I shared a platform with Patsy Ramsey Once

I watched the 20 year reinvestigation of the Jon Benet Ramsey Death with great interest the last two nights. We may never know but the recreation and reexamination of the original case and the subsequent foul ups made for a fascinating TV event.

I found myself agreeing with the plausibility of their conclusion of an accidental death by the son's hand, and a deliberate cover up by the family.

Before Patsy Ramsey died of Cancer, she attended and spoke at the funeral of one of her suitemates at the cancer treatment center who had died and had her mother plan the service and invite me to officiate.

I did not know until I showed up that Patsy Ramsey was there. Something about her fame and notoriety made her seem larger than life, and her tribute to her friend was powerful, poised, and genuine. I remember thinking that this woman could not have killed her daughter.  Her Christian faith was very evident in her presentation and of course you could tell that she had endured much scrutiny and much anxiety about her own life since the loss of her daughter and through the battle with cancer.

Laura and I enjoyed a powerful movie last weekend, The Light between Oceans, about a man of principle and integrity who gave in to the passion and love he had for his wife, and committed a crime. Know what I know now, this successful attempt to protect their son and disrupt the search for the truth was wrong, and just like in the movie, they all paid a price for their errors, if indeed this is the correct conclusion.  It was for me an interesting opportunity to share a closer look at a headline that became a real person to me that weekend.

40 years passes quickly

Rainbow on the morning walk in Kauai.

We are enjoying pictures of Laura's class of 1975 reunion at our common Alma Mater, now Belhaven University. We enjoyed hearing about life journey stories from many in the weeks leading up to the weekend and from the pictures it looks like those who went had a great time catching up, seeing some retired teachers and observing the robust present of this growing educational campus.

I kind of snatched Laura the previous January for our wedding and the end of my youth work year in Alabama so this class was the year she finished her elementary degree and did some student teaching while she lived with me across town at Seminary, so we were not quite connected enough to feel the same as many, though some of them were dear friends from Laura's Junior year.

Anyhow, since this blog was started in 2008 after my 35th anniversary of my High School Class of 68 I find myself reflecting on how long and how short the fourty years of our active life and career really are.

When your living through those years it seems ardous, but after you reach the end you look back with a feeling of swiftness. Where did the time go. You have so many memories and joys and life experiences, but it still seems so fleeting.

Four seasons in a year, four decades in an adult life, and of course we all plan for long retirements. Life is to be cherished.

Fit Bit Update

This is one of my earliest and most favorite of my dating picture of Laura.

This fitness tracker has been very fun for the first week and you get a summary email each week showing your activity. i walked 23 miles last week.
I have started using the food tracker which integrates quite well.

Joy and Thankfulness

I visited an elderly friend today to talk about her sister's memorial. She showed me a picture of her husband the way he looked the week he first entered a room and asked her to dance. The love and desire and life in her eyes took me back to those giddy post war days when the men came home to find wives. For her it was love at first sight.

I see the photos of children, grandchildren and now great grandchildren and know it all started with, Hi, my name is ...... and I would be honored if you would dance with me over sixty years ago.

My Dad was a recliner

Even after Mom and Dad got Lazy Boys, Dad would continue to watch TV lying on the floor on his elbow just like the above picnic photo. His ability to do that for so long always amazed me.

I am grateful for this photo and for memories of my parents and kids growing up. I noticed a malfunction in my small Canon camera this weekend, the sliding open and close lid is not opening. This is not a good sign for these cameras so I am headed to the repair shop to see if it can be fixed.

1964 and 1969 on my mind

The was a Worlds Fair Shot

My family left New York State for Alabama in 1961, a real culture shock, and went back to visit the New York Worlds Fair in the summer of 64 which was the setting for the scene from Tomorrowland, of Its a Small World, which was the Unicef contribution to that expo. I still remember the 14 year old me trying to hurry my family up, which is what I still do in parks. Laura and her Mom were there that same summer and we wonder if my 14 year old self may have passed her 11 year old self on a walkway somewhere.

I still remember the NY State pavilion with its two tiered platform way up high, and the shock of seeing its rotting rusting hull last summer when we drove from JFK to Manhattan.

Then this morning I saw that the couple huddling under a wet blanket for the album version of Woodstock are still together after 46 years. Wow, and in my mind how much our world changed from 64 to 68 as Vietnam soured the nation and its youth and the election riots showed what would be the beginning of cultural divisions in our modern world that rage today.

An Oops! Farewell to my beloved 17" Compaq

Matthew found my pipe about the same year I got into computers. The pipe smoking was never long lived, just a toy from my school days.

Phone rings while plugged to my backup digital drive. I get up with laptop and forget the short cord to the appliance, down it crashes and catches the corner of the screen....one dead screen and one dead computer. It was old and had some other wear and tear, but I kept it to watch pictures and do some odd work when wifey was using the Toshiba. Sad for me.

Now that we have projector teaching in both our Bible Study room and in our Sanctuary I am in need of a back up or primary machine to drive the projection system. Best Buy here I come.

I know in some future era people with laugh at the quaint way we handled information, but by golly I love what computers have done for my work and thought life. Losing an old workhorse is like losing a really good tool, you hate to replace it, and hope the new one works as well, but time marches on. I still have fond memories of my first local assembled IBM XT with no memory and one floppy drive. Bought it as a local store when computers first became affordable for me, ie. under $2000. That was 1983 and what fun we and her long line of replacements have enjoyed.

Anniversary Memories

Thanks Cheri, Kathy, Carlen, Lieshen for making the day special. It was a cold and rainy day, the groomsmens and grooms tuxes fit poorly, the duet for our music turned into a solo when one of the singers forgot the day,I was stuck in a stuffy book moldy closet with Pastor Scneider while we waited for the special music to show up..... but all the beautiful memories remain shining above the little boo boos. Laura said yes, Don said yes, and we are still saying Good night and good morning four decades later, and it's good. Oh yeah, one of my cousin in laws discharged a rifle in a crowded after party at Laura's home. No one was injured, but what a memory.

The Flatiron Building

Circa winter 1903, summer 2014

For some reason the Madison Square Park area and the Flatiron Building completely won my heart last summer vacation. It was all so pleasant to see this building and its history amidst the relaxed joy of an active park full of dogs and people enjoying the perfect summer weather.

Chest Cold Blues

Blast from the past.

First cold of the season. Chest racking with pain from coughing, feeling poorly. Resting.

35th Anniversary Banquet

We are a relatively young,old church. By that I mean from day one we were old, as in reaching a retirement community. But 35 is relatively young for a church. They have had five pastors who stayed from four to seven years, and me who is going on 12 years. I was a young pastor to the old folks when I came here at 53, now I am an aging pastor to old people. Confused yet? I am.

The amazing thing is that we had some charter members who have been here the whole 35 years, meaning they were old when the church was young and now they are very old and have been here from the beginning 35 years ago, which means they have been retired for 35 plus years. Amazing.

It was a good time of remembrance and music.

The Crowning of the Year

I enjoy November and December. Not going crazy with it, but just letting it be the crowning of the year with celebratio

ns.

My Aunts and Uncles in decades past. We always tried to have a big Thanksgiving get together when we were young, sometimes Christmas. Good memories.

13 Years Later

Thirteen has always been a special day for me, having been born on July 13. I was 13 when Kennedy was assassinated, and I realized the world had evil intentions on our freedom.

Seeing the site and the museum in NYC this summer was such a moving experience for Laura and Shannon and Brian and me. It has been so powerfully transformed from rubble to a memorial of powerful images and intent that brings that area back to life and still preserves the site for the families that mourn their loved ones there.

I shall quietly reflect and pray and trust that the ideology that creates revenge and scapegoating with end.

Bewey Bowden- a lady of influence

Mrs. Bewey is celebrating a birthday and reminiscing about life, health, and grammar on her facebook page. I took speech from her at College and then had her classes on polishing preachers to speak at Seminary. She will never know how encouraging it was to hear her tell me I had speaking gifts that senior year.

She was a catalogue model, an elegant dresser, a lady of taste and manners with a lilting southern accent and a strong silky voice. Many many years of teaching as a passion. A faithful wife, church member, and who knew, an artist of incredible accomplishment whose style and colors are perfect for any home.

Happy Birthday Bewey, one of my favorite teachers and mentors.

Hawaii braces for storms

Theres no place to hide on an island. O, I love those trees and forests and hope they are not damaged. Still remember that during Hurrican Iniki they clocked the winds at 245 mph up on the Napali coast just before the wind measuring instrument blew into the sea. Lots of damage from that one in the early 90s.

To the Moon

Laura in Central Park.

My evening watching the moon landing forty five years ago this week was unique, a small black and white TV out on a porch surrounded by 150 young campers. I had Tommy Pittman in my lap, the camp's cutest kid, and we all stayed up late for that historic event. It was my first full time ministry, being a counselor and swim and canoe instructor at Camp Alpine.

The next year I was a counselor at a retreat for high school kids and made friends with two teens named Beth. I remember encouraging them to follow the Lord and it became clear over the next years that one Beth did and the other did not. Just last week the faithful Beth found my name on Facebook and thanked me for helping her so long ago as a searching teenager. Now that is personally joyful to me.

I am convinced that any degree of holiness we achieve and practice is a gift from God for our own benefit in this life, and not some sort of way of earning points for heaven. Beth told me the other Beth had experienced a difficult life of relationships. Very sad.

It was so neat to see the teenager in the grandmother I saw in her pictures on Facebook. Life is a journey of faith and trust.

A one bathroom family

This is a replica of part of Lady Liberties robe, which shows how it was put together. I was very surprised to find out that the thinkness of the copper on the Statue of Liberty is about two pennies thick, She stands the wind and weather with the inner structure that allows it to move with the storms and not fall apart. A marvel at the time.

When we lived in Troy Alabama for four years during my elementary and junior high years, our family of five at the time shared one bathroom.
I know many were raised this way, but when two bath homes became the norm it really made living under the same roof greatly improved.

I remember being on boths sides of the door banging and begging for the person inside to finish their business and free up the facility. Part of the memories of growing up.

Its a wedding weekend for some dear friends whose grandaughter has grown up and found her soulmate. Fun to be part of an extended family when they are celebrating.

A birthday weekend for me. Grateful to be 64. Definitely playing the back nine of life.

Remembering Dad

My father built transportation cubicles out of aluminum. Truck Bodies, a new light weight and malleable metal that has changed our world. This industry provided us a modest living, and moved us around the country while we were growing up.

It kept Dad busy, often traveling, and we all saw that he was doing the best he could. The 10 plus years of retirement on their social security provided more time for us to enjoy each other.

Dad loved sharing coffee with friends at local restaurants, eventually McDonalds became his morning haunt. He loved laughing at TV comedies, loved having something to do each day. He never understood my world, but deeply was moved when he saw me teach and lead.
He served in the war honorably, worked hard and long, stayed loving and faithful to mom, kept trying to earn money long after retirement with paper routes, and was a loving, quiet, pleasant friend to countless people. I remember Dad on Fathers Day.

Just a few still standing

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection.

As I rise to preach today, there will be a few WWII veterans in the building. For a war that ended 70 years ago that is really saying something about the longetivity of my congregation. Bob turned 90 this week, and saw some of the most violent action in the Pacific as a machine gunner. He still has vivid memories of those war years, as do all who were amazed that they lived through it.

I am a baby boomer, one of the vast multitude of kids born after that war, to parents determined to create a free and better life for their families after all they had seen and done.

I saw Krushchev? pound his shoe on the desk and declare he would bury the west.

I lived through the nuclear threats of Communist Cuba.

I schooled myself under the threat of an Asian war calling my own generation to a hopeless conflict, it changed us all.

I rejoiced over the collapse of the Soviet Union.

I watched the rise of militant Islam.

I am watching the dream of a Soviet union trying to rise from the ashes.

War, what is it good for? My counter culture generation said, absolutely nothing.

An older me sees that some were necessary, all are costly. God bless the memory of our war dead.

The loss of identity

Grandma Kennedy and Aunt Wilma standing in our side yard in Oneonta NY. One day I crawled into the middle of this tree and climbed most of the way to the top, pushed through and slid down the branchs to the ground. Crazy but true. I was scratched and scratchy and smelled like pine tar and I loved it and I remember it. I was nine years old.

Memory is identity. When you have no memories you are not living with a sense of who you are, you are existing. The very sad testimony of the men and women in my community who are care giving spouses with memory loss brings this truth to my heart almost every week.

I see the caregiver practicing the part of the wedding vow that many choose to ignore. For better, or worse. The worse has happened and your loved one does not know how to communicate, has no resevoir of shared experience they can call on, forgets to dress, and eat and plan for the day, yet their bodies are not near death. They go on day after day and month after year. Unthinkable loss of quality of life.

That's why we write our histories so others will know what happened, what we experienced. That is why we store our most precious and happy memories to bring back to fill idle moments and create joy in our life again. God remembers, and so do those made in Him image.

I was not alive for my fathers war, but the pictures and stories and movie recreations made it alive in as many ways as possible.
I cannot have every experience or see every place on this planet, but the words and pictures around me can give me a sense of Ireland, or Italy, or the north pole, which is not on my bucket list.

Memory is life and meaning, practice them, keep them, learn from them.