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.