To Ryan and Holly

Wow

It's extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to
save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion dollars to saved
25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases. - Bono

Yellow and Blue

I experienced pride and cowardice simultaneously. Maybe that is not so rare. Maybe cowardice is born from a sense of pride, a sense of protecting what is yours to the point of running away with it.
I did not want to talk about it with her because she seems so smug and certain that I am not safe to say my thoughts without a feeling of condemnation. Why do we have to protect our ideas so vehemently, so violently? I felt that if I didn’t come away converted to her idea there wouldn’t be any satisfaction unless I at least felt like I was guilty for holding to my idea. So I refrained from uttering a syllable of my thoughts other than the refrain, “I don’t really want to talk about this.”
I am tired of the two-side systems of our societies that cannot seem to operate unless they have some perceived threat of the other who is always out to undermine or destroy what is theirs. And yet, isn’t that what I am making of her, and her, and him, and them?

Um...

My wife and I have worked with kids for years who are considered severely emotionally disturbed in the highest non-corrective, restrictive environments in the state of California.
We have experienced a lot of violence.
But NEVER on the scale and organization as this

damn!

Wow

All I can definitively say is that it did not look like this before my daughter got a hold of it!

This was a "rah-rah" for my nephew's Cub Scout and Weblos troops that she has made some sort of statement with

Why I love my wife

Yesterday when I redeived some frustrating news at the Mayo, I called Christy with the raged confusion clogging my throat and burning my eyes, she calmly and lovingly held me close to her on the phone and helped me to start over. Thank you my love.

Since then I have been gaining perspective:

the woman in the Mayo lobby with an inoperable tumor in her spine cheerfully encouraging me even when I had said nothing.

Christy reminding me of our power of adaptability to date.

the mass of people in Rochester who have the tell-tale hairless signs of chemotherapy.

and the list goes on...

Through Tony I was able to hook up with some guys here for wonderful conversation.
Thoughts for further reflection:
what is the purpose of church as an entity and the church as the body;
the cult of personality;
politics and voter issues;
cussing in a mid-western accent...donchano!

COLD, COLD, COLD

peace

Recent Happenings @ Rocky Road Ranch

Say goodbye to Cranky Frank!
I found out this week that after over 6 months Work Comp has finally approved for me to go to the Mayo to consult with a doctor to have a joint in my thumb replaced. I am finally able to see some glint of light at the end of the tunnel since my accident two years ago.

After 18 years of off-n-on school I finally finished,

and it was only by the love and support of my bride

The kids are enjoying each other

and "resting place" enjoys being a big sister to "dark boy"
who is just a stinkin' happy little guy

Many of you know we raise Boston Terriers, now we are going to the other extreme by raising Great Danes as well.
Here is the newest addition to our homestead

She is only 9 mos. old so she still has some growing to do (she is about a third smaller than our stud) We haven't decided on a name yet, but we are throwing around Appaloosa Annie or some such variation
Here she is with Yona, our "watchdog" who hasn't quite figured out her role yet, and Romey our Boston stud

the image of God

Martin Luther King, Jr.
an excerpt from "Loving Your Enemies" given on November 17, 1957

I’ve said to you on many occasions that each of us is something of a schizophrenic personality. We’re split up and divided against ourselves. And there is something of a civil war going on within all of our lives. There is a recalcitrant South of our soul revolting against the North of our soul. And there is this continual struggle within the very structure of every individual life. There is something within all of us that causes us to cry out with Ovid, the Latin poet, "I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do." There is something within all of us that causes us to cry out with Plato that the human personality is like a charioteer with two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in different directions. There is something within each of us that causes us to cry out with Goethe, "There is enough stuff in me to
make both a gentleman and a rogue." There is something within each of us that causes us to cry out with Apostle Paul, "I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do."

So somehow the "isness" of our present nature is out of harmony with the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts us. And this simply means this: That within the best of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us, there is some good. When we come to see this, we take a different attitude toward individuals. The person who hates you most has some good in him; even the nation that hates you most has some good in it; even the race that hates you most has some good in it. And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls "the image of God," you begin to love him in spite of. No matter what he does, you see God’s image there. There is an element of goodness that he can never sluff off. Discover the element of good in your enemy. And as you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude.

$#@* or get off the pot!

*WARNING* Vulgar Analogy Ahead
Sitting on the toilet with naught but a fraction of the toilet paper left to use, about a third of what I would normally use. No other options, none reasonable anyways. I use what there is...let's just say quite cleanly, with no complications.
Simplicity seems so difficult to master sometimes, and yet faced with the situation where your only choice is to use what you have efficiently, wisely, and thoughtfully it becomes quite easy to master.
So if what you desire is masked by a myriad of other options, eleminate the options while you work for what you long for.