Media hype

I read an article today about the decline in sales tax revenue which nationally fell about 6% in the last quarter of 2008. In Ohio sales tax revenue was down .7% compared to 2007, but adjusted for inflation that figures out to be about 4%.

Newsprint journalists write in the "inverted pyramid" format with the most important information in the first sentence or two with each sentence thereafter of decreasing importance. Presumably that's because most readers don't have the attention span or time to read the whole article. In the first sentence of this article the writer described consumer spending as "screeching to a halt." And in the same sentence the claim is made that governments are watching a major revenue source "dry up."

While there is cause for concern in declining sales tax revenue, the terms are exaggerated and perhaps intended to elicit response that keeps readers coming back for more. Then again, a lot of journalists are losing their jobs these days to the declining market for print media so maybe they themselves are writing out of fear. So much for objective journalism.

I'm thinking of the last few businesses where I shopped and it would be difficult to confirm a recession by the number of cars in the lot. On the upside of declining sales revenue, maybe that means people are saving more of their earnings, and getting better at living within their budget. That's a good thing.

Then there's the issue of swine flu. The U.S. Center for Disease Control reports that every year 36,000 people die from "flu-related causes." When was the last time you heard the annual flu season described as an "epidemic," but that's how this swine flu outbreak is being described. So far I have not heard of one death in the U.S. But just about every news web page has a photo of people wearing masks.

If you know where to look you can find a sane approach to this issue in learning to take better care of ourselves, specifically in supporting the incredible immune system that we come ready-made with. That's a subject for another time.

No child left inside

Never in my growing up years could I have imagined that it would literally take an act of Congress to get kids to re-connect with the natural world in a meaningful way. The legislation was introduced Apr 22 (Earth Day) by Senator Jack Reed and Congressman John Sarbanes. It's called the No Child Left Inside Act of 2009. The goal is to ensure that students have a "high quality" environmental education.

How about this for a summer lesson plan: unplug the TV, join the library's summer reading club, check out a book or two on something pertaining to the natural world, plunk down under the apple tree in the back yard, feel the cool ground and the ants crawling over your legs as you read. Keep checking out books at least until you've completed the required number of books for the reading program. Make sure to get a sticker to adhere to your certificate for each book you've read. (I distinctly remember one summer, each sticker I got was another segment of a caterpillar.)

Here's another: provided you've finished the school year with passing grades pitch a tent in the backyard and lay out there every night with a friend or sibling and after you're done telling stories to one another, listen to the crickets chirping, watch the magic of lightning bugs, and look up at the expanse of stars above, and wonder.

Here's another: help your Mom and Dad and grandparents with gardening and lawn care, and the "putting up" of vegetables and fruit for the winter. Enjoy the fruits of your labors. I remember visits to my Grandparents' farm with a garden alongside the house that extended from the road to the back of the house. Dinner consisted of corn and tomatoes and raspberries picked less than an hour before with a side of homemade biscuits (and raspberry jam) and topped off with fresh pie.

Here's another: Find some adoptive grandparents who have a farm and spend a week getting a glimpse of what life on a farm can be like. At Grandma and Grandpa Phillips' farm I remember drinking fresh milk, feeding the chickens, gathering eggs and walking through the troughs of a freshly plowed field to take a bottle of cold water to my Grandpa, with Brownie dog alongside.

Here's another: Go to the county fair every fall and make sure to visit the swine and cow barns then check out the prize-winning produce and flowers in the 4-H barn.

Here's another: Family trips every summer (some in a pop-up camper) to places like the Smokey Mountains, Mammoth Cave, Niagara Falls and the Wisconsin Dells.

Here's another: Figure out a way to go to "camp" every summer for at least one week. (I was at camp usually two weeks every summer for Girl Scouts, 4-H or church. I distinctly remember one week of primitive camping with the Girls Scouts, constructing our own latrine and lean-toos.)

Then there was the week-long canoe trip venture with the Girl Scouts my final year in high school. It took three of those days to traverse 90 miles of the AuSable River, bringing all our food and supplies with us in the canoes. We floated down the river for hours without seeing signs of humans (and especially no litter).

Here's one I don't recommend but it was a lesson: Get lost in a large national forest in the twilight hours and find your way out (Yes I did, I was high school age and had with me my younger brother).

It's no wonder then, that I took the "long way" to visit friends in North Carolina, traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway and then returned via the Shenandoah National Park byway. It's no wonder then, that on my way back from a car trip to Maine I bypassed the highway for a scenic excursion through the White Mountains in Vermont and New Hampshire (in October). It's no wonder that this past Saturday I took the Parkway route to get to a destination.

If nothing else, check out the book, Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv:
http://www.childrenandnature.org/book/

And most of all don't ever get too old or too cynical too experience wonder.

As I go on in life, day by day,
I become more of a bewildered child;
I cannot get used to this world....
I could wish my days
to be bound each to each
by the same open-mouthed wonder.
-Robert Louis Stevenson

America, The Beautiful
O beautiful, for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.
- lyrics by Katherine Lee Bates

What am I doing?! It's time to sign off and go outside to play!

earth - the movie

Go see the movie at the theatre if at all possible. The breathtaking photography and amazing sound recordings are best on the big screen with surround sound. It will most certainly deepen your appreciation and admiration for the rich diversity, complexity and creativity of the only known planet to sustain life as we know it.

The tilt of the earth on its axis at 23 1/2 degrees is what results in our seasons and sets into motion billions of migrating creatures in search of water, food and suitable climates for raising their young. Three animal families play lead roles in the film, accompanied by 39 other species. Filming took place at over 200 locations and 64 countries, under the daring and dedicated work of 60 expert photographers.

Some of the most memorable scenes for me...

• the first "flight" of mandarin ducklings from the nest 30 feet up in a tree. Called by their mother from the ground below none of them hesitate to plunge into air. They land and sometimes bounce off the ground unhurt and immediately head for the nearest feeding ground
• traffic jam on the high seas, hundreds of dolphins in what appear to be synchronized leaps from the water
• a one-ton great-white shark hoisting its entire body into the air, teeth gleaming, clamped on a dolphin
• a pride of 30 hungry lions closing in on a herd of elephants at night (filmed with infrared film), the adult elephants forming a protective circle around their young, and the sound of the lions' roar all around.

Go to http://disney.go.com/disneynature/earth/ for lots of cool photos, footage and fascinating details.

Earth Day 2009

For Earth Day 2009, some things to consider:

How many trees are killed each year for junk mail?
http://privacycouncil.org/how-many-trees-does-your-junk-mail-kill/

To get your name off direct mail lists:
http://www.directmail.com/directory/mail_preference/

As a follow up to my previous post about litter (America's dirty laundry):
In 2008 Ohio road crews collected 7 million pounds (350,000 bags) of trash at a cost of $3.6 million:
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/districts/D12/Deputy%20Director/News/Pages/ODOTandRecordNumberofVolunteerspartnertopickuplitter“ClearAcrossOhio”.aspx

Here are some fun interactives about earth, provided by National Geographic:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/earth-the-biography#tab-interactive

Dirty laundry

I don't think I've ever used my blog as a venue for airing anything negative, like pet peeves, which by definition are minor annoyances. Complaining doesn't seem to accomplish much but we seem to get some sort of satisfaction out of it anyway. With all the significant issues our world faces today, why do we waste our energy getting worked up about things that are relatively insignificant? I found web sites with long lists of pet peeves like maps that aren't folded correctly, people who are noisy eaters, shopping carts with wheels that get hung up etc etc.

Litter is one of my pet peeves so I was pleased to come across a poem that speaks to the issue much better than I could. You'll find the poem at the link below on the April 9th Writer's Almanac, but first let me add a few cents worth of complaint...

Like those stupid plastic bags that the wind picks up and deposits high up on a tree branch. There's one decorating the tree by my office window and one stuck on the utility pole behind my house. And what's with cigarette butts? There must have been a hundred of them stuck in the metal grating on the sidewalk I traversed on my way to a meeting downtown. How disgusting.

"Keep America Beautiful" :
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2009/04/09

Bestest

Congratulations goes to my youngest nephew Craig, first for completing his "Master of Science, Civil Engineering, with concentrations in Structural and Geotechnical Engineering" from South Dakota School of Mining and Technology.....and shortly thereafter landing a job with Stanley Consultants, an international engineering consulting firm headquartered in Muscatine, Iowa (about a half hour from Davenport). http://www.stanleyconsultants.com/

Now, excuse me while I brag a bit, but indeed all his hard work and smarts deserve some accolades.

Only another engineer can fully understand/appreciate all the technical qualifications described in his resume, but its plain to see he likes to be productive. In his college years he worked four summer internships with Kokosing Construction in the heavy industrial division. In between undergraduate and graduate school he spent a year volunteering with Habitat for Humanity/Americorps as a construction staff member for the Metro Jackson Habitat for Humanity, in the Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts. In his final summer before graduate school he worked for the city of Grand Haven creating a "GIS Geodatabase for public utilities," GIS = geographic information systems. For anyone who understands engineering qualifications here are all the letters behind his name: LEED AP, EIT, LSIT

In the few months between graduation and securing a job he finished a significant remodeling job at their home (partnering with his Dad), did more remodeling at a friend's house, dug a water line from the house to the garden (not good at judging distance but in my mind's eye its at least enough for a game of touch football), installed irrigation tubing in the garden, started some seedlings for several different vegetables all of which are enjoying a good start under a home-made green-house box, cut down a tree ready to fall (and prepared it for firewood) and finally (still in process) constructing a raised bed for raising blueberries. Whew! All that and keeping up a job search as well.

Word has it that his starting salary is more than his older brother, Brian who also has a Masters in civil engineering and has been working in the field awhile. So, stay tuned for another blog post about him, whose example, support and good-natured brotherly competition helped to pave the way. The summer that Brian was participating in the cross-country Habitat for Humanity Bike and Build trip, he challenged Craig to complete a one-day's leg of the trip, 100 miles and of course he met the challenge.

Now for the title of this blog. One time when Craig stopped at my parents' house and didn't find them home, he left a note and signed it "your bestest grandson." So the nickname has stuck, but as far as anyone in our family is concerned all three of my nephews are the "bestest."

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Here is Craig as a toddler looking out the front window to the wide expanse of fields beyond his front yard. Today he looks to a bright future.

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Congratulations, Craig!

Emblepo

The hours must have drug on that night in the courtyard outside the home of the high priest where Jesus had been taken after his arrest. Peter, one of the twelve, was there gathered by the fireside with the servants and guards, waiting to see what would happen. Just hours earlier he had vowed that he would follow Jesus to the death but now his heart was filled with fear and confusion. By day break when the rooster crowed he had three times denied that he even knew Jesus.

"But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly, the Lord’s words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.” Luke 22: 60 NLT

Tucked away in a this centuries-old story is a treasure in the word "looked," translated emblepo in Greek. The same Greek word is used by John to describe how Jesus looked at him when they first met:

Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, “Your name is Simon, son of John—but you will be called Cephas” (which means “Peter”). John 1: 42 NLT. (Cephas is an Aramaic word and Peter a Greek word, and both mean “rock.” This had great significance in an age when people were named or re-named as a description of who they were or would become. )

From the day they first met until the dawning of that horrific day of crucifixion, Jesus always looked at Peter in the context of the "big picture." He knew that Peter would fail miserably, but He also knew that Peter would become the rock of the first century church. That morning as Jesus looked across the courtyard at Peter, it was with a loving, grace-filled gaze.

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes..... So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. Ephesians 4: 6-7 NLT.

There is freedom to be found in emblepo, that I am looked upon with grace in spite of my failures and more so, I am looked upon as a child of God who is being conformed to His image. (Romans 8:29).

But as any soldier will tell you, freedom isn't free, it comes with the highest price tag, the shedding of blood. "It is finished," Jesus said from the Cross, and that marked the turning point of all history. Millions have looked to the cross as the turning point, the center point in their own lives. And the invitation still stands.

Winter blooms

There's a light coating of snow covering lawns, enough to transform the neighborhood's assorted plastic Easter bunnies and eggs into rounded shapes of white. So perhaps now is as good a time as any to reflect back on a wintry visit to the Botanical Gardens with my brother and sister-in-law. It was the last week in December, but it was just this past week that I finished that roll of film and took it in for processing. Though we spent most of our time in the glass houses, we did stroll the grounds and amazingly found some flowering plants, I kid you not. These photos are for proof, rather than aesthetics. The first I presume to be pansies and the second some flowering cabbage.
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Here's my brother Bob and I enjoying the vibrancy and warmth of Costa Rica under glass:

Words, The Word

It just dawned on me that as of last Tuesday my blog is 1 year old. So I mark this anniversary with some thoughts from some favorite writers...

Frederick Beuchner on words (from his book, Beyond Words, 2004)
Something that lay hidden in the heart is irrevocably released through speech into time, is given substance and tossed like a stone into the pool of history...

God never seems to get weary of trying to get across to us. Word after word, God tries in search of the right word. When the creation itself doesn't seem to say it right....God tries flesh and blood....

The apostle John says of Jesus in the opening words of his book:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning......He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1: 1-2, 10-14 NIV).

Michael Card, one verse of his song, Final Word
You and me we use so very many clumsy words.
The noise of what we often say is not worth being heard.
When the Father’s Wisdom wanted to communicate His love,
He spoke it in one final perfect Word.