On Walden's Pond Scum

One day years ago my youngest, Becky, came to me and said,  "Hey Dad, I heard something funny today", to which I responded, "Funny Ha Ha, or funny interesting?"  From then on we always ask each other that same question when one of us wants to share "something funny".

I'm out on the road quite a bit, either working or commuting, and I tend to hear and see a lot of funny things.  Just in the last two weeks (1) I drove past a car parked along side the freeway and saw a heavy set man wearing grey sweatpants leaning into his trunk to get something, thus exposing his whole naked back end - Yikes!  Funny interesting, and (2) While riding shotgun on a road test I look over at a house and see a brown wood shelf inside at the middle of a picture window, curtains covering the window except for the shelf, and a big, very live grey cat sitting on top of the shelf watching the traffic go by - Also funny interesting.

And then there are things I hear on NPR (National Public Radio) on my commute.  I guess you be the funny judge.

I am very conservative and NPR tends to be very liberal.  Now just to generalize things, liberal thought is pro big government, pro choice, pro environment and pro tolerance.  Tolerance applies to any thought or action that is not mainstream but not to any Christian view that has absolutes.  This really all harkens back to the transcendentalist movement of the 19th century and it's literary masterpiece WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau, who, after sucking out all the marrow of life taught us that all ideas, especially those furthest away from conservative thought, are equally valid.  Thus if someone liberal associates you with the S word you should take it as a compliment, but if it comes from a conservative and now knowing what you know, you should respond - "That's funny".

I'm listening to NPR on the way home and there is a discussion on the ethics of doctors refusing to treat children whose parents have not seen that they have received their immunization shots.  I thought this would be interesting because I just talked with a very successful man who did not believe that immunization shots were safe for his kids.  He told me that he did a lot of independent research on the subject and that he believed that the doses given to very young children were way to much for their small bodies and that things such as autism could result.  His family stays away from processed foods and this guy says that his three children are never sick.

I'm not saying what is right and wrong here.  The guest professional in ethics, standing with current scientific opinion that there is no correlation between immunizations and autism presented clearly what the ethical problems were for doctors.  What I thought was "funny" here was her statement that "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of children have died from childhood sicknesses such as measles".  I began to wonder how much "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions" was.  Hundreds of millions would be at least 200 million, but hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions would be, what, billions or trillions?

And then, after agreeing with a call in doctor that a paternalistic approach works best with her patients in the South who believe all this non scientific mumbo jumbo, the guest professional went into a coughing jag.  A very bad coughing jag that went on for minutes.  It may have been minutes and minutes and minutes.  I thought back to the guy with the healthy kids and verbalized in my car, funny Ha Ha.

Usually at the time I drive home NPR has on The Environment Report, which is produced by Michigan Public Radio and so includes mostly stories involving environmental efforts in Michigan.  A while back there was an segment where, because of the players, there were no clear liberal good and bad guys.  It seems that there was a Hindu retreat center located along the banks of a popular trout stream somewhere in Northern Michigan.  They built themselves a meditation pond which of course is liberal good but were being sued by a Ducks Unlimited, a Michigan hunting and fishing organization, which should be liberal bad because they promote gun use except that here their cause was liberal good because the mediation pond needed to be flushed from time to time and the resulting silt destroyed hatching areas for the trout downstream.  Mind you, the Hindu's right to their pond was equal to the fishes right to reproduce but some bad karma led to the unfortunate but necessary lawsuit.  Conflict can be funny.

I thought of this story last weekend when Jackie and I drove down to Tennessee to see our grand kids play a little soccer.  Jackie has just gotten over a cold and now I have it.  We are in a Courtyard by Marriott near Nashville, it is the middle of the night, the room is pitch black and I need to get up and go to the bathroom.  I swing my legs over to the floor but in my sickened condition I forget that my side of the bed is only about a foot away from the wall, which my forehead crashes into when I begin to stand up.  This results in a quarter size round bright red wound in the middle of my forehead.

The next morning after taking a shower I notice that Marriott hangs a pretty tag on the towel rack  It says that being a "green" company is very important to them so we must be sure to hang up any wet towels.  They provided no other explanation.  Perhaps our landfills are being clogged with mildewed towels from Marriott. I did as requested but am pretty sure they would not care for the round blood mark left on the wash towel.

That morning we go see Dafney play and then drive over to Knoxville for Brendan's first game.  To get to the field we drive a few miles of curving back country roads and just before we get to the soccer field, on the same side of the road, is a Hindu cultural center.  I looked in my rear view mirror to check out the red circle on my forehead, scanned the property to locate a meditation pond and thought that this was all too funny. There was a pond about a mile prior with several cows nearby but none here.

I set up my lawn chair, breathed in the fresh country mountain air, watch my grandson score a beautiful goal and forget for awhile that I am sick and wounded.  Ah, wonderful meditation!

This Year's Family Fast

Once again we get the chance to spend the next 40 days praying and fasting for what the Holy Spirit has placed on our hearts.  Earlier this week Jackie and I talked about what we felt we should be praying for and this morning, day one, I opened up my daily scripture reading to Psalm 112.  In God's wonderful timing it  spoke to me deeply about this year's prayer goals but also about what has been heavy on my heart for quite some time.

The Psalm speaks about both blessing and judgment.  The perspective though is not about praying to get something,  Instead it is about an awareness of who and where we are in God's plan while in the midst of this mixed up world.  It assures me that what I do today will have meaning long after the struggle is no longer mine.  So much in this world is but an allusion.  While we are driven to lust for what will become dust, obedience and trust in Him will never disappoint.

Praise the Lord!

How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, 
who greatly delights in His commandments,
His descendants will be mighty on earth;

The generation of the upright will be blessed,
Wealth and riches are in his house,
And his righteousness endures forever,

Light arises in the darkness for the upright;
He is gracious and compassionate and righteous,

It is well with the man who is gracious and lends;
He will maintain his course in judgment,
For he will never be shaken;

The righteous will be remembered forever.
He will not fear evil tidings;
His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord,
His heart is upheld, he will not fear,
Until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries.

He has given freely to the poor,
His righteousness endures forever;
His horn will be exalted in honor.

The wicked will see it and be vexed,
He will gnash his teeth and melt away;
The desire of the wicked will perish.