And a Happy Thanksgiving to all

It still holds a special place in my heart

Rather than prattle on about the problems with the holiday and the issues surrounding us, perhaps just a time to stop and say thanks.  Just like those first puritans spending three days celebrating and partying and thanking God for their blessings.  Considering the losses they experienced and the hardships, they still found time for endless thanksgiving.  And that's not a bad thought to remember.  

For fun, here is an article attempting to delve into the past and figure out just what it is that those immigrants and Indians actually ate on the famous feast.  I'm sure it wasn't green bean casserole, which is why we never eat that on Thanksgiving.  But I'd like to think among all the venison, a nice plump turkey the way we breed found its way onto the table.  

For a reminder, the reasons my wife and I have to be thankful, among many others: 

Just because

A little dose of laughter courtesy of Steve Martin and his many talents on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour: 

And yes, a reminder that he didn't always have that plume of white hair.  Martin is one of those cases of how, when you're young, time seems to be somewhat telescoped.  His mega hit album A Wild and Crazy Guy came out in 1978 when I was in elementary school.  A year after Star Wars, and the height of Star Wars Mania (yes, that came a full year after its release), Martin seemed to be everywhere.  His novelty song King Tut caught the King Tut wave that was all the rage back then, with the Treasures of Tutankhamun  museum exhibit tour in the late 70s. A year later he would star in his own vehicle movie The Jerk, and only solidify that feeling for me and my peers that he had been everywhere forever.   

Looking back, I realize how brief his time in the national spotlight was.  Oh, he would go on and make a zillion movies of varying quality and redefine himself and become, nowadays, that elderly gentlemen of entertainment. But Martin as center of attention in the world of pop culture was only a couple years. But to youngsters at the time like me, where time seems to go at a different pace, it felt in the late 70s as though he had always been the biggest thing since the dawn of time. 

A reminder

If you sound like this when someone on the other side does something wrong:

But sound like this when someone on your side does the same thing or worse:

Then yeah, you're a big part of the problem.  I thought of that when I saw this:

Pretty rough condemnation.  And not unwarranted.  I know little of the reporter in question who was murdered.  I recall it from back in the day.  But I think that, unless the guy was Himmler redux, he deserves a little more than a shrug and 'things happen'.  Especially from our president.  And I'll stand by that.  But I don't think Trump's response is anywhere near what we have seen regarding some activists' and prominent professionals' reaction to transgender shooters in schools, or women who cross transgender activism, or heck, the Charlie Kirk murder.  Yet regarding such things as the Charlie Kirk murder, the good deacon's response was:

Now, maybe it's me, but I see a definite tonal difference in how the actual murder of Kirk was addressed versus responding to President Trump's statement.  Again, I think, as usual, President Trump's response was lousy.  It goes a long way toward conveying a disregard for human life and suffering at a time when we need just the opposite.

But so did the murder of Charlie Kirk, only a million times more!  And that includes those who defended and celebrated it.   But what did you get from Deacon Greydanus the day Kirk was murdered?  A platitude. Something that would fit on a bumper sticker.  And not even his own.  He had to quote others, saying he was too busy to address Kirk's murder.  I note he wasn't too busy to comment on President Trump's statement.   As for condemning such things as, say, the horrifying attacks on JK Rowling from transgender activists, I've asked for examples from him doing so but as of now have not received any. 

That sort of morals by partisan plot point has no place in the Church, or decent society.  If we want to bemoan President Trump or the society we've built that saw Trump's ascent, by all means.  But that is only worth anything if we look at the broader culture and society we've built, even if the evidence for that declines points sharply back to the side with which we clearly sympathize. 

The (almost) last of the birthdays

At least traditionally for the young'uns.  Now that we have our first November baby in the family, that title will pass to him.  Nonetheless, October, in addition to having my late Grandma's birthday, the month of my best childhood friend's birthday, and the Feast of St. Francis to boot, was also the month our oldest son was born. 

Not the one born to the best fortunes, he suffered from ill health in his early years.  We never knew why.  But endless doctors visits and hospitals and surgeries were his lot in his youngest days.  A lot of it was respiratory, and we began to think that living in the Ohio River Valley, known for its panoramic vistas of endless coal plants and thousand foot smokestacks, might be part of the culprit. 

In 1999, while I was pastoring a church in southeast Indiana, and quite frankly one of the most pleasant of all the congregations I ministered to, we nonetheless decided to move away.  We came up to Ohio, where skies might be gray more often than not, but without the same industrial blanket covering the air.

And things turned for him.  Within a year, most of the problems he had vanished, which was nice.  Of course being the first child he was what all first children are, and that's our guinea pig.  You look back when you're a parent at your first kiddo and just shake your head.  By the time the other ones come along, you're already getting your parent's feet on firm ground.  But those first ones are the ones who bear the brunt of your learning.

Nonetheless, with all the ups and downs he lived through, I can't deny he makes us proud.  Everyone here knows how he had planned to go into the world of gourmet cooking, only to be torpedoed by an out of the blue seafood allergy.  After wondering for a year or so what to do then, he finally found his new path and has been working toward it, where he stands today.  

But he has a knack for excelling whenever he puts his mind to it.  In middle school, though already involved in school activities like band, he decided to go out for track in order to enter the sports side of life.  It was a dismal performance.  At one point during a race, he actually veered off the track and slipped and fell.  The good news was that he was so far behind everyone else, nobody noticed.  Not to be beaten, however, he went out for cross country the following year. He asked me - who had run track and such in my day- to train him.  And so I did.  By the end of that season, he was second in his school only to the boy who was a freak of nature when it came to running, with our son often coming in near the front few even with multiple schools competing. 

But that's been him.  He may start out slow.  Sometimes he takes forever to start.  And that wasn't the only time he began with a trip and a fall.  But once he hunkers down and sets his mind to it, even if life throws him a curve ball that makes him change his entire life's plans, he ends up graduating, and with honors to boot. 

By request, a family outing for our yearly pumpkins

And off to a local college football game

Not OSU, but a great game and a great time nonetheless

For old times' sake on our way from the old apple orchard

A nice shot that captures his thoughtfulness

Getting her own pumpkin right before her brother arrived!

Right now he is in the process of going back to graduate school, the application being quite an undertaking, given his major.  More on that down the line.  As it is, he's still that oldest son.  And while we have always loved our sons equally and have made sure to divvy out our attentions across the board, there is no denying that there will always be something about that first child - no matter how old they are.  

Obligatory gloating over the grandkids picture, speaking of birthdays - now that they're both here to cause endless mischief: 

The lowering of standards and virtues

In thinking on the murder of Charlie Kirk, something jumped out at me.  How many - and I personally saw it dozens of times - rushed out and with almost joyful sneering pointed out that Kirk died while defending gun rights.  The point was supposed to be irony.  You get it, right? He was all about gun rights, and then he was killed by a gun - Ha!  That'll teach him!

But did it ever occur to them that he was aware of the possible dangers of his very position, yet he held it anyway because he actually believed what he stood for?  That he was willing to even die for his cause?  

As so many rushed out with that supposed gotcha take-down, and so more many nodded ascent and gave thumbs up when it was said, all I could marvel at is how someone willing to stand by a conviction even if they died for it was so foreign to these people.  How standing firm on a cause even to the point of the greatest sacrifice apparently wasn't even on their radar screen as a possibility. 

I thought of those as I saw this:

Could it be that, like it or hate it, the NRA is merely being consistent?  That the NRA advocates for gun ownership and gun rights - period?  Be it a Bible thumping Baptist or a transgender queer Marxist - and they have his back where gun ownership is concerned?  It's almost as if anyone sharing this and finding something negative to say about the NRA's position is as good as saying 'Because it sure as hell wouldn't be me!  You bet I'd change my principles the minute they weren't convenient. My values never last longer than their inconvenience!'  

Things like that, I fear, are what plague our modern age. An age of punditry over principles.  An age where people make sure to stake their lives on crusades that will, at best, cost others everything if they cost anything at all.  

It's one thing when bad morals, bad actors and bad motives can be found in a nation or society.  It's another when those things define a society. A few weeks back, I was talking with one of my sons about the state of things in our nation.  He made a funny quip. He said virtues come and go, but vices last forever.  In some ways he's right.  In our effort to cleans ourselves of the vices of our past we seem to have thrown out all the virtues and yet, in an odd twist, the vices in many areas remain.  And when we realize how ubiquitous they are, what we are seeing go wrong in our modern day should surprise no one. 

Sometimes a good reminder is a nice thing

 So today, it's worth going back and remembering something like this:

If you have the time, you'll be glad you did

That is the television series finale for the 1960s British spy thriller The Prisoner.  Created by Patrick McGoohan, my second oldest said it's what you would get if Lewis Carroll wrote 1984.  The finale is one of those things that you have to see to believe.  We've watched some crazy things in our lives, but this has to rank near the top.  

Which is a nice thing to remember, since we all know what day this is:

Yep.  I mused on that here.  It still sticks in my mind as perhaps the single worst television broadcast of my life.  Compared to that, even the finale for The Prisoner comes off as tame and ordinary.  

For no particular reason

 Just a little boast that we do live in a pretty neighborhood: 

Courtesy of our annual reminder that for the next few months, Global Warming will be referred to as Climate Change.  

Veterans Day

The reading of this in the film My Boy Jack always brings home Veterans Day and the risks and costs behind it: 

It's been said that the problem with 'Nothing to kill for' is that it is inevitably followed by 'Nothing to die for', which is a backhanded way of saying 'Nothing in this universe more important than me'.  As foundational as this is for our post-war secularized liberal society, it's antithetical to not just core Christian values, but the values shared by most of humanity throughout most of time.  

Yet when we see things like Veterans Day or Memorial Day or even the daily sacrifice or risk people take to help or save others, I notice that our kneejerk reaction is seldom 'what an idiot.'  No, we usually, almost instinctively, cheer them on or remember those who have served or sacrificed with reverence.  From the top of our pop culture down.

So it's almost as if, despite the uber-narrative that I must love me first, think of me first, prioritize me first, and heaven forbid think there is anything out there worth dying for - we really don't believe it.  Just what it says about a society whose formal instructions aren't even believed by those instructing us, I don't know.  I just know when days like this come along, it never seems to mesh with the usual tripe we hear from our best and brightest about how the greatest love of all is the love I should have for myself, everything else being a distant second. 

The war on alcohol continues to intensify

As yet another study shows that no alcohol is safe, now where dementia is concerned.  This being among an apparent growing number of ailments driven by booze.  Pretty soon alcohol will be why Adam and Eve really rebelled and Napoleon lost at Waterloo.  

Now, something is definitely wrong in the dementia world, that I admit.  More and more people are being diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's than ever before.  And these diagnoses are happening at ever younger ages.  My grandma - born in the late 1800s - had a stroke and became confused and, based on what we know, stricken by some form of what we now call dementia.  Of her siblings, however, she was the only one.  The rest of her generation passed, many at very old ages, as sharp as tacks.  Her brother Earl was well known for being completely together mentally until he passed (he was a consummate story teller).

The next generation, my parents' generation, have had only a couple who didn't end up with some form of dementia or Alzheimer's.  Including both my parents.  And while my dad drank like a fish when he was young, he gave it up after an accident involving my sister.  Though it had nothing to do with him drinking, he was playing cards and drinking with his brothers when it happened.  He felt his reaction time to her injury was compromised, so he never drank again. And that was when he was still young.  Except for a few parties and wedding receptions when they were young, I don't believe my mom drank at all.  Yet they, like their siblings, were struck with dementia, albeit at very old ages. 

Now we have an increasing number of people having these elderly ailments at younger and younger ages.  And unlike some things, perhaps cancer or some diseases which we could argue are simply easier to detect now, you can't miss dementia.  Long before the diagnoses, you begin seeing the signs.  As we did in both my parents' cases.  Yet suddenly, it's alcohol!  You know, that thing people have been doing for thousands of years before dementia began spreading like wild fire among younger and younger people.  The thing that, per the same stories going after alcohol, fewer and fewer people are indulging in today.

Yet the assault continues.  So as I said last time, my cynical historian's mind asks - why?  Why out of the blue, over the last year or so, has the medical community (and the media) suddenly come out and said burn beer burn! Do not drink wine nor strong drink thou, whether ye go into the corner tabernacle or not! What's up? 

First up?  The conspiracy explanation.  Why do people drink?  Apart from alcoholism, to enjoy, to relax, to unwind.  To indulge in the giddy side effects of the product in a troubled and difficult world.  Also, just because they like a cold beer on a summer day or a nice wine with a fine meal.  Sometimes they take Paul's advice when perhaps having stomach problems or other difficulties like sleeping.  

But if we don't have alcohol, then what to do about all of those reason?  Well, apart from the enjoyment around meals and for culinary peasures, we have - drugs.  The media push for legalized recreational drugs continues apace with some pretty impressive wins.  And in terms of other problems, such as difficulty sleeping or stomach issues or any such things, we have - drugs.  Prescription drugs.  The cynic in me has a hard time thinking there isn't some connection there.  

Others have suggested it's a way to deflect from the increasing health problems plaguing more and more people.  I mean, it's almost normal now to see at least one or two celebrities or well known persons die of cancer, heart disease, suicide or unknown reasons in a given week.  Things that decades ago would have made the news for weeks because it was so rare.  The deaths of celebrities were typically reserved back then for the elderly celebrities whose days had passed.  Exceptions to that rule being exceptions to that rule.  But today?  I can't think of a week where I haven't seen someone, often well under 50 or even 40, dying in such a way.  It seems connected to the observation that we are becoming less and less healthy overall.  Why? Nobody seems to know, or dwell on the details much, but blaming alcohol could certainly work.

Some have suggested it deflects from the catastrophic results of our Covid measures, including questions about vaccines and the overall response from our medical communities.  It isn't hard to see that things have definitely spiraled in some areas of life in recent years, and over a host of issues. If already we've seen alcohol linked to cancer, dementia, anything you want - why not anything else? 

But one thing I'm sure of, it isn't an accident.  It's not some bizarre coincidence out of the blue.  There is a reason that alcohol is being targeted and fast becoming the latest cause du jour of all problems in the world.  And whatever the reason - and it can obviously be more than one - it's those reasons being deflected from that we should likely be focused on. 

Also, I'll add that this is not an advertisement to drink.  If you don't, great.  I'm not being paid by Paul Masson or Budweiser.  I just see things like this in our day and age and have a very difficult time believing it's just good old medical science discovering the truths of the world that we need to know in order to thrive.  As I've said before, sometimes it takes far more naivete and credulity to disbelieve a conspiracy theory than to believe in one. 

Grandpa - The Sequel

Busy, busy, busy.  The call came at 3AM this morning that things were happening fast, and now we have:

A younger brother to keep our granddaughter busy.  I have to admit, I've loved having a granddaughter after raising four boys.  But there is something about finding out you have a grandson by one of your sons.  I'll call today a win, no matter what else has been going on.  A big shout out to God on this one!