Original wrong, right?

There's a dividing line for right and wrong that pretty much everyone sees.  Eating and sleeping are good.  Having a place to live and clothes and health and employment and ..., those are all right and good.  

But then, all of those become wrong when acquired in excess, particularly when the price for our having includes someone else being deprived.  Values erode.  Wrong becomes right.  The powerful and elite are self-justified as are oligarchs and dictators and the mega-wealthy.

That's the common path of human nature as we've noted over time.  History offers no exceptions as civilizations crumble and fall with similar narratives. Somebody gets greedy or angry or covetous, and what follows is calamitous. Emperors compete and citizens are slaughtered, cities collapse, cultures and economies disappear. Politicians compete with similar results.  It's downhill unless something forces a change.

When one person sees himself as superior and others as inferior, there's a logical decline that follows.  Values get bent and twisted, character is corrupted, and the individual is nuts forever after ... unless something changes.

A culture can encourage such wrong thinking, and folks are encouraged to play along. Expectations are imposed, conformance is the norm and particularly difficult to resist.  How does one individual hold on to a truth that isn't popular when the cultural norm says otherwise?

The solution is not religious.  We needn't revert to a King James-ish vocabulary or to Puritan laws, and neither is whom we might elect likely to save us.  We're faced with a couple of possibilities -- we can conform to the world we live in, or we can aspire to something better, something right and good and just.

Ro. 12:2

The Crooked Fast Track

"Why is it that corporations give millions of

dollars to elected officials? Do you think

it's simply public-spirited behavior?"

  ~Walter E. Williams

In the spring of '15, the Senate voted on Fast Track, aka the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA).  It's a controversial bill giving the president power to negotiate trade treaties and limiting Congressional ability to interfere. 

The first round began in May when TPA was blocked. Most Democrats voted against TPA from even being debated. However, 48 hours later, the TPA bill passed cloture. What happened that changed the minds of those opponents?

Corporate members of the U.S. Business Coalition for TPP handed out money for "yea" votes. A total of $1,148,971 dollars went to Senators for "yea" votes.

• Out of the total $1,148,971 given, an average of $17,676.48 was donated to each of the 65 "yea" votes.
• The average Republican member received $19,673.28 from corporate TPP supporters.
• The average Democrat received $9,689.23 from those same donors.  The corporations were not supporting the senator, they were purchasing the legislation.

For individual Senators:

• Bennet, Murray, and Wyden -- all running for re-election in 2016 -- received $105,900 among the three of them.
• Senator Rob Portman of Ohio received $119,700 from 14 different corporations
• Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia received $102,500 in corporate contributions.
• Arizona senator and former presidential candidate John McCain received $51,700 in the first quarter of 2015.

In the run up to the Senate vote, there had been an impressively financed battle in the House of Representatives totalling $197,869,145 given to Representatives for a yes vote and $23,065,231 given in opposition.

• John Boehner (R-OH) received $5.3 million for a "yea" vote and was the highest paid legislator.
• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) received $2.4 million for his "yea" vote.
• Paul Ryan (R-WI) received $2.4 million for a "yea" vote and came in at the third highest paid legislator.
• Pat Tiberi (R-OH) follows Paul Ryan, coming in the fourth spot having received $1.6 million for his "yea" vote.
• The fifth highest paid legislator is somewhat of a "hero" in comparison to others. Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) received $1.6 million for a yes vote and only $282,710 for a no vote. Despite the contributions from those in favor of TPA, he still voted no.
• Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) received $541,746 for a "yea" vote and no money at all for a "nay" vote and he still voted "nay!"
• Andy Harris (R-MD) received $254,803 for a "yea" vote and no money at all for a "nay" vote and he still voted "nay".

(Many think our government is for sale. At the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and associated monitoring sites, you can see how it works. See S.995, HR1890 & HR1394)

Whether you are for or against this particular legislation, you'll notice the process.  We are past the point of needing campaign finance reform.  We've reached the point of corrupt influence that is indistinguishable from bribery.

Corporations exercise inordinate influence over government policy, and legislation generally favors the most generous; not perfectly, but it usually works that way.  Do your own research.  Although perhaps legal, this is corruption and an abuse of power.  

Here's the TED talk on how it works and what comes next.

Shattered Reality!

Nothing changes you like real life.

You can watch a million miles go by the window, but an afternoon spent in one spot along the way can change you forever.  That one step closer can shatter everything.

Kids and parents at the river welcomed the old white guy.
Those are my glasses.

She's just two weeks old, sir.  Let me hold her up
so you can see how pretty she is.
Her extended family (huge) adopted my wife and me,
and our friendship has continued over the years.

I avoided Africa for decades, choosing instead assignments in the developed world.  The Cold War was my philosophical context, and until the Wall came down, that was my focus.  Years later, my job required a first foray into western Africa, and my worldview was changed yet again.  I hadn't known what 'normal' was until folks took me in and taught me about real life.  It took a year, a difficult year, for my wife to assimilate what she experienced there.

This isn't the life we had expected.  Not remotely similar to anything we'd imagined.

I recall planning for marriage.  At twenty, I deliberately quit dating, and I planned on waiting until thirty before tying the knot.  I read books on the subject, got my career and finances on track, had a life plan ... but at twenty-three, I met and married the most extraordinary woman.  Everything changed, of course, and for seven years we grew and grew closer.  Then ...

We weren't inclined to have children; we'd seen too many tumultuous families, but there was this family in Spain; mom and dad, a missionary couple, and their wonderful children inspired us.  Soon, a young couple on their way to the ministry prayed for us.  They'd been prayed over and had conceived the same day, so they prayed over us, and we had the same results.  Odd, but instructional.

Our little princess grew up as an only child; healthy and practical, she became a rather magnificent person who continues to teach us new things.  She and her husband gave us our little princess granddaughter who follows in her mom's footsteps.  At two years old, she's stunning.  Of course.

I recall how in my twenties, I felt as though I had arrived at adulthood.  I had the knowledge I needed, a healthy personal philosophy and theology, credentials and skills, and ... every last piece was disassembled and much was discarded along the way.  Now we laugh a lot at how much we've changed and lament that personal growth and wisdom aren't the product of an easy path.

The horizon ahead is bright and much wider than we thought it would be, an unexpected blessing from a loving Father.


There's stories and hundreds of pictures at TexasEx.Org
And if you'd like to, you can go see for yourself.  :)

Access!

If you want to change the world, you'll need an access point.

Perhaps not surprisingly, being a mom or dad is the most significant access you'll ever have.  You can shape the heart and mind of this precious little child over the course of all their developing years.  You can show them what strength and courage look like in action, what compassion and forgiveness can do, and what it means to love and serve another.  Even before they're fully verbal, they hear and understand, and the years go by so quickly.  For the rest of their lives, they'll be blessed by everything you did well and by your love for them.

There are seasons of life, of course.
- we learn and grow.
- we raise up our children and help them grow.  and we learn more.
- we release our children into adulthood and applaud as they walk the pathway.
- we touch the lives around us at work, at school, at church, and along the way.  and we grow more.
- we help with grandchildren, same song, second verse.
- There are so, so many opportunities to make a difference, and we learn from every one.

On my short list of favorite fellows, Bishop Samuel

has taught us so much about what it means to serve.

There's a lot of overlap; our own development is continuous.  At 20 or so, we're pretty sure we've arrived.  Then we discover that our education is just begun, our skills are in their infancy, and our productivity is barely out of the ICU.  Then we hit our stride somewhere along the way, and work really hard, and we learn and grow.  And we change the world for the lives we touch.  If we're wise, we'll capture that early and go all in.  The opportunity is now first, not tomorrow so much.

The centerpiece of meaningful life is serving well.  We can do for ourselves and have for ourselves, but that's pretty much pointless.  We can do for others and find the greater joy.  There's more, for sure; infinitely more, but perhaps this is a starting point.

So the question for the morning, how might I serve well today?

Safe!?!?

Giving a party our endorsement simplifies our task but neglects the responsibility we have for thought and principle.

Today perhaps more than ever in recent history, the political parties are not a refuge for people of faith.  Or conscience.

Neither party and perhaps none of the candidates we've heard could meet the requirements of conscience and faith for kindergarten, much less for adult citizenry.

Don't pretend like the either/or of our two party process is an intelligent place to stand.  Choosing between two lizards still gives you a stupid lizard!

So then, how shall we shape our children's future?  :)

UPDATE DEC 06, 2020:  It has been years since any attempt to unite the nation.  Misinformation is now the substance of our daily lives.  Both political and evangelical players have joined the disruptive process.  Voters are more aligned with fear and anger than with thoughtful consideration of the outcome.

This is not the first time in history when such propagandized turmoil has defined a nation, is it.  What course will a person of faith and conscience take from here?

Real Surreal

Why do we have music?  And why do some folks express themselves musically?

From a science and engineering perspective, it's all surreal. Darwin has nothing to say on the subject, and interestingly, modern behavioral scientists have little to offer.

Experientially, while not all music is great or even good, some music can transport us into an almost indescribable place. Among thousands of examples, the video here is of a young lady singing O Mio Babbino Caro from Puccini's one act opera.  It appears that the opera's story line is not a relevant factor, but the music is standalone magic.  There is a wealth of confirmation for the affect but none for the cause even when 'why' is part of the article's title.

There are a myriad of scholarly articles describing the place of music and its impact on society and culture, but there is little more than speculation on the origin of great music or great musicians, and even less on why some affects us in such an unworldly manner. It's easy to see why someone might want to be a musician, but it's impossible (so far) to convincingly describe the evolutionary arrival of the art form or the reason for its impact.

Beyond the sex/drugs/rock-and-roll culture which is a comparatively shallow performance realm, great music opens up a magnificently different world than that which we see each day.  Read and judge for yourself.

Question of differentiation:  is there a substantial difference between being emotionally moved by dancing with the crowd in a nightclub and being individually uplifted intellectually and emotionally by 'great music'?

Why might such music bring tears to our eyes?  We can trace the neurological path for such an experience, but we have no explanation for why it happens.  It suggests, as has often been bandied about, that a narrow scientific view perhaps misses much of reality, things it considers unscientific or surreal and therefore irrelevant.  Could such thinking be perhaps a bit hubristic? Of course the mind of the person of science can encompass all that is and do so in rational terms, can it not?  Not, of course, as in, "of course not."  :)

We live in a culture that willingly discounts anything outside their math and mind model. Faith, in the common forum, is considered silliness.  That's had a rather high price tag in recent decades.

I suspect that the truly great musicians and perhaps the artists as well push the objectivist boundaries in a manner not unlike that in which people of faith thrive despite the rather harsh opposition.  It does make you wonder.