Running With the Pack

The values of the secular world:

"In politics you must always keep running with the pack. The moment that you falter and they sense that you are injured, the rest will turn on you like wolves."

~ R. A. Butler
British (Indian-born) politician (1902 - 1982)

"Naughtiness is a child's protest against a perceived injustice."

EdmontonSun.com
www.edmontonsun.com

quote below, bold added:

LOS ANGELES -- Nanny McPhee, a dark yet delicious children's movie, deals boldly with an age-old question in parenting: What do you do with naughty children?

In life, writer-actress Emma Thompson admits she does not have a clue. She even confesses to falling into a total emotional collapse when wrestling with the demons which occasionally inhabit her own spirited daughter, six-year-old Gaia (whom she shares with second husband, actor Greg Wise).

"Generally speaking," Thompson says with a laugh, "I often will end up weeping on the floor saying, 'I don't know how to discipline you! I don't know what to do now!'

"And my daughter has come up to me, looked at me weeping, sitting on the floor, given me a hankie and said, 'Let's have a game of cards.' I've also taught her how to make bloody marys now, so she knows kind of how to calm me down and it's all right now. Actually, in all seriousness, I think it's very difficult to know (what to do)."

In the movies, however, Thompson's title character in Nanny McPhee has some answers. They involve magic but also rely on human ingenuity, a child's cleverness and simple but forthright communication between generations.

Thompson says there is also one truth that unites the seven very naughty Brown children in the movie and most naughty children in real life. "Parents always think it's the kids' fault. If they're naughty, it's the kids' fault. Not true! Children generally are not naughty for no reason."

Those reasons, she says, usually involve an adult who does something, says something or ignores the children when they do and say things that demand close attention. Naughtiness is a child's protest against a perceived injustice, Thompson says. So acting out is sometimes a good thing.

Fear They Won't Be Loved

Many women have more power than they recognize, and they're very hesitant to use it, for they fear they won't be loved.
-- Patricia Schroeder

The Masculine Goal of One-Upmanship

As females expand their power base beyond the powder room, one of their greatest challenges will be to resist the masculine goal of one-upmanship, a goal that can feel as ill-fitting to a woman as a man-tailored suit.
-- Rita Freedman

Fishing: Pelicans Caught Unprepared

Pelicans Caught Unprepared

I recently read an article about some pelicans in California. If you’ve ever seen pelicans in action, you know they’re great fishermen, or fisher-birds, I guess. These pelicans were hanging out near a fleet of fishing boats. The fishermen on the boats would pull into the little harbor, and clean the fish right on the spot, throwing the heads and the rest into the water. The pelicans picked up on this, and began eating the leftovers without having to go out fishing. And if you’re a pelican, that’s good eating. So for weeks, they just sat by the harbor and waited for the fishing boats to come in.

After a while, the fishermen found out they could sell the fish waste, and so they stopped chucking it into the water. The pelicans were caught unprepared. They continued to sit and wait for the fishing boats to come in and throw free food in the water. And they grew thinner and thinner and seemed able to do nothing about their situation.

Wildlife officials came to check out what was going on, and concluded that the pelicans had forgotten how to fish. So what they did was to bring pelicans in from another area to join the flock and teach the starving birds how to fish again.

The Reverend Dr. Gary Nicolosi
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Nostalgic Fishermen

Someone suggested that we imagine this fishing club where the members merely sat around swapping fish stories about the big one they landed, the whopper that broke away, but they never stepped into a boat or cast their line in the water. What kind of a fishing club would it be whose members were content to admire the trophies on the wall but never go out and actually go fishing?

A lot of churches are like that. They sit around bragging about the days when their boat was full of fresh fish. They look nostalgically to the days when the main purpose of their church was to go fishing, to reach others for Christ. But they never actually go fishing; they merely talk about going fishing. That's not what we're about as a church.

Dr. Mickey Anders, “Go Fish”
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Tips for Fishing

What are some of the tips we need to remember as we fish for disciples?

Go where the fish are. Be with people on their own turf.
Be real, be vulnerable, and be honest.
Be creative. We don’t have to do things the same old way.
Be spiritual, but not "churchy".
Be patient
Be ready for surprises!
Be willing to step out of your comfort zone.
Be on the lookout for where God is at work.
Be praying.

Rev. Linda A. Jacobus, “Forgetting How to Fish”

The Joys of Life

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave
    with the intention of arriving safely
      in an attractive and well-preserved body,
but rather to skid in sideways ,
  chocolate in one hand,
    glass of wine in the other,
      body thoroughly used up,
        memory full of friends and adventures,
          heart full of love,
totally worn out
  and screaming "YAA HOO" - what a ride".

-- Author Unknown

A "really old" losing coach has a flawed winning season

In the Philadelphia Inquirer Sports section today, Bob Ford describes the latest turnaround in Joe Paterno's career.

At the end of last year's losing season, many Penn State Lions fans agreed that Joe Paterno's winning days were over and he should resign. The Nittany Lions had lost four of the last five seasons, and Paterno was 78 years old.

A year ago, school president Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley went to visit Paterno at his State College home. They went, according to published reports, to ask Paterno for his resignation.

"I said that I thought that, if I could keep the staff together and we could be stable, that we could get this thing back where it belonged," Paterno said of the meeting. "I was very emphatic about that, and they went along with me. I would think that maybe I had enough clout."

When Joe Paterno is very emphatic, he can lead the nation in emphatic. ... Paterno has always been combative, and, as with everyone who gets a little older, he hasn't really changed, but has simply become a larger, less inhibited version of himself.

Paterno believed that he could achieve a winning season. He wasn't ready to give up, and neither was the team. This year the Nittany Lions "finished off an 11-1 season with a three-overtime Orange Bowl win against Florida State on Tuesday night. The final polls will probably have them ranked No. 3 in the nation."

Paterno's determination and hard work paid off. However Ford feels that there is more to good leadership than winning games, and the end of this winning season is a good time for Paterno to retire:

It really isn't all right to make jokes about the physical appearances of other people, as Joe does, and it really isn't all right to say rude things to one's host, as Joe does, and it really, really, isn't all right to make light of an alleged sexual assault, which Joe also did this week. ("A cute girl knocks on the door, what do you do?" he said, responding to a question about FSU player A.J. Nicholson, who was sent home after being accused of committing rape at the team hotel.)

All of it is waved away because it is Paterno, and he is 79 years old, and the elderly are given a pass on decorum for some reason. It is the he-doesn't-know-any-better defense.

Well, he is the holder of a prestigious position at a state university, and that job is a privilege, not a right. The state and the university both deserve to be represented by someone who does know better and who can be held accountable for what he says and does.

If Paterno is as smart and as sharp as he claims, he will realize that the time has come - before he says something worse, before he grabs a referee and does a Woody Hayes on national television.

Posted on Thu, Jan. 05, 2006
Paterno can leave as a winner now
By Bob Ford, Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/13551585.htm