Healing from Repetitive Stress Injuries Naturally
The original video was an hour long so I made copious cuts to shorten it. Unfortunately, the many cuts caused an audio sync issue. Deal with it. Close your eyes, don't watch my lips.
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Healing from Repetitive Stress Injuries Naturally
Healing from Repetitive Stress Injuries Naturally
The original video was an hour long so I made copious cuts to shorten it. Unfortunately, the many cuts caused an audio sync issue. Deal with it. Close your eyes, don't watch my lips.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Father Joseph Girzone (1930-2015)
The holiest person I've ever met. Imagine what Jesus must have been like and that was Fr. Joe. He was a man who made millions from his books and movies and gave it all away to the poor. He owned a huge Victorian mansion and while letting a homeless family live there, he stayed in the small office above his garage. Even with bills piling up, he gave away what he had. He wrote me a letter once and it was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes. If you haven't yet read his book or seen the movie JOSHUA, go out and get it.
Some have said that Joe could be a little "salty" and he didn't hold back his opinion about what he thought of the church, the pope, his diocese and many of his priest peers. It will be ironic that many of the clergy he had little regard for will be con-celebrating at his funeral. The church will probably never canonize him into sainthood but those of us who met him know that he already is, even without the blessing of the institution.
http://www.joshuamountain.org
Some have said that Joe could be a little "salty" and he didn't hold back his opinion about what he thought of the church, the pope, his diocese and many of his priest peers. It will be ironic that many of the clergy he had little regard for will be con-celebrating at his funeral. The church will probably never canonize him into sainthood but those of us who met him know that he already is, even without the blessing of the institution.
http://www.joshuamountain.org
Thursday, November 26, 2015
November 26th.
An army of terrorists strike again. They poured over the
borders. They burned villages. They murdered and raped women and
children. They took the men and boys as slaves. Those who survived escaped to seek refuge in other territories or were forced into designated
areas. Many of the refugees were not welcome in the other territories.
The terrorists took the land and everyone was either exterminated,
eliminated or forced into assimilation. Millions died under the banner of religion.
Act now. Write to the monarchs of England, France and Spain demanding that they turn their ships around. Oh Christopher Columbus, you committed genocide on the Arawak nation then lied to your queen about the amount of gold found on Hispaniola so you could get more ships and then you had a holiday named for you.
http://www.ncai.org/initiatives/native-american-heritage-month
http://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Lies, Taxation and Pot, Oh My
A friend of mine suffers from
nerve pain and has great difficulty sleeping. When she sits in a chair,
she hangs her head down, folds her arms in her lap and sits slumped
over with her legs together as if trying to get in a fetal position.
The only time she can sleep is when she takes prescription muscle
relaxants but they give her a hang over the next day. The pain
medication doesn't really work and presents some undesirable side
effects on her.
She was complaining to me that she wished there was a natural, homeopathic or herbal medicine which would help her with her nerve pain and not have any side effects. I immediately suggested marijuana. Despite actually being a natural, homeopathic and herbal medicine, her voice rose with indignation saying that pot was an addictive drug with dangerous side effects. It ills brain cells and she would never take that. I told her that Steve Jobs was a pot smoker. Look what it did to his brain.
It is amazing how Harry Anslinger's lies about this natural, homeopathic and herbal plant have endured over the decades despite medical research and thousands of my and your neighbors and friends "testing" it on a daily basis. They themselves, in secret, have been proving the lies to be wrong. It is easy to beleive a lie when so many people say it is so.
I looked up my friend's nerve pain medication and here are the possible side effects:
difficult or labored breathing, shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, , chills, cough, diarrhea, difficulty with swallowing, dizziness, fast heartbeat, hives, itching, joint or muscle pain, puffiness or swelling of the eyelids or around the eyes, skin lesions often with a purple center, skin rash, sore throat, unusual tiredness or weakness, accidental injury, bloating or swelling of the face, blurred vision, numbness or pain in the hands, change in walking and balance, clumsiness, confusion, delusions, dementia, difficulty having a bowel movement, difficulty with speaking, double vision, dry mouth, fever, headache, hoarseness, lack of coordination, loss of memory, lower back or side pain, painful or difficult urination, weight gain, seeing double, sensation of pins and needles, shakiness and unsteady walk, problems with muscle control or coordination, unusual weight gain, anxiety, bloated or full feeling, chest pain, cold sweats, coma, feeling of discomfort or illness, loss of appetite, loss of bladder control, loss of strength or energy, muscle aches and pains, muscle twitching or jerking, muscle weakness, nausea, nervousness, nightmares, noisy breathing, pain passing gas, rhythmic movement of the muscles, runny nose, seizures, shivering, slurred speech, sweating, trouble sleeping, twitching, uncontrolled eye movements, vomiting, thoughts of suicide, suicide.
Here are the side effects for marijuana:
munchies, mellow, sound sleep.
I shared with her my two experiences with marijuana. Personally I would never smoke it. I wouldn't do that to my lungs and beside that, I can't stand the smell of smoke and hate to be around people who do smoke. So my first experience with marijuana was when I was in Washington State. I went camping up to a glacier and since marijuana is legal in WA, at the suggestion of a friend, I purchased a few doses in pill form and took one before I went to sleep on the glacier. I slept the whole night through while my hiking mates suffered the whole night freezing in the 20 degree temperature. I took one final pill on my return flight back to NY. As my plane took off I put my head down. Six hours later I awoke to the sound of the pilot saying "We are making our final decent to Albany . . . " This stuff is amazing.
It is too bad when my mother was suffering from nerve pain, her options were a concoction of three pain medications and one antidepressant or, as an alternative: morphine. All that suffering she endured and at the expense to the insurance company could have been avoided if marijuana were legal. You can bet that if she were alive today and still in that amount of pain, I would personally risk arrest and prison to find her relief from all the pain and suffering she endured in her final years.
For those who beleive in the fairy tales passed down by word of mouth, I am sorry you have been lied to and you beleive those lies; survival of the fittest. Go ahead and take those lab created pills with all those aforementioned side effects. For those of you wondering why marijuana was given a bad rap in the first place, our first drug czar, Harry Anslinger, who was in the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies, alcohol and tobacco distributors, and the lumber and print media industries, he made up stories about it. Coming out of the prohibition, marijuana couldn't be taxed and was cutting into alcohol and tobacco sales. Both the government and above mentioned industries were losing money. His facts changed regularly and despite the scientific findings in LaGuardia report, issued the following quotes:
...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.
Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing.
There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.
Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men.
Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.
You smoke a joint and you're likely to kill your brother.
Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.
Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.
Colored students at the Univ. of Minn. partying with white female students smoking marijuana and getting their sympathy with stories of racial persecution. Result pregnancy.
Two Negroes took a girl fourteen years old and kept her for two days in a hut under the influence of marihuana. Upon recovery she was found to be suffering from syphilis.
-----
Yup, your call. Hopefully it will be to your elected representative demanding that marijuana be made legal AND, everyone languishing in our prisons today for past pot possession will be released and their records sealed or expunged. Hey, it is your tax dollars keeping them there at $30,000 per person per year. It all started with Harry Anslinger. Who will it end with?
She was complaining to me that she wished there was a natural, homeopathic or herbal medicine which would help her with her nerve pain and not have any side effects. I immediately suggested marijuana. Despite actually being a natural, homeopathic and herbal medicine, her voice rose with indignation saying that pot was an addictive drug with dangerous side effects. It ills brain cells and she would never take that. I told her that Steve Jobs was a pot smoker. Look what it did to his brain.
It is amazing how Harry Anslinger's lies about this natural, homeopathic and herbal plant have endured over the decades despite medical research and thousands of my and your neighbors and friends "testing" it on a daily basis. They themselves, in secret, have been proving the lies to be wrong. It is easy to beleive a lie when so many people say it is so.
I looked up my friend's nerve pain medication and here are the possible side effects:
difficult or labored breathing, shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, , chills, cough, diarrhea, difficulty with swallowing, dizziness, fast heartbeat, hives, itching, joint or muscle pain, puffiness or swelling of the eyelids or around the eyes, skin lesions often with a purple center, skin rash, sore throat, unusual tiredness or weakness, accidental injury, bloating or swelling of the face, blurred vision, numbness or pain in the hands, change in walking and balance, clumsiness, confusion, delusions, dementia, difficulty having a bowel movement, difficulty with speaking, double vision, dry mouth, fever, headache, hoarseness, lack of coordination, loss of memory, lower back or side pain, painful or difficult urination, weight gain, seeing double, sensation of pins and needles, shakiness and unsteady walk, problems with muscle control or coordination, unusual weight gain, anxiety, bloated or full feeling, chest pain, cold sweats, coma, feeling of discomfort or illness, loss of appetite, loss of bladder control, loss of strength or energy, muscle aches and pains, muscle twitching or jerking, muscle weakness, nausea, nervousness, nightmares, noisy breathing, pain passing gas, rhythmic movement of the muscles, runny nose, seizures, shivering, slurred speech, sweating, trouble sleeping, twitching, uncontrolled eye movements, vomiting, thoughts of suicide, suicide.
Here are the side effects for marijuana:
munchies, mellow, sound sleep.
I shared with her my two experiences with marijuana. Personally I would never smoke it. I wouldn't do that to my lungs and beside that, I can't stand the smell of smoke and hate to be around people who do smoke. So my first experience with marijuana was when I was in Washington State. I went camping up to a glacier and since marijuana is legal in WA, at the suggestion of a friend, I purchased a few doses in pill form and took one before I went to sleep on the glacier. I slept the whole night through while my hiking mates suffered the whole night freezing in the 20 degree temperature. I took one final pill on my return flight back to NY. As my plane took off I put my head down. Six hours later I awoke to the sound of the pilot saying "We are making our final decent to Albany . . . " This stuff is amazing.
It is too bad when my mother was suffering from nerve pain, her options were a concoction of three pain medications and one antidepressant or, as an alternative: morphine. All that suffering she endured and at the expense to the insurance company could have been avoided if marijuana were legal. You can bet that if she were alive today and still in that amount of pain, I would personally risk arrest and prison to find her relief from all the pain and suffering she endured in her final years.
For those who beleive in the fairy tales passed down by word of mouth, I am sorry you have been lied to and you beleive those lies; survival of the fittest. Go ahead and take those lab created pills with all those aforementioned side effects. For those of you wondering why marijuana was given a bad rap in the first place, our first drug czar, Harry Anslinger, who was in the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies, alcohol and tobacco distributors, and the lumber and print media industries, he made up stories about it. Coming out of the prohibition, marijuana couldn't be taxed and was cutting into alcohol and tobacco sales. Both the government and above mentioned industries were losing money. His facts changed regularly and despite the scientific findings in LaGuardia report, issued the following quotes:
...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.
Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing.
There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.
Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men.
Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.
You smoke a joint and you're likely to kill your brother.
Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.
Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.
Colored students at the Univ. of Minn. partying with white female students smoking marijuana and getting their sympathy with stories of racial persecution. Result pregnancy.
Two Negroes took a girl fourteen years old and kept her for two days in a hut under the influence of marihuana. Upon recovery she was found to be suffering from syphilis.
-----
Yup, your call. Hopefully it will be to your elected representative demanding that marijuana be made legal AND, everyone languishing in our prisons today for past pot possession will be released and their records sealed or expunged. Hey, it is your tax dollars keeping them there at $30,000 per person per year. It all started with Harry Anslinger. Who will it end with?
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Why the Church is Losing Membership
Running Hawk of the Lakota Nation once said that religion is for
people who are afraid of Hell. Spirituality is for people who have
already been there. Are our churches filled with the first or latter
and how does that affect the growth of the church?
People are leaving the institutional church in droves. Many of the peripatetic people are not taking the time to technically leave, they are just not going anymore. Despite that, there are a few churches in my area who are boasting that their congregations are bursting at the seams but they are just cherry picking their data. One church dropped from five Masses each weekend down to two. The priest at that church reports that his two Masses are packed every Sunday; consolidating five Masses into two is not growth. Another pastor was interviewed by a local paper where he said that his church has seen significant growth and every Mass is packed. He failed to mention that the bishop of his diocese closed three other churches in his community and his church simply picked up the people who lost their buildings. New people where not suddenly going to church, regular attendees just got displaced and had to find a new home.
I have heard all the excuses why people are leaving the church such as society is lost, or they are sexually deviant, they don't beleive in God, they think the church is full of hypocrites, the church worships money, that gays and atheists and politicians and Hollywood have destroyed morality and our society of lemmings is blindly following. All that may be true to a certain extent but those people are still not the problem, the church is. Ultimately the church is terrible at choosing which battles to fight and how to reach out to those who see the church as irrelevant.
A church was hiring a new music director and the best candidate who had promising ideas and talent turned out to have a felony record. Instead of hiring him they hired the next guy in line who lacked vision, worshiped music and consequently destroyed their existing music program. That church chose to die rather than forgive. They failed to walk the walk and realize that Jesus, a convicted felon himself, while on the cross didn't take an honest man to paradise with him but another convicted felon. That church lost members who were not only frustrated by the diminished music program but some people left because an unforgiving church was not a church they wanted to be part of or thought they belonged to. Ultimately, churches would do well to replace their staff with people who only have the goals of serving God.
Each day our communities are beleaguered with violence, hunger, homelessness, drug abuse, racism and judgmentalism. Meanwhile our churches are battling with issues such as, do we take out the kneelers or leave them in? Should we have background checks to protect our children? Should we put in pew cushions and carpet? Do we buy a pipe organ or electric organ? Should our music be more upbeat and contemporary? Should we purchase a pool table for our youth group room?
Now to be fair, there are churches who address the big issues of violence, hunger, homelessness, drug abuse, racism and judgmentalism very well. Most people would very much like to be part of those solutions but when the church bickers about something other, it can be a turn off. The decision to put in a carpet may not be the reason someone leaves a church but it could be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back. Usually there have been a series of disillusionment or a longing for something more. The church should work on ministry and leave the building issues to the professionals they hire.
I once had a choir member who didn't like the fact that our church, the church she was raised in, was a liturgical church. She longed for a more charismatic approach to worship. She said that the church used an archaic and dusty language which didn't resonate with her. It didn't give her comfort and she said that the message she heard each Sunday wasn't worth hearing. When she came to me expressing this ache in her heart and that she was interested in the local Assembly of God congregation, I didn't try to talk her out of it. She was no good to us if she was unhappy and guilt ridden. I told her to try them out for a few months and if that style of worship made her feel closer to God and the community, then she had my blessing but, our door was always open for her if she ever wanted to come back. We never saw her again but she became very active in her new worshiping community's food bank and soup kitchen. She went on to organize a mission trip to South America. For her and her spiritual needs, she chose right. She is no longer at war with herself and the church and now her battleground is with poverty. Who knew this Milquetoast of a person had it in her to become a General in the army. That is what happens when you have faith and there is an opportunity to turn it loose.
Another reason people may choose another church is for their Sunday production value. People may have joined their church because of the music but, I don't want people to come for the music. Instead I want my music to inspire them to action, to be re-energized, to oxygenate their blood, to transform them, to remind them of a Kaddosh moment from their life, to be part of an awakening to a call for action, to feel joy. Many church organists are just organists. That is too bad.
The music we sing should not simply be a song that fits into a time slot like most musical offerings in our worship services are. It should speak to the needs of the community, not preach to nor entertain them. Much like the words of an uninspired preacher, music can also speak in a foreign dusty tongue. Some of our music holds onto dusty words that have no resonance in the ears of society, not realizing that just singing those words louder or faster isn't the answer. Religious buzzwords and fancy octavos used to work 50 years ago but they don't anymore. This spiritualized insider-language keeps regular people at a distance. People need the music to speak in a language that they can understand. They long to sing songs that pertain to what is happening in their lives this day. People don’t need to be dazzled with big production numbers larded with churchy words that are about eschatological frameworks and theological systems or warm and fuzzy theology.
Too many organists don't see how pastoral and ministerial their work is. I knew an organist who never played the same song twice in a church. He would date each piece and never repeat it again. People love to hear their favorite song over and over and if something an organist plays or the choir sings resonates with people, why not use it again? The same holds true for hymns. I fell in love with a new song called "You Are Mine" and I thought it would serve my parish well for funeral purposes and decided to use it every week for a month. The confirmation class liked it and asked if I would play it for their confirmation Mass and the song became a comfort and favorite of the parish over time. Another song I selected for a whole month was "All Are Welcome." The city was planning to put up a parole shelter next door to the church and the church was protesting so I thought that the congregation needed to hear that message over and over again. The church lost the battle and the parole shelter was put in. Some members left. All are not welcome.
A lot of churches have drastically changed their gimmicky worship styles to include lights, stages, elaborate sound systems, bands, videos screens, computer graphics, cameras and big production numbers from the praise band. In reality this is just noise to those who are really seeking an encounter with God. It is a distraction that has little importance, purpose and applicability to the rest of their week, or for people who are trying to grapple with the painful and confusing issues in the trenches of their real lives.
I have nothing against tech, I use it myself. I own four cameras, mixing boards, a switch box and the ability to stream live but I don't use those tools other than for recitals. If my church wanted to move in that direction for ministerial purposes then I'd gladly donate my expertise for that purpose but, the gimmick of a church "rock show" simply doesn't make a difference in peoples' lives. People can find entertainment anywhere. Church shouldn't be entertaining. Church should challenge us and inspire us to do something with our lives. Yes, many people who don't know what they are looking for may choose a church that offers entertainment but, that is all those churches may have and it requires a lot of energy to maintain that illusion. "Ignore the man behind the curtain."
There is a church near me who has a full time youth minister and a youth group budget of about $50,000 per year. The youth have their own service, plan all the music and readings and no adults are permitted to attend that service. The music by most standards would be deemed liturgically inappropriate for they use pop songs in place of sacred music such as "Lean on Me" and "Don't Stop Believin'." They average over 200 teens each week and despite that, they don't have a collection anymore because it would usually yield about ten bucks. Their swanky teen lounge sports a pool table, ping pong table, Foosball table, several sofas, a small kitchen, a 54 inch flat screen TV, a game console and WiFi. Post service activity include copious amounts of pizza and soda. For a teen on Sunday night, it's the place to be. When the teens graduate high school, they are not permitted to come back because they are now adults nor do they bother to join the church they don't know. The whole program is a wash financially and only gives an outward appearance of being spiritually alive, active and having a reputation for success. I'm sure many will disagree about the efficacy of the program but the numbers don't lie because on Sunday morning the youngest person in attendance at the normal Mass is 60 years old because the kids just don't ever come back. I bet most youth programs are much the same. Dollar for dollar, they are not a very good investment. Kids, like adults, yearn for a message worth sharing and an opportunity to act on it and make a difference, but it’s hard to hear that message above gimmicky pyrotechnics.
Some friends of mine heard that message and sent their daughter to Arizona one summer to help build housing for the poor. She came back a different person, with vision, drive and the decision to dedicate her life in service of the poor. She really wants to become a priest in the Roman Catholic Church but we know that isn't going to happen. That's another issue which drives our contemporary society away. Like many issues, the church is usually on the other side of popular opinion.
I knew a Methodist pastor who wanted to start a satellite church in a strip mall in a poor section of a nearby city. They would move their food pantry there and offer counseling with meeting rooms and ancillary worship space. His parish council shot down the idea citing that it would be expensive and they wouldn't have the volunteers to run it. I applaud the pastor's vision - instead of trying to lure people to the church, to instead go out to where the people already are. Just because the parish council didn't think anyone in the parish would volunteer didn't mean that once people found out about this ministry they wouldn't take part or join. Especially people in the community where this vital ministry would have been offered. The parish council couldn't see past its own building. Ironically this church has a large wooden sign above their front door which can only be seen as you leave the church to the parking lot. It says "Enter." When you leave the church you are entering the mission field. The best way to reach the people who don't come to church is to get out of the building and go to them. Get out of the building!
Churches don't walk the walk. My dear friend Maggie's husband was arrested for a consensual yet illegal sex crime with a teenager. They were immediately ostracized from their church (as was the victim, strangely). When they approached the pastors at several other churches about joining, the answer was always the same; they were not welcome. Some churches are not very forgiving or loving or welcoming. That was too bad for the many churches who turned their backs on them as Maggie and her husband are very well off financially and tithe over $100 weekly. Unable to find a church who accepted sinners, they formed their own little living room church with several friends who were more forgiving and they all left their respective churches to create their own.
When two hurricanes struck my area, I went out with a small band of volunteers to help people with cleanup. We encountered many people who lost their homes and were sleeping in their cars. When they called FEMA for help, they were told to call Catholic Charities who told them to call United Way who told them to call Family and Children's Services who told them to call 211 who told them to call . . . FEMA! Many of these people haven't had a good meal, a shower or clean clothes and were living day by day waiting for help to arrive. I knew there was nothing I could do to fix their dilemma but I was telling Maggie that I wanted to help them in some small way that could at least give them hope. That Sunday when Maggie's living room church of about ten people gathered, she raised $5,000. I then went out with the cash and when I encountered people living in their car or in distress, I gave them $100 a piece and told them to go get a good meal, go get a good night sleep in a hotel, or go buy some necessities. That little band of ostracized sinners did more for the homeless than a church full of "good" people.
So, if Jesus spent his time with prostitutes, murderers, thieves, lepers and outcasts, why can't the church? Hate begets hate and when the church hates, they lose but, they don't know it. They don't know what they don't know. In reality, all are not welcome in our churches despite the pastors regurgitating it on Sunday. That is part of the reason people are leaving the church because some of us are honest to admit that we are sinners and know that the "good" people in our churches would not accept us if they knew the truth. So you see, the people who don't go to church are not the problem, the church and its "good people" are the problem. If they would stop praying, preaching, judging, diagnosing, denying and just simply welcome, that would make all the difference. This doesn't necessarily mean that people are walking away from faith, it just means faith is more attainable somewhere else. Maybe if the church pulled its praying hands apart, their arms would be open for embracing and welcoming rather than denying.
Occam’s razor (developed by Ockham) is the law of parsimony. It is a problem solving principle which posits that it is pointless to do something with more when it can be done with less. In other words, simplicity is your best bet. When faced with a decision on which is the most likely strategy to be successful, generally, the most simple choice is the most efficient.
Here is an example of Occam's Razor in my life. I volunteer for a cable access show each week and it took my predecessor an hour to set up the studio while it only takes me about half an hour. The difference is when he put away microphone stands and camera tripods he would loosen them, fold them, tighten them then put them in their respective corner. I would just leave them extended and put them in the corner, saving a significant amount of time setting up and taking down. They weren't in the way and nobody else used them during the week. Likewise, all the cables going to the cameras are about 50 feet long and he would unravel them then have to roll them up after the show. We only need about fifteen feet of cable so I taped up about 35 feet and now I only need to uncoil and roll up fifteen feet. He would always put out 25 chairs for the audience but if we only have six guests on the show, I only need to put out six chairs. If they bring a friend, I can always go get another chair. Simplicity is your best bet.
The church desperately needs to be aware of the law of parsimony. Especially when it comes to forming committees. The problem with a committee is that all it takes is for one person to not like an idea or say it can't be done and it probably won't be pursued. Much worse is to assign a task to someone and they either don't get it done or do it poorly. Committees usually have a religious agenda, an argument to win, a point to make or a cause to defend and while these may keep the church running, they are also the bane of many a church. As a member of the staff, my preferred method of work is to meet with the pastor, toss around ideas then implement them. I spend the week talking to people about it, getting their input, researching it, then being a master of delegation, I either call people whom I trust or catch them at Sunday coffee hour and assign them a task. Implementing deadlines and followup with each person is crucial. I can get more accomplished in one day than a committee can get done in three months and it is the simplest route.
My pastor once charged me with the task of organizing a haunted house because our church youth group attended one and I commented that we could do better so he said "Then do it." I researched haunted house ideas, mapped out a route for our three story rectory and spent the year casually gathering materials. Several months later I contacted people and groups in the parish asking them to be responsible for whatever haunting I planned for each room. Nobody said no, I had over 80 volunteers and the program was a huge success. Several hundred visitors filed through in a two hour period commenting that it was the best haunted house they've ever visited and we made several hundred dollars from donations.
Showcasing parish leadership was key. One year the pastor was in an open coffin and the choir served as mourners. I saved flowers from funerals for the whole year and that funeral room was decked out with dead flowers, wailing choir members and creepy organ music. Another year the pastor and associate pastor's heads were mounted on a fake wall and the secretary, wearing a pith helmet, stood proudly next to her trophy collection. People came every year just to see what the pastor would be doing in his room.
After I left that parish a lay person took over the haunted house. With no vision and waiting until the last minute to plan, she formed a committee where anarchy reigned, tempers flew and people who had no idea what they were doing shot down idea after idea. The haunted house was a disaster, half the rooms didn't have anything in them. It failed miserably and they never had one again.
Occam’s razor can serve an individual very well also and this is where I think Occam’s razor can come into play for the person who is disillusioned or disgruntled by their church, the institution, the politics or anything else that leaves them yearning for something more: Withdraw your membership. Leave the church, leave the apathy. Form a small bible study group with family and friends. You don't need much to run a home church, a bible and a place to sit is all. Churches are failing across the country and they need to crumble more before we can begin to rebuild. Many pastors need to get real jobs instead of pretending to serve the community and we need to let the money serving churches fail. Church people are notorious for worshiping music, buildings, organs, groups, committees, activities and money. One parish council I sat on discussed the need for attracting new members to the church - to help pay the bills. That is totally the wrong reason for a church to exist but churches are businesses, institutions, corporations and are run by like minded lay people. How does growth for the sake of having more money to pay the bills serve the poor, naked, hungry, dying and imprisoned? So what do you need from a church that you can't find in your living room surrounded by like minded worshipers? The church needs to be reminded of the commandment “Thou shall have no other Gods before me”. This is Occam’s Razor at its best. When the church teaches love, joy, forgiveness, death, peace and God, the people will listen. That is all they need. Continue with worshiping other things and soon the church will be an empty room.
A big problem in our churches is poor leadership and people who lack vision. Something I try to do with all my ministry projects is to network to organizations and people out in the community in addition to the diverse organizations within the church. When I organized the aforementioned haunted house I made sure every organization in the church had a room to haunt, likewise, I invited local community theater organizations to haunt a room. I asked a funeral home to donate a coffin and a local contractor to build me a working guillotine. The people who were not part of the church were excited to see their labor being part of something bigger and they even visited the church on Sundays thereafter. They also never said no to future requests.
I once went to a Christmas party at a home where the host hung foil stars from her ceiling and I thought that would be a good idea for the church. I asked the pastor if we could decorate the church that way for Christmas and he said if I thought I could pull it off, do it. I bought 300 various colored and sized stars and spent two days building a fishing line grid then hoisting it up to the ceiling from a ladder. When I entered the church that Saturday for Mass, I was horrified to see that our forced air heat was causing the stars to wave and twinkle, thinking they would be a distraction. When people began to arrive for the four o'clock Mass, you could hear the gasps, oo's and ah's as people entered. The following week attendance grew by 25% at every Mass. The stars became an annual attraction with many volunteers looking forward in taking part with the hanging them and, the pastor even purchased a lift for the project. Now I don't know if people joined our church because of that new ministry program but, more fallen away members began attending again because something new was going on. It also didn't hurt that the pastor used the stars in his homily for weeks to come. The true success to that program was socializing and networking as I was able to use that program to make contacts for other programs.
At another church I offered a weekly organ recital every Tuesday at noon. I dropped off a flyer at that new parole shelter and some of the men started attending (probably for the free coffee) and eventually began volunteering to set up, pass out programs and clean up. They eventually asked the church to use a room for their daily AA and NA classes. In return they provided electrical, plumbing, carpentry and painting services to the church. A few of them joined the church, got married and had children. People often find our churches in the most unexpected ways. That is why we need to network and be willing to step outside of our comfort zones and areas of expertise and hire people with vision and courage. Someone may not ever think of approaching an organist to talk to about their problems but if that organist also skis and they encounter them during a coffee hour and begin discussing the new parabolic technology, it opens a whole new dimension of relationship which can be tapped into later. Like my disgruntled choir member, acorns can become oaks.
A woman found out that I answered a suicide hotline and she joined the choir. It took her five years to approach and talk to me about her suicidal thoughts. She said she never wanted to talk to me about her issues, she just wanted to be near someone who would understand and care. It was a "hem of the garment" encounter for her and for her it was all she needed to keep going.
I once inherited a church with a lot of problems. What church does not have problems? There were three music groups; the traditional choir, the folk group and a youth choir. There were three directors for each group and they all hated one another and worse, they planted the seeds of hate among their individual membership. I met with each of the directors asking them what their vision for the parish was and I remember the folk group director said "Vision? I just come in and play every Sunday. What do I need vision for?" So I created programs where no group had ownership but all three could participate in, together. It took about five years before wounds began to heal and I'd say it took fifteen years before all hate was abolished. The secret wasn't in creating musical opportunities for them to participate in. It was in the creation of non-musical activities for them to socialize in where they discovered one another outside of what they were competing with. I organized a Living Stations of the Cross service and asked a few members from each group to participate by writing and reading personal meditations based upon an assigned station. When they heard testimony about each others fears, pains and struggles, they began to see each other for who they really were: broken and frail human beings. When I saw them spending time together at the coffee hour, I knew healing had begun. Soon they began attending each other's concerts and Masses.
Judgmentalism, ostrcisation, fear, anger and separation slowly and insidiously breeds distance. A woman in adultery, a doubting follower, a rebellious prodigal, a person with a record, a demon-riddled young man with substance abuse issues or mental health issues; they all need a Church which will love them, nothing more. People who are hurt and confused feel God's love when they are cared for. They take shelter in God's love when they look with gratitude at all the beauty they see. A church who offers all that, they will feel it too. So if their problems are growing like a bacteria, if their money problems are a concern, if they lack vision and membership is falling, they have nothing to lose by embracing grace, mercy and forgiveness and everything to gain. Like someone caught in a rip tide, they need to stop flailing, take a deep breath and just float. Like the boy in the story about Jesus feeding the 5,000, they must offer all they have. Like the people in my church who left through the back door because a parole shelter moved next door, God provided and more people entered through the front door.
God works through people. The church moves forward rhythmically like a clock ticking. The key is to remember, it’s the Lord’s church. Churches should focus on this truth. When they do, time heals wounds. Conflict embraces resolution. Anger gives way to joy. Emptiness surrenders to fullness. But first we need to forgive and not judge. Is the church willing to do that?
Society is becoming more enlightened and many good people recognize that they are sinners and are still searching for a place where they can be known and belong. A place where it feels like God lives, and the people of that church are the ones who can show it to them. Maybe we do live in a sinful, deviant and disbelieving society but it is those people whom the church is supposed to be reaching out to. So, for the love of God; reach. Step out into the neighborhoods around you and partner with the amazing things already happening in the secular world and all the beautiful stuff God is already doing there. As C. S. Lewis once said, "We're going to be really surprised who actually makes it to heaven."
People are leaving the institutional church in droves. Many of the peripatetic people are not taking the time to technically leave, they are just not going anymore. Despite that, there are a few churches in my area who are boasting that their congregations are bursting at the seams but they are just cherry picking their data. One church dropped from five Masses each weekend down to two. The priest at that church reports that his two Masses are packed every Sunday; consolidating five Masses into two is not growth. Another pastor was interviewed by a local paper where he said that his church has seen significant growth and every Mass is packed. He failed to mention that the bishop of his diocese closed three other churches in his community and his church simply picked up the people who lost their buildings. New people where not suddenly going to church, regular attendees just got displaced and had to find a new home.
I have heard all the excuses why people are leaving the church such as society is lost, or they are sexually deviant, they don't beleive in God, they think the church is full of hypocrites, the church worships money, that gays and atheists and politicians and Hollywood have destroyed morality and our society of lemmings is blindly following. All that may be true to a certain extent but those people are still not the problem, the church is. Ultimately the church is terrible at choosing which battles to fight and how to reach out to those who see the church as irrelevant.
A church was hiring a new music director and the best candidate who had promising ideas and talent turned out to have a felony record. Instead of hiring him they hired the next guy in line who lacked vision, worshiped music and consequently destroyed their existing music program. That church chose to die rather than forgive. They failed to walk the walk and realize that Jesus, a convicted felon himself, while on the cross didn't take an honest man to paradise with him but another convicted felon. That church lost members who were not only frustrated by the diminished music program but some people left because an unforgiving church was not a church they wanted to be part of or thought they belonged to. Ultimately, churches would do well to replace their staff with people who only have the goals of serving God.
Each day our communities are beleaguered with violence, hunger, homelessness, drug abuse, racism and judgmentalism. Meanwhile our churches are battling with issues such as, do we take out the kneelers or leave them in? Should we have background checks to protect our children? Should we put in pew cushions and carpet? Do we buy a pipe organ or electric organ? Should our music be more upbeat and contemporary? Should we purchase a pool table for our youth group room?
Now to be fair, there are churches who address the big issues of violence, hunger, homelessness, drug abuse, racism and judgmentalism very well. Most people would very much like to be part of those solutions but when the church bickers about something other, it can be a turn off. The decision to put in a carpet may not be the reason someone leaves a church but it could be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back. Usually there have been a series of disillusionment or a longing for something more. The church should work on ministry and leave the building issues to the professionals they hire.
I once had a choir member who didn't like the fact that our church, the church she was raised in, was a liturgical church. She longed for a more charismatic approach to worship. She said that the church used an archaic and dusty language which didn't resonate with her. It didn't give her comfort and she said that the message she heard each Sunday wasn't worth hearing. When she came to me expressing this ache in her heart and that she was interested in the local Assembly of God congregation, I didn't try to talk her out of it. She was no good to us if she was unhappy and guilt ridden. I told her to try them out for a few months and if that style of worship made her feel closer to God and the community, then she had my blessing but, our door was always open for her if she ever wanted to come back. We never saw her again but she became very active in her new worshiping community's food bank and soup kitchen. She went on to organize a mission trip to South America. For her and her spiritual needs, she chose right. She is no longer at war with herself and the church and now her battleground is with poverty. Who knew this Milquetoast of a person had it in her to become a General in the army. That is what happens when you have faith and there is an opportunity to turn it loose.
Another reason people may choose another church is for their Sunday production value. People may have joined their church because of the music but, I don't want people to come for the music. Instead I want my music to inspire them to action, to be re-energized, to oxygenate their blood, to transform them, to remind them of a Kaddosh moment from their life, to be part of an awakening to a call for action, to feel joy. Many church organists are just organists. That is too bad.
The music we sing should not simply be a song that fits into a time slot like most musical offerings in our worship services are. It should speak to the needs of the community, not preach to nor entertain them. Much like the words of an uninspired preacher, music can also speak in a foreign dusty tongue. Some of our music holds onto dusty words that have no resonance in the ears of society, not realizing that just singing those words louder or faster isn't the answer. Religious buzzwords and fancy octavos used to work 50 years ago but they don't anymore. This spiritualized insider-language keeps regular people at a distance. People need the music to speak in a language that they can understand. They long to sing songs that pertain to what is happening in their lives this day. People don’t need to be dazzled with big production numbers larded with churchy words that are about eschatological frameworks and theological systems or warm and fuzzy theology.
Too many organists don't see how pastoral and ministerial their work is. I knew an organist who never played the same song twice in a church. He would date each piece and never repeat it again. People love to hear their favorite song over and over and if something an organist plays or the choir sings resonates with people, why not use it again? The same holds true for hymns. I fell in love with a new song called "You Are Mine" and I thought it would serve my parish well for funeral purposes and decided to use it every week for a month. The confirmation class liked it and asked if I would play it for their confirmation Mass and the song became a comfort and favorite of the parish over time. Another song I selected for a whole month was "All Are Welcome." The city was planning to put up a parole shelter next door to the church and the church was protesting so I thought that the congregation needed to hear that message over and over again. The church lost the battle and the parole shelter was put in. Some members left. All are not welcome.
A lot of churches have drastically changed their gimmicky worship styles to include lights, stages, elaborate sound systems, bands, videos screens, computer graphics, cameras and big production numbers from the praise band. In reality this is just noise to those who are really seeking an encounter with God. It is a distraction that has little importance, purpose and applicability to the rest of their week, or for people who are trying to grapple with the painful and confusing issues in the trenches of their real lives.
I have nothing against tech, I use it myself. I own four cameras, mixing boards, a switch box and the ability to stream live but I don't use those tools other than for recitals. If my church wanted to move in that direction for ministerial purposes then I'd gladly donate my expertise for that purpose but, the gimmick of a church "rock show" simply doesn't make a difference in peoples' lives. People can find entertainment anywhere. Church shouldn't be entertaining. Church should challenge us and inspire us to do something with our lives. Yes, many people who don't know what they are looking for may choose a church that offers entertainment but, that is all those churches may have and it requires a lot of energy to maintain that illusion. "Ignore the man behind the curtain."
There is a church near me who has a full time youth minister and a youth group budget of about $50,000 per year. The youth have their own service, plan all the music and readings and no adults are permitted to attend that service. The music by most standards would be deemed liturgically inappropriate for they use pop songs in place of sacred music such as "Lean on Me" and "Don't Stop Believin'." They average over 200 teens each week and despite that, they don't have a collection anymore because it would usually yield about ten bucks. Their swanky teen lounge sports a pool table, ping pong table, Foosball table, several sofas, a small kitchen, a 54 inch flat screen TV, a game console and WiFi. Post service activity include copious amounts of pizza and soda. For a teen on Sunday night, it's the place to be. When the teens graduate high school, they are not permitted to come back because they are now adults nor do they bother to join the church they don't know. The whole program is a wash financially and only gives an outward appearance of being spiritually alive, active and having a reputation for success. I'm sure many will disagree about the efficacy of the program but the numbers don't lie because on Sunday morning the youngest person in attendance at the normal Mass is 60 years old because the kids just don't ever come back. I bet most youth programs are much the same. Dollar for dollar, they are not a very good investment. Kids, like adults, yearn for a message worth sharing and an opportunity to act on it and make a difference, but it’s hard to hear that message above gimmicky pyrotechnics.
Some friends of mine heard that message and sent their daughter to Arizona one summer to help build housing for the poor. She came back a different person, with vision, drive and the decision to dedicate her life in service of the poor. She really wants to become a priest in the Roman Catholic Church but we know that isn't going to happen. That's another issue which drives our contemporary society away. Like many issues, the church is usually on the other side of popular opinion.
I knew a Methodist pastor who wanted to start a satellite church in a strip mall in a poor section of a nearby city. They would move their food pantry there and offer counseling with meeting rooms and ancillary worship space. His parish council shot down the idea citing that it would be expensive and they wouldn't have the volunteers to run it. I applaud the pastor's vision - instead of trying to lure people to the church, to instead go out to where the people already are. Just because the parish council didn't think anyone in the parish would volunteer didn't mean that once people found out about this ministry they wouldn't take part or join. Especially people in the community where this vital ministry would have been offered. The parish council couldn't see past its own building. Ironically this church has a large wooden sign above their front door which can only be seen as you leave the church to the parking lot. It says "Enter." When you leave the church you are entering the mission field. The best way to reach the people who don't come to church is to get out of the building and go to them. Get out of the building!
Churches don't walk the walk. My dear friend Maggie's husband was arrested for a consensual yet illegal sex crime with a teenager. They were immediately ostracized from their church (as was the victim, strangely). When they approached the pastors at several other churches about joining, the answer was always the same; they were not welcome. Some churches are not very forgiving or loving or welcoming. That was too bad for the many churches who turned their backs on them as Maggie and her husband are very well off financially and tithe over $100 weekly. Unable to find a church who accepted sinners, they formed their own little living room church with several friends who were more forgiving and they all left their respective churches to create their own.
When two hurricanes struck my area, I went out with a small band of volunteers to help people with cleanup. We encountered many people who lost their homes and were sleeping in their cars. When they called FEMA for help, they were told to call Catholic Charities who told them to call United Way who told them to call Family and Children's Services who told them to call 211 who told them to call . . . FEMA! Many of these people haven't had a good meal, a shower or clean clothes and were living day by day waiting for help to arrive. I knew there was nothing I could do to fix their dilemma but I was telling Maggie that I wanted to help them in some small way that could at least give them hope. That Sunday when Maggie's living room church of about ten people gathered, she raised $5,000. I then went out with the cash and when I encountered people living in their car or in distress, I gave them $100 a piece and told them to go get a good meal, go get a good night sleep in a hotel, or go buy some necessities. That little band of ostracized sinners did more for the homeless than a church full of "good" people.
So, if Jesus spent his time with prostitutes, murderers, thieves, lepers and outcasts, why can't the church? Hate begets hate and when the church hates, they lose but, they don't know it. They don't know what they don't know. In reality, all are not welcome in our churches despite the pastors regurgitating it on Sunday. That is part of the reason people are leaving the church because some of us are honest to admit that we are sinners and know that the "good" people in our churches would not accept us if they knew the truth. So you see, the people who don't go to church are not the problem, the church and its "good people" are the problem. If they would stop praying, preaching, judging, diagnosing, denying and just simply welcome, that would make all the difference. This doesn't necessarily mean that people are walking away from faith, it just means faith is more attainable somewhere else. Maybe if the church pulled its praying hands apart, their arms would be open for embracing and welcoming rather than denying.
Occam’s razor (developed by Ockham) is the law of parsimony. It is a problem solving principle which posits that it is pointless to do something with more when it can be done with less. In other words, simplicity is your best bet. When faced with a decision on which is the most likely strategy to be successful, generally, the most simple choice is the most efficient.
Here is an example of Occam's Razor in my life. I volunteer for a cable access show each week and it took my predecessor an hour to set up the studio while it only takes me about half an hour. The difference is when he put away microphone stands and camera tripods he would loosen them, fold them, tighten them then put them in their respective corner. I would just leave them extended and put them in the corner, saving a significant amount of time setting up and taking down. They weren't in the way and nobody else used them during the week. Likewise, all the cables going to the cameras are about 50 feet long and he would unravel them then have to roll them up after the show. We only need about fifteen feet of cable so I taped up about 35 feet and now I only need to uncoil and roll up fifteen feet. He would always put out 25 chairs for the audience but if we only have six guests on the show, I only need to put out six chairs. If they bring a friend, I can always go get another chair. Simplicity is your best bet.
The church desperately needs to be aware of the law of parsimony. Especially when it comes to forming committees. The problem with a committee is that all it takes is for one person to not like an idea or say it can't be done and it probably won't be pursued. Much worse is to assign a task to someone and they either don't get it done or do it poorly. Committees usually have a religious agenda, an argument to win, a point to make or a cause to defend and while these may keep the church running, they are also the bane of many a church. As a member of the staff, my preferred method of work is to meet with the pastor, toss around ideas then implement them. I spend the week talking to people about it, getting their input, researching it, then being a master of delegation, I either call people whom I trust or catch them at Sunday coffee hour and assign them a task. Implementing deadlines and followup with each person is crucial. I can get more accomplished in one day than a committee can get done in three months and it is the simplest route.
My pastor once charged me with the task of organizing a haunted house because our church youth group attended one and I commented that we could do better so he said "Then do it." I researched haunted house ideas, mapped out a route for our three story rectory and spent the year casually gathering materials. Several months later I contacted people and groups in the parish asking them to be responsible for whatever haunting I planned for each room. Nobody said no, I had over 80 volunteers and the program was a huge success. Several hundred visitors filed through in a two hour period commenting that it was the best haunted house they've ever visited and we made several hundred dollars from donations.
Showcasing parish leadership was key. One year the pastor was in an open coffin and the choir served as mourners. I saved flowers from funerals for the whole year and that funeral room was decked out with dead flowers, wailing choir members and creepy organ music. Another year the pastor and associate pastor's heads were mounted on a fake wall and the secretary, wearing a pith helmet, stood proudly next to her trophy collection. People came every year just to see what the pastor would be doing in his room.
After I left that parish a lay person took over the haunted house. With no vision and waiting until the last minute to plan, she formed a committee where anarchy reigned, tempers flew and people who had no idea what they were doing shot down idea after idea. The haunted house was a disaster, half the rooms didn't have anything in them. It failed miserably and they never had one again.
Occam’s razor can serve an individual very well also and this is where I think Occam’s razor can come into play for the person who is disillusioned or disgruntled by their church, the institution, the politics or anything else that leaves them yearning for something more: Withdraw your membership. Leave the church, leave the apathy. Form a small bible study group with family and friends. You don't need much to run a home church, a bible and a place to sit is all. Churches are failing across the country and they need to crumble more before we can begin to rebuild. Many pastors need to get real jobs instead of pretending to serve the community and we need to let the money serving churches fail. Church people are notorious for worshiping music, buildings, organs, groups, committees, activities and money. One parish council I sat on discussed the need for attracting new members to the church - to help pay the bills. That is totally the wrong reason for a church to exist but churches are businesses, institutions, corporations and are run by like minded lay people. How does growth for the sake of having more money to pay the bills serve the poor, naked, hungry, dying and imprisoned? So what do you need from a church that you can't find in your living room surrounded by like minded worshipers? The church needs to be reminded of the commandment “Thou shall have no other Gods before me”. This is Occam’s Razor at its best. When the church teaches love, joy, forgiveness, death, peace and God, the people will listen. That is all they need. Continue with worshiping other things and soon the church will be an empty room.
A big problem in our churches is poor leadership and people who lack vision. Something I try to do with all my ministry projects is to network to organizations and people out in the community in addition to the diverse organizations within the church. When I organized the aforementioned haunted house I made sure every organization in the church had a room to haunt, likewise, I invited local community theater organizations to haunt a room. I asked a funeral home to donate a coffin and a local contractor to build me a working guillotine. The people who were not part of the church were excited to see their labor being part of something bigger and they even visited the church on Sundays thereafter. They also never said no to future requests.
I once went to a Christmas party at a home where the host hung foil stars from her ceiling and I thought that would be a good idea for the church. I asked the pastor if we could decorate the church that way for Christmas and he said if I thought I could pull it off, do it. I bought 300 various colored and sized stars and spent two days building a fishing line grid then hoisting it up to the ceiling from a ladder. When I entered the church that Saturday for Mass, I was horrified to see that our forced air heat was causing the stars to wave and twinkle, thinking they would be a distraction. When people began to arrive for the four o'clock Mass, you could hear the gasps, oo's and ah's as people entered. The following week attendance grew by 25% at every Mass. The stars became an annual attraction with many volunteers looking forward in taking part with the hanging them and, the pastor even purchased a lift for the project. Now I don't know if people joined our church because of that new ministry program but, more fallen away members began attending again because something new was going on. It also didn't hurt that the pastor used the stars in his homily for weeks to come. The true success to that program was socializing and networking as I was able to use that program to make contacts for other programs.
At another church I offered a weekly organ recital every Tuesday at noon. I dropped off a flyer at that new parole shelter and some of the men started attending (probably for the free coffee) and eventually began volunteering to set up, pass out programs and clean up. They eventually asked the church to use a room for their daily AA and NA classes. In return they provided electrical, plumbing, carpentry and painting services to the church. A few of them joined the church, got married and had children. People often find our churches in the most unexpected ways. That is why we need to network and be willing to step outside of our comfort zones and areas of expertise and hire people with vision and courage. Someone may not ever think of approaching an organist to talk to about their problems but if that organist also skis and they encounter them during a coffee hour and begin discussing the new parabolic technology, it opens a whole new dimension of relationship which can be tapped into later. Like my disgruntled choir member, acorns can become oaks.
A woman found out that I answered a suicide hotline and she joined the choir. It took her five years to approach and talk to me about her suicidal thoughts. She said she never wanted to talk to me about her issues, she just wanted to be near someone who would understand and care. It was a "hem of the garment" encounter for her and for her it was all she needed to keep going.
I once inherited a church with a lot of problems. What church does not have problems? There were three music groups; the traditional choir, the folk group and a youth choir. There were three directors for each group and they all hated one another and worse, they planted the seeds of hate among their individual membership. I met with each of the directors asking them what their vision for the parish was and I remember the folk group director said "Vision? I just come in and play every Sunday. What do I need vision for?" So I created programs where no group had ownership but all three could participate in, together. It took about five years before wounds began to heal and I'd say it took fifteen years before all hate was abolished. The secret wasn't in creating musical opportunities for them to participate in. It was in the creation of non-musical activities for them to socialize in where they discovered one another outside of what they were competing with. I organized a Living Stations of the Cross service and asked a few members from each group to participate by writing and reading personal meditations based upon an assigned station. When they heard testimony about each others fears, pains and struggles, they began to see each other for who they really were: broken and frail human beings. When I saw them spending time together at the coffee hour, I knew healing had begun. Soon they began attending each other's concerts and Masses.
Judgmentalism, ostrcisation, fear, anger and separation slowly and insidiously breeds distance. A woman in adultery, a doubting follower, a rebellious prodigal, a person with a record, a demon-riddled young man with substance abuse issues or mental health issues; they all need a Church which will love them, nothing more. People who are hurt and confused feel God's love when they are cared for. They take shelter in God's love when they look with gratitude at all the beauty they see. A church who offers all that, they will feel it too. So if their problems are growing like a bacteria, if their money problems are a concern, if they lack vision and membership is falling, they have nothing to lose by embracing grace, mercy and forgiveness and everything to gain. Like someone caught in a rip tide, they need to stop flailing, take a deep breath and just float. Like the boy in the story about Jesus feeding the 5,000, they must offer all they have. Like the people in my church who left through the back door because a parole shelter moved next door, God provided and more people entered through the front door.
God works through people. The church moves forward rhythmically like a clock ticking. The key is to remember, it’s the Lord’s church. Churches should focus on this truth. When they do, time heals wounds. Conflict embraces resolution. Anger gives way to joy. Emptiness surrenders to fullness. But first we need to forgive and not judge. Is the church willing to do that?
Society is becoming more enlightened and many good people recognize that they are sinners and are still searching for a place where they can be known and belong. A place where it feels like God lives, and the people of that church are the ones who can show it to them. Maybe we do live in a sinful, deviant and disbelieving society but it is those people whom the church is supposed to be reaching out to. So, for the love of God; reach. Step out into the neighborhoods around you and partner with the amazing things already happening in the secular world and all the beautiful stuff God is already doing there. As C. S. Lewis once said, "We're going to be really surprised who actually makes it to heaven."
Friday, November 13, 2015
Lydia the Tattooed Lady
Written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. This song was a signature piece of Groucho Marx. Groucho famously stopped the trading at the NYSE while singing this song.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Halloween Organ Recital Q&A
Where? Trinity Lutheran Church, 42 Guy Park Ave, Amsterdam, NY 12010 (the United States one, not the other one where pot is legal).
Is there a Cost? Only my blood, sweat and tears. All others, free.
Will there be refreshments? I wouldn't play otherwise.
Is the church handicap accessible? Yes, there is a spacious elevator located on the parking lot side entrance. If need be, I will carry you up the stairs (I've done it before). Watch the end of the demo video, I show you how to find it.
What kind of organ are you playing? It is a newly installed three manual tracker, built by a local builder. There will be a dedicatory recital in the upcoming months. Come to find out when and all the other pertinent deets.
I hate organ recitals, they are boring, arcane, esoteric, stuffy, recondite and they all sound alike. What are you playing? I hate organ recitals, too. I will be playing the ubiquitous, standard "scary" organ music such as the Chopin Funeral March, Bach's (sic) Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Boëllmann's Toccata plus a few novelty songs and pieces arranged by me.
The organ is currently lounging in it's summer tuning estate but, here is a demo video of me at my first practice session getting to know the instrument and finding my arm weight. Here I demonstrate the en chamade and the full organ (which distorted my camera's microphone).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lldWqEhIkbs
See you then.
-Malcolm (The pastor wants a bio) Insert pretentious crap about myself here)).
Malcolm, a true Capricorn, is actually not funny. He is just really mean and people think he is joking. He is a lover of ice cream and a runner - because of all the ice cream. Malcolm is a Nomad in search for the perfect burger and is an especially gifted napper with killer abs (want proof, check out "Mount Baker Glacier Clips." Do not judge him before you know him, but just to inform you, you won't like him. He is not on Facebook and most likely wouldn't friend you anyway so this is all you are ever going to get. Malcolm feels sad for seedless watermelons because, what if they wanted babies? The humanity.
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Church Growth
I have had the privilege of speaking with several pastors recently about
church growth or the lack of growth which many churches are
experiencing across the country. Some pastors are looking for gimmicks
or programs to attract those who left and also looking for ways to
welcome those who have never been. Others are accepting of their size
and diminishing membership and are desirous to settle for being in the
service of those who remain.
A predominant reason people say they don't go to church is that they consider themselves spiritual and not religious and that the church is filled with hypocrites. It is very easy to perceive the church as being filled with people who are "holier than thou." It is also very easy for the church to attract or foster people who "protest too much" in an effort to hide their own sinful nature. It is easy for good people to be judgmental especially if they secretly recognize sinful desire in their own hearts. On top of that, when some crime occurs in a church, we might discover that the perp was a pillar of the community, a lector, secretary, youth group leader, pastor or Eucharistic minister.
It is not that the church attracts bad people. The truth is everyone has the capacity to be a "bad" person. There was a study by Wallerstein and Wylie where they asked 3,000 NY citizens who have never been arrested about all the things they had done in their lives. 100% of them have committed misdemeanors and were never caught and 97% had committed felonies but have never been caught. So if you've never been caught, you must be a good person despite the bad things you've gotten away with.
About fifteen years ago I vacationed in Canada with a friend who illegally brought back Cuban cigars and prescription drugs which you couldn't buy in the US but they were available in Canada. I thought it was very funny that I got flagged for a search and he, a Roman Catholic priest, waltzed right through.
Today, churches often run background checks on its members in an effort to weed out the sinners. It is good that they want to make safe sanctuaries but they need to keep in mind that most saints such as St. Paul and even Jesus, a convicted felon himself, would not be welcome in our churches for none of them would pass their background checks. Part of the problem with organized religion is that it represents only a tiny part of the story and one that is often dangerously dysfunctional at that.
People of adversity find strength within themselves and they think that that has to do with finding meaning. Instead of finding meaning we should call it forge for meaning for finding and searching are two different things. Endurance is the entry way to forging meaning and, being accepted into a community is the only place that that can happen. When we forge meaning we can incorporate that meaning into a new identity and that is what the church needs. We need to take our faults and traumas and make them part of who we've come to be and we need to fold the worst events of our lives into a narrative of triumph as a response of things that hurt. Instead the church tries hard to deny this.
I once encouraged a church to start a prison ministry and the response was that they didn't want to attract or associate with those kind of people. What they failed to realize was that those people were already in the parish as convicted arsonists, drug users, DWI perps, a sex offender and burglar. A few years later one of their 20 year old boys was arrested for dealing drugs and it still didn't dawn on them that they had the capacity to heal and the healing needed to happen in their own back yard.
When it was found out that I answered a suicide hotline, a woman grabbed me after a church service, broke down in tears and told me that her brother was arrested for committing a sex crime with a teenager, then completed suicide while in jail. We spoke for quite some time and afterward I told the pastor what had happened so that he could be aware of the situation. Instead of being compassionate, he became angry that the woman would confide in me and not him. Of course, this was in a parish who abandoned a former pastor who was arrested on a DWI charge. She never trusted anyone in the parish with her pain and she carried it silently for many years.
A woman who was raped as a teenager seemingly had her life destroyed. She dropped out of school, gave birth to the child of the rapist and never went to college or forged a career of her own. At the age of fifty she was asked if she ever thought of the rapist and she said she did and she felt sorry for him because, he has a beautiful daughter and two beautiful grandchildren and he doesn't know that and she does. As it turns out, she considers herself the lucky one. She credits the support and love of her community for the blessings in her life.
Some things we are born to; our race, a disability, our sexuality, our gender and some are things that happen to us; being a rape victim, a prisoner, a Katrina survivor, a 9/11 survivor. Religious identity means being able to enter into a church community to draw strength from that community and to give strength there too. A church community is not for someone to enter in and say "I am here and I hurt," but rather "I hurt and I am here." But we are ashamed, judgmental and can't tell our stories to the "good people" but our stories are the foundation of identity.
Just as the stories we tell come from our life experiences, our lives can grow from the stories that we tell. The bible is filled with such stories of healing, joy, forgiveness and com-passion (suffering with one another). That is the key; one another and, you won't find that on a Facebook page. Instead, the church looks for ways to attract the wrong people because the church is interested in numbers and money. If the church's goal is to promote healing and acceptance through pain and struggle, numbers and money will be the symptom thereof. Currently, that calling is being lived out through social services and other organizations and they are doing a better job than the church is. So, who needs the church . . .
It isn't solely about changing ourselves but about changing the world. It doesn't make what is wrong right but makes what is wrong precious and you won't learn that from social services. The road less traveled is what makes all the difference and the church is abandoning that road. We can not be ourselves without the misfortune that drives our search for meaning. "I take pleasure in infirmities," St. Paul wrote, "for when I am weak, then I am strong." The church is trying to be strong while denying its weakness and driving out people it thinks will make them weak.
Oppression breeds the power to oppose it and that is the cornerstone of identity. However, you can't change the church if you don't belong to it. If a church is full of hypocrites, leaving it doesn't change that. I know a church whose organist was arrested and half the church supported him and half wanted to abandon him. The church chose to abandon him and eventually all the supporters left and the haters won. That church's attendance dropped and is currently in danger of closing because - hate begets hate. If the church chose love and forgiviness, who knows where it would be today.
Today's church does not know what oppression is because they are doing the oppressing. If you banish the dragons, you banish the heroes and we've always been attracted to the heroes in our society. Satan doesn't have to fight the church because he has joined it. When we shelter our children from adversity, we've failed as parents for it is adversity which trains and teaches children how to prepare and cope for what the real world may throw at them. Someone once asked gay activist Harvey Milk what they could do to help the cause and Harvey told him to go out and tell someone. There is always someone who wants to confiscate humanity and there are always stories to restore it but we need people to tell the story. By banishing sinners the church is denying and forgetting its story and its calling. Certainly every church will proclaim that it welcomes sinners but watch what happens if a registered sex offender or former murderer would like to join. Ask Squeaky Fromme what church she is welcome in.
If the church lives out loud, we can trounce hatred and restore everyone's lives. Then we can truly celebrate who we are and truly see ourselves in a healthy, life-giving, complimentary relationship with creation around us. Forge meaning and build identity then, invite the world to share your discovery and joy. As the Hollywood axiom goes, "If you build it they will come." Those who hear may even enter in for, they too have a story they'd like to share if they are brave enough and welcome to do it and then in the process, heal others too afraid to speak up. The big question is though, does the church want to listen?
A predominant reason people say they don't go to church is that they consider themselves spiritual and not religious and that the church is filled with hypocrites. It is very easy to perceive the church as being filled with people who are "holier than thou." It is also very easy for the church to attract or foster people who "protest too much" in an effort to hide their own sinful nature. It is easy for good people to be judgmental especially if they secretly recognize sinful desire in their own hearts. On top of that, when some crime occurs in a church, we might discover that the perp was a pillar of the community, a lector, secretary, youth group leader, pastor or Eucharistic minister.
It is not that the church attracts bad people. The truth is everyone has the capacity to be a "bad" person. There was a study by Wallerstein and Wylie where they asked 3,000 NY citizens who have never been arrested about all the things they had done in their lives. 100% of them have committed misdemeanors and were never caught and 97% had committed felonies but have never been caught. So if you've never been caught, you must be a good person despite the bad things you've gotten away with.
About fifteen years ago I vacationed in Canada with a friend who illegally brought back Cuban cigars and prescription drugs which you couldn't buy in the US but they were available in Canada. I thought it was very funny that I got flagged for a search and he, a Roman Catholic priest, waltzed right through.
Today, churches often run background checks on its members in an effort to weed out the sinners. It is good that they want to make safe sanctuaries but they need to keep in mind that most saints such as St. Paul and even Jesus, a convicted felon himself, would not be welcome in our churches for none of them would pass their background checks. Part of the problem with organized religion is that it represents only a tiny part of the story and one that is often dangerously dysfunctional at that.
People of adversity find strength within themselves and they think that that has to do with finding meaning. Instead of finding meaning we should call it forge for meaning for finding and searching are two different things. Endurance is the entry way to forging meaning and, being accepted into a community is the only place that that can happen. When we forge meaning we can incorporate that meaning into a new identity and that is what the church needs. We need to take our faults and traumas and make them part of who we've come to be and we need to fold the worst events of our lives into a narrative of triumph as a response of things that hurt. Instead the church tries hard to deny this.
I once encouraged a church to start a prison ministry and the response was that they didn't want to attract or associate with those kind of people. What they failed to realize was that those people were already in the parish as convicted arsonists, drug users, DWI perps, a sex offender and burglar. A few years later one of their 20 year old boys was arrested for dealing drugs and it still didn't dawn on them that they had the capacity to heal and the healing needed to happen in their own back yard.
When it was found out that I answered a suicide hotline, a woman grabbed me after a church service, broke down in tears and told me that her brother was arrested for committing a sex crime with a teenager, then completed suicide while in jail. We spoke for quite some time and afterward I told the pastor what had happened so that he could be aware of the situation. Instead of being compassionate, he became angry that the woman would confide in me and not him. Of course, this was in a parish who abandoned a former pastor who was arrested on a DWI charge. She never trusted anyone in the parish with her pain and she carried it silently for many years.
A woman who was raped as a teenager seemingly had her life destroyed. She dropped out of school, gave birth to the child of the rapist and never went to college or forged a career of her own. At the age of fifty she was asked if she ever thought of the rapist and she said she did and she felt sorry for him because, he has a beautiful daughter and two beautiful grandchildren and he doesn't know that and she does. As it turns out, she considers herself the lucky one. She credits the support and love of her community for the blessings in her life.
Some things we are born to; our race, a disability, our sexuality, our gender and some are things that happen to us; being a rape victim, a prisoner, a Katrina survivor, a 9/11 survivor. Religious identity means being able to enter into a church community to draw strength from that community and to give strength there too. A church community is not for someone to enter in and say "I am here and I hurt," but rather "I hurt and I am here." But we are ashamed, judgmental and can't tell our stories to the "good people" but our stories are the foundation of identity.
Just as the stories we tell come from our life experiences, our lives can grow from the stories that we tell. The bible is filled with such stories of healing, joy, forgiveness and com-passion (suffering with one another). That is the key; one another and, you won't find that on a Facebook page. Instead, the church looks for ways to attract the wrong people because the church is interested in numbers and money. If the church's goal is to promote healing and acceptance through pain and struggle, numbers and money will be the symptom thereof. Currently, that calling is being lived out through social services and other organizations and they are doing a better job than the church is. So, who needs the church . . .
It isn't solely about changing ourselves but about changing the world. It doesn't make what is wrong right but makes what is wrong precious and you won't learn that from social services. The road less traveled is what makes all the difference and the church is abandoning that road. We can not be ourselves without the misfortune that drives our search for meaning. "I take pleasure in infirmities," St. Paul wrote, "for when I am weak, then I am strong." The church is trying to be strong while denying its weakness and driving out people it thinks will make them weak.
Oppression breeds the power to oppose it and that is the cornerstone of identity. However, you can't change the church if you don't belong to it. If a church is full of hypocrites, leaving it doesn't change that. I know a church whose organist was arrested and half the church supported him and half wanted to abandon him. The church chose to abandon him and eventually all the supporters left and the haters won. That church's attendance dropped and is currently in danger of closing because - hate begets hate. If the church chose love and forgiviness, who knows where it would be today.
Today's church does not know what oppression is because they are doing the oppressing. If you banish the dragons, you banish the heroes and we've always been attracted to the heroes in our society. Satan doesn't have to fight the church because he has joined it. When we shelter our children from adversity, we've failed as parents for it is adversity which trains and teaches children how to prepare and cope for what the real world may throw at them. Someone once asked gay activist Harvey Milk what they could do to help the cause and Harvey told him to go out and tell someone. There is always someone who wants to confiscate humanity and there are always stories to restore it but we need people to tell the story. By banishing sinners the church is denying and forgetting its story and its calling. Certainly every church will proclaim that it welcomes sinners but watch what happens if a registered sex offender or former murderer would like to join. Ask Squeaky Fromme what church she is welcome in.
If the church lives out loud, we can trounce hatred and restore everyone's lives. Then we can truly celebrate who we are and truly see ourselves in a healthy, life-giving, complimentary relationship with creation around us. Forge meaning and build identity then, invite the world to share your discovery and joy. As the Hollywood axiom goes, "If you build it they will come." Those who hear may even enter in for, they too have a story they'd like to share if they are brave enough and welcome to do it and then in the process, heal others too afraid to speak up. The big question is though, does the church want to listen?
Monday, August 3, 2015
Washington State
I recently took a trip out to Washington state, here is my overall review of the northwest corner of the US.
The landscape, mountains, rivers, streams, parks and forests are amazing. If you are a hiker, there are many options for you to keep busy up there. The people don't seem to be as rabid about hiking as there are in the Adirondack region of upstate New York but, there is enough of a variety of terrain to satisfy most hikers for a short period of time.
The food is good in all the restaurants of this state. I routinely availed myself to several bowls of clam chowder and eggs Benedict at each place I ate. Every diner failed on the eggs Benedict. So far, the best place I've encountered to get that dish has been the Downtown Diner in Lake Placid. The Fisherman's Restaurant in Seattle has the absolute best clam chowder I've ever had. You can either get it in a bread bowl or a regular bowl. You get bread with it anyway and the bread is from the hollowed out bowls of other soup orders so it is less expensive to get it in a regular bowl. If you love to shop, plan on spending a day at the Pike Market. It is a wonderful place and has everything.
The price for food is high in this state but you will generally get a higher quality and freshness than you would find anywhere else. We went to a very fancy restaurant near a sailing club and pier one evening where everything about the restaurant was excellent except - most of the food came out of individually wrapped plastic bags as if they came from a food warehouse. The salad was definitely pre-mixed from bags, the burgers had wax paper between each patty, the fish was from individually vacuum sealed pouches. The cooking area is actually open and part of the dining area so you can watch the staff prepare all the food. I wasn't impressed watching one of the chefs handle raw meat then reach over to a spice bowl and use the same unwashed hand to sprinkle spices on a cooked dish. All this in an establishment with minimum $30 entrees.
While visiting the Olympic Peninsula, we turned on the news one morning and the first five minutes were devoted to a story about a tree falling down. They even interviewed people who lived nearby and asked if anyone witnessed it or how the news of its fall will attract or impact rubberneckers driving by. It was funny.
Driving on the roads of Washington is different from driving New York roads. First, all NY roads have route markers every tenth of a mile and those would have been convenient in Washington State since I didn't always know where I was. Many of the Washington streets have both route number names and formal names, sometimes a third name. Often my GPS couldn't locate any of them.
I found the people of Washington to be often belligerent. I went inside a Native American gift shop and the Anglo woman from Ohio who ran it evaded most of my questions about the indigenous people. Each answer was accusatory and insinuated that I was somehow prejudice. I knew this woman wasn't worth talking to further when she said that Columbus landed on Plymouth Rock. You can't trust the information from a person who has that degree of ignorance.
I was walking along a river front park when two dogs came out of the woods and started to follow me. They zigzagged in front of me for about two miles. Each time I came upon another person, that person yelled at me for not having my dogs on a leash. One woman asked me if I was carrying any poop bags for my dogs. I told her they were not my dogs. She asked again, "But are you cleaning up after them?" I said, "They are not my dogs." She then said "I am going to report you to the park ranger."
One place where you do find wonderful people are in the pot shops. Yes, marijuana is legal in this state. I don't smoke (both parents died from lung disorders) but my travel companions did, so, we stopped in several of these stores during the course of our travels. You immediately feel "at home" once you walk in. Everyone is cheerful, friendly and courteous. While standing in line you can get directions, restaurant tips, hiking information and advice on what to buy in that shop. The customers ranged in ages between about 30 to 70. There were nice grandmotherly people in the shops, too. Legalized marijuana and these shops are a very good thing for elderly people who have chronic pain and disease for they can benefit greatly from the pain relieving effects of marijuana. For those who can't afford prescription drugs or can't tolerate the side effects of pharmaceuticals, marijuana is a Godsend.
Now, I know, according to Harry Anslinger, marijuana is a devil drug which causes white girls to have sexual relations with black men (Harry used a different word) where pregnancy and syphilis will ensue after sex with black men, and it will also cause young men to go on murderous rampages, go mad and lead to other drug uses. I'm sure if Anslinger was correct, the news that day wouldn't have led off with a tree falling since the marijuana shops were packed. I also noted that all the medical marijuana shops were out of business. Too bad NY is spending a fortune on that industry eventually to bite the dust.
The facts are, everything we think we know about cannabis is false, exaggerated, cherry picked or made up. The government made up lies and exaggerated truths about it back in the thirties simply because they didn't know how to tax it and it was cutting into the sale of alcohol and tobacco. People without knowledge of the facts and statistics perpetuate the myth out of baseless fear and ignorance.
Shortly after President Barack Obama’s comments that pot is no more dangerous than alcohol, his deputy drug czar, Michael Botticelli, reluctantly agreed. Botticelli’s office considers marijuana dangerous and harmful but Rep. Gerry Connolly of VA challenged the ignorant Botticelli. “How many people die from marijuana overdoses every year?” Connolly asked Botticelli. “I don’t know that I know,” Botticelli replied. “It is very rare.” “Very rare. Now just contrast that with prescription drugs, unintentional deaths from prescription drugs; one American dies every 19 minutes,” Connolly said. “Nothing comparable to marijuana. Is that correct?” Botticelli agreed. “Hundreds of thousands of people die every year from alcohol related deaths. Automobile, liver disease, esophageal cancer, blood poisoning,” Connolly continued. “Is it not a scientific fact that there is nothing comparable with marijuana? I’m not saying it is good or bad, but when we look at deaths and illnesses, alcohol, other hard drugs are certainly — even prescription drugs — are a threat to public health in a way that just isolated marijuana is not. Isn’t that a scientific fact? Or do you dispute that fact?” “I don’t dispute that fact,” Botticelli said. In an interview with the New Yorker magazine published last month, President Obama said that he views pot as a “bad habit” and “a vice” but no more dangerous than alcohol.
So, why then is it illegal? Why are people arrested and sent to prison for pot use or possession? Yes, $$$, for it will kill the medical marijuana industry, it will gouge the profits from alcohol, tobacco and PRESCRIPTION MEDICINE sales. Back in the twenties, marijuana was an effective cure and treatment for many mental health disorders and addictions, such as alcoholism. Why is this country so blind to truths and still believes in antiquated lies? Is it simply because our parents told us it was bad because they were told it was bad by profiteers who told us it was bad?
Washington State is doing a couple of things right. First, the state has pulled in over $70,000,000 in tax revenue from the sale of marijuana since the first of the year. That is about ten million per month. The chicken little people are panicking about drugged driving but if you look at the statistics, fatal accidents caused by DWI accidents are down significantly. For instance, in 2002 there were 450 fatalities in the first seven months of the year. This year there were under 200. People are drinking alcohol less. Sure, the chicken little people will say that there has been and increase in the number of drivers testing positive for THC who have also had accidents but that does not mean they were high when they had their accident, only that there was THC in their system. The drug supposedly stays in the system for about 30 days from use. If I have a glass of wine, then get in an accident a week later, you cannot blame the wine.
The down side of legalized pot is that cigarette and alcohol sales are down but, that is good. And that is another thing about this state, alcohol can be purchased in grocery stores and places such as Walmart and drug stores. In my state, illegal activities are rampant from liquor stores. One of their favorite scams is to keep your receipt and cash in manufacturer rebates that the buyer may not be aware of. That doesn't appear to be happening when the merchandise is sold from the supermarkets. NY has some growing up to do.
There are no amusement parks in Washington. Apparently the weather is not conducive to such investments. That is too bad. A major amusement park would attract people from all over the state, at least on sunny days. Everyone I spoke to was disappointed that their state didn't have one and said they would support it if they did.
Black berry bushes are everywhere in this state. You can't drive down any road without seeing copious amounts of berries growing wild on the side of the road. They must be very plentiful because I never once saw anyone picking or eating them. I stopped to pick and eat some and could tell that nobody had picked any of the berries prior to me. Strange. People must take them for granted since they are so plentiful.
Washington is a gorgeous state with much to offer. If you visit, definitely check out Pikes Market and plan to spend a day if you enjoy shopping. There are minor tours, cruises and other benign activities to partake in also. For instance, you may wish to take the Underground Seattle tour for the stories but otherwise, it is just a walk through various basements. I'd certainly visit again.
The landscape, mountains, rivers, streams, parks and forests are amazing. If you are a hiker, there are many options for you to keep busy up there. The people don't seem to be as rabid about hiking as there are in the Adirondack region of upstate New York but, there is enough of a variety of terrain to satisfy most hikers for a short period of time.
The food is good in all the restaurants of this state. I routinely availed myself to several bowls of clam chowder and eggs Benedict at each place I ate. Every diner failed on the eggs Benedict. So far, the best place I've encountered to get that dish has been the Downtown Diner in Lake Placid. The Fisherman's Restaurant in Seattle has the absolute best clam chowder I've ever had. You can either get it in a bread bowl or a regular bowl. You get bread with it anyway and the bread is from the hollowed out bowls of other soup orders so it is less expensive to get it in a regular bowl. If you love to shop, plan on spending a day at the Pike Market. It is a wonderful place and has everything.
The price for food is high in this state but you will generally get a higher quality and freshness than you would find anywhere else. We went to a very fancy restaurant near a sailing club and pier one evening where everything about the restaurant was excellent except - most of the food came out of individually wrapped plastic bags as if they came from a food warehouse. The salad was definitely pre-mixed from bags, the burgers had wax paper between each patty, the fish was from individually vacuum sealed pouches. The cooking area is actually open and part of the dining area so you can watch the staff prepare all the food. I wasn't impressed watching one of the chefs handle raw meat then reach over to a spice bowl and use the same unwashed hand to sprinkle spices on a cooked dish. All this in an establishment with minimum $30 entrees.
While visiting the Olympic Peninsula, we turned on the news one morning and the first five minutes were devoted to a story about a tree falling down. They even interviewed people who lived nearby and asked if anyone witnessed it or how the news of its fall will attract or impact rubberneckers driving by. It was funny.
Driving on the roads of Washington is different from driving New York roads. First, all NY roads have route markers every tenth of a mile and those would have been convenient in Washington State since I didn't always know where I was. Many of the Washington streets have both route number names and formal names, sometimes a third name. Often my GPS couldn't locate any of them.
I found the people of Washington to be often belligerent. I went inside a Native American gift shop and the Anglo woman from Ohio who ran it evaded most of my questions about the indigenous people. Each answer was accusatory and insinuated that I was somehow prejudice. I knew this woman wasn't worth talking to further when she said that Columbus landed on Plymouth Rock. You can't trust the information from a person who has that degree of ignorance.
I was walking along a river front park when two dogs came out of the woods and started to follow me. They zigzagged in front of me for about two miles. Each time I came upon another person, that person yelled at me for not having my dogs on a leash. One woman asked me if I was carrying any poop bags for my dogs. I told her they were not my dogs. She asked again, "But are you cleaning up after them?" I said, "They are not my dogs." She then said "I am going to report you to the park ranger."
One place where you do find wonderful people are in the pot shops. Yes, marijuana is legal in this state. I don't smoke (both parents died from lung disorders) but my travel companions did, so, we stopped in several of these stores during the course of our travels. You immediately feel "at home" once you walk in. Everyone is cheerful, friendly and courteous. While standing in line you can get directions, restaurant tips, hiking information and advice on what to buy in that shop. The customers ranged in ages between about 30 to 70. There were nice grandmotherly people in the shops, too. Legalized marijuana and these shops are a very good thing for elderly people who have chronic pain and disease for they can benefit greatly from the pain relieving effects of marijuana. For those who can't afford prescription drugs or can't tolerate the side effects of pharmaceuticals, marijuana is a Godsend.
Now, I know, according to Harry Anslinger, marijuana is a devil drug which causes white girls to have sexual relations with black men (Harry used a different word) where pregnancy and syphilis will ensue after sex with black men, and it will also cause young men to go on murderous rampages, go mad and lead to other drug uses. I'm sure if Anslinger was correct, the news that day wouldn't have led off with a tree falling since the marijuana shops were packed. I also noted that all the medical marijuana shops were out of business. Too bad NY is spending a fortune on that industry eventually to bite the dust.
The facts are, everything we think we know about cannabis is false, exaggerated, cherry picked or made up. The government made up lies and exaggerated truths about it back in the thirties simply because they didn't know how to tax it and it was cutting into the sale of alcohol and tobacco. People without knowledge of the facts and statistics perpetuate the myth out of baseless fear and ignorance.
Shortly after President Barack Obama’s comments that pot is no more dangerous than alcohol, his deputy drug czar, Michael Botticelli, reluctantly agreed. Botticelli’s office considers marijuana dangerous and harmful but Rep. Gerry Connolly of VA challenged the ignorant Botticelli. “How many people die from marijuana overdoses every year?” Connolly asked Botticelli. “I don’t know that I know,” Botticelli replied. “It is very rare.” “Very rare. Now just contrast that with prescription drugs, unintentional deaths from prescription drugs; one American dies every 19 minutes,” Connolly said. “Nothing comparable to marijuana. Is that correct?” Botticelli agreed. “Hundreds of thousands of people die every year from alcohol related deaths. Automobile, liver disease, esophageal cancer, blood poisoning,” Connolly continued. “Is it not a scientific fact that there is nothing comparable with marijuana? I’m not saying it is good or bad, but when we look at deaths and illnesses, alcohol, other hard drugs are certainly — even prescription drugs — are a threat to public health in a way that just isolated marijuana is not. Isn’t that a scientific fact? Or do you dispute that fact?” “I don’t dispute that fact,” Botticelli said. In an interview with the New Yorker magazine published last month, President Obama said that he views pot as a “bad habit” and “a vice” but no more dangerous than alcohol.
So, why then is it illegal? Why are people arrested and sent to prison for pot use or possession? Yes, $$$, for it will kill the medical marijuana industry, it will gouge the profits from alcohol, tobacco and PRESCRIPTION MEDICINE sales. Back in the twenties, marijuana was an effective cure and treatment for many mental health disorders and addictions, such as alcoholism. Why is this country so blind to truths and still believes in antiquated lies? Is it simply because our parents told us it was bad because they were told it was bad by profiteers who told us it was bad?
Washington State is doing a couple of things right. First, the state has pulled in over $70,000,000 in tax revenue from the sale of marijuana since the first of the year. That is about ten million per month. The chicken little people are panicking about drugged driving but if you look at the statistics, fatal accidents caused by DWI accidents are down significantly. For instance, in 2002 there were 450 fatalities in the first seven months of the year. This year there were under 200. People are drinking alcohol less. Sure, the chicken little people will say that there has been and increase in the number of drivers testing positive for THC who have also had accidents but that does not mean they were high when they had their accident, only that there was THC in their system. The drug supposedly stays in the system for about 30 days from use. If I have a glass of wine, then get in an accident a week later, you cannot blame the wine.
The down side of legalized pot is that cigarette and alcohol sales are down but, that is good. And that is another thing about this state, alcohol can be purchased in grocery stores and places such as Walmart and drug stores. In my state, illegal activities are rampant from liquor stores. One of their favorite scams is to keep your receipt and cash in manufacturer rebates that the buyer may not be aware of. That doesn't appear to be happening when the merchandise is sold from the supermarkets. NY has some growing up to do.
There are no amusement parks in Washington. Apparently the weather is not conducive to such investments. That is too bad. A major amusement park would attract people from all over the state, at least on sunny days. Everyone I spoke to was disappointed that their state didn't have one and said they would support it if they did.
Black berry bushes are everywhere in this state. You can't drive down any road without seeing copious amounts of berries growing wild on the side of the road. They must be very plentiful because I never once saw anyone picking or eating them. I stopped to pick and eat some and could tell that nobody had picked any of the berries prior to me. Strange. People must take them for granted since they are so plentiful.
Washington is a gorgeous state with much to offer. If you visit, definitely check out Pikes Market and plan to spend a day if you enjoy shopping. There are minor tours, cruises and other benign activities to partake in also. For instance, you may wish to take the Underground Seattle tour for the stories but otherwise, it is just a walk through various basements. I'd certainly visit again.
Mount Baker Clips
These are clips of one of the many arresting glaciers emanating from the 10,000 foot summit of Mount Baker in Washington State. These pictures were taken at the foot of one such glacier from the Heliotrope trail at about 5,000 feet.
A Heliotrope is a pink-purple flower which I don't think I saw. There were billions of Lupine but they were already past bloom and all the plants had gone to seed. There were several other varieties for which I don't know the names.
While in the parking lot, the rain was heavy and being ill prepared, I embarked on the hike anyway. Fortuitously, the tree canopy protected me from the rain and the trail was relatively dry. I only encountered rain when I hit some open areas of the trail.
Upon reaching about 5,000 feet in elevation, I was above the clouds and the sun was shining. Suddenly the weather changed and the clouds and temperature rose. The clouds quickly ascended and enveloped me. It seemed like it was about 80 degrees despite being surrounded by ice and I was sweating up a storm. Before ascending any further I and a few other hikers waited for the clouds to dissipate but they did not.
Not wanting to climb into the clouds, we all decided to call it a day. I would have loved to hike to the next ridge up in order to see the summit of Baker but the wet rocks, heat and cloud cover made it undesirable. If you look at a few of my other Washington videos, you'll see the peak of Baker from a distance.
A Heliotrope is a pink-purple flower which I don't think I saw. There were billions of Lupine but they were already past bloom and all the plants had gone to seed. There were several other varieties for which I don't know the names.
While in the parking lot, the rain was heavy and being ill prepared, I embarked on the hike anyway. Fortuitously, the tree canopy protected me from the rain and the trail was relatively dry. I only encountered rain when I hit some open areas of the trail.
Upon reaching about 5,000 feet in elevation, I was above the clouds and the sun was shining. Suddenly the weather changed and the clouds and temperature rose. The clouds quickly ascended and enveloped me. It seemed like it was about 80 degrees despite being surrounded by ice and I was sweating up a storm. Before ascending any further I and a few other hikers waited for the clouds to dissipate but they did not.
Not wanting to climb into the clouds, we all decided to call it a day. I would have loved to hike to the next ridge up in order to see the summit of Baker but the wet rocks, heat and cloud cover made it undesirable. If you look at a few of my other Washington videos, you'll see the peak of Baker from a distance.
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