SIGGnificant

Remember that time when if you like the earth you were a tree hugger and it was a bad thing? Today it is considered cool to be a tree hugger. It’s hit the fashion scene, pop culture, and businesses. Part of me hates that companies are taking advantage of green being cool and part of me says at least they are trying, even if it is to get their businesses more money.

So, I am trying to be ‘more green’. It’s kind of hard when you have to commute. Thinking about all the gasoline and carbon-dioxide that is polluting the earth, it is hard to make up for the volume of it in my daily life. Plastic water bottles never seemed to make since to me. Why buy water when you can get it from your tap? It was just economically sense to me. Now it is SIGGnificant to be green as well, by not constantly buying plastic bottles that fill land fills and by not conserving the resources that are used to make the plastic bottles. This has even given me the idea to give up things like soda so I don’t have to buy the plastic bottle or can. These little things help me be more environmentally conscious as I try to eat better, live better, and be better to the earth.

april roundup

April has been a busy month for me. I’ve been to Iowa, Florida, and Michigan. They were all great trips to visit family and friends. I hung out with a couple of friends from seminary in Iowa. We went geocaching and explored what is Decorah. In Florida I got to hang out with my Aunt and Uncle while eating unusual food, seeing how FLW would design a college, and seeing some great football. For my birthday I drove up to Michigan to see my parents.
I also got some things squared away, finally! In April television shows finally started having new episodes so The Office is back on, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I also finished Alienable Rights which is a book about laws and politics and how they have affected African Americans for the past four hundred years. A great book which I will eventually write a post on.

go cubs go!

I don’t usually write about the same topic one day after the other. I also don’t get many hits or requests for anything either.

The first place Cubs. Holy Cow! I wasn’t sure how the Cubs were going to do this year. After last season’s sweep in the playoffs I wasn’t so sure they were going to amount to anything this season. So far, they have proved me wrong. The Cubs are out to a 15-6 start and are 9-1 in their last 10 games. They have also scored the most runs in the majors with 133. So, what’s the difference?
The Cubs pitching is doing well behind Zambrano and new starter Ryan Dempster. Ted Lilly, Rich Hill, and Jason Marquis are also pitching better after slower starts. Kerry Wood (Who hopefully can stay healthy. Knock on Wood.) and Carlos Marmol are teaming up to make a killer one-two punch as relievers.
The batters all seem to be doing well. The team has seven batters with a .311 batting average or better. Although most of the batting averages will go down thoughout the season, it is a good sign. Derek Lee and Aramis Ramirez are having great seasons so far, after having mediocre seasons last year. Kosuke Fukudome, the newcomer from Japan, has added great speed on the bases and the field along with batting .351 with 9 RBIs.
For all of us in Chicago and Cubs fans around the world we hope that the bats keep swinging and the pitchers keep throwing through October.

the last place tigers

The last place Tigers. Six years ago the Tigers were 3-15 on April 22, 2002. The Tigers are still in last place but with a record of 7-13. The Tigers who were supposed to be a scoring machine are closer to the bottom in runs scored and are second to last in runs allowed behind a dismal Pirates team.
The team was rumored to be a World Series contender. Now in late April they are roughly the second worse team in baseball. I haven’t given up hope, though. They are in a weak division so anything can happen.
The Tigers play an equally as bad team - the Rangers - in a series the next three days. Justin Verlander is pitching tonight. Although he was seen as the Tigers best pitcher coming into the season, he is an awful 0-3 with a 7.03 ERA. Carlos Guillen and Edgar Renteria have been playing well, but players like Gary Sheffield, Jacque Jones, and Miguel Cabrera are really going to have to step up in this next series and throughout the season.
Detroit’s pitching is also going to have to improve both in the starters and the bullpen. A healthy Zumaya would also help.

fully present

Fully present: thoughts on 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Pray continually… How can I pray continually? I can’t do anything continually, with the exception of maybe breathing. I find it difficult to be present with God. The idea sounds great in theory (to a Christian). If I am fully dependent on the creator God and I can at any and all times connect with this God why would I not do it? In the end I get caught up with work, a social life, the driving on the road, television, etcetera, etcetera.
I have a hard time seeing God where I don’t expect Him: the dull moments in life, listening to the loud drunk, putting up with the annoying kid, and the daily grinds of life. I miss God in these moments. I miss seeing, connecting, and being present with God and my neighbor in these moments. I miss the breath of God, the creation of God, and the joy of everything in what God has created.
Today, I seek to be fully present with God. I want to pray continually.

fyi: you look like a fool

I’m not much of a fashion critic or judge of how people look. People have the freedom and right to choose what they want to wear and what they look like. There are of course a few exceptions: most commonly known as pet peeves. The most notorious on my list is people that wear sunglasses inside (unless of course there is a viable reason to). Come on people, the walls of the building block the sun so you don’t need the sunglasses. In any case I think it is a stupid fashion trend that looks ridiculous. Not until this weekend did I ever think I would see someone do something that looked more stupid. While at an arena football game, a smoke free area, a guy in front during most of the first half of the football game had a cigar in his mouth as if he was smoking. So for all you kids out there, don’t pretend to smoke in a non-smoking area. It looks stupid!

go green, my butt!

Recently, Silk soy milk has put out a contest with green caps for a chance to win a $20,000 GREEN home makeover. At the website it talks about what is green energy: wind, water, and sun. The website talks about how to be GREEN. There is even a forum where you can share and read tips on how to be GREEN.
What makes me so freakin’ mad though, is that the Silk soy milk cartons are not even recyclable. The very product that you can help you win a GREEN home makeover and a website that is encouraging being GREEN is NOT GREEN.
I emailed Silk customer service about this concern of mine last week. I said I recently bought some soy milk and that they were promoting a GREEN sweepstakes and being GREEN, however their product is not even recyclable. I encouraged them to make recyclable cartons and to represent the goals they are promoting. This is what they wrote back to me:

Thank you for your recent e-mail to Silk. We appreciate your interest in our company.

At this point there are no nation-wide recycling standards. Each state and jurisdiction has different recycling rules based on cost-effectiveness, quantities of the materials in circulation and regional differences.

We are an environmentally concerned company and will always strive to use the most earth-friendly packaging available. Your comments are appreciated and we will not rule out any future changes, but at this point we feel that we are using the most environmentally friendly and cost effective packaging for our products.

Thanks again for contacting the Consumer Affairs Department.

Sincerely,
****** ******
Consumer Response Representative

Ref: N774687


They feel that they are using the most environmentally friendly packing. It can’t be recycled. How is that the most environmentally friendly thing possible? I understand that the product does not have to be recyclable. There is no law that says they have to be. That does not mean that they can’t be environmentally conscientious anyway, especially since they have a GREEN sweepstakes and are promoting how to be GREEN. I encourage everyone to visit their website, and also to email to let them know how you feel about this.


If you have any suggestions about what to write to them please email me or leave a comment.

pride (in the name of love)

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis. King would have been seventy-nine today. I wonder if he would still have the same tenacity, boldness, and influence now as he did at the time of his death. I’ve been to the hotel, now a National Civil Rights Museum. The place has an aura about it, much like the place in Dallas where Kennedy was assassinated. You just know something happened there.
Much has changed in forty years. With few exceptions (Jena 6) today, marches and protests do not make national news. For much of the United States, the Civil Rights era was the end of racism. It’s doesn’t take long to know that this is how people think, and it also doesn’t take long to realize that racism actually does still exist.
Equal rights? Let’s start with some examples: Affirmative Action, the NBA, and politics. There are many examples to show why people think racism is over. These aren’t even the best or most appropriate, but make for a simple example. Affirmative action. It’s an idea that focuses to promote access to education, jobs, housing for certain people - usually minorities and women. If you look at recently polling (or just ask the average white person), white people think that affirmative action is no longer needed and is actually racist against white people. The NBA and basketball in general today is seen as a black sport and that very few whites actually are able to make the NBA and millions of dollars. The third example is politics. I’ll just give a simple sentence that I have heard over the years many, many times: “Well, they [meaning black people] have Colin Powell.” The basic mindset is: if someone actually has an advantage to get an education or a job, can make millions of dollars, and is able to be in a political position, then of course everyone is on equal standings. These ideas don’t really begin to get to the idea of equality and racism today in America. For that I would recommend Divided by Faith by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith.

The examples of racism today that people do take the time to notice are the few and the extreme. You’ve seen them, the people with the white hoods who are riding down the middle of main street on a horse. College and Affirmative Action are one of those funny things. (And by funny I don’t mean funny.) As I’ve said, a majority of white people think that Affirmative Action should be done away with, especially when it comes to college admittance. Many young white (I would also add male, but not necessarily) high school and college students feel as though they have been ousted out of getting into a better college because a black student got in instead of them. They believe that if Affirmative Action was done away with that they would have gotten into their college of choice. I attended a second tier college that was 90% white students and I experienced this first hand with students each day. The only problem when you take out Affirmative Action is that it doesn’t only affect the color line. It also affects women. Ethnicity and sex are seen as the two biggest determinates, but other people are affected as well. Let’s look at my home state, Michigan for example. Who else would be affected? Athletes? Indeed, athletes would no longer have a leg-up to get into college, and in many cases on a free ride. Native Americans? Although an ethnicity, African American is usually what people think of as impacting Affirmative Action. Yoopers? That’s right; people from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan would even be affected.
So where is racism? The simple example of this is to go to your local store and see what color Band-Aids are. Are you or are you not living near a landfill? Who lives on your block or town? Who does not live on your block town? Why is this? For more information I encourage you to read this article by Peggy McIntosh.
King will forever be immortalized with museums, streets, memorials, and even a holiday. King strove for all people to have rights, equality, and justice. Forty years later may we continue to strive for King’s dream and hope.

A couple of MLK Jr’s letters and speeches:
Letter from Birmingham Jail
I Have A Dream Speech

pulling the mask off: thoughts on hypocrisy

“You hypocrite!”
I've been called a hypocrite to my face a few times in my life. Ironically enough, each time its been said to my face it was untrue (even though I have been a hypocrite many times). It's not a good feeling. Especially later when you realize you should have just been a better person and been honest with yourself and others.
As a Christian though, why do I constantly have to be better than everyone else? (Everyone else meaning non-Christians and Christians alike.) For some reason I feel as though I have to show the most love, be the most compassionate, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Sometimes I just want to show that I am broken, beaten, and sinful. I get mad when someone cuts me off on the highway. People make me sad when they satirize or ridicule me. I don’t like it when people feel the need to put on a mask1 in front of me. I mean, come on - I am just a broken human being sometimes.
Life just stinks sometimes. Sometimes people don't like me. Sometimes I don't like people. Things like forgiveness, grace, mercy are thrown out the window and things such as pride, greed, and apathy bridle me.
Fortunately, I live in a community where bread is broken and wine is shared. It is a life of faith, hope, and most of all love. It is an incredible community that is broken, beaten, and most all striving to love neighbor and God.

day-by-day 4-2-08

Missio dei. It’s a Latin term that basically means “sending of God” or “God’s mission”. It’s a basic concept that means God is already present and working all over the world whether the Church is there or not. Everyday, I work with people who are working for God’s mission. As I hear progress on wells being built, roofs being raised, and communities coming together, I know we are following God’s mission of Micah 6:8 and Luke 7:22-23.
Here in Elgin I see God in the little details. Just as God knows each hair on my head, I see God in each detail of the finances and paperwork that I work with each day.
“You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11

*Published in Simply News, a weekly newsletter of the Church of the Brethren - General Board on April 2, 2008.