GOOD VIBRATIONS

     What does it mean to be made in God's image? When the dogs bark loudly or another significantly loud sound is introduced within the walls of our house, it will set the strings of the myriad instruments hanging on my wall to vibrating. An effect akin to an echo if you will. Are we a physically manifested echo of God's image? He spoke the worlds into being. Genesis talks of forming the dust into man by His breath. (Gen. 2:7)  The dust + God's voice brought us into being. This would suggest an intrinsic connection between us and God. We are not God but an echo of His nature. An echo does not generate sound. It is wholly dependent on the voice (or sound), that created it, but offers the same characteristics as the original voice. Our highest goal should be to uncover that part of our life that is an echo of our Creator.

Whiners

Don't we all hate whiners? I can't do that 'cause my little finger hurts. Jimmy got more cookies than I got. I just hate these hot days. I just hate these cold days. I wish this weather would make up it's mind. Sure is dry this year. That stupid rain cancelled our picnic. On and on and on it goes. It is so late and I'm so tired I really didn't want to do this blog thing tonight. It's 5 minutes after midnight as I start this and I would rather be sleeping. I should have done this earlier in the day as I knew it would be a late night. Late but fun it was. A friend invited me to a jam in honour of his father who would have been 100 this year. His dad always enjoyed "music parties". I guess he played the mandolin. I really don't remember meeting him though I may have at one time about 35 years ago. My friend and I went to one of the first Winfield festivals. A festival that Stuart Mossman got started in the early 70's. It became the home of the International Flat Picking Championship and eventually many other competitions were added. Early on it was a Bluegrass festival but has grown to include a much broader range of music. My friend, who played Bluegrass, along with several other family members, really wanted to go to the festival so we ended up coming. We both attended Southwest Baptist College in Bolivar, Mo. and we lived on the same floor in the dorm. We got together to play guitars sometimes and eventually became friends. So we came back to Kansas for the festival, I guess it was '75. We stayed at my folks house in Park City and went to see the competitions and listen to some of the bands play. He ended up moving to the Wichita area to teach school but we really haven't stayed in touch that much. I'd see him at the festival occasionally and would go see his group perform from time to time but that was about it. I was excited to get the invitation to this jam in his dad's honour. A brother from Missouri was there and so was a sister from Florida. The living room was full of music and talking with an occasional corny joke thrown in from time to time. I even took a shot at a couple of them myself. While the laughter at my jokes was somewhat subdued I believe it was nonetheless heart felt. So I'm home now and headed to bed but thanks for staying up late to read this, I really appreciate it. Later.

Celebration

We will join Bert's blog in mere moments but first a quick commercial. My web-browser's home page is set to Compassion Internationals web-site. This was done to remind me that the next order of business for us when we can get a little more settled financially, is to sponsor another child. We have sponsored several children over the years though we currently do not. I would like to suggest you check into possibly becoming a sponsor yourself. While I will not take a lot of time here to explain it, rest assured, as you develop a relationship with your child your blessing will far out weigh your financial sacrifice. This organization is very efficient with the monies they take in and are very effective at what they do. Check them out.
Now for the regularly scheduled blog. I just came from our church where several family members gathered to talk, eat and play music. My nephew and his wife were in town for the Holidays. They live in Indiana and we don't get to see them a lot. We were joined by a couple of friends for a good bit of the music but most of the participants were relatives. My brother played his 12 string, my nephew played his mandolin and his wife played guitar for a while, my niece played guitar also and my son started out on his bass and then traded it for another 12 string later. My daughter had her mandolin and my granddaughter sang a song for us as well. Me? I played mandolin most of the evening but traded it for a guitar on a couple of songs. Our friends played banjo, djembe, and guitar respectively. This is what I call a real celebration. The air stuffed full of sounds from our instruments and our voices. We sang gospel, pop, bluegrass and some just sorta jammin' around stuff. What a great time. If I had died in a car crash on the way home it would have all been ok because I was very blessed to have had that time. It's so easy for me to relate to people through music that sometimes I neglect the finer details of a relationship, like talking, for instance. I guess I didn't learn a lot about the folks in the circle, I just know that we had a blast making music together. And if there is a better place then the church for such a celebration I can't imagine where it would be.
No, I didn't run today, but ask me again tomorrow, I think you'll find a different answer at that time.

A Snowy Christmas Eve.

Thought we would wake to an inch of snow this morning but no such luck. The usual comments about overpaid weathermen and the fact the we will likely get nothing dominated the early conversation. It's nice to sort of "coast" on Christmas Eve. if you can, but I couldn't. At least not early on. Our alarm system hardware provider sent out an email late yesterday alerting us to potential problems with the "Holiday Schedule" routine in their software. Decided to look in to that right after explaining to my cow-orkers that the snow was still coming. While the usual Gulf moisture seemed to be cut off, (at least the more direct route), there was quite a bit of moisture wrapping around the low that was south of us, as it moved slowly eastward. Not enough moisture with this scenario to really bury us in snow, but a little moisture can make several inches so the potential was still there for a significant bout with the white stuff. Anyway, explaining all of that and then bringing attention to the fact that the precipitation was building from east to west, while the low moved in the opposite direction, did take a bit of time. Then I knew it was time to tackle the alarm thing. After copying a couple of files to just the right directory and doing a full "download" to the access panels I was convinced we were in good shape for the Holiday. Then there was the hood detector problem. We have sonic based detectors that signal the lane computer that a tall vehicle, usually a semi, is approaching the automatic ticket machine in the entry lanes at our turnpike plazas. These detectors are quite reliable under normal circumstances but with all the snow and high winds there was enough moisture in the target area of the detector to set it off. Therefore, every vehicle was a truck, or so the computer thought, and would spit the ticket out of the higher encoders. This was an inconvenience to our customers but was not a show stopper as they could still push the "get ticket" button to force the Datim, (Dual Altitude Ticket Issuing Machine), to spit low instead of high. The snow causes problems in other ways too but things, all in all went fairly well today. After a last minute gift purchase on my lunch hour and a relatively slow afternoon I was off to church. I decided to go ahead and go to the Christmas Eve. service in spite of the weather. I had loaded my guitar, mandolin and music into my truck before I headed for work so I was able to drive directly to church without going home first. Geepers, I just realized I left my mic at the church. Well, maybe my brother will pick it for me tomorrow. I can't believe I did that. Anyway, I got to church a little early got out my mandolin, tuned it and commenced to participate in a couple of wonderful services. Christmas carols, a reading of the Christmas story, a message from our pastor, some special music and voila', you have a great evening on your hands. We always close with a candle lighting ceremony which is carried out while singing Silent Night. I hope the satisfaction and peace that visited me as I quieted my voice and listened to the hundreds of voices lifted in song will be yours too, this Christmas.
Happy Birthday Jesus!