Lip Service

Lip service doesn't count.
We can say that something is important, but what do we do?

Among the hardest things to do, we find:

• homework
• honey-do list things
• helping others

It's true.  So many things demand our attention, and it gets worse as the years go by.  Our families are fully engaged with school and birthdays, science fair projects and sports and shopping ... well, you know. We're really busy!

Precious, amazing children in Kenya.  The elders from
their community are hoping we'll be able to lend a hand
getting some school projects started.  About $4K over
two or three years will equip and staff their facility.

Then there are other important issues like families that are struggling, children in a famine region, or kids who can't go to school because their family can't afford it.  Those are distant concerns that we see and affirm but we just can't get around to them. Fortunately, they're less important than the stuff we have to deal with every day.  At least that's what we tell ourselves.  

'The tyranny of the urgent', it's been called, and we're more stressed and less productive as it piles up. Years pass, overly filled with busy-ness, some worthwhile, some not.

What if we sat down with our kids and took the time to work through real-life things?  Did you know that it costs about $45 a semester to keep a kid in school in Kenya?  For the price of an X-Box, you could put some kids in school for a year or so.  That includes a mid-day meal, usually, and it may be the only meal the kids get sometimes. You and your children could be world changers for those kids and their families.

Children learn more from intimate involvement in such things than from years of words. A great heart isn't formed by talking.

If lip service is the best we can manage, it doesn't count. No peace, no joy, no help at all.  A little time and effort invested, however, is great fun, and it pays back more than we'll ever give.  If you like, we'll introduce you!

Feel free to join us.  TexasEx.Org

C. O. W. EIEIO!

Political
 Ideologies
   Simplified

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away.

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND (VENTURE) CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States , leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

A GREEK CORPORATION
You have two cows. You borrow lots of euros to build barns, milking sheds, hay stores, feed sheds,
dairies, cold stores, abattoir, cheese unit and packing sheds.
You still only have two cows.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called a Cowkimona and market it worldwide.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows,
but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the ** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least you are now a Democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive...

TWO COWS ~{Matthias Varga}

It's only funny from outside of the kill zone, of course.

Allegiance

NYTimes 18 FEB 2014

"With hundreds of riot police officers advancing from all sides after a day of deadly mayhem here in the Ukrainian capital, anti-government protesters mounted a final desperate and seemingly doomed act of defiance late on Tuesday evening, establishing a protective ring of fire around what remained of their all-but-conquered encampment on Independence Square.

Feeding the blazing defenses with blankets, tires, wood, sheets of plastic foam and anything else that might burn, the protesters hoped to prolong, for a while longer at least, a protest movement against President Viktor F. Yanukovych, a leader who was democratically elected in 2010 but is widely reviled here as corrupt and authoritarian."

Does allegiance to country include obedience to government?

Not at all.  Not morally, not ethically.  A person of conscience does not equate country with government.  Governments serve the people who are the country.  IMHO.  (Kneejerk response. It's an ancient idea that citizens exist solely to serve those who rule. Such thinking brings corruption and extraordinary injustice still today in much of the world.  Too much.)

Protesters at Independence Square on
the first day of the Orange Revolution

The heartbreaking violence in Kiev (pictured) and across the Ukraine in the last few months is specifically about that distinction.

The Euromaidan (Ukrainian: Євромайдан, literally "Eurosquare") protests started in NOV 2013 when the majority of Ukrainian citizens demanded stronger integration with the European Union. Demonstrations followed the president's refusal to sign an association agreement with the EU, which he insisted was disadvantageous for the nation. Euromaidan has come to describe a wave of ongoing demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine.  The protests have included many calls for the resignation of President Yanukovych and his government. In January 2014, the government enacted the Bondarenko-Oliynyk laws, also known as Anti-Protest Laws. Violence has escalated in frequency and severity since then.

20 FEB - The EU and the US are threatening targeted sanctions against Ukranian officials they hold responsible for the violence in Kiev that has killed at least 26 people and injured more than 200 since November. 
There's a truce announced this evening. We hope for progress and a end to the violence.
Thursday morning, another 20 have died as the truce crumbles.

21 FEB - In a statement, EU foreign ministers said targeted sanctions including asset freezes and visa bans would be introduced "as a matter of urgency".  Dozens of anti-government protesters died in Kiev on Thursday. Many were reportedly killed by snipers.  In all, 75 people - including policemen - have been killed since Tuesday.  In addition to those, Ukraine's health ministry also said that 571 were injured during three days of violence in the Ukrainian capital.

Protesters had captured 67 police, the interior ministry said. A number of them were later released by activists on the main protest camp in Independence Square - widely known as the Maidan.  The tense stand-off is continuing overnight, with the activists standing guard on the Maidan barricades for possible new police attacks.

24 FEB - President Yanukovych has fled the country ...
Our great hope for humanity; freedom from injustice, protection from the wicked who would put their own will above the good of others, a safe place to raise our children.  Stunned Ukrainian citizens view the opulence Yanukovych purchased with the country's meager wealth.

“It’s beautiful here,” Svetlana Gorbenkova, a real estate agent, said of Mr. Yanukovych’s privately owned residence. “It’s so peaceful. But why all this for just one person?” she asked. “This was all stolen from us. It’s obvious now how much he stole. Why didn’t he give anything to the people? When he was running for president, one of his slogans was ‘I will listen to every one of you.’ But he didn’t listen to any of us.”

27 FEB - As my father would have noted, the Ukrainian government appears to have been crooked as a dog's hind leg.  If they're as smart as they are corrupt, government officials will run for their lives.
6 MAR - Disturbingly, now Russia (Putin) is making a play for land and resources, much like earlier land grabs.  All ultra-high-risk.  

We all know something's wrong.

There's a gap between young folks who are discovering life and older folks who have already walked a little of that path. The gap is real, of course, because today's discoveries appear on top of yesterday's, and the older context eventually gets left behind.  Things change.

Technology changes rapidly.  Science and business are fast movers as well (there's money involved) along with youth culture and the arts.  The mainstream runners are next; the media, educators, intellectuals, criminals and politicians. Among the last to change even a little, we find institutions like government (and law), and the church.

Institutions are deliberate slow movers.  By definition they are monuments to moments in history and to ways of thinking that had such virtue and nobility when they were new that none were willing to let them go. Institutions exist to solidify and support those unchanging cornerstones of civilization.  At least, that's what we've thought.

There are truths that endure, of course, but old laws and old hymns and old ways cannot speak those truths with clarity today.  

Example:  don't steal.  Thousands of pages of regulation and law on that simple truth, and they weren't enough; Wall Street players knowingly made and sold worthless mortgage securities.  Government couldn't keep up, couldn't change fast enough to do their job. Aha! A relevance gap!?!

So, real church; is it an institution?

As complexity and change accelerate, we have to adapt if we want to participate and contribute.

What occasions of the institutional model are still worth the cost?

There's a huge and fascinating debate underway regarding church relevance. Experimentally, communities are rediscovering what fellowship is about and what living their faith broadly might look like.  It certainly can't be reduced to a one-word issue.  Are there risks?  Many.  Opportunities?  Many more!

Everybody loves change ..., 
    and everybody hates changing.
Such upheavals are probably good, especially in retrospect.  Meanwhile ...

                    "... the place to start ... and stop. 

... Jesus interacted with culture. He spoke the languages of His nation, wore the clothing, worked in a common trade and engaged with people where they were, socially, emotionally and spiritually. He also used references and stories that people of the day understood. 

... He remained untainted ... He lived counter-culturally while inviting others to join Him."  From Focus on the Family's Meredith Whitmore

Do you have any of these symptoms?

A century ago, we acquiesced to popular preferences and divided our attention between the newly-named 'highbrow' and 'lowbrow' content categories for our entertainment.

Meaningful literature gave way to pulp fiction, and the nay-sayers faded away into the intellectual void.

Today we have Honey Booboo, the Kardashians, and an absolute deluge of internet drivel.  That's our cultural target for mass consumption.  If our trend over time is a descent from highbrow to lowbrow (with not even a pause at middlebrow), then what might we call today's drivel?

Underbrow?
Nobrow?
Chin?

Things Congress doesn't want you to know about car insurance in MD!!!

If you're in college, you can trade your parents mortgage for a new car for free!! No strings attached!

OBAMACARE loophole for folks in MD whose last name begins with the letter 'D'!

126 exceptions to income tax you've never heard of! Amazing tricks you can use!

If a frog had wings, he'd be an alien! Really! Subscribe here!

These simple finance tricks will make you rich while you lose weight and earn college credits! Only $25!

Oh, good grief.

I do love the internet.  It's better than a good library and Saturday morning TV put together.  There are parts of it though that are absolutely mind-boggling.  Somebody is actually reading this stuff, and what's worse, somebody else is making money off of them doing so.

Growth vs XGrowth

For a fun addition to our perspective,
let's watch grass grow!

A handful of seeds in a good patch of soil will do well.  In just one or two growing seasons, the area will fill nicely, and you'll perhaps need a goat.

The goat is a nice solution, since it will give back by keeping the grass trimmed and fertilized.

A goat and pasture make a nice illustration of simple balance.  There's more needed like rain and sunshine, good soil and drainage, but still, it's a nice picture of balance.

Over the years, the goat grows and the grass grows.  Simple, probably easy to manage.  It gets a bit more complicated with a breeding pair.

Two goats, in our simple illustration, will of course become four and then eight.  Not a problem at first, since we have a large and fertile pasture for our example.

For our example, lets say that after 30 generations, the goats are consuming half of the pasture's production. How long do we have before the capacity is exceeded?
One more generation.  Just one.

So, if it took a thousand years to go from 200 million to 300 million people in the world, that means it will take another thousand years (or maybe ten thousand) to go from 2 billion to 3 billion, right?  Hardly; it took 30 years.  Then it took less than half that time for the next billion.

Population grows exponentially. Despite our intellectual preference for linearity and a steady pace forward, exponential growth is the norm, right up to the point where you have to expand the pasture or get rid of some goats. If unmanaged, the die-off can be massive.

For those who hope that perhaps
    the many concerns are exaggerated,
           here are a few thoughts that might be worth a moment.
                 The interesting part for all of us is figuring out what comes next.

Note:  Feral goats, to clarify a bit, have an actual fertility rate of between 10% and 35% under favorable circumstances.  Populations tend to retreat in line with unfavorable conditions; high juvenile mortality accounts for most of the decline.  A generation varies; females begin reproduction at a year or so and will continue fertile for perhaps 8 breeding seasons.