Filter this. (1 of 2)

Filter is one of my favorite musical artists. they make mood music. like a “curdle your brains and rock out” sort of mood, a mood i am in frequently. the lead singer, Richard Patrick, is an outspoken critic of all things George W, war, violence (generally), and more recently, religion. they released a powerful song called “Columind,” shortly after the shootings in Littleton, CO. at Columbine High School. here’s and excerpt of the lyrics…

What do you think you did here kid?
You’re living like some rich kid bitch?
The scratch that makes you flinch
The scratch that can’t itch
What do you think you got done here man?
You’re putting on a show
What do you think you got done here man?
Did you reach your killing goal?
Shame, you got everything, you want everything
Shame, you need everything, you kill everything
Oh christ, look at them bleed
Oh, what makes this sick disease?
Oh god, they’re on their hands and knees…

it certainly reflects the helplessness and anger and pain and disgust we felt in the aftermath. Patrick recently wrote an op/ed sort of piece for the SuicideGirls website. check out the site at your own risk, but his commentary, although a bit rambling and a bit oversimplified, is worth reading for anyone interested in the Christian faith or any religion/lack of religion in general. you can read the post in its entirety by following that link, but for your convenience, i’ve broken it down by paragraph below, which is also how i’m critiquing it. so, here’s goes my response, since i know Filter checks out whatiseikon daily (my number 1 fans, you know). hooray for bullet points! Cliff’s Notes fans everywhere, rejoice.

Spirituality is a wonderful thing. I have my reservations about religion though. Although some think it’s one in the same, I do not. In fact, I think we’d be better off if we all thought that way. Who’s to say whose God is the right one to worship? If you pick the wrong one, are you going to be damned even if you live a good life? And what if your deity tells you to do one thing while another tells someone else that you are misguided? With all the strife in the world and all the conflict it causes, I have to wonder… at what point does religion hinder us?

Paragraph 1- Patrick immediately plays the “spirituality, not religion” card. Christians use a whited-out and scribbled over version of this card called “relationship, not religion.” this of course begs the question why are Christians generally relationally and socially retarded when interacting with people not of the same faith, but that’s another blog. (oh… it’s solely a relationship with God, others not so much? my mistake.) it’s also interesting to note that Patrick objects to religions claiming to be the only way, and then immediately declares his ideal that everyone think identically to him. and yet, his thesis question, if you will, is spot on.

For the last 10 years of my life, I’ve been pretty non-religious in my personal life. I have spoken out in subtle ways, putting deliberate lyrics out on my albums Short Bus, Title of Record and The Amalgamut that hinted at the beliefs and questions I have on the topic. Something that has always comforted me, as an American, was that the United States was founded on the ideals of FREEDOM: Freedom of religion and freedom of speech. But the reality is, if we do not adhere to the mainstream ideals of religion, we might not feel free to speak our minds.

P2- Richard states that in a country that claims to value freedom of religion and of speech, there are many who “might not feel free to speak their minds” if their views aren’t of the mainstream, religious or otherwise.  i’m not sure that any law or constitution can ever help someones confidence in their own ideals or beliefs. that’s up to the individual to muster up whatever courage it takes to speak out and to articulately and intelligently converse about their stances on any issue. that said, it would be wise for any person, especially any follower of Jesus Christ, to be aware of this hesitance on the part of other people and the encourage people to speak their minds. there is so much that can be learned on every side if  people had the respect to shut the English up and listen.

When I am talking openly about my thoughts on the subject, some people roll their eyes in disgust, like I’m some kind of an asshole because I don’t believe like they do. In times of trouble, I turn to what I consider to be my Higher Power-not a higher BEING but a higher POWER…which is the incredible power of nature. So I understand this need to believe in something greater than oneself. But THEIR religion is not MY answer. What’s wrong with that?

P3- i’d like to point out the relativism in this paragraph. it’s a textbook use of a  “postmodern” idea. i’m just saying… also, it’s funny that his support of freedom of speech doesn’t apply to those who disagree with him. sure, everyone should ideally treat everyone else with respect and dignity, but come on… a millionaire rock super star is intimidate by some tightly rolled eyes?

Now why is this guy brining up THIS topic on the Suicide Girls site, you may be asking yourself right about now… and the reason is: Bill Maher’s Religulous and the movie W. Two great new films, which moved me to speak my mind about religion, its unfortunate place in our government, and how — depending on your perspective — it might not be such a good thing for the planet.

P4- ahh. the raison d’etre finally. the movies that got his mind moving. haven’t seen either of them yet, but they’ll end up on my netflix queue, and not because of the article, either. he defines religion’s place in our government as “unfortunate” and we’ll see how he supports this. and no, especially recently, the uber-conservative, “man has dominion over the earth” =  fuck it… it’s all gonna burn mentality has allowed man to rape and pillage at great profit but immeasurable cost to the earth. i’m with you, Richard. (but i’m not convinced that’s all that you mean here).

Many years ago, peasants were stealing from each other and murderers were running rampant throughout the world. To deal with the mayhem, rulers came to the conclusion that putting the fear of God in the masses would keep them in line. Organized religion started as a way for those in power to get what they needed from the people. It’s true to this day. Barack Obama was right on when he said that people on the outskirts of society, in rural areas, cling to their guns and religion. And I think that’s a scary thing.

P5- whoa. where is this story coming from? gimme links, or it’s a lie, right? nevertheless, this is a well known idea. it’s a bit conspiracy theory heavy for me, and a bit unwieldy considering how many countries, nations, people groups, tribes, and religions there are in the world, but we’ll let it slide. we’ll also ignore the fact that several religions don’t value contemporary first world “keeping in line” at all or morality as a point. hey, it’s Christmas. why not? and again, i wonder how extensively Patrick would be willing to quote Barack Obama in regards to anything, let alone his faith. it appears that the article was posted in early November, so this is before the president elect hand picked Rick Warren to speak/pray at the inauguration. personally, i’m interested in digging a bit deeper into the apparent quasi-modernist disdain for non-urban humanity mixed freely with the universalist, post-Christian spirituality in America, at least.

part two will be released soon…

link dump. enjoy.

CMS has a neat post that’s gotten some intensely conflicted responses. the background is about the idea of “God’s bailout plan” that many churches are purporting to have their greasy hands on. apparently, a more expressive congregation in the Detroit area brought in a few SUVs from a local plant and danced like David around them, asking God to guide Congress pass some dollars their city’s way. and so, in light of the stupid and sucky things churches do to try and communicate various messages and attract what little attention they can get, let me give you the intro from the controversial post…

We recently talked about God’s bailout plan, and I brought up the point that some churches are doing some pretty dumb things, especially in relation to Christmas. The one that really hit a chord with me was this: an archbishop who gave churches “some pastoral insights and suggestions about how we might prepare to celebrate Christmas this year when economic conditions are so grim.”

At first glance, it seems benign. At second glance, however, there is a deep, deep issue. How far off do we have to be if the celebration of a baby born in dirt and straw can be impacted by economic conditions?

I think Jesus would be heartbroken (or even angry) that churches so often remain silent on the frivolity of Black Friday or having a fully-stocked living room on Christmas morning while so many are in such desperate need.

you can read the rest here. a couple of the commenters probably have no business wasting their time on a blog like Church Marketing Sucks. i guess there’s a small chance they keep folks on their toes by consistently being disagreeable and argumentative. psychologists might say that these folks with low self esteem (or who can’t stand the thought of progress or change–you choose) suffer and cause suffering with their negative and irrational beliefs.  but it still bears a bit of conversation, especially in light of what Chad spoke about on Christmas Eve/morning about redefining Christmas. there are a few ideas that Chad avoided fleshing out at such a conflicting time, but think along the lines of the Advent Conspiracy, Project Angel Tree, moving Christmas to a different time of year forcing a separation of Santa and Saviour, gifts and grace, consumerism and celebration. the most in-your-face proposal is the cancellation of Christmas by those who can no longer participate without nausea. i was intrigued by the naysayer’s complete avoidance of the heart of the article, instead crying Pharisee and accusing the author of attempting to draw attention to himself by being a nolongerconformist. here’s an opening line from the most long-winded comment: “for the love of god lets not rethink it.” and this from a self proclaimed artist. if “enjoying your family” equals gifts then guilt then overspending then debt then the fate of Jdimytai Damour to meet our frenzied demands for stuff, i choose to ignore my family in the kindest ways possible.

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Neue has an interesting read in the same vein, looking at alternatives to traditional gifts, like fair trade this or environmentally friendly that, even gifts in honor of a recipient, like a water well, beehive, or livestock. my sister had this sort of thing done for her wedding, where rather than registering for gifts at Crate and Barrel and the like, she registered at a website that allowed citizens of third world countries to receive items that would allow them to be self sustaining and help them eat and live better than the pennies a day they previously lived on. here are a few choice morsels from the article: “I think a symbolic charitable donation in lieu of a gift somehow misses the point of giving a gift to someone. Even when we have the best intentions, symbolic gifts make a choice for the recipient that we should probably trust him or her to make…symbolic gifts can undermine the good ritual of gift-giving by making it a self-righteous show of our own ideals rather than a celebration of our love for other people. Guilt about giving “things” might indicate an anti-matter tendency that ironically devalues the incarnation we’re attempting to celebrate. One of the lessons of God taking on human form is that matter—what we can touch, see, hear, taste, smell—can be a very good thing… For those who hope to reclaim Christmas as a celebration of the incarnation of Christ, a better general approach might be to consider how we can change our everyday practices in other months of the year… if we’re already mindful each day of the ongoing gift of incarnation we live out as embodied people in God’s world, Christmas might just be a welcome occasion to express our love and gratitude in the rituals of wrapping and unwrapping presents with people we love.”

i don’t know that i agree with the last two statements, but it’s semantics on my part. i simply think it’s important to say what you mean as exactly as you can. therefore, examining the other 11 months of the year and changing those isn’t a better approach. it’s simply a part of the solution. Christmas shouldn’t be a welcome occasion to express love and gratitude for loved ones. it’s the celebration of advent of Jesus Christ. and if other things get in the way and muddy the clarity of the reason for the holiday’s existence, something must change: either the trappings or the holiday. there’s no good reason to have a jumble of mush for something this momentous.

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on a completely unrelated note, to those of you who don’t spell God ‘G-o-d’ but instead substitute a dash, get the English over yourself. it’s not clever. I am clever, but that $h!+  IS annoying. so stop it already. unless you’re Jewish. not because Jewish people don’t have to get over themselves–they do– but because they have a compelling reason to speak and write of God in reverential ways (their faith demands it). thank you.

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i’m sure that there are more productive things that i could be doing with my time than researching a congressman from Massachusetts, but he keeps opening his mouth and so, Barney Frank, STFU. “I think this is a case where Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae  are fundamentally sound. They’re not in danger of going under I think they are in good shape going forward.” — Barney Frank (D-Mass.), House Financial Services Committee chairman, July 14, 2008. read more of the worst predictions of 2008 from Yahoo. also, chew on this: “I think Rick Warren’s comments, comparing same-sex relationships to incest, is deeply offensive, wildly innacurate, and very socially disruptive… we’re talking about singling somebody out for a great honor. And I think the president-elect made a serious mistake in doing that.” i personally think that the greatest way for Mr. Frank to demonstrate his displeasure is maybe to open his eyes during the prayer.

* * * * * * *

coal is clean. totally. clean coal. i’ll buy that line when the owners of these homes invest in Peabody Energy.

* * * * * * *

2008 for many people is a year that just won’t end. and now the Earth is adding insult to injury.

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and Jahvid Best for Heisman 2009. Cal rules.

part SLY, part other amazing things

loves it. there is SO much material that people give out. if it were rope, we could lynch them so many times over that the memories of the 32nd time (the time it ceased to be funny) would be distant.

without any further ado, i give you “things banks say that we wish they wouldn’t say after we gave them billions of dollars because of asinine choices they no longer want responsibility for.” hmm… i’m going to have to shorten that some.

“We’ve lent some of it. We’ve not lent some of it. We’ve not given any accounting of, ‘Here’s how we’re doing it…’ We have not disclosed that to the public. We’re declining to.” –Thomas Kelly, JPMorgan Chase. ($25 billion)

“We’re not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking.”–Barry Koling, SunTrust Banks Inc. ($3.5 billion)

“We manage our capital in its aggregate,”–Tim Deighton, Regions Financial Corp. ($3.5 billion)

“Meh.”–generic public relations statements explaining that the billions of dollars infused are being used to strengthen balance sheets, Citibank and Bank of America (2 of the world’s largest banks)

“Meh [the bailout money has allowed us to stop foreclosing on houses for a while]…”–Richard Becker, Marshall & Ilsley Corp ($1.7 billion)

“We’re choosing not to disclose that,”– Kevin Heine, Bank of New York Mellon ($3 billion).

“[the bailout money] doesn’t have its own bucket [but we didn't use the 1 billion or so dollars in our recent purchase of a Florida insurance company, but there's no way to be sure since we're not tracking the money, but i guess it sounds good to say that we would have made the purchase regardless, but don' let that allay your fears that we needed the money desperately].”–Bob Denham, BB&T Corp.

“We’re not sharing any other details. We’re just not at this time,”–Wendy Walker, Comerica Inc. ($2.25 billion)

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this book review will change your life. or maybe if you read the book, it might, you asshole.

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i’m taking the journey from a self-diagnosed “clever” person to copywriter to smart copywriter to marketer to smart marketer that understands that the product and the offer(ing) is more important than the hype. you can take it, too.

the number of days left this year? single digits now, baby. (9)

cheers.

a way too long entry about witnessing

i’m familiar with a common view of witnessing that was introduced to my formerly good Baptist mind as a kid. i’ll mention some related phrases to see if they resonate or if you recognize them. and by all means, react and respond, be it laughing or scoffing… 4 spiritual laws. tracts. the sinner’s prayer. evangelism explosion. altar call. rededicating a life to Christ. Christian $20 bills. testimony.

i knew that the first church my family was a part of in California was identical in size, atmosphere, staff, and demographic when we arrived until we switched memberships 2 years later. the same can be said of the next church, for the first years we were there. then, the primary unit of church growth was the number of attendees and members. and they didn’t come easily. i remember Sunday afternoons spent knocking on doors and hoping no one would be home so we wouldn’t have to talk to them. i remember watching video cassette after video cassette about how people could be argued and preached and convinced into relationship with the supernatural. i remember praying a prayer with Nick in fourth or fifth grade, with my mom leading in broken English, and my sister holding my hand, with a feeling of victory swelling inside me. Vania and i rode our bikes with Nick back to his house, and then raced home screaming and shouting mostly unintelligible but encouraging things to each other-Nick had been saved. i also remember getting a call a few days later from a very Nick, who cautiously asked if the saving could be undone, that his mother wasn’t sure what we believed and was worried we might be Jehovah’s Witnesses (!).  i called a friend, who pointed to the gospel of John, using some admittedly warped interpretation, and said in classically naïve fashion, “once saved, always saved.”

so…. now what? i’m ashamed of the little bit of witnessing i did when i was younger.

i was reading through some random person’s thoughts, who claims to be a Christian ministering on a college campus whose job it is to plot trends (or some similarly vague and likely overstated occupation). he challenged any average Christian of my age what to quantify how many times s/he has explained the gospel message to a friend over the last month, even the last year (wow, this guy’s sure he’s on to something). he was (pre)determined that the numbers would be appalling. (i’m so clever.)

2 thoughts: first, define “gospel message,” because i guarantee i’ll blow our unnamed friend out of the water if he allows the explicitly Biblical definition to stand. i would humiliate him so thoroughly that he would sullenly go back to embarrassing himself at various campus events, handing out Christian teeshirts to upside down frat boys doing kegstands. it’s not that i’m a super evangelist, but i’ve had conversations recently with so many different people, relatives, friends, people older and younger than myself, people unfamiliar and intimately familiar with the Christian faith. additionally, i would submit that against this criteria, that mr. on-campus crusader (shouldn’t that allegory be removed from our vernacular already, or are we so quick to forget how horrifying a catastrophe the Crusades were for our faith and the human race?) would be shut out completely.

this, of course, begs the question of my idea of what the Gospel (capital G) is, but there are smarter, more eloquent people than i who i springboard off of anyway, such as Jesus, the authors of the gospels, and another author named Brian McLaren. i’ll wait for everyone who’s put off by my liberal, heretical, unevangelical, whateverelseyouwant-al self to file on out of the room.

ok. now that we’ve thinned out the crowd a smidge, i’ll give you my second thought… i going to wager a guess that this fellow’s idea of sharing or explaining the gospel message (whichever definition you pick) is pretty narrow, also. it’s off base. the idea that the explanation is limited to a conversation, one or two sided, that covers mans’ need for God, the separation that exists between Creator and creation, et al. ad nauseum, is too small. sure, it’s a piece of the whole, a slice of the pie.

by the way, my wife home made me the best berry pie ever last night, and this is me saying thanks again. i better recognize.

anyway, i blame our predecessors wholeheartedly for allowing and even promoting the idea that the Church is a building. that worship equals music. that expository preaching is the key to how Christians mature. that a conversion experience means you are saved. that spending every weeknight with other Christians doing Christiany things in non-secular places is the best way to achieve humankind’s highest goal-avoiding sin.

i would venture to say that based on the life of Jesus, actions speak as loudly, if not louder than words. a famous St. Francis of Assisi quote submits that words are not necessarily necessary to preach the gospel. some folks are eager to point out the numerous times Jesus preaches to the crowds. he spends so much time teaching his disciples. the sermons and messages fill up so many more pages than everything else Jesus did. i’m equally eager to turn a few pages farther in and accentuate how many of these people he taught and discipled and discoursed with were with him at his death. who are the people that are commended by Jesus for faith? the dudes who gave some unfortunate homeowner a reason to get a new roof and lowered their friend into Jesus’ presence for healing. not for a quick sermonette. the woman who had hemorrhaged her entire adult life reached out to physically touch Jesus’ clothes. the Gentile woman who begged Jesus to heal her daughter from a demon possession. she threw a BF, screaming and crying for the attention of the rabbi, and engaged in witty banter before convincing Jesus that she was worth his time and attention.

think of one of the first miracles recorded after the death and resurrection of Jesus: Peter and John headed to the temple for prayer and were stopped by a crippled beggar. they didn’t offer him a tract and move on. they didn’t sit down and chat him up. they couldn’t even assuage their responsibility (guilt, even?) as Christ’s followers with a few dollars. instead, they opened a new realm of possibility for this man whose physical condition had kept a slave to his body in all the worst ways. (whether this man was Jewish or “Christ-ian” is of little consequence. the end result is his praising of the Almighty and the people around him are filled with wonder and amazement. God’s kingdom incrementally grew that moment.) these are the people at whom Jesus marveled. for faith. and in God’s economy, if it’s not a stretch to make the analogy, faith has value. it unlocks a world of possibilities. so-whose lives were struck by lightening-the masses who listened to brilliant sermons, theological arguments, and verbal presentations of the highest homiletic order? or the people to whom someone reached out. someone spread tidings of great joy by offering hope. offering love. offering themselves, just as Jesus had done.

i don’t mean that Jesus’ words were empty or ineffectual. far from it. but a complete look at the body of work reveals far more dimensions than any chat about going to heaven when one dies could ever entail.

thus, i submit that every time it’s 148 bloody degrees outside and Eikon is out tossing a football around and grilling burgers in Lake Como, that’s a damn near perfect way of sharing good news. every time the Euc (a sister church) has a sing-along at the Presbyterian night shelter with swarms of homeless folks, faith is being shared. as Kris and Chad battle mythical creatures with sword and bowstaff and magical spells on a Warhammer board with social outcasts who cling fervently to comic books and animé and action figures, Christ is preached. when John and Becky raise thousands of dollars to support research for Leukemia and Lymphoma cures, and when Michelle spends afternoons with Wanda, an elderly lady across the street, and their dogs wrestle in the front yard for hours, people are healed. in the smallest, but most important ways, humanity is being restored. loneliness subsides. sickness is healed. love is bestowed. stomachs are fed. and through so much more than the frail words that escape our lips, may our faith and gospel be dumped unceremoniously but lavishly on every home and school and neighborhood and city where a God-seeker in the way of Jesus Christ can be found.

special edition SLY… 13 days

today’s edition is a special WTF?, gag a little, and generally be disgusted this holiday season edition. be ye shocked at the boldness, tastelessness, or grossness of these slices. enjoy the taste of bile in the back of your throat.

–as is being well documented, government waste knows no bounds. here’s a contribution from the FBI.

–embattled Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich just got packed. (does anyone remember that word in the school ground basketball court connotation? that’s how i’m using it here.) the Ill. attorney general just swatted his request for state assistance for his legal defense. if only he had sold that Senate seat a bit sooner, he’d have no problems forking over the cash.

–remember Dwight and the secret for his phenomenal strength (that of a man and a baby)? he may not have been lying, as resorbtion strikes fear into the hearts of unborn twins everywhere.

–i have no problem with a LBGT person. or persons. (ok, the transvestite thing weirds me out a little bit–it’s such a jolt when you realize that the nice amazonian lady over there is anything but… still, whatever floats your boat .) what borderline disgusts me is the agenda that some of them have, as evidenced by this story. look at this headline, and then read what the story is actually about. let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind at the true difficulty to find unbiased reporting. at least authors  Smith and Henderson admit that this “rapid, angry reaction from a range of gay activists comes as the gay rights movement looks for an opportunity to flex its political muscle.” when the choices made for the invocation reflects an elected official’s religious faith and draws the ire of a single minded self-promoting political faction, it’s a little annoying.

–my favorite vodka is proud of their new association with the new film, MILK. make of it what you will. i haven’t seen the movie yet, but i’m wondering if this is shameless pandering by the makers of the delicious 80 proof life-giver, or if there are some good martini scenes in the flick, or if they’ve got folks within the company who genuinely care about the equal treatment of all people groups.

Sly… 14 days left in 2008

–bet this interaction with Rick Warren will make you think a bit, regardless of what you think about the state of our country and our current president.

–links a plenty: the more things change, the more things stay the same. proof positive: oh look–people can now use money they don’t have to buy things they don’t need on credit cards with lower rates at prices that are going to put more people in positions where they don’t have much money to buy useless things that bury them under heaps of debt, but it’s ok because the dollar has less power than any time in recent memory. and there you have our country’s financial crisis in a nutshell.

–the Man wins again. the empire is still being saved, though. the state of Florida is going down on the US sugar industry to the tune of $1.3 billion to regain ownership of hundreds of thousands of acres in the Everglades area. i guess there’s not a lot i wouldn’t do for that much, but in addition to the $2 billion American families fork over to the sugar industry every year, not including the profits from that pumpkin pie and ice cream you had for Thanksgiving or the sugar plums and candy canes for Christmas.

–4 thoughts on this story about a Muslim woman who was jailed (10 days) for contempt of a court when she refused to remove her hijab (headscarf). 1-does anyone still subscribe to these antiquated rules of formalities and customs that started 300+ years ago? i don’t usually wear hats, but i’d be happy to refuse to remove my hat until the judge in whatever courtroom i’m in dons… i dunno, a white powdered wig, perhaps? 2-the lady can’t take off the scarf because of her devout religious beliefs, but profanity in a courtroom is ok. really? 3-a devout Muslim lady named Lisa? Lisa Valentine? agh… i’m stepping on toes. 4-can she really claim to relate to the environment of the civil rights era South? people don’t choose to be born black in a oppressive whites-dominated region (vs. a religious faith). headgear is prohibited regardless of race, sex, faith, whatever divisive categories people have, not just Muslims (as opposed to color of skin). she was not knocked down with a stream of water from a fire hose. she was not lynched. no one (that’s mentioned) threw things at her, spit at her, insulted her verbally, or anything remotely like that.

–another fun judicial system story. this judge is finding that freedom of expression and speech isn’t for places like the courtroom. come on, people… she told the crime  “victim” who shrank away from proceeding pressing charges that the experience had been “a crazy waste of time.” she told a bitchy defendant who complained about his free court appointed public defender he just  “got what [he] paid for.” why isn’t she getting a medal for this?

–what has four thumbs and could be pictured in the dictionary as an example for the word “asshole?”   these guys. just to clarify, i mean the people ordering the swastika cake for their kid named “Adolf Hitler.”

–what has billion dollar thumbs and accomodated the baking needs of the aformentioned Campbell family? these guys.

–SNL has legitimate competition. (i have some thoughts about the shoe tossing incident that i may post here soon.)

–and the shoe-thrower has fans all over the world.

–note to self: the food may be rocking and the sake may be flowing, but crowd surfing is a BAD idea in Japan. i wonder if anyone said anything clever before everyone realized how serious the situation was.

cheers.

prayer/Daddykins email update

hello, and merry christmas to all…

i had emailed many of you back recently, but i wanted to follow up with everyone and thank you for your prayers. my dad is back home recovering, and doctors believe they’ve got this pancreatitis licked, so to speak. he’s been using a walker to get around, which is a stark reality check. i just heard from a good friend about how she still views her father as being “stuck” in his early 50’s, although his age matched her residual image a decade ago. i’m in the same boat. the clearest memories i have of my dad are of us doing something outside… walking Cannery Row in Monterrey, playing baseball in the street (he had wicked fast reactions, surprising for a mathematics PhD/computer programmer, much to the delight of my school friends once when he reached out in what must have been less than one hundredth of a second to snag a line drive screaming by the pitchers’ mound), and hiking in the mountains of California. and now he needs help walking.

if you’ve met him, he’s pretty tall and skinny. in the hospital, he had had so little to eat in the past month that his skin hung off him everywhere and his face was bony. (!) it wasn’t normal, and it fractured my heart in what i can only describe as a novel way. i have much to be thankful for this Christmas, as with every Christmas, but i certainly appreciate my family with a new depth. i am eager to make it out to san jose come january for a late Christmas, around my dad’s birthday. i can’t wait to be with my sister and her new husband and see my parents with the beeping of IV pumps and the smell of Clorox on old linoleum conspicuously absent from the background.

michelle and i are both grateful for your prayers and support through all this and for Eikon over the last year. may your holidays be wrapped with the hope that comes only from the presence of Jesus Christ.

peace,
joseph

sly… 27 days till ‘09

–there is a dark underbelly to the world of SNL skits and radio talkshow prank calls. and it affects everyone.

–one of the most influential unions in the US, the United Auto Worker Union, has reluctantly agreed to suspend what’s called a “job bank.” it’s this neat little magic trick where union workers’ dues get used for a variety of things like paying up to 95% of unemployed union member’s former wages. (i can say “reluctantly” because i’m biased. i’m not a news source at all.) it’s at the behest of the big 3 American automakers, whose execs are back in DC asking for money for their companies. apparently, based on the current rate of their inflating requests/demands, the big 3 can keep coming back every other week over the next 12 weeks and be demanding all $700 billion. now that would CERTAINLY save the American auto industry for the next 20 years. (we can expect Chrysler back again in DC in about 25 years, can’t we?)

– despite feelings of cheer (in mall parking lots), indebtedness (to credit card companies), expectancy (of choosing the wrong gift), and the other emotions Christmas in America brings, there’s nothing like exacting a little legal revenge for the trampling death of a loved one in this season’s celebration of consumerism, greed, and utter disregard for human life. cheers, Walmart, and cheers to all the degenerates who happily shopped as 6′5″, 270 pound Jdimytai Damour lay dying of asphyxiation from said trampling. never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.

–Walmart considered the seasonal worker “family.” i can think of dozens of sarcastic comments to insert here. can you? they are also, according to the spokesperson, “saddened.”  oh. ok.

–the NY Times had a great piece. a self-incriminating piece, but a great one still that looks at how our society should fairly spread the blame for this senseless tragedy. and with almost every tragedy, it comes down to lust for power… or wealth. i’d love to know your reaction to this.

–despite the her wardrobe-induced political malfuntion, Sarah Palin is still soaking up that brand-named clothesy goodness. i know Alaska is a great big state with a teeny tiny population, but there’s no way their governor should still be out doing great and wondrous things for the GOP this far after the election. don’t you have poor people and natives to ignore, Mrs. Palin? (btw – there’s a great slideshow of the governor of Alaska halfway down this blog post.)

–you heard it seventeenth here– Senator Kay Biley Hutchison might be in the running for the governor of Texas. in other news, current governor Rick Perry scratched his left ear twice within the past hour.

–on a more cheery note, Christmas does have some saving graces, does it not?

–there’s something to be said for sticking with dining establishments where you know and trust the servers, bartenders, and cooks, yes?

–i know the Constitution allows for the bearing of arms, but at what point does the NRA throw up its hands and say, “ok… that might be a little much?” how about a micro uzi designed for Israeli special forces that fires 1700 rounds per second in the hands of an 8 year old boy? if you somehow managed to spray those bullets equally distributed into a crowd of perfectly spaced people, you could kill 102,000 people in a minute. that’s almost as many soldiers as the US lost during WW1.

–another point of view on the mortgage debacle (i think we’re past crisis by now). this investor believes that those who bought the riskiest mortgage backed bonds and securities should be allowed to lose money first, rather than Triple-A rated (safer, at least relatively) bonds. it’s the other end of the microscope where poor decisions and risky financial moves are being rewarded. i, for one, feel a bit cheated by the whole thing. note to self-the government is actually vulnerable enough to public opinion that it will actually take responsibility for my future money mistakes.

and now for a barrage of events filed under the word “oops.”

–this is what happens when that one contractor hits the “delete” button instead of the “send” button for the ID card applications for more than 3,000 seaport workers….. OPEC can cry itself all the way home from the bank as oil drops below $44 a barrel….. Canada’s Prime Minister just shut down Parliament (can he do that?) in an unprecedented move to prevent his political career from being tonight’s headline on the FAIL blog….. hope the folks on this cruise ship brought extra food, water, and clothing because they’re stranded adrift in the Antarctic ocean for a little while longer…

cheers.

daddykins update

i just got this from my sister…

“just wanted to let you know that mom called me this morning, dad went back to ICU because of internal bleeding.  CAT scan didn’t reveal where the bleeding is occurring.  this time, it wasn’t pain that clued them in to internal bleeding — it was mainly light-headedness (and mom said red in his b.m.’s)  I think he’s just being monitored more closely in ICU.  he actually sounds very good on the phone, maybe less on drugs now.  his surgical wounds are healing up well and he hasn’t had too much of a fever, so that’s good.  the doctor said it was too soon to go poking around and inflaming his stomach or doing an angio-gram…. so he got 3 pts of blood to offset what blood he was losing, and I think he feels okay for now.  mom said he’s still eating food.”

when i arrived in san jose last friday evening, my dad look really bad… pale and super skinny. he’s lost so much weight and he didn’t have much excess to begin with. he had an NG tube (nasogastic intubation–there’s your medical term for the day, all you hypochondriacs), was on oxygen, and hadn’t eaten or drank anything for the previous three or four days. i imagine any of us would look bad if it were us. he continued healing up and my persistent (if not bothersome) mum finally got the doctors to allow him some jello and juice, which he devoured. we took his many IVs for walks every day, slowly hobbling around the nurses stations. by the time i left (and 3 pints of blood later), he had regained some of his color and seemed to be in better spirits, even smiling a bit. he didn’t talk much at first, but was quite conversational during the Auburn football game (his alma mater) on saturday. i got to shave him on sunday morning before i left. it’s awkward enough shaving oneself for the first time, but having to work on someone who couldn’t even lean back in his chair very far because of all those cuts in his stomach, who also had a bit of loose skin, that was a slow process. kind of an odd bonding experience, perhaps. or perhaps not. i did a decent job, although i’m certain there were a few patches under his chin that i just couldn’t get. i was as scared of me as he probably was!

anyway, this brings us to 2 points: 1) donate blood. donate platelets. donate your plasma. you’ll be saving someone’s life. my dad is A negative, which is quite rare. (i’m not a match, either, or i would have rolled up my sleeves right away.) the hospital had to order blood from different counties twice over that weekend. that could have been avoided if folks were donating in that part of san jose.  2) whether they actually want you to or not, visit people in hospitals. if they are friends or family or anyone who is remotely connected to you and you’re in the area, visit them. bring cards and balloons and flowers and books and magazines. and pray with them while you’re there. even if you’re not a praying person.
more later as it becomes available…