A Little Bit of History

In order to force myself away from the busyness of work lately, I went to San Antonio for a couple days at the start of spring break to see some friends, eat out, and take in a bit of Texas history. It has been years since I toured the San Antonio missions, so with the perfect weather, I spent an afternoon leisurely strolling through and photographing the (non- Alamo) missions.

 With the beautiful weather and perfect skies, the crosses on the top of the churches on the mission grounds stood out so perfectly, it was impossible not to know one was in a sacred spot.

Over one of the old water wells was an elaborate piece of iron-work. I loved the workman marks in the metal.

 The walls still stand at Mision San Jose with the gun and cannon turrets. Down near the bottom you can see the hole through which a cannon would be fired to defend the mission. Above the cannon area hangs a shelf for gunners to shoot out with the muskets. The rifle holes are too small to be seen from the distance.

 The view out of the turret through the cannon hole. I would be the clumsy gunner who did not have the cannon pointed just right.

 The absolutely stunning Rose Window. It has to be seen to be appreciated. Photos cannot show the elaborate sculpture framing it.

The chapel at Mission Espada remains in use today with a private residence connected to it as does Mission San Juan. 

 

The Outsider

Back in December I bought the Hunger Games series of books on my Kindle because “everyone” was raving about them. When I mentioned on Facebook that I had my next month’s reading lined up, people commented that I had my next week’s reading lined up. I could not wait to start.

Then I could not wait for it to get good.

Then I was considering, “I’ve heard this story before – Romeo and Juliet meet Lord of the Flies.”

Then I was thinking, “How much longer is this book?”

Friends and acquaintances kept assuring me it would get better. It never really did.

Now they are assuring me that the next books are better than the first. I’ve paid for the books, so I will likely read them, but my expectations have diminished greatly.

I have read young adult literature for years while teaching English and afterward as a counselor. The search for new and engaging literature of merit to include in the classroom or inspire reluctant readers kept me reading and I found much worthy of recommendation. I have to carefully consider to whom I would recommend a book about teens celebrated for killing other teens.

When I make statements that I do not care for the book, people give me a most incredulous look that makes me feel I should apologize for not relishing what is popular.

Indeed, I feel like I am living in a young adult drama.

Not only is there a story in the situation. There is an entire genre – and much of it is worth reading.

Contemplating Loss

The passing of Whitney Houston dominated much of the entertainment news this past week, especially as it came on the eve of the Grammy Awards. A remembrance of Harvey Korman on the anniversary of his birth fell next to her obituary in the newspaper. A former co-worker’s son died. All three had me contemplating the impact of loss.

Word of Whitney Houston’s death came as I was listening to the posthumous release from Amy Winehouse. The connections did not escape me. I remembered Whitney as much of the soundtrack of my college years while Winehouse’s music provided the soundtrack for the past few years. Despite the beauty and connections that come through the music, and as so many memories connect to the music of the moment, I never connected to either of these two artists behind the songs.

Perhaps it was that the messiness of their lives distracted from the passion of the music.

Perhaps they were just too far away from reality to really matter.

The remembrance of Harvey Korman struck a deeper chord within me as the article on the 85^th anniversary of his birth (and four years after his death) highlighted some of the deepest belly laughs I have ever had in my life. His roles in sketch comedy genuinely brought out the laughter. I mourned his death in 2008 as much as I laughed at the replays of the skits.

Perhaps it was because he seemed like a real person whose comic escapades seemed to be an extension of his normal life.

Perhaps it was because I am too often the straight-man to my Tim Conway friends.

Word that the son of a former co-worker had died hit most deeply. I barely knew the young man from years ago in church and through working with his mother. Knowing his parents, grandparents, and older brother naturally personalized the death compounding the sadness of losing someone at such a young age.

Perhaps it was because of the hometown connection.

Perhaps it was because I work with young people and the loss of even one reminds me to do all I can to protect all youth.

Contrary to what might be expected, contemplation of the different deaths and their impact did not lead to morose moping, rather they led to a spiritual meditation that moved me into the spirit of Lent. Just as the three deaths moved me in drastically different ways, it moved me to think of loss and sacrifice in our lives.

Profoundly different, loss and sacrifice both fit in the Lenten season. As I consider the sacrifice I will make in consideration of the sacrifice God made for us at Easter, I look back to losses and what they have meant in my life. I compare them to the sacrifices. Losses always take a greater toll.

Sacrifice results from a choice I make.

Loss happens whether I choose it or not.

The three deaths I have been pondering all week long help drive home the distinction. Despite the various levels of connection, there is not at death I would choose for any of the individuals involved.

As I enter Lent, I enter questioning whether there is anything I can sacrifice that equals the loss God must have felt when His Son suffered crucifixion. While I will consider my sacrifice, I will, in this season, continue to consider loss.

Routine II

Even on the weekend, I generally wake up at my normal time of 5:00 a.m. I have done it for so many years that my body rises to consciousness regardless of when my alarm clock goes off. I actually enjoy the early rise on weekends. While many people look forward to the time to sleep in, I look forward to the quiet.

A cup of coffee (well, two pots) and news on the radio let me slip into the day with ease instead of rushing into it from the moment I awake. I start laundry, read headlines, and catch up with twitter and other social media. Even the noise around the neighborhood and from the airport is lacking during the early morning hours.

Now that football season is over, getting up early also gives me the chance to nap in the afternoon, a luxury reserved only for special days.

Due to the hectic nature of my schedule in the coming months and this being the last unscheduled weekend until May, I have enjoyed the early mornings to make the absolute most of my free time – and the nap to give me a little rest going into the week. My house is mostly clean and all my meals are prepared and packaged for the week, so I can head to bed relaxed and ready to step into a busy week.

Now I just have to keep it all together.

No-Zero Grading Policy In Lowndes County Schools Require Retesting Opportunities For Failing Students (UPDATED)

This school district gets it! By refusing to accept zeros and demanding that students complete assignments and re-do them until they are acceptable reinforces the concept that students can (and will) learn and no longer gives the teachers the option of "giving up" on students. I just hope that teachers will not give in and start giving students the minimum 60 on the grading scale to avoid the work of honestly and effectively evaluating student progress.

As a professional school counselor (I'll expand that later), I am shocked at each grading period to see students with grades in the single digits and teens. Such grades are a recipe for growing drop-0uts.

No-Zero Grading Policy In Lowndes County Schools Require Retesting Opportunities For Failing Students (UPDATED):

I pray the teachers in Lowndes get the message being sent by their administration that all students are expected to be successful and that it is their job to move students toward success.

'via Blog this'

Routine

One of the downfalls of technology is that one sees just how boring one is. Just before and over winter break, my foursquare account was busy with check-ins and it actually seemed like I had a life. Since the new semester began my check-ins have been work and home and work and home and work and gas station and work and home. As busy as work has been, I cannot say that I mind the routine. The routine provides stability in my busyness. I know when I am going to cook, when I am going to pack my lunch, when I leave from work, when I am doing my regular household chores. Other than the occasional excitement while cooking, the rest of the routine is boring. Right now, as busy as everything else is. That's ok!

Baths in the Time of Drought

Since damaging the connective tissues between two ribs a month ago, I have found the healing process goes much more slowly as a mature man than it did when I was much younger. I followed the doctor’s directions and most of them worked well except for the high doses of ibuprofen.  The best thing I have done consistently, though is taking hot baths with Epsom salts.

Each time I take one of the hot baths, I feel guilty about it. We are currently experiencing one of the worst droughts in recorded history and a bath is not the most efficient use of water.

If this was Little House on the Prairie, a couple people could bathe in the tub after me, but alas I live alone and none of my friends have expressed any interest in using my Epsom salt lukewarm leftovers.

Maybe I should place an ad on Craigslist – Free in Austin: “Low guilt cleaning. Lukewarm bathwater. Only used once. Pre-soaped. Email for directions.”

Despite my best ecological intentions, I am afraid this may draw the wrong crowd, but it certainly sounds fun just to see what responses I get.

In the meantime, I am trying to carefully conserve water in everything else that I do while I do everything I can to recover and not need the baths anymore.

Reduced Risk

A few months ago I purchased a rice cooker and it substantially changed the way I prepare my foods for the week. I read the basic directions to the device and have used it weekly since the purchase. This morning, though, I noticed a label I had not previously paid any attention to.

Reduce the risk? You mean I may still get shocked by using it correctly? I want a rice cooker that is giving me no risk of electrical shock.  As an almost daily rice eater, I know that cooking rice involves a great deal of water!

We get such labels because of someone’s demonstrated stupidity followed by a lawsuit. Without the removable container, there is no way for the cooker to hold the water and rice. Or even function for that matter as it is pressure triggered.

After becoming a label reader in recent years, I continue to be amazed at the various warnings that come with seemingly innocuous products and what it says about our society. As an educator, I have a hard time believing we are truly that stupid, I think we are that greedy that we will do stupid things for money. We get such labels because of someone’s demonstrated stupidity followed by a lawsuit.

So the next time you make rice in a rice cooker, be sure to use the appropriate removable container. You have been warned so that lawsuit will not work again.

Bed and Breakfast Land

Earlier this week the remarkable happened: I (briefly) had more followers on Twitter than accounts I was following. Unfortunately most of them were spam accounts, but (briefly) I felt like a celebrity. After reviewing the list, I blocked and reported many of them for spam – I am consistent in that I block spam-tweets as fast as possible.

Most of the newfound popularity has come since I started using foursquare for check-ins and many of the businesses into which I have checked and nearby businesses have started following me since I began using the service. I guess that is good for the businesses to make a direct connection with their customers.

But now that winter break is over, they are going to find that “homebody” marks my most common status.

Which still gets me lots of hits.

I named my home “Roy’s Bed and Breakfast” for the many friends from out-of-town who stay with me. So every night when I check in at my house, it appears that I am frequenting a bed and breakfast, so I have become popular with B&B’s across the land on Twitter. I have never actually stayed at a B&B as I prefer room service when I travel.

Just as I was disturbed recently when my doctor’s office replied via Twitter to one of my tweets about being there, I am enjoying tracking how my online activity tracks across media and seeing the trends in both spam email and spam Twitter.

Does that make me a nerd? Geek? I never can keep them separate.

I think I may start giving places I frequently visit my own personal name to see just what kind of interactions I can stir up. It will also give me more mayorships on foursquare – but that would be cheating, wouldn’t it?

Black Like...Really?

Recently a friend mentioned that he named his car Michelle “because it looks like Michelle Obama.” While it is not uncommon for people to name possessions after well-known people, I have never heard someone name a car after a person because they look alike. I did not quite understand the reasoning and pressed the matter.  It turns out that the looking alike was limited to color – both are black.

The admission astonished me.

This person claims to be a progressive Christian.

No wonder the so many people do not see the difference between progressive Christianity and the more traditional Christianity. Ephesians chapter 4 provides many useful guidelines for conducting our life, but very important among them and what should be a defining verse for all Christians is verse 29: “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.” I freely admit that I have limited use for political correctness and frequently write about extremes in the use of language. Nevertheless, I have no use for statements or actions that are inherently destructive or damaging, whether they were made in all seriousness or for the sake of humor.  

My friend may have intended the naming of his car as a joke, but I think he actually meant it in some misguided attempt at acceptance. Unfortunately, though such comments may be made with a true lack of malice, they carry the full weight of inconsideration and do as much damage as those that are made with harmful intent.  The same Ephesians passage cautions us about being responsive to guidance from the Holy Spirit in all that we do. While no person is perfect, thoughtful consideration will lead to understanding of what is and what is not acceptable speech or behavior.

Such can be the challenge with attempts at being clever, but we have no excuse to damage the witness we have to the world as people called apart.  The last few years have brought too many headlines of the church behaving badly with sex abuse scandals, social stances that represent antiquated (unchristian) thinking, and numerous financial scandals. Such headlines give legitimacy to questions about the relevance of the Church in society. The Church as an instrument of anger and pain in no way reflects the calling of the Church in the world.

Ephesians chapter four defends the purpose of the church and those in it. We must examine how well we uphold the principles behind the purpose of the church and live that our consistently. Unless the church begins to function and garner headlines as an instrument of peace and healing, entire generations will miss the blessing that comes from being in relationship with God.

As much as my friend’s comment personally offended me, it led to the time of reflection about my own comments and my role in the church and the Church’s role in society. I have made many changes regarding the information I take into my mind and the media to which I expose myself in the last months. The more selective I have become in those areas, the more deeply I have been able to reflect on my personal status. At some point the reflection should translate into action or it serves only to be an egotistical exercise in self-aggrandizement – much like the behavior of the Church in the last few decades. For every thing there is a season; now that the season of gestation is complete and the season of growth has begun.