As my journey enters the "second half" moving from learning and earning to living and giving - I'm convinced it's all about relationships, creating lasting memories, community and social networking.
My recent deep dive into Holy and Holiness has yielded another interesting memory. This morning, the hymn "Take Time to be Holy" surfaced from my childhood days of singing old hymns. Looking for the history and lyrics is an easy search, but the top YouTube search result was not how I remembered singing the song. So, was my memory wrong? Luckily, my Android phone has the ability to find songs by just humming the tune - which I did. Only to discover the result was "Take Time to be Holy" with a link to a piano version just as I remembered. I had happened upon two different arrangements - the modern SATB choral version by John Longhurst which was very different from the 1890 George C. Stebbins hymn (also known as Holiness).
Also - my joy of research lead me to Luke Powell's analysis of the history and commentary on lyrics.
1 Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord; abide in Him always, and feed on His word. Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak, forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.
2 Take time to be holy, the world rushes on; spend much time in secret with Jesus alone. By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be; thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.
3 Take time to be holy, let Him be thy guide, and run not before Him, whatever betide. In joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord, and, looking to Jesus, still trust in His word.
4 Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul, each thought and each motive beneath His control. Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love, thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.
Just finished listening to a Tim Keller 2014 audio series on Questioning Christianity. Tim Keller audio podcast sermons have become a staple in my daily listening habits in the car. After purchasing all 1500+ sermons and talks, it will be a long time before I get through all the content.
In the "Questioning about Jesus" topic Keller states many good deeds are self motivated unless you see good works through the lens of Faith in Christianity. This argument is the classic "Works vs Faith" debate about Salvation in Christianity.
At breakfast this morning, with P.N., we discussed Free Will and the book "Modern Physics and Ancient Faith by Stephen M. Barr. The debate between Determinism and Free Will is also an endless debate like Works and Faith. How appropriate after my Vistage presentation on Decision Making. At the root of decision making is the underlying truth (or not) of free will.
P.N. feels that determinism is beginning to overtake the free will view. My view is less defined (or determined :)
My own curiosity into this philosophical realm led to an attempt (yes the failed attempt) to read Sam Harris's book on Free Will. My memory is that Sam Harris (one of the famous Four Horsemen of Modern Atheism), believes there is no free will. Yet the existence or non existence of free will does not indicate your belief in Christianity or not.
So using the Free Will argument - Are Good Deeds, Good because of your free will? (I decide what's good)
Using the Faith vs Works argument - Are Good Deeds, Good if you don't believe in Grace (Faith)?
Maybe that is the genesis of the term "Goodness Gracious" … great balls of fire!
Memorial weekend is now booked forever in my memories with the wedding of Jenna and Paul (5/27/17). What a wonderful event fully planned and implemented by Susan. Not to overshadow the Friday night graduation of Ellen (5/26/17). This will definitely be a milestone year. Even two of my nieces gave birth to two new children this year.
There are endless stories that this weekend generated (and maybe future blogs). However, my moment of tears happened during the soloist singing of the Lord's Prayer at the end of the church service. Her voice filled Hyde Park United Methodist Church in a way that everyone was stunned to silence in an awestruck moment of reflection . Jenna purposely broke the silence to clap and a tidal wave of appreciation filled the church. It was exclamation of the holy moment of matrimony and the heavenly AMEN!
Well - this qualifies for another Heaven Board #13 - Holy Memorial Matrimony
"Spreading the light that illuminates The divine grace from the great ideal.
Today is my day four of the Greater Cincinnati Walk to Emmaus (Men's Walk #100). If you have ever pondered God's Grace, wondered about the power of prayer, and yearned to feel closer to God's LOVE, then the Emmaus Walk is whispering to you now. If instead, you are thinking - No not really, like me for 15-17 years after seeing Susan when she first experienced her Women's walk and wanted to share this experience with me then .... it's not your time and maybe these are not your questions.
For you, it may be a different question about GOD's mysteries that are turning in your mind, or burning in your heart, or churning in your purpose in life. When that time comes, it will be right for you. After all it is all GOD's time and you living on his time.
We are given free will in every aspect of our lives but one - TIME. For me the Emmaus Walk was a glimpse of GOD's time (and is now Heaven Board #12). Actually I now believe there is no time in Heaven. When I gave up my watch and phone (begrudgingly) at 7pm on Thursday, time stopped. Today on Day 4 it has started again.
At Wednesday tennis, D.P. mentioned there would be a holiday concert in the community symphony that he plays in - did I want to attend? That launched into the memories of my music background and the many hours devoted to practicing, playing and listening to music.
Mom and Dad planted that seed of interest and watered it with encouragement, lessons and coaching for 15 years. Once in college (and after two years in the Miami Marching Machine), all that investment would lay dormant (other than the listening part).
I tried to do the same with Jenna and Ellen but with less success (maybe only 6-8 years). I remember Jenna's piano teacher saying that it takes 7 years (on piano) to give the gift of that skill for a lifetime. Not mastery - but the ability to sit at a piano and play a decent piece - maybe even sight read.
Using my 15 years of dormant knowledge, I asked D.P. what instrument he played.
Trumpet he replied.
Arrogantly, I asked "Have you played the most famous trumpet trio piece"?
"What would that piece be? he asked, obviously indicating it must not be so famous.
I didn't know the name or composer but could easily hum it it for the tennis guys attempting to get help. P.N. asked for a repeat performance and an additional stanza to no avail. D.P. even tried to google "most famous trumpet trios" on the "smart-alec" phone. No luck!
So this is where the mind is fascinating. I just couldn't get the tune out of my head. How would I ever find out the name and composer? Yet last night it popped into my memory......
The Bugler's Holiday! And with the power of the internet - confirmation of it's stature.
Buglers Holiday - by Leroy Anderson performed by the US Coast Guard
Today, I sent out my fifth follow-up email to the couples we shared the October weekend with - "Don't give up" - reminding them of the six week commitment after the Outback encounter.
"What if GOD designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?"Gary Thomas
At exactly 5pm November 2 Sirius/XM turned channel 17 into the "Holly" Christmas music channel. And I was in the car to hear the rollover. I listened last year to the "Holiday Traditions" channel so much that just singing the marketing jingle would create sighs from both Ellen and Susan.
When Sirius/XM offered the 4 month introductory special back in October for $25, I couldn't resist knowing the Holiday music -- "Soon would be there". So now the family will be listening to Holly until Holiday Traditions debuts on December 5th.
I love the music of Christmas - both the secular and the religious. I'm lucky enough to have great memories during the holidays with family and friends. Yes, there is always a small slice of stress that goes with the hustle and bustle of the season. But what better thing to take my mind off this November political election.
What would you rather listen to - Fox News, MSNBC, etc. ........ or HOLLY.
Back from Kansas, it was a good visit with family. With 22 hours in the car there was plenty of time for reflection, phone conversation with friends, and education. Finally I have started using all my retired phones as audio servers for podcasts, and books. So even after a trip to the downtown Public Library to check out Great Courses, I discovered I had an overcapacity of content for even 22 hours.
Most of the trip out was spent listening to Rev. Timothy Keller sermons. However on the way back I listened to Great Courses - "Creating Humans: ethical questions where reproduction and science collide" by Alexander McCall Smith, and "Understanding the fundamentals of classical music" by Richard Freeman.
So putting all this randomly together --- what have I learned?
The mystery of God's creation will be an infinite laboratory for us to work, play and discover how much we don't know as we try to prove we know it all.
Yesterday was a snow day - so no blog (what an excuse). I was assigned the MRC (Musical Resource Center) for coaching for the Semi finals of Fast Pitch 2016.
Twenty non-profits in Cincinnati will present their 3 minute pitch to the SVP Cincinnati Partners and we will vote for the final 8 that will practice and refine their pitch for the March 2 Finals.
Three minutes is not much time to introduce your non-profit and show how you are making an impact on peoples lives. Too often they try to impart too much information with too many words. My advice is that you will win or lose based on the first ...... and last 30 seconds.
My suggestion to MRC for their final 30 seconds:
So…..
What does MRC mean to you? Well it’s not about trying to find
America’s Next Idol or Band. It’s not about aspiring to be the winner of
The Voice. MRC is about inspiring America’s youth through music.
MRC is about winning in Virtue – building virtue each and every day – 4 hours a
day, after school, in Cincinnati. Vote for MRC and you will be expanding
our 2000 family of successful youth now and for generations to come.
Just visiting MRC was enlightening and educational. It brought back memories of how my parents nurtured the gift of music in my life. The discipline of practicing, preparing, and performing helped me be more successful in everyday activities. So many kids do not have anything structured in the 4 hours after school that can create problems - "Idle minds are the Devils playground".
Today, at the Vistage check-in, Al. S. asked us to be creative and choose any number to quantify our overall score for our personal and professional lives (vs our normal rating system from 0 - 10).
On the flip chart Al inked what I thought was the infinity symbol (a flattened horizontal 8) for his number. I quipped - "It must be Al thinking about Heaven". For me pondering infinity is like thinking about Heaven.
No - it wasn't infinity - it was his two dimensional picture of the Mobius Band. I was embarrassed, as a Math major, to be unaware of the Mobius properties and equation (although Geometry was never my love in Math). Al educated us about the unique properties of this band traveling the inside brings you to the outside without crossing an edge. Wow - there are some deep philosophical things to relate to this point.
Initially I thought maybe this was a great way to depict infinity in 3D - see the following pictures:
But - I'm not sure it works. Needs further study ( a good 2015 project).
These looping visuals put me in mind of M.C. Escher's artwork of the continuous stairway.
Actually the attic story and stage setting with the opening of the magical trunk totally captured the magic and mystical feeling of the Christmas season. The light show and pryo synchronization was spectacular. Don't come thinking you will hear the traditional Christmas music - but the rock arrangements were fun to experience.
It was a fun evening and quite a contrast from the tradition of going to the Nutcracker Ballet.
"Back in the late 70's Neil Young sang a song about the emerging punk ethic ... and the pivotal line in that song is 'It's better to burn out, than it is to rust". Now I'm not sure that even Neil himself subscribed to that sentiment, but I don't see rust as a bad thing. I have an old 1962 John Deere tractor that is covered with rust but it runs like a top.... you know, the inner workings are just fine.
To me that rust symbolizes all the miles driven and all the good work done and all the experiences gained. From where I sit rust looks pretty good." Don Henley "The History of the Eagles"
Just finished watching this 2012 Documentary now available on Netflix. Worth every bit of the three hour investment. The quote spoken by Don Henley at the end summed it all up - 40 years of rust still sounds pretty good.
It was a great weekend with the Cincinnati Pops Summer Riverbend sing along. The family brought blankets and KFC chicken meal and enjoyed the lazy summer evening together.
I remember so well the free Concerts in the Park with the Cincinnati Pops that Susan and I would attend. Cincinnati Pops has national recognition (like the Boston Pops) primarily because of Erich Kunzel (and now John Morris Russell).
The songs were all the popular Broadway hits - Sound of Music, Oklahoma, Les Miserables and some more recent shows (Jersey Boys, Beauty and the Beast etc.).
Singing joins laughter as the ingredients of joy in life.
I've been helping Ellen study Social Studies and I've been learning more (with more interest) than I ever understood about the patterns of economics, politics, religion, art, literature, music, and philosophy. When I would try to impart this wisdom to Ellen during a review for a quiz, Ellen's eyes will roll back in her head silently saying " Dad, just get the minimum facts to stick in my head to get through this boring history stuff so I can get a good grade!".
How true --- I hated World History at her age. Yet now I'm fascinated with looking back at the history of human behavior. K.C. listened to me describe this and told me of a course he is taking on line.
So I decided to join him with over 21,000 students in taking the 14 week course. I'm also reading the supplemental text "Patterns of World History Since 1750" by von Sivers, Desnoyers, and Stow.
I finished week One and get a Quiz on Tuesday. It is yet to be determined if my pattern of school history will repeat.
I completed (well as much as I wanted to do) the Musical Oldies Personality Project for the Vistage 1107 group. Each member was instructed (naturally there were some renegade non participants) to pick their favorite song for each year from 1962 to 1982. I promised that I would analyze the data and analyze their personality based on the selections.
The research ("The Do Re Mi;s of Everyday Life: The Structure and Personality Correlates of Music Preferences" by Rentfrow and Gosling - University of Texas at Austin) was a gold mine of information. Rentfrow and Gosling mentioned work by Mehl and Pennebacker (2003) that found individuals listened to music during approximately 14% of their waking lives. So music is important to people!
It wasn't hard to see musical personality preferences (even without their stories and explanation of picks) among the 10 Vistage members who participated. I'm sure I had some advantage in nine years of hearing personal stories from four of my Vistage buds. But even for our newer members, I could easily see some personality traits within their selections.
Even more fun was coming up with the common matches among the network nine responses:
The Top 100 Oldies project has morphed into an analysis of musical personality. I couldn't resist searching the internet and finding a personality test based on musical preference (a sort of horoscope for your musical tastes).
It all started when I heard American Pie by Don Mclean over the Labor Day Holiday. It was on Jenna's playlist. I immediately spoke up and said - that was the winter of 1971 my senior year of High School. A vivid image of a grey Saturday in Cleveland popped into my head. I was driving a group of us from the Methodist youth group to a volunteer activity on the West side. We were all singing the song (8 + minutes worth) in the car. Why I connect that particular event with the song is a mystery - but many songs conjure up a vivid memory in time.
So - that put me on to a music project. I decided to create a playlist of songs for each year from 1962-1982 consisting of only ONE SONG for each of the years. Upon a search of the internet I found Music Outfitters which had a list of the top 100 songs for each of those years. This task is not easy given my history of the endless hours I spent listening to the radio and taping songs on Dad's reel to real tape recorder. Regardless - I plowed on and for the hardest years I picked three first and then tried to narrow to one.
Before I publish my list, I intend to go back an find what songs I actually taped to verify if my taste in favorites has evolved (however back then I was not just limiting my recordings to just one song per year).
BTW - American Pie was my 1972 pick. (Why 1972 - the song was released in November 1971 but made the top 100 in 1972).
Tonight was the first Friday night home game for the Indian Hill Braves and the Booster Bash. A perfect September evening as temperatures dropped from the high 70's to 56 degrees. I was "on point" on several fronts - volunteering for the Booster Bash and the "supervision" (parent in waiting) for Ellen and friends that were attending the game.
Standing at the end zone fence, I observed the real action (off the field) of the various groups of kids (from elementary, middle school and underclass high schoolers) all "hanging out" paying no attention to the game. At least the Seniors were dressed up in spiritwear and were organized as a cheering section in the home stands.
Across the nation, High School Football dominates the Friday night activities. Just before the 7pm kickoff with the crowd leisurely sauntering into the stadium, the band began to play the National Anthem. Suddenly, as if a snapshot had been taken, everyone and everything stopped as the band played on.
.... And the home of the Brave. The "frozen" picture restarted and lives journeyed on. Yet for a moment in time the Community all came together, stopped their agenda and through reverence to freedom, listened to the song that unites us all - a country blessed to be playing high school football across the land.
In "What's so Great about Christianity, there is a reference to Hell - where God is eternally absent. Dinesh D'Souza states that the atheist rejects God and reluctantly God grants him his wish. "In a sense the gates of hell are locked from the inside." The atheist locks God out from inside seemingly unable to leave.
G.S. (from Sunday Fellowship Small Group) quickly spoke up "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave." from the Eagles song Hotel California. That song has had numerous interpretations and the writers have purposely been vague about it's origin other than the excesses of the music industry. Freely entering the pleasure dome ("This could be Heaven or this could be Hell") can result in an inability to leave it behind ("but you can never leave").
Inside locks (usually dead bolts) are designed for an individual to be able to leave - but requires action. But for every inside lock there is a outside perspective looking in. A person knocking at the door awaiting your response. But it takes a key (or action of unlocking) to open the door.
Find the key. Check out. You can leave. Heaven can't wait.
"Light of the World" by William Holman Hunt St. Paul's Cathedral London
PS. No locks on this door. The door in the painting has no handle, and therefore can only be opened from the inside, representing the "Obstinately shut mind". See Wikipedia : Light of the World
He's a "hipster". said A.M. at lunch. A what? I asked. Hipster - someone who is "hip". Well, I knew what hip was --- but not what hip is now! In fact the term Hipster actually started in 1940 but now its:
(1) In your 20's and 30's
(2) Independent thinking, well educated, liberal arts degrees (some math and science qualify)
(3) Counter culture, progressive politics
(4) Cosmopolitan Districts - Williamsburg, Wicker Park, Mission District
(5) Art, Indie-rock, creative overly intellectual, and witty type
(6) Vintage thrift store inspired fashion (sneakers required) - edgy!!
(7) Messy shag cuts and bangs
(8) Job ---- What job?
In the 60's there were hippies and the squares.
Huey Lewis said it all in his song ---- "Hip to be Square"!
(1) Cut Hair
(2) Wear Business Suit (presumably have a job)
(3) Work Out
(4) Watch what you eat
(5) No fooling around
(6) Conformist (no longer a renegade)
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