Bells and Cellos and French Horns

The Sun Lakes Handbell Choir did some beautiful hymns today, expecially on the Welsh tune Ash Grove.

The theme of native folk music was expanded in the afternoon Chandler Symphony Concert featuring Gustave Mahler Symphony #1 in D. This in addition to a Saint Seans Cello movement with a very talented musician.

I am not an expert in classical music but I enjoy the exposure to different pieces from that magical period when instumental music hit its peak.

On our way to another piano concert this evening along with a delicious meal prepared by the phase one restaurant.

I really do, unfortunately miss alot by the competing sound of tinnitus ringing in my ears. I am so glad that music masks the problem to a good degree.

On the playing of musical instruments

This young man mastered classical guitar while being home schooled and just decided not to become a professional musician in favor of keeping it fun and a hobby. I agreed but was inspired with his skill and memorization discipline.

I learned the Tonette in 3rd grade, my folks bought me a trumpet in fourth grade with I played through the ninth grade including a year in marching band. I wish I had kept playing in the band in high school, but that ended my instrumental playing for twenty years until I bought a guitar which I still play and got into my Irish whistle phase in 2006.

I purchased a flute for my daughter when she was in sixth grade which she played quite well through high school, when she lost interest and it went up on the shelf.
I rescued it a year ago and learned to get a tone, play a scale, practice simple hymns.

Today I drove to Milano's Music, fought my way through Western Days exhibits and picked up that flute with was cleaned, repaded, and generally repaired. It is twenty years old but I was told it is a solid student flute.

The joy of playing guitar and flute for myself and not with perfection answers a deep need in me to make music. My love for the tones of the flute, for sharps and flats, and the expense of the refurbishing mean that my two valuable whistles with be going up for sale soon.

I've grown accustomed to her face

While I hit the links with friends my wife hit the Mall and scored some shoes and clothes and generally enjoyed herself, then the grand kids spent an unexpected evening with us while parents attended a business function.

A family day is a precious day, and this picture of my wife way back in college reminds me how great a life companion is, and all the life that flows from love.

11/11/11

Some serious bubble gum action at the Elvis Party last week.

Nov. 11,11 I like it,I am sure I will feel the same when I wake up. My dear wife gets a day off, and I hope to hit the links even though the weather is a bit iffy.

I am surrounded by healthy active 80 year olds, and I like it, and hope longevity is catching.

Speaking of eleven, I am heading toward the eleventh anniversary of my first heart attack, the one that I did not recognize until I lived with it for seven hours, and the one that did the most damage because of my stubbornness. I thank God for the time I have had since then, and for the strong heart beat, really low pulse, great blood pressure readings and great health I am enjoying after more than a decade.

Jury pool #13 passed by again

A stutue of a family outside the Maricopa County Circuit Court in downtown Phoenix, naked as jaybirds it seems.

I have been answering jury summons for 35 years, and have never been chosen to serve on a jury except a week on a grand jury in the late 70s.

They look for a jury of their peers and one lawyer or another decides that a minister is not a good peer. I make all the cuts right up until we introduce ourselves and say what we do, and boom, I am otta there!

I have no other reason except to admit, I have no peers?!!!! I am peerless!!!!

Paul, sublime and absurd at times

Gun Turrent, USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor Hawaii

I have always loved the Pauline epistles, some of the explanations of the Gospel are so wonderful and the insights so perfect that I marvel, and then some things he says just grate against my sensibilities and I see him as a semi reformed pharasee trying to legislate against the freedoms of the new covenant he defends and explained so well.

I am rereading Scott McKnights book on Bible reading and discernment and find myself really valuing his advice of reading the bible as a story and seeing the context of each book and its author, Isaiah's way for Isaiahs days, thus even Paul can be caught in a cultural dynamic that no longer exists. The perpetual inferiority of women and the silence passages are the point at which he has changed his thinking and so have I, thank God. Men are saved by faith, women by childbirth????? What?????

Convincing a person who grew up with a flat and strict literal understanding, along with the usual convenience of ignoring your own uncomfortable passages and enforcing those you life, make the job of Bible exposition a challenge.

New and Old

For years the former quansite hut served as the worship home of Grace Community Church, as we grew we could squeeze 130 in, and then we went to two services. It was then that I realize that my sermon would change with the audience response and my sensitivity to the leading of the Spirit.

For a while I was troubled that I was not able to stay and watch the city reach its goals, but as I look back it was as it should have been, and my health issues have been better served where I am.

Today I write at the Gym, having finished 30 minutes of aerobic heart exercise and 30 minutes of weights and stretching. Glad I get to concentrate of making my body the dwelling place of God and not about bricks and mortgages.