Month: June 2023

Thoughts from here and there…

Celebrate the beauty of America. There is much that is beautiful. Take a trip to any number of Wisconsin’s extraordinary parks and forests. They are busy, there is no doubt of that. But I have seen the grandeur of the Grand Canyon and the awesome sight of the magnificent Redwood Trees in Redwood National Forest. I have heard the roar of the surf along Highway 1 in California, and viewed the incredible power of the tide along the Maine Coast. Take a trip to Door County and marvel at the scenery. Camp in Governor Dodge. Drive through the Kettle Moraine and enjy the beauty of the countryside.

Celebrate the productivity of America. It is not just the extensive array of products on super market shelves that boggles the mind. It is the too-numerous to mention products that are available to help us achieve the world’s highest standard of living.

Celebrate the diversity of America. Milwaukee must be the festival capital of the world. The rich ethnic heritages of many people are celebrated every summer. It is this diversity that has led to the development of new products, the utilization of the productivity of nature, and the creation of art and music.

Don’t forget our religious diversity. Because we cherish the freedom to worship and proclaim the gospel, we have many religious organizations to which people may belong and find faith and support for their daily lives. God is not confined to one church or denomination. God is in all churches and all denominations. God will find people wherever they are located.

Celebrate the freedom of American. Where else can people be truly free to follow their dream or to pursue their ambition, for great good as well, as sometimes, for great evil.

This may be true. Freedom has its price. So does social responsibility. We can be socially conscious and active in the midst of the veneration of our freedom.

Celebrate the opportunities that America provides to all its citizens. The opportunities are endless. It is true that they must be recognized when they pass by. It is also true that opportunity must be pursued by those who would benefit from them. It is true that you need some education and economic resources to realize the opportunity. Opportunities are in abundance.

This Fourth of July tune out the critics, turn off the gloom and doom soothsayers, turn on the opportunity to celebrate America. Sing the National Anthem. Salute the flag. America, it is worth celebrating.

School is out for the summer. Let us take time to pay “A Tribute to Teachers.” Cody Klintworth is a relative who teaches. I am sure that he would appreciate this blog.

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. Tom, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued: “What’s a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?” He reminded the other dinner guests that it’s true what they say about teachers: “Those who can: do. Those who can’t: teach.”

To corroborate, he said to another guest: “You’re a teacher, Susan,” he said. “Be honest. What do you make?”

Susan, who had a reputation of honesty and frankness, replied, “You want to know what I make? I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I can make a C+ student feel like he won the Congressional Medal of Honor, and an A- student feel like a slap in the face if the student did not do their very best. I can make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall in absolute silence. I can make parents tremble in fear when I call home.

“You want to know what else I make? I make kids wonder. I make them question. I make them criticize. I make them apologize and mean it. I make them write. I make them read, read, read. I make them spell ‘definitely’ and ‘beautiful’ over and over again, until they will never misspell either one of those words again. I make them show all their work in math and hide it all on their final drafts in English.

“I elevate them to experience music and art and joy in the performance, so their lives are rich, full of kindness and culture, and they take pride in themselves and their accomplishments. I make them understand that if you have the brains, then follow your heart–and if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make, you pay them no attention.

“I make a difference, Tom. And what do you make?”

Thoughts from here and there…..

Dads–you think you’re special, and you are. You think you’re being honored, having one day out of the year dedicated to you? To keep life in perspective consider this:

“Egg salad gets a whole week. As do pickles, pancakes, pickled peppers, split pea soup, clowns, carpenter ants and aardvarks. Peanut butter (March), chickens (September) and oatmeal (January) each rate an entire month.

“Fathers can draw solace from the fact that along with themselves, such national treasures as the rubber eraser and moles also merit only a single day of recognition.”

I include here “Reflections of a Father.” These reflections are something for father’s to ponder.

I can give you life, but only you can live it.

I can teach you things, but only you can learn.

I can give you directions, hut I can’t he there to lead you.

I can allow you freedom, but I can’t account for it.

I can take you to church, hut only you can believe.

I can teach you right from wrong, but the choice will always be yours.

I can buy you beautiful clothes, but I can’t make you beautiful inside.

I can offer you advice, but only you can accept it.

I can teach you to share, but only you can be unselfish.

I can teach you respect, but only you can show honor.

I can advise you about friends, but I can’t choose them for you.

I can advise you about sex, but I can’t keep you pure.

I can teach you the facts of life, but I can’t build your reputation.

I can tell you about alcohol, but only you can choose to be sober.

I can warn you about drugs, but only you can say ‘no.’

I can tell you about lofty goals, but I can’t achieve them for you.

I can teach you about kindness, but I can’t force you to be gracious.

I can warn you about sins, but I can’t make you moral.

I can pray for you, but only you can choose God.

I can teach you about Jesus, but only you can choose Him as Lord.

I can tell you how to live, but I can’t give you eternal life.

I can love you unconditionally all of my life…and I will!

~Charles (Pop) Avery ©2002 by author Reprinted with permission

Fathers can teach children how to work and live and relate in a community which demonstrates interest, compassion and helpfulness for others. This is something that our young need to learn if we are going to have a community in which people can relate to one another and get along with each other.

She stood at the check-out counter with the glass plates that she wanted to purchase. The young man who was working that day appeared to be distracted, disinterested, and distanced from what he was supposed to be doing.

He finally took her money, but he did not wrap her purchases. She was irritated and disappointed with his demeanor. She asked him to please wrap the dishes so she could be on her way. He wrapped a few of them in a rather sloppy manner and left the rest. She waited some more and finally wrapped the rest herself and left the store.

She exclaimed that she ought to have talked to the management, and its true, she should have. She wondered what this young man was doing working there. I wonder as well, but there is another question that arises in my mind.

It is true that he was working. He wanted this job. It might be, and I am doing a little second-guessing here, that he did not know how to relate to the people he was being asked to serve. This is not an uncommon problem today. It is the conclusion of Ellen T. Charry in an article that she wrote in Theology Today.

Dr. Charry suggests that we are in the midst of a “spiritual crises,” created by modern emphasis on the “autonomous self.” We have argued for the freedom of the natural self from social convention. Freedom from family is necessary for adult hood. Freedom from the church is necessary for the development of maturity. So we have been liberated from society, family and God. This increased trust in the self along with doubt about God suggests that each of us is alone in the universe. We live in a world that is shorn of grace, majesty, compassion and hope.

She writes, “Free market capitalism exploits modern themes of emancipation, autonomy, uniqueness, self-creation, and self-fulfillment for its own ends. Now, however, a romanticized ideal of emancipation, coupled with the crass side of the free market are bring despair and anomie (Anomie is a word which describes the state of collapse and the alienation experienced by the individual or class.) To America’s young regardless of race, education, or class. Loneliness, despair, and isolation from sources of nurture and guidance—both theological and familial—feed and are fed by the entertainment industry. Desire is stimulated, but the purveyors of pop culture have little investment in youngster’s spiritual well-being. This is a world of material plenty—whether by aspiration for that plenty or fear of its loss—that lacks spiritual anchors.”

Could it be that the young man behind the counter is experiencing what Dr. Charry is describing. If that is the case than the solution rests with fathers to nurture their children and to teach them the ability to relate in a community of friends and strangers. Your church is one of the best places in which may be done.

Ellen T. Charry, Margaret W. Harmon Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, “Spiritual Formation by the doctrine of the trinity,” Theology Today, Vol 54, No. 3, (October, 1997), 368-369.