What My Vehicle Says...

Bumper Stickers...that's the topic, bumper stickers. Currently I have just one sticker on my CR-V (its on the rear window, not the bumper)...its from the Ron Jon Surf Shop in Ft. Myers, FL. The Obama sticker I had on the other side of my rear window was taken off by someone while I was visiting with a member of my church at an extended care facility. Obviously, whoever removed that sticker did not approve of my political persuasion.

Here are some bumper stickers I can recall having seen: "The best things in life aren't things." "Condoms are easier to change than diapers." "Don't get even...Get odd!" "Jesus loves you but I'm his favorite." "If ignorance is bliss why aren't more people happy?" "Money Talks/Chocolate Sings."
What does your vehicle say? Does it offer insight to those who are following you in traffic? Are you serving up laughter? Are you making a political or religious statement that you want folks to ponder or agree with? I had no idea what the Chevy in front of me the other day was trying to convey, but I did laugh when I read "What if the Hokey Pokey IS what its all about?"
I was concerned as to whether or not the driver of an old rusted green pick-up truck on HWY 45 late one night was being serious...the bumper sticker read "I buy cheap beer so I can afford expensive ammunition!"
And, like you, I have seen my share of crude bumper stickers...the kind that make me sad that my young daughter has to see when she is riding with me.
I once had someone slap a bumper sticker on my car without my permission...adding to my anger over that incident was the fact that it promoted a talk-radio host I consider nutty and offensive.
Every red 2007 Honda CR-V pretty much looks the same when you drive up behind them...except mine has that Surf Shop sticker (I don't surf, but the sticker was thrown in the bag along with some T-shirts I purchased on vacation one year...and I really enjoy my vacations to Florida.) It does make picking out my vehicle in a parking lot easier...there being quite a few red CR-Vs in Bloomington.
My vehicle says, I suppose, that I like surfing (not so much), or surf shops (they do have some really great T-shirts), and southwest Florida (that I do!). Since there is only one sticker my vehicle might also say that I don't have an agenda to push all that much, or I am bland...maybe boring, or that I prefer for you to see my nice red paint job uncluttered.
Probably I should think about two additional stickers: Notre Dame and New York Yankees.
If you send me one or both of those, I will jazz up my vehicle's message.

Memorial Day 2011

I am 66 years old! I have celebrated many Memorial Day holidays.
My earliest memories are of riding on the Boy Scout float down Edison Road in Lydick, IN. The parade began, I think, at the far western end of Edison Road, near Mutt's gas station...or maybe it began at the school on Quince Road, moved south to Edison and then turned east...it moved slowly past Clyde Peterson's store, the tavern, Marge's Beauty Shop...on past the Hardware Store, and the Gleaner's Hall, and the Ice Cream Parlor...then up the slight hill where it passed the front yard of my grandparent's home...and ended somewhere not too far past Chip Baginski's house...I think.
The parade took place during the running of the Indy 500, and so we had our transistor radios tuned to "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." Mario was my guy! And those Andy Granatelli turbines, remember those? A.J. Foyt was the bad-guy...not really sure why, just never did like his style, I guess.

I don't remember decorating graves. Maybe we did and I just don't remember it. My father had served in WW2...and my uncle Don had served, I believe...maybe there were more who had done so. I don't believe we had any family members die while in service to their country.
I do remember times when I have been disappointed in the over-the-top celebration of war and militarization on Memorial Day.
So far as I can tell the intention of Memorial Day is to honor those men and women who died in America’s wars, but it is not to glory in militarism or bless war. From the beginning of what was then called “Decoration Day” in 1868, and its post-WWI promotion by a lady named Ms. Moina Michael, the focus of the holiday was/is to honor our war dead. Early on there was an emphasis on supporting the many widows and orphans war leaves in its wake. And, decorating the graves of the war-dead has always been part of the celebration.
I live in a place where a 500-mile race just might be the biggest thing happening this Memorial Day Weekend. We often do that, don't we: turn old holiday celebrations into new and different holiday celebrations. Maybe there is room in the 3-day weekend for both.

Not Always What It Seems...

I play golf.
That is to say, I own golf equipment, have enough money to afford greens fees, and can set aside time on most good-weather Thursday mornings to navigate 18 holes layed out over some often quite beautiful acreage.
It is not to say, I PLAY GOLF like folks who can actually PLAY GOLF.

Do you like the photo?
Serene, isn't it? Relaxes you just to look at it on a computer screen.
Would you like to be in the picture? Just somehow lifted away from where you are right now and plunked down in the picture...say reclining on that knoll just in front of the tree straight ahead?
Yeah, me too.
But it isn't always what it seems, is it? Whatever the "it" may be.
That beautiful scene marks the fairway just in front of a tee-box...it leads to a not-so-large, textured green about 545 yards away. Its a par 5. For me, maybe a 6 or 7.
It looks great...but it can be the start of a really terrible score if you cannot hit the ball straight and long, and then putt with some skill.
Somedays I am up to the challenge. Most days, I am not. (Whoever invented this "par" thing, and why isn't this particular hole a par 6 or 7?)
But it is inviting. And it is a beautiful patch of land. And the fact tha I keep returning to the challenge says something about how addicting trying to get it right can be...even if the challenge is not always what it seems.
FORE! (That's not my score, that's just what I am supposed to holler when it looks like my golf ball may be headed in your direction instead of where I aimed it.)

One More Memory of Back In the Day

I cannot remember the first drive-in movie theatre I went to. I am sure it was with my parents...and most likely it was a Walt Disney movie. I am sure we went in a Studebaker. Probably it was the theatre on Western Avenue between South Bend and Lydick.

There are still a very few drive-ins open for business. There is one on HWY 67 north of Martinsville...and every time I drive by it I remember how it was back in the day. The refreshment stand. The folks who arrived in their pick up truck, pulled into the slot backwards and viewed from lawn chairs on the truck bed. The third feature, which was usually a loser...although once in a while it was a winner: I saw "Night of the Living Dead" as a third feature with my boys when they were quite young; also saw a flick titled "Homebodies," which, if you can find you should give a look.
I saw my first 007 movie at a drive-in.
Date night was always better at the drive-in.
Defrosters being what they were in those old Studebakers (the only car my dad drove while I was growing up, and my first car, as well), it was often times not the best movie viewing at the drive-in.
It was often too cold or too hot at the drive-in, but watching a movie on a screen about the size of a big barn was worth it, I guess.
Probably I wouldn't really enjoy going to a drive-in theatre these days, but there are times I think I sure would like to give it a try.

I Don't Know the Answer, but I Am Willing to Guess...

I read several blogs...mostly those of folks I know, friends. Mike Mather is someone I know, a friend, and in his blog recently he posed this question: What Get's God Pissed Off? (To see how Mike answered that question you can go to his blog, "bibfeldt's inquiry.")

I wonder if God is distressed when I give up the quest to become the best "me" I can become. If so, I have honked God off many, many times!
Quitting is easier than continuing on.
Giving up is easier than giving my all.
Going back is easier than moving ahead.
The good old days are safer than the unknown future.
Doing the same-old same-old is easier than seeking a whole new future.
As a recent best-selling book pointed out "Good is the enemy of Best." And so, I settle...I settle for less than I could become. I settle for what is instead of striving for what could be.

I don't know the answer to Mike's really good question...but I am willing to guess that I have disappointed family, friends, colleagues, and maybe even God when I sell out to what is instead of continuing the search for what could be.

Sweet - Tart

When was the last time you ate/enjoyed a cinnamon coated apple? Maybe at the County or State Fair? Maybe on vacation at a seashore boardwalk? Whevever it was, can you recall the taste right now?

The sweet and the tart together...or, more in line with the order in which the taste expereince goes: first the tart and then the sweet.

Its like that with so many things, isn't it? First the tart, then the sweet. I wonder how that plays out in our thinking about the Holy Week/Easter experience: The evil that displays itself as Jesus is tracked down and murdered because he is causing way too much consternation for the political and religious establishments...the slaughter of the innocent...and then, when its all over, upon reflection (and through the eyes of hope and faith), the sweet belief that evil has not overcome good, wrong has not prevailed against right, even death has no victory over life...what a powerful jolt to the senses!

Happy Easter! Enjoy one of life's real sensual treats...just remember to be ready to taste the tart before the sweet!

Movie Music...

I visited my mom, and my sister and her family in Huntsville, Alabama over the New Year's holiday. One evening we went to see the movie "True Grit." The original movie won John Wayne an Acadmey Award...which many folks thought was awarded not so much for his work in that particular movie but for his life-long work in films. It was, to my thinking, an OK movie, but nothing to write home about. The new re-make of the movie was, to my thinking, much better than the first. It was more pithy, more tense, more true to what I suppose life would have been like in the time in which the movie was set. And it most certainly was more true to the human nature I have any speaking acquaintance with, than was the original.

The background music, woven throughout the movie, was the old gospel song, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." I didn't expect that...in fact it took me some time to recognize the song as it played...sort of sparse-like, and in a country-music bluegrass style. A lady named Iris DeMent sings the song...what a wonderful voice she has.
I remember singing that song (and others like it...gospel songs) in the little-town church I grew up in. I was informed in seminary that my appreciation for these kinds of songs showed my low-brow taste in church music. Hymns are about "we" while gospel songs are about "me," I was told, and that would be a problem for someone going into church ministry.
That may be. But I took a very pleasant trip back in time during my watching of "True Grit." I watched the movie but let my memory travel back to small-town norhtern Indiana in the 1950s and early 60s.
I don't want to actually go back to "the good old days" (if they really ever were that), but I do admit that hearing "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" while watching a good movie was a most pleasant surprise. Like good comfort food, I think.
Come to find out, the song was used in another movie, a 1943 film titled "The Human Comedy", starring Mickey Rooney. Like the new "True Grit," it was nominated for several Academy Awards.

What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Refrain

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

You know you started humming or singing that song when you saw those lyrics!