Monthly Archives: January 2016

Verse – Brothers

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tuhmb_refugee

Steve Shoemaker

Our parents clearly could control our births:
Each one of us born three and a half years
After the other–boys, four boys… Our baths
Could hold two squirrelly kids, but always tears
Would start to stream, if three or more. Now all
Of us at sixty-two to seventy-three
Swim in our own oceans at home, but still
Can shower at the beach house by the sea
In our own room. Our ten grand-kids will scream
As they run up and down the halls, fly kites,
Stomp through the castles in the sand, and dream
Of being oldest, strongest–win the fights
That always happen when the cousins dart
Around–all born three or four years apart.

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Jan. 31, 2016

NOTE: Steve and his his brothers are together this weekend in Urbana, still three and a half years apart! But very much together.

Elizabeth Warren Speaks

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As presidential candidates scramble to win Iowa, Senator Elizabeth Warren, in this opinion piece in the New York Times, reminds voters why the choice is so important.

Click “For whom does the government work? Presidents decide.”

Protected and Secured?

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You receive a mailing. Snail mail. Addressed to you. It looks official.

The upper left hand corner reads:

PROTECTED AND SECURED
PER CURIUM DOCUMENT ENCLOSED
RECEIPT MUST BE AUTHENTICATED

You open the envelope. The letterhead – with a picture of the U.S. Capitol dome – reads:

United States
Investigative Unit

OMG, you’re being investigated by the United States Federal Government!

You’re 80 years old and scared. You call a friend who knows something about the law. The friend is not scared. He looks at the bottom of the stationery which reads in small light colored font:

 

Project of Policy Issues Institute. Not affiliated with the federal government
5405 Alton Pkwy, Suite 5A #369 Irvine CA 92604
http://www.policyissuesinstitute.com (202) 558-6491

The enclosed letter and URGENT RESPONSE form asking for money “to support the fight to impeach Barack Obama” is to be returned to a different address:

UNITED STATES INVESTIGATIVE UNIT, a
Project of PII, P.O. Box 96444,
Washington, D.C. 20090-6444

Your friend assures you this is a hoax. He does a google search. He finds a blog that exposes the details of the work of the Policy Issues Institute.

To be PROTECTED AND SECURED against the United States Investigative Unit, click Drowning in Junk Mail – How to Opt-out of Junk Mail from Policy Issues Institute (PII) and to learn more about the meaning of sinister.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, Jan. 29, 2016

 

 

 

 

Loving, Obituary Humor

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Nick Harris“Multi-talented and always interested in mechanics and construction, Nick continually renovated the house at Olson Gulch. He was especially interested in various heating methods and experimented with solar, waste oil burners and various wood-based fuels. Unfortunately, he didn’t leave the instruction manual.

“After graduating from high school and spending some time in college, Nick joined the Army in 1953 and was stationed in South Korea. Nick never said much about the two years he spent serving his country, except to say that he was cold the whole time, the kimchee smelled terrible and the water was unusable!” 

A construction and ironworker, Nick “started at the Anaconda Job Corps in 1983, as a maintenance mechanic where he enjoyed working with the staff and students until his retirement in 1995.”

– Excerpts from the Montana Standard obituary published January 26, 2016.

Allyn “Nick” Harris, 82, of Anaconda passed away surrounded by family on Jan. 25, 2016. 

Nick was a “mainstay” at St. Timothy’s Memorial Chapel, the summer chapel overlooking Georgetown Lake. Blessings and peace to the experimenter’s wife, Lois, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN who shares Nick’s love for St. Timothy’s Memorial Chapel and its people, January 29, 2016.

 

 

Mr. Bluster and Mr. Trump

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Those who grew up on the Howdy Doody Show will recognize that Mr. Bluster is at it again tonight in DesMoines, Iowa. The only things missing are Buffalo Bob and FOX.

The Story of Ed

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Click The End of Exile to read the story of Ed, the beloved Jewish atheist communist in the assisted living facility. The story is memorable, especially for those losing their memories.

Quote Me: More than Words

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“The characteristic place to find Christians is among their enemies. The first place to look for Christ is in Hell.” – William Stringfellow (1928–1985), author, My People Is the Enemy.

WIPFSTOCK_TemplateThese aren’t just words. After Harvard Law School, Constitutional attorney Bill Stringfellow moved into an East Harlem tenement apartment on the block the New York Times then called the “worst” in the city, turning down lucrative NYC corporate law firm job offers. The first of his many books, My People Is the Enemy – a theological reflection on racism and poverty in America- opens with an unusual sentence:

“The stairway smelled of piss.”

All these years later, Stringfellow’s words sound strange to many Christians and non-Christians alike who see the Christian life as the search for moral purity and the climb into a Hell-free afterlife. You want to meet Christ? According to the author of An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land, Christ will meet you from among your enemies and in the Hell of human suffering racism and wealth create.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, January 27, 2016

I’m hearing voices in my head

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This original composition by Momoh Freeman is inspired by Momoh’s fellow Liberian refugee who lost his entire family. Scroll down for what the lyrics and what inspired the song.

“It was the morning of August, 1995 in Liberia when my friend went out to look for some food for him and his family. When he got back, he met the bodies of his family laying there. They were killed by the rebels. He moved to the U.S. in 1997 still carrying the pain and suffering he saw that day. One day he called me and asked me if I could come visit him at the Mental Institution. I said yes. So I went there. He told me what was going on and that he hears voices in his head and all this stuff, so I wrote a song about it. Hope you like it and thanks for watching.” – Momoh Freeman

Lyrics (copyrighted)

V1. I’m hearing voices in my head.
They are telling me I’m not good enough.
I asked myself what’s going on…… I think my
mind is playing tricks on me… can it be I’m going
crazy…? don’t want to go near insanty.

Bridge: If I loose my mind, where does that leave me
will I be a shell of what I used to be?
send down the rain, and wash away my fear
send down the rain and set me free

V2. I don’t think that I can take this alone
I need some help from above
I can hear them getting louder
and these voices are driving me crazy.

V3. What can I do to get these voices out of my head
I can’t sleep, as if monsters under my bed….
I need some help to get me through the night…
what can I do not to be afraid anymore…..

PERSONAL NOTE:

Momoh’s works in a group home for mentally-challenged adults, serves as Music Director at Immanuel Lutheran Church in North Branch, MN, and performs in various venues on weekends.

Momoh and I served Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska for eight years. He defines for me “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” In his voiced response to his friend’s voices, I hear God. Thank you, Momoh, for the privilege.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, January 26, 2016

 

Not Lemonade

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“When life gives you lemons… make something else. Tell us about a time you used an object or resolved a tricky situation in an unorthodox way.” – Not Lemonade

The invitation brought to mind an altogether different memory. It’s unorthodox, but not what the Daily Post had in mind.

The memory is “Lemonade-on-the-Lawn” at Knox Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati. During the summer months worshipers gathered on the church lawn at the corner of Observatory and Michigan for conversation over lemonade.

Visitors frequently misunderstood the pulpit announcements to be an invitation to eliminate on the lawn. They were relieved to learn about the lemonade.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, former Pastor, Knox Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, January 26, 2016.

 

 

 

Spell check chuckle

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Kosuke Koyama, Ph.D

Kosuke Koyama, Ph.D

Was the professor’s career distinguished or disguised?

Last night’s post stated that Kosuke Koyama had “a disguised career as John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Professor of World Christianity at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.”

The distinguished professor would get a chuckle.

Thanks to Carolyn Kidder (no pun intended) who had a disguised career as a music librarian at the University of Pennsylvania, for arresting the spell check error in the fourth paragraph.

  • Gordon, Chaska, MN, Ja. 26, 2016