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.
Monday, January 16, 2012
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.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Explanation of the title of this blog
When I was in high school, I put together a collection of poems I had written. I typed them all up on multiple pages and put a title on the first page and called the collection "Out Of My Head". At 17, I thought it was a cute play on words, something that those who know me well, know that I still love to do. It appears that my appreciation of humor has been stuck at the high school level ever since, because this was the first title that came to me as I was launching this blog. I tossed it around inside my skull and finding nothing there, decided to go with it.
In a peer-reviewed scientific study published in The International Journal of Obscurity, 7 billion people declared that they had absolutely no interest in reading what I might write. The other 42 people in the world were all tourists who happened to have stopped for free ice water at Wall Drug in South Dakota. They were open to reading what I might write as long as I avoided the subject of the Minnesota Vikings' stellar season. So with that peculiar show of support, I will try to come up with ways of satisfying my unthirsty readers.
However, I should warn you.... (But I decided not to.)
Cheerio
In a peer-reviewed scientific study published in The International Journal of Obscurity, 7 billion people declared that they had absolutely no interest in reading what I might write. The other 42 people in the world were all tourists who happened to have stopped for free ice water at Wall Drug in South Dakota. They were open to reading what I might write as long as I avoided the subject of the Minnesota Vikings' stellar season. So with that peculiar show of support, I will try to come up with ways of satisfying my unthirsty readers.
However, I should warn you.... (But I decided not to.)
Cheerio
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