Thanks to Dennis Aubrey of Via Lucis for sharing Heinrich Schutz’s rendering of David’s lament, “My son, Absalom!” in response to “Holy Tears: David, Absalom…and Us” posted here on Views from the Edge this morning.
Verse — Earbud Wires
eaqr bud devices for the hearing impaired
pocketed pursed
tangled
intertwined
a mind of their own
…
like kite string on the ground
like an extension cord snake-pit
…
too short to reel
too short to wind around
elbow & thumb
…
too long to spool
too light to use
as a belt
…
double
redouble
tie in a knot
…
marriage can solve
entanglements
– another piece of genius by a fellow hearing impaired classmate, Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, Illinois. Thanks to Steve’s partner in life, Nadja, for the photograph of the ear buds.
Click During campaign season, maintaining serenity is a good trick to read last Friday’s guest commentary published by MPR. The commentary will also air on All Things Considered, “the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the country”.
A sermon inspired by the personal story of a king who was losing it and his son, Absalom, leading to the larger question of how we define abundance in our time. If you can get by the first minute and have the time – it’s dreadfully long 🙂 it might be of interest. Please let me know your responses to the last part of the sermon re-defining the idea of abundance.
“Good morning, world!” – New-born giraffe
How can you not love a face like this?
Those big eyes. Those big ears. Those things on the head. That Joe E. Brown mouth and smile of a new-born giraffe?
Take 44 seconds to see the giraffe’s likeness in Joe E. Brown – same DNA? -see for yourself the Creator’s great sense of play and humor. God is laughing with us, not at us.
“Someday, I’ll be big too, just like you and Joe E., right Mom?”
Baby and mother giraffes – Antwerp Zoo
Children playing Capture the Flag
Long before I got hooked on Facebook, my childhood friends and I used to play outside until it got dark. Capture the Flag was our favorite game.If you had the flag, your job was to keep it; if you didn’t, your job was to capture it. Only one person had the flag; the rest of us worked together until one of us got it. And when one of us did, the game started over again.
Even if you hadn’t captured the flag that night, you went home knowing that tomorrow you had another chance. Nothing was forever in the game of Capture the Flag.
We were learning how the game of democracy is played. We were learning how to win and how to lose. We were learning the importance of continuing to play the game because no one knew how things would turn out the next night before our Moms called us home at bedtime.
All these years later, we’re playing Capture the Flag on Facebook. Some of us are Democrats. Some are Republicans. Some are Libertarians. Some are Socialists. Some of us are Cynics who’ve decided that the game is stacked and that no matter how hard they try to capture the flag for what they believe in, the same bullies always win.
When we played the game as kids, there was a nearly level playing field. The slowest of us had less of a chance than the fastest, but even the slowest and the smallest had a shot, if we worked together to capture the flag.
It’s not that different now, except that the bullies have money the rest of us don’t have. They’ve also learned how to divert our attention. Well-funded mind-bending scare tactics seek to convince voters that the flag has actually been in our pocket and that we, not they, are losing control of our country if health care reform, action on climate change, and reigning in Wall Street are the results of the November election.
Protest sign: U.S. Chamber of Commerce
It’s time to go out to the backyard and play the game again. Time to stand up together to reign in Wall Street and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and to tell our friends in the Tea Party that deregulated, laissez-faire capitalism will serve only the fittest, not the many. Time to snatch the Stars and Stripes out of the deep pocket of the bullies who paint themselves as America’s last, best hope. No one gets to keep the flag in the United States of America.
Verse – “Dump and Run”
Lisa Heller lost a ring.
Dumpsters came to be her thing!
She taught students at her school
Making trash just wasn’t cool.
…
Donate stuff that still has use;
Reduce trash, avoid abuse
To the earth. Take your measure:
Turn the trash into treasure!
…
Lisa started Dump and Run.
College students have great fun
Giving, sharing–have a sale!
Find a bargain, make a deal!
…
Help a group that helps the world,
Buy recycled things you need.
Like you avoid INfluenza,
You can stamp out AFFluenza!
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, pays tribute to “Dump and Run”.
Dumping and running at the landfill
At the end of the academic year, University of Illinois students drop off the “stuff” that might end up in the landfill to the University YMCA to be recycled by other students.
Former Executive Director of the University YMCA and Pastor of McKinley Presbyterian Church at the University of Illinois, Steve continues to host “Keepin’ the Faith” on Illinois Public Radio every Sunday evening at 5:00 CST.
Yesterday Unedited Politics re-posted this video of a would-be president.
It led me to this post of the President Obama handling a heckling reporter at the White House.
Now that you’ve seen them, notice the difference in the summary headings over the two videos. “Mitt Romney heckled by.…” focuses only the heckler, not on the candidate’s response. It evokes sympathy for Mr. Romney. “President scolds reporter….” elicits sympathy for the heckler. Language frames perception.
But the video-tapes tell a different story, no matter what the words say. The tapes tell the story of the character and style of Mr. Romney and the President and the way they handle a rude opponent.
How do you describe the difference? What qualities of character and style do you want in the Oval Office next January? Leave your comment here.
Remember this?
George W. Bush – battleship USS Abraham Lincoln: “Mission Accomplished!”
Now we have copycats:
Romney, Ryan, and the U.S.S. Wisconsin
But we will always have this:
This hour of history – The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Take your pick.
“Romney announced his selection in dramatic fashion Saturday morning, with each
man stepping down the deck of the USS Wisconsin — a World War II-era battle ship
named for Ryan’s home state — to the soundtrack of the movie ‘Air Force One.’
– Washington Post
Romney, Ryan, and the U.S.S. Wisconsin
World War II? A battleship? Doesn’t that say it all? “Air Force One” – a film about a President who defeats a terrorist (Obama, perhaps?). Makes a grown man want to cry!
Views from the Edge 