Throw Me THE Life Preserver

On this day in 1920 the Turkish Grand National Assembly had its’ first meeting in Ankara. Mass beachings have been associated with active sonar. The U.S. Dept of Energy expects wind power to supply 5 percent of our power supply by 2020. In Baltimore, Maryland it is not legal to take a lion to the movies. Fire stations have circle staircases because back when fire engines were pulled by horses, the horses were stabled in the station and learned how to walk up straight flights of stairs.

What possible reason could I have for giving you this non-sequitor list of bizarre statements (most of which were found at www.randomfacts.org)? Because I’m trying to demonstrate that we are inundated, bombarded, and deluged with information. We have gone way past simply being in the Information Age. We are drowning in an information flood of biblical proportions (nice reference to Noah, eh?)!

Information has trumped formation. And we run from it to keep our sanity. Some of you don’t check your regular email and so will never read this. It’s because your inboxes are full of junk from various things/people/places trying to get your attention. And so you run to Instant Messaging…but as time goes on you find you get inundated there as well. And so you spend most of your time texting. But it’s a false security. The phone companies are already sending out mass text messages and the time will come when you get inundated there with unwanted information as well. Places like Facebook and MySpace provide some refuge as well for the time being…but you won’t be able to hide there forever.

Everyone wants your attention…mostly so you will spend money. Because without you spending money the great capitalist economy grinds to a halt.

For my part, I play the game as well. After sending out the mass email saying the blog is updated I’ll announce on Facebook that the blog is updated in the hope that you’ll hear my faint voice above the ever-increasing din of those seeking your attention.

But here’s the difference: I’m not trying to sell you anything…because what I have is not mine to give. It comes from another, who has been gracious enough to lend it to me. What is it? Well, not to sound like a Boomer reminiscing, but it is Peace and Love. Peace of heart. Depth of love. It comes with a personal relationship with the Risen Christ, and it’s really all the information you need.

Be well my friends,

Kevin

Holy Pope, Batman!

Greetings,

If you haven’t heard by now, the Pope is here. By ‘here’ I mean in USAmerica. In fact he’s going to be in NYC, including Yankee Stadium. My hope is that holding mass at Yankee Stadium will help the pitching of the Bronx Bombers…but even God’s grace may not be enough :)

If you go to NYC, you might actually get to see his Holiness pass by in the Popemobile. From USAToday.com: “In New York on April 19, Benedict will ride about 22 blocks along Fifth Avenue from St. Patrick's Cathedral north to 72nd Street, to the residence of the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations, says Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York. The procession will be at 1:15 p.m.”

The Popemobile is actually a series of vehicles of various makes and models. The current one is a modified 2002 Mercedes-Benz M-class (see pic). The bulletproof glass started getting used after the 1981 assassination attempt of Pope John Paul II.

If you had an audience with the Pope what would you want to talk with him about? Given the opportunity I would no doubt come up with a bevy of sharp theological questions and inquisitions to ask him. But once I sat down with him, I would probably just cherish quietly sharing a slice of space and time with “il papa”. To be in his presence, and to know that he is in mine, would do more for my soul than grilling him on transubstantiation or needling him on homosexuality or female clergy (although these last two are important issues that I think Catholic doctrine is way wrong on).

But what would YOU do if you had an audience with the Pope? Let me know…I’d be interested to hear.

Peace,

Kevin

L-A-R-K...etc.

Greetings!,

The pic here is that of a bird called a lark. “Larks are passerine birds of the predominantly Old World family Alaudidae.” (from Wikipedia). Now I don’t know what any of that means…and it doesn’t really matter because that’s not what the blog post is about.

A lark can also be a noun that is not a bird, or a verb. It can mean “a merry, carefree adventure; frolic; escapade” or “to have fun; frolic; romp.” (from Dictionary.com). Interesting, no? Well that doesn’t matter either…with the exception that every blog post here is pretty much a carefree adventure…

So now we get to the matter at hand! I’d like to introduce you to a website, larknews.com. I would imagine that some of you are fans of the Onion, or at least know that it’s a spoof newspaper. Well larknews is in a very similar vein except that it deals with Christianity. I find it to be quite funny…if we can’t poke fun at ourselves, who can we poke fun at? So I encourage you to go on a lark and check out larknews.com.

While I’m in the website advertisement mood…you should also check out poptech.com and ted.com. They are sites where you can watch podcasts of visionaries in all sorts of fields of expertise. You want to know what people will be talking about 5 years from now? Watch some stuff from these sites. I’m not kidding. If you want a good one to start off with, check out this video. It’s about a woman, a neuroanatomist, who walks you through a narrative of a stroke she had 8 years ago. It has some amazing insights regarding religion if you stop to think about it (I think so anyway)...plus it's just scientifically fascinating.

So have fun! As you can see, all three of these sites are now in the link list to the right (along with the new Pittsburgh mission trip blog site).

Peace,

Kevin

Hurray for Phlegm!...ok, maybe not.

Greetings all,

Well, I have been sick. Yuck! It’s been about a week now since it first started. It peaked Thursday night I think, when I had a fever and chills. Since then I’ve been slowly getting better, but it hasn’t been fast enough for me. I think what I dislike the most about being sick is that feeling that I’m not in control of my body. No matter how much I will it, I can’t stop myself from coughing at night. No matter how hard I try, I can’t make myself feel anymore energetic than I am (which isn’t very!). It’s an unwelcome intrusion of reality into my nice little universe of believing that my body is a tool to be used at my discretion, in whatever way I see fit.

It’s also an unwelcome glimpse of the future…think about it. It’s more likely than not that we will meet our mortal demise after a long life (its true that some will die before their time, but it’s not the norm…otherwise it wouldn’t be “before their time” – tricky, eh?). But even with good medicine and technological advances, the body of an 80 year old is not the body of a 20 year old. Over time you lose certain abilities. You start to deal with increasing limitations. It’s not really about you controlling your body. It’s more about you negotiating with your body in order to do what you can, come to terms with what you can’t, and learn the gift of letting others help you.

Perhaps the experience of being sick is really a lesson in grace. Or maybe I’ve been taking too much cough medicine and drinking too much decaf tea. It’s your call.

Hey, happy belated April Fools Day by the way...did you play a prank on anyone?

As soon as I’m fully back on my feet expect to see more about the mission trips (to Atlantic City at the end of May, and Pittsburgh in early August), including a new blog site, etc. I’m pushing for early commitments this year so we can get everything set with a minimum of churn.

Alright. Be well my friends. Peace of Christ to you!

Kevin