be a haven for what is Michigan’s history, present, and future. It represents automobiles, adversity, and a hope.
3 Ann Arbor, MI – One of the great unique cities in the world - it was where I was born.
4 Saline, MI – I grew up in Saline. It actually has been voted one of the top cities in the country (mainly because of its location to Ann Arbor without living in Ann Arbor), and it acts as a place where almost anyone would want to raise their family.
5 Kalamazoo, MI - I experienced college in Kalamazoo. It’s diverse and has the charm of a big city.
6 Cheboygan, MI – Cheboygan is off the map for most Michigan vacationers. For me though, it became a vacation wonderland.
7 Indian River, MI – Indian River is in between the two largest inland lakes in Michigan – it is a water wonderland.
8 Boston, MA – History and present combined.
9 Sudbury, MA – I got married here. Enough said.
10 Barre, MA - It’s quaint, has charm, and it’s where Jess is from.
11 Stowe, VT – Swoop, swoop, swoop!
12 Grapevine, TX – It’s where my brother lives and I love to visit!
13 Tampa, FL – Who doesn’t like going to Florida? Plus, my aunt and uncle live here.
14 Monroe, MI – As someone who loves genealogy, I can’t leave a town that has so much family history off the list.
15 Toronto, ON – I’ve been to Toronto twice now. And have loved it each time.
16 London, UK – A premier city.
17 Prague, CZ – Just awesome.
18 Evanston, IL – Every time I walk around Evanston it reminds me of Ann Arbor.
19 Springfield, IL – Springfield is one of the most underrated cities in Illinois.
20 Indianapolis, IN – A race car lover’s paradise.
21 Mackinac City, MI – It’s a little touristy, but it still has one of the best views of one of the world’s longest suspension bridges.
22 New York, NY – How can this city not be on a top 40 list? It’s on here for the pizza alone.
23 Petoskey, MI – A great summer town.
24 Spring Green, WI – Home to Taliesin
25 Decorah, IA – Iowa’s got to be mentioned, right? And this little town is jam-packed with charm.
26 Oak Park, IL – Frank Lloyd Wright heaven.
27 Bellingham, MA – The first place I lived in Massachusetts.
28 Oak Brook, IL – The town where I got engaged.
29 South Haven, MI – The first Michigan town I brought Jess to.
30 Dallas, TX – A great city in Texas.
31 Hyannis, MA – The first place I got a job in Massachusetts.
32 Marion, MA – The reason I moved to Massachusetts.
33 Wareham, MA – Our first house in Massachusetts.
34 Niagara, NY/ON – Honeymoon capital of the world. A destination spot on either side of the falls.
35 Schaumburg, IL – Even a suburb can make it on my list. But only because it involved a first date.
36 Wellesley – It’s one of those towns that when you visit you want to move to because it has everything.
37 Brooklyn, NY – I’ve only been there for a hot dog and a shot to see a non-existent baseball stadium, but it was great.
38 Whitney, ON - Because it offers one of the most remote scenic parks I have ever been to.
39 Ypsilanti, MI – It may just have the best hoagie I have ever had.
40 Lansing, MI – Hey! It’s the capital of Michigan!

So, obviously my favorite places are a little slanted to the places I have lived, visited, and experienced – but isn’t that how it is for all of us?

40 days of anywhere

2010-02-04T08:40:00.004-05:00

As Lent is fast approaching (it’s only two weeks away) I am going to write some “40” themed blogs. The first:

I could live almost anywhere and here are 40 reasons why:

10 Reasons why I love the city of Chicago:

1 The diversity is uncanny compared to almost anywhere in the world
2 Chicago has the best hot dogs, pizza, burgers, and overall best food I have ever had
3 Being on Lake Michigan is one of my fondest memories in the city
4 Everything is always open and always at your fingertips
5 It’s a sports lover’s paradise
6 One man: Frank Lloyd Wright
7 The architecture is magnificent
8 The park system and wildlife is way underrated in Chicago
9 Tre Kronor
10 If it wasn’t for overpriced homes I would have a home there, well unless…

10 Reasons why I love Massachusetts:

11 Almost all of Jess’ family lives in Massachusetts
12 The Atlantic Ocean is less than half a mile away from where I live
13 The state is jam-packed with history
14 It has such a diverse geographical region for being so small
15 The Appalachian Trail
16 The Wayside Inn
17 Those little town greens that everyone talks about
18 The fascinating differences in pronunciation (Barnstable is “barn-stuh-ble”, not “barn-stable”)
19 Where’s all the traffic?
20 We have a yard and a garden

10 Reasons why I could live in Ann Arbor:

21 The University of Michigan
22 Michigan football
23 Ann Arbor is the most unique city I have visited
24 Zingermans, Washtenaw Dairy, and Blimpy Burger
25 Green libraries and Co-ops in a city? Yes!
26 One of the top 10 hospitals in the world
27 Kerrytown, Hill Auditorium, and The Michigan Theater
28 A big city with a small town feel
29 The town is just a little bit liberal
30 The Hands-On Museum

10 Reasons why I could live anywhere:

31 I grew up in the flat Midwest – geography doesn’t get more boring than that
32 There is always new food to try
33 You can go birding anywhere
34 You can find a geocache all around the world
35 Water pipes won’t freeze in the south
36 You can tell a grasshopper joke just about anywhere
37 I’m happy as long as there is a river and a kayak in hand
38 A good book travels anywhere
39 Three words: “Netflix instant watch”
40 I could live anywhere, as long as I am with Jess

water: revisited

2009-12-13T18:00:00.002-05:00

Back in September of 2008 I wrote a blog on the sustainability of tap water over bottled water. In a 2007 online article from National Geographic's Green Guide states that tap water just isn't about sustainability and money - but health. Just another reason not to buy bottled water. Check out the article here.

libraries and healthcare

2009-12-09T12:45:00.000-05:00

Headline: “Government leaks to public that public libraries are a socialist idea. Libraries are shut down across the country!”

It sounds crazy, but is it? In today’s world in the U.S. the rich are buying books. It doesn’t matter if it is the hard copy first edition, the second edition soft-cover a few months later, or the $1.00 book at the used bookstore. The poor? Well - they are going to the library. And what about computers? The rich: they have one or two or three in their home. Or for the most frugal using the computer they use everyday at work. The poor? There is not a computer they are working on, because the work they are doing doesn’t involve a computer. And since the cost of computers is so high (even when they are priced in the low hundreds) that certainly the poor who are barely making ends meet what with paying for rent and food for the week can’t afford even the cheapest computer. So – where does someone go that can’t afford books or a computer? The library.

Books and computer may seem just like a form of entertainment, but they are as essential as food and health in today’s world. Well, at least if you want to pick yourself up by your bootstraps. (That is if you have any.) It’s hard to find jobs without the computer these days. You certainly can’t write a resume or cover letter without one. And books? Well, they are the foundation of education, of course. Enough said.

But the library doesn’t sound crazy. And giving access to free books and computers doesn’t sound socialist. Then why is it so crazy to also use public money for maybe the most basic need next to shelter and food – healthcare? Is health a right or a privilege?

As the world seeks to be more progressive and good, why then is it so far away from helping the most basic needs of the ones that can’t afford to help themselves? Would it not be more progressive and good to help instead of hinder and divide? Are we just regressing to a society of kings and serfs?

nickel and dimed review

2009-12-03T12:45:00.001-05:00

I just finished Nickel and Dimed. The book is about a journalist’s sojourn into the working class. For me, it was a reminder that I am not working class. I have college degrees, networks (as small as they may be sometimes), a support system, some money saved up, a car, and a plethora of other variables. The book is a must read for anyone that doesn’t have to live in motel day-by-day or a small apartment on weekly rent.

The book was written ten years ago and you can already tell that it is outdated. There are no 9/11 experiences. When Barbara Ehrenreich wrote this book there was a labor shortage. And of course she was not dealing with a recession. Housing prices have skyrocketed since she wrote the book and I presume rent has as well. There is one other thing that has changed. Universal health care is now trying to make its way into law.

At the end of the book, Ehrenreich talks about how the poor have no longer been discovered, but just the opposite forgotten. And now people no longer feel that the poor are there because they are lazy, drug addicts, and thieves. She states that “disapproval and condescension no longer apply” and that guilt doesn’t go far enough, but it is shame in ourselves that kicks in when we think of the poor.

I don’t think shame is the right emotion here. I think she gives people far too much credit, and I think she wants people instead to feel shame. Just as with slavery, people’s minds were changed: from condescension, to guilt, to shame. Those same steps still need to be taken today for continuing class and racial barriers. Ehrenreich does not give enough credit to the social system in place of the individualistic capitalist society we live in. We still live in a society that says the individual is the key to their own success and there are no systems in place to keep people poor.

Maybe the most constructive aspect of the book is that Ehrenreich shows that even a highly successful women with a Ph.D. can’t really “make it” when she is left in the same predicament as the working poor. Ehrenreich really proves that there needs to be some changes with affordable rent, cost of food, salaries, and healthcare. Until then the rich will continue to ride on the backs of the poor. Whether they feel condescending, guilty, or shameful is up to them.

three cups of tea, education, and the urban city

2009-11-24T19:20:00.002-05:00

I recently finished Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. And it is a must read for everyone. The book is about one man’s journey to bring a school to a poor community in Pakistan. The book is inspiring. It gives life to the people of Pakistan, to Afghanistan, and the Middle East. It gives a hope for peace that is not through war, power, and death, but through a road less traveled.

The book gives an alternative view to the way life has been lived out since 9/11. It’s a view that involves less U.S. taxpayer money, less death, less destruction of towns and villages in Iraq and Afghanistan, and less fear of terrorism.

Just as the U.S. wages war in the Middle East, the country been raging war domestically since it’s conception. Cities such as Detroit, MI and Gary, IN, and in poorer neighborhoods in cities such as Chicago or Boston were not always poor, dangerous, and places to avoid rather than seek. All these cities have history. Many of them can trace the growth of unrest from their beginnings, to the industrial revolution, to events as recent as white flight around the middle of the twentieth century. These places of course are hit hard with violence and theft. Locals who could get out did. The working class and poor just kept on working.

The alternative is education. A radical idea never used before. Education is the same thing that many people, myself included, have thought for years would help inner cities of the United States. Of course here in the U.S., compared to such places as in Three Cups of Tea, there are actually schools – for the most part. The quality and opportunity of education, of course, are vastly different. Most urban schools are given half the money that a suburban school is given. A quick Google search will confirm this. The administration? What administration? If anyone has dealt with bad school administrations in the ‘burbs or rural area – just try a poor urban community. And what about the quality of teachers? All you have to do to figure this out is to go to a teacher’s job fair in Chicago. The lines for the suburbs are out the door. For the North Side expect to wait an hour to speak to a representative from the school. For the South or West side of Chicago: wait time - zero minutes. It’s an area so desperate for good teachers, yet no one wants to work there.

Just as thousands of miles away education is an alternative to war, violence, gangs, and a life of terrorist groups, Three Cups of Tea provides a realistic alternative for those of us eager to make a difference in the U.S.. We don’t have to sentence our cities to a life of poverty, injustice, and violence. There are peaceful options, if we are brave enough to embrace them.

iraq and the middle east: part I

2009-11-11T09:30:00.000-05:00

I’m not sure who is winning the war on terrorism. In 2003 the U.S. decided they would enter Iraq and bring “freedom” to the people. Six years later a few thousand U.S. (UK and other countries) soldiers have been killed. And this doesn’t include the ongoing war that is next door in Afghanistan. The number of casualties seem to keep climbing each month despite the claim for change and peace proposed. Hey! And, what about the people of Iraq or Afghanistan?

In the end though, Bush (or maybe better put Cheney and Rove) or the Obama Administration can’t be accused alone for starting a war or continuing a war. Like anything, the blame cannot be put on one person or country, or ideal for that matter. I recently just finished Three Cups of Tea and am in the middle of Power, Faith, and Fantasy (a history of the U.S. and the Middle East). I’ve still got to learn about the U.S. relations with the Middle East, but like anything there is history behind the U.S. relationship with Iraq. For example we can’t really understand racism in the U.S. without understanding how the history of slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights era, and all the history in between have affected racism is today.

There is a lot of history with the Middle East. And amazing as it was to me, it is not all that bad. In Power, Faith, and Fantasy author Michae B. Oren does, however, string along a common theme – America’s desire to bring the same freedoms, liberties, democracy, and Westernization that they won in 1776 to the Middle East. In the book it really doesn’t seem that bad. I mean who wouldn’t want freedom, right? Well, in 1900 the freedom sounds a whole lot better than the imperialist ideals that other countries were trying to impose in the Middle East.

It is interesting to learn that oil and power were not always a means for war for the U.S. Even when the U.S. finally entered WWI they never declared war on Turkey. A peaceful means by President Wilson. I can only imagine a different outcome if Roosevelt was still president. As I finish the book I will have a second reflection on the U.S.’ involvement in the Middle East.

still kicking...

2009-11-06T11:15:00.000-05:00

Despite my long absence from blogging this blog continues to live on. Next week: my thoughts on the Middle East and hopefully in the near future some posts from a guest blogger. Until I get a job the blogs will continue to be sporadic, but hopefully more frequent than in the past three months.

Random thought of the day: Sitting in a Borders this morning I have come to the realization that Glee has totally ruined Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing. Come on!