Refractions and Reflections

When I was in the first grade, I discovered one of my classmates lived right around the corner from me. She became my first unrelated friend. We lived in rural Northwest Ohio and spent the summers riding our bikes and/or walking down the freshly tarred back road she lived on. Maybe three quarters of a mile away, past nothing except a neighboring farm warranting its own traffic signs (My sister kindly went and took these two shots for me today.) :) and fields growing corn taller than we were, we would visit a drainage ditch with two tunnels under an even "backer" road. We called this magical place "The Bridge". I introduced my brothers and cousins to The Bridge right away. My older brother almost stepped on a snake there once. My youngest brother liked watching two small otters that played there one year. My cousin David caught a crayfish, a.k.a. the strangest-looking creature I think I ever saw outside of a zoo or a science book. Me? I would lie on my sto...

I'm reading Mission at Nuremberg by Tim Townsend . In the opening chapter he describes Chaplain Gerecke's moments in prayer with Nazi Keitel in the moments before he was hanged for his war crimes against humanity. Townsend describes Keitel's soldier-like demeanor throughout his trial and emprisonment, but how he broke into uncontrollable sobs while Gerecke prayed with him in his cell. At the hour of his death his mask of pride crumbled. I would assume the illusion fell before the realization that he would imminently face spiritual judgment for his sins.   In the debate over the morality of capital punishment, I know traditionally the Conservatives are for the death penalty, while Liberals are against it. I am unsure where I fall on the spectrum, but I know I am glad I don't have to make the decision for someone to die; that in itself might weigh on my conscience as indirect murder.   But in thinking of this description of Keitel's last moments, and kn...

---1--- I skipped Quick Takes the last few weeks, due to general busyness ( and not feeling like posting, I guess)...so I'll begin by getting you all caught up and tell you now about my New Year's Eve. I grabbed a friend and went downtown for a little while. My city sponsored an event at various venues for a single $8 ticket. We caught a couple songs by a big band, then saw a stand-up comedy routine by the Skinny Improv. They would ask audience members for suggestions for the scenes. At one point they asked, "What is the most unexpected thing you've ever found?" A little girl chimes up, "A green-necked snake in my back yard!" The guy goes, "Oh, wow - you just knew what it was when you saw it? A green-necked snake?" She answered, "Yeah. I'm a horticologist."   After the comedy we walked over to the library where they were having a poetry slam. Apparently they have one here in town every month. I plan to go check it out at...

I know. The one-hundred-twenty-dollar jeans and the Name-brand, form-fitting shirt and the Sparkly, hangy-down things from the cute little crocheted hat... All that stuff draws attention to itself. The Birkin bag and shiny, high-heeled crocs Serve as tempting distractions, Drawing the eyes and the Mind away from what the bling disguises, What the make-up hides, What the glitter and highlights transform into an Icon: The image we all strive to attain. But try to see past all that. Because underneath the grimy Filter of fashion and Caked-on cosmetics lies a Person, just like you and me, with Feelings, and family, and Purpose. Beauty is only skin-deep. It fades. But once the pesky prettiness is Washed away, what Remains is precious.

I have been watching Doctor Who. In Season 1 Episode 11, the time lords take the last remaining member of the Slitheen family aboard the TARDIS to return her to her home planet and save the earth from her scheme to destroy it. The prisoner tells her captors they are taking her to her execution. The character Mickey tells her she deserves it. She responds that he is very quick to assume so. She says, "You're awfully quick to soak your hands in my blood, which makes you better than me how, exactly?" On one hand, an answer might be that the Slitheen's fate has been decided by the authority of Law - who are the time lords to interfere with what has been deemed just? In a subsequent scene, when the Slitheen describes the tortuous way in which she will be executed, the doctor stoically tells her, "I don't make the law." She responds, "But you deliver it. Will you stay to watch?" On the other hand, most people who take up a cause of "justice...

In a recent post , I mentioned that I watched a documentary on the White family of West Virginia. [This is not a recommendation that you watch it...it is simply a reflection.] The Whites are an appalachian "hillbilly" family...they seem to proudly epitomize the grand title of "poor white trash". Their generations are full of young deaths and lifelong incarcerations and broken families, due to drug use, violence, and ignorance (I do not say that condescendingly...I just don't know a better word for it). The members of the family speak vulgarity with every breath. Watching the film, the audience gets a sense of the "family pride" - I think most families have some sense of pride, or "belonging" maybe, that unites them and holds their sense of dignity in place, regardless whether others would ascribe to them the same level of honor. But the undercurrent of this documentary was one of pain and shame...and resignation. Some members of my own fam...

At the suggestion of a friend, this morning I watched the documentary The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia on Netflix. [WARNING: Do not watch this film unless you are prepared for some really strong language and really rough content.] It is not a suped-up so-called "reality" show for bringing in the bucks, with a lot of staging...like Amish Mafia and the like. It's REALLY real. Unbelievably real. Like, unless you know people like this, you will think it IS staged. But it's not (I can say that because I do know people like that). And so it left me in deep thought about the human condition. Immediately afterward I came across this blog post by Donald Miller discussing human depravity. Please read it - it is brilliant!! It goes so perfectly well with what I was pondering after watching the documentary on the Whites. I like to take into consideration varying views on the eternal destination of humanity - whether some will go to heaven, some will go to...

Note: I have been very busy the last few days, so I am still catching up with comments and blog visiting. Thank you to everyone who has stopped by - I love your comments! Today's writing prompt is to talk about our favorite quote, from a person or book or whatever, and why we love it. I'm not sure I have an overall favorite quote - I like some when I come across them, but not too many stick with me for some reason. I guess I will go with the famous quote from John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech, "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country," because I like an idea inherent in it.   Last night I was talking with a friend (female) who shared with me a conversation she had had recently with another friend (male). She told me he was discouraged and pretty down on the world and his optimism for it, and her response to him was, "How can you not see the good in the world? You've told me of several good things you have ...

Many moons ago, while I was a student at Messenger College in Joplin, I bought this book from the college library for less than a buck - it was one of the old titles they were getting rid of as they updated their collection. The copyright date in the front of the book is 1900. And yes, that is scotch tape I employed to hold the binding together :). I thought it looked interesting (the book, not the tape), since it is about DL Moody and by his son. I had heard his name many times but never actually read about him for myself. This antique 590-page book fixed that! Reading this I learned a lot of interesting things. For instance, it was in this book that I first heard about Henry Moorhouse, who preached for Moody once while he was away from his church in Chicago on business. Moorhouse preached seven nights in a row from the same text: John 3:16, using examples from Genesis through Revelation in each sermon, to demonstrate how God loves sinners and wants to save them. Th...

Headline: " U. S. Engaged in Torture After 9/11, Review Concludes " The headline caught my attention the other day. The reason it caught my attention is that, a hundred years ago when I first joined Twitter, I had a debate with someone I didn't know about whether or not the practices that took place at Guantanamo were ethical. I am embarrassed to say, my position was that they were . My thinking then was that if you are working with an unreasonable person (a terrorist), you will have to use unreasonable means to try to get information out of them. I also felt that if they were willing to harm others, why shouldn't they be harmed in order to get useful information? Why should anybody care? My "friend" asked, "Who decided these people were terrorists? They were never tried in a court of law. If we believe in abiding by the law, we should give everyone the same due process." I thought about his arguments (we had more conversations than one) and ...

  1)       What makes people valuable? 2)       What makes human rights important? 3)       What is all the fuss about equality – why are people equal? (For example, why aren’t healthy, productive laborers more important than people who extensively need others to care for them?) 4)       Are people more important than animals in some way? (For example, if a boat was going down and I had a choice whether to save a baby or a puppy, why might I choose the baby over the puppy?) 5)       What is it that makes humanity the dominant species?   A completely secular/nonspiritual way of answering these questions might be (these are just my poor attempts at answers, and are very oversimplified): 1)       Nothing (other than possibly the fact that they are alive). 2)       If anything, the...

Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz and Storyline ) tweeted the following on St. Patrick’s Day:   “If they made a movie about you achieving your goals, would it be meaningful? If not, choose different goals.”   I have thought recently that I am on the path to choosing my goals based on their meaningfulness. My ideas are fairly altruistic – I believe the “social gospel” really IS a major part of being a Christian. God’s heart is for justice, mercy, humility, and love. Part of being a Christian is translating these ideals into more prevalent realities in the world at large.    But this tweet from Donald Miller caught me off guard. One of my “bigger” personal goals in life is to become a professor (probably of theology). Me, explaining my theory of relativity (you may have heard of it?). Yes, I need a shave, but some things are just more important, ya know? But believe it or not, I’ve never really stopped to consider why I want to be a professor...

"All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you. I never had a selfless thought since I was born. I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through; I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.   "Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek, I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin; I talk of love – a scholar’s parrot may talk Greek – But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin." I have begun to awaken to the wider world of which I am a part. I have begun to realize that the crux of all things meaningful is inherently connected to a solidarity with the rest of humanity. We are indeed all in this together. Is humanity broken? Yes, I believe it is. Is there a solution? Yes; in Christ, I believe there is. But the solution has little to do with good works and nothing to do with formal religion. As much as I grow in my rhetoric of love and social justice, the fact remains that I am still a self-obsessed person in a world of sel...

Since Easter has passed, let’s talk about Christmas, shall we?! December 26 is a national holiday known as Boxing Day in Australia, the UK, New Zealand, and Canada. Many people do not really understand the historical meaning of this holiday (kind-of like Christmas and Easter!), believing it to have arisen from the need to empty the house of empty gift boxes the day after Christmas. Rather, from what I can tell, December 25 th was traditionally the date upon which people exchanged gifts with their equals – family and friends; while the 26 th was a day for alms – when people gave gifts to those subservient to them, such as employees, servants, and the poor. Honestly, I think Boxing Day has a more applicable meaning than our current translation of Christmas Day to the true spirit of Christmas. Christmas honors the historic moment when God became incarnate in human flesh, as the epitomic act of unearned favor, to live and die a human life in order to offer humanity true compassion ...

I think most decent folk, when thinking about the evil in the world, wish they could do something about it. However, most people seem to have a very broad idea of what constitutes "evil". And they are right...evil has been summed up as "knowing what's right and still doing what's wrong" and "sin" (thank you, Facebook friends!). I have heard others describe it as "anything that opposes God" or "anything that opposes good". These definitions are right...but they are huge. If it behooves me to do something about evil, I find it pretty overwhelming to think of my foe as "anything and everything that is the opposite of good"! So...perhaps I should narrow my definition a bit. Maybe I cannot fight every strand of evil that is in the world. But I can do something about some  of the evil. A couple other definitions my friends provided of evil were " malicious, deliberate and conscious immoral act, it's where the moti...