A Letter About Grandma…

My grandmother was born in 1911 and spent the first 45 years of her life in a small town in Southern Illinois. She grew up in the LCMS, as did my grandfather and went to school at an LCMS school through 8th grade. She went on to a public high school and my grandfather went to work in ‘the hosiery mill’.

My father was born at the beginning of the depression and went to LCMS schools as well, graduating from the public high school and eventually going on the receive a Bachelor’s from Michigan State University under the GI Bill and later went to law school. My dad wanted to go into the ministry…

The Stuff of Dreams…

I grew up riding motorcycles. When I was fairly young my father somehow acquired a mini-bike made by the same manufacturer of our lawnmower and edger, my impression is that these aquisitions were made through his work. I think I was about six or eight years old and I don’t hardly remember riding it because we lived in a city and we’d have to go somewhere in the country to ride it; but I looked at it and dreamed.

When I was around ten my father’s professional life fell apart, but somehow there was enough money for us to spend time as a family camping and riding motorcycles. At one time all three of us, my mom, dad and I all had a bike, but I think my mom decided that reading books beat out riding motorcycles – I don’t remember her riding much. My dad bought himself a Yamaha DT-250 and got me a Honda CT70; I would rather have had a Yamaha Mini-Enduro because it looked just like his bike and had a clutch, but we got the Honda, which looked like the bike in the picture only blue, and I rode the heck out of it. I remember standing around at the motorcyle dealer looking at the various bikes while my dad bought mine; I remember seeing this big one with a weird engine that had the cylinders (I knew quite a bit about engines for my age) sticking out of the sides looking all functional and powerful. I pointed it out to my dad and he offhandedly said that it was a BMW which was made in Germany and Germans (like my dad and me) are good engineers…

Regarding My Older Brother…

On May 28, 1975 I was fourteen and while riding my bike home from a friend’s house after school I was intercepted at our next-door neighbour’s house by my quite tearful mom. She had just found my dead father in their bedroom, with much of his head blown away – a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Our pastor arrived a short time later, the man who confirmed me the year before. When I attempted to hug him and be held, he peeled me off and pushed me away. Over the ensuing few days, amid much talk about my father’s identity as ‘a suicide’ and the fact that he could not be buried in ‘consecrated ground’ I begun, at first tentatively but later stridently to lift my middle finger…

Our Trailer Project…

For some years we searched for a used trailer to camp in. Both Laurie and I love exploring the out-of-doors and of course we will forever need a base to operate out of for our photographic excursions. We never were able to find something that we were willing to part with $10K in order to own…we realized that Travel Trailers and other RVs were not made to last more than a few years. Many that we found in dealer’s lots had water damage, roof damage and structural damage. We also observed that the floorplans really sucked…

Performance Issues…

A post I made nearly a year ago at Boar’s Head Tavern was quoted at about the same time by Dying Church and recently by M Squared T Blog. I’m flattered, and enjoyed a reread of an old post. I couldn’t help but edit myself a bit…

Dear Jesus,

We’ve valued your contributions to our organization these past three years but, despite the fact that your Father owns all the livestock on all those hills, an objective look at your sales numbers reveals that you haven’t been able to generate more than twelve solid leads clients.

Yeah, we recognize the fact that you’ve presented a couple of good sales pitches to some fairly large crowds, the simple fact remains that at the ‘end of the day’ you were only able to ‘close a deal’ with the same guys you first came with. Now we must admit that anybody that can provide perpetual food and drink at parties is a guy you want to hang onto, but you know realize as well as anyone else that each team member needs to carry His weight. At this point in time you’re just not meeting the numbers we need to justify carrying you cutting it.

We wish you well in all of your future efforts and thank you for your faithful, though ultimately inadequate service. We know you’ll find success, but the issue is that you haven’t found it here.

Our Best…

The New Management

The State of American Manhood…

Yesterday morning on the radio on the way to work I was awoken from my normal ‘zone-out’ when the female-sounding disembodied voice that mindlessly rattles forth between songs declared that today was “Act Like a Man Day”.

The male voice rattled out: “So what do I need to do?”

Nouwen vs. & Maxwell…

If you’ve been a regular reader you know that I’ve experienced some tension regarding my director’s decision to have our leadership team take John Maxwell’s course on the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. I’m a sort of ‘resistant to programs’ kind of guy, one of my favorite quotes has always been by e.e. cummings:

To be nobody but yourself in a world that’s doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting.

Being a regular reader you also know that I’ve worked hard to mature to the point where I’m able to accept that somebody I don’t agree with 1.) can teach me something, 2.) may be listened to without threatening my sovereignty as a human being and 3.) may be right, and I may be wrong…