Tina and I worked at the Park House on Saturday. She bagged up 15 bags of moldy clothes from under the basement stairs, food from the basement freezer with 2004 expiration dates and many other treasures that would have amazed many a pack rat. The dust was so bad she ended up using a face mask. I hauled the stuff upstairs and Luke hauled it out and put it in the back of the trailer. This week, we will take the trailer to the dump and unload all of its precious cargo.
Then we went out to dinner and a movie. As you can guess from the title of this post, we saw Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. A well made movie with good acting from most of the major parts. A young boy with Aspergers is trying to find something he thinks his father, (who died in the WTC on 9/11) has left him. A couple of interesting plot twists made the film extra interesting.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Update on LaVergne kids, Jan 2012
Greg is living on a farm in southern Oregon. He is helping out. His delightful girlfriend, Lydia, is also living with him on the farm. They just moved there two months ago.
Cathy is living in NE Minneapolis and is attending St. Kate's University with a hope to get into their nursing program. She has been helping me with my web site upgrade project by converting my hundreds of conference talk CDs into MP3's.
Daniel is living at Park House (the name I use for 3120 Park) and is working as a security guard at Calhoun Square. He continues to take online classes, currently in Mass Communications. He is still as friendly as ever and connects with his friends frequently. I never know which of his friends will be asleep on the living room couch or one of the extra beds.
Ben lives with Monika and Irena in Manchester, NH with Monika's family. He still works part-time for UPS, which covers his health insurance. He was just accepted into the U of New Hampshire Masters program in computer science. He already has a Masters in English from the U of Dallas but that has not generated a full time teaching or writing job for him so his fascination with web design and the Ubuntu operating system have led him to pursue computers as a career.
Anna and Ken and their five children live near Portland, OR. Ken is working a long-term temp job in accounting. Anna homeschools the kids and is also active in her parish catholic charismatic prayer group.
Luke lives at Park House and because everyone who lives there seems to work security, he does too. He provides security for a computer chip manufacturer in one of the suburbs. He loves reading and watching movies. He thought about becoming a doctor and went to the U of M, graduating in biological sciences, but decided not to pursue that field. He also has two black belts and spent 4 years in the Marines.
Caleb doesn't live anywhere. He works for Ebay but as of January 1, he maintains a legal address in Seattle but travels from there to all points of the globe. Last I heard he was in the Bahamas. But he has been in Korea, India, China, and many other places over the last year for Ebay. He is still employed by Ebay but works via Wi-Fi connections from hotels and offices all around. He hopes to see Africa, South America and other parts of Asia as well. He still loves Pearl Jam and manages to coordinate his travel with their travel. I don't think they use the same travel agent, but who knows?
Anyway, I have wonderful kids and love them all immensely. In their different ways, I am proud of each of them.
Cathy is living in NE Minneapolis and is attending St. Kate's University with a hope to get into their nursing program. She has been helping me with my web site upgrade project by converting my hundreds of conference talk CDs into MP3's.
Daniel is living at Park House (the name I use for 3120 Park) and is working as a security guard at Calhoun Square. He continues to take online classes, currently in Mass Communications. He is still as friendly as ever and connects with his friends frequently. I never know which of his friends will be asleep on the living room couch or one of the extra beds.
Ben lives with Monika and Irena in Manchester, NH with Monika's family. He still works part-time for UPS, which covers his health insurance. He was just accepted into the U of New Hampshire Masters program in computer science. He already has a Masters in English from the U of Dallas but that has not generated a full time teaching or writing job for him so his fascination with web design and the Ubuntu operating system have led him to pursue computers as a career.
Anna and Ken and their five children live near Portland, OR. Ken is working a long-term temp job in accounting. Anna homeschools the kids and is also active in her parish catholic charismatic prayer group.
Luke lives at Park House and because everyone who lives there seems to work security, he does too. He provides security for a computer chip manufacturer in one of the suburbs. He loves reading and watching movies. He thought about becoming a doctor and went to the U of M, graduating in biological sciences, but decided not to pursue that field. He also has two black belts and spent 4 years in the Marines.
Caleb doesn't live anywhere. He works for Ebay but as of January 1, he maintains a legal address in Seattle but travels from there to all points of the globe. Last I heard he was in the Bahamas. But he has been in Korea, India, China, and many other places over the last year for Ebay. He is still employed by Ebay but works via Wi-Fi connections from hotels and offices all around. He hopes to see Africa, South America and other parts of Asia as well. He still loves Pearl Jam and manages to coordinate his travel with their travel. I don't think they use the same travel agent, but who knows?
Anyway, I have wonderful kids and love them all immensely. In their different ways, I am proud of each of them.
Martin Luther King day
Every year on this memorial to Martin Luther King, I listen to his "I Have a Dream" speech. It moved me again this year as it has done for many years. You can watch it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs
His great line about dreaming of a day when people will be judged "NOT by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character" is still in front of us as a dream to be fulfilled. Things have improved in many ways, but there is still a lot of work left to do to overcome the bias, the fear and the inequalities that still plague our nation. I ran into a man this past year who told me that he used to like the Boston Celtics basketball team because "they were all white boys."
There is not just one solution that will solve these problems. Liberals want the government to throw more money at the issue. Conservatives want blacks to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. But what is needed is a careful combination of public and private initiatives that especially focuses on increasing employment of black youth, on motivating black men and women of integrity to get involved in being realistic role models, on finding ways to make higher education more of a common expectation in the black community, etc. Through owning Resurrection Books, I met a number of black men and women who told me they were the first member of their families to ever attend college.
I am very grateful to look around at our society and see that more and more people, especially those under 30, have good friends who are from different ethnic backgrounds. This is a great advance over my generation. Despite the challenges that blacks still face, there have been many gains in housing, employment and educational opportunities.
And some of this would not have happened without the remarkable leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King was not perfect. He had flaws like the rest of us do. But he was a flawed person who changed the course of our nation's history by holding up a high standard of justice and unity and was willing to go to jail and eventually to his death in order to advance what he believed (and I believe) to be God's vision for this country.
I am profoundly grateful to Dr. King.
His great line about dreaming of a day when people will be judged "NOT by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character" is still in front of us as a dream to be fulfilled. Things have improved in many ways, but there is still a lot of work left to do to overcome the bias, the fear and the inequalities that still plague our nation. I ran into a man this past year who told me that he used to like the Boston Celtics basketball team because "they were all white boys."
There is not just one solution that will solve these problems. Liberals want the government to throw more money at the issue. Conservatives want blacks to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. But what is needed is a careful combination of public and private initiatives that especially focuses on increasing employment of black youth, on motivating black men and women of integrity to get involved in being realistic role models, on finding ways to make higher education more of a common expectation in the black community, etc. Through owning Resurrection Books, I met a number of black men and women who told me they were the first member of their families to ever attend college.
I am very grateful to look around at our society and see that more and more people, especially those under 30, have good friends who are from different ethnic backgrounds. This is a great advance over my generation. Despite the challenges that blacks still face, there have been many gains in housing, employment and educational opportunities.
And some of this would not have happened without the remarkable leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King was not perfect. He had flaws like the rest of us do. But he was a flawed person who changed the course of our nation's history by holding up a high standard of justice and unity and was willing to go to jail and eventually to his death in order to advance what he believed (and I believe) to be God's vision for this country.
I am profoundly grateful to Dr. King.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Missing Barbara
Today is the 18th anniversary of Barbara's death. Daniel, Cathy and I went to her grave and spent a half hour there until our toes were numb. We shared some memories and reflections on her life. I shared how difficult it had been for me after she died, trying to be a single parent. I prayed for my kids and expressed my gratitude for having known Barbara. Cathy placed some roses on the grave.
I would say this was one of the 'best' times at her grave I've experienced in quite a few years.
I am not sure why, but I have been missing Barbara a lot these last two weeks. Things are going wonderfully well in my new marriage with Tina so that is not the source of my strong feelings. I really don't know why.
Last night I attended the wake for Jim Bittner, whose daughter Joan lived with Barbara and me for 8 years in our community household. This morning I attended his funeral where Joan did one of the readings. I was teary most of the way through and saw such dramatic sadness on the faces of Jim's children. They are a family of faith so they will come through this tragedy eventually to a place where the grief is not a sharp, daily pain, especially as they recall Jim's smiling exuberance for Jesus.
Tonight is a wake for another Jim, Jim Hepp and tomorrow morning his funeral. It is a grief packed 3 days.
I would say this was one of the 'best' times at her grave I've experienced in quite a few years.
I am not sure why, but I have been missing Barbara a lot these last two weeks. Things are going wonderfully well in my new marriage with Tina so that is not the source of my strong feelings. I really don't know why.
Last night I attended the wake for Jim Bittner, whose daughter Joan lived with Barbara and me for 8 years in our community household. This morning I attended his funeral where Joan did one of the readings. I was teary most of the way through and saw such dramatic sadness on the faces of Jim's children. They are a family of faith so they will come through this tragedy eventually to a place where the grief is not a sharp, daily pain, especially as they recall Jim's smiling exuberance for Jesus.
Tonight is a wake for another Jim, Jim Hepp and tomorrow morning his funeral. It is a grief packed 3 days.
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