Great, just not THAT Great: Thoughts on the Life of Aaron, Part 2

When I left Aaron two weeks ago, he was in heaven--or at least the closest thing to it. With his brother, Moses, his sons, Nadab and Abihu, and the elders of Israel, he was resting in the presence of God, reclined on ground that looked like a sapphire sea (Exodus 24.9-11).

At the time he was the most famous man in Israel, a man whom most Israelites would have seen as their leader. His staff had created wonders in Egypt. He was the mouthpiece of Moses, his shy, stuttering brother, who was in turn the mouthpiece of God. As I wrote before, Aaron was a man of greatness, but not a man of Destiny.

Why was this? I must admit, I admire Aaron. I enjoy being in front of people; I think I would jump at the chance to lead God's people and perform great wonders. Yet time and again in my life, often at the very point where I felt that God was ready for me to take that next step in His service, I have instead been held back. The skills and talents seem to be there, but Destiny isn't. Studying the life of Aaron helps to uncover the wrinkles in God's plan, and it helps me to understand a little more of my place there.

When Moses leaves his brother--for probably the first time since their reunion at the base of Sinai a year earlier--it is to climb to the mountain's summit in the company of Joshua, his aide. Aaron returns with Hur to look over the camp (24.12-14).

The Priesthood

The next seven chapters of Exodus are all about Aaron, even if they might be the words given to Moses on Sinai. Perhaps this might be seen as the coronation of Aaron. God spends this time telling Moses about Aaron--his role as high priest of the Tabernacle to be built at the base of the mountain.

I imagine shy Moses glowing with pride at these instructions for his brother, whom God mentions 37 times by name in chapters 28-31. God also names the son of Aaron's co-regent, Hur, as the one who will craft the sacred furniture for the Tabernacle.

But a strange thing happens at the very time that God says, "Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites...so [he] may serve me as priest" (28.1). A religious festival has begun, and the faint sound of dancing echoes to the top of the mountain. How could this happen--and under Aaron's watch no less?

Aaron invites the people to the calf where he, uh, plans to sacrifice to the Lord. Everyone is too busy partying to notice a Higher Power.

The Golden Calf

The situation at the base of the mountain demonstrates a gross lack of leadership on Aaron's part.

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Go down, because yor people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves and idol cast in the shape of a calf" (Exodus 32.7-8)

A close look at the text reveals some interesting weaknesses on Aaron's part--and affirms one of the theses I have made to this point. Aaron, the man who had stood up to Pharaoh, whose staff had consumed those of the best magicians, is apparently unable to say "No" to the people, his people.They ask, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him." (verse 1, italics added). Can it be any clearer who the leader of Israel is--at least in the minds of the people? "This fellow Moses"--few have seen him, far fewer have heard him deliver an order. It has all been Aaron's leading in their eyes.

Of course this would be a good opportunity for Aaron to unveil the brains behind this operation--or at least look to God for leading. Instead he compromises--seeking a middle way between outright idolatry and public approval. He gathers gold from the people and builds the calf they wanted (some form of the Apis bulls who were mummified by Egyptians at their deaths). He also orders an altar to be built (he has been serving as a quasi-priest for Israel since long before his brother returned). "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord," he insists (v 5). Is he clueless? I'll try to be kind and just insist that he is woefully incompetent for this interim job.

Aaron spins a 2nd story when Moses returns. "You know how prone these people are to evil," he explains. "They gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" (verses 22 & 24). Did he wave a wand or something? The process of building any given idol could be described as "deliberate." Either a huge cast was made for the liquefied metal, or the metal had to be layered over a wooden or stone base. To a modern person, this would be like saying, "They gave me metal, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this dishwasher!"

A few hours later, Aaron begins to atone...and it involves a lot of blood--human blood. The party hasn't let up with Moses' return--few people noticed the tablets smashed or the small, angry man who stuttered with fury when he looked upon them. God knows how to end it. With the other Levites, Aaron meets Moses at one end of the camp with his sword drawn. Following God's orders they break into houses of feasting, dancing and lovemaking. They "kill...brother[s] and friend[s] and neighbor[s]," over 3,000 before the noise dies down (28). God follows this with a plague that will punish them "because of what they did with the calf Aaron had made" (35).

I may be projecting too much, but this episode demonstrates to me a fundamental weakness of Aaron--and of myself at times. He doesn't see himself as a partner. Deep down inside, he's the leader. The Israelites are perfectly willing to accommodate his vanity. Moses would have stopped this; God would have, too; maybe even young Joshua would have stood up to the people, but Aaron casts their offerings into the fire and out jumps a calf.

Of course this only widens the gulf of the people's perception of the two brothers. Moses is the one always saying, "No--says the Lord." Aaron is accommodating and friendly. Moses orders; Aaron listens. It won't be the last test of leadership for Aaron, that is certain.

The Siblings' Coup

Aaron's 2nd chance to lead begins with his sister, Miriam. A popular singer of the time and a cultural leader, she takes exception to Moses' leadership and to his dark-skinned wife. "Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?" she asks. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" (Numbers 12.2).

The writer of Numbers puts the blame on both Aaron and Miriam, but later events bear out Miriam's leadership in this coup. It was a case of greatness again. Aaron appeared to be the leader--and Miriam had had her moment--one of the all-time great moments in songwriting--with her inspired singing outside the Red Sea. Why couldn't they lead? Surely the Lord had used them, too.

That leads to this revealing note in Numbers 12.3: "Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth." This small, shy man suddenly has no one to speak for him--or to sing for him--his speaker and his singer are in open revolt.

That's why God steps in, summoning Aaron and Miriam to the front of the Tabernacle, surrounding them with cloud, and speaking directly to them. "With [Moses] I speak face to face.... He sees the form of the Lord" (verse 8).

This is the dichotomy, then. Aaron the High Priest channels the Hidden Lord, dressed in priestly robes, cleansing the Most Holy Place every year on the Day of Atonement. Moses sees God face to face. God speaks through all whom He has chosen. Yet Moses, and his unique, hidden, behind-the-scenes role, was specially chosen. Aaron was High Priest. He had the most visible leadership role in the camp. Why did he feel compelled to covet Moses' insider role, too?

When the cloud lifts, Miriam is leprous. Aaron describes it vividly, "like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with its flesh half eaten away" (v 12). Again Aaron is the peacemaker. He is in his role of "not too evil, not too good." He intercedes for his sister with Moses (he himself has not been stricken, implying that his role in the plot was not as great as Miriam's). Moses intercedes with God. The brothers' roles are clear now: Aaron is minister to the people; Moses listens to God.

One Final Miracle with the Staff

Korah's rebellion, found in Numbers 16-17, mirrors the plot of Miriam and Aaron. "The whole community is holy every one of them, and the Lord is with them," Korah tells Aaron and Moses, "Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord's assembly?" (16.3).

Just as Miriam had complained, "Does not God speak through us, too?" Korah believes in the "priesthood of all believers." A Christian might consider him ahead of his time, but Moses sees another challenge to his leadership. He dares the rebels to test the Lord by burning incense before him. Then he steps back as the earth swallows up Korah and the plot leaders and fire comes from heaven to burn up the other illicit, incense-wielding priests.

The next day God summons Aaron to wield incense throughout the camp, making atonement for the sins of the self-ordained priests. This really is a walk back through Aaron's own errors. The memory of his own rebellion must be very fresh as he thinks of those consumed by earth and fire. As he walks between the tents of the suffering, he must remember the 3,000 "brothers, friends and neighbors" he and his fellow Levites had massacred as they quelled the riot around the Golden Calf.

At one time he might have led such a rebellion. Now Aaron knows his place. Moses knows it, too. Aaron is the Leader of Israel. The miracle of the twelve staffs emphasizes two points about Israel's leadership: first, Aaron is indeed chosen by God for his role as High Priest; second, Moses apparently doesn't factor into the chain of command at all. He isn't the leader of the Levites or of Israel--Aaron is. He is merely the mouthpiece of God.

Aaron's rod--the same rod that consumed the magicians' staffs, that had turned the Nile to blood and had summoned frogs from its rust-colored waters--it blooms. God has spoken--beautifully. Moses places it in the sacred box in the Most Holy Place--the sacred room entered only once a year, by Aaron alone, where a big smile must break across his face as he cleans and performs his sacred duties. More than anything Aaron had said or done, this flowering staff conveyed God's call, the sole source of Aaron's authority.

This shows me that I need to be aware of the true signs of Destiny that God provides. It may not show up in my role in the organizational chart or in awards or public accolades. It may be found in some everyday thing--my child, my talent, my smallest gift--that blooms in the light of God's approval.

Aaron and Me

Tonight Jenny and I were practicing some songs to sing at church on Wednesday night. Jenny has picked up her guitar again, and I'm always looking for an excuse to play mandolin. As we practiced the songs, Jenny said, "It always sounds better when I sing lead, and you sing harmony. It's really magical."

She's right. I love to sing high harmony. But sometimes it's a little frustrating. I want to lead. Sure, Jenny can sing alto quite well, but it doesn't sound the same. Only when I back off and sing high can we work together as a duo.

That's not the only place where I have been called to be "great, just not THAT great." There have been a number of times where I have tried to lead our family down my career course. All have ended in disaster. At best, I have found myself at career dead ends. At worst, I've lost my job.

Yet God has blessed us richly when we followed Jenny's call, first to Superior, Arizona, then to Westmoreland, TN. More importantly, I have been able to strengthen her work when we have followed her lead. It's a natural, God-led thing--yet it is one that I have resisted on occasion, just as Aaron battled with his leadership role.

I can't say that I'm particularly emboldened by my destiny, and I don't go around bragging about my meager career accomplishments. I can say, though, that I'm glad to be a part of a God-ordained team. He led me to Jenny, and our partnership has created three excellent Dittes kids, and touched the lives of literally thousands of other people.

Mount Hor

Aaron's life ends soon after the climactic moment that his brother strikes a rock and brings down God's wrath. The Israelites are ready to skirt up the eastern edge of the Dead Sea, but God summons Aaron to the summit of Mount Hor. He removes his priestly garments and gives them to his son, Eleazar.

The non-canonical Jewish work, the Haggadah contains a beautiful description of Aaron's death:

Accompanied by Moses, his brother, and by Eleazar, his son, Aaron went to the summit of Mount Hor, where the rock suddenly opened before him and a beautiful cave lit by a lamp presented itself to his view.

"Take off thy priestly raiment and place it upon thy son Eleazar!" said Moses; "and then follow me." Aaron did as commanded; and they entered the cave, where was prepared a bed around which angels stood.

"Go lie down upon thy bed, my brother," Moses continued; and Aaron obeyed without a murmur. Then his soul departed as if by a kiss from God.
Source: the Jewish Encyclopedia

Eleazar and Moses returned without the High Priest, and the entire nation of Israel burst into mourning. "The entire house of Israel mourned for [Aaron] thirty days" (Numbers 20.29). He died the most famous man among his people. Many commentators feel that the Israelites' mourning for Aaron went beyond the mourning for Moses that would take place when he died a few years later (They use a translation that I can't find in my NIV, but apparently older documents show that men AND women mourned for Aaron, while it was only the leaders and men who observed the mourning period for Moses.)

Aaron was called to a specific role in Israel's Exodus: it was a role of greatness, but not of destiny. He struggled with this role at times, he even rebelled, but in the end he was at peace with his place in God's presence and at his brother's side.

There just isn't enough space here to do Aaron justice. I want to focus on him as a father and a High Priest, but that will need to wait for another Sabbath day's meditation. It gives me something to look forward to this week.

The Other Exodus Story: Thoughts on Aaron, Part 1

This weekend was something of a letdown for me. I was coming off a very busy week--Jonah's birthday party, a Shakespeare play with students, the first German club meeting of the year, plenty of stuff.

But I was disappointed by one thing that DIDN'T go down: I had planned to speak at Highland Academy for Week of Prayer Wednesday night. Instead, I was called Tuesday night and told not to come. Apparently my alma mater had blacklisted me thanks to some "concerned" members of the Highland church. It's the kind of backstabbing that got me out of that church four years ago, so I can't say I was surprised...just disappointed and a little insulted.

I sat at Oasis Cafe on Friday night really trying to rejuvenate my faith. They're moving into a new church building soon, and I was doodling some possible logos. Suddenly I wrote: "study the story of Aaron," the Biblical leader whose opportunities were swiped away, too. I spent Sabbath in study and prayer, and this is what I learned.

One recurring theme of the Bible is the tale of two brothers--in many ways it's the only theme of the Bible. Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, time and again the younger brother supplants the elder brother. The Father's love for the younger creates bitterness in the elder. The most significant--yet least analyzed--of these brother relationships is Moses and Aaron.

Moses and Aaron...Moses and Aaron...the two brothers are joined so tightly, they are practically Siamese. I searched for the three-word phrase, "Moses and Aaron," in an online concordance, and I found that it occurred 92 times in Scripture. Ninety-two times! There is something to this brotherhood. In fact, there is certainly something more to this brotherhood than most readings of the Bible might reveal.

When it comes down to it, the Exodus passed down to us from the Biblical writer looks quite different to us than the one the Israelites would have themselves witnessed. The difference is stark--we learn more of the words of God, the Israelites knew more about the words of Aaron,whom many would have considered the leader of their wandering tribes. Not Moses, but Aaron.

Aaron's is a story hidden in the scripture. Aaron is a leader chosen by God, ignored by the Bible. In the eyes of the people, he was the true leader: he was the only one of the brothers with title, his sons would dominate the priesthood for centuries, to the end of his life he wasmore famous than his brother, Moses, and his miraculous feats were nearly equal.

Yet Aaron was also a leader whose weaknesses were painfully obvious, a man who failed God repeatedly as a leader and as a support to his prophet/brother. He was a terrible father--if his sons, Nadab and Abihu, are any indication. Perhaps it is best to step outside of Christianity a little to explain: Aaron was a man of greatness, but not a man of Destiny.

The Elder Brother

Exodus 6:20 lists Aaron as the elder brother of Moses--both were sons, or possible ancestors of Amram and Levi (the genealogy uses four generations to span 430 years, so it's likely that there were gaps).

Much is made of Moses's growth away from Goshen, first in Pharaoh's palace and later in Midian, but it isn't difficult to trace the arc of Aaron and Miriam. By the time God calls Moses, Aaron is already a local leader. As later events would confirm, Miriam was a singer--likely one in great demand at parties and religious festivals.

Aaron called by God

The episode of the Burning Bush in Exodus 4 reveals a few clues about Aaron's status, too. Moses initially rejects God's call, saying, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it" (verse 13).

Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you." (verse 14)

This text is fascinating on a number of levels. First is the title. Why does God add "the Levite" to Aaron's name? Moses remembers his brother. That's like someone saying to me, "What about your sister, Julie Dittes?" As if I needed to know. I think that's because this is how Aaron is known throughout Israel. He can speak well. Perhaps he is already a religious leader in Goshen, the very role into which he will be officially ordained as High Priest. He is already well placed to carry Moses's message to the leaders of the twelve tribes.

Next, study the line, "He is already on his way to meet you." The Burning Bush tells this to Moses. Now, think about that word, already. Doesn't that mean that God spoke to Aaron too? Does that also mean that God called Aaron first? Moses was dithering in the desert; Aaron was on his way to Sinai. Moses has "never been eloquent;" Aaron "can speak well."

Aaron's Role.

Lest anyone doubt, God describes their responsibilities this way: "You [Moses] shall speak to him and put words in his mouth. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him" (verses 15-16). Aaron is to be the face of God to the people; Moses is to be the mouth. As God would say later, "See, I have made [Moses] like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet" (7.1)

The plan works. The Bible's single-most successful team is selected. First, the brothers meet in Sinai--at the base of the Mountain of God (verse 27), no less. They return to the Israelites. Aaron speaks, and he performs signs with his staff. It works: "And when [the Israelites] heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped" (verse 31).

Which brother is in the front, addressing the Pharaoh? If you guessed Moses, you're wrong. It's Aaron, the forgotten "star" of the Exodus.

Consider the following list of miracles and Aaron's part in them:
1. Aaron's rod consumes those of the sorcerers (7.12)
2. Aaron's rod turns the Nile to blood (7.19)
3. Aaron's rod brings frogs (8.6)
4. Aaron's rod brings gnats (8.17)

During the same time Moses (1) summons darkness (10.21); (2) summons locusts (10.13) [he uses his hand for these plagues, not his staff]; and (3) parts the Red Sea with his staff (15.21).

Even at the Red Sea, Moses gets little recognition from the people. Exodus 15 contains a psalm that Moses composed. This psalm is 17 verses long. Yet when Miriam enters to sing her famous verse, she is identified as "Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister" (15.20)! What?

To me, this would seem like someone at a Jackson Family reunion concert announcing, "Our next singer is LaToya, Randy's sister." You know, ignoring the most famous member of the family.

There are several versions of the Ten Commandments story--yet I'd never realized until today that Exodus 19.24 reads, "The Lord replied, 'Go down and bring Aaron up with you..." Two verses later, God utters the Decalogue.

In Chapter 24, Aaron climbs Mount Sinai where he communes with God: "Under [God's] feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank" (24.9-11).

It's a beautiful picture, and it's one that I want to end this part with. The next episode, Exodus 32, is the Golden Calf, where Aaron's weakness is all too evident. I'll write about that this weekend. But I want to pause with this heroic man of God, resting in the presence of God, leaning back on a sapphire sea, eating and drinking as if it were Heaven--the true Promised Land.

Think about Aaron. Think about how the Israelites would have seen this. From the Israelite perspective, the Exodus would have gone something like this:

"Aaron the Levite said one day, 'God has told me to go into the desert to find my brother. I'm going right away.' Three or four weeks later, Aaron returned. Next to him was a shorter, quieter man. This man was shy. He stuttered. When he spoke, he spoke only to Aaron. Aaron would speak to us.

"Aaron went into the palace of Pharaoh. He laid his staff on the ground before the king. It turned into a serpent. The pagan priests turned their staffs into serpents, too. But Aaron's snake ate theirs. When he picked it up, it turned back into a wooden staff.

"Aaron confronted Pharaoh on the Nile. He said, 'Let my people go!' Then he pointed his staff across the waters, and they turned to blood. Later he summoned other plagues with his staff: frogs and gnats came at his direction...."

It seems like such a different story, doesn't it? Yet it is the very one found in scripture, overshadowed by the story of Moses.

Aaron was a man of greatness--perfect for the part that God chose for him to play, the perfect speaker for his brother's words. Yet he was also a man of great imperfections, no friend of Destiny; for every time he spoke for himself, his own words betrayed him.

But that is a subject for another Note.

Western Road Trip, Day 8: Tall Tales and Bear Squat Spring

Our focus today was the Canyon area, the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls. In the afternoon, after we had waited out a rainstorm, Jenny, Ellie, Jonah, Owen, my mom and I took a four-mile hike out to a place called Clear Lake.

The American trappers who first explored this area considered it far too civilized to merely tell folks what they had seen. They constructed long and wondrous "yarns" (tall tales) about their adventures and tell them around the fire on long, snow-bound winter nights. For example, one of my favorite tales, told by Jim Bridger, was about Eight-hour Canyon. Apparently you could wrap up to go to sleep, whisper, "Good mornin'," and eight hours later the echo would return to wake you up.

This is my best try.

There is a canyon down in Southwest Yallerstone called the Saw Saw. I been there once. It's the sunniest place in the park, with all kinds of pepper plants growin' along the sides of the canyon. I seen halapeeners, chillies, yellers and reds. I seen stalks of fresh cilantro just a wavin' in the wind. I seen onions that--when theys ripe--just pop outta the ground and burst into a thousand pieces before your eyes. And the whole canyon floor is tamaters--red and ripe.

Well about harvest time, these here peppers have nowheres to do, hain't nobody been to Saw Saw Canyon and seen what I seen--or et what I et. They just bulge right out in the sun, ready to split their skin. And then they do, come the new moon of July. Why that day they just break open. The juice and the pieces of tomato, cilantro, onion, halapeener and every thing else just float to the bottom of the canyon and drain into these wells, just a boilin' and a bubblin'--like nearly everythin' else in the Yellerstone.

The night I seen this miracle, I just had to try some. It smelled so good. But it was too hot to eat or drink straight. I needed something round and crispy to dip into the bubblin' well. I climbed out of the canyon, and guess what I seen right there? I seen the field littered with buffalo chips--perfectly round, crispy, and they broke with a nice crunch.

Right after Ellie nailed me with this snowball, I got her right back with the closest thing I could find--a dried buffalo chip. I smacked her right on the bottom with it. She was really ticked--and she sure didn't like all the jokes about toilet paper I made the rest of the hike either.

I filled up my bag with them thar buffalo chips and got back into the canyon. I reached down into the bubblin' well with one o' them chips, covered the whole thing with the peppery stuff, and took a big bite. Mmmm mmmm! I do believe that that was the first chip in Saw Saw anybody ever et.

Well not long after I took my first bite, I heard a growlin' up the canyon, and I know'd that Old Ephriam (this was the name the mountain men gave the grizzly bear) had found his way inside Saw Saw. Well he just scratched the ground and started a lickin' up the juice that had spilled there. Since he was a'blockin' the only way out, I hid in one of the wells to watch.

That b'ar sniffed up a pepper plant, and then he started eatin'. He must've thought them thar halapeeners was huckleberries to see him swaller them down one after t'other. He et and et fer three days, not stoppin' to drink or sleep, just a poppin' them peppers down.

Now I know a little 'bout peppers--and I know ever'thin' about chips in Saw Saw--and I know that the pain doesn't hit ya until ya stop eatin'. But when it does--especially after them halapeeners--you better watch out! Well the bear stopped eatin' them peppers, and it was bound to happen. I heard a squeal, and then I saw his tongue fall out of his mouth and roll all the way past his toes. He started pantin' and he ran up to one of the wells and stuck his head down inside, swallowin' gallons of the stuff for the chips. Then he squealed even louder and ran on all fours back up the canyon, his tongue still lollin' and draggin' behind his back legs.

This pretty little gravel arm of land in Yellowstone Lake got even prettier when Jenny claimed it and checked out the view. We called it Jenny's Spit, and it made it into my story!

I followed that b'ar. I just had to see what would happen. He ran past Old Faithful and didn't slow down. I don't think he even noticed Jenny's Spit, the cutest little piece o' land in Yellerstone Lake.

I followed him until we reached Clear Lake, and then I watched him stick his head in that there lake and drink it dry.

Well that b'ar just a sat on the shore there, his belly pokin' out halfway to the Great Salty, his tongue still lollin' out his mouth and twitchin' around his toes, and I thought that he finally looked happy--the way he had felt the first time he tasted them peppers in the Saw Saw.

Jonah "Bear" Dittes pauses to take in the view of Clear Lake during our hike.

All a sudden I seen that b'ar's eyes just start to bulge and water. He reached his big ol' paws around his back as if somethin' was a fixin' to come outta his back side! Oh, I know'd I should a give him some privacy and leff him alone, but I just a had to watch.

Sho nuff, that b'ar started a diggin'. He dug a way down into that hillside there next to Clear Lake. And when the rumblin' sounded like one o' them earthquakes of the Yellerstone, I saw him turn and a squat right over that there hole.

Three days of pepper-eatin' and one day of lake-drankin' came outta that there b'ar in 90 seconds. The geyser that ripped down outta that there b'ar lifted him clear off the ground, near as high as the pine tops. It melted the snow in the whole a Yellerstone, and it stank so bad that I saw the Upper Falls run back'ards just to get away from the stench.

I don't know how I survived, quite frankly, save I was meant to tell you the story. When it was all over, that b'ar just a trotted off like how d'ya do. But that spring remained, just a bubblin' and a gurglin' away. In fact, should you bravely follow the Clear Lake Trail in the Yellerstone, you'll see the spring thar--all brown and still a bubblin' to this day.

My mom inspects Bear Squat Spring before anyone had named it or written a silly tale about it.

Evangelism 409: Knowing WHAT to Farm

A few months ago I picked up the book, The Omnivore's Dilemma.  It's a fascinating look at where our food comes from, how it's made/processed, and what the real consequences of 99-cent hamburgers might be for cows, for nature, as well as for us.

I'll admit, I got halfway through it, and I put it down to move on to other stuff.  I'm not an "Aggie," and I have a thimble-sized knowledge of agriculture.  Not being much of a meat-eater either, I wanted to move on to reading other stuff.

Last week at church, though, it all came back to me.  On Wednesday I posted a link on Facebook to an article entitled "The Coming Evangelical Collapse."  It stayed with me the rest of the week--the writer, Michael Spencer, points out some glaring weaknesses in Moral-Majority-Era evangelicalism that are coming to a head, and he sees a huge collapse in the future, building on alarming drops in membership that are going on now.

But I shouldn't focus solely on collapse, should I?  Does that build anyone's faith?  Does it offer hope (my duty as a believer)?

That's when I came back to The Omnivore's Dilemma.  I was trying to explain it to my friend, David, last week at church.  The author, Michael Pollian, visits a sustainable, organic farm in Virginia, whose owner, Joel Salatin, focused on the wholesale development of food from the roots of the grass to the cow to the plate.

Salatin introduces Pollian to a method of sustainable farming that rotates his livestock through a series of pens.  A day or two after his cattle consume the grass in a pen (and defacate), he brings in chickens in a mobile chicken coop.  This procession of cows followed by chickens makes its way around his 200-acre farm every five to seven days.  Every week or so, the pen is ready for the cattle again.

Why does he do it this way?  I have always assumed that cows just grazed one or two fields all spring, summer and fall.  Why the chickens?

"I'm a grass farmer," Salatin explains.  All energy originates in the Sun.  Grass converts that energy to sugar; cows convert the grass to meat.  Logically, good grass builds good cattle--and good cattle manure and regulated grazing also develops great grass!

(For egg lovers out there, Salatin's hens follow two days later, eating the maggots crawling in the feces of the cattle and depositing fertile droppings of their own.  This actually cuts down on the pests around the farm as well as yielding delicious eggs.)

So what does this have to do with evangelism--or evangelicalism, for that matter?  I think it's a call to be better farmers...or fishermen...or whatever it is that God has called us to be.

I always thought the farmer was about the cow, not the grass.  The more cows, the richer the farmer.  It didn't matter what the cows ate--as long as they were fat (and cows get fatter on "unnatural" cow food like corn flakes).  I think that pastors and denominational administrators have fallen into the trap of seeing believers in this traditional way:  they see the cows in their pasture--or sheep in their fold--and they compare this with the other pens and take pride (or feel desperate as the case may be).

But it's the grass that needs to be watered and tended.  That's the foundation of the pasture, it's where the "meat" comes from.  When I look at a lot of churches--when I think of what it was like for me in the church in which I worshipped before I went to Bethpage--I see a lot of famished, parched cattle.  You can see their bones.  Sure, there are bells and whistles, but they lie around in their corner of the pasture or stumble around the pen.  

Why?  The same patch of grass has been grazed again and again until it is worn to the nub.  The fences of the pasture have been heightened and closed in so the cattle aren't tempted to leave--"the grass is always greener" and all that.  The filth and the manure just sticks around, and the flies are thick.

The church's leaders have Ph.D's in cow farming.  They have lost the ability to grow grass.

How might one grow grass?  The rain of the Holy Spirit is a great place to begin.  The fertile soil of scripture is needed.  Rotation--new pasture, new experiences, mission--helps the grass to grow for a latter day of grazing.  Faith isn't about me--the cow, the Christian.  It is about God growing in me:  the meat, the mission we produce to give to others.

The Grazing Chapter of the Bible is Ezekiel 34 (my Bible study theme for church):  "For this is what the Sovereign Lord says:  'I myself will search for my sheep.... I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land.... I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land'" (verses 11, 13-14).

It is interesting the agricultural methods God uses with these sheep.  He promises the basics:  fertility and security.  Honestly, is there anything more important for a church to provide its flock than fertility (growth in Faith) and security (acceptance and fellowship)?

"I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts.... I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill.  I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing" (verses 25-26).  This sounds like a great development.  I can feel the safety--the grass growing under my feet.  

And it gets better.  Well-fed sheep become thankful sheep.  "I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land.... Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord."

See, this prophecy is revealed to a prophet among the believers in Babylon--a much different "pasture" than the one God promised Abraham generations earlier.  The exile is coming to and end, and--God emphasizes--this time it will be different.

A different kind of farm will need a different kind of farmer:  a grass farmer, so to speak.  God is ready develop a sustainable faith in a renewed people.  It's the kind of renewed focus that would greatly benefit evangelicals in this time of soul-searching and self-examination.

"You, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God" (verse 31).

How Stimulus Worked for the Dittes Family

I'm just so proud of the job that President Obama is doing, and I appreciated his handling of the stimulus debate. Seeing right-wingers (the very ones who drove our nation to the verge of bankruptcy with eight years of mismanagement) get completely unhinged at the idea of spending was quite fun indeed.

Why am I not terrified at the thought of "spending"? Why am I not tearing my hair out and screaming "socialist, socialist!" at the thought of doing something to help my own country?

It's probably because I've been through an economic crisis in my time, and I have seen for myself how stimulus works.

It was 2003. Jonah had just been born. Jenny tried to return to work after maternity leave, only to learn that she had been replaced. Shortly thereafter, I was fired from my job. Oh yeah, at six weeks of age, Jonah ended up at Vanderbilt Medical Center. I sold my pickup truck to pay for three months of family health insurance. Thank God we had that.

The first job Jenny took was with a new doctor at an inferior rate of pay. Once I lost my job, we knew that she needed something new. She signed on with a new doc, who paid better, but whose practicing philosophy was a polar opposite to what Jenny wanted to do.

One year later, Jenny was ready to quit. I had found a part-time job teaching, but we still weren't out of a financial rut. Jenny had a dream of starting up her own clinic--a non-profit clinic that could treat patients the way she wanted them to be treated, and could provide care for those who couldn't find it elsewhere.

Where was the money coming from? We certainly didn't have the savings to start up a new business. The only option was debt--quite a bit of it.

Fortunately we had equity in our home. I didn't question it when the idea came out. I have complete faith in Jenny, and I knew that she would be successful, even if many of her prospective patients wouldn't be paying lots of cash. We took out a 2nd mortgage of $30,000. It was all or nothing.

Four years later, Jenny's clinic provides her with a good salary and employs 12 other people as well. Last March the clinic paid off the remainder of the debt it owed us, and it is free and clear. It was stimulus, plain and simple. It worked.

As I think about my country, I see a similar scenario. The USA is already in terrible financial shape, and $789 billion seemed tough to add to our debt in that situation, but we need new direction, we need something daring, and President Obama's plan could do that.

But this is more than about President Obama, who won 53% of the vote and whose approval ratings approach 70%. It is more about America. If we believe in her, we know that this crisis could be the beginning of greatness, just as the Great Depression launched the USA on the track toward superpower status.

If there is no stimulus in 2004 for the Dittes family, where would we be now? Who would have cared for the thousands of patients who have patronized Hope Family Health Services in the last 4 years? It's amazing, when you think about it.

Slumdog Millionaire: Will the Easter Story sweep the Oscars next Sunday? Will anyone notice?

It's mid-February, and I already have Easter on the mind.

Maybe it's a subconscious yearning for spring--although 60-degree temperatures here in Tennessee the past week haven't exactly been wintry. Maybe it's that my German class is preparing our first-ever celebration of Fastnacht/Karneval on Fat Tuesday, a week from tomorrow. It may be that I'm still preparing myself for Lent.

Hopefully it means that Christ's re-birth in me during our church's fantastic Advent season has carried through.

Valentine's Day swept by in a rush this year. My nephew's birthday is on Valentine's Day, and my sister's family came up from Georgia to celebrate. On Sunday afternoon, however, Jenny and I hired a baby-sitter and went to the movies--something we hadn't done since we saw U23D together over a year ago. We chose Slumdog Millionaire.

Now glowing reviews have been posted everywhere, so it would seem reduntant to note how touching, triumphant or thrilling it is.  Driving home after the film, Jenny and I were amazed at how Christian it all was:  the story of Christ's Passion played out across the slums of Mumbai on a Calvary that looks an awful lot like the set of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Really?  This is stretching it, perhaps.  No doubt the production was made by secular Britons and Hindu Indians.  How can an Easter story come from such a source?

Because it is a story that is that great, that's why.

The story begins with torture.  Jamal Malik, a tea-server at an Indian call center, has finished the evening's show one question away from 20 million rupees.  He never finished the 2nd grade, lived in the slums all his life, yet he has managed to answer nine questions correctly.

Immediately after the taping, he is grabbed by police under suspicion of fraud.  Jamal is silent before his accusers, and the silence is broken in a remarkable scene.  Thinking he is unconscious, the two inspectors confer:

Police Inspector 1: Doctors... Lawyers... never get past 60 thousand rupees. He's won 10 million. [pause] 
Police Inspector 2: What can a slumdog possibly know? 
Jamal Malik: [awake, quietly] The answers

Jamal and the inspector go through the previous evening's show, question by question.  Jamal's answers are explained by flashbacks.  I don't want to get too bogged down in detail, but I want to point out a few striking similarities.

Jamal grows up with his brother Salim in a Muslim slum.  Orphaned by a rioting Hindu mob, Jamal and Salim flee, followed tentatively by another orphan girl, Latika.  Salim, the eldest, at first refuses to let Latika join them, but Jamal persists, displaying a loyalty to her that matches his loyalty to his own brother.

Salim is Adam, Christ's brother.  Tempted by a cold Coca-Cola, he, Jamal and Latika leave their shelters in the dump to live with gangsters who use children to beg on the streets of Mumbai.  When Salim witnesses the gangsters' brutality to another child, he becomes Moses, leading Jamal and Latika out of the "orphanage," but only the boys get away.  Latika is left behind as the brothers sojourn throughout India.

Five years later they return on Jamal's volition.  He has to find Latika.  They find her in the red light district, a young twelve-year-old virgin being prepped by the gangster for a big payoff.  Selim becomes David versus The Gangster, and--after a night of drinking and violence--he becomes Nebuchadnezzar:  holding Latika captive in their hotel room, he points his revolver between his brother's eyes:  "Now get out!"  Jamal will stay--he's that determined--but Latika intervenes, closing the door and leaving Jamal alone.

The Jamal of the quiz show is five years older.  His job in the call center led him to reunite with Selim and find Latika, but they are out of his reach.  Latika is the consort of Mumbai's toughest gangster, and Selim is now Judas, the gangster's right-hand man.

When they meet, Jamal fantasizes about throwing his brother off the top of a building:

Salim: [Trying to explain why he never contacted Jamal after forcing him out of the hotel room.]  Left a message for you at work. 
Jamal Malik: There was no message. 
Salim: I definitely left a mess... 
Jamal Malik: There was no message! There was no message! *There was no message*! 
Jamal Malik: [Looks down at Salim starting to cry a little] 
Jamal Malik: I will never forgive you! 
Salim: I know. 

Jamal won't harm him.  Adam/Salim is his brother.  Besides, it isn't Salim he's returned for, it's Latika.  In the ultimate act of betrayal, Salim learns of Latika's plans to run away with Jamal.  In an intense scene, he grabs her at the railway platform--just as she has caught the attention of Jamal--forces her into a car, and gives her a long scar along the side of her jawbone.

That leads directly to Calvary/Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?  The pharisaical show host, Prem Kumar, is contemptuous.  "This is my show," he screams in private.  To Jamal he gloats, "A few hours ago, you were giving chai for the phone walahs. And now you're richer than they will ever be. What a player!"  Jamal avoids the traps the host lays and outwits him at every turn.  

This exchange is particularly revealing in light of the Passion link.  The quiz show exchanges are fascinating in this new, calvary-centered paradigm.

Prem Kumar: Its getting hot in here. 
Jamal Malik: Are you nervous? 
Prem Kumar: [audience laughs] What? Am I nervous ? Its you who's in the hot seat, my friend! 
Jamal Malik: Yes, sorry.

The gospels don't show Jesus ever saying this to Annas (the Prem Kumar character), but history shows that  Annas indeed had more at stake than the man whose life was on the line.  It is important to point out that Jamal wasn't on the show to win twenty million rupees; he wanted to find Latika.  Why would he worry about a multiple-choice question in that scenario?

The final question opens the next evening's show.  All of India is watching.  Salim is Judas (you will see a 30-pieces-of-silver allusion).  He is also Peter, freeing Latika from the gangster's lair, giving her the keys to an SUV (ahem, another huge connection) and his cell phone.

Here's the how the final question plays out:

Prem Kumar: So are you ready for the final question for 20 million rupees? 
Jamal Malik: No, but maybe it is written, no? 

I was grinning at this point of the movie, Easter-lover that I am.  The faith that allowed Christ to conquer Calvary, uttered so simply, by a chai-wallah on an Indian game show.

Prem Kumar: Final question for twenty million rupees, and he's smiling. I guess you know the answer. 
Jamal Malik: Do you believe it, I don't! 
Prem Kumar: You don't? So you take the ten million and walk? 
Jamal Malik: No. I'll play. 

Which of the lifelines will Jamal use?  Millionaire fans know which lifeline is the last to be used:  phone a friend.  Salim's number rings...and rings...and rings...and rings..."Hello?"  

It isn't Salim; it is Mary Magdalene--no, it's me--OK, actually it's Latika.  She doesn't know the answer either.  But the answer doesn't matter to Jamal, neither do the twenty million rupees.  Latika answered.  All he has to do is climb down out of the Hot Seat (ahem) and reclaim his destined Bride.

The theater is full of Easter, and every eye is full of tears, but Jamal isn't done.  They meet in a garden that isn't Eden but an abandoned train platform.  I hear Resurrection whisper out of Latika's amazement:

Jamal Malik: I knew you'd be watching 
Latika: I thought we would meet only in death. 
Jamal Malik: This is our destiny 
Latika: Kiss me 

And for the final, perfect touch, Jamal bends down and kisses...Latika's scar!  It's a transcendant moment, full of redemption.  I wanted to stand up and cheer.  To a Christian, this symbolism is most wonderful--as wonderful as Easter.

In Slumdog Millionaire, the greatest story ever told has been told again--brilliantly, wonderfully.

A few more notes.  

• Malik, the last name of Jamal/Jesus and Salim/Adam, is the Arab word for "king."  
  
• The movie has a few scenes set in "heaven" before young Jamal's return to Mumbai to rescue Latika--I'll leave it to viewers to figure out which famous Indian place this is.
  
• A month ago, Jenny and I watched Danny Boyle's breakthrough film, Trainspotting, on cable.  This really helped us to appreciate Boyle's work in Slumdog.  Both films are beautiful stories of redemption (Trainspotting chronicles a Scottish man's escape from heroin).  They are very, very gritty and dirty, too.  Both have a scene with a dirty toilet, which seems like a strange hallmark for Boyle.
  
• If you're wondering, I got the quotes from the IMDB site for Slumdog Millionaire

Mytherable: The Prettiest Golden Apple

Ellie and I were at contretemps: drama, misunderstanding, struggling for a way to communicate. Then she needed me. She came home with a social studies assignment: write a myth.

With every suggestion, she would complain, "No, no it will never work." Then she would burst into tears and say, "I can't do it, I can't do it!"

I decided to write a myth of my own. Experienced readers will recognized a little of the Judgment of Paris and Atalanta, but it got the point across. I'll share it here with you.

A couple of notes: yes, "Prettiest" is the nickname I have called Ellie ever since she could walk; also, feel free to read the details and pick out your own interpretations of Dittes family dynamics.

The gods were gathered, sipping nectar and laughing at the stories of Homer, when the door flung open and a package rolled down the colonnade to the base of Zeus’s throne.
As it came to a rest, the paper bundle magically unfolded to reveal a golden apple. Attached to the apple was a tag which read, “Prettiest.”

Zeus read the note and smacked his forehead. “Not again!” he groaned, thinking of the terrible war his daughter, Helen of Troy, had begun soon after the last golden apple had rolled through the halls of Mount Olympos.

“Who is it for?” asked Hermes. Without waiting, he leaned over and read the tag. “Prettiest!” he exclaimed. He looked at Zeus. “Who is that?”

“I think I know.” A lovely goddess got up from her bench and glided toward Zeus’s throne, smiling prettily and reaching out for the apple.

“Don’t even think about it Aphrodite,” said the goddess, Artemis. She had just gotten back from chasing deer through the Elysian Fields, and she hadn’t yet changed out of her jogging outfit. Even so, she seemed as fresh as a spring morning, and her golden braids were sprinkled with flower petals.

“I think it is mine.” Athena strode forward, her clear grey eyes glaring at the other two goddesses. Her fingers tapped ominously on the shaft of her spear.

The three goddesses glared at each other. Then they looked at Zeus. “You decide,” they demanded, almost as one.

Zeus laughed. “Oh no I won’t,” he said. “I won’t have any part of this. Do you think I want everyone on Olympos angry with me? Never!”

“Just give it to me,” Aphridite said. “No me!” Artemis replied.

“God of Thunder, if I may.” A short satyr approached the throne. “There is a dancing place in Tennessee. Huge slabs of concrete overlooking a spring, a burial place for the giant, Thorsys. A girl lives there. I have seen her. I hear that she is called, ‘Prettiest.’”

Athena glared at him with her grey eyes, fires glowed in the dark starburst around her pupils. “Well…is she…the Prettiest—I mean, this apple could be for her.”

The satyr stuttered. “No, your highness, she is nothing like you…except,” he paused reverently, “for her eyes. They are of your color—and passion.”

Artemis ran over to him. “You said she was the prettiest, didn’t you?” she growled, sounding almost like a hungry wolf.

“Compared to you, she is not,” the satyr continued, “But you should see her run—she is so fast, I dare say she could keep up with you.”

Artemis smiled. “Prettiest, prettiest, prettiest,” Aphrodite said, pursing her lips into a sweet smile. “Can she do this?” She stared at the satyr and blinked her eyelashes. The satyr felt his knees weakening and his pulse quicken.

“I dare say she comes close,” he said. He turned to Zeus. “I only mentioned this because I thought that she might serve as judge.”

Zeus pounded the arm rest of his throne. “Wonderful idea!” he said. He handed the golden apple to the satyr. “You shall be the keeper of this. Lead these goddesses to the dancing circle you spoke of, and the competition will begin. This girl, uh, Prettiest, sounds like the very judge we have been looking for.”

The satyr and the three goddesses were caught up in a cloud and taken far away to Tennessee. At that very moment, Ellie Dittes sat curled up on a couch reading a book. Her phone buzzed to life. Text message.

There on her screen was a golden apple avatar. She couldn’t take her eyes off of it. It was so beautiful.

The phone buzzed again. “Want it?” the message read.

“Sure!”

“Back yard. Past the fire pit.”

Back yard? Ellie looked out the window. Leaves were blowing around the yard. A storm must have picked up. She put her book down and walked to the family room, looking out past the dogwood tree at the fire pit. Just beyond, she could see a cloud that seemed to glow with pink, purple and green lights.

Buzz. She looked down. The golden apple. Buzz. “RUCumin?”

Ellie opened the door and walked into the back yard. The cloud seemed to race toward her. Suddenly it enveloped her.

Ellie blinked and tried to shake some sense into her head. This was her back yard, all right, but the people were unlike anything she had ever seen. A satyr grinned up at her, perched on his fawn-like legs. Three beautiful women—one in a flowing dress, one in Greek battle armor, and one in a jogging suit—smiled sweetly at her.

“You are the one called, ‘Prettiest?’” the satyr asked her.

Ellie wrinkled her eyebrows. “That’s just a silly name my Daddy calls me,” she said. “I don’t really believe it. No one else calls me that.”

“I believe it,” said one of the women, whose grey eyes warmed her. “That Daddy of yours is a smart one.”

“Oh, it’s true,” said another. “I just love what you have done with your hair—and those clothes look so great on you. I bet all the boys are sweet on you.”

Not to be outdone, the woman in the jogging suit spoke up. “Prettiest in looks and deeds—I hear that you’re quite the athlete.”

“Thanks,” Ellie said. Under her breath she muttered, “I guess.”

The satyr looked at the women and then back at Ellie. “You will probably want to get right back to whatever it was that you were doing.” He paused.

“A book,” Ellie said. “I was reading a book, and I still have some homework to do.”

“Your book,” the satyr continued. “I just need a quick favor. It has to do with this.” He reached into a bag and pulled out the golden apple.

Ellie’s eyes grew wide, and she gasped in amazement. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen—nothing she had seen in the Louvre Atlanta or Boston Museum of Fine Arts could compare with its brilliance or craftsmanship! She read the tag, “Prettiest.”

“It’s not for you,” the satyr said, putting it back into his bag. “It’s for one of them. You get to decide who it belongs to. You could say it’s a contest. You’re the judge, Prettiest.”

Ellie looked at the women. They were all beautiful. “I don’t think I can make a decision like that,” she said.

Athena strode towards Ellie, put her arm around her shoulders, and turned her away from the others. “Let me make this easy for you,” she said. “I’m the Goddess of Wisdom. If you pick me, everything gets a lot easier. You will get the top grade in every class for the rest of your life—even math. You get a full scholarship to the university of your choice, whether it’s in Paris or New York or London, and you are guaranteed your dream job right after you graduate—valedictorian, of course. Just give me the golden apple.”

Ellie grinned. “Nice,” she said. “You said New York, right?”

Athena winked at her. “Nice eyes,” she whispered.

“Oh Ellie, let Auntie Artemis talk with you.” Ellie spun around and faced the goddess in the jogging suit. “Ellie, I can tell that you’re a winner, just by the look of you.”

Ellie nodded.

“I’m the Goddess of Girlhood,” Artemis continued. “Did you like the Olympics last summer? If you like winning, you like the Olympics, and I can help you get a gold medal…or three…or ten if you want. You will run and run, leaving everyone in your dust. And since I’m the Goddess of Girlhood, you’ll always be the BFF, you will never run out of friends.”

“Sweet,” Ellie explained.

“Sure it is,” Artemis giggled. “All you have to do is give me the golden apple. Let’s get together for lunch sometime. Where is your table at lunch?”

“Now Artemis run along.” Aphrodite strode up to Ellie. “It’s time for a woman-to-woman chat.”
Ellie’s lips lifted into a smile.

“Your lips are just beautiful,” Aphrodite said. “I would suggest a light pink lipstick—nothing too strong.”

“O….K….” Ellie said, expectantly.

“I already know what those two ninnies were talking to you about, so let’s just cut to the chase, shall we? Do you like any boys?”

Ellie grinned. “Sort of.”

“I’ll give you beauty that will knock their eyeballs out of their sockets. The boys won’t be able to resist you, my dear. You will never have a bad hair day, your body will be the perfect proportions at all times. Oh, and this….” Aphrodite pulled out a credit card. “Unlimited balance, but it can only be spent on clothes and accessories.”

Ellie reached out as if in a trance. “Give me….”

Aphrodite snatched it away. “Only if I get that golden apple.”

“That’s enough you three,” the satyr said. “You have all had your say. Now give Prettiest a chance to make up her mind.”

Ellie backed up until she was sitting on the steps outside the family room. The three goddesses stood under the dogwood tree. Ellie could hear them whisper.

“Think what your daddy is going to say when he sees your grades,” Athena said.
“Your name in lights,” Artemis whispered, “Ellie Dittes, USA!!!”

“I bet that boy is a cutie,” Aphrodite said, “He’s going to love the way you look.”
“Pick your Mama, she’s prettier than all of them combined.” Was that Daddy? What was he doing on the other side of the family room doors?

Ellie looked down at the golden apple. She tossed it in the air and caught it, admiring its brilliance. She had to decide, she just didn’t know which one….


Ellie, I think that this myth describes where you are in your life at this very moment. The golden apple you are holding is your life. It’s your future. You have so many demands, so many dreams, so many aspirations, and they are all calling to you, beckoning you, begging your allegiance. This is a stressful choice—very stressful, especially for someone with your natural talents and abilities.

Myths are wonderful tools to look at the things that might be causing you trouble. Giving these stressors a name and a face helps you to understand them better. Perhaps you could write an ending to this story yourself—or add gods and goddesses (religion, family, music, etc.) that I didn’t have time to include.

The greatest story that I know of is the one your life has written so far. It has travelled to the ends of the earth; it has experienced true loyalty and great turmoil. I am so proud of you—very, very, very proud of everything about you. I hope that we can keep writing together—that you will continue to inspire me—for many, many, many more years.

--Daddy, 11 January 2009

Some Cool Quotes

"To be truly radical is to make hope possible, not despair convincing." Raymond Williams

"Everything works out right in the end. If things are not working right, it's not the end yet. Just relax and keep working." Michael C. Muhammad.

"Only puny secrets need protection. Big discoveries are protected by public incredulity." Marshall McEwen

And if you have a chance, watch the video linked in the title. It's an awesome assessment of how close we actually

One of the Dots

The video below is a fascinating look at immigration into the United States between 1820 and 2000.

Each dot represents 100 immigrants from a given country.  I keep watching this over and over again, thinking about my ancestors who came over in the 1690s, 1890s, 1900s and 1920s.

It's also cool to see how things fluctuate from Europe and Africa to Latin America and Asia--where most immigrants originate today.

Immigration to the US, 1820-2007 v2 from Ian Stevenson on Vimeo.

George W. Bush: A Success Story

I submitted this is a letter to the editor of my local, daily newspaper.  Since I doubt it has much of a chance to get in, I though I would post here here for your enjoyment.

Personally, I don't like to be judged by criteria that I don't choose to be judged by.  Consider my merits and my goals when you are calling me a screw-up or a disaster.  If I judged George W. Bush in the same way, a success story emerges.

------------------------------------

As we come to the end of the Bush Administration, many writers are trying to get a jump on history by proclaiming him a miserable failure (the prevailing view) or lauding his goals, if not his achievements as president.

Another way to judge the Bush Presidency is on what it intended to do from day one.  Judged in this way, it is easy to find many successes.  Cheney's energy task force was wildly successful when one looks at the wild profitability of the coal and oil companies who helped to forge it.  The tens of billions of dollars of profit of companies like Exxon/Mobil, and the vast numbers of Americans tricked into denying climate change or believing in the existence of "clean coal" technologies are testaments to Bush's successful energy leadership.

The tax cuts of 2001 were also successfully implemented, and Americans with incomes in the top 2%--and those who stood to gain lucrative inheritances--cannot complain.  Moreover, with no tax increases to pay for increased spending on the War on Terror or Homeland Security, Bush successfully delayed the economic impact of these policies until the last year of his administration, albeit two years earlier than when the bubble was designed to burst back in 2001.

The Iraq War was also a goal of the administration from day one.  Former treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill revealed in his book The Price of Loyalty, that rationale for an invasion of that country was presented at one of the first meetings of the National Security Council.  Bush wanted that war.  Mission accomplished.  When he ran for re-election, Bush promised to keep troops in Iraq, and he has delivered on that promise, too, even if it took two more years go find a strategy that would finally reduce sectarian violence in that war-ravaged land.

If we consider his terms, then, Bush succeeded at achieving the goals he had from the beginning of his first campaign for President.  In hindsight, these "successes" may seem short-sighted or disastrous to our country's prosperity.  If that is the case, however, the blame should not lie with George W. Bush and his administration but with the American voters who embraced these priorities in Bush's two election victories.