Why I show up at church

For me, faith has never been about duty or obligation. Faith is saying “Thank You” for life and for the undeserved gift and experience of grace. A faith community is a gathering of grateful people who say and sing in myriad ways, “How can we serve?” “How can we make a difference?”

Now in retirement, most Sundays are DONSA (“Days of No Scheduled Activities”). Yesterday’s Sunday School lesson about healing helped me reflect on our son’s decades with a disabling illness. Yesterday’s worship helped me explore giving and receiving forgiveness “seventy times seven.”

We heard Nikita Gill’s poem, “Hearts Like Wildflowers, Hearts Like Yours”: I hope you are blessed with a heart like a wildflower. Strong enough to rise again after being trampled upon, tough enough to weather the worst of the summer storms, and able to grow and flourish even in the most broken places.

From “In the broken places,” by Yi, Medium, March 28, 2019

It’s a wonderful life

Carol Sims’ comment on yesterday’s post mentioned an important realty reality–the growing trend of investors and corporations competing with individuals to buy single family homes. This topic has stirred some memory cells.

In 1919, my grandfather built a house for his family and then built a house next door for his parents, who eventually passed it on to my grandfather’s three sisters. A cousin lived on an adjacent lot, and I don’t know the story of how the land came into the family’s hands. Those houses are still occupied.

Home ownership in America took a hit during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The 1946 movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, reflected a dream reawakened after the depression and World War II. The classic movie centered around the role of Bailey Building and Loan in providing a way to gain home ownership.

Jimmy Stewart, as George Bailey, from “The Morality of Banking in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,'” by Bourree Lam and Gillian B. White, The Atlantic, December 23, 2016.

Netflix nixes the red envelopes

On September 29, Netflix shipped its final DVDs in those red envelopes, ending 25 years of a creative mail-order rental program that has become outdated by newer technologies. This was announced in April, but I learned about it just last week.

This minor tidbit of info came to me by way of 1440, a creative news service that sends brief, free email news summaries. They strive to be objective and unbiased: “We scour 100+ sources so you don’t have to. Culture, science, sports, politics, business, and more—all in a five-minute read.”

I like the brevity of 1440’s summaries, and the links they provide to their sources. The Netflix story came from the UK’s Daily Mail, by way of Neuhoff Communications, which lists the 50 most popular videos, including #1, the 2009 film The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock..

From “Netflix Reveals The Most Popular Rentals of All Time,” by Joe Lacay, April 20, 2023

Adventure in Space

JFK didn’t live to see the fulfillment of his challenge to a make a successful human round trip to the moon within the decade of the 1960s. I remember the first seven astronauts, amazing achievements, drama involving close calls, and tragedies of astronauts lost when things didn’t go just right.

I never aspired to be an astronaut, but I’m inspired by those who so aspired, such as José Hernández, who grew up in California as an immigrant farm worker. Adventure is where you find it. Hernández was rejected by NASA in his first eleven attempts to be an astronaut.

As a ten-year-old watching a black and white TV in December, 1972, Hernández saw Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan walk on the moon. He said, “That’s what I want to be.”

From “How José Hernández Became First Migrant Farm Worker to Go to Space: ‘The Best Disneyland Ride’,” by Jack Smart, People, September 14, 2023

After a long day

After a long day I revisited one of Joe Elmore’s GRACEWORD thoughts from joesgraceword@gmail.com:

Creating loving people is the purpose
of spirituality. This creating is never
contained in any form of legalism that
is driven by distinctions and doctrines
that separate us, with some of us good
and others bad, some of us included
and others excluded. 

Creating loving people is birthed and
nurtured within a new way of seeing:
we stop judging and start affirming.
We accept what is as it is, with a hope
that we will become what we were
made to be. It is grounded in divine
loving and forgiving that has already
been freely extended to everybody.

John Wesley called it prevenient grace
(it goes before); it just is, and it is for
everybody, no one excluded.

This is good news worth sharing.

And, last night I found this inspiring story about a woman who was filmed in a documentary entitled “Grace.”:

From “Tattoo helps a breast cancer survivor retake control: ‘I had the power to choose what I put there,'” by Karen Berkowitz, Chicago Tribune, October 1, 2018

The real Con?

The photo gallery of indictees in Georgia’s election fraud case reminded me of the 1973 dramatic comedy film, The Sting. If this indictment is ever converted to a screenplay, the “Con” would be stealing the election under the clever guise of “stopping the steal.”

In the 1973 movie, Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) enlists Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), a master of the long con, to help him swindle Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw), a big time crime boss, to avenge the death of Hooker’s friend Luther. Lonnegan is the “Mark,” or target, of the con.

In a movie version of this week’s indictment, the State of Georgia would be the “Mark.” In the federal case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, the “Mark” would be the United States of America. Today’s story includes many comedic elements, but it is clearly in the tragedy genre.

One tragedy is a widespread loss of trust in elections. Millions believe the former president’s claim that the election was “stolen,” in spite of the excellent work by his administration’s Election Security team. Testimony under oath should reveal whether the claims of fraud were real, or the real con.

From “The latest on Trump’s indictment in the Georgia 2020 election probe,” By Leinz Vales, Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Voot,Elise Hammond, Maureen Chowhury and Tori B. Powell, CNN, August 15, 2023

Kindness

Yesterday, our daughter Lindy sent us a Reddit link to comments by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker from his June 12 Commencement speech at Northwestern University. Among the graduates was The Office star Steve Carell’s daughter. Pritzker’s speech was based on six quotes from the TV sitcom (2005-2013).

Pritzker quoted The Office character Dwight Schrute: Whenever I’m about to do something, I think “Would an idiot do that?” and if they would, I do not do that thing. Pritzker said, “The best way to spot an idiot? Look for the person who is cruel.” He offered some thought-provoking and mostly light-hearted comments about “idiots.”

Then, he offered a lesson in kindness, saying: Over my many years in politics and business, I have found one thing to be universally true–the kindest person in the room is often the smartest.

From “Pritzker addresses NU grads,” by Desiree Shannon, Evanston Now, June 12, 2023

The Joker

My dad taught me how to play poker. I was intrigued by the Joker, whose ancestor seems to be the Fool in Italian Tarot cards (c. 1428-1447). The Joker was adapted by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson in 1940 for a DC Comics issue of Batman.

Movies have given the Joker new currency in American culture as a terrorist figure. Over the past seven years, my mind’s image of the Joker has shifted from Cesar Romero or Jack Nicholson to the face of Donald Trump. This image was solidified by the release of an audio recording of the former president’s conversation in which he displays a secret military document to some friends and staff members.

Former DOJ prosecutor Andrew Weissmann describes the significance of Trump and friends laughing and joking about these documents which he took from the White House via Mar-a-Lago to Bedminster. Unfortunately, the joke is on the Republican Party for nominating him (twice) and the joke is on us–we, the American people–for electing him once (thus far).

From “The History of the Joker Card,” Phil R. Neill, Hobby Lark, July 28, 2022

Elvis has left the building

It means finality, first used in Shreveport in 1956 by a public address announcer to disperse concert-goers hoping for an encore. This Elvis phrase came to my mind at our recalibrated Annual Conference as I remembered my friends who “left the building” and are no longer part of our tribe. But, I firmly oppose all forms of tribalism, so I can declare that “it’s okay.”

Phyllis Tickle prepared me for this when she spent a weekend at our church in 2008, the year her book, The Great Emergence, was published. She said today’s cultural shake-up will be as far-reaching as the Protestant Reformation. She said, “The church always emerges stronger after one of these.” I worry about our nation and world, but the church will be okay.

Our Bishop said: “We said goodbye well. We carry no baggage. We left no jagged relationships.” A friend said, in good humor, “The baggage left.” It sounds snarky, but it’s true–and good. We had become each other’s baggage. Now, we are all free. Now, all of us can be who we were created to be. Finality is painful for awhile, but finality is healing. Finality is okay.

From “Elvis Has Left the Building,” 2004 movie, Review by IMDb

In my opinion…

From yesterday’s post, just to get it on the record: Donald Trump is a problem, but Donald Trump isn’t the problem. He took advantage of pre-existing problems and (in my opinion) made them worse by drawing millions of people into (what I see as) his narcissistic view of reality.

Autocratic regimes require everyone to agree with the autocrat about how great the autocrat is. Democracy is messier than autocracy. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping think autocracies will prevail. The jury of history is still out, but (I believe) democracy, ultimately, will prevail.

The death of Daniel Ellsberg prompted us to view (for the third time) the 2017 film, The Post, which reveals the messiness of (what I believe is) democracy’s greatest asset: freedom of speech, specifically freedom of “the press.”

Fruits of this precious freedom include (in my opinion): The Washington Post’s “FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a year,” and Robert B. Hubbell’s excellent commentary about The Post article, “DOJ’s failure of imagination,” in his Today’s Edition Newsletter.

From “FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a year,” by Carol D. Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis, The Washington Post, June 19, 2023