Ain't Complicated

Fatherhood

I’ve been Dad (or variations thereof) for 26 years.

Twenty-six!

That frightening day/night in Guaymas (Sonora, Mexico) seems a long time ago (Happy birthday to LaVay).

Now our middle child is twenty (Happy birthday to Dora a week ago today) and our next-to-youngest is almost seventeen (Happy birthday to Michayla in two weeks).

Twenty-six — my, oh my.

I’d wish for another opportunity to do it over…if it did any good. (Lacking that opportunity, I may post a “Tips for Parents” piece one of these days. I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of weeks already.)

May my children and their spouses do better. I made it easy.

That melancholy thought aside, I’m grateful for each of my children (including Shari and Luke).

I’m grateful they want to follow God’s ways.

I’m grateful that (generally speaking) the young do the child rearing.

I’m grateful for Ruby, my wife and partner in this “enterprise.”

I’m grateful for God’s grace. My successes I attribute to Him alone.

FYI: Border Crossing

U.S. tracking citizens’ border crossings

The U.S. government has been using its border checkpoints to collect information on citizens that will be stored for 15 years, raising concern among privacy advocates, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

[…]information may be shared with federal, state and local governments to test “new technology and systems designed to enhance border security or identify other violations of law,” the Post reported.

[…]

Information on international air passengers has long been collected this way but Customs and Border Protection only this year began to log the arrivals of all U.S. citizens across land borders, the Post said.

Privacy advocates raised concerns about the expanded collection of personal data and said safeguards are needed to ensure the system is not abused.

[…]

DHS spokesman Russ Knocke told the paper that the retention period was justified.

“History has shown, whether you are talking about criminal or terrorist activity, that plotting, planning or even relationships among conspirators can go on for years,” he said. “Basic travel records can, quite literally, help frontline officers to connect the dots.”

The “Losers” Out There

You really ought to read the whole thing. Here are the concluding paragraphs.

My African Violet

My mind made the leap from herbs to men. One encounters people throughout one’s life who look like damaged goods. And no doubt they are. Droopy and lifeless, or curled in on themselves, they look gruesome and make the onlooker recoil and turn away.

The plant withered because it was trying to save itself. The unappealing person caved in with depression or addiction or surliness is trying to save himself too. The lesson from the African Violet — and a cardinal rule for understanding human behavior — is that no one does anything for no reason. You need to find the reason. And just knowing that there is one stirs my compassion.

Thank you, Andrée Seu!

Olympics: Any Lessons So Far?

That’s Life

Michael Phelps held his arms aloft on Sunday after surpassing Mark Spitz as the most successful swimmer and Olympian of all time, relief written on his face after he won an unprecedented eighth gold at one Games.

[…]

Phelps hugged his team mates after a world record-breaking 4×100 meters medley relay win, a relatively comfortable race compared to two finger-tip finishes in Beijing.

[…]

Constantina Tomescu had time to relax and wave as she entered the Bird’s Nest stadium to claim a surprise win in the women’s marathon that began in Tiananmen Square.

[…]

The furious chief of Greece’s Olympic Committee told Reuters the “golden girl” of the Athens Games should have stayed home instead of dragging the country’s name through the mud.

[…]

The U.S. team got some cheer when the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, put their tennis singles disappointment behind them to pick up a second consecutive gold in the doubles.

[…]

After firing at the wrong target in Athens, a nervous Emmons this time squandered a huge 3.3-point lead on his final shot when he pulled the trigger by mistake while lining up, to register a mere 4.4 after scores mostly above 10 before that.

Those paragraphs have elements that so clearly show what life is.

And what Christianity is.

Even the strong fail.
Only the overcomers are rewarded.
Get up and try again.
We’re in this together.
It’s not just about you.
The little things can make a huge difference.

There are more, of course, but I have to move to other things, of course.

Tonight is our monthly Hymn Sing at church. I’m supposed to have a brief devotional. I think I’ll talk a little about some of these Olympians. And the life lessons for the Christian.

Like this one:

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:

But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (King James Version)

Nukes for Radicals?

Brace yourself: Pakistan’s Musharraf said ready to quit

Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf is ready to resign rather than face impeachment but is seeking immunity from prosecution and agreement on a safe place to live, coalition government officials said on Friday.

Speculation has been mounting that the former army chief Musharraf and firm U.S. ally would quit since the ruling coalition, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said last week it planned to impeach him.

A spokesman for the president has repeatedly denied media reports that he was about to quit, and he did so again on Friday, saying “baseless and malicious rumors” about the president’s plan to resign were damaging the economy.

“They” have said for the last several years (or longer) that if Musharraf goes, Pakistan will likely become a radical Muslim nation. And it already has nukes.

Maybe “they” will be wrong.

Either way, enjoy today. And make today enjoyable for others.

Oh, and where is this verse fragment found?

“I will trust and not be afraid.”

Welcome to Today!

Oooops! 😯 Maybe that’s not such a good photo to go with the title!

Here, this next one is better:

Today is our daughter Dora’s twentieth birthday. So I made the above wallpaper with her in mind because of this transition from her teens to her twenties. Of course, it’s a good verse for all of us.

Now…two news items to start out your day….

Happiness is key to longer life

“Happiness does not heal, but happiness protects against falling ill” says Ruut Veenhoven of Rotterdam’s Erasmus University in a study to be published next month.

After reviewing 30 studies carried out worldwide over periods ranging from one to 60 years, the Dutch professor said the effects of happiness on longevity were “comparable to that of smoking or not”.

That special flair for feeling good, he said, could lengthen life by between 7.5 and 10 years.

The finding brings a vital new piece to a puzzle currently being assembled by researchers worldwide on just what makes us happy — and on the related question of why people blessed with material wealth in developed nations no longer seem satisfied with their lives.

And this less happy story:

Russia vs Georgia

A fragile cease-fire appeared even more shaky as Russia’s foreign minister declared that the world “can forget about any talk about Georgia’s territorial integrity.”

The declaration from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came simultaneously with the announcement that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was meeting in the Kremlin with the leaders of Georgia’s two separatist provinces.

“One can forget about any talk about Georgia’s territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state,” Lavrov told reporters.

[…]

Russian troops also appeared to be settling in elsewhere in Georgia.

[…]

The scene underlined how closely the soldiers Russia calls peacekeepers are allied with its military.

I said two news items, but here’s a third one to end on a more positive note:

Anything into oil

“Working with the USDA we’ve identified enough waste material around the country, we truly believe we can make the United States totally energy independent of foreign countries in about five years,” he said.

WND originally reported on the project in March as Bell, an agricultural researcher, confirmed he’d isolated and modified specific bacteria that will, on a very large scale, naturally and rapidly convert plant material – including the leftovers from food – into hydrocarbons to fuel cars and trucks.

That means trash like corn stalks and corn cobs – even the grass clippings from suburban lawns – can be turned into oil and gasoline to run trucks, buses and cars.

Make it a good day today!

Better Than Being There

If it looks too good to be true … – 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

It turns out that amazing line of fireworks footprints marching from Tiananmen Square to the Bird’s Nest stadium during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was computer-generated and inserted into television coverage to look like the real thing.

It was fake.

It didn’t go down like that.

Of course, this is a case of good news-bad news.

I was in Tiananmen Square on Friday evening, reporting and writing a column on the tens of thousands of jubilant Chinese citizens who gravitated there to celebrate. Those people saw two tiny flarelike blasts pop in the sky, followed by a lot of nothing, and they were probably baffled by the widespread reports of the lit-up sky, exploding footprints and brilliant fireworks. And today, I’m thinking those people are relieved to learn they’re not losing their marbles.

That’s the good news.