Cousins in Chicago

Owen, Jonah and I have one thing in common: we love our cousins.

My cousin Norman's wedding (see below) was an opportunity for me to get back together with family, including my cousin, Donnie. When Owen & Jonah heard that my sister would be there with her kids, they signed up immediately. Ellie & Jenny stayed home.

I left early Saturday morning (5:15) and drove straight to Chicago. I desperately wanted to show the boys the Field Museum and take in the natural history and dinosaur exhibits there. The trip took us a total of seven hours, giving us 2 1/2 hours to explore. It was so much fun: we viewed artifacts of Ancient Egypt, all the stuffed and posed animals (including passenger pigeons, which I had never seen before). The museum staff practically had to drag us away from there.

The highlight came that night when we saw my nephews, Jacob and Joshie. Jo-Jo and Joshie's birthdays are just a few weeks away, so we had a birthday party with lots of gifts. The boys swam in the hotel pool and later played in our hotel room until midnight. It was a party!!

We stayed in South Bend, Indiana. The next day we drove up to Berrien Springs, Michigan, to see my cousin Norman get married. We got back home near midnight Sunday--the night before the first day of school! (Yes, it may have seemed foolish, but there are three men in my family who think it was worthwhile, just for the chance to hang out with cousins that we love!)

Of course, I was very happy to see my own cousin, Donnie. He lives just three hours away, but we only get to see each other every other year or so, so it's always good to see him. I'll include a picture of him and my sister as well.

Honoring an Awesome Cousin--an Awesome Man/Husband

It's been way too long since I've posted on this blog. I hope I still have readers. I'm back from my cousin Norman McNulty's wedding at Andrews University in Michigan. I need to post at least one picture of the handsome groom, and his lovely bride, Joelle.

Norman is six years younger than me (I was thirteen years ahead of him in the marriage department). He's the first of my cousins that I can honestly remember growing up from cradle onward.

Norman & I bonded when he was in kindergarten and elementary school. My cousins and I loved sports, and Norman and I were always on the same team, whether it be football, baseball (in Grandma's garden), or basketball. I, the oldest, and Norman, the youngest of the first four boys, played against Donnie and Stephen.

It would take a book to relate all the Norman Stories of those years. He didn't act like the littlest. He was hyper-competitive. He cared more about winning than the rest of us, and he ended up hitting his first home run over Grandma's ivy-covered wall at the age of six. Like me, he loved Pete Rose--although he later abandoned the Reds for the Chicago Cubs. This, I believe, was the beginning of Norman's long fall from grace--into a top academy and college student, a passionate and well-spoken Christian leader, and, sadly, an MD. (He is currently in residency for neurology.)

Norm, if you'd stayed a Reds fan, you could have been somebody!

Last weekend, Norman married the love of his life, the former Joelle Darmsteegt. What can I say about Joelle? She's beautiful, thoughtful, and she has made my beloved cousin tremendously happy. Other than that.... There is no other than that at this point. I am really happy for them both.

Congratulations, Norman & Joelle!!

Theological, Triune Elinor

Ellie and Owen went to vacation bible school at the Highland Church this week. (This is the church that thought that the up-tempo VBS music was inappropriate for the Sanctuary, so they have to have it in the school gymnasium, 1/4-mile away.)

Anyway, they learned this beautiful, beautiful song based on the Hebrew shalma (Deuteronomy 6:4):

"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One."

As Ellie was singing it one night, I pointed out, "Now that is a really Jewish idea. Christians believe in the Trinity--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost who act as one. Jews and Muslims like to claim that Christians worship three gods. We don't read that text in the same way Jews do."

Ellie thought about that for a minute. Then she started singing: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is Three."

New Web Site for Jenny's Clinic

The summer is almost over, and I'm trying to wrap up my many goals for the summer.

My sixth draft of my Egypt novel is in the books. It is now entitled Nile Borne: a Girl, a Sandal, and the Prince of Egypt. I've sent out five queries to agents already--and, I'm happy to say, I received my first "No thanks" this morning. Glad I got that out of the way.

I also set up a web site for Jenny's clinic. The address is HopeFamilyHealth.org, and you are welcome to check it out. I particularly recommend the picture on the "Meet Our Staff" page, because it has a beautiful woman in it.

More Evil...Personified

I had some excellent responses to my last blog. I was going to follow up in the comments, but I think it merits a new blog. If you haven't read the earlier post, be sure to go there first.

I'm not going to try to ignore sections of the Bible. I'm growing as a Believer, and this blog was more of a reflection of my personal growth and understanding of temptation.

For example, when I read the story of Jesus in the desert, I'm drawn by the nature of the temptations, rather than the case for or against the Tempter. Here's a dynamic man with tremendous potential for good (and evil--let's face it), being tempted to satiate his appetite, his need for celebrity/notoriety, or outright power.

Now I'm not going to point at the Bible and say, "The temptations were real, but there wasn't actually a being who said that to Him." But I am tempted by those same things--and I haven't had Lucifer present them to me.

For example, I have seen a powerful extra-biblical rendering of the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane in which the Devil appeared to Christ. His final temptation was to simply offer him a way out of the garden, away from the soldiers. I found this rendering compelling, because it gave me a new sense of just how difficult this was (and I later wrote a manuscript that incorporated the arguments of Job into the context of Gethsemane because of this very, extra-biblical scene).

Was Jesus tempted in this way that night? Almost certainly. Was it delivered by an otherworldly being or through the more conventional avenue of thought or appetite? Does the answer really matter?

I'll close with three points:

• I believe that Goodness became incarnate, lived on this earth, resisted temptation, sacrificed itself for my sins, and then was resurrected to show me the goal of a grace-filled life. Is it possible to believe in Goodness incarnate without also believing in Evil incarnate? In other words, does a believer have to believe in Satan in order to be saved?
• An analogy to the Lucifer problem would be the Hitler problem. Adolf Hitler lived and died long before I existed. Even though he died, people are still fighting against him today. We're always warned that 'he's coming back if we aren't careful,' and 'weak' leaders are compared to Neville Chamberlain. At best, this means that the spirit of intolerance that he embodied still exists, and we must resist it (I can accept this). At worst, he is a label that people can conveniently use. For example, Americans were told that by fighting Saddam Hussein, we were preventing another Hitler. Neo-cons refer to their enemies as "Islamo-fascists," promising more war, more bloodshed, more torture, more oppression, all in the name of Adolf Hitler.
• At a church that I attended until a year and a half ago, the consequences of a string of terrible decisions by the church leaders were described from the pulpit as "Satan attacking the church." By association, then, members who didn't agree with the leaders were tools of Satan. By association, then, leaders weren't responsible for bad decisions, but Satan was. This was abuse, taking Lucifer's name in vain, and it may be the root of the reason for my antipathy to the existence of Satan.
  

Do I Believe in Satan?

I was listening to Andy Gullahorn, one of my favorite prog-Christian-folk singers the other day, and this lyric came on:

If I were the devil, I wouldn't wear red
I wouldn't breath fire cause it might give me away.

I started thinking about the Devil, and I was surprised by what came to mind.

I realized that I don't believe in Satan, and I don't think I have for some time. Is this wrong? Do you have to believe in the Devil to get into heaven--or hell?

Let me explain.

A few years ago I read a book review about the History of Satan. It talked about how different cultures had tried to personify Evil, and it mentioned that Satan hadn't even been introduced into the Bible until people like the Second Isaiah came back from exile in Persia. The more I thought about it, the more I figured the Embodiment of Evil must be some kind of a cop-out--you know, an intellectually lazy way to identify evil and run with it.

As I was listening to the song, I thought about the whole "war in heaven," scenario where Lucifer was cast down, but instead of being killed--"the wages of sin is death"--he was allowed to live indefinitely. Human beings were created, then, to pay the wages of the sins of Lucifer and his angels. And when they messed up, they really got it, even though Adam was a "son of God" and both he and Eve had eaten of the Tree of Life. Jesus, the Son of God, came to save humanity, but will not save Satan, whom he will destroy in the Judgment Day.

Am I missing something here?

This is a story within a story. The story of humanity's creation and redemption happens within the meta-story of Lucifer's Fall and his FALL/destruction. I understand my part--and God's--in the middle layer. Does the meta layer really concern me? I can't imagine any way to actually prove either that this took place or that my understanding of it can in any way affect the very real battle I wage with Evil every day.

At best, it is a simplistic way to explain where evil came from and where it's going to end up. At worst, it is a trick, a diversion to take my focus off the real battle. "Watch out for the guy with the pitchfork. Evil comes from the outside, not from within."

So if there is no Embodiment of Evil, what do I believe in, then? I think I'm more pre-Exile in my approach to Evil. The world is full of false gods and overwhelming temptations. I serve the only God who can deliver me from that. I'm not sure that temptation comes from an outside source as much as it originates within my own corrupt character--my insatiable appetite, how easily I am distracted from pursuing Good. God's Blood and Body within me extinguish this corruption, and bring the evil of my own heart to light. I don't know that they have any affect on Satan.

Does this make sense? This is the first time I've really written about this or expressed these thoughts, although I've had them for quite some time. Some people can grapple with Evil better when it is personified. I don't have a problem with that. I do wish to call evil by its right name. I have seen what it can do, and I look forward to its ultimate destruction.

The Losingest Team in Professional Sports

This week, the Philadelphia Phillies baseball will become the first professional team in any sport, any country to achieve their 10,000th loss.

How is this possible? Here are some facts:

• Since their founding as a professional team in 1883, they have experienced fewer than 50 winning seasons (a won-loss record about 50%). Do the math: In 124 years, they have had 75 LOSING seasons.
• The team won its first World Series Championship in 1980, its 98th season. (By comparison, the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, two dominant teams in the early 1900s have more celebrated streaks. The Red Sox's championship in 2004 came 86 years after their last. The Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908, a 99-year streak.)
• The Phillies were the last team in baseball to integrate (add black players) in 1957, ten whole years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.
• In 1960, their manager, Eddie Sawyer quit after ONE GAME, saying, "I'm 49, and I want to live to be 50."
• In 1964, they blew a ten-game lead in the last two weeks of the season, losing the chance to go to the World Series.
• In 1993, they lost the World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays on one of the most spectacular home runs in history: Joe Carter's 3-run blast in the bottom of the 9th of Game Six.

Of course, this makes it easier for me to stomach the last-place performance of my own Cincinnati Reds this year.

There is Pain, and then there is PAIN

I am a huge baseball fan (and a pretty good fantasy manager, my team recently reeled off a four-game winning streak).

Nothing could dampen my love for the game. Nothing...except perhaps this.



The hilarious part is the way the umpire comes up behind the player and can't resist checking to make sure his own manhood is still intact!

Last Video: Summer Snowball Fight

I know what you're probably thinking by now: enough already with the video! You traveled. Great. We want more theological musings!

We left Great Sand Dunes on Tuesday morning. We had just one more day of fun before the gruelling, two-day drive back to Tennessee. We decided to complete our tour of Southern Colorado and headed north to Leadville.

Along the way, we got some great vistas of the Rio Grande Valley, took a tram to the top of the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass, and got to indulge Jonah with the one and only goal he had for this trip from the very moment he spotted the snow-capped Spanish Peaks rising out of the prairie: he wanted a snowball fight, and he wanted to hit me!

Video: Great Sand Dunes

Elevation is a killer. Taos was at 7,000 feet, but I hadn't really noticed any tiredness while I was there. Of course, I didn't really do any demanding physical activity there.

Great Sand Dunes, at 8,100 feet, really took something out of me. Our campsite was about 1/4 mile from the dunes, separated by a broad, shallow, sandy creek that carried snowmelt down from the mountains. The kids played there before we tried to climb the dunes--eventually stopping about 1/3rd of the way up the first, 500-foot dune.

Video: San Luis, Colorado

Julie and her family left early Sunday morning to fly back to their home in Savannah, Georgia. We spent some time in Taos after they left, purchasing some art on Main Street and visiting the Kit Carson Muesum, along with an Internet cafe (we hadn't had cell phone or Internet service at our condo in the mountains--alas).

One thing I discovered on this trip is what a wimpy traveler I am. If I can't get wireless Internet, I get really grumpy.

It is important to Road Trippers like me to stay off the interstates. You don't really get to see the country that way. We stick to the federal highways, and if we're really feeling it, we take state and county roads: the out-of-the-way routes.

Well, we took highway 522 from Taos into Colorado's San Luis Valley en route to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Shortly after we crossed the state line, we spotted an amazing, domed, white-walled building. On our arrival in San Luis, we learned that it was a shrine. The only way to get there was a 30-minute hike that passed statues celebrating the 13 Stations of the Cross. Extraordinary is the best word I can find to describe it.

Here is the video:

Video: Cumbres & Toltec Railroad

The week ended with a bang on Saturday. We took a day trip on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. This was one of the most amazing experiences of my life--and I know it was incredible for the four boys, ages two through six.

The locomotive was an old-fashioned steam engine that slowly tugged us from our starting point in Chama, New Mexico, up into the mountains across the border in Osier, Colorado. We sat in old-fashioned passenger cars, and then moved around to a dining car and an outdoor viewing car on which we could walk around and look in all directions. We saw snow melting in the woods, mountain waterfalls, high trestles, and even a beaver dam. Simply incredible.

Video: A Walk Along the Stream

I don't have any video of our arrival in Santa Fe! Thursday was eventful. We began at Bent's Old Fort, an old trading post in eastern Colorado, at which Cheyenne Indians, American dragoons (calvary), mountain men, and Santa Fe wagon trains met to do business and socialize.

Then, it was a mad sprint to pick up our loved ones. We rushed to Taos first, crawling up over the Sangre de Christo Mountains in order to pick up Julie's husband, Don. Along the way we spotted bison, pronghorn antelope, and coyotes out on the range. Outside the airport in Taos is a pretty busy prairie dog colony, and that just about filled out our wish list of prairie animals (no one really wanted to see a wolf, mountain lion or rattlesnake).

We then raced down to Santa Fe to meet Jenny, who was waiting on the square. We paused for photos at the marker which identified the end of the trail, but the plaza was full of marijuana smoke and hippies, so we darted into Santa Fe's sidestreets for some great food and fun shopping. The next day, I was tired of shopping, but the others weren't: Julie, Ellie & Jenny went into Taos to hunt for stuff. Don and Jacob went to the airport to fix some things on their plane. I stayed with Owen, Jonah and my nephew and namesake, Jacob Donald, for a hike along the mountain stream that rolled down beside our condo.

This is what it looked like:

Video: Beyond Dodge City

Wednesday was a big day for us. After the morning in Boot Hill (below), we set off into western Kansas. Along the way, we got our last dose of wagon tracks near the Cimarron Cutoff, a place where many wagons took a shortcut through the sands of the Cimarron--a 60-mile trek with no water for the livestock and regular Comanche attacks.

In Garden City our trip found one of hits highlights: the Sandsage Bison Range, a bison sanctuary through which we drove in a Chevy Suburban. I had never been so close to a bison herd, and my imagination was filled by the up-close views of bison bulls, cows and calves.

Santa Fe Trail, Day 4, Dodge City!

Our final day in Kansas was an eventful one. We awoke at the Dodge House Motel in Dodge City, surrounded by western brikabrak. Just down the road, we toured Boot Hill, a small theme park at the heart of Dodge City, which celebrated the town's heritage--western notables such as Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson had to bring the town's anarchy under control in the 1870s.

The visit featured the kids getting deputized. Julie, Ellie and I learned the "can-can" dance at the town saloon. It ended with a gunfight right on Front Street!

Dodge City provides a fascinating study of the American West. It began as a town supplying whiskey, gambling and other vices to soldiers stationed at Fort Mann to protect Santa Fe wagon trails from Comanche Indian attacks. Later it was a center of the bison fur trade, which nearly destroyed the vast bison herds that had wandered the Great Plains. When the railroad arrived, it became a cow town, full of wild and raunchy cowboys (in need of Earp's famous Frontier Justice). Finally, it settled down and became the dusty farming town it remains today.

Santa Fe Trail, Day 3

This was the day we really got into Kansas. We had arrived in Council Grove late Monday night. There we at at the Hayes House Restaurant, which billed itself as "the oldest continually operating restaurant west of the Mississippi River." Indeed, it celebrated its 150th year of operation this year.

We camped beside a lake in Council Grove and awoke the next morning to showers (this always seems to happen when I camp). Still, Council Grove was a fine little town that supported its history as a stopping point on the Santa Fe Trail.

On the west part of town, we found the Last Chance Store, a building that had sold supplies to caravans and which, at the time, had been the last such store for the next 750 miles.

The video captures Council Grove. I regret I messed up the shot of the wagon ruts through the stream, but I felt that I just had to include it!

A Bit on Immigration

It's one of my favorite issues. I've been debating it with a few college friends, and I've developed some ideas that I hope to work into an op-ed piece in time for the 4th of July holiday.

Don't worry, I have plenty of video from my trip to share with you. I'm planning to edit it and post it on the web when I get home, which should be this weekend.

Until then, tell me what you think of the ideas below:

Listen, nothing is given to immigrants--NOTHING--except the chance to work for the American Dream. That's the only reason why they're here, and that's why they will give our children a run for the money when they enter the workforce. They don't qualify for public housing. They don't get welfare benefits. If they receive health care, it is through the generosity of doctors and hospitals (notice that I used the words "generosity," "doctors," and "hospitals" in the same sentence!)

I have a Albanian friend, Toni, who would give his right arm to come to America and work 15 hours a day washing pans in a pizza kitchen. He registers for the visa lottery every year. He prays. He begs me for help. Frankly, I wish he would come.

You see, guys, if we were to move to Germany or Saudi Arabia or China and worked real hard, kept jobs, raised families and participated in society--even if we legally immigrated--we would never, ever have the chance of becoming Germans, Saudis or Chinese. We would always be considered foreigners, even our children.

The cool thing about being an American (unless you're a racist), is that it isn't really something that you're entitled to, it's something that you earn. The Ditteses were immigrants once. Racists tried to imply that we were terrorists during a time of war (World War I) and attacked our neighbors who had more German-sounding names, but we kept our heads down, we worked, and we gained the right to be called Americans.

(Honestly, can anyone provide one example of a terrorist from 9/11 or any other case coming across the border with Mexico illegally? There was the one that the Clinton Administration caught coming in from Canada, but the speculation of such an occurrence is race-baiting, I believe.)

Frankly, I think citizenship should be merit-based, mainly so I can get Toni into the country. If ungrateful, wealthy Americans don't like paying taxes, having them turn in their passports and move to Brazil or Bolivia, where taxes are lower. If a kid chooses to drop out of high school, give his/her place to an ambitious Nigerian girl and let them move to a country where the dropout rate is above 50%. If someone quit their restaurant dishwashing job because they had a hangover or didn't feel like getting out of bed, we should push them over the border with Mexico in a fair exchange for someone who will work.

It's a sign of the decline of our society that we are falling back on useless standards like race and legal status to define what American citizenship really is. The future doesn't belong to those who whine about immigration. It belongs, as it always has, to people who are willing to work hard and build this country into something better.

Incidentally, I'm a day away from the end of my trip now. We did the long, 600-mile drive today from Leadville, Colorado, to Lawrence, Kansas. At two points along the way (once in Colorado and once in Kansas) I spotted billboards advertising "Free Land" to people willing to emigrate there and farm/work!

What would someone from Albania or Nigeria think of this? They would think they had died and gone to heaven. What did this American think of it? I thought, "Who would want to live all the way out there? I don't even know how to do anything with my hands."

Santa Fe Trail, Day 2

St. Louis was just an appetizer, the real fun would start in Independence, Missouri, the point from which all trails west lead across the western United States--to Oregon, to California, and to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Our stop at the National Frontier Trails Museum revealed a mother lode of experiences for the kids: they rode in a covered wagon pulled by a mule, they loaded up a wagon of their own for a trip across the prairie...there was lots of hands-on stuff to do (just what I like in a museum). Ellie would want me to add that there was a pretty good gifts shop, too.

Here's the video:

Video Blogging Updated 6/13

We're on our road trip now, after eight months of saving and planning. I write this from a motel room in Boonville, Missouri. Just across the Missouri River from here in New Franklin is a plaque honoring William Bucknell, the father of the Santa Fe Trail.

In 1821, Bucknell--facing bankruptcy--took a load of goods and camped out on the border with Spain, which at that time was the Arkansas River. He had heard a hint that Mexico might soon gain independence. Under Spanish rule, the borders had been sealed from American aliens--and all men trying to trade in Santa Fe had been imprisoned or had their goods confiscated.

Bucknell was lucky. He scooted across the border just as he heard the news, and he returned to New Franklin with bags full of silver dollars. An important new trade route had been opened: the 950-mile-long Santa Fe Trail.

I'm shooting some video on this trip. It's not much, and I'm shooting it with my Canon digital camera. Let me know what you think of it (below).

Summer Plans

It was the same question over and over again before school ended May 24: what are you doing this summer?

I've had an exciting summer so far (almost two weeks, so far), and it's about to get a whole lot better.

First, I am on a self-imposed teaching embargo. I'm not thinking about it, I'm not reading school-related books, I'm skipping all the professional development opportunities I signed up for during the school year. I need to detox from failure...and there was a lot of failure in my classroom last year, mostly on the part of my students. I had about 80 students, and I handed out 19 failing grades...not my greatest semester of instruction in the least.

The good news is that the action at Point Pleasant is about to heat up because my 2nd Annual Father's Day Road Trip is upon us. This time we will follow the Santa Fe Trail from St. Louis through Kansas City and Dodge City into Colorado and into New Mexico. It gained its reputation in the middle 1800s, when the vast American prairie was a 900-mile frontier between the United States and the newly minted nation of Mexico. There are about 29.5 million fewer bison roaming the plains than there were then...bummer. But the trip should be fun nonetheless.

Some of you may remember the trip I took last summer to Arizona. This one should be better in a number of ways:
1. We actually have a theme. I've been reading up on the Santa Fe Trail for six months now, and I'm really ready to be a wagonmaster.
2. My sister, Julie, and her awesome sons will join us. Instead of being one dad for three kids, the ratio of adults to kids will be 2:5. You have to like those odds! Jenny and my brother-in-law, Don, will join us in Taos, New Mexico, where we will spend a weekend in the most beautiful corner of the Rocky Mountains.
3. I'll have video. I'm hoping to do a lot of editing and uploading on the trip so everyone can see video on my blog. I'll have at least two videos on YouTube, I promise.

It's getting late. I'll provide more information on the itinerary later this week. We leave on the 8th for Santa Fe!