A Tuesday We Wish Didn't Happen, But One Not To Forget...

Tuesday is an easy song for me to like.  The song, by Five For Fighting, reminds us of Tuesday morning September 11, 2001...fourteen years ago.

Lyrically I think I like how the song runs that Monday was just another day and here comes Tuesday.  Of course tragedy struck that Tuesday morning and the question would be how would we respond.  The song continues that (another) Monday is on its way and I like the metaphor that by the start of the next week, America was recovering.  We were moving on and finding how we could cope and recover with the awful destruction we had seen six days earlier.

I realize this is not my normal for a Friday Night Music entry, but I hope the song lets you remember where you were when the world kind of stopped and we had to face a new reality.  Have a good weekend.  Stay safe and be well.

Pride

Forty-seven years ago tomorrow, Martin Luther King Jr. would be gunned down outside room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.  His death, which he predicted to his wife, Coretta Scott King, after the assassination of President John Kennedy is the subject of the same questions about motive as relate to the Kennedy assassination.

Some of King's words were as prophetic then as they are now regarding the loss of rights to a centralized government:

Somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for rights. And so just as I said, we aren't going to let dogs or water hoses turn us around. We aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.

King also had a near prophetic commentary on his own life and how short it might be.

Like anybody, I would like to live - a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.

It is important to remember that before King arrived in Memphis to assist in the sanitation worker boycott on behalf of black Americans, his plane had been threatened by a bomb threat.  On a regular basis his life was threatened by those who feared change, who worried what would happen when all men were treated equal.  I worry that those days are still with us, but as for tonight, I will remember his struggle and his fight with my favorite band.

What are you giving...?

On Epiphany Sunday 2015, I think about the story of the three Magi traveling across the ancient
world.  This is a recurring topic for me as you may remember I wrote on this nearly the same time last year.

How difficult must it have been to travel so far to follow a star.  These things we take for granted like jumping in a car for a quick trip to a city three or four or eight hours away or the ability to cut that time down to one hour via plane just didn't exist then.  Similarly, these three, were probably not Gold members of Hilton Honors so they didn't have easy access to freshly cleaned linens and a complimentary breakfast with their HBO and other cable channels at night.

It makes the story all the more remarkable when you consider what they had to go through not to just go looking for the King of Kings, but to find him.  And where was he?  Not in majestic surroundings, but likely still in a barn manger.

As a side note, I realize most people are offended by the innkeeper who had no room and forced this couple into a barn, but he gave them everything he had.  How many of us do this for strangers?  So before you ask why didn't he give up his quarters for this young couple about to deliver the firstborn of mankind, ask yourself when was the last time you offered a little help or guidance to a local teen mother?

Returning to the story of the Magi though, they sought out Jesus and upon finding him, did not find him in majestic circumstances, but entirely different, yet the Gospels tell us they prostrated themselves, bowing before an infant king.  Additionally, giving us the symbols that allow Walmart, Toys R Us, and the rest of consumer America to flourish, they brought gifts.  [I keep forgetting the net effect on GDP in their countryside, though I am constantly reminded by the media that I need to do my part during the holidays to help America's GDP - by buying cheap foreign built products that are over-priced by the previously mentioned retailers.]

What is it they brought?  Well, according to tradition, they brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  These three items may not seem important to the story, but they are and the symbolism is important for me.

Since the early church, perhaps properly noted to Church Father Origen, gold represents the kingship of an Earthly crown, but frankincense is an incense, which clearly represents divinity.  These first two items, gold and incense tell us that Jesus was not a king for Earth alone, but for heaven.  Finally, myrrh.  Myrrh is an ointment used when people died which for us indicates the Magi's understanding that Jesus was not only divine, but also human.  Myrrh is a clear indication of this humanity and that Jesus will die, like all terrestrial beings.

The final note I have on the bearing of gifts by the Magi is not so much what they brought, but that they brought their best.  Whether I am talking about baseball or coaching an employee or just speaking to another person, I always ask what are you bringing to the table?  The Magi were very clearly bringing their best.  God was not getting the left overs from their lives.  That being the case, what do you bring...do you bring the best or do you leave the leftovers?

Columbus...The First Person To Discover...

So, today we celebrate the first person to discover America, Christopher Columbus.  We celebrate him even though he wasn't the first person to find America....and even though he thought he was headed to Asia, not America.

In Columbus' case, he has earned accolades likely that should have gone to other men, but he is not to blame and there is a lesson here for the rest of us.

First, be careful who and what you celebrate.  Celebrating a guy who was headed somewhere else and ended up here is a little bit like celebrating a holiday on January 1.  You know, because that day Dick Rowe didn't see the potential of some boy band from Liverpool back in 1962.  I mean who knew that guitar sound wasn't going away, right?  (At least on New Year's Day we are celebrating new beginnings and not lost chances.)

Second, should you be celebrated for others' accomplishments be quiet about it.  Do not allow the creation of holidays named after yourself so that car and couch salesman have an extra day to give you ten percent off.

Finally, remember that opportunity is not a lengthy visitor so if you get the chance to ...run with it.  Success is yours for the making, even when you make a mistake.  Keep a compass and map handy...know where you are headed, but be willing to make the course adjustments necessary to be successful.  (Even the aforementioned Dick Rowe signed the Rolling Stones after missing out on the Beatles.  Not a terrible follow up move/)

Now go buy a new car at 0% financing or a couch or something.

So...What Do You Know About ....

... Mark Earley and juvenile justice reform?

It seems a long time ago, but at the same time just like yesterday I was asking that very question.  You know how it is when 6219 days all wander together, right?

In any case, Sunday marks seventeen years of...dating I guess.  (You can date when you are married or so I am told.)

In any case, I figured I would go with Lifehouse.  First, momma likes the band.  Second, she likes the song.  Third, it fits...at least for me.

When we met my career was on my mind.  I was not thinking girls and I certainly was not thinking marriage and children.  It took a while for me to "let go of my defenses" that he talked about in the song, but when I did it was all the better.  Hopefully, you will find that one person who you will be all in for the rest of your life.

Enjoy life, enjoy the music, and enjoy the chance to find your "all in."

Coffee Creates Focus...In The Wrong Places

So when I show up to a coffee place and they ask for a name, I usually say Spartacus.  Mostly I am hoping when they call the name and I stand up or step forward and say I am Spartacus, someone else will, or multiple other people will.  So far, no luck.

However, the Washington Post thinks the goings on of a Starbucks is important.  After all, it is located in the Central Intelligence Agency.

The article goes into the in depth quandaries of doing background checks on the Starbucks employees, the fact that receipts record the store number as number one, and that customers don't offer up a name, not even fake ones as I do.

My whole issue with all this is not who or how the CIA conducts operations in its own Starbucks.  It can even recruit people to the Osama bin Laden Capture team for all I care, but what I do care about is the Washington Post's abject failure as a news organization.

Their coverage of the IRS and Benghazi scandals has been pitiful - acting more like a mouthpiece for the Administration than a member of the Fourth Estate.  Even now, when Obama's popularity numbers are sagging, they feel it their responsibility to focus on coffee's ability to focus CIA employees rather than is the Administration focused on the threats America faces.

In case you missed it in the news, this Administration appears to have used the IRS to target groups it disagreed with politically.  This Administration refused to protect its own overseas employees in an attack on the American consulate in Benghazi and woops, in case anybody forgets, the CIA under this Administration has missed the growing presence of ISIS as a force.

I keep hearing how print media is going the way of the dinosaur and I keep wondering if they aren't hastening their own exit.  They are creating the situations for why more than half of people don't want to read them.  They are slanted propaganda pieces, not independent voices in the political arena.  I apologize if I am ranting about a newspaper's misplaced focus, but I understand why they are dying off.  In the meantime, I need a cup of coffee.

Dancing Shoes

So this week's installment of Friday Night Music is Lee Brice's "I Don't Dance."

For me it is just a cool song about a guy who is big and bad until he finds the girl who can get him on a dance floor because it is better to be out there with her and his two feet than it is to be sitting in the sidelines without her.

I guess I am lucky to not have had to worry about this too much so far as I have never had to play tough and the strength we have needed in our life is more mental than physical, but I do have two daughters who I am sure at some point are going to ask their dad to spin them around a room.

Somehow, I don't think the words "Daddy Doesn't Dance" will be available, but that is for another day.  In the meantime, enjoy your Friday Night Music.