Our 51st State?

It seems the idea of a 51st state may not be too far fetched.  President Trump has apparently expressed interest in buying Greenland.  The crazier thing is that the notion has not been completely dismissed within the administration.  While there are scoffers, others have seriously considered and explored the idea.

There are a few features that make Greenland particularly enticing.  It is the site of our northern most military base with Thule Air Base.    It is further at the center of the global climate crisis and frequently mentioned in discussions regarding national security.   An early detection and response location for the east coast.

It is also apparently not the first time we have considered, much less attempted to buy the land.  President Harry Truman apparently offered Denmark $100 million in gold for the island, but Denmark refused to sell.

There too will lie the downfall of this current presidential lark.  Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, who has again refused to consider any offer.  Further, Greenland has made it clear they want no part in this.  Most Americans want no part in it unless the price is shockingly low.  Only a third of those surveyed would pay more than $12.  

This does make me wonder though, how well we are taking care of our 14 territories.   Or more specifically, the five permanently inhabited territories: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.  

In truth, I think most of the country forgets these exist.  Or that they are home to 3.6 million American citizens (and 32,000 non-citizen U.S. nationals thanks to weird laws in American Samoa).

Residents of these territories have local governments, but only get a non-voting member to the United States House of Representatives.  They have no senators, nor can they vote in the presidential elections.  Though Supplemental Security Income, previously only available to the Northern Mariana Islands, may be extended to the other territories thanks to a recent court case, the citizens do not need to pay into federal income taxes.  No representation, no taxation.

We can even look to those who live in the District of Columbia for a closer example of the problem.  Those 702,455 people live in a similar limbo.  They have a mayor and thirteen member council, and can elect a non-voting representative to the House, but have no senator.    Unlike those in the territories, DC residents are subject to all federal taxes, and in fact pay the highest federal taxes per capita.  Taxation without representation, especially given Congress can overrule all the mayor and council decisions governing the district?

It’s clear we have citizens that are not treated equally by our governmental structure.  It seems to also cause our government to forget them in times of crisis.  Just look at how we’ve treated Puerto Rico following the devastation from Hurricane Maria.

Our President has tweeted how we cannot aid Puerto Rico forever, blamed the island for a financial crisis of their own making and infrastructure that was a “disaster” before the hurricane, and has more recently called leadership corrupt and overstated the amount of aid provided to the island.  Despite allocating $42.5 billion for reconstruction, so far Puerto Rico has only received $13.6 billion.  Even now, more than a year and a half after the storm, homes remain shattered, streetlights broken, and many bridges and roads unaccessible.

I just have the feeling that if this were Florida or California or North Carolina we were talking about, the conversation would be much different and the situation of recovery would be much different.

So, maybe before getting excited about Greenland, we should expect our government to look at how well we are taking care of our current territories and evaluating whether it’s time for an upgrade in status there?  

DC has voted for statehood, though that presents its own unique challenges. 

Puerto Rico has voted for statehood twice.

Perhaps we should start there.

39

39 today.

That's hard to believe.  It's the kind of number that can be a bit intimidating.  That can require a bit of reflection and thought.  That keeps you adding "and holding" to your description of the age.

And with some of the other life changes that have happened this year, it could be a bit of a downer.  A what have you done with your life moment.

But not for me.

Instead, I think of Stan Lee.

In 1961, Martin Goodman directed Stan Lee to create a comic book series about a team of superheroes.  Lee who had served editor-in-chief and art director, as well as a dozen other roles in his two decades at Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, was a bit burned out of comics at the time.  Lee was ready to call it quits.

Lee was ready to head to novels, to magazines, something.  But he listened to the advice of his wife, Joan, who suggested that he write at least one comic the way he would want to write it, not the way it had been done before.  Lee was then “determined to carve a real career for myself in the nowhere world of comic books,” noting that “for just this once, I would do the type of story I myself would enjoy reading … And the characters would be the kind of characters I could personally relate to: they’d be flesh and blood, they’d have their faults and foibles, they’d be fallible and feisty, and - most important of all - inside their colorful, costumed booties they’d still have feet of clay.” 

Now there are the disagreements as to how much input was Lee’s and how much was penciler Jack Kirby’s.  Regardless, the resulting combination proved to be a smash success, though quite unexpected.  Lee had felt ready to leave, but the positive reviews persuaded him to stay on.  It would be his most defining creation, in combination with the Silver Surfer, which launched fromthis comics magazine.   He would go on to maintain a 102 issue collaboration with Kirby, on this the “World’s Greatest Comics Magazine.”    Lee’s contribution, treating characters as human as opposed to ideal archetypes, would become the standard for the industry.  

From here, Lee would become a fixture in the comic scene.  His engagement with the readership in letter columns and in his Soapbox column build a great sense of community with fans and creators.  He introduced credits to the comic pages for not just the writer and penciler, but inker and letterer as well. 

Lee would be editor in chief, head writer, and show runner for the majority of the 1960s Marvel line.  He pioneered the pop culture of today.  And his impact extended beyond his tenure at the company.  He remained comics elder statesmen and the self-proclaimed greatest cameo artist of all time.  He was Uncle Stan.  

And the event that launched this career and fame.  The year that started the pop culture phenomenon known as Marvel.

Lee wrote that when he was 39.

The great success of Lee’s career didn’t start until Lee was 39. 

It was that point where he started following where his muse led him.  He didn’t change fields, didn't really even change jobs, he just finally released himself from the trappings of the past, from doing things someone else’s way.  

With all that is going on, I take solace in his life and story.  With the idea that there’s no magic number as to when your life really takes off.  It’s not that things weren’t good before, it’s just that it can always still take off at any point.

With the idea that this career transition, whatever it entails, could be the start of the absolute best part of my life.  The most fulfilling part.

And that’s exciting to me.

Here’s to 39.

Here’s to that kind of life-changing, universe-defining, creatively fulfilling opportunity.  

Excelsior! 

Mimics

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Ephesians 5:1-2

Sunday’s sermon pointed out that the word “imitators” here is related to the idea of mimicry.  The ability to copy closely.  To imitate.  To do an impression.  More actively, it carries the idea of being a mime.  Someone who is going through the motions, the processes to give the impression of a particular activity.  The mime, the act of mimicry calls to your mind a specific activity, person, etc.

We judge the success of the mime, the success of the impression by its accuracy.  How well does it represent the person or the activity being demonstrated.

I’m currently watching America’s Got Talent while staying with friends for this bridge job.  One of the contestants is a particularly gifted impressionist.  Greg Morton has a love of movies that goes so deep, it’s impressive.  He has combined this love with his natural talent for mimicry to be able to recreate so many great movie lines and catchphrases with dead-on accuracy.  It is amazing and I would encourage you to watch him.  

On the other end of the spectrum, we know that there is nothing worse than a bad impression.  Ones that leave us scratching our head, seeking to identify the source. 

With that in mind, if we are to be imitators of Christ, that leaves us with a heavy particular gut check:

How good is your imitation of Christ?

Is it recognizable?  Or is it too far removed?

In particular:

How are we doing feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, caring for the poor?  Or are we putting conditions on our charity, based on skin color, sexual preference, gender identity, or immigration status?

How are we doing at going the extra mile?  Carrying the pack that much further?  Or are we refusing to even have conversation with those we disagree with?

How are we doing crossing boundaries to speak with the woman at the well?  Or are we uncomfortable venturing into other countries, other cultures, other states, other cities, or even just across the tracks?

How are we doing at showing mercy and being peacekeepers, intervening with the sometimes mob justice of the world and of the church?  Or are we still the pharisees trying to through the stones?

How are we doing with empathy toward those around us?  Do we weep with the people in our lives?  Or are we closed off to them?

How are we doing hanging out with the outsiders?  Visiting the tax collector at his house?  Breaking bread with prostitutes and fishermen?  Or do our social circles look very homogenized?  Are they all exclusively from our church?

How are we doing at turning over the money tables in our churches and our faith?  Or have we become comfortable with the coffee shops, the book and music stores, and the apparel stores in our buildings?  Does reducing our faith to a theme park not bother us on some level?

How are we doing at forgiving those who hurt us?  O do we just ghost them now?

How are we doing with our doubters and our deniers? Are we caring for them, are we pursuing them, and are we forgiving them to help see them return?  Or are we writing them off as apostate?

That’s just a small list.  And I fail miserably at all of it.  Jon Jorgenson has a quote that says, “I’m worse than you think worshipping a God who is greater than you know.”  And it’s true.  I’m far worse than you could possibly imagine.  I have the hardest time living up to the imitation that I’m called to.  There are days when my imitation is unrecognizable.  

But, like art, we are called to keep trying to perfect it.  It will never get there this side of glory.  But we keep at it.

And if you are struggling in your imitation, those are the words you need to hear.

Keep at it.

What's The Bald Eagle When There's Money To Be Made?

The Trump Administration announced a major revision to the Endangered Species Act on Monday, August 12, 2019, reducing regulations by ending blanket protections for animals newly deemed threatened and allowing federal authorities to take economic costs of protecting a species into account.  The new rules also impose limitations on how threats are determined. Previously, officials could take into account factors that could harm species in the foreseeable future. Lawmakers now have much more discretion in defining the foreseeable future.

And in designating critical habitats, regulators are to reassess the lands that are currently occupied by threatened or endangered species before adding/looking at unoccupied lands.  To “reduce the potential for additional regulatory burden that results from a designation when species are not present in that area.”  Despite the fact that some species are endangered because they’ve been cornered in a small corner of the earth and a larger designated area is needed to help bring them back. 

It’s odd that this is now a target of the Republican Party, when it was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1973.  The Act currently protects 1,663 animal and plant species - 388 of which are considered threatened and 1,275 which are endangered.  It is credited with helping bring multiple species back from near extinction including the bald eagle, the humpback whale, the California Condor, and the American alligator.  

So why is it a problem now?

Because as Reuters notes, “the law has long been a source of frustration for drillers, miners, and other industries because new listings can put vast swathes of land off limits to developers.”  

Sure, that's what we need - to continue to prop up and subsidize the oil, gas, coal industries at the expense of the planet.  

Again, as in the title of the blog, why should we care about endangered species when there is money to be made?

We're killing our democracy, why not the animals too?

This should be a no brainer.  This should be bipartisan.  This should offend us all.  And yet, Republicans are united in supporting these changes.  The Republicans in Congress, the White House, and the Department of the Interior all are coordinating in remove as much regulation as possible.

At a time when one million species are at risk of extinction caused by humans, we should be strengthening the Endangered Species Act – not crippling it. This is wrong and dangerous.

— Tom Udall (@SenatorTomUdall) August 12, 2019

The one million species number comes from a United Nations report released in May.  To quote one of the co-chairs of the report, "The evidence is crystal clear - Nature is in trouble.  Therefore we are in trouble."

Indeed, we are in trouble.

Losing My Religion

“No one talks about it.”

This isn’t something new, but we’ve had a couple of high profile church leaders come out and reveal that they have lost their faith.  First, Joshua Harris revealed through Instagram that he no longer is a Christian.  Now Hillsong Songwriter Marty Sampson followed suit on Instagram in a now removed post to say that he is losing his religion. 

One particular refrain in Sampson’s post is a litany of things he views as going undiscussed in the Christian faith.  The number of preachers that fall.  That there are not many miracles happening.  Why the Bible is full of contradictions.  How God is love but can send four billion people to a place because they do not believe.  The hard questions.  

“No one talks about it.”

In the response to Sampson’s confession, many have latched on to this idea that “no one talks about it.”  They are determined to show the falsity in his statement.  They point to the treatises in church history that wrestle with these subjects, they point to the online discussion that is occurring on these topics.  They point to their experience in their church where they are supposedly having these in depth discussions.  

It should be noted that the wealth of material in history and only are wonderful resources.  They are great launching points.  

But these do not negate the truth in Sampson’s confession.  They do not negate the fact that these discussions (with special emphasis on the word discussions) generally are not happening.  That we as Christians are generally afraid to have difficult questions raised about our faith.  That generally in churches, we do not have much room for doubters.

We can write about it.  We can hear a sermon on it.  We can recommend a book on it.  But we really do not want to talk about it.

We will point to old resources, to say read them and all your questions will be answered.  Or we will give pat, rehearsed answers that we were told as if it settles the issue.  How many have you heard?  “Just give it over to the Lord.”  “You just need more faith.”  “Let go and let God.”  “God’s ways are not our own and we’ll never understand them.”  

These are true statements, but you must see how they can also be things that are not helpful to the questioner.

Our response stems from fear.  We’re worried we won’t know the answer.  We’re afraid of having to say those dreaded three words, “I don’t know.”  We’re afraid of disagreement.

Then there is the other side.  The environments that make us scared to ask questions.  To expose our doubts and our struggles. For fear of being labeled a heretic.  For fear of being ostracized from the group.  For fear of not fitting in, because you don’t see what the rest of the group is seeing.

If you haven’t been a part of a church like this, I pray that you never will be.  I pray you continue to find good, rich, honest, raw, difficult conversations.  That you are able to continue to expose your greatest struggles and doubts in an environment that encourages it and pushes everyone to growth.  

But please realize, that you are in a privileged minority in the church going experience. 

More churches come across as closed off to questions.  To new thought, to change, to old questions, to deep questions, to struggles (or should I say to specific struggles).  Even if from the top.

Our pastor revealed a statistic in his most recent sermon that disturbed me.  The average career for a new pastor is 1.5 years.  

That’s it.  

Sadly, there is a lot of additional information regarding the average career of a pastor that should concern any church member.  Half of the ministers starting out will not last five years.  Only one out of very ten ministers will actually retire in ministry of some form. 

Why?

From their own words, they felt there were unrealistic expectations on them and their families, they have been hurt and burnt by the church, they are depressed, they are lonely.  At the root, pastors are frustrated by the lack of commitment from the laity, concerned about finances, grappling with effective outreach, struggling in implementing change, overwhelmed in counseling, lacking community, combating a lack of spiritual maturity, fighting for engagement in the laity, at odds with church politics, and finding difficulties in relationships.

In Brandon’s words, too many sheep in the fold trying to hurt the flock, not enough sheep willing to be shepherded.

In that light, it’s amazing how prescient R.E.M. really was.

“That’s me in the corner,

That’s me in the spotlight

Losing my religion

Trying to keep up with you

And I don’t know if I can do it

Oh no I’ve said too much

I haven’t said enough.”

We’re going to see more of these type of announcements coming.  And not just because “they never really believed,” or “it was Hillsong, what do you expect,” or some other variation.  But rather because we often don’t have room for anyone with deep questions.  Anyone who is struggling in their faith.  

We often are the worst at eating our wounded, our struggling.

Our doubters.

And I don’t think it’s appropriate.  After all look at how Jesus treated his “doubter.”  With grace and compassion.  He helped him through it.  Put his hands in His hands to show him how much he cared.

Perhaps we could do the same.

Perhaps we could all admit that we struggle at times with our faith, and sometimes in very deep ways.

I’ll admit, I’m not sure that I can believe that the account in Genesis 1 is literally true or meant to be taken as such.  I struggle with the passages that indicate both predestination and free will are supported in the text and that the answer to Calvinism versus Arminianism might be both.  Reading Kings and Chronicles is a struggle in understanding how some of the kings could have been seen as the ones favorable in God’s eyes.  

I struggle with how Jacob would be chosen over Esau, when Jacob was a liar and a thief.  How Esau would still not be favored with his own redemption arc.  Over the role of women in the Church today.  Whether Hebrews written by a woman and that is why its author is omitted.  

To read the text, to study the text, is to struggle with the text.

That’s a small piece.  That’s just in textual analysis.  I cannot imagine those who struggle with their faith because of the situations that life has brought their way.  Those who have watched their children suffer and die.  Those who can truly feel how capricious this world can be.

We ALL have something about our faith, about our belief that we struggle with.  It’s just time to be far more open about it and to start discussing it.  To let others know, it’s ok to ask.

Jamie and I share a quote that we firmly strive for.  It’s from John Wesley to describe how Christians should live among each other, especially when it comes to beliefs.  “In the essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity.”

We need to admit that there are far less essentials than we would like to believe.  That there is a lot more room in which we need to allow liberty and display charity.

It’s time to see the best in people.  To view them from the most charitable position.  Especially our fellow believers who are struggling.  Who are slipping. 

Because if we don’t help them.  If we don’t open up, and truly, deeply discuss their questions.  To let them know it’s ok when the answer is “I don’t know.”  To let them know we struggle as well.  That faith is hard.  That there are times when it can be a challenge.  

Perhaps, most importantly, that you will be there alongside them wherever their doubts, their struggles, their faith lead them.

If we can’t do that - then who else will?

“I believe that appreciation is a holy thing - that when we look for what’s best in a person we happen to be with at the moment, we’re doing what God does all the time.  So in loving and appreciating our neighbor, we’re participating in something sacred.”

Fred Rogers

Perspective

Amnesty International has issued a travel warning to those world travelers heading to the United States.

This is not the first I've heard from others wary of traveling to the United States because of gun violence.  On Jamie's trip to central Europe last year, people in the area were talking about being afraid to travel to the United States because of gun violence.

Just a reminder when we think about how dangerous traveling to other countries might be...

Mississippi Burning

What should be a couple of wake up calls over the next two days...

The first, a Facebook post that I saw shared via Twitter. Because it's important to recognize when others say it better than I ever could. Emphasis added in the text is mine. With a few closing thoughts at the end.

"If you’re reading this and you’re thinking that the ICE raid in Mississippi was justified because the 680 men and women apprehended are undocumented, and therefore in your eyes they are here “illegally” and we “have the right to enforce our laws,” you should know the following:

The owner of the business in Mississippi who hired all of these undocumented persons uses a social security number verification system and he is the one who supplied his own workers with the fake numbers and fake documentation they needed.

The employer is guilty of perpetrating fraud and identity theft but he is not being charged with these crimes. Further, the owner of the business was facing charges of sexual harassment and assault by several brave immigrant women who came forward to share their stories.

The federal government knows this but they are not bringing charges against the owner of the business for this reason either. Last, the employer was found responsible of wage theft in the amount of 3.8 million dollars.

Again, brave workers came forward to talk about unpaid hours of work and illegally docked paychecks. And they proved their case. But as you might have guessed the federal government is not charging owner of the business with any wrongdoing here either.

The White House is not directing the Department of Homeland Security to make an example of this business owner by fining him and/or charging him because he is a major donor to the Trump presidential campaign. If you thought the swamp was being drained you are sorely mistaken.

But wait it gets worse. The White House flew in the national director of ICE ahead of the raid in Mississippi and imported 600 ICE agents not stationed in that area. All of this constitutes an unprecedented expense of our taxpayer dollars.

And based on all available evidence the reason the White House and Department of Homeland Security justified this expense was they knew that they would receive viral media coverage by choosing to execute a raid of this scale in the wake of the El Paso shooting.

The Trump re-election campaign has already spent $17.2 million on digital ads. 2,200+ of these mention an “invasion of illegal immigrants.” And by rounding up 680 workers in the most public and publicized way possible the White House has, as it did with the 4th of parade, made the conscious decision to buttress and complement its campaign expenditures on our dime as taxpayers.

ICE didn't select this site randomly. This site had been on their radar for a year. They knew with a great deal of anticipation that this raid would happen at this time.

And that’s how they were able to get 600 agents shipped in and that’s why the national director was on the ground. And yet they did not notify any child welfare agencies ahead of time.

They knew they were rounding up workers with kids who punch a time card. They knew they were not getting gang members or people who travel from place to place and are difficult to track. They knew they were going to take moms and dads away from their children...(many if not most of whom are US citizens) right before the first day of school.

They knew they were going to leave children orphaned by conducting this raid but they never did anything at all to try and help those children.

And if all of that doesn’t make you sick to your stomach then consider the fact that there is no immigration court in the state of Mississippi. Immigrants in detention are not entitled to lawyers. They don’t get phone calls.

If they lived in any other state their family members trying to find them would know which courts to call. Anyone rounded up in Mississippi will likely end up in court in Louisiana or Tennessee. But there’s no way of knowing for sure.

So again, you are taken at work. But your boss goes home and nothing happens to him. You can’t speak to or see your kids unless someone along the way possesses enough humanity to help you do so. Otherwise you have no lawyer assigned to help you, and you're not entitled to a phone even to make a collect call. Since you’re not entitled to the same rights in the immigration court system as you are in any other court system, and your family doesn’t know where you are, or when your hearing is, chances are you’ll be deported.

If you don’t have family in the area to fight to keep your kids, they will become wards of the state. They will end up in foster care. And they’ll be scarred for life. All because Donald Trump chose to steal your tax dollars and mine, and use them for his re-election campaign.

And if you still don’t care because you’re so wretched and broken that you think your ignorance of immigration law justifies your belief that people need to “get in line” despite the fact that there are 185 visa types and each one has multiple “lines” and wait times.

If you don’t know or care that a Mexican with a PhD cant win a Green Card in a lottery and will wait 23 yrs to be reunited with his family, while a Belgian high school dropout with a juvenile criminal record can win a Green Card in lottery and reunite with his family in 3 years.

And that these are the broken immigration laws you want to enforce when you chant “build that wall” and “send them back,” then please by all means enjoy that Make America Great Again hat made in China."

Facebook post by Unai Montes-Irueste, Director of Communications at United Ways of California

We often talk about the distinction between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law.

At what point does enforcing the letter of the law turn our stomach?

Seriously.

Watch the video of the 11-year old pleading for her father and mother to be returned.

“Government, please put your heart — let my parents be free with everybody else, please.”

“I need my dad…mommy. My dad didn’t do nothing. He’s not a criminal."

Is this who we are???

I guess, more importantly, is this who we want to be?

The Travelers' Report 13 - Cozumel Cruise

In the continuing travels of the Keeler Crew - Jamie and I got to slip away for short weekend cruise from Galveston to Cozumel to celebrate our 10th Anniversary.  And it was a great way to spend it.  The day of departure, a day at sea, a day in Cozumel, a day at sea back, and then disembarkation.  

We were able to get a great deal booking early in the year and had upgraded to have a balcony, which made for a wonderful trip.  With the trip already booked and paid for, it was not something we really had to worry about even with the circumstances in the summer.  

This was Jamie's second cruise and my first.  Also my first time into Mexico.  It will not be our last.  

This trip was so relaxing - we were basically lazy bums.  We did a few fun activities on board like a 90s One Hit Wonder trivia, karaoke, and Explain a Movie Plot Badly (which we won and earned our Golden Ship on a Stick).  We did also watch Independence Day on the outdoor screen on July 4.  All that was missing was fireworks.

But for the most part, we lounged around and watched TCM.  Watched the water go by.  There's something magical about being out on the deck on a starless night.  Where the boat seems to be just floating, disappearing into the black void.

Our ship was the Carnival Dream, seen below docked at Galveston.  We were on Deck 7, so we had a lot of stairs involved in getting to the food and activities.

Of course, one of the fun things about being on the cruise is the towel animals that housekeeping creates.  Below their fun creations for this short voyage.

Our one port stop was in Cozumel.  We didn't pre book any adventures here and were headed to the real downtown district to try some local food and chocolate, when we got tempted by a really good package for the day.  It just involved a timeshare presentation.  In another reality, we might have jumped at that package for Vidanta, because they really know how to do all inclusive.  But we made it through without a purchase and got our island tour, tequila tour, and beach access.  Plus a free bottle of tequila.  The ruins below are from the tour.  The Puerta Maya sign from the entrance to the shopping center that has sprung up around the Carnival port.

The food was very good, especially the lunches.  We were surprised by that and expected the dinners to blow us away, but the fun options they created for lunch made for really good meals.  Our photograph below is from our Fancy Dress dining night, which did have a very good three course dinner.

All in all, it was a very memorable way to celebrate the 10th anniversary, July 4, and Jamie's birthday.  As stated above, we will definitely be cruising again.  There's too much of the world to see and this is definitely a fun way.  We were already talking about how much Avalyn and Jude would love it.  Just have to wait a little bit for the right age.

Next in the series, a few entries on our big road trip.

Abbey Road

'

50 years old.  

One of the most iconic album covers of all time turns 50 years old.  This photograph was taken August 8, 1969.  A design from an idea that McCartney sketched, it’s such a simple shot outside the EMI Studios. The cover features neither the artist name nor the album title on the front cover, the only original UK Beatles album to do so. As John Kosh, Apple Records creative designer, put it “we didn’t need to write the band’s name on the cover … They were the most famous band in the world.”

The group crossing that zebra stripe crossing has become one of the most imitated images around.  I know Brooke tried her hand at it on our trip to London in 2000.  There’s even a webcam that has monitored it since 2011.

It has sparked fringe theories like the “Paul is dead” theory.  That since, McCartney is the only one barefoot and out of step, he’s deceased.  The line is then a funeral procession, led by Lennon in white as the religious figure.  Followed by Starr in black as the undertaker, with Harrison in denim as the gravedigger.

How many other album covers can say that?

And though the recoding process was contentious, and though it represented an end for the Beatles (though Let It Be would be technically the last worked on and released), man what an album.

• Come Together
• Something
• Oh! Darling
• Here Comes The Sun
• Because
• Medley with Golden Slumbers, Carry the Weight, and The End

Talk about going out on a high note.  Those are songs where most groups would hope to have just one on an album.

We’re never going to have another group like the Beatles.  There’s so much content, it’s so fractured, that I don’t believe anything will ever hit like that.

And without a group like that, an album cover or cd cover, or associated image with a track is never going to pop like this one.

In remembrance, let’s heed the words of the final collective Beatles song -

“And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make…”

Be good to each other.  And if you have Abbey Road photos, share them here.

Maybe They Deserve to Die?

The title is harsh, but do we ever really stop to consider it.  Or are we just overcome with nostalgia that we can't see past it.

I mean, how many articles have we seen over the past several years that millennials are killing everything.  Mayonnaise, fabric softener, American cheese, the golf industry, paper napkins, Buffalo Wild Wings, McDonalds, Home Depot, Applebees.  The list goes on.

Now we have them to blame for the death of the brick and mortar store apparently.   And it seems no store is immune.  No business that can be treated as safe.  Even Pizza Hut is closing as many as 500 dine in restaurants to focus on delivery and take out.

And in all of the uproar, all I can think is that isn't this what we expect to happen, especially in free market capitalism?  Isn't that the point?  Tastes change and businesses change with them.

Why are we lamenting the deaths of big box, national chain retailers?  Of mediocre chain restaurants?  Is it just nostalgia?

I'm going to miss eating inside a Pizza Hut, no doubt.  That was the go to post show dining.  Once a production had wrapped the cast went to Pizza Hut, to play music on the jukebox, sing annoyingly loud, and eat tons of pizza.

But there will still be lots of places to get pizza.  And there is no question that the best pizzas do not come from any of the chains.  The best stuff is from places like 3Ds in Canton.  Austins' Pizza in Austin.  Johns in New York City.  Lou Malnatis Chicago.  Even the little whole in the wall by the slice place in New York that was the only place open in Snowpocalypse.

To me it seems we mourn the wrong things.  Why do we mourn an Applebees closing its doors more than a mom and pop diner that has local business owners closing?  Why is it sadder that JCPenney's might close than it is that your local grocery has been replaced by a chain?

Why are we more attached to impersonal brands and faceless corporations than we are to the independent business owners who make up our communities?

Especially when many of these chains have brought their slow deaths on themselves.

For the greatest example, it boggles the mind that Sears, the first great disruptor in retail could not have envisioned the way to stay relevant in the age of Amazon.  You're telling me the pioneer of the catalog, the first great purveyor of interstate sales and shipping, could not have seen how their catalog could become a web store now connecting the globe?  Why should we want to prop up a company when others have committed to how they should have changed?  Sears viewed their stores as an asset, which they could have been.  With their network of stores, they could have easily led the way in next day delivery, same day pickup (or drive up and have employee put in your car pickup), and potentially even same day delivery, years before Amazon could have gotten there.  Their stores are now an unfortunate liability that has them overextended.

Look, I do not want to diminish the impact of the lost jobs on the community or the loss of revenue for those employed in such chains.  But I do wonder why we feel these national chains are supposed to be immortal.

What's so special about an Applebees that we need an article for its obituary due to millennial tastes?

Maybe it's just me, but count me out of the list of mourners.  For me, I'll mourn the local bookstores, the local hardware stores.  The family restaurant.  The family business.

Those are getting harder and harder to run, to compete, and to stay afloat.

That impact is personal.

Shop Small.

Mitchuation Update - Itinerant Living

Changes in the Mitchuation...

We're done with all of our traveling for now.  The road trips are done.  We've been to a birthday party and visited family.  We were ready now to rest and just be for a while.

But I now have work.  It's a temporary position.  About a month in length, in downtown Dallas.  It will be hopefully a good bridge opportunity to carryover into whatever the permanent position becomes.

It came from a former co-worker who thought of me and reached out today.  She called while we were in Waco, I emailed a resume and spoke to the primary contact while we were in West.  And then I met the primary contact in Dallas to fill out paperwork and sign this afternoon.  It came together quick.

Since it is in downtown Dallas, I will be staying with friends in Wills Point closer to the opportunity.  An hour drive beats the two hour one from Winnsboro.  Plus it will be good to spend time with friends.

On the permanent front, I have leads in Dallas and Nashville.  For the Dallas location, I have a co-worker on the inside putting in a good word.  And the Nashville opportunity is exciting and promising.  I also have interviews for Austin and Washington, D.C. this week.

Through it all, it's been very interesting to see the Lord's hand in it all.  This temp job has come up to start literally the day after all our travels have completed.  This break has gotten me through a couple of planned trips and a move.  Opportunities I might not have had otherwise.  Jehovah jireh.

That's not to say that it always works out this well.  I completely know that this is amazing how it has come together.  And there is definitely the possibility that after this bridge, we're still waiting.  Waiting for further direction, for insight, for opportunity.

But I'm thankful for the way it is coming together.  I'm thankful for have the kind of a work relationship where co-workers would recommend me for other opportunities.  I'm thankful for upcoming possibilities.

With this opportunity, we'll be around the Winnsboro/Dallas area for the work week definitely.  And will get to head Buna way next weekend hopefully.

Not the way we would have planned it necessarily, but that seems to be the general current state.

To trust that His plan is better.  And to look forward to what He has in store.

We'll keep you posted.

One More

Another shooter.  20 dead.  26 wounded and counting.  A manifesto, a grudge against Hispanics - "the Hispanic invasion."  Traveled from North Texas to El Paso to commit the atrocity.  Lamented in his manifesto that his choice of gun would only shoot 300 rounds before getting too hot to handle.  300 rounds...

This was a person who wanted to inflect as much pain and death as humanly possible.  Who viewed fellow human beings as an infestation.  And who had legal means provided to be able to inflect that destruction.

And because we know what would actually work and refuse to do anything about it, I'm repeating an article that I've had to post twice now in the near-year-and-a-half that the blog has been running.

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Because there have been 15 school shootings so far in 2019...
Because our most recent mass shooting in Highlands Ranch, Colorado took one life and injured eight others...
Because active shooter drills are now common place in elementary schools...
Because we're teaching kids to run at shooters and then praise them as heroes, but are forgetting to mourn that necessity...
Because we have a generation of kids who view school shootings as just the way things have always been...
Because we still haven't done anything of substance to stop them...
Because chances are, we will still do nothing about this one...
Because I'm tired...

It bears repeating - From a post almost a year ago:

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I'm tired.  I'm tired of this topic continuing to come up.  I'm tired of us continuing to have the same response - thoughts and prayers, then talking at each other, then a whole lot of nothing, and it's forgotten until we move on to the next one.

When I started this blog, my second post was a repost of a Facebook message on the Second Amendment in response to the Parkland, Florida school shooting.  There have only been 54 days in between these posts.  And here we are again, with a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas.  And I haven't even touched on all of the school shootings that have occurred.  There have been 5 other school shootings in the interim, just not to the same scope.

We have an addiction to guns in this country that causes us to look at anything else except gun control as a possible solution.  It's far past time we put everything on the table.  We should be looking at mental health care.  We should be looking at bullying.  We should be looking at the family structure.  We should be looking at socio-economic status and mobility.  AND we should be looking at sensible gun control.  We're a big country and pretty good at multi-tasking.  We're more than capable of looking at it all.

But I'm too tired to write anymore on this.  Who knows what good it does at this point.  In lieu of further debate, I'm just going to post facts and let them speak for themselves.

• On an average day, 96 Americans are killed with guns.
• On average, there are nearly 13,000 gun homicides a year in the United States.
• For every one person killed with guns, two more are injured.
• 62% of firearm deaths in the United States are suicides.
• Seven children and teens are killed with guns in the United States on an average day.
• In an average month, 50 women are shot to death by an intimate partner in the United States.
• America's gun homicide rate is more than 25 times the average of other high-income countries.
• The United States accounts for 46% of the population, but 82% of the gun deaths.
• Background checks have blocked over 3 million gun sales to prohibited people.
• Black men are 13 times more likely than white men to be shot and killed with guns.
• The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of the woman being killed by five times.

https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-by-the-numbers/

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Until it's heard...
Until we stop pretending like it will go away...
Until we do something, anything...
Until we care more about people than things...
Until we listen more to constituents than to special interest groups...

Until the next time...hopefully with a much longer gap in between

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This marked the 250th mass shooting in America in the 215 days so far in this year.  

Common place now, I guess.

Yes, Robert Jeffress, Democrats Can Be Christians Too

“When they talk about God, they are not talking about the real God - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who revealed Himself in the Bible.  These liberal Democrats are talking about an imaginary God they have created in their own minds: a god who loves abortion and hates Israel.”

Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas and an evangelical adviser to the president, June 29, 2012

Contrary to popular belief, the Republican party does not have the corner on Christianity.  There is no one party that has got it right.  No one party that can claim to be Christian over the other or that one party is doing it right or wrong.

Parties do not have religious affiliations.  Their members do.  And this may come as a shock to many, but 62% of those who claim to be staunchly Democrat or lean Democrat would claim some form of Christianity.  

Yet here we have a pastor who chooses to write them all off.

I've already had issues with Jeffress.  He has made many statements that indicate that he has traded in Christianity for political power.  Here are just a few of his gems.

"I believe any Christian who would sit at home and not vote for the Republican nominee...that person is being motivated by pride rather than principle...”. 

“You know, I was debating an evangelical professor on NPR, and this professor said, ‘Pastor, don’t you want a candidate who embodies the teaching of Jesus and would govern this country according to the principles found in the Sermon on the Mount?’  I said, ‘Heck no.’ I would run from that candidate as far as possible, because the Sermon on the Mount was not given as a governing principle for this nation.”

“Government is to be a strongman to protect its citizens against evildoers. When I’m looking for somebody who’s going to deal with ISIS and exterminate ISIS, I don’t care about that candidate’s tone or vocabulary, I want the meanest, toughest, son of a you-know-what I can find - and I believe that’s biblical.”

“Evangelicals still believe in the commandment: Thou shalt not have sex with a porn star.  However, whether this president violated that commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him.”

“Let me say this as charitably as I can. These ‘Never Trump’ evangelicals are morons.  They are absolutely spineless morons and they cannot admit that they were wrong.”

Or how about the time he had the First Baptist Choir sing a Make America Great Again hymn.

This is clearly a person who has thoroughly entwined himself with one particular political party.  A bit different from his ideals proclaimed in his book Twilight’s Last Gleaming, that Christian leaders are preferable to non-Christians because their “core beliefs” would keep them from “immortality” and “corruption.”

What has Jeffress gained from this change?  A spot on Trump’s evangelical advisory board.  National prominence.  Publicity for him and First Baptist Dallas.  A regular spot on Fox News.

I tend to side with Messiah College history professor John Fea, who argued, “Historically, whenever…ministers get involved in politics it ends up being bad for the church.  If you mix ice cream and horse manure, it doesn’t do much to the horse manure, but it sure does ruin the ice cream.  [Ministers] must always be in the business of speaking the truth to power.  And there is a LOT of truth that needs to be spot to Donald Trump.”

Maybe it's time to start treating Jeffress as a political figure, and not a pastor.  To view his proclamations as having little to do with the Word of God, and more to do with his political affiliations.

If this is where he wants to plant his flag, let's treat him as such.

* And for those asking, what about abortion, how can a Christian support abortion - please note that there are pro-life Democrats.  Democrats for Life America was created in 1999 for the purpose of electing pro-life Democrats.  A 2014 Gallup poll found that 28% of Democrats were pro-life.  This should be unsurprising given the Catholic position on abortion and the number of Catholics that vote Democratic.  There are others that may not label themselves pro-life but struggle with separating their personal feelings from what they believe the government should do.  Further, the Democratic party platform includes many social programs that actually reduce the number of abortions performed.  We have to stop looking at these as either-or-issues, or nothing will ever change.

Theater's Prince

“The two things that characterize him most are energy and impatience.  He trained as a stage manager and he learned the business from the ground up, so he knows how to order a pair of shoes, which many producers don’t.  A visual imagination is, if not his greatest strength, then one of them.  He sees things visually first, and he knows what a show looks like in his head before he takes it on.  In a certain sense, if Hal had his druthers, he’d direct operas only.  His heroes are directors like Max Reinhardt, the ones who pulled out all the stops.”

Stephen Sondheim, on Hal Prince

The lights on Broadway are a lot dimmer tonight.

Hal Prince, Broadway legend and prodigious Tony winner, died Wednesday, July 31, 2019, in Reykjavik, Iceland at the age of 91.  He had been traveling from Switzerland to his home in Manhattan, when he died in Iceland after a brief illness.

Mr. Prince began his work on Broadway in the late 1940s as an office assistant.  By 1949, Mr. Prince was an assistant stage manager on the musical “Touch and Go.”  He would go on to become a successful producer for such shows as “The Pajama Game,” “Damn Yankees,” “New Girl in Town,” “Fiorello!,” “Fiddler on the Roof," and “West Side Story."

“I was grateful, but I still wanted to be a director, not just a fellow with a lot of bumbling enthusiasm who said, ‘Yeah’ and ‘Swell’ or ‘Great’ a lot.  I was not creative, not an artist. I was doing interviews about box-office grosses.  I didn’t want to be a business man.  I am a good one, but only by default.  I didn’t get into business to keep books.”  Prince in a 1968 New York Times interview.

It was "West Side Story" that would prove very influential in getting Mr. Prince his directing opportunity.   Though he had met Sondheim years before, “West Side Story” would be their first professional collaboration.  Prince produced with his partner, while Sondheim would provide lyrics.  Prince would then go on to produce “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” With the shows following, Prince would also serve as director: “Company,” “Follies,” “A Little Night Music,” and “Sweeney Todd.”

During this time, Prince would also produce and direct, “It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane..It’s Superman,” “Cabaret,” and “Candide.” He would also form a successful partnership with an unknown at the time British creator, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.  This partnership had Prince direct “Evita,” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”  “Phantom” remains the longest running show on Broadway.

He worked with an embarrassment of riches in creative talent, including Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Susan Stroman, Leonard Bernstein, John Kander, and the aforementioned Stephen Sondheim, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.  He has been awarded 21 Tony’s, far surpassing anyone else in multiple categories.  His awards stretch from 1955 with “Pajama Game” and reach 2006 with his lifetime achievement.  He received his last competitive award in 1995 for his direction of an extravagant revival of “Show Boat.”

To say he is a legend is an understatement.

Mr Prince redefined Broadway several times in his career.  With “West Side Story” and Sondheim.  With “Cabaret” and the concept musical.  With “Phantom” and the epic musical.

When prominent theater professionals pass away, it is the tradition of the Broadway community for the lights of all Broadway marquees to simultaneously dim.  They are dimmed at curtain time, usually 8:00 pm and are dimmed for a full minute.  No announcement is made, aside from a press released issued by the Broadway league prior to the event.  Then the lights go up and the show goes on.

It’s a minute of silence, a minute of reflection.  A minute recognizing how dim the theater community is now with the passing of such a contributor.

For Prince, all lights were dimmed for one minute on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, at exactly 7:45 pm.  

“To be both a genius and a gentlemen is rare and extraordinary.  Hal Prince’s genius was matched by his generosity of spirit, particularly with those building a career.  Sitting on the T Edward Hambleton Fellowship panel of Mentors alongside Hal was both a lesson in producing and a lesson in humanity.  He was a giant.”

Thomas Schumacher, Chairman of the Broadway League

Rest in Peace, dear Prince