Amazing Grace

After a couple of hectic days in the aftermath of my grandmother's passing, we went to see "Amazing Grace," the new movie chronicling the efforts of William Wilberforce and others to bring the slave trade to its end in the British Empire, back in the early years of the 19th century. The chance to step away from our own personal family dramas for a couple hours was welcome and helpful to put some things in perspective.

Though I had heard the name of Wilberforce and vaguely understood his prominence as a very early champion of the abolitionist movement, I had never taken the time to fully examine his career or the kinds of resistance he had to work through. As I always enjoy getting a bit of insight on the significant sociocultural revolutions of the past, this film helped fill in a pretty significant gap, though I also understand that some of the historical facts and timelines have been tidied up and fiddled with for the sake of telling a good story. It's probably good to know that kind of stuff up front, but I could also get that sense from just watching the film - of course, it takes a lot of condensation and streamlining in order to put the messiness of actual circumstances into something orderly and communicable to a mass audience. Even with those accomodations, one has to pay careful attention to pick up all the political subtleties... that's fine with me - it creates "repeat viewability." But the points are lushly illustrated and the film carries a lot of entertainment value for anyone who likes watching talented British actors exemplifying their craft.

On a personal level, the story connected with me in several ways, primarily as I thought of my own involvement with social activism in trying to help our nation more seriously pursue alternatives to war, and how faith plays a part in that process. It's easy for me to equate the Bush/Cheney administration with the Tories who defended the slave trade and the geopolitical "national interests" that led them to believe that while some of the details were rather unpleasant, the practice itself was necessary and besides, if we didn't do it, somebody else would. I can also see how this film could appeal to people who are more politically conservative than me - the nice thing about an "anti-slavery" film is that it's a political controversy that is long-settled and that most of us can agree with quite easily!

So let me add this to my list of recommended flicks. I could also see myself adding it to my own DVD collection - Julie and I both like these well-produced period flicks. And the final scene is worth popping in just for the morale boost it provides. But you'll have to see it if you want to know what that final scene is - I won't tell you here!

My Grandmother Passed Away Yesterday.

I am not really sure how to go about making such an announcement on a blog, but I've experienced a death in my family. Yesterday, 2/22/07, was a really full day.

I knew going into it that it would be a long one. I had an Advancement (fund-raising department) team meeting at 9 am that went a half hour longer than scheduled. I had some other work stuff to take care of after that, and my intention was to go visit my grandmother on my lunch break. I got a phone call before I left from my dad, asking me to pick him and Cay up from their apartment, so I did, and we went over to Grandma's place which is very close to theirs. They've been staying with Grandma around the clock over the past week or so, but took a short break while a hospice attendant was taking care of her.

We got there just as the attendant was finishing up her work. I was genuinely moved by how tender and affectionate this young woman was toward my grandma. I don't know much about what hospice workers do or how they recruit and train their staff, but this woman was impressive and I am deeply gratified to know that my grandmother received such loving care in her last days.

My dad and I spent some time talking about final arrangements, since it was pretty apparent that Grandma was not likely to be with us much longer. She was not responsive to any of us while we were there - her last lucid moments were the night before, when my dad and sister were taking care of her, but even those last conversations she had were not "all there" as she was making connections and drawing on memories that didn't make sense to anyone else in the room. After we had wrapped up our talk and it was time for me to move on back to other responsibilities, I entered Grandma's room to spend some moments with her. I'm really glad that I did.

I can't really begin to summarize my thoughts and emotions standing there by her bedside. I didn't know for a fact that this would be my last time with her but I approached it with the sure understanding that it could have been. Or perhaps she would have more days or even weeks of this condition to get through before it was over. I just don't really know how these things go. But it was solemn, serene and beautiful in its own way. She was not suffering and she looked remarkably at peace even though her breathing was heavy and labored, assisted by tubes feeding oxygen to her body.

Then it came time for me to leave. I had an appointment to meet with staffers of Senator Carl Levin downtown at 1:30 p.m. to continue our lobbying/relationship building efforts aimed at changing the course of American policies and practices in Iraq - e.g. bringing the war to an end as soon as possible, over the obstacles presented by the president and his administration. It was a good talk, and at some point I will summarize the conversation, but not now.

I then had to head back to my office and prepare for a four-hour CPR/First Aid training that began at 5:30 p.m. That's what I meant by knowing that this would be a long day - in at 8:30 a.m. and not out of work until probably 10:00 p.m. or so after all the stuff got put away. So I was geared up for it...

But around 2:45 p.m. my sister called me on my cell phone and told me that Grandma was gone. I instantly understood her words and jumped up from my desk to take the news in private in another room, since I share an office. So I got the details of her passing from Debbie and some emotions came out of course and after a few minutes, we wound up the phone call and I had to figure out what I was going to do now.

I decided that I would go ahead and teach the class rather than cancel. I have co-facilitators for these classes, even though I'm the main CPR/FA instructor for Wedgwood at this time. The training is largely video driven so it didn't require me to do as much talking as I normally do for other classes. It worked out fairly well, and I was able to manage my end of it with professionalism. I told a few of my co-workers about my grandma's death, but not the class itself, figuring I didn't need to distract them from what they were there for.

I also had a CPR class to teach this morning - just two hours, not the First Aid portion, so I went ahead and got through that fine. It was a small group and we were able to cover the material in fairly short order. After that, I took care of a few things and spent some time talking with Lauren, an intern in our department who's finishing up her senior year in college, planning a wedding and dealing, along with the rest of her family, with her father's cancer treatment. He's only in his 50's. I told her that I felt worse for her situation than I do for my own. I hope that wasn't tactless - she seemed to appreciate it.

After I left work around 11:45 I went to my grandma's apartment and we spent several hours sorting through her belongings. Some of our other relatives were there and overall, it went well. It's just kind of an exhausting and emotionally awkward thing to go through and it's hard for me, as I said at the beginning of this post, to know just what to do with this kind of an event, other than simply "report it." At least for now. Maybe in a few days I'll have more to say along "reflective" lines. I have the task of writing Grandma's obituary this weekend. We're also going to put together a commemorative slideshow of pictures from her life that we'll show at the memorial service. That will definitely trigger a lot of memories.

Britney, Briefly

I am very ambivalent to even begin discussing this topic, but I had a conversation with Juanito yesterday about this and figure, why not, put it on the blog and get it out there.

I feel sad about what's happened to Britney Spears. Yes, she is so easy to feel contempt for, to mock, to dismiss, to blame for the miserable and weird situation she's in. I understand the resentment that many feel toward her for the bad influence she's had on girls and others in our society, her shameless flaunting and all that. As she herself famously once said, she's not that innocent. And she's made a lot of money trotting herself out there to fulfill a wide range of voyeuristic fantasies.

Still... there's something rather disgraceful in watching our society's response to all this. The Britney phenomenon unleashed something vicious and spiteful that simply seems to have crushed and shattered the woman at the center of it all. I think of the pressures that this person has had to deal with - being the long-standing #1 target of internet searches for the last seven or eight years running... having that statue of her, naked giving birth on a bearskin rug, on public display... all the venom and accusation and morbid obsessions that people level toward her, and all the absurd adulation and emoting that her fans send her way too... the ridicule that spun out of her failed marriages and reckless entry into motherhood... it's just way too much for a kid to take, and if this all spirals down into her early demise or a prolonged personality crisis, it's not just her fault or her problem to deal with. Our culture has cannibalized her already, and it's just a process of waiting to see how thoroughly the job has been done.

I'll say that people like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have earned the rough treatment that they receive in the public sphere - they were adults with fully-formed egos when they decided to put themselves out there in the spotlight. Britney Spears was just a girl when this thing started, a kid who wanted to please and entertain us... and wow, did she respond to our cheers. She gave the people what they wanted. I hope she is able to find what she is looking for. I'd be happiest if she just retired from the biz and became a real person again.

"WE LOVE YOU JOSH!" "Thanks so very much!

I heard those two phrases a lot last night.

How did you spend your Fat Tuesday? I spent mine in the company of about 10,000 FOJG's.

Josh Groban performed at the Van Andel Arena last night, and I was there, this time as a legitimate paying customer. It was time for my wife and I to cash in one of her Christmas presents, tickets to a Josh concert that we'd been looking forward to for a few months.

What, you sputter, astonished that I am a fan of Josh Groban? Well, yes, I am. Perhaps I would not be if I weren't married to a woman who thinks he is just the nicest, most talented performer out there. I'll grant you that. But since I am, I've grown to appreciate this guy, much in the same way that I developed a sincere admiration for John Denver back in the mid-1980's when pretty much the same scenario was playing itself out - namely, me adapting to my wife's musical tastes.

Do I have to go on and justify my endorsement of Josh Groban's talents? I hope not. I will say that his vocal skills, and the sumptuousness of his backing band (with orchestra), are in the upper echelon of contemporary pop music. Some may see him as the heir of sappy balladeers like Air Supply or Barry Manilow, but I like his Euro sensibility and down-to-earth personality traits.When he's talking to the audience, he's kind of a nerd, and if it's just an act, he pulls it off pretty well. I know that's a big part of what endears him to the ladies. But when he gets down to the business of singing his soaring, gloriously and unabashedly romantic songs, he gives us all something to savor and enjoy.

There were a number of cool moments in the show last night. His band features some excellent instrumentalists and they all had their moments in the spotlight. The violinist, Lucia Micarelli, is very cool, talented, pretty and fun to watch. She did a pretty wild solo on her instrument that suddenly and delightfully transformed into a legitimate interpretation of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir." If I'd had a lighter, I would have held it up. I would consider paying to see her as a solo act.

Of course the stage and lighting and video effects were all state of the art. It's impressive to see just how slick and well-produced arena shows are these days compared to when I used to go to these kinds of gigs in the 70's and 80's. In some ways, I miss that raw and edgy and intense atmosphere, but let's face it, back then there wasn't anybody doing anything like what Josh Groban does these days. I'm not really sure who else there is that compares to him either. Il Divo perhaps? Andrea Boccelli? I don't know, I don't really listen to those guys. But their image and core audience seems kind of close to Josh's.

Josh Groban makes highly polished, technically flawless and emotion-stirring music that connects with an audience that was literally from 18 to 80 years of age. I didn't see any kids younger than that, but let me tell you, he has a very vocal and enthusiastic teeny-bopper contingent! As well as a good portion of grown-up women who think Josh is adorable, and a bunch of older folks who really enjoy listening to a clean cut young man with an outstanding tenor voice.

I feel like I'm watching a guy who's just getting through the first stage of what's likely to be a long and successful career. His newest album, Awake, features some forays into African music as he seeks to expand his range a bit and take his audience into some new territory. The opening act was Anjelique Kidjo, from Benin. Most of her songs were in an African language that I figure none of us in the arena understood, but it was fun just listening to the emotion that her voice and the music conveyed. She has a new album coming out in May with a highly star-studded list of collaborators - Josh, Carlos Santana, Joss Stone, Alicia Keys, Peter Gabriel... you get the sense that someone is trying to help her break through into the big time.

Anyway, it was a great night of entertainment. I hope I haven't lost the respect of my rock'n'roll readers... One has to be versatile, you know!

Put Up or Shut Up

So there I was, just sitting at my desk, clicking between several open-at-the-same-time projects (new diversity newsletter, a couple of grant applications in progress, a sponsorship letter for our charity golf tournament later this summer, the usual stream of emails requesting information on staff training records, appointment confirmations, incident reports, staffing needs in our various residential programs, etc.) and the occasional peek at internet headlines or checking to see if I have any interesting new messages in my personal Inbox, and I get this phone call. It's from a young mother who has somehow tracked me down and wants to talk to me about raising her child.

She got my name from a poster advertising the class I was supposed to offer a few weekends ago before the entire parenting conference was canceled due to severe snowy weather. She was disappointed that she couldn't benefit from the training that I'd prepared and wanted to get my input on how to deal with a strong-willed and highly active four-year-old. She also has a six- and a two-year-old, all boys, but it's the middle kid who is giving her the fits. Even though I had a lot of stuff sitting in front of me on my monitor demanding my attention, I decided to give her about twenty minutes of my precious time to listen to her story and respond with some sage advice.

I make it sound easier than it really was though... I was, actually, kind of sweating it out there for a minute, thrust as I was into expert mode on such short notice. Usually, when I doff my professor of kid-handling hat, it's according to schedule, with sufficient prep time that I can do a reasonably convincing job at sounding like I know what I'm talking about. But for a few moments, I was kind of grasping and struggling, trying to figure out what I could say over the phone that might really help this woman, feeling a bit of pressure even to perform according to the expectations that must have surged forth when she saw a class titled "Avoiding Power Struggles with Younger Children," taught by Dave Blakeslee, BA, Wedgwood Christian Services.

Fortunately for me, I've been through listening-skills training (actually, I teach that too!) so I was wise and patient enough to just ask her questions long enough that it gave me some time to gather my thoughts and, imo, respond with some insights that were actually constructive, relevant and as difference-making as one could reasonably expect in such cold-call circumstances. I won't go into the details of her story except to say that it's probably an all-too-common one, where the young mom who loves her kids is feeling overwhelmed because they had several of them close together in years and both parents work but she's a teacher and she does the bulk of the child-rearing since she's home early and Dad doesn't get back until just before bedtime on most nights.

I think the listening on my end was pretty helpful to her - and I also had a few pithy things to say about how to balance the need to show warmth and empathy and affirmation to the child with our responsibility to set and maintain limits. About how to avoid getting emotionally engaged to the point of escalating small non-compliances into showdowns and throwdowns. About how to identify as best we can the valid point that the child is trying to make and building on that rather than just getting stuck in the cycle of reactively saying "no" all the time and trying to force our will upon children who seem to enjoy nothing more than figuring out our disciplinary strategies and thwarting them with ruthless efficiency. I even offered to send her a copy of my Power Point via email!

Her plight brought back memories of my own experience when Julie and I were parents of 6, 4 and 2 year olds (doubling up on the 4's as well, since our middle children are twins.) Having found the light at the end of that long, lonely, crazy-making tunnel, I assured her that though the passage is difficult, it's also doable, and that the reality of her life is that she's at a busy, intense, demanding stage of it right now, so it's not the time for harboring delusions of things getting a whole lot easier in the short term. And I gave her some perspective of where I think dads have to pitch in even though dealing with screechy squawky little squirts isn't exactly the first thing we feel like doing when coming home from a long day doing whatever kind of work it is we do.

At the end of it all, I'd say that we had a good talk and she agreed with me. I hope we get a chance to offer that class sometime in the near future. I enjoyed the opportunity to help a stranger out and lend a listening ear.

Weekend Off

Just a brief itinerary of things I did (instead of blogging) this weekend...

Watched movies! --> Friday night, we watched "La Grande Illusion," Jean Renoir's highly-regarded classic about French prisoners in World War One, their attempts to escape from the German camps and how class and race divisions play themselves out at various stages along the way. It's a very good film, though not one that stirred up deep feelings in me. Still, I always like it when I can cross one of those "all-time greatest" films off of my "haven't seen it yet" list.

On Saturday, after getting a lot of "stuff around the house" taken care of, our family watched "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" which I've never seen before. I'm not really much of a NASCAR fan, though I try to stay informed enough to converse about it with my brother-in-law who has made the pilgrimage to most of the tracks around the country over the years and has a fair amount of paraphernalia on his rec room walls to show for it. We felt like laughing, which we did, a lot. I found the pacing and the lack of a real plot or story to be very interesting as an example of contemporary entertainment. The movie was just a string of gags and exaggerated stereotypes, but many of them were very funny. To be honest, I felt like I was doing a lot of laughing AT, not WITH, NASCAR culture... I really am a northern state liberal, I have to admit. The intense loyalty and personal investment that fans make in "their" drivers... I don't really get that. And it's not like I don't get into my sports..!

(btw I did watch the beginning of the Daytona 500 today, after sitting through way too much pre-game show. I also tuned in right when Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart crashed. And I saw the final two laps where Mark Martin got nosed out at the last instant by Kevin Harvick and a big old pile-up ensued right behind the winners... so for watching all of about 10 minutes of the race, I think my timing was perfect and I saw everything that I needed to see, as far as I'm concerned.)

This afternoon, I watched Ingmar Bergman's "Winter Light," a rather fitting choice for this time of year. It is an amazing film - the story takes place between noon and 3 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon in Sweden. Over the course of 80 minutes on camera, the film portrays poignantly and explicitly the crises of faith, doubt and despair that a lot of people go through at various stages of life. It's one of the most austere movies one might ever see - impeccably composed, the performances by the small cast are remarkably focused and intense. This was the second time I've seen the film and it's one I imagine I will watch again in the future (I borrowed it from the library.) Not a pleasurable movie, nor is it inspirational in any conventional sense of the word - but it is rather bracing and clarifying, putting one's situation on the table by asking some unflinching questions that movies seldom touch upon. A challenging cinematic work that I would be interested in discussing further with anyone who's seen it and has comments or questions...

My grandmother's illness is draining more and more of her vitality and it doesn't seem likely that she will be improving. It's kind of a heavy time for our family and I will probably be spending more time visiting her, my dad and his partner Cay over the next few weeks. The burden of caring for her is weighing heavy on them now.

I've also been continuing my trek through the old podcasts of Barack Obama. The more I hear, the more I like. I've created a blog on his website and I'm starting to link up with other "friends" though it's mostly just putting our names and pictures in each other's lists at this point. An Grand Rapids organizing meeting is scheduled for the first Saturday in March... Maybe I'll go there and see what that's all about.

Last week was a very productive one at work - this weekend, I didn't produce all that much, nor did I think all that hard about things. I'm fine with that.

Busy Time

Once I broke my string of daily posts, it seems like it's been pretty hard to get back on that horse and ride. This week's loaded with stuff that has directed my creative brain-power in different directions - three grant proposals submitted, various trainings I've had to deliver (including one later this afternoon), Valentine's Day of course, and more. I'll spare you the mundane details... it's all good, just not very blogworthy imo.

But if you are really looking for something interesting to read, I'll direct your attention to the National Security Archive where you can see for yourself just how off-track our war planners were when they drew up their cake-walk scenarios for a post-invasion Iraq. Keep in mind that these are still by and large the same people who are making plans and decisions these days, and consider what, if any, changes ought to be made in a system that allows this kind of mismanagement to go on without any serious accountability.

...And then there's the other side.

Unbeknownst to me, while I was writing about Barack Obama on Saturday, several Republican contenders (or their emissaries) were right here in Grand Rapids speaking to local GOP activists at the Michigan Republican Convention that was held this weekend. I can't imagine that the state party had a whole lot to crow about this year. They lost control of the state senate, failed to unseat the Governor or a freshman Senator who hadn't done a lot to distinguish herself (though she hasn't been all that bad either) and couldn't capitalize on a bad state economic situation despite their efforts to present themselves as pro-entrepreneur, low taxes and low government spending. But they did get courted by a couple of mid-level Republican presidential aspirants (Sam Brownback and Mitt Romney, son of a former MI governor), though neither John McCain nor Rudy Giuliani felt it was worth making the trip themselves. In fact, Giuliani's still-forming campaign appears to have missed an opportunity to create some buzz, which makes me wonder just how adept he/they are really going to be when it comes to mounting a national-scale effort. I still see him as a small-time player who merely happened to be in a politically-advantageous situation at an auspicious moment of our cultural history. But perhaps things will coalesce for him in ways that I currently consider unlikely.

But since I do honestly consider myself politically independent, I guess I am obliged to give Republican presidential contenders some earnest attention, with an opportunity to win my vote fair and square. It's hard for me to imagine myself voting to keep the White House in Republican hands at this time, but I would have voted for John McCain in 2000 over Al Gore if I had been granted that choice. Not now though. McCain has completely blown his credibility with me as he's put together about as close of a replication of Bush's fund-raising and organizational team as could be assembled in the current circumstances, and looks likely to want to continue the foolish war-mongering that Bush started as well. To me he seems like a candidate whose time has come and gone and I think that if he were to be nominated, the results would be something along the lines of what Bob Dole accomplished in 1996.

However, McCain and Giuliani are seen as the clear front-runners for 2008. I think that bodes rather poorly for the Republicans. I just don't see either of them having much in the way to motivate voter enthusiasm. Even though I didn't ever really like George W. Bush as a candidate, I was able to at least see something of what made him attractive to many - the name recognition, the born-again testimony, the idea of "setting things right" after Clinton interloped with the presidency thanks to Ross Perot's upset-the-apple-cart intrusions in 1992. Even Bush's flaws as a candidate could be seen as endearing to those charitably disposed that way - but McCain and Giuliani don't have much charm that I can see and that's going to be a serious short-coming when it comes to connecting with voters.

So if I'm at all on the right track, I guess this opens up an opportunity for Mitt Romney, Sam Brownback or some other, less obvious candidate, right? Well, I suppose. I have yet to look seriously at any of these guys, but I can at least acknowledge that I'm going to be very interested in seeing what the Republicans come up with as their pitch when the Bush years really start winding down to their bitter end. I'll give them an open ear... to quote their erstwhile leader, "Bring it on!"

Barack Obama: I'm thinking it over...

Barack Obama made his candidacy official today with his announcement on the capital steps in Springfield, IL. I haven't had a chance to see the video yet - I'm at work right now, staffing a conference that we're hosting today, and my computer doesn't have sound. But I've had a chance to read some media coverage and now I am ready to consider at length just what he might have to offer as an aspirant to the presidency, and an actual American president if he manages to win the race.

There are a lot of things that make him interesting and attractive to me. I like listening to him talk. That's important to me. Especially after six years of cringing whenever I hear Bush try to explain himself. He's from Chicago. That's a plus. He obviously represents a change from the all-white, all-WASP (except for Kennedy) exclusivity that has characterized the office since it was established. He's not a Clinton, which is probably the biggest single reason that I really don't want Hillary to win the nomination. He has a background in social activism and organizing, which I think is pretty cool. He seems a lot closer to the streets than any other plausible candidate, yet I think he provides a demeanor and a personality that more traditional voters can relate to. He has not said or done things that have polarized large segments of the population (which I think was one of John Kerry's big, underestimated problems going into the 2004 campaign.) He was born the same year I was (a few months earlier than me, which is good - I'm not quite ready to be "lder than the President.") He seems to have a genuine but not a fundamentalist Christian faith. I think he can be the kind of president who conceivably will be able to quickly undo some of the damage and loss of prestige that President Bush has left as his legacy. To sum it up, he represents quite a remarkable and dramatic change from business-as-usual in national level politics and the idea that the USA could have a guy like him as it's top leader is simply exciting to envision as a real possibility.

But how real is that possibility?

There is this lurking fear and cynicism that I wrestle with that basically says "no way is the US electorate ready to put Obama in the top spot." There are too many vestiges of racism, of fear of the unknown, of suspicion that Obama isn't "Christian-enough" to qualify. And I still have to make up my mind as to whether or not he is really the best qualified leader for our country at this point in time. Do I agree with him enough on the big issues to say, "yeah, Barack is my guy"? As far as the election time-table is concerned, I don't really have to make up my mind for another year or so, but I am kind of interested in possibly getting involved with supporting a candidate at the earlier stage of the game, just to see what that's like. Right now, Obama has the most magnetism. John Edwards seems like the other realistic "Hillary-alternative," with guys like Dodd, Biden, Kucinich and Vilsack all pursuing their own inscrutable agendas that are at this point highly unlikely to end up with them giving the final night's speech at the Democratic convention in Denver next summer.

So count this as my opening salvo when it comes to serious contemplation about who will succeed George W. Bush... in every sense of the word.

Friends in touch again.

I'm in one of those phases where I'm not feeling like I have much worth blogging about. I took another day off yesterday because there just wasn't much to say. I did have an interesting lunch hour at a place called Covenant Village, a very nicely appointed retirement community in Grand Rapids. I was there to speak to two women who helped create the organization I now work for. One was the first director and the other was one of the certified social workers who served on the board, giving the home some professional credentials. We videotaped our conversation for posterity, a project aiming to capture the history of our agency. The lunch lasted about an hour and a half, as they told stories of Wedgwood's early days. One of the women is suffering mild dementia and repeated herself several times. It was kind of touching, listening to her accounts, which were fairly sharp and detailed, not to mention quite fascinating for anyone affiliated with the agency today and interested in learning about our history. After about a forty minutes of discussion, we started hearing some of the same stock phrases used over and over again, and I told her probably five or six times how many years I had worked at Wedgwood. I feel kind of bad for her, but I understand that this is just something that happens to many human minds after living in this world for awhile and I myself may wind up with that condition someday.

So it was a thought-provoking experience, but probably not of much interest to readers here. The lunch was tasty... fish and chips and steamed asparagus. And wow, what a fancy environment. Covenant Village of the Great Lakes is obviously a place where people with money go to retire. It's fairly new, the staff are very well-groomed, pleasant and professional. I'm glad that these women have such pleasant surroundings and affable people to be with at this phase of their life. I really appreciate the work they did back in the early 1960's and I was quite glad to be able to give them a sense of encouragement about the enduring value of what they helped to start.

Today was pretty much just an ordinary day at work. The sun was out again most of the day, creating a rather blinding glare on the snow that is still laying pretty thick on everything except the roads which are now just starting to become visible again. We've been in low single digits or below zero most of the past five days now. I'm feeling good in that it seems like we've taken nature's biggest blast of the winter and endured it just fine. We'll see if there's anything like it weather-wise over the next six weeks or so, after which I figure we'll get around to springtime in an orderly manner.

By far the highlight of my day was a phone call I got from my former co-worker and still-good-friend Roxy, who moved with her husband to North Carolina some years ago as they both pursued graduate education. Roxy was my assistant when I was a home supervisor, did that job for about a year and little longer, and we had a great time working together, even when the work was tough, demanding and intense (which it often is anyway, regardless of how much one enjoys one's professional working relationships.) She and I were Wedgwood's "Employees of the Month" at fairly close points in time, me in the summer of 2001, she in the spring of 2002. I still have a polaroid of us each holding our EOM plaques. But then she had to leave and we were both sad but understand that life brings these changes upon us from time to time.

We've stayed in touch a bit over the years, but not quite often enough. However, she took it upon herself to call me last week, and then it turned into a game of phone tag for several days. I tried calling her yesterday and today, got a "not in service" message each time, wondered what was up, and if she was going to call me again. Which she did as I was driving home from work, and it was great talking with her again! We basically caught up on each others careers, what's gone on over the past couple years or so, and I figure that we will stay in more frequent touch now, via email, cell phones and whatnot. Here's an abstract to some psychological research and writing that she did. But again, this is more of personal interest to me, not to people who read this blog seeking to find out just what's happening right here and now at the intersection of postmodernity, Christendom and suburban American culture. Well, my report is that it's just pretty damn cold outside these days so watching TV, surfing the internet and playing on our new Wii system are what's happening. Consider yourself updated!

We got a Wii!

I had a stroke of luck today. First, I took the day off of work because the arctic blast that shut down West Michigan this weekend has still not cleared out quite yet, and it just felt right to not go back to the office today... also, I have to work this Saturday. Wedgwood is putting on an EMDR conference and I am one of the hosts (not training on this topic... I lack that kind of expertise.) So this was a good day to schedule adjust.

So my boys and I took it easy for the most part. I dropped off Lys at the downtown shuttle bus that took her back to her dorm, and on the freeway heading home saw a gorgeous rainbow over the Grand Rapids skyline - two vertical arcs, actually, equidistant on opposite sides of the sun, one of those nice circular rings that I've seen on a few other occasions in my life - must have been a lot of ice crystals hanging in the air since there wasn't any rain coming down. That was a nice omen, now that I look back on it.

Later in the afternoon, I went out to run some errands, one of them being a visit to my local T-Mobile dealer, attempting to resolve a billing dispute that I won't spell out in detail here. But the kiosk where I do my business is in the RiverTown Crossings shopping mall. Since I was there, I decided to check in at the nearby GameStop store on the off chance that they had any Wiis in stock. I walked into the store, looked around, didn't see any supplies on the floor, and just about left within a minute of my entry. But I saw the signs up advertising the Wii and figured, "why not ask?" I usually hate asking because I don't want to come across as some kind of desperate dweeb looking for a video game system when I ought to have more important things to do. It's my own baggage, I'm sure. I've been basically waiting for the day when I could just walk into a store, see a stack of Wiis on the shelf, pick one up and pay for it, just like any other mass-merchandised commodity that a regular American guy like me should be able to buy with my hard-earned after-tax dollars. Skip that "getting up and standing in line at five o'clock in the morning" crap! I was and remain dead set on participating in that kind of hysteria.

So I asked, and was amazed and also pleasantly surprised when the woman at the counter smiled slightly and quietly said, "yes, we have one more." The other guy working with her said to her, "take the sign down" and he went into the back room to fetch my prize while she removed whatever advertising in the window had failed to catch my eye. There were five or six other people in the store at that moment and I wondered if any of them were kicking themselves as they saw what I was buying. "IF ONLY I HAD ASKED!!!" I'm sure at least one or two of them were thinking, and I immediately began contemplating my most direct escape route out to my car, lest any villains try to purloin the highly coveted parcel that I now held in my hands.

No drama ensued. I got home safe and ordinary, and began unboxing the item. Derek got back from his friend's house shortly after that and of course was delighted that I had snagged a Wii. We plugged it in, did a little bowling and golf before dinner, and now Curt is playing baseball. I got a few strikes, nailed a couple of birdies and look forward to hours of family fun. We were close to resigning to the likelihood that we wouldn't get our new gaming system until March or later, given our reluctance to go on an all-out quest to get the hottest home entertainment gadget of the year.

Blame It On The Rain.

So the Bears lost and my prediction was a bust. Big whoop. I think it's more fun to go stick one's neck out even if it proves to be in the wrong direction. At least when it comes to sporting events where the final outcome doesn't really make a personal difference to me.

I was feeling pretty good about being a football genius up until witnessing the Bears' failure to mount the comeback that I expected from in the third quarter. My halftime score forecast was Colts 17, Bears 14 and it would have been correct if it weren't for the missed PAT. But then the rain came down pretty hard, Rex Grossman slipped and stumbled his team's way out of a second-and-one into a fourth-and-infinity, and that was pretty much the game, momentum-wise. I still think my observations that led me to "feel" like a Bears victory was forthcoming are valid... there was just some extraneous data that I neglected to factor into the equation. If the weather had been more Super-Bowl-like, I think that a lot of things would have been different, and in an alternate universe somewhere, I know my prophesied scenario has come to fruition. It's just not the universe I'm inhabiting.

Anyway, I had a good time of it here at home, with my dad and his partner Cay visiting from the Caribbean where they live. We had a lot of good food, amusing conversation and a generally fine time of it. Better to be sitting here in our snowed-in neighborhood than to have spent thousands of dollars to sit in a downpour in Miami. And from all the blurry, water-spotted images I saw throughout the evening, I don't really regret not having an HDTV to watch the game on!

Sunday morning parables

Because of the deep snow and icy conditions, church was cancelled today. So we had worship time at home. Julie led us through the lesson that she had prepared to give for her four-and-five-year-old class. She used materials to illustrate two parables of Jesus, the Mustard Seed and the Pearl.

Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a mustard seed that was planted in a garden and grew into a great tree that hosted the nests of many birds. It started out small, but grew large. It began as something insignificant but eventually provided a home for living creatures. What kind of application can we draw from this comparison?

It's most natural to see Jesus speaking about his own movement, the community that he founded when he called others to join him. Early on, it was obscure and easy to either overlook or dismiss, but eventually, Jesus' following grew large enough to capture the interest of still more people who found something attractive about it, and they joined with him themselves. Perhaps Jesus was also looking ahead, at what this movement would eventually accomplish when it became "the church." Is that what he was thinking of when he spoke of the kingdom of God - a group of people, led and transformed by God's spirit, who would eventually create something resembling a "home" for "birds of the air?" And who are those birds? People converted from a previous way of life, or belief? Are the birds desirable to live in the branches, or are they a nuisance? The mustard seed was planted in a man's garden. Did the man plant it there to attract birds, or for some other purpose?

How about the pearl? This parable is even more intriguing to me. A merchant sought for pearls, found one that was very expensive, and sold everything else he owned in order to pay for it. How odd!

This parable offers itself up for so many interpretations, some quite contradictory of each other. Does the merchant represent us, or God? Are we the pearl that is bought, or is the pearl something else? Is the pearl "salvation" or "relationship with God" or "wisdom" or "enlightenment?" Was the merchant wise or foolish to give up everything in order to get this one small object? What value did/does the great pearl have that makes such a sacrifice even worth contemplating?

The general interpretation is that the great pearl is worthy of the expense, and that the merchant did the right thing. That's because this view fits with other examples where Jesus teaches an uncompromising commitment, dismissing the ordinary in favor of the extraordinary. What does it profit if we gain the whole world but lose our soul? But I think it's always important to consider the full range of possibilities when interpreting parables, even if they don't all fit together harmoniously. There is something unsettling and subversive about this kind of teaching. We must be careful of any tendency to domesticate or conventionalize what Jesus has to say. His words have a way of piercing all of our armor.

My Super Bowl Prediction

After careful consideration, rigorous methodical analysis and the occasional random flip of a coin, I'm letting you all know this: I believe the Chicago Bears will be the new Champions of the NFL after tonight's Super Bowl contest concludes.

There is too much expert opinion tilting the Colts' way for me to think that they are all correct. The Detroit Tigers were the hot team going into last October's World Series, but things didn't go well and they lost to a mediocre Cardinals team that many people thought were fortunate to be there. Nobody's saying that the Bears are a fluke team (they were the #2 seed in the NFC last year, #1 this year) but few outside of their fan-base seem to think they have a place at the top of the mountain. I checked SI.com this morning and every single commentator was going with the Colts. We all know that SI sucks, so consider those picks one nail in Indy's coffin.

There's also the "essence" of the two cities involved... Chicago and Indianapolis as communities, as places where the Lombardi trophy may or may not come to rest. I'm sorry, Indianapolis, but you just don't cut it as a world-class city compared to Chicago. You're just too flat, plain, ordinary... what is it that holds your metropolis together, anyway? No disrespect intended (though I suppose it may be felt anyway) but Indianapolis makes a pretty decent "runner up," in any case.

Chicago teams do a pretty good job of winning championships when they get to this stage of the game. The Bears won their only Super Bowl appearance, the White Sox seized their moment in 2005, and of course there's the Bulls... Indianapolis is in completely uncharted waters, so far over their head that they are scared to touch the bottom.

Peyton Manning is getting all kinds of hype and media-love, and the endorsement deals are all signed and ready to go into effect once the provisional requisite of a Super Bowl winner tag can be linked to his name. But that's not gonna happen. He is Hall of Fame bound and has great years ahead of him, but I don't think he's quite ready to make it to the promised land quite yet. He has to pay more penance, a la John Elway, before he is able to put the capstone in place.

Everybody's been slagging Rex Grossman but they seem to overlook his Florida University connection. The Gators are already holding the NCAA basketball and football titles and it only makes sense that one of their alumni will be hoisting the silver totem on the postgame show tonight. If Trent Dilfer can win the Super Bowl, there's no reason that Rex Grossman can't.

Finally, I just got the feeling. I picked the Patriots to beat the Rams, back when New England was seen as the "someone had to win the AFC" team, with a green, inexperienced Tom Brady at QB. The high-voltage St. Louis offense was supposedly a cinch to overwhelm the Patriots with too many weapons, and as an experienced team that had won the big prize just two seasons earlier, had the edge in handling the pressure too. Well, we all know how that turned out. The Patriots pulled off the upset, Brady earned the MVP with a gut-check drive at the end, and a dynasty was born. I'm not sure about the dynasty part, but bottom line is: Bears 31, Colts 27.

Super Bowl Contest

For the past nine years, I've run this contest where I work. It's a chance for you to make big, bold predictions about who will win the Super Bowl and a lot of other less significant aspects of the game. I'm posting the questions here but that's just for publicity purposes. If you want to play, email me at blakeslee@gmail.com and I'll email you a .doc that you can fill out and send back to me.

Pick a Team (3 points for each correct answer, Bonuses: 4 points, 4/5; 8 points, 5/5)

Winner of coin flip: Bears Colts
First team to score: Bears Colts
Most penalized team: Bears Colts
Leading at half time: Bears Colts
Winner of the game: Bears Colts

Yes or No (4 points for each correct YES, 2 points for each correct NO - Bonuses: 8 points, 6/7; 12 points 7/7)

Will the lead change in the 4th quarter? YES NO
Will points be scored in final 2 minutes? YES NO
Will there be any defensive scoring? YES NO
Will there be any special team scoring? YES NO
Will there be a blocked kick or missed PAT? YES NO
Will more than two QB's appear in the game? YES NO
Will the Colts cover the 6 1/2 point spread? YES NO

The Longest (5 points if within 5 yards, 10 points if you get it EXACTLY)

Longest play from scrimmage:
Longest special teams play:
Longest field goal:

Leaders (3 points if you pick the right guy, plus 5 points to whoever gets the closest on yardage/points)

Leading passer: _____________ yardage: _______
Leading rusher: _____________ yardage: _______
Leading receiver: _____________ yardage: _______
Leading kicker: _____________ points: _______

Numbers (3 points for each correct answer)

Number of interceptions: ______
Number of fumbles (all fumbles, not just turnovers): _____
Number of sacks: ______
Number of lead changes (tie counts as a change): ______
______
MVP
Rank the following players in order of 1-16 re: their likelihood of being named the Super Bowl MVP:

Peyton Manning _____
Reggie Wayne _____
Rex Grossman _____
Muhsin Muhammad _____
Joseph Addai _____
Dallas Clark _____
Thomas Jones _____
Brian Urlacher _____
Dominic Rhodes _____
Adam Vinatieri _____
Cedric Benson _____
Robbie Gould _____
Marvin Harrison _____
Bernard Berrien _____
Other Colt _____
Other Bear _____


If you rank a player as 1 (most likely to win) and they actually do, you earn 16 points. If you rank the eventual winner as 2, you earn 15 and so on.

Scores
Over/under 47½ total points scored in game: Over Under
(8 points for the correct pick)

Score at half time: Bears ________ Colts ______________
(5 points for correctly matching a team’s score. Closest to correctly picking both teams' scores wins 12 points)

Final Score: _________________________________
(10 points to all who exactly match one team's score; Perfect match for both earns 40 points; otherwise, 20 points to whoever comes closest to picking the winner and the final score, in the judgment of the scorekeeper.)

The groundhog got buried in the snow.

Yesterday was the first day this year that I didn't post something new here. I had my chances but it didn't happen. No big deal, there's no rule or commitment that obligates me to do so.

It was a busy day, in any case. I had stuff to do at work that I won't bother describing here, except to say that a fair amount of time was spent preparing for a training that I grew increasingly sure wouldn't be happening on schedule. I was supposed to lead two one-hour sessions on "Avoiding Power Struggles With Younger Children" at a Christian parenting conference today, but a big-time blizzard was on its way that seemed likely to cancel most anything non-essential around here, and that's what's happened. It's very white and blustery outside, and the drifts are piling high. But I still had to be ready "just in case" which is a mixed-mind condition I really don't like being in - I'd rather just focus on it with relative certainty or direct my mental energy to other things that are going on.

But after work, I had to return to the Van Andel Arena for a Cirque de Soleil DELERIUM show. This program only uses half of the arena because the stage runs the length of the place, not the width, so we only had a small crew and our task was to serve pizzas. That meant I had to wear a very goofy looking apron covered with bright red tomatoes. It would have been a great photo to snap, of me, Ray and Joe, three "big fellas" in our festive attire. But overall it was a slow night. I didn't get any chance to see the program, which was fine - I'm not such an enthusiast of that kind of theater, but I was able to watch some of the rehearsal which was interesting. A guy on stilts wielding this very large gavel, a bunch of gesticulating hippies climbing a dome, surrounding a soul-sister on top belting out a song...

At least we were done with everything at a reasonably early hour. I was home by 10 p.m. After rejoining my family, we watched a DVD that I just got called "For All Mankind," an awe-inspiring documentary on the Apollo space program. Unlike other programs such as the excellent "From the Earth to the Moon" series, this was more impressionistic, kind of an anthology of numerous missions, using only film stock shot by NASA and the words of the men who worked on the project - mainly astronauts, but also some of the engineers. We delighted in the images and insights, amazed all over again at their achievement, quietly contemplating what it all means.

Then I went to bed, conscious of the fact that I could have done a blog entry (it wasn't midnight yet) but happily unpertured that my streak was about to be broken.

That settles that!

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sponsored by the United Nations, released a report in Paris today with the headline-generating conclusion that global warming is "very likely" caused by human activity. In this context, "very likely" = something like a 90% probability, as compared with "likely," > 66% and "virtually certain" which implies approx. 99% or so. This is the clearest and most definitive statement yet on this topic, based on broad collaborative efforts from scientists all over the world, and it portends some difficult times ahead for large segments of the human population, depending on just how strong the changes to weather patterns turn out to be.

However, my headline to this post is probably quite premature. My wife works with a guy who, from her reports, seems rather obsessed with wanting to debunk the whole global warming thing as a money-driven hoax. He personalizes it by focusing on guys like Al Gore, writes the thing off as political correctness romping wildly out of control and occasionally introducing theological hints into his arguments, implying that there's something unchristian or unbiblical about taking climate change seriously. She has asked me about information on "both sides" of the debate so that she can make up her own mind and consider the evidence for and against. I helped her find some anti-g.w. websites last night, and noted that pretty much all of them are generated by libertarian and/or oil industry-affiliated groups that clearly have a non-scientific agenda and ideological motivation to resist the findings of studies like the one mentioned above. See ExxonSecrets.org if you want to investigate the linkage for yourself.

We watched An Inconvenient Truth the other night and to me it just seems hard to dismiss the arguments that seem based on common sense, given the numbers of people, the way fossil fuel resources are being dug up and pumped back into the atmosphere and so many other chemical alterations to the environment going on 24/7, year after year, in ways that have never been close to being duplicated on this planet. But some people don't want to be convinced. They get stuck on the "I just don't like Al Gore" angle, or they smugly look at the deep snow drifts piling up outside the window and say "hah, some global warming!" or they adopt some variation on the "it can't happen here" denial. I'm not a doom-sayer, and I'm not even convinced that human ingenuity, government or sheer will-power is able to fix whatever problems might develop, simply because the scale of our activity is so massive and unmanageable by now, and likely to become even more so in decades to come. It just amuses me to some extent at how far some people will go to defend their preconceptions, even as the consensus firms up in ways that ought to provoke them toward some kind of re-evaluation of their biases...