Dead Trees and Donald Trump---One Reflection

   Last week, in order to test a new camera technique, we traveled over to Jekyll, our next door Island, and took some shots. This was Driftwood Beach at the north end of the island:

   This morning, as I thought about what we had done, and also looked at some of the results, my thought was-I really don't know that much about the reasons behind the landscape. So I looked it up and found that it was not really driftwood from other places, but rather the erosion of that part of Jekyll that had left those trees to die there when the sand was displaced.

   Then later this morning, as we sat eating our breakfast, we listened to a podcast about the immigration news from the weekend.

   It struck me, as I listened to some background of the immigration and refugee situation facing our country, that, just as I made a judgement of the trees on Driftwood Beach, my knowledge of how we got to where we are today on the national issues is also very superficial.

   I thought of the pictures on TV over the weekend relating to protests at airports around the country aimed at government policies regarding persons entering our country. Not just any policy, but specifically those of the new president. It seemed to be not just a reaction to a policy, but a reaction to a man, Donald Trump.

   In a day of quick sound bites on the news, any depth of the complete story is absent, and my knowledge is just as spotty as the next viewer.

   So, as I listened, I was forced to think about long standing US policy regarding immigrants and refugees. I thought about how the policies of past administrations impacted the situations of today, about how the laws that had been enacted over the years to benefit both the country and the people coming in, and how the selective enforcement of these laws over the years had gotten us to where we stood today.

   We stand in a very charged political and news environment today, but we need all the facts, not just the ones of the last few days, and it takes effort to try to understand the background.

   Men and women, boys and girls, both resident and newcomer, need the thoughtful, considered judgement of all of us. We are all affected by this.

   So, while a few of us may be concerned about how a bunch of dead trees happened to be on a small beach area of a small island in South Georgia, all of us should be, not only concerned about those people who were detained at airports this weekend, but concerned enough to see the complete and ongoing story as it is: a compilation of actions from the past that reached a point of protest on TV.

   For a listen to the podcast we listened to, go here:

   http://www.albertmohler.com/2017/01/30/briefing-01-30-17/ 

   I'm glad I did...

  

An Inconvenient Question..

   This morning I woke up at 5:30. No alarm, no reason, I just did..

   So, I got up, took a walk in the dark, came back in, sat down and read for a few minutes, then heard my wife moving around in the bedroom.

   I went back to check on her to make sure she was ok, talked her into going back to bed, and even laid down with her to encourage her to return to her sleeping.

   Then as I lay there, I got to thinking:

   Why did I do all of that?

   Was it for her benefit?

   Or mine?

   I knew the answer, but I did not feel good about it..

   It is so easy to get self into the way, while trying to do "good" for others.

   Truthful answers are not always satisfying.

   And they show more than I want to about myself.

   The reasons why we do things show more about who we are than the acts we do.

   She got to sleep, and I got to think about what took place.

   And WHY..

   Oops

Obligation, Challenge, Responsibility and Opportunity

   Last evening, as we watched the events leading up to today's inauguration, I was struck with my part in the whole process, not just to watch and marvel at a peaceful transition of power, but to do something.

   There is an obligation for each of us, one that we should not just shake off, one that we should not just leave to others who are "better at it" than we are, one that I struggle with a lot of the time.

    Paul says in I Timothy 2:

"I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—  for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.  This is good, and pleases God our Savior,  who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."

   What better way to relate to our new leaders but to pray for them?

   Not just haphazardly, but intentionally, and consistently. Like every day, and with a knowledge that it is a necessary ingredient of a strategy that God approves.

   What do we pray?

   How about that phrase in the Lord's Prayer, one that was in my reading for this morning?

"Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,  your kingdom come,
your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven"

   Thy Will Be Done

   A lot of folks were surprised when Donald Trump won the election back in November, but God was not one of them. Events unfolded, not without God, but because of God.

   Could it be that today is one of those times, pointed to in Esther..

"And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

   It could very well be, and, if so, it is my obligation, my challenge, my responsibility and my opportunity to pray for wisdom for the man and his advisors.

   Our great country faces many challenges, but none too big for God.

   Beginning each day, this day being the first, I will pray for my leaders. God has put them there for His Reasons, and this is my Opportunity to have a part.

   "Thy Will Be Done"

  

Not a Bad Thing, Not Bad Indeed..

   There was this scene in the book I was reading last night:

   One character in the story was showing a painting to a gallery owner. 

   "What do you think?"

   "Well, I really don't know what to think, or even how to think about it?"

   Slowly the holder of the canvas turned it around so that it was not upside down.

   "Oh, now I see.."

   Seeing with new eyes, maybe a part of lifelong learning, sometimes fun, sometimes not so much so..

   I've been experimenting with a new photography technique, at least it is new to me, called HDR, an abbreviation for High Dynamic Range.

   Let me illustrate: 

   There is an old school in our neighborhood, Harrington School, a one-room school for colored children way back when. I wanted to photograph it, so the other morning we drove over there.

   The process is to take three shots of the same scene at different settings. So I took one with settings  on what my camera showed me as a correctly exposed shot. Then an immediate shot over exposed and another under exposed. They looked like this:

   The computer program takes these three shots and combines them into one (I don't know how, it just does).

   After some fiddling, the result looks like this.

   Some photo bugs like this process and some do not, but I thought it was kinda neat.

   So, this is a sequel to my post on "Old Dogs and New Tricks". I am trying to be somewhat creative in this area, and this is my current experiment. 

   Why go through all of this?

   Keep learning and doing new things…might keep us old people out of trouble..

   Who knows?

   Seeing with new eyes, trying to understand other things and other people, learning a new _____.

   Not a bad thing, not bad indeed...

Teaching Old Dogs...

   Way back, when Dwayne was first living in California, San Jose to be exact, back before Karen and the kids, our whole family went out to visit at Christmas. As a part of that time, we rented a house at Tahoe and went up into the mountains to ski.

   Now Dwayne was the only one of us who had learned this winter sport, so the rest of us took beginner lessons and skied for three or four days. Of course, Donna and Doug took to it and were soon zipping down the slopes with abandon. Granny Lou and Papa, on the other hand, being older and more brittle, took longer. 

   Papa could only turn left and was the source of many joking comments as he fell and slid his way down. 

   It was a humbling experience, but it was a first.

   On another occasion, while Dwayne was in High School and had become a distance runner, Papa decided to try his hand at that, and lose some extra pounds. So he did, and managed to one day, train and run a marathon. He made it that time all the way 26.2 miles, and looked forward to a long and distinguished career. 

   Alas, that was the only one he ever ran, but it was a first.

   This Christmas time, many years after those two "firsts", Doug and family came to celebrate with us. Doug had purchased this one-man riding machine while they were on sabbatical in California. It looked like fun, and he encouraged Papa to try it.

   Another first, and while it was fun, and he could also turn right as well as left, the Segway left St. Simons in the back of the van, and it may have been another of those "one and done" accomplishments that are great to talk about on cold winter nights around the fire (if we had a fire).

   An old dog, a new trick…

   A new definition of "life long learning"

   Just don't ask me to go in reverse..

Do For Others, Do What Is Right

   There is a college up in Kentucky. One we visited a few years back. One that I was impressed with because of their goal of reaching into the poorer sections of the Eastern Kentucky mountains and making education available to those students who could, and would, influence the region for good. 

   Lindsey Wilson College, Columbia, Kentucky

   My figures may be off, but, if I remember correctly, they told us at the time of our visit that something like 85% of the freshman class, came from families that were sending the first in their family line off to college. That is a staggering number, especially for us who take college education as a normal extension of schooling.

   But, I say all of this to give a little background to a short piece I read in their newsletter for December, 2016:

   "Jon Conover, a member of our physical plant staff who is responsible for cleaning the Biggers Sports Center, traveled with the men's basketball team as they traveled to play the College of Coastal Georgia and Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, FL. While the men won both games, I was touched that Jon was able to see the ocean for the very first time! How thoughtful were Coach Paul Peck and his team to think of Jon on this trip. It makes me wonder how many of of precious students still have yet to experience this wonder."

   A coach and his team see a man, who is essentially a janitor cleaning the gymnasium they use for their sport, and make it possible for him have the thrill of discovering the beach and ocean for the first time in his life. What a treat for coach and team to be there when Jon first cast his eyes on that scene.

   And what stories Jon could tell his family and friends, of his discoveries, and his feelings, as he stood on that shore and marveled at his surroundings. 

   Things and situations, vistas and feelings of wonder, places that we take for granted..All part of a gift of love for one that was cared about.

   Two of my three points from the previous post:

   1. Do for Others

   2. Do What is Right

   A great example of caring and doing.

   Impressive in my book..

Recollections: Smiles or Grimaces?

   Sunday, January 1, 2017, a new day, a new year, a new chance to begin again…

   I have had a bunch of New Year Days over my lifetime, but here is yet another. What should I do to make it outstanding? What can I do to maximize the days ahead?

   Good questions, but that is all they were that day, just good questions.

   They could be good resolutions, but I've never been too big on those. Too easy to write down in a flurry of thought, and too easy to forget.

   So I jotted down some thoughts on a post-it note and stuck it to the front of my computer. At the very least I would see it every time I opened the cover, until the stickum gave out.

   But yesterday, as I was driving home from some errands, a memory from pretty long ago flashed through my mind. My reaction to that past situation was "Man, I should not have acted like that, it was not right".

   I have those flashbacks every so often, and, for a few seconds anyway, I live in regret of something that I had done, or something I should have done in that past era.

   So I posed a new question:

   How could I live in this new year that would lead to a life of "no regrets"?

   And I wrote a new post-it with 3 points…

   DO WHAT IS RIGHT..

   DO MY BEST..

   DO FOR OTHERS..

   Each time I had a choice to make, and I had taken the "right" way.

   Each time a responsibility came along, and I had done my very best.

   Each time I had put others first, and got myself and my ego out of the way.

   My bucketful of regrets would have shrunk exponentially, and I could smile at each recollection and not grimace.

   As long as I am the photographer shadow above the tombstone and not the body underneath it, I have the opportunity to live that way.

   So, I make a better note, and ask God to help me live that way in this year, and to pass on His Wisdom whenever I can.

   Beginning now...