This Won't Happen Again in your LIFETIME

TOMORROW MORNING AT 2AM IS A CRITICAL TIME.

 

Three minutes and Four seconds after 2 AM on the 6th of May this year, the time and date will be:

02:03:04 05/06/07

This numerical order will never happen again in our lifetime.

Stay up and toast the day.

Finishing Well

Dr. Andrew Weil is a quality of life advocate who wrote recently that life extension efforts that results in extended morbidity is not life extension.  I just buried an aunt who lived 16 years in a nursing home.  Extended life with morbidity.  Weil says the goal of man should be to live well as long as possible and then die shortly after no longer living well.  Slay dragons in the morning and die that afternoon.  I'm up with that. 

 

I spent some time in nursing homes the last year.  A family friend of ours just passed away in the nursing home.  I visited her.  She was alert, alive and full of spunk.  But, incapacitated otherwise.  Tough way to go.  On the other hand my family has the unfortunate late life curse of mental drift.  Late 80's and things drift away.  So, even if alive, alert isn't there.  Sometimes not at all.

 

These things haunt me.  I want to finish well.  With all the talk about life expectancy (the average does go up) we haven't done much about actual length of life.  We are able to keep a few alive for a decade or more past prime.  But in Jesus time Anna was 84 when He was born.  84 was not an exceptional age then.  Old but not exceptional.  We are about at the same length now.

 

Despite all our medical advances that moves up life expectancy, our life expectancy in length is to about 85-95 perhaps a few more.  Average life expectancy is something else.  My concern is not length of years, it's life in the years.

 

In our church we just had a woman die who was a quadriplegic. Bonnie.  She had everything NOT going for her.  But she died full of years.  She worked hard to develop and maintain a quality of life.  Her friend Dianne paid a price and reaped a reward to see her active and involved.  Bless them both.  Bonnie was an inspiration.

 

I get to the keyboard about 7AM.  I work the phones all day.  About 3-4PM I try to do whatever errands or deliveries I have.  Then I come home, change clothes and work in the Nursery till dark.  Mostly about 8PM.  I try to get a little nap in.  I ache.  But I'm happy.  I like to work.  I see so many men my age half infirmed.  I feel I didn't work hard I would lose whatever vigor I have.  Use it or lose it.

 

I used to have great pride at my physical stamina.  I unloaded several large bags of potting soil last night.  I struggled to lift them.  They were unwieldy and over 80 pounds each.  I know 5 years ago I would have thrown them over my shoulder and walked them back.  On the other hand I can still carry six 3 gallon pots at once.  Lots of young men can't do that.  So, I still got it, kinda.

 

Age is a robber.  I keep hoping 80 is the new 65.  That a man or woman in good health should be able to work till 80.  If that's the case is 65 the new 50?   I wish.  So do you.

 

So, I'll go thru my routine.  I'll be out leading a prayer meeting tonight till late.  Up tomorrow.  Men's meeting.  Work hard the rest of the day.  Much to do. 

 

And in the mean time I write on this Blog and make a living.

 

Don't feel sorry for me, don't tell me to slow down, I love it.  I love the pain.  I love the tired.  I love the fact that I sleep well.  It's a choice driven partly by fear of morbidity.

 

I just fear it will all end too soon.  I just hope to finish well.  I have much to do.

 

Our High School Class Poem (or Motto) quoted Frost when he said, "I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep".

 

Still do.

Keith Goes to College

A Blog Friend from NYC, Keith, tells a story you must read if you are a Christian and need your fire stoked.

I have been reading his blog for a couple years. I find him interesting, real, human, transparent (even in affairs of the heart), knowledgeable, smart and worth my time. Maybe for you too.

The nub of the story he tells is of standing in the commons of a university for several hours and preaching the word of God. He is not a firebrand pentecostal. He is much more traditional than am I. But he has passion. He has heart. I admire him for all that.

Drop him a note of encouragement on his comment section. He's a good man.

Kill all the Humans, the Ulimate Global Warming Solution

Now China has boasted that it's population control brutality reduces global warming. That includes forced abortions, infanticide, and murder. Always a bad thing in my opinion. This should make all the eco-nuts really happy. Save the whales, kill the babies. Nice bumper sticker.

Why not solve global warming by killing off say a third of all the people on the planet? That'll cinch things up.

Reading my Bible, it appears as if that's already in the works with the 6th trumpet judgement.

200 million demons let loose upon this earth to literally kill one third of the people that are still left on it!

China just got a head start. I wonder how many of those demons will be wearing an environmental armband as they kill 1/3rd of mankind?

Speaking Truth to Pacifism

"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

WHO SAID THIS?

JOHN STUART MILL

Sorry commenter, wrong again.

Bringing Back the WHITES ONLY Drinking Fountains

Now it's getting really nutty out there. Kansas City airport has installed foot washing benches next to where the prayer rugs are kept.

Muslims need to wash their feet to pray. So, Cab drivers many of whom are Muslim, needed a foot washing station.

The big lie is Anyone Can Use These facilities. So, let's see, If I bring my dog Fido in to give him a bath is that OK? If my potbellied Pig needs to be washed after rolling in the mud is that acceptable? If I want to use this for some other "Religious" purpose am I allowed?

What do you think? NOT ON YOUR LIFE OR MINE.

This is re-installing the whites only drinking fountains. This time I'm the Negro. So are you.

Throw that Bible Out - The New Canon is Here

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Gore.

I have long maintained that eco-nuttyness is a religion at it's core.

I have as evidence this story of a hotel in California (where else) that places the new holy writ, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth on the nightstands of their hotel rooms instead of a Gideon Bible.

From this article:

April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer. Instead, on the bureau will be a copy of ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming.

They have EVERY right to do so. It's their hotel. Actions speak louder than words. They can do what they want too. When they do they telegraph the truth about who They really are.

I can hear it now in the Church of Earth. Let's pray:

Our Mother which art the earth
Warming is thy name..........................

So, the next time someone rails about human caused global warming remember, they're just some nutcase religious fanatic like the islamo-fascists and the basis of their nuttyness has the same depth.

It's all faith.

If I'm going to have faith it's not going to be in Al Gore or a big lie told to the whole world about the idea that I am guilty and therefore need to pay indulgences in the form of carbon credits to some self appointed priest out there in the ozone.

Get real.

Men Like This Are Founding Fathers

I know men who made a difference. One was my Uncle Earl Redlin. He fought at Anzio. He matters. He Mattered. I fear for out country when so many weak and spineless men and women who have no stomach for heroism fill our population and our voting booths. We are being set up for tyranny.

Our fathers, the faith of our fathers, the greatest generation, were men and women of courage and valor. We have once more such men and women fighting for our very lives in Iraq, Afghanistan and soon in Iran. They matter too.
They give me hope that in the generation to come we will get our gonads back.

So, in salute on this May Day I point to one such man of valor who just passed away. We owe him much. Here's his Obituary.

WWII bomber pilot was shot down twice

April 30, 2007
BY RICHARD PYLE
NEW YORK -- Robert Rosenthal, a World War II bomber pilot who twice survived being shot down in raids over Europe and later served on the U.S. legal team that prosecuted Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg, has died.

Mr. Rosenthal, who lived in Harrison, N.Y., died April 20 of multiple myeloma, according to a son, Steven Rosenthal, of Newton, Mass. He was 89.

With 16 decorations including the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest award for heroism, Mr. Rosenthal was a quintessential example of the young Army pilots who carried out daylight strategic bombing raids against Germany's industrial war machine from 1942 to 1945.

Mr. Rosenthal's 52 missions included one on Oct. 10, 1943, in which his aircraft was the only one of 13 to return from a raid. Rosenthal's B-17 reached England with two of its four engines gone, severe wing damage and two wounded crew members.

His bomber was dubbed ''Rosie's Riveter,'' a play on his name and the sobriquet given to women working in U.S. defense factories.

Mr. Rosenthal's plane was disabled by flak over France in September 1944. He suffered a broken arm and other injuries in a forced landing but was helped to safety by French resistance fighters. Five months later, he was shot down again during a raid over Berlin and got home with the aid of Russian troops, via Poland, Russia, Iran, Egypt, Greece and Italy.

Born in Brooklyn on June 11, 1917, Mr. Rosenthal was football and baseball team captain at Brooklyn College, a summa cum laude graduate of Brooklyn Law School and was working at a Manhattan law firm when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He enlisted the next day.

After Germany surrendered, Mr. Rosenthal was training to fly B-29 Super Fortresses over Japan when the war ended in August 1945. He came home to a law practice but soon went back to Germany as part of the American legal team chosen for the Nuremberg war crimes trials. Aboard the ship bound for Germany he met Phillis Heller, another attorney, whom he married in Nuremberg.

During the trials he interviewed ex-Luftwaffe Cmdr. Herman Goering, the highest-ranking Nazi defendant, who evaded the hangman by committing suicide, and former Gen. Wilhelm Keitel.

"Seeing these strutting conquerors after they were sentenced ... was the closure I needed," he said. ''Justice had overtaken evil."

I WASN'T ANGRY

The post below this one a (Used or Useful) was not about what you think. After I wrote it I received a phone call from a good friend of mine who was wondering what that was all about. I revised it taking out a bit of the anger and increasing the specificity. I think it says in a bit more in a less abusive tenor the nature of my complaint and irritation.

I tried to explain without naming names. Hope I succeeded.

I can be specific because the person leading the organization about whom I wrote NEVER reads this blog, NEVER reads what I send him, NEVER hears what I have to say (he's too busy multitasking) and NEVER will allow me to be useful at any level.

Therefore I'm outta there.

If you read this blog it's not about you.

I met with the leadership of the organization in question over dinner last Thursday. I realized as a member of this group I am a fifth wheel. Never a good place. So, I'm gone.

Some groups are just users. It's their genetic DNA. They want (this is a church group) to be live TV for the people they "Serve" on Sundays, Sunday nights and Wednesdays. Dog and pony shows. That is lots of entertainment (activities), worshiptainment (Music), theotainment (Preaching). Spectator Christianity. They are lost in space and will soon crash and burn. I will now step off this sinking ship.

I won't be used and unusful.

My only regret is that the people who really need to get this message will never see it. If I sent them this in vellum and gold they would treat it as small change. I don't need this.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU FEEL INFERIOR WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION". One way to avoid that feeling is not to allow others to ever talk to you that way. You and I should never allow someone to talk down to us. Treat yourself with self respect.

Nobody ever kicks a dead dog. If you are doing something you will be criticized or they may treat you like small change. Never let them. You have a mission and a purpose and allowing someone to rob that God Given destiny by marginalization is a sin.

The man who hid his MINA in the dirt till the master returned was criticised and punished. Yours must never be. Don't let anyone compel you to hide the Mina you have been given. I won't and neither should you. Make yourself USEFUL!

Used or Useful - RSV

Growing up I was often told to "make yourself useful". That may explain some of who I am today. I know this, I cannot abide feeling used, I am genetically programmed to be useful.

If for some reason I ever feel un-useful mode I will change things. Either I will be engaged or find a place to be engaged.

Inert I am NOT. That's why in nearly every company, every club, every group, every organization and every church I act with intentionality to be useful. Sometimes that manifests itself by me working with others, sometimes heading a program or project. Sometimes that manifests itself by me having a specific project with specific goals. I must be useful or I'll leave. Not a bystander Gene.

I don't attend ball games; basket, foot, base, soft or soccer. I am not a spectator in life. I don't go to many concerts. I do love Opera because there is much to be engaged in. I love life theater because I can be part of it.

Church that is oriented toward making me feel USED is soon ex-church. How does it manifest itself? I had a man in a church say once me, "I can handle Gene". I know I can be a handful. But that comment was the kiss of death for him. He never had another chance to "Handle" me again. I saw to it that whatever input I got from him was ignored or reversed. Unless he was smarter than the average bear he would have had to figure out that I was doing the opposite of his "Handling", then try to outmaneuver me. Not too likely.

Use me or lose me. I end up feeling used when I am expected to sit quietly in the pew every Sunday, follow the program, pay my tithe, be on some committee, and keep my mouth shut ("Handle" me). If Gene shows up, the rest comes (Mouth and all).

If you expect me to just "Be on the Roll" and not involved at a level that makes a difference I will be gone. I don't believe in church MEMBERSHIP for that reason. There is in membership an implied "Handling" that is only reserved for Jesus in my life.

In my reading of the Bible I don't see any indication that keeping pews warm was the function of the body of Christ as it built in the book of Acts. In fact the opposite is true. If someone says, "there aren't enough places in ministry for everyone" my response is, "Then everyone is saved, filled with the Holy Ghost, Speaks in Tongues, operates in the 9 gifts of the spirit, heals the sick, raises the dead, delivers the oppressed and in general is fully engaged in ministry". IF that's not the case, there's still plenty of places still in ministry. Our problem is too much ministry doesn't happen because people misleading are in the user mode. People warm pews because there are too few ministers willing to prepare the saints to do what they are called to do according to Ephesians 4. Get everyone on the same page you will have a powerhouse. Let a few do little and you have dead. In the human body when an organ or member no longer is able to be functional it atrophies and dies. If that happens to a couple key organs the whole body dies. I have a friend with MS. That's what's happening to him.

I refuse to be USED. There's a group I belong too where I have been placed on the shelf. I met with them last Thursday. I realized as a result of that meeting I am being used and not being useful. Shelved. Earth to space. If you have chosen to try to shelf me I'll crawl off. The lecture that serves no purpose is to tell someone they must first "Pay the Price or Clean toilets". I have come to the conclusion that those arguments are manipulative. It's a way of marginalizing people into areas of ungiftedness.

As window washers or toilet cleaners they are frustrated evangelists. They do a decent but maybe not exceptional job of toilet cleaning. The judgement about their evangelistic capability is rooted in their toilet cleaning capacity. Judging people by their ungifted performance.

People end up dying and going to hell because the gifted evangelist isn't put in a place of destiny and function according to their God given giftedness. ON THE SHELF.

Long ago I made the decision I would NOT be part of any group, company, or organization that was at it's core a user of people. I am just reaffirming.

Drug addicts are called users. I think there is a parallel.

Good News Bad News

Reclaiming lost memories. Alzheimer's healings. Good News.

Carol Mosley Braun Mugged. Saved by two White Boys. Bad news, Maybe.