Trayvon/Zimmerman Reaction: My Father had it Good

It wouldn't be worthwhile to give my thoughts on this trial.  It would only lead to more divisions I'm afraid to say because, as with most things, we've already decided nobody understands except us.  And since we are asked to be peacemakers there doesn't seem to be a lot to gain by saying whether in my high and mighty opinion the jury, the lawyers, or the judge got it right or did a good job.  The case itself will continue to run its course even though the gavel has struck.

My wife and I live a pretty simple life by many people's standards.  We have no TV or home internet.  Some people wonder what that's like; if its like living in a cave or something.  We do have windows (and a beautiful lake to look at thank you), radio, books, and magazines.  We also have conversations and the great outdoors.  Primarily we enjoy doing things out there instead of in here.  But we'll also be honest, we have nothing inherently against TV or internet.  We simply look at the humble salaries we make and believe that money would be better spent on paying down debts or paying for life experiences like trips and big events.  We also have a projector that attaches to our smartphones or computers when we want to stream something.  So we're not quite as monastic as we wish people would think we are necessarily.

 

In any case, I was getting my daily news round up and entertainment as I normally do during the weekday by listening to the Newshour on NPR.  Three o'clock PM sharp!  Of course they were covering the fallout from the Zimmerman trial and had a panel of 4 people on there.  While there were multiple aspects of the trial there was one in particular that seemed to grab my attention considering my situation... race.  They had 4 people and there was an obvious 2 vs. 2 in the panel.  Two of them were upset and 2 of them were either indifferent or felt that justice had been done.  It was 2 against 2.

As I'm listening I realized something.  This is radio and I always listen to the Newshour.  I've rarely actually ever seen it.  I have no idea what the race of these 4 people on the panel is that are speaking.  For that matter, I have no idea what the appearance of any Newshour member is.  For all I know they could be going around shirtless in bermuda shorts.  Of course I could make assumptions based on their name or their accent but I'm proud to say that, as a result of our progression as a people and growing up in a farily diverse environment as a child, you can make some pretty bad assumptions especially in regards to an accent.

Matt Lauer ladies and gentleman.  Eat your heart out Hari Srinivasan

My father was blind.  People oftentimes ask the question, "What was it like having blind parents?" [my mother is legally blind, can see a little bit]  My response was usually the same, "What was it like having sighted parents?"  I mean hek, my brother and sister and I don't really know what the difference is.  Our parents vision never changed.  We have nothing to compare my blind father to.

My father grew up in rural southwest Virginia in the 50s where racism was generally practiced.  I'm happy to say that my predominately white family hasn't shown many direct signs of racism (which I'm probably overly sensitive to since my heroes include Dr. King, I cry every time I read the Gettysburg Address, and most of my best friends growing up were either Asian or black and my lovely wife is Filipino).  But it goes without saying that my father did grow up in a sort of "Paula Deen-esque" environment.

However, most people were surprised by that by the way he interacted with others.  He was a business man in downtown Richmond, VA.  He had friends that were generally white but also black.  He worked with all kinds of people.

I oftentimes wondered whether he was at an advantage for inclusivity by being blind.  I wondered if in this case it was an odd gift from God that sort of predisposed him to a bit of righteousness that might be difficult of the rest of us.  He treated everyone the same because they all looked the same to him... grey (depending on the brightness of the room of course).

After listening to the NPR/PBS Newshour panel I started to wonder if the best jurors are actually blind people.  I wonder how every courtroom decision might be handled if that were the case.  I wonder how my opinion of people change when I see them after having a phone meeting.  I wonder if having blind parents made me more sensitive to the way people talk about each other's appearance.

People who know me well can tell you that if I tell a story I will never tell you what the race or possibly even gender of the characters is.  I hate it.  Up until today I thought that without a doubt that was because I was so sensitive to the matter after being so lucky to have friends from a wide spectrum of backgrounds.  But now I'm starting to wonder if it had more to do with my parents who possibly passed on the (if I might say) gift of being blind to people's appearance.  Albeit in my case its an attempt rather than a reality.

In my father's world nobody wore hoodies or were bi-racial.  In my father's world nobody was well-dressed or unkempt.  In my father's world nobody was clean shaven or nappy-haired.  In my father's world nobody was tan or pale.  In my father's world people only had firm or floppy handshakes, could speak well or not, and they might "sound pretty" as he would say.  That's a pretty good world in this case.

Yea, I'd like to stick to radio.

Best things about Jenn #2:  My father would've loved

her sweet, petite sounding voice

Smacking Cheesecake #12:  Can you tell me who made my

Baja Tacos?  "O you mean Steve?"

Youth Ministry Idea #3: Give students printed out prayers

for those who are nervous about spontaneous prayer.

Why is Your Menu a Russian Novel?

In a most recent count the Cheesecake Factory has over 300 menu items.  Now, if I just counted them all then why did I have to estimate it at over 300?  Because like anyone else, I can't make it through the whole menu.  In all truthfulness I made it to about 100 and then Googled it.  Even then I couldn't get a detailed answer.

There's an old saying in the restaurant business that goes something like this, "lots of options means good at none."  I suppose that's true in life as well.  Jim Thorpe, Bo Jackson, and Deion Sanders were total outliers in the sports world.  Benjamin Franklin and Leonardo da Vinci were remarkably unique in comparison to all of human history.  Most of us are just better off finding one or two things to be great at and simply focusing on those.  

Bo knows lots of things, but Bo don't know what to order.

Which bring us to this.  How can a restaurant that serves "Moroccan Chicken" and "Shepherd's Pie" expect them both to be good?  And how in the world do you expect to get a great "Louisiana Chicken Pasta" if the same staff is whipping up "Beets and Goat Cheese Salad?"  I'm not even sure a Louisianan could identify a beet or knew goats produced cheese.

They claim its all made fresh daily and evidence shows this is true.  But truthfully, on a flavor perspective, that worries me more than if they were simply freeze dried and thawed out in the back.  At least then there's the greater likelihood that someone actually knew what they were doing at some behemoth sweat-shop headquarters, chucked them in Tupperware, and gave you something authentic.

more appetizing than those plastic cartons

Give me three-day old tortas from our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters at San Carlos FBC before I'll eat your over-priced Baja Chicken Tacos.  Give me the Sweet and Sour Pork from our Chinese co-workers before I'll take your Spicy Cashew Chicken.

So let me get this straight.  You're telling me that you've somehow found a team of cooks, errrrr chefs that are equally incredible at Fried Chicken as they are Pad Thai?  Are you telling me that you've found hundreds of trained kitchen staff who can do great Chicken and Biscuits while also making an excellent steak on a hibachi?  Where in the world are you finding these people?

The funny thing about it is again, your name.  Its the Cheesecake Factory.  Its not the "Pasta Factory" or the "Chicken Factory" or even the "Steak Diane Factory."

We are learning something about selection that less is more.  When people are given too many options they simply shutter and blindly pick one or go to what they've always ordered.  Then again, if they go to what they've always ordered then what's the point of having tons of options.

Heidi Montag once made a song called "More is More."  That's all you need to know

One of the more important, and underrated, aspects of fine dining is being able to get an educated opinion from the waitstaff on a menu item.  At many places, chain joints included, it is customary for the waitstaff to be given samples of all the menu items for this purpose.  At some places they will comp all your meals to entice you to try the menu for yourself as an employee.

But one has to wonder, if I ask the waitstaff, "Would you say the scampi is more on the garlicy side or the creamy side?" or, "Do you think the Miso Salmon will burn my mouth?" will you really get a serious opinion one way or the other?

"Uuuuuum, I'm not sure.  I'll go ask the chef."  In other words you want us to wait here at the table for another 10 minutes while you walk 100 yards across your gargantuan restaurant, dodging tables and runners, interrupt the chef(s) who's trying to pay attention to the food and their staff, then you're going to come back over and tell us the answer?  Nevermind, I'll just order one of the other 299 things on the menu.

Are you burned out from deciding what to do at The Cheesecake Factory?  This might help.  Have a plan.

Things I think about #4:  When ducks have conferences
do they appoint a leader?

Why I blog #3:  Because Twitter doesn't leave enough room
to truly banter on about how much I don't understand things.

Russia, Persecution, and Chance Encounters (Wow)

Today was one of those church moments that we always hear about from other people and think, "Gosh, I hope something like that happens here."  So often we hear about the incredible things happening and just wish maybe... that we were a part of it?  Maybe, maybe not.  Regardless, it would be totally cool if someone that you know was suddenly healed of a life-threatening disease (great link there to Time mag piece), a gang-banger spoke up confessing their sins and then became a reputable leader, a homeless person came with a friend and everyone rallied to give them job skills, put them in their own home and everything become better.  Who doesn't want to be a part of that?!

All of that actually makes this seem a bit more tame.  It is the week of Independence Day, July 4th.  In four short days we'll be blowing things up in the sky (hopefully not in our hands) to commemorate the birth of our nation and our thorough spanking of the Brits.  Nothing says "freedom" like a burnt hot dog, sun burnt skin, and potato chips.  If its true that Baptists love to baptize its also true that Americans love to talk about how "free" they are.  "Land of the free..." right?

Have you seen those smiley face ones?  Amazing!

At our church we have this moment in the worship service we call "Joys and Concerns."  Its kind of like an open mic time where anyone can stand up and speak about what they are grateful for (i.e., my son just got a new job) or what they would like prayer for (i.e., my son just lost his job).  You have to be somewhat careful because we know that an open mic can be a dangerous thing.  On certain occasions we got to hear about "prostates that are the size of a cantaloupe," how much God is disappointed with everyone, or "they shot a laser up there."  Everyone gets a voice in our church.  That is both really cool and really nerve-wracking. 

Today a first-time visitor stands up and begins to tell us about how she ended up with us.  She had dark, somewhat curly hair, and a thick Russian accent.  She had grown up in the Soviet Union where, "religion as you call was illegal."  She didn't necessarily want religion she said, she just wanted a Bible.  But of course what she was saying is Bibles were illegal.  She had just moved here to the States and, while on her way to our church, walked past a garage sale and asked the people, "Do you have Bible?"  They said yes and so she bought one.  She then held it high and showed it to all of us proclaiming how excited she was to finally have one.

It was a lot like this just with people and a Bible and indoors.

Now this woman is old enough to have a 20-something year old son.  We got to converse a bit after the worship service and it was remarkably fascinating.  This wasn't the first person I'd met from Russia but it was the first one who lived in a rural area, in central Russia, near "the 'stans" as we like to say.  In that area there is still much cultural repression of spirituality so she says.  For some reason she always wanted to read a Bible.  She was so curious about what was in it.  But even after the fall of the Soviet Union (which she continued to call her homeland and apologize for it because she knew it was now Russia) it was nearly impossible to do that.  It took her moving here and happening upon a garage sale to make it happen.  I wish she would've just waited a few more minutes.  We would've given her all the Bibles she wanted.

There were so many things we got to touch on and wanted to talk more about.  She confessed that she expected everyone to be rich here.  Seeing poverty here was somewhat of a shock to her.  Seeing people live in huge houses while there were others on the streets were so confusing to her.  "Why does this happen if people know about Jesus and get to read Bible?"  She asked.  There is no good answer for that really.  It was a good opportunity to specify that the American way is not necessarily the Jesus way.  I was also sad to hear her say that most Russians are not entertained by Vladimir Putin going shirtless.  I wish our Presidents went out shirtless to do push-ups more often.

But alas, we met this woman and heard her extraordinary story today.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring.  I would love to be able to write the conclusion to this story right now.  I'd love to be able to say that this woman came to our church in search freedom and found something even better.  I'd love to say that she is now happily involved in the justice missions of our church and has taught us many things.  Fact is we just don't know what tomorrow will bring.  We may never see her again.

I suppose the thing I'll be praying about tonight is the joy and praise that we have been able to share in a pretty infamous moment, to this point at least, for our little church and this one person's life.  We were sort of part of something bigger than our community.  We learned how fortunate we are and were convicted by her sense of sharing gleaned from her communist background.  I'll pray for her and her family's journey.  I'll selfishly ask that we'd get to share in her family's journey.  And I'll wonder, curiously, what it is we can do (or how to ask) for her family if we see them again.

...and I'll read my Bible a little differently for awhile.

Smacking Cheesecake #10:  "Firecracker Salmon" - fried salmon

Everything is better fried.  Except salmon.

Words to get rid of #1:  Deserve

My Wife is Getting a New Phone, Naturally I'm Jealous

We have a contract with Verizon which means that every 2 years we get a Christmas-esque present, a new phone at a "discounted price."  Next month my lovely wife, Jenn, gets to pull the ribbons and tear open the box on a new smartphone.  She's currently eye-balling the Samsung Galaxy S4, although the Samsung Note 2 and Galaxy S3 are still in the running.  And just as I type this I can't help but think of how many people would be drooling over the screen just thinking about having such an incredible piece of technology.

Its so funny looking back on all this.  Less than 10 years ago I was phone-less.  Stuck in my ways of preserving a kind of machismo of "that's not how they built this country" and also trying to keep a sense of personal space I just hated the idea of someone calling anytime, anywhere and interrupting the very thing I sought to do without them.  There were 255 million cell phones in use at that time and everyone else was an AARP member or yours truly.  Can you tell that I was an introvert at one time?

Finally, I started to realize that if I was going to keep pace with the competition and stay in step with my colleagues and friends I would need to get a cell phone.  Funny thing is, naturally, back in 2006 or so I didn't buy a cell phone.  I bought a Verizon XV6700.  At the time it was one of the most advanced phones out there.  It had a web browser, email client, infrared beam (which i still miss), touch screen, apps (at the time still known as programs), it was incredible.  To tell you the truth it wasn't much different from the smartphones of today.  Going from no cell phone to this thing was basically my way of going straight to the high dive on the first day of swim lessons.

"Mr. Know-it-all"

A couple years ago I convinced my lovely wife to get a smartphone.  After all, living in the Bay Area, you're simply not hip if you're not playing Diamond Dash with friends while waiting at the bus stop.  Hek, you're not even hip if everyone in your entourage is not playing Diamond Dash with friends while waiting at the bus stop.

I didn't say anything about Diamond Dash to sell my wife on the idea of a smartphone though.  She is truly a professional woman and a marvel of surpassing goals in life.  People like her have no need for Diamond Dash.  We talked about the messaging capabilities, the mapping and GPS components, the web browsing, yada yada yada.  Unfortunately though, in our moments of low standards our bonding time consists of laying on separate portions of the couch while I read the news on my phone and she feeds Pou on her's.  Yes... this is what we've become.

But what we have to keep reminding ourselves is that if necessary, we can share our location with all our friends, offer commentary on their Facebook statuses, take a picture of our meal, and GPS our way home all with one device and not think twice about.  And when we go to bed instead of having to look each other in the eye we can simply text message each other how much we love each other.  After all, what can an emoticon say that you or I cannot?

, 

Smacking Cheesecake #9:  When travelling you can always do better

Vine for Android App:  This is what the world looks like to people with ADD

Best thing about Jenn #1:  He hair disintegrates into glitter when 

it falls from her head.

What's the Big Deal with Baptism Anyway?

My mother raised us in a Baptist home and against my own best intentions find myself fully immersed and in love with our little Baptist church of which I am on staff.  Oftentimes people ask me what Baptists believe, Presbyterians (since I'm officially on paper still one of those) believe, Catholics believe, yada yada yada.  Its always kind of difficult to explain in the way people would want it because there are Baptists who are all over the map.  The same is true for Presbyterians and Methodists and Anglicans, etc.  Everyone is all over the map.  Hek, even in our single, small church people are all over the map.  The main differences between these different branches of Christianity have to do with how their churches are governed.  But one thing is certainly true of Baptists... they love to baptize.

O sure we may not do as much baptizing as we used to but when we do look out!  Everybody is going to be all kinds of excited, especially the adorable grandmas and grandpas that keep these places running.  Sometimes the little devil inside me thinks, "We should take a mission trip to Zimbabwe.  If I can get some of my middle school friends to agree to be baptized the grandmas will happily pay for everyone else to go for free!"  [For the record I've never actually thought about doing that.]

This was just too easy a moment to insert a Book of Mormon plug.

But the fact that people do seek to entice others to be baptized as much as they do makes me wonder... why?  What's the big deal?  Its just some water, a few rehearsed lines by you and the pastor, and dry off.  Actually, there are many people who find it to be just as big a deal and are equally, if not more, cautious to encourage others to be baptized.

Would someone please explain to me what happens in that water?!

According to Peter the rituals of Baptism go all the way back to the Noahic flood.  The waters symbolized God's cleansing of sin and unrighteousness from earth in the flood.  Today the baptism waters symbolize God's cleansing of sin and unrighteousness from our personal lives.  Interestingly though, that's normally not mentioned when your baptized.  More significance is paid to the metaphor of Jesus Christ being buried then raised back to life.  While this might be a fascinating thing to point out maybe the point remains that many of us seem to miss... its a symbol.

Rituals carry such weight for people that cynics like myself don't always understand.  It feels like people sometimes pressure us to believe that if we don't partake in a certain symbol, and sometimes in a specific way, that we're second class and bound to suffer.  For some it isn't that we're baptized but how we're baptized and when we're baptized and under who's oversight and permission.  Another one of the New Testament writers, Paul, makes a point about this in his writings.  From what we can make of it there was a group of people who judged others based on their circumcision.  Much more painful than mere baptism you can imagine why new believers would have hesitated to include that ritual.  But Paul continued a running theme through Scripture that God is not impressed by our rituals but rather our hearts, sacrifices, love, and grace.

Then what's the point of it exactly?  Why go to the trouble of getting wet?  Well, normally they do give you a certificate or trophy or something to commemorate the occasion.  Okay, just kidding about the trophy.  I've never seen that.  But I have seen a baptism pool set inside a fire truck specially fitted with canons that shot confetti for when children were baptized.  Apparently they aren't doing that anymore.  Sad to see many children will be disappointed they won't be getting the same confetti and party sirens.

Said fire truck is stage right.  Yes, this actually happened.

Sometimes I wonder why God would provide us with these rituals.  Then I teach another class and realize that we all learn in different ways.  Many of us, maybe all of us, are experiential learners.  We learn by doing.  Thus, maybe the writers of the Bible were inspired by a tactile God, a God that wants us to experience spirituality and not just read about in books or hear about in sermons from people like me.

About a week ago I was seriously humbled to take part in the baptisms of two seniors, sisters, who felt compelled on their own to be baptized.  Because the idea came up entirely from them I was so interested in what brought them to that point.  These two older women are such sweethearts and talked about how they simply wanted to use that opportunity of being baptized to show God and others of their love for God and His Son Jesus Christ.  Our whole church, all ages, were so touched by them.

They didn't say much during the worship service, but it was in their nervous trembling backstage that I understood what this meant to them.  In many ways it was convicting to me.  Ever since the many trials of my college years I've had a bit of trouble opening my heart to that sort of excitement.  I understand why and don't blame myself for it (much) but I miss the days of getting so fired up about things like that.  Now its more like, "O, another baptism, that's kind of exciting.  When are we going to get to the real work of serving the poor?"

What kind of spirituality is that?  I pray for myself and others who have a "been there and done that" attitude.  Sometimes I wonder, if I only had a smidgen of the reverence and enthusiasm these two women had how much greater of a light would I be towards myself and others?

Things I think about  #3:  Does anyone else see the two wheels turning when 

they open this webpage?  What is that supposed to mean?

You know you're cool when #1:    You're listening to the FM jazz station and 

correctly name the musicians in the band before the dj.

Smacking Cheesecake #8:  Its 940pm (PST) and they still have adds up on 

Google telling you to make your Father's Day reservation.