Monthly Archives: October 2004

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I Needed This Today

Been surfing the ‘Net today, looking for articles mentioning our oganization that came out over the weekend… But I got booored… so I decided to check into Snopes.com…  I found these two examples and I started laughing so hard people were looking into my office to find out what was going on. I don’t know exactly why I found them so funny…. perhaps it’s just because it’s Monday, and so close to quittin time…

You decide.

Claim:   People have been buried alive by mistake.

Status:   True.

Origins:   Don’t quit your shuddering just yet. Live burial is not unheard of; it has always been a real (albeit distant) possibility. Indeed, it’s conceivable the first burials of humans were accidental, live ones: Ill and wounded hunters were left in caves with the entrances sealed off to keep out wild animals while the rest of the hunting parties continued after their prey. It was hoped that once the victims had regained their strength, they would push the barriers out of the way and rejoin the group. Some died in those caves, however.

The still-living have been consigned to an eternal dirt nap often enough that fears of premature burial are based on fact as much as on lore. Numerous cases of interments and almost interments dot history.

In the early 17th century, Marjorie Elphinstone died and was buried in Ardtannies, Scotland. When grave robbers attempted to steal the jewelry interred with her, the deceased surprised the heck out of them by groaning. The robbers fled for their lives, and Elphinstone revived, walked home, and outlived her husband by six years.

I bet they never robbed another grave as long as they lived!

Marjorie Halcrow Erskine of Chirnside, Scotland, died in 1674 and was buried in a shallow grave by a sexton intent upon returning later to steal her jewelry. While the light-fingered sexton was trying to cut off her finger to retrieve a ring, she awoke. In her additional years of life after her first burial, she went on to give birth to and raise two sons. No one knows what happened to the sexton.

Probably died of a heart attack and fell into her just emptied shallow grave! Then was buried by some kindly passerby who felt sorry for the "poor bloke" whom no one cared enough about to give a proper burial!

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Wish You Were Here

I love you mom and dad.
I miss you very much.

I know you’re happier — and better off — where you are . And I wouldn’t wish upon you a forced return to this world for anything.

But life is not the same without you here. It lacks a certain spice. One that only you two can bring.

I saw a sunset the other day, dad, that you would have loved. The sky was this amazing mix of amber and rose, gold and indigo. Who knew all those colors could go together that way! And you would love Tennessee! The land is beautiful beyond compare. I don’t even know if Alaska can beat it… but you would know that better than I…. Such history is tied to this land. Even our family history… ancestors that lived here… even some that explored this frontier long ago. How you would love it here!

And you’d love our team too. John, our leader… I wish you could meet him. You’d approve. He’s a godly man. A little weird perhaps, but, that only helps him understand and relate to me better. The team is so amazing… Jamie, Josh & Elizabeth, Adria, Brian & Dawn, Lindsey, Mike and the Frat Boys, David — whew, you should here David’s story! It would make your "eyes water" with joy and amazement at what God does in people’s lives.

And I’m working at the SBC offices, dad. I may not be overseas anymore… at least not for now, but you can still be proud that I’m continuing the "family business", as it were. I know that’s not a prerequisite you had to be proud of me… but I saw how my being a missionary caused you to puff out your chest just a little more than usual when you introduced me…. You’d be proud of where I work, of what I’m doing.

Adria browned butter a couple of nights ago, mom, and suddenly our apartment smelled like home. The aroma hung in the air for hours… next to Channel #5, the perfume of cooking was your best fragrance. How I miss our kitchen conversations! How I miss the hugs and tears and love we shared!

I miss your laughter! I miss dad teasing you; dad and I ganging up on you and giving you the willies over dad’s eye twitch. I miss hearing you say, in your best fake put-out voice, "Oh, you two!"

Where are you? Is Heaven pretty? Do you even know I’m gone? Do you even notice my absence surrounded by such glory and beauty?

Your absence cannot help but be noticed. I trip over it every day of my life. life. I hope you are happy. I hope heaven is all we’ve been promised it is. It will make all this pain worth it.

I miss you, mom. I miss you, dad. I love you both so very much. Remember me.

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The Comment Dilemma

I never know where to comment on the comments.

Do I comment in the comment section? If so, will you find it there, and respond again?

Or should I start a new post, picking up where your comment leaves off and giving you new comment space to comment on my comment of your comment…?

Oh, the whole thing just makes my head hurt.

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The Democrats Just Don’t Get It

Kerry Clarifies Cheney Daughter Remark

I saw this story earlier today as I scanned the Headlines… and then tonight, as I watched a repeat episode of "The West Wing" on Bravo (I loooooove Bravo!! What a great invention, cable television…) the same issue was raised, and it so reinforced my viewpoint and convictions that I decided to go ahead and post about it here. You may want to shoot me… but you’ll get over it. I’m too cute to hate for long. 🙂

The democrats, or liberals, whatever you want to call them… anyway, the democrats pride themselves on being a party of inclusion, and non-labels, on being the open-minded and tolerant of all peoples and religions (except conservatives. And Christians. And evangelicals). They pride themselves on their non-judgementalism. Yet they can’t seem to understand that, for all their chest-beating, they put people into boxes with little labels more than any other group I’ve seen.

Why is it that Kerry and Edwards both felt the need to bring up the fact that Cheney’s daughter is gay? Of what consequence is it? Are they just trying to push the buttons of the rare arch-conservative who actually thinks gays are bad? Or are they just so convinced that one’s sexuality is all of who you are?

I think  it’s much more the latter than the former. I don’t think they were trying to push buttons. I think they were earnestly trying to show how inclusive and nonjudgmental they were — by bringing up a topic they think the average Republican approaches with guns loaded and aimed. They wanted to show they are the kinder, gentler party. The party who thinks all gays and lesbians are "just being who they are."

And they don’t have a clue how sycophantic, pandering, and foolish they look. And I’ll bet anything that most democrats are completely perplexed by all the hoopla surrounding Kerry’s comment… or they think it’s more proof that the republicans are homophobic.

Clueless.

Here’s the thing. Sexual orientation, race, color… they don’t make up the whole of who a person is. Unless, of course, the person chooses to make their whole life revolve around those few things.

The West Wing episode I watched — and let me just say this. West Wing is one of the, if not THE, best produced, best written and best acted shows on television right now. It is thought-provoking, funny, entertaining and just plain good. The funny thing to me is — and having worked in Hollywood for many, many years I’ve noticed this is a pattern with most liberals — they get it right, in more ways than one, more often than they will ever know. Clueless. They’re all just clueless. They stumble and crash headlong into the truth and prove the republicans/conservative "agenda/platform/values" right and the democrat/liberal ones wrong so many times, often as they attempt to portray republicans in a bad light.

It happened in the episode tonight. A republican congressman who just happens to be gay was supporting a bill defining marriage. Josh finally gets frustrated with him, asking why in the world he was in "that party" — the party, he said, "that says who you are is against the law."

The congressman then speaks precisely to my frustration over this issue — and over the Democrat party in general. He tells Josh that he agrees with 95% of the Republican party platform, things like empowering local government, individual rights not group rights, a strong defense, etc…. Then comes the punch. The thing Democrats/Liberals just cannot seem to comprehend:

"My life isn’t all about being a homosexual. It doesn’t have to be entirely about that."

Bingo! The big truth that democrats/liberals just cannot seem to wrap their brains around. For all their posturing and language, they honestly believe that sexual orientation, race, and/or creed defines a person. Why else would Kerry and Edwards make mention of Cheney’s daughter? What’s the point of bringing it up (especially when it has nothing to do with the original topic of conversation) except to point out that what she is is who she is, and all she is? Kerry says just that. "she’s just being who she was…"

This explains to a great degree why they are so opposed to individual freedom and so insistent that group rights trump individuals, quotas trump talent-grades-abilities. Because WHAT you are determines WHO you are and what you can BECOME… unless an outside force — like the government — intervenes and "helps" you make it to the next level.

And I know that every democrat reading this right now is growing angrier by the second and is convinced this is just not so. So insidious is this line of thinking that most who believe it just can’t see it for what it is.

Not until someone does something stupid. Like Kerry did last night.

Perhaps not even then. Most democrats probably won’t see it. Ever.

Kerry is wrong when he says, "she’s just being who she was… who she was born to be" when attaching that phrase to her sexual orientation. Can’t anyone see that’s akin to saying a pregnant woman is just being who she was born to be — a baby factory — or a poor black man is "just being who he was born to be…" What crap. What tripe. What bigoted, arrogant, condescending garbage.

And yet the democrats buy it, bottle it, sell it and put all their hopes in it.

They just don’t get it.

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Season of Color

I love autumn! Especially here. The leaves have begun to change. What beautiful colors! Everyone’s told me that we’re not in the best color time yet… Wow, I can’t WAIT!

The last few days here it’s been overcast, rainy, a few thunderstorms scattered for fun and noise… the mornings have been so crisp, so fresh and beautiful.

I LOVE Tennessee!!! What a great state. What a GORGEOUS state! With all this beauty, why did I ever stay in LA for so long…????

… uh, oh yeah… friends. My friends are in LA….. that’s why I stayed… I remembered it because their all chucking oranges at me from their cars, as they sit on the freeway, in rush hour traffic, smog, and heat.

Guess what, guys! It only took me about 25 minutes to get home tonight, and that was because it was raining hard. ;P

Yeah. I love Nashville.

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Pro-Life From The Other Side of The Stage

debg: The semantic I hate the most

I ran across a blog of an author I used to hang out with ages ago.  A self-proclaimed pagan, you wouldn’t think we’d have much of a chance of getting along… But truth be told, I liked her a lot, and rather admired her as well. I counted myself blessed that she accepted me as a friend even though I disagreed with pretty much everything she believed in. Not everyone does that. Christians, in fact, are the worst I’ve found at this. I’ve met many self-proclaimed Christians in my life who could all tie as the least tolerant people I’ve ever met. Sad, sad, shame. They look nothing at all like the Christ they are named for….

When I met Deb  I was still rather young — in my mid-to-late 20s — and still trying to figure out how to be a woman in this wild new world beyond school and mom and dad’s house.  Deb was a few years older, so I felt like a young apprentice at times, learning how to be a strong woman at the feet of a mighty warrior…. It wasn’t what she stood for that I admired so much — nor do I believe she admired me for what I stood for. I admired her for the guts she had to stand tall regardless what others said or thought. To stay true to her convictions, embrace and own them, believe them with all her heart and live them out no matter the personal cost.

Granted, it’s a lot easier for her to "stand tall" as an ultra liberal living in San Francisco… 🙂

Anyway, I ran across this rant on Pro-Life she posted shortly after the latest presidential debate (which, by the way, put me to sleep about halfway through). I love reading stuff like this; hearing what others who think very differently than me feel about things. It intrigues me, and gets all the wheels and gears going in my mind as to why they believe that… I want to crawl inside their heads and see the world the way they see it…

There was a long time when I was pro-choice, or perhaps it might be better said, pro-limited-choice and/or pro-abortion in certain cases (like rape, incest, etc)… and for me, the lines around this issue are still blurry. I’m still stumbling around it, looking for God’s clear opinion on it…

And I have to admit, I have also questioned the validity of the language used surrounding this issue. I think most of us use inflammatory language far too much for anyone’s good… whether we actually mean to inflame or not. I think Christians are sometimes the guiltiest of all in this regard. We can be so incredibly insensitive to the culture around us and, in the end, we’ve shot ourselves badly in both feet too many times to count.

Now, don’t get the wrong idea. I believe fervently in the sanctity of human life. I believe the magic of life begins the moment of conception, and abortion for convenience’ sake is abhorrent. I think abortion is a tragedy of idolatry. We no longer sacrifice our newborns to idols, now we sacrifice our unborn to idols of ourselves. And I think that’s incredibly sad.

But I can also see very clearly that our — meaning the conservative and Christian communities — current method of dealing with, and ending, this tragedy isn’t working. As Dr. Phil says, "how’s that workin’ for ya…?" Well, sir, it ain’t.

Perhaps it’s time to try a new approach….

Before you read Deb’s journal entry, remember the signs posted at the beach when no life guard is present:

                                           Enter at your own risk. 🙂

She’s a very cool woman, but also a self-proclaimed pagan. Her language may offend some; her topic and arguments may offend others. But this is the world we live in. Deb isn’t an anomaly, she’s the norm. I just wanted to bring a bit of that into my little corner of the Internet (or is that innernets… geez-louise Dubya, did your brain disengage from your mouth or something…????)

I loved Deb years ago. I love her now. I love everyone like her!  They bring spice and electricity into every relationship. And I want to find every way I can to bring God’s spicy, electric, magical unexplainable love to every one of them! I want to drench them, not in political rhetoric or inflammatory arguments, but drench them with Love.

What amazing people God creates! How can I help them see how Amazing HE is?

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Perhaps Home

Boxes, boxes everywhere! How did I get so much stuff!! I thought I did the sort-discard-re-sort-discard-pack thing when I went overseas two years ago… in fact, I know I did. But in that year overseas, I seem to have collected more stuff…! And even the irrelevant things got shipped back — I wasn’t allowed to go back and pack myself, due to being on medical leave, so someone else packed me up. God BLESS them for it! But, it made for much chaos and confusion — and a bit of frustration — as I’ve unpacked. Searching for things I was sure I had, finding things I thought had been sold, and discovering things I’d thought were supposed to come back had not, in fact, made it back.

The place IS beginning to look like home, but the feeling still hasn’t come. The older I get, the more time it seems to take for a place to "feel" like home. Or maybe I’m just feeling the effects of all I’ve been through in the last couple of years, and my year-plus of living nomadic lifestyle. I’m not even sure what home’s supposed to look like any more.

But I know what it smells like. It smells like Nina’s basement apartment… mom and dad’s home the last six months of their lives.

I got back to her home last month, walked into the basement, got a good whiff of it and sighed, "aaahhh, I’m home!" Isn’t that weird? A place with such sad memories, the place where I my mom died, where I first saw her when I got home…. but it’s also the place I lived during the holidays last year. And those have become some of my most cherished memories, even though they were hard, hard times. I was so depressed and felt so without hope.

It was in the midst of that darkness that God met me, Nina and Toby carried me, the Holy Spirit enveloped me. Though I could not see Him or feel Him, I knew Jesus was there. No, I didn’t know, I just BELIEVED He was there…. I chose to believe and clung to that belief with all the strength I had left – which wasn’t much. It was either believe or die. Believe or be swallowed whole by the darkness. Believe or… or lose myself completely to the Abyss.

Perhaps that’s what home is. Perhaps that’s what the smell in Nina’s beautiful basement apartment really reminds me of.  The sweetness of being rescued by God. Sweetness that can only be fully known by believing what you cannot see or feel when all your senses are screaming that it’s over, there is no hope left.

I have many magical memories of home, but perhaps none so magical, or so packed full of hope, as last Christmas at Nina’s.  It’s a magic I’ve never known before, and didn’t know it then. The kind you cannot know unless you’ve clung to the precipice of the Abyss and, with fear throbbing through every fiber of your being, shouted at the top of your lungs, "I believe You, God!! I believe You are here, as You say You are. I believe You! I believe You love me beyond all comprehension! I believe You will rescue me! I believe You! And I refuse to ever stop believing!"

Perhaps that’s what Home is. Hope-packed magic that only God and a stubbornly willing heart can create.

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I’m Home!

Nina and I arrived in Nashville early this evening with a U-Haul full of my stuff… things I haven’t seen in over a year! Tonight has been like Christmas… unwrapping all this stuff! There are some things I’d forgotten I still had, and others I discovered got sold, or thrown out….. Then there was the mirror the movers ripped out of the vanity top to my dresser and wrapped separately… that will have to be replaced… ugh.
There are so many more boxes to open, furniture to put together, things to put away… Where do I start??? I’m exhausted…. Nina’s already in bed and I think it’s time for me to hit the sack too.

Aahh, to finally sleep in my OWN bed! It’s only been a year and 3 months, but who’s counting, right?

G’night all. Sweet dreams. I know I’ll be having some!