Reflections on my journey as a husband, father, educator and a human.

Pa,

The things i remember… playing frisbee golf around the college, “B-17 bomber“, playing jeopardy and trivial pursuit–and ya’ll letting me play even though i was still a pup–, that baseball game where you had to pick out the players with the colored sheets–that was one of my favorite games–, the nfl game where you had to use the vcr to see what play you got was pretty good too.  I remember that time you had your leg in a cast for weeks after you tried to stretch out a gapper into 3 bags.  Little league baseball and basketball.  we were good.  I remember how your blue car could be heard a few minutes before it would actually get home. haha.  Magic 96.1 and the Kingsmen and the Oak Ridge Boys while driving down to Gaffney. backyard wiffle ball and running routes with you and josh out near mr. washburn’s house.

I just wanted to say thank you for all the things that I’ve learned from you over the past few decades.  Thanks for showing me that it’s ok to be smart.  and to strive to be smart.  Thanks for showing me that you can’t take yourself too seriously.  Thanks for being a servant.

My good buddy Tom thinks that some of the things we do during this life will somehow be used by the Father to help construct the renewed, redeemed heaven and earth.  If that’s the case then I can think of a few things that would make solid foundations.  You’ll never know how much it meant and means to me that you would decline a promotion to be chief, because you’d rather still work the 3rd shift so that you could come to my baseball practices.  Not so that you could rant and rave or fill my head with delusions like so many fathers, but just so that you could be there.  It’s also always impressed me how positive of a reaction you get from the GW students.  black, white, male, female, athletes, nerds, it never matters.  There’s ol’ Larry they might say.  And that “ol’ Larry” carries with it a ton of meaning.  A ton of respect.

You have rarely missed work or complained about work.  Through the good times and the not as good, you have always loved mama and us.  You don’t covet money and you don’t mind spending it on other people.  And now… you get to influence my kids, too.  I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way.  Almost squandered my name, my opportunities, my upbringing.  But your love and devotion has never wavered.  I am a child of the King, and I owe a great deal of what I have learned about what that really means from your example and your study.  That’s one aspect of the great command to “remember who you are.”  Another identity that I am so grateful to have is that of your boy.

I love you Pa,

Dan’l

The Son of Liberty has taken on an entirely new context over the past several months since I’ve been absent. I hope to flesh that out in my future posts. I will also use this site to highlight my hilarious kids. That starts now…

Last night watching the always entertaining Holiday Bowl, the Oregon Duck–the mascot–got some 15 seconds of airtime before a commercial. Well my baby girl, Sydney, loves “the guy”. Any mascot is “the guy.” The duck had his arms crossed as any G Duck would and was nodding his head. Finally he pointed at the camera. Sydney’s immediate reaction was to say “me?”.

In Psychology this would be a good example of egocentrism. Young children have no concept that they are not the only minds in existence. To Sydney, there was no question the Duck was pointing only to her.

Now, I’m a man, I’m 30, but too often I still am plagued by that same notion that the world revolves around me. I hope that in 2009 I can look more to others needs and desires than to my own.

I was fortunate to attend a conversation with Dr. Stanley Hauerwas at Renovatus in Charlotte this past Sunday. I have been reading through Matthew with the assistance of Stan the Man’s commentary on the gospel over the past several weeks.  I had also heard very many good things about the Dr. from several people that I trust to know good things.  It was quite insightful.  He talked briefly about the concepts of Matthew 18, and how the church is meant to be dependent on each other.  He suggested that the heading at the top of that particular passage should say “Warning, do not try this alone.”  The point being that in right relationship with the church and with Jesus that we are necessarily dependent on each other.  We should work towards being vulnerable with each other–despite the fragility and potential rejection and suffering that such vulnerability could and probably will bring.  Take up your cross.  

But it was his discourse about Christian pacifism that sparked the most post conversation debate.  While eating Mac’s Barbecue–and Shelbyians forgive me for blasphemy–which is better than Bridges, at a picnic at the park afterwards, my thoughtful and devoted mother in law asked me a couple of questions she had on her mind. She was working through the ramifications of pacifism.  The question is what do we do when we’re attacked?  Or more specifically how would we be the free country that we are if we did not fight and sacrifice blood and treasure to maintain that freedom?  A poignant question this time of year for sure.  

I certainly don’t know much about the doctrine of pacifism, especially as espoused by Hauerwas.  I have heard that he calls questions such as this “quandary ethics” and he doesn’t really deal with what ifs.  If that’s the case–and I hope it’s more complicated than that–then that seems pretty weak.  Abstract ideas are great, but we do live in the real world.  But I digress…

The way that I think I would answer the question now, is that maybe freedom isn’t what we think it is.  We often magnify the fact that the Pharisees et al, got it all wrong in the 1st century.  They were looking for a messiah who displayed political and military power.  We accept and pronounce the fact that they weren’t looking for the right kind of messiah.  We trumpet the sacrifice and humility of our Lord Jesus.  So maybe we are just as misguided as the masses were 2000 years ago. Maybe political power and military might… maybe freedom and liberty in political terms are not what we should long for.  This is easy for me to say given the fact that I am in this wonderful country, but perhaps we should not sacrifice the principles and Truth taught to us in the Sermon on the Mount and through the life of Jesus of Nazareth for comfort and ease.  

Churches in China and India and other places that are under severe persecution are growing at astounding and miraculous rates.  That is the story of the first churches as well.  How many times does Paul write about being in jail?  How many of the early church fathers were martyred for their faith?  I don’t pray for persecution… or I don’t want to pray for it anyway.  But Jesus says time and time again that if we follow him we will face persecution.  He says that we must bear our crosses.  

Much more to explore in part two…

dt

I‘ve been on the Obama train ever since Ron Paul’s derailed.  The best way I can tell you why is by posting what one of my good friends posted on his myspace blog:  

Our government does not exist to serve you or me, or anyone we know.  We’ve surrendered power to a group of people with the understanding they will represent us.  But faced with a mound of money from special interests our elected officials choose to serve the interests of corporations and the upper class of this country. 

Meanwhile those same people having their voices heard in Washington D.C. are using their power and influence to devour the American people.  Banks are crashing because they lend money to people with zero credit and zero sense.  The government then spends billions of dollars to bail out those same wreckless lenders.  You and I get a paultry tax credit for being on time with our mortgage, nothing else.  Towns and cities across the country are now having to deal with foreclosed homes and displaced families, costing local taxpayers more and more money.  If you don’t think it’s affected Cleveland County, have you seen the most recent budget proposal from the Cleveland County Board of Education?  I’ll go on record to say there will be increased budget requests from the Department of Health and Social Services as well.    

Corporations exploit the government for millions upon millions of dollars in defense contracts in this “war.”  And while I’m glad that terrorists haven’t flown any more planes into buildings over here, I’m not too happy about our boys being blown up and shot at in a foreign country.  All the while the federal budget deficit has soared into the trillions of dollars.  Inflation is up and gas prices are outrageous.  Oil is $117 a barrel, but somehow in the face of rising costs of its most precious commodity ExxonMobile manages to make a profit of $40 billion in 2007.  This mark passed the previous record for profits in a single year set by ExxonMobile in 2006.   

Corporations peddle shit to our youth so that they are obsessed with buying stuff they cannot afford.  Corporations and the media are determined to make knowledge and learning so “uncool” that our kids would rather be ignorant than be educated and thought of as a geek.  These same people are shipping jobs overseas to people who will do the work for nothing all in the name of making a profit.  Meanwhile American families are out-of-work or underemployed, but don’t worry W is sending us an economic incentive check so we can spend it on more shit.  We peddle fast food and cigarettes to kids and we scream about our impending healthcare crisis.

Don’t talk to me about personal responsibility while at the same time you allow big business to destroy this country I love.  Corporations are the bane of modern day existence.  I’m afraid that all those chickens are coming home to roost.  Global inflation is up, the dollar is down, water supplies are jeopardized, there is an ongoing debate about the well-being of our planet, and people in countries around the world are rioting because they cannot afford food to eat.  This is happening NOW. 

At this point in time, I cannot support anyone who I feel will continue to prop up the real evil in this world.  Greed and the drive for a profit are killing us all in one way or another and the time to act is now.  Given that these are my convictions I must cast my vote in a manner that supports what I believe.  To date, Barack Obama has talked this language at a time when other candidates can only peddle the same old politics.  He has his flaws to be sure.  I do not believe he’s a Muslim and to insinuate this is absurd.  I’m not concerned about his faith or his minister, quite frankly I believe he’s a man of little faith.  I would say the same thing about all three candidates.  This is a vote of protest and principle.           

It’s time for Americans to love each other.  It’s time for us to take care of our sick, old, young, and underprivileged.  It’s time for those with a great deal to share with those with a raw deal.  Instead of pointing fingers and shifting blame we need to believe that things can be different.  We need to act to make things different, and this is my plan of action.  Obama ‘08