Double Ending

I have been watching the steel beam contruction at our local regional hospital with interest this last several weeks.

When I moved to Jackson Mississippi in 1965 I attended a local High School for the 65-66 school year, my tenth grade. They build a new school way out north that year, which became my School for the last two years till I graduated in 68. There was a nice Presbyterian Church in the area I enjoyed attending on occasion.

Over the decades the area became increasingly integrated and experienced white flight, which is a phenomenon that will never stop because people in the south really struggle with equality.

The church sold its building to a black congregation over twenty years ago, and my High School is 90 percent Afro-american
The once open halls are now series of locked doors and it looks more like a prison than a high school with guards in the halls.

Last week the little church closed its second building, apparently the area they moved to also has experienced a continuing white flight and it could not sustain its viability. Jackson is a city that survives with surrounding mostly white suburbs and towns with a core that is struggling to survive.

The cultural, racial, educational and economic issues surrounding integration are still alive and well in the south. Which is why I left when I had the opportunity.

From time to time the issue of the homogeneous unit principle resurfaces. The fact that people just like to be around people that are like them in dress, status and racial affiliation seems to be true, even after so many years of integration. The church in the south has fought the changes the hardest and longest, and somehow, it seems they are behind the curve on this issue.

Living in the moment, but it's Monday again

It's like a rewind, my life, a hill climbed, a climb...ax, and I awake to start again. But its always now, and always something different happens that spices the week.

Saturday I actually put a yard of rocks in my van to finish the other side of our house that has been denuded of bushes.
Very dusty even though I used a drop cloth.

Worth the wait

For almost a year I have enjoyed the swiss style recliner with the separate leg stool, but it just is not like a recliner, so yesterday, Laura and I both found we we like on sale at Ethan Allen, so, after a long wait, hummmm, of some 30 years, I am getting a leather recliner for my reading and occasional relaxing pleasure. Its called the Paloma, plenty of headrest, no visible levers, which Laura never liked, three positions that lock, closed, reading, full reclining. Not too small, not to big to fit in our bedroom or the study, depending on if the cat leaves it along.

Dualism influenced the Christian Mind

I have ways had interest in simplifying this concept because it really needs to have less influence in American evangelicalism. As I understand it, dualism overemphasized the effects of the fall and declares the world to be completely evil, a place ruled by the Devil who has an equal claim upon it.

The world is evil, people are evil, God has no stake in this planet, only in heaven.

Here's hoping I can shed some light in my own understanding.

Laura gave me an early birthday present, Ethan Allen had leather recliners on sale and we bought one we both liked after I saw it and sat in it at the Ethan Allen Store. The picture above shoes one of our first purchases as newlyweds, Ethan Allen side tables.

Windy Golf

We were playing in gusts that kept me from wearing a hat, ferocious, but still fun because the company was good and the temperature quite nice.

A facebook reconnection with one of Laura's friends from college whose family was greatly affected by hard political struggles in the Phillipines back in the 70s. I remember her father in the military was wounded in a riot. She stayed here in America and raised a family of four.

Took friends to a Chinese Restaurant and we met the owner who has run it for 25 years and had the same chef for 24 years, and the food and ambiance were evident. Delicious.

Farewell Phyllis

67 years of marriage, to a successful businessman, who kept the home fires going and raised three boys, became a mother and grandmother to all around her, with a quiet simple faith. She traveled much, often flying beside her husband in small aircraft, hiked many trails and enjoyed many places around the world.

There theme song would be one for all of us to echo. "Count your many Blessings".

My Laura during one of those amazing pregnancies.

My second season

Liberty is precious and life is full.

The nature of our community is interesting in that many folks who retire here maintain residence in other states, or own summer homes in nicer climates.

May through September we operate on a limited schedule of Sunday worship. In our church culture of constant activity this may seem strange, but its a flow that I have come to accept and enjoy. Seniors really do need to pace themselves, and to invest time in extended family, and yes, even retired folks take vacations.

For me it is a chance to do just the same thing, change gears, see family, travel a bit, enjoy Laura at home for six too quickly passing weeks. In the life of the spirit and mind, I can respond to the directions I have sensed in my studies and spiritual life to uncover different stones, recover better practices, discover new ways of thinking. I am thankful for this second season.

Someone wrote this morning about the uniqueness of our thoughts about God. They are, at their worst or best, only our thoughts. God in reality is probably better than our best thoughts, but the joy of thinking about God is the joy of being in a spiritual relationship with Him.

I listen to all the shocking things that go on in this broken world, I do my best to be informed and to form opinions, but my thoughts about God do more to shape my future and my hope than any other life practice. I rejoice in His power and goodness and the ways in which He is going about reconciling this world to Himself through Christ.