Goodbye Continental Airlines

Today is the last day for the Continental Airlines name. The signs are down, the computer system and websites are being updated tonight, and Houston will not have a "hometown airline" anymore. Wish it was them that was staying. I'm sure the new United will have plenty of presence and employees here, but its not ours anymore.

I guess its progress, but I fear that the new company won't be as good as what we were used to.

So long Continental. It was fun.

Math, Infinite, and the Star of Bethlehem

Friday is the Feast of Epiphany. So…

Are you any good at math? I’m not talking about algebra, just math. Arithmetic to you sixties and seventies people. Have you ever wondered about what the last number is? I have. (nothing else to do while the NBA was on strike) There isn’t one. It just keeps going. Energizer bunny. Back to that in a minute.

It seems as though math is everywhere. I don’t know a lot about computers, but I know that an algorithm is a sequence of math calculations that causes a computer to process information. Math can be used for a lot of stuff, not just to decipher your cell phone bill. (I think the cell phone companies make stuff up on purpose so it doesn’t all add up). 

Some guy in the early 1600s used math stuff to figure out the alignment of the stars, and how they progress. Name was Johannes Kepler. He was a German mathematician and astronomer (NOT astrologer!), and had at least some belief in a God that made the heavens in a very orderly fashion. He didn’t have a computer. Or a lens. And he wasn’t alive when the Baby Jesus arrived. But we are able to calculate, using laws he discovered, what the sky looked like when the Magi showed up. It seems that it took the Wise Men about 8 months to get to Bethlehem. Jesus was likely born in the spring, April-ish, and we can plot that the Magi arrived on December 25^th, 2 BC. Some people think it might have been even later than that, like 2-3 years. The exact date isn’t the point, just so we don’t get into an argument about dates.

We can also support the movement of that great Star, from the east, to the west, and then to the south, to Bethlehem. We can also define where and how it stopped. It didn’t run out of gas. It didn’t burn out. Something called retrograde motion creates an optical illusion so that it looks like the star stopped. Are you impressed? I’m not as smart as I sound right now. I just know enough to start a lot of trouble.

Anyway, a bunch of smart people have figured out how to show what the sky looked like on that night in Bethlehem (or any other night, but we don’t care about the night they first learned to make a wheel out of a rock :D ) So, the Star of Bethlehem isn’t just some church story an old lady whipped up cuz she forgot her Sunday School notes one December.

Connection to infinity. Math and numbers goes to infinity. Time is eternal. Our salvation is eternal. God was, is, and will be. We existed in God’s mind for all time, and will dwell with Him forever. So God created and used time, space, science, and the physical world to build what we see, and don’t see, and also made it so we can discover it. Or at least some of it. This is part of where I get the idea from that there is no such thing as secularism. We are here, because He put us here. He has a reason for that. Part of your job, should you choose to accept it ( pun intended), is to figure that out. How? Using your gifts, talents, personality, likes and Guidance. Then, using the rest of your life to work on that purpose, and make an Impression on others, do Good to others, and give God glory in what you do. Even the things that don’t work out, by the way. I learned that the hard way in 2002.

Some people have told me that they are not religious; they don’t necessarily think God doesn’t exist, they just don’t pay much attention to it. My response to that is, You ARE religious, you just worship other things than I do. I’m not saying you’ll live forever; the infinity analogy breaks down at that point, but God is looking for you to put your piece into the puzzle. It all works for Good.

I’m thinking that the more of us who try to figure out what we are here for, and recognize that that comes from an Almighty God who is interested in all the details, even to the minutiae of aligning the Stars so you will find Him, the more content we will be, and the better we will get along with others, and then, just maybe, the world will be a better place.

So many other topics come out of that, but that’s enough for now. 

Happy Epiphany. Look for the Star.

Lamb and Sheep

Lambs are cute. Sheep not so much. Lambs are soft and cuddly, sheep are big and rough.

Tonight a baby arrived in the world. To very little notice, frankly, considering the significance of why He is here. Even before He was born he was referred to as the Lamb. A lamb is a baby sheep. Lambs were used in the old law as sacrifices to God to atone for sin. A first-born. A lamb grows up to be a sheep. Babies grow up to be adults. God the Son came as a baby, the Lamb of God, just as we do.

The Angel of the Lord arrived in the fields where the shepherds were watching their sheep, and announced to the world, to the “sheep,” don’t be afraid. There is great news. And then a huge concert happened right there out in the sky above the  wilderness. The first flash mob? Is that too irreverent?

The shepherds of that time were on the lower end of the totem pole, so to speak. They were always outside of the city, minding the sheep. I’m thinking there were lots more sheep there than people. Not a lot of folks to talk to. And they probably didn’t get to town much. Nobody else to take their place. But God, who doesn’t work in ways that we do, decided to announce the birth of His Son, to the shepherds. Not to the elders and rulers and Pharisees. He went straight to the people; the commonfolk. The less glamorous of the day, but people, still. And so other than Mary and Joseph and maybe a few people near the stable, the shepherds were first to know that the Christ child had arrived.

And they went to see what this was all about. And they knew this was from the Lord. And so the story begins. Actually, it continues, because it started way before this.

Next is the Fantastic Star.

How much more???

Civilization is crumbling before our eyes. For the second time in less than a year, a CFB coach is accused of contact with another of a sexual nature. One or more were actually juveniles. Not that it's ok if they're adults. And two head coaches lose their jobs because they were involved, no because they should've said something but didn't. Paterno is 84 somethin' years old. Been coaching longer than most of these people have been alive. Winning-est CFB coach of all time, with a was-gonna-be fine legacy to leave at a high profile place. Instead, he is fired. Not because he did nothing, but because he didn't do enough. What is that? Geez, what the hell is going on out there? Yes, Paterno needs to go, but that's like throwing a bucket of water on a raging house fire. AND, Penn State knew about it. Why isn't the board fired too? They are in charge if Paterno is. Paterno is gone, and into a dark cloud.
Jim Tressel lost his job last off-season for basically the same thing. What happened to truth and integrity and doing the right thing. What about the boys - and men - who are the victims. Money payoffs don't cut it. That's a lame attempt at legalized bribery. Their lives are upset at the least, ruined at the most. No money can fix that. Where are the leaders and coaches and fathers and colleagues. Somebody knew. I am tired of hearing about embarrassing reports on the sports reports. Get over yourselves, people. Get some help, or at least get out of the way. You deserve to be in a cold dark place for a long time.

Between the hoodlums in Manhattan, Oakland, etc, the fools in Congress trying to negotiate their way out of a debt hole, too many people trying to knock off a political foe, and these idiots, I don't know where to go for some sanity.

I think it will need to come from us.

September 12, 2011

Today is Sept 12. The day AFTER the disaster. Do you remember that day? I remember flags, steeled resolve, camaraderie, the day we set our jaw to defend ourselves and our ideals. I think it is as important as Sept 11.

Remembering... 10 years later

Just like I remember where I was when President Kennedy was shot (Miss Flynn's first grade classroom), I remember well where I was when the first plane hit. I was shaving, getting ready for work. The whole day was a blur, both then and now. I remember most of it, but it's more like I was watching it, instead of living it.


We picked up the girls from school, as did most people, and trudged through the day best we could, with one eye and one ear on the tv or the radio. Knowing that there was not a plane in the sky was eerie enough, and the news was nonstop. You knew you should quit watching it, but it was impossible to turn it off. And not much else to watch anyway. We went to church that night, and prayed, and cried, and questioned God.

Some suggest that the next day, September 12 was and is just as important as September 11, because it is the day that the flags came out, people got along, the tension in the air was contradicted some by an eagerness to be nice, friendly, cooperative. I sure don't want another attack, but that resulting atmosphere was precious.

I remember seeing the emergency workers working; the news people trying to find them pulling someone out of the rubble. The haze and dirtiness all over everything. And the utter destruction of massive buildings that were supposedly built to withstand an airplane hit. The scene being called Ground Zero. Only, that name stuck, unlike when a hurricane or tornado or earthquake hits. I was there a few years ago. It was obviously cleaned up, and the site was under heavy construction, but the far side from where we were standing, was kind of torn up. Not from the destruction. Probably from construction excavation as they prepared the site. But it looked very raw and unnatural. We were standing on Liberty Street, under scaffolding that had been erected where you could view the site from. It was a kind of sad feeling. Still praying now, about that, because it isn't finished. Not the site, but the fight.

This isn't a pleasant memory, but it is necessary to engage, because it is part of what happened. Lots of innocent people died that day, and others later. We bent, but we did not break. Some very bad people took a swing at us. They didn't miss, but they didn't get us either.

My youngest daughter isn't old enough to remember this, though I remember dealing with it with her. I don't want her, or those who have been born since, to lose touch with that day. We don't have to relive it, But We Must Never Forget. Thank you to those who died, to those who suffered, to those who came to the rescue, to the service men and women who are fighting every day to keep this from happening again so that we can stand under that Flag, and live life like it means something. Because it does.

Our own unique National Holiday

…One Nation, under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All.
-Pledge of Allegiance

…And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
-Declaration of Independence

Don’t know about you, but I have been engaged in and enjoying reading American History the past few months. Learning about how our Nation was built, who built it, how it got started and why, and how we beat terrific odds to just become a separate and free country. The distinguished gentleman from Virginia and his other, genius, brave, creative and determined comrades. The brave common folk, farmers, writers, mercantilists, clergy, even Native Americans (they were called Indians back then!) who fought, worked, and strategized to bring it about.

I believe in the ordination of this country by a Supreme Creator God, but even if you don’t, you have to admit that the land we call USA, inhabited by a mix of people most of whom came from somewhere else, and were and still are attracted by what it has to offer, is a special place like no other.
 
I used to wonder why we don’t have as much commitment to our faith as in some other countries. I learned that we used to. That’s how many of the original 13 colonies got started, and most of the people coming over here were very strong in their own faith. I used to think that we screwed the Indians out of their land, giving them a penned in wasteland and government “help” to justify ourselves. I learned that many of the Indians were paid or traded for what we got, and that some of the Indians were just as mischievous, deceitful, and violent as some of the white man were. I also learned that they had a different view of land use and ownership, and their ideas and ours collided, and so there was a series of events that played out that melded that into what we have now.

I learned about the bravery, sacrifice, determination, creativity, and suffering of men and women, black and white, who fought in the battles to gain our independence, most of which we lost, or served in other ways. I learned about how they didn’t have clothes and shoes; supplied their own arms. How most of the Founding Fathers had slaves, but were contradicted by it, and worked to get that changed. That some of the Founding Fathers were black. How Valley Forge was more like Death Valley for several years. How if we hadn’t run out of ammo in the very beginning at Bunker Hill, we might have won the war right off the bat.

That some blacks and women did vote in the colonial period, as well as the early days of the republic. How the media of the day laid out the case for the colonists’ grievances, and when it was apparent that the mother country wasn’t interested, laid out the case for independence and revolution. How preachers would speak of the Christian Bible, and how it’s God was a part of the making of this land, and then would shed their robe and don the uniform and fight alongside everyone else. How the role of Congress was supposed to be played by common citizens, from multiple backgrounds, who would sacrifice a term of their life to serve their country. Emphasis on sacrifice. It was expected that they would not gain financially from the service, and would go back to their previous trade afterwards, and a new set of folks would step in. How the senators were originally elected by the state legislatures, to represent their interests in Washington.

I could go on, but there are parades to watch, burgers and chicken to grill, drinks to ice down, and fireworks to watch (although business won’t be so good for them this year). Suffice it to say, we live in a great nation. Even with all our troubles, there are people who hike, float, ride and fly their way in here to what they know can be a better life for themselves. They leave behind family and heritage for an opportunity, but not a guarantee, to live free, be their own boss (even if they work for someone else), and die with dignity, passing on to their kin a legacy matched nowhere in the world.

We have our troubles, and we are divided, but not as much or so much as we are led to believe. Some of it is self-inflicted. We are in a free country, and able to live as such, practicing our trade and our faith; as long as we don’t interfere with our neighbor’s ability to do the same. Those outsiders who hate us don’t have what we have. The human spirit is meant to be free, even though we are imperfect, because we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.

I am overwhelmed by the thought of this at times, and eternally grateful to those who made it possible.

As we gather to celebrate a Monday off, let’s remember what it is about. Other countries have a day of independence. But only the United States of America celebrates Independence Day on July 4th.  And that day reminds us of why we have what we do today, warts and all. Enjoy your freedom, and live it out proudly.

Happy Independence Day!!!