You Live Way More Times Than Just Once...

YOLO!
You Only Live Once...that's what they say.

I understand what they are going for with this slogan.  Everyone lives just one life, so live it well...live it with purpose...live this one life as if its the only one you get...because it is.

My life began on March 12, 1945.  Its still going...obviously.
70 years, 9 months and some-odd days.
With some luck and continued good health, my life could keep going for...well, who knows.
According to the YOLO principle, this is the only life I get.  The one I have been living since I arrived on the earthly scene at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana...all those years ago.

BTW: On that Monday when I arrived on the scene this is how things were...
F.D.R was President...serving in his fourth term;
"The House of Fear," "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," and "Objective, Burma" were playing in movie houses.
The Tigers would beat the Cubs in the World Series later that year, 4-3; and in the Negro World Series the Cleveland Buckeyes would sweep the Homestead Grays, 4-0.
In college football, Army was declared the National Champion.
The Rams (then in Cleveland) beat the Redskins in the NFL Championship.
And the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons beat the Sheboygan Redskins to win the National Basketball League Championship.
Gas cost 15 cents per gallon.
The average new house in America cost $4,600; and the average wage was about half that much ($2,400).
The average price for a brand new car (if you could find one) was barely north of one-thousand dollars.
Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on the day I was born to John and Patricia Steele of Lydick, Indiana.

But.  But I don't really agree with YOLO.

I think we all live many lives.  Consecutive lives. Each one of those lives we live requires different skills, emotions, and energies.  Each of them can build on the experiences of the ones that have gone before.

I made it thru my childhood life.  I learned to make friends.  Thought small town mid-western life in America was the only and best life to live.  Went to elementary, middle, and high school in the insular towns of Lydick and New Carlisle.  Had developed few if any plans for the lives that would follow.

My next life began with marriage, the soon-arrival of twin boys, and a move across the country to Los Angeles, California.  All within the span of about nine or ten months!  I landed my first "real" job, at the National Screw and Manufacturing Company (which company I have now outlived!).

Next came the return-to-Indiana life...beginning in the late summer of 1968.  We settled in the Indianapolis area.  Another boy-child arrived.  Higher education began in earnest.  Various work experiences...from cleaning out 55-gallon drums to be reused for tomato paste, to supervising the cleaning of office buildings, to managing the inventory of HVAC units, to driving a Charles Chips truck...and then the final two years of college and three years of seminary while serving as an associate pastor of one church and full-time pastor of another church.

There are other lives, too.  Some of them overlap one another; others occur in succession.

The professional religious-person life that lasted 41 years.

Life with good health.

Life with declining health.

Life lived paycheck-to-paycheck.

Life lived with relative financial security.

Divorced life.

Remarried life.

Retirement life.

That's how I see it.  We do live way more times than just once.  And each one of those lives brings new joys (and sorrows), new opportunities (and set-backs), and requires new skills and adaptations.  Each life requires the setting of new goals...and plans for achieving those goals.

Maybe...quite literally...Today is the first day of Your Next Life.

Maybe.

Vonnegut!

I read my first Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. book when I was in college...a friend asked me if I knew about this Hoosier author...some of whose books had been banned...and then let me borrow his copy of "Slaughterhouse Five."

Bingo!  I was hooked.  I quickly...over the next couple years...got every book Vonnegut had written and read it. And I stayed current with Vonnegut over the following years as he wrote even more books.

Attending a panel discussion on "Vonnegut and Religion" at Christian Theological Seminary...and especially listening to Dan Wakefield reminisce about his friendship with Kurt...got me back in touch with why I liked Vonnegut's writing so well.  And as to Vonnegut and religion...mostly Kurt referred to himself as an atheist...but I submit to you that his sermon "Palm Sunday," as written in his book, "Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage" (1981)...and preached in New York City at  St. Clement's Episcopal Church in 1980...is one of the better sermons you will ever read.

At any rate, this blog-post is just an excuse to list some of the better (in my estimation) quotes from Vonnegut's writings.  Let's start:

-We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

-Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.

-True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

-Science is magic that works.

-That is my principal objection to life, I think: It’s too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes.

-Time is liquid. One moment is no more important than any other and all moments quickly run away.

-Until you die… it’s all life.

- One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.

- I don’t know about you, but I practice a disorganized religion. I belong to an unholy disorder. We call ourselves ‘Our Lady of Perpetual Astonishment.'

-We are here on Earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.

- Where do I get my ideas from? You might as well have asked that of Beethoven. He was goofing around in Germany like everybody else, and all of a sudden this stuff came gushing out of him. It was music. I was goofing around like everybody else in Indiana, and all of a sudden stuff came gushing out. It was disgust with civilization.

-I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.'

-All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental.

-Ideas or the lack of them can cause disease.

-Here's what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey.

-Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

-If people think nature is their friend, then they sure don't need an enemy.

-How nice… to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.

I'm done here...for now..."And So It Goes."

 

The Deepening Pool of Human Stupidity...

In a former work-assignment experience...serving for eight years as a member of a small group that worked intimately with personnel deployment, supervision and sometimes personnel difficulties...I was introduced to a statement that I have come to believe is true...harsh, but true.  That statement is this: You can't fix stupid.

It gets proven true time after time, of course.

Saying something stupid, by definition, means saying something that lacks understanding, intelligence, reason or sense.

Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher, once said that "Stupidity is better kept a secret than displayed."  Some people just can't help themselves, however...or so it seems.

I read somewhere that the first basic law of human stupidity is that "Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid people in circulation."

Here are some contributions to the Deepening Pool of Human Stupidity:


“You guys line up alphabetically by height.”
- Bill Peterson, Florida State football coach

“The internet is a great way to get on the net.”
- Bob Dole

“I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada.”
- Britney Spears

“I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father.”        
- Greg Norman

“I love sports. Whenever I can, I always watch the Detroit Tigers on the radio.”
- Gerald Ford

“If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life.”     
- Brooke Shields

“A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.”
- Dan Quayle

And, of course, pretty much anything Wayne LaPierre says.

All Alone Am I...

Way back in 1963...the year I graduated from New Carlisle High School...Brenda Lee recorded a song that included these lyrics:
All alone am I ever since your goodbye
All alone with just a beat of my heart
People all around but I don't hear a sound
Just the lonely beating of my heart.

All alone...
With just the lonely beating of my heart.

Now that's alone.
Try it...try just being alone...in silence...and listen for that internal sound of "just the lonely beating of your heart."

What do you "hear" beyond the sound of your heartbeat?
What thoughts come to mind...in the absence of the usual background din of everyday life in 21st century America?

Do you "hear" what you couldn't hear before you sat in the (relative) silence?
What thoughts are you having now that you are concentrating on just your heartbeat?

Pretty heavy stuff, this.

Scary...maybe.
Instructive...maybe.

Do you have any sense of peace?
Do events, or the faces of friends come into "view?"
Are you making plans for what will happen when you finish this session of silence. or are you letting this time...and this place...and this experience "speak to you" words that cannot otherwise be spoken?

Well, those are as far as my thoughts take me in this vein...but here are the words of Michele Casella Collier...a lady I know through a FaceBook connection...to me, she is known as "The Yoga Lady," but as you will see in what follows, she has gifts beyond her skill in doing and teaching Yoga.  Her poem is titled "In Stillness."



In stillness
in the silent
expanse
between
the stars
there is
the peace
once lost
now found
and it comes
in quiet calm
that reaches
down
into the space
between
flesh
and bone



Breathing in
Breathing out
it is there
in stillness
where
wholeness
empties
into infinity
and gently floats
in between
each breath
and waits
in stillness
for the soul's
remembrance
and surrender
into the soft
elegant radiance
and fullness
of eternity

Nothing...it ain't easy!

I retired.
I retired at age 70.
I retired after having held some kind of job...either full-time...or part-time while attending college and/or Grad School...since age 18.  The final 41 years of employment were as a pastor or administrator in the United Methodist Church.
I retired as of June 30, 2015.

I now do nothing.
And it ain't easy.

I read two articles on how doing nothing helps one get things done.  Those articles were just nonsensical.  Nothing to them, really.

There is a bit of guilt associated with doing nothing...instead of doing something...but it can be easily overcome if one knows how.

Borrowing the good suggestions of others...and maybe throwing in some of my own thoughts...I have come up with some things I can be doing...or practicing...while I am working out the details of this doing nothing thing.

Here goes.

Even while doing nothing...I can:

Live and Let Live.

Be Positive instead of Negative.

Reflect on the Lessons that Losing offers.

Spend some Time Alone Every Day.

Be Open to Change.

Practice the Presence of Silence.

Live in the Moment.

Advocate for Peace.

Proceed Calmly with Life.

Do No Harm.

And of course...Develop a Healthy Sense of Leisure.

Truth...

I admit two things about what follows:
I have often wondered just how much of what we think we know about the Jesus story is anywhere near the truth of the Jesus story...and,
I don't think those closest to Jesus in real life knew what the truth of the Jesus story was (almost) anymore than folks in our time and place do.

And so, I wonder if someday we will unearth written documents that go something like this:



Just a few short weeks ago, the man named Jesus was killed on a cross outside the city wall of Jerusalem. This is not rumor nor fantasy, it is true. Yet, while he is gone, he remains the hope of those who were his closest friends and followers. 
Many in Jerusalem and perhaps in some nearby villages and towns, are reportedly heartbroken.
Too much has happened to fully explain, let alone fully understand. Almost none of it makes sense.
No doubt there will be reports spreading that he was a fool, a liar, a flim-flam man.  There is no doubt that what he spoke of and what he promised has all gone, all disappeared.

Many of those who were in Jesus' inner circle are now being hunted by the authorities. If they are not all caught and dealt the same death sentence as Jesus, they will most likely have to lay low for the foreseeable future.  No doubt they will have some great stories to tell about their three years of being in his company. 
If Jesus' message is to be believed, these followers will probably defend and promote his life through living peaceably and lovingly wherever life takes them. The truth is that almost all that is known about the man named Jesus is that he cared little for what others believed to be true, but cared supremely for what he believed God declared to be true: That loving others was the only way forward.

Stuff I Shoulda Known Sooner...and Said More Often

For 41 years I delivered sermons from pulpits and spoke in leadership roles of various sorts...leading workshops and training events , addressing district and conference meetings, answering questions in official settings, etc.

It came with the job.  Pastor/Preacher.  Executive Director of an Urban Ministry agency. District Superintendent.

There are some stories to tell.  I made some genuine flubs.  I said some funny stuff (not always meaning it to be funny...it just came out that way).  I might have spoken some wise words on occasion. 

These last six years of serving a local church...after serving in administrative roles for the previous 16 years...have left me with some regrets that I could have spoken more wisely and more directly in my younger years.  In fact I now find that there was Stuff I Should Known Sooner...and Said More Often.

But, I didn't know it sooner and did not say it often enough.

With age comes wisdom.  Here is some of the stuff I shoulda known sooner...and said more often:

-Don't settle for skimming the surface of life...all the Good Stuff is below that.
-This world is a very tough place...tougher than you think.
-Each of us is pretty much like all the rest of us...in some very significant ways.
-That Kingdom Jesus spoke about is now (and always was) within us.
-God is a living mystery...never anything less.
-If it ain't patient, it ain't love.
-From Here-to-There just may be the longest, hardest journey we will ever take.
-Serendipity could turn spiritual in unguarded moments.
-"In-Between" is one of the most gnarly, dark places in life.
-God is always...or at the very least, almost always...at work among us.
-Our ideas about God and Life are too small...seriously, way too small.
-Our doubts and fears about God and Life are too big...seriously, way too big.
-We must love like our lives depend on it...because they do.
-Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning.
-If we take new paths, there will be new possibilities.
-The four actions of God that may best describe the Divine One are these: God Creates, God Loves, God Redeems, God Continues.

There's other Stuff...I may get to a recounting of that at another time.

Times Change - Life moves On

The countdown is almost at an end.  My final Sunday as a pastor under appointment by a Bishop is this weekend.  We've already moved into the home we purchased for retirement.

We are remaining in (what a good friend calls) The Peoples Democratic Republic of Bloomington.  The southside...near the Country Club...and a large Middle School...on the edge of an old limestone quarry.  

Whatever comes next is just around the corner for us.

I get a chance to personally welcome the pastor who is appointed to serve at St. Mark's beginning on July 1st.  He will serve with Mary Beth Morgan...with whom I have served these past six years.  He happens to be the husband of Mary Beth Morgan...so that is nice...very nice.  For them and for the church.

Here is some of what I will say on my final day in the pulpit...as Times Change and Life Moves On:

Four Theological statements I believe are true…
-God Creates.
-God Loves.
-God Redeems.
-God Continues.

Four Real-Life statements I believe are true…
-We ought to take into account who others are, and what others do, and think, and believe. 
-Anyone not willing to risk is not really willing to live.
-We either get better or get worse…and its always the right thing to choose getting better.  
-Its important to find ourselves in harmony with God’s activity in the world.
 

I think my four Theological Beliefs

and my four Real-Life Beliefs
help make it possible for me to actually experience
whatever Most Excellent Harmonies God wants to send my way.

In my years here in Bloomington…at St. Mark’s Church…
I have more than once found myself wondering:

So…what-and-where…are those Most Excellent Harmonies that God deals in?
And my answers, today, are these:

I believe…We find God’s Most Excellent Harmonies in the unexpected Places where we least expect to find God.
And in those Places we just may find
the undeniable sense of the Holy that will catch our attention.

I believe…We find God’s Most Excellent Harmonies in the unexpected Times
when we would rather wallow around in the muddle and muck
and rehash old, unresolved issues.
And in those Times we just may find
God offering a new insight, a new direction, a new purpose.
I believe…We find God’s Most Excellent Harmonies in the unexpected
Situations that might seem trivial:
things like a passing comment,
a line from a movie, a face in a photograph, a shared cup of coffee…or bottle of beer.

And, I believe…We find God’s Most Excellent Harmonies even as
Times Change and Life Goes On.
We will find them in the Ministries of Jimmy Moore,
and Mary Beth Morgan,
and in the Congregation of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church.

What Tomorrow Holds...

Today I was invited by a group of teenage girls who are part of a pastry cooking class that has been meeting at St. Mark's over the past three days to join them in a Tea and Pastry Party in Garton Hall.  Real china to eat on and drink from...linen napkins...fancy presentations of all the many pastries they had made...and good conversation about what the girls would do with the rest of the summer.

One of the girls was going to spend time in a Swahili language class; another was going to San Francisco with grandparents to celebrate her 12th birthday; another would involved in softball and cheer-leading camps; another was traveling to take part in an ice-skating camp...what a wonderful lunch-time it was.  The chocolate eclairs were great!

And then there is Tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Thursday. The 11th of June, 2015.

If all goes well, I will wake up about 6:45 or 7:00 am, grab a Grande Non-Fat Latte at the Starbuck's drive-thru, and tee-off with my usual foursome at 8:15; I am scheduled to get daughter to summer school class at 1:00 pm, and then check-in at the office.

That's the plan.  It may or may not work out as listed above. 

Then again, Tomorrow could go completely off script and be filled with unexpected events and happenings.

Tomorrow could turn out like this:

Or, Tomorrow could wind up being like this:

Based on some Yesterdays, Tomorrow could be like this:

Its never easy to know what Tomorrow will hold in store...maybe something like this:

Or maybe...Tomorrow there will be another Tea Party!

More Than You Bargained For...

I grew up in a very small town about seven miles west of South Bend, in northern Indiana.

I was born in 1945.

In the 1950s and early '60s, when I was growing through childhood and my teen-age years, Lydick was the world I knew.

My parent's home was on a gravel road...as I remember, there were only two main paved roads in town: Edison and Quince.  There was a four-way stop where those two roads intersected.  No stop lights, no street lights, no police department.

Lydick had one grocery store, one gas station, one tavern, one Gleaner's Hall, one barber shop, one volunteer fire department, one grade school, one middle school (no high school...we went to New Carlisle for that adventure), one brick church, and one Ice Cream Parlor.

The Lydick Ice Cream Parlor served up hamburgers, french fries, soda fountain drinks...and great malts.  I loved the chocolate malts.

Those malts always arrived on the soda fountain counter just as pictured above.  A glass full of cold malted milk and ice cream...and more in the metal container in which the delicious drink was mixed.  How great is that?  More than enough.  More than you would expect.  More than you bargained for!

Fast forward.

I now live in Bloomington, in central southern Indiana.

I think every street in town is paved.  We have four-way stops, but we have way more stop lights...heck, we even got roundabouts.  There's not just one of anything...so far as I can tell.  Two institutions of higher learning, we got.

I eat lunch at 5 Guys probably once a week...on average.  I always order the same thing: Single hamburger (ketchup only), regular order of fries, and a small soft drink.

Look down into that bag.  That's how my lunch order at 5 Guys arrives.  See that container of fries?  And do you also see all the other fries that come with the order but will not fit into the paper cup designed to hold the fries?  How great is that?  More than enough.  More than you would expect.  More than you bargained for!

Truth is like that, I think.  Love is like that, I think.  And God is like that, I think.

Like those malts served up at the Lydick Ice Cream Parlor. And like those fries served up at 5 Guys.

There's always more to truth, and love, and God than fits neatly into a single container.  There's always truth, and love, and God that spills over and needs more space than what is allotted.

Anybody...or any group...or any institution...serving up "all there is to know" about truth...about love...about God...ain't worth your time. 

Hold out for the people, groups, or institutions that offer up servings like the ones in the pictures above.


  

Only 18...

Its almost over.

In fact, its close enough to say that "Its all over but the shouting!"

In June of 1974, I preached my first sermon...I can still remember the title of it..."God Is Not a Spaceman"...at an evening service in Edgewood United Methodist Church.  Other than the title (which has stuck with me for no explainable reason), and that the theology I employed to develop that sermon would most likely turn me off all these years later, I can remember nothing about what I said...and cannot begin to imagine what people must have heard.

BTW: I am very much aware, all these years later, that what I say in a sermon is not always what people hear when I preach that sermon.  And so, at the beginning of each of my sermons I always say, "Might what I say, and what we hear, be for us...at least in part, this day...the Word of God."

It is 41 years later and I am ready to keep in a digital file on my home computer only 18 sermons that I would want to possibly read again at some point...or reflect on, if the mood ever strikes me.  Now, during the early years of my preaching, sermons were either hand-written on legal pads or typed on my manual typewriter or produced on my Brother word processor...so no copies of those relics are extant.  Basically, during 8 years as the Executive Director of Metro Ministries, and 8 years as a District Superintendent, and now 6 years at St. Mark's here in Bloomington...I have whittled what I have to say down to only 18 sermons. 

To my mind, these 18 are pretty good sermons.  They repeat certain themes over and over again.  Themes like:
-God Creates
-God Loves
-God Redeems
-and God Continues. 
That's pretty much the drum I have been beating for the bulk of my preaching career.

From those 4 Theological Themes come 4 real-life applications.  The applications read this way:
-We ought to take into account who others are, and what others do, and think, and believe.
-Anyone not willing to risk is not really willing to live.
-We either get better or we get worse...and its always the right thing to choose getting better.
-Its important to find ourselves in harmony with God's activity in the world.

Yup, that's it...41 years and 18 sermons (worth keeping).

I do want to thank the many people who listened to these 18 and all the others didn't make the cut.

I have also tried...really tried...to never ask people, in a sermon I have preached, to believe the unbelievable.  These 18 meet that self-imposed standard, according to me.

Every Single Day...

To quote Henry David Thoreau:
"In the long run (we) hit only what (we) aim at.  Therefore, (we) had better aim at something high."

Back in 2013, Dick Christopher died.  Dick was one of the finest District Superintendents I served under (as an appointed United Methodist pastor).  He was a good man.  The world would be a better place with more like him around in every generation.

Rev. Andy Kinsey presided at Dick's memorial service, and remembered out loud that one of Dick's favorite Bible passages was "Make love your aim."  (1 Corinthians 14:1)

In the Message translation of the Bible (which I prefer), the verse comes out this way: "Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it - because it does."

Got me to thinking...if we want to aim high, we could do a lot worse than to aim for love.

Of course, that would be a daily task...

 Every Single Day we are allowed to choose to forgive and to seek forgiveness in our most near and common relationships.



 Every Single Day we are free to release grievances, let go of resentments, and get beyond self pities and jealousies.

Every Single Day we can choose to ditch our attempts to control situations and control other people.

Every Single Day we can actually choose grace over judgment, and mercy over self-justification.

Every Single Day we can choose to see beyond the end of our nose, and beyond our own wishes and desires.

Every Single Day we try hard to express the Really Good Stuff that is within us...instead of the junky stuff that too often spews out.

Every Single Day there is the chance to choose gratitude over complaint, peace over disharmony, and hope over despair.

And if...
If our daily routine produces fear...then love is not our aim.

If our daily routine is self-diminishing...then love is not our aim.

If our daily routine motivates hate...then love is not our aim.

If our daily routine produces shame...then love is not our aim.

If our daily routine robs us of grace...then love is not our aim.

"Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it - because it does."

2016

In 2016, when the General Conference of the United Methodist Church gathers in Portland, Oregon, I will be 71 years old.  I have been a card-carrying member of the the UMC since 1968 (and before that, a member of the Evangelical United Brethren Church...the EUB and the Methodist Churches merged in 1968, forming the UMC).  I have been a pastor in the UMC since 1974...and in 2016 will have been retired from the profession for a year.

The logo for the 2016 General Conference is "Therefore Go."  The Scriptural basis for the logo is found in Matthew 28:19-20...Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

So the 2016 General Conference is built around Jesus saying to his early followers (the Church fancies itself the successor to that group): "Go. Train others in all I have commanded you." 

And the only "commandments" I recall Jesus offering were these: Love God and Love Neighbor, and Love One Another as I Have Loved You.

Nice.  Simple.  Easy to remember.

Very hard to pull off.

And in relation to the God's sons and daughters who are homosexual the UMC has yet to pull it off.

However, every General Conference (the get-togethers take place every four years) has the opportunity to right previous wrongs and set a new course...has the opportunity to enact wonderful ways for its membership to Love God...Love Neighbor...Love One Another Like God Loves Us.

And so, in 2016 the General Conference of the United Methodist Church has an opportunity to show a 71 year old current member that it can pull off loving all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, the kind of love that God showed all of us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

To continue our current position regarding homosexuality as "incompatible with Christian teaching," is no longer tolerable...if it ever was.

I hope my denomination is smart about this issue next May in Portland.

The Power of Pictures

When I was a kid, learning to use the camera my parents had was no easy thing.

Nowadays everybody has a simple-to-use camera on their cell phone.  No big deal...

But back in the day...when I was a youngster, and in 2015...with a camera on my phone, the same thing applies: Pictures are powerful things!

Pictures can make us smile...laugh, even.  They can make us cry.  They can cause us to be sentimental...or they can make us angry.  Pictures can tap into human depths that words and actions can never reach.

So, just because its possible to do so, here are some pictures that I think pack-a-punch.

That's not good.

That's calming...and refreshing.

That reminds me of a bazillion meals I ate growing up...in fact all the way thru the 60s even.

That takes my back to High School.

That speaks of invitation...and renewal.

That's old-age...and the end of the journey...and even dignity.

That's foreboding...and yet compelling.

And that's life in the midst of death.

That...that is life growing up in the 50s in Indiana.

Maybe the pics will bring up some emotions/memories/insights for you.

Train Leaves Here This Morning

A lyric from the Eagles' song "Train Leaves Here This Morning," goes like this:
I looked right at the facts there, but I may as well have/
Been completely blind/
So, if you see me walking all alone/
Don't look back, I'm just on my way back home/
There's a train leaves here this morning, and/
I don't know, what I might be on...

Disclaimers:
1. I really like the Eagles.  A lot.  Their harmony, but especially their lyrics. I think I have been to 6 or 7 of their concerts, as well as three of Don Henley's and one of Glenn Frey's concerts.
2. I grew up in a home situated just about 50-70 yards from two sets of train tracks: one for the South Shore line that ran from South Bend to Chicago; the other for the New York Central Railroad.
3. As a young boy and a teenager, I  looked down and walked down and played on train tracks way more often than I should have.
4. I really did fantasize about jumping on a train and riding to some wild and exotic place hundreds of miles west of where I grew up in Norther Indiana.

There is something...I'm not sure just what, but there is something...about looking down a long straight stretch of train tracks.  Something that gets the imagination working...something that makes adventure seem like the thing to be about...something that seems a bit foreboding, but mostly seems compelling.

If I hop that train that leaves here this morning, where will I be when its time to bed down for the night?

How far away from the life I live now can that next train take me? 

If indeed those two rails meet somewhere down that long stretch of tracks, what will I meet when I get to that place?

The train that leaves here on the morning of July 1st, 2015 is called Retirement.
I will be on board.
The ride may be long...or it may be short.

The place that train will take me is somewhere I have never been before...but some place I have imagined, and rather poorly planned for all my adult life.

Just like the train ride of life I have been on since 1945, the next leg of the trip is one-way only.

The Eagles had it right:
I looked right at the facts there, but I may as well have/
Been completely blind/
So, if you see me walking all alone/
Don't look back, I'm just on my way back home/
There's a train leaves here this morning, and/
I don't know, what I might be on...

Retirement.  Damn! 
I knew that train was coming for me...coming straight down the tracks full-speed...and its only gonna slow down enough for me to hop on and then its full-speed ahead once more.

And the truth is: Once that Retirement Train has you on board, its no use running down the corridor in the opposite way the engine is running.

There is something...I'm not sure just what, but there is something...about looking down a long straight stretch of train tracks.

Grab the Initiative...

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee writes this great line:
I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.

That's a great line.

And over in Matthew's Gospel in The New Testament, there are these words, written to the Folks of This World:
Don't pick on people.
Don't be flip with the sacred.  
Don't reduce holy mysteries to slogans.
Don't bargain with God.
Be direct.
Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb  guide for behavior:
Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them.
(The Message translation.)

Got me to thinking...about some possible ways for Folks to Grab the Initiative.

Came up with four.

First One:
Take into account that there's just one kind of folks.  Folks.
-Because there are obvious differences among folks...Grab the Initiative of Diversity not Division.
-Because there are obvious inequalities in life...Grab the Initiative of Opportunity not Opposition.
-Because there are obvious anxieties among peoples...Grab the Initiative of Advantages not Adversaries.

Second One:
All of us can be on the way to becoming better than we are.
-When things are on the way to getting worse...Grab the Initiative and Plan Ways for things to get better.
-When dreams fall apart...Grab the Initiative and Dream Big Dreams all over again.
-When failure happens...Grab the Initiative and Try Smarter the next time.
-When it would be easy to give it all up...Grab the Initiative and Be Enthusiastic about can come next.

Third One:
Good Character is a good thing.
-When faced with the options of revenge, bigotry, manipulation, disdain, disgust, power, control, profit, and alienation...Grab the Initiative and opt for Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Community.

Fourth One:
Human Redemption will come when we recover our Connections with our selves, others, and God.
-When tempted to pick on people;
When tempted to be flip with the sacred;
When tempted to try bargaining with God...
Ask yourself what you want people to do for you,
Then Grab the Initiative and Do It For Them.

Nelson Mandela said this: It always seems impossible until its done.

Grab the initiative...
grab it by the throat, if you have to...
grab on for dear life...
grab on and don't let go...
and let's just see what will happen. 

And the Winner Is...

I have never won an Academy Award.  (Quite possibly its because I was never nominated for one.)

I have never won a Pulitzer Prize. (Again, never even considered for one.)

I have, like many, many people, won some awards/contests/competitions over the years:
-I won the Table Tennis Championship for my age category in the White River Games one year (this was a state-wide competition held from 1983-1994 for amateur athletes in Indiana)...I advanced to the finals in Terre Haute, but there was no challenger in my age category...so, I won by default.
-Three friends and I won what was called the "National Trivial Pursuit Competition" (that was a grandiose title for the event) held in Indianapolis sometime in the late 1980s.
-A slow-pitch softball team that my sons and I were a part of won first place in the league we were in one season.

Yeah, so...I am very much like a great many others who have been winners in some rather obscure events.  Nothing to brag about...but the memories get bigger and better with the passing of time.

But...but every one of us can celebrate being winners at some "personal bests."

This quote has been used by almost all of us who do public speaking: The only person you should strive to be better than is the person you were yesterday.

True.

And so, wouldn't it be great if we could set personal bests.

A personal best at Humility...

A personal best at Thankfulness...

A personal best at Doing the Right Thing...

A personal best at Standing Up for Equality...for All People...in All Things...

A personal best at Pursuing Your Passion...

A personal best at Committing to Great Causes...

A personal best at Overcoming Bad Habits...

A personal best at Seeing the Glass Half-Full (instead of Half-Empty)...

A personal best at Respecting Yourself...and Respecting Others...

A personal best at Learning From Your Mistakes...

A personal best at Living in the Moment...

A personal best at Working for Positive Change in Society...

And the Winner is....You!  If your goal is to be better tomorrow than you are today.

Someplace Else

I am, by luck of the draw, living out my life in the second half of the 20th century and the opening years of the 21st century.  I might have wished for a different time in which to live, but I wasn't consulted about this matter.

Fate, I guess, has me spending my adult life in a body that would benefit from a couple more inches of height and several less pounds of weight.  And, given that certain things are giving out and breaking down in my body, it would be nice if the repairs were easier, less painful, and less expensive.  Again, I was not consulted.

I am, because of choices I have made, living out the majority of my life in Central Indiana...my most recent years and my soon-to-be retirement years are being spent in Bloomington, which some would suggest is the northern boundary of South-Central Indiana...I am not going to quibble...to me Bloomington, Indianapolis, Greencastle, and Avon are all Central Indiana towns. 

Northern Indiana, where I was born and raised was OK...although I am still given to bad dreams whenever I hear the words, "Lake Effect Snow!" 

Los Angeles, where I spent the middle years of the 1960s decade, was nice.  Vincennes and Jeffersonville, very much Southern Indiana, were pleasant towns.

But I have to admit that there are times when I wish I was someplace else.

Someplace Else just might not be as stressful.
Or it might have a lower cost-of-living.
Or it might be warmer than it is where I live today...with snow on the ground.

Someplace Else might afford more justice than is possible where I reside now.
Someplace Else might not sanctify unjustifiable violence...militarism...and mass murders...in the names of freedom and religion.
Someplace Else might not promote some silly and deadly notion that people have a "right" to bear and brandish arms.
Someplace Else might not be populated by people who enjoy their homophobia and bigotry.
Someplace Else might make it way more difficult to offer up personal charity as a gloss-over for what is really needed: enacted social justice!
Someplace Else might not glorify war and make heroes of all those who fight in them.

Of course...sadly...Someplace Else has a total population on one.

I might want to go there...but I won't. 
I can't, really...because that kind of Someplace Else doesn't exist.

Too bad, that.  Too bad.

The kind of Someplace Else that will change the way things are will need to be created by those of us who know that change is needed...and that progress is the enemy of the status quo.