Some Liturgical Humor for a Monday

Click on the image to see it up close and personal. Probably won't be using it in our contemplative service anytime soon.

Peace,

Jeff

Just Some Random Thoughts

Certainly yesterday was historic in many ways. My guess is that we won't know just how historic it was for a while, that it might just turn out bigger than anyone ever expected. I found the thread of responsibility that ran through President Obama's speech to be refreshing. It was also refreshing that he addressed global issues like poverty and climate change. I didn't agree with his statement that we won't apologize for our way of life, after all it is largely that way of life that has lead to global poverty and climate change.
It was unfortunate that at least on the stream I was listening in on (NPR) that the musical selection wasn't very audible. From the bits that I was able to hear, it sounded like a great arrangement. For all the discourse on having Rick Warren give the opening prayer I found it to be fairly banal. However, I did appreciate how he incorporated "The Lord's Prayer" into his, by doing so I think he invited prayer to God of all rather than to just a Christian God. I thought the Benediction was great, and loved seeing President Obama chuckling to himself as Rev. Lowery mentioned the old civil rights rhyme and petition "for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right."
Today begins Spring Semester at St. John's. If all goes right, this could be my final semester of classes. I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.
Finally, on Monday U2 released the first single from their upcoming album "No Line on the Horizon", you can listen to the single, Get On Your Boots, here. I kinda like it and look forward rolling down the windows and playing it loud!
Peace,
Jeff

"I was just thinking how it sucks to be in my generation"

Last night as we sat down to dinner, our twelve year old was abnormally quiet. I kidded him about not liking what Jeanne had prepared for dinner and he blurted out .. "I was just thinking how it sucks to be in my generation." He proceeded to talk about the talk about Yellowstone exploding - he has a keen interest in geology - and then on to global warming at which point he broke down crying. Will watches the news with great interest and I'd be willing to venture that having two science geeks as parents, he's more in tune with what's going on in the natural world than most 12 year olds. But there's still a very strong sense of a loss of innocence and as a parent it makes me angry. Why should a 12 year old have to be worrying about global climate change? For that matter why should a 12 year old have to be worrying about a tank roaring down his street shooting white phosphorus laden shells? Or worrying about rocket falling out of the sky onto his school building?
We talked about his fears this morning on the way to school. We talked about how we can't let fears like that dictate our lives and that when we feel compassionate about something that we need to speak out about it. We talked about what we wanted to do when we take our trip to Atlanta and he said rather than Coke World, he'd like to visit the King Center or the Carter Center. How 'bout them apples.
Peace,
Jeff

Solstice Time

Generally this time of year is pretty slow for me at work. However, this year it's been fairly busy - which is a good thing. It isn't so good for blogging and other creative endeavors though and hence the lack of posting on my part.
I've been working the past couple of weeks trying to put together a proposal that will enable biologists to track zooplankton populations in a series of representative lakes so that we can monitor and eventually predict how changes in climate and land use will affect those populations. Since zooplankton can actually influence the quality of the water by grazing on phytoplankton and algae and have a direct bearing on fish population structure (i.e. all fish depend on zooplankton at some point in their development) we want to find out if they might be a good indicators of change. There is a great deal we don't know about them however, like are they evenly distributed across a lake? How do their populations fluctuate during the seasons? Are certain species more indicative of change than others? Those are the questions we hope to answer.
So, while it is normally a time of recharge and renewal here on the frozen shores of Lake Minnewaska, this year the solstice is a bit busier than normal.
Peace,
Jeff