Don't want to be there

"I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens."

~ Woody Allen

Have your foes inside the tent

"The master pol Lyndon B. Johnson once cut to the essence of unity in a divided party when he said he preferred to have his foes inside his tent, um, relieving themselves outward, as opposed to outside pointing in."

The Dems' Appearance of Unity
Time Magazine
Friday, Jun. 27, 2008
By David Von Drehle, Unity, N.H.

Disagreement is one of the necessary ingredients for change

Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted on Fri, Jun. 20, 2008
Bush isn't evil or stupid, just a bad manager
He failed to hold others responsible for their mistakes, and he let his admirable vice president do too much.
By Jonathan Last
Inquirer Editorial Board

Reagan's Disciple says that Bush was "particularly enamored" of a class called "human behavior and organization." He also was impressed by the work of management guru Peter Drucker, whose essential principle was that good managers should hire smart workers, give them clear-cut responsibilities, and stay out of their way while holding them accountable.

Drucker's theory of management, controversial when Bush was in grad school, is accepted practice today. And it makes sense - lots of very successful businesses are run just so. But while attractive on its face, Drucker's maxim may not be as compatible with the presidency.

To be sure, some fault lay in the execution: Bush hired many bright, impressive people and delegated an enormous amount of responsibility. But he was maddeningly reluctant to hold subordinates - from Michael Brown to George Tenet to Donald Rumsfeld to Tommy Franks - accountable for their failures. ...

If the vice president is acting as chief of staff, it creates a situation where one cannot have disagreement between the president and the man responsible for running the White House, because there is no practical way to resolve such a disagreement.

And disagreement is one of the necessary ingredients for change. One of the striking features of the Bush administration is a dearth of disagreement among the president's advisers.

Disagreement is not always productive, mind you. But when a situation goes sideways, as the Iraq project did in late 2003 and early 2004, disagreement is vital to finding a solution.

Put Love

“Where there is no love,
put love
and you will find love.”

~ St. John of the Cross

Larry Herr's Lancaster grass-fed cattle

Mon, Jun. 16, 2008
GreenSpace: Hard for beef lover to swallow
By Sandy Bauers
Inquirer GreenSpace Columnist

Larry Herr, one of several area farmers raising grass-fed cattle, sells his beef at the Chester County farmers' market at Anselma Mills:

Without corn, the beef is leaner, which proponents say has dietary benefits. And a national advocacy Web site, Eat Wild, ascribes myriad eco-virtues to grass-fed beef compared with factory farms, saying pastures reduce topsoil erosion and absorb scads of carbon dioxide.

Plus, cattle grazed on grass produce 20 percent less methane. (Weber concurs.)

Herr's 60-acre farm southeast of Lancaster has been in his family for six generations. On his family farms here and in New York he's planted 1,000 trees as stream buffers and hosts a wind generator.

My husband met Herr at - yes! - a Chester County farmers' market at Anselma Mills.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/
20080616_GreenSpace__Hard_for_beef_lover_to_swallow.html

You only get better by playing tougher opponents

Posted on Sun, Jun. 15, 2008
Dad: Ever with us
Life with father has staying power.
By Sally Friedman
For The Inquirer

When Sean, a type 1 (juvenile) diabetic, was at a St. Louis boarding school, Thomas Toner insisted he compete in hockey and tennis with kids who were both far healthier and far more skilled than his son.

"He often told me that you only get better by playing tougher opponents, and he made sure that I did."

When his son needed dialysis for failing kidneys, his father dismissed it as an "oil change." When he underwent a double kidney/pancreas transplant in 1995, Thomas Toner likened it to "replacing car parts."

"But in the end, that tough love/live strong approach actually was helpful. My father taught me to absolutely expect challenges, and to finesse them." ...

"But through what may have seemed his indifference, my father had actually taught me about the relative insignificance of the body, and the message took. I accepted being blind and in some ways embraced it," says Toner, who lives in Bryn Mawr, has won or been a finalist in 14 regional and national writing competitions, and serves as vice president of the Philadelphia Writers Conference.

He is also a frequent speaker about living and working with a disability.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/image/
20080615_Dad__Ever_with_us.html

Five Real Friends

"My father always used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life."

~ Lee Iacocca

Taking care of the cargo

Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons

This Is Not a Race
Clovis Chappell, a great preacher of a previous generation, used to tell the story of two paddleboat steamers. They left Memphis about the same time, traveling down the River to New Orleans. As they traveled side by side, crew members made disparaging remarks about the slowness of the other boat. Words were exchanged. Challenges were made.

And the race began. The competition was keen as the boats roared down the Mississippi. One boat began falling behind. Not enough fuel. There had been plenty of coal for the trip, but not enough for a race. As the boat dropped back, an enterprising crew member took some of the ship's cargo and tossed it into the ovens. Their boat began to catch up, so they made fuel out of more and more cargo. They finally won the race, but in the process they burned their cargo, the very material they had been hired to transport.

Parents, our primary mission is not to win a rat race, but to faithfully care for those persons entrusted to us, especially our children.

a firecracker or a rifle shot

from a sermon:

On another occasion Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek." We don't like that word "meek." It suggests to us weakness or being wishy-washy or wimpy. But that's not what it means. The Greek word for meek used in the Bible is the same word used to describe a wild stallion that has been trained for the saddle. It means power under control, strength with direction. It means to be focused. Blessed are the focused, those who know their priorities and honor them.

Did you know that there is approximately the same amount of gunpowder in a firecracker as in a rifle shell? But the firecracker is unfocused. It just makes a big noise and accomplishes nothing. The rifle shell, on the other hand, focuses that power in a specific direction and delivers an enormous punch.

You can be a firecracker Christian or a rifle shot Christian. It's a matter of focus. St. Paul was a highly focused, rifle shot Christian. He declared, "I press toward the mark for the high call of God in Christ Jesus."

You can be a firecracker parent or a rifle-shot parent. One makes a lot of noise. The other gets results. It's a matter of focus.

~ author unknown

Family imprisons woman for 18 years

June 14, 2008
ROME, Italy (AP)

Police say a family in southern Italy kept a woman locked in a room in their house for 18 years because they were angry she was pregnant out of wedlock.
... They arrested her brother and sister, and put her 80-year-old mother under house arrest. ...
Italian TV showed the room with a bed, chair, filthy toilet and sink.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/
06/14/italy.woman.ap/index.html

Ministry to People in Need

E. Carver McGriff, Times of Refreshing, CSS Publishing Company.

There's a wonderful legend about Saint Francis, the kindly thirteenth century monk, who one day informed his brethren that he planned to go into the nearby village on a preaching mission. He invited a novice to go along. On their way, they passed an injured man and Francis promptly stopped, saw to the poor fellow's needs and arranged medical care for him. They went on and soon passed a homeless man who was near starvation. Again, Francis stopped his journey and ministered to the hungry, homeless man.

So it went, through the day: people in need, Francis lovingly caring for them as best he could until the sun was low in the sky. He told his novice friend it was time for them to return, now, to the monastery for evening prayers. But the young man said, "Father, you said we were coming to town to preach to the people." Francis smiled. Then he said, "My friend, that's what we've been doing all day."

That's evangelism at its most faithful. Ministry to people in their need. Not worrying about numerical growth, or adding to one's own conversion record, or winning acclaim within the denomination. Evangelism is sharing the love of God in concrete form among God's people.

Seven Demons

Seven Demons
depression, fear, low self-esteem, doubts, procrastination, bitterness, self-pity, especially the fear of not being loved

Seven Sins of Memory
fixation on persistent negative memories, biased or distorted memories

~ author unknown

Do What You Can

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

~ John Wooden

An old, smart fish stalemates the battle

"Playing a fish is a form of jujitsu. It is a contest that rests on a single cruel irony. One of the combatants has knowledge that the other lacks: the futility of the struggle. An old, smart fish understands the game. It will not fight back. It holds in the current, confounds the fisherman, and stalemates the battle."

Lou Ureneck, Backcast
a book about healing a father-son rift through a fly-fishing adventure

Martha Beck's Top Five

Martha Beck's Five (New) Best Pieces of Advice
By Martha Beck
http://www.oprah.com/spiritself/
omag/ss_omag_200803_mbeck.jhtml

Life Lesson Number One: You cannot feed a beagle all it wants.
"There are among us people I call human beagles. They can't get enough—enough love, praise, attention, control. Psychologists categorize them as borderline personalities, narcissists, etc., etc., but all you need to remember is this: You cannot satiate them. Don't even try."

Life Lesson Number Two: We should all work like dogs, all the time.
"We should do what comes most naturally, reflexively, effortlessly."

Life Lesson Number Three: See every effort as an opportunity to relax.
"Martha, every scary obstacle is just an invitation to relax."

Life Lesson Number Four: Get the ball on the green.
"Consistently getting reasonably close to your objective, task after task, will put you far ahead of most other people."

Life Lesson Number Five: Once you trust yourself, you can trust everyone.
"Dogs trust their instincts, their bodies, their feelings. And this means they can trust all others—to be exactly what they are. Trusting yourself means you know what, and who, is authentic. ... This trust will be based on what you actually sense and believe, rather than polite words and social pressure, and that's the only kind of trust you can always trust."