Happy Birthday Mary, and We Miss You Rachel

Today is my little sister Mary's birthday. Mary is not only my blood sister, she is my sister in Christ, a bond which goes beyond the natural bonds of family and blood. Mary was the first of the Gillespie family to become a Christian even though she was the youngest. I persecuted her terribly for two or three years, until God decided to call me to Himself. Now I am so thankful that He chose to establish a beachhead in our family through Mary, and thankful that she was a good witness to Christ even during my family's darker days. And she's a good sis. I'm thankful for her.

Happy birthday Sis!

By God's providence Mary and her husband Sandy's first child Rachel was born on Mary's birthday - on September 16th, 1984. It has at times seemed a cruel providence as Rachel was struck down by an overwhelming bacterial infection and died at the age of 2 1/2 years old, on Feb 9, 1987. For a long time it was really painful and hard to acknowledge Mary's birthday. Now it provides a chance to remember Rachel, my parent's first grandchild.

Happy Birthday Rachel. We miss you.

I like this picture taken the summer before Rachel's death not in spite of its slight out of focus misty quality but because of it.

Please take the time if you have not before to look at a set of pictures that follows Rachel's young life. We don't want to forget her, or the world to forget her either.

In Memory of Rachel Elizabeth Johnson

Don't Get Fooled Again

OK, I'm shallow. I confess. So there, it's out. I like CSI Miami.

And the new season starts next Monday. The Closer ends this week and CSI Miami begins next week. Life can be good.

So, I was writing about great rock organ solo's over at mylifemyjourney, and "Don't Get Fooled Again" was on my mind, which got me thinking about CSI Miami, and wondering whether Horatio was really dead. I mean, he couldn't be, right? He's the show.

And that got me thinking about David Caruso's schtick, which got me to thinking about two super You Tube clips my good friend Sam sent me this summer. If you haven't watched these, well, you should.

The first is Caruso at his, well, at his one liner sunglassy best.

And Jim Carrey's Late Show take on David Caruso is priceless.

Younger Evangelicals - The World Watches and Waits

I originally entitled this piece "Younger Evangelicals Are Stupid." I don't really believe that. I just wrote it to get attention.

In fact I think that Younger Evangelicals are just as intelligent as Older Evangelicals, though that may not be saying a whole lot, as anti-intellectual as American Evangelicalism has been the last fifty years.

Truth be told I pity the generation of Evangelical Christians that have had to grow up in and have had to bear with so much of the nonsense of my generation of Baby Boomer Evangelical Christians.

Younger Evangelicals have rebelled against Baby Boomer Evangelicals and their antics. Younger Evangelicals are WAY more hip and TOTALLY more emotionally authentic.

Though I do not think that Younger Evangelicals are less intelligent, I do worry that they may be even less informed, as hard as that is to imagine. I am certain that they drink more Starbucks, and are WAY better at rattling off all the different kinds of lattes and such. I am sure they even own more iPhones.

Some Younger Evangelicals have rebelled into a more Biblically solid foundation than their Baby Boomer parent's Evangelicalism. For this I can only give thanks. Indeed, a shout out to RUF and many other such organizations that have made that possible.

All too many Younger Evangelicals have developed mere slicker versions of Baby Boomer Mega Churches. Yet, Others, seeing the shallowness of Baby Boomer Evangelicalism, and with a yearning for the transcendent, have run into the waiting arms of Emergent Church Gurus (such as have been mentioned in many recent political articles loving the attention as they tend to do). There Younger Evangelicals have come to reverence the old paths, well, minus the content thereof. One chuckles at the whole notion of "Emergent Church," as if there did not exist a church already. From what did this Emergent Church emerge? The hubris drips...

But into the waiting arms of Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones and Brian McClaren all too many of these Younger Evangelicals have run. There they have embraced a form of Biblical Christianity without its, well, content. Not having received a greater or deeper foundation from Baby Boomer Evangelicals, they really just don't know better.

And the big question of the day is whom will they vote for? They're undecided. The world awaits, breathless.

The Guilford Building at S Elm and Washington Greensboro

I'm sitting here in my office on the left side in the picture, facing north, fifth floor, toward the back. Wave!

Check out more Downtown Greensboro and Guilford Building pictures.

Letter from Daddy Fall 1975 Columbia to Clemson

This is an interesting insight into daily life circa early fall 1975 I think. "Harry" was my roommate 1975-1976 (Harry Lancaster, who now lives in Charlotte). I have no idea who the black quarterback would be in 1975. Steve Fuller started that year as a freshman.

I will do some research on the other football schedules and verify the year.

My dad owned a business called "Gillespie Cleaners," hence the letterhead.

See my Flickr Photostream.

Window Washing

Cleaning the Bank of America building, N. Elm and Friendly Ave, Greensboro, NC. Looks kind of fun. See more at Downtown Greensboro.

Buck Up Obama

A few thoughts on pigs and lipstick...

But first...

I thought Obama did very well on Bill O'Reilly. I thought O'Reilly did very well also. It was a good interview. I don't agree with Obama on too many things, but I like him very much. Actually I like all four of the candidates, even Joe Biden, whose foreign policy in the 80's would have led to our ruin (in my view), but for whom I have always had an odd affection.

The problem with Obama's skin isn't that it is too dark but that it is too thin. He needs to buck up. He has been given a virtual free pass in the mainstream media, most of which drools over him liked he is a pop star/messiah, and he needs to be able to stand the heat without pulling out the "offended" card so often. Give me a break.

I do NOT think Obama made his lipstick comments with Sarah Palin in mind, though I would bet anything that in the back of his mind, after he said it (or even as he was saying it), it was like "s***, I'm screwed." I would like to have seen his BP and pulse right then! What did bother me was the rapt happiness of the audience. I believe they were connecting the dots as the words came out.

I can't believe that this has been all over the media. It's a kindergarten circus out there.

All for now.

Old Security Van Lines Building along RR Tracks

A block or so west of S. Elm. It's kind of cool back in there. Downtown Greensboro.

Nathanael GREENe Keeping Watch Over GREENe Street, downtown GREENsboro

Still looking out for us after all these years....

Check out my new Downtown Greensboro set.

We've also just started a new Flickr group called "Downtown Greensboro" to which any one with a Flickr account can add pictures of our downtown. Please contribute. If you have a Flickr account you can do a group search on "Downtown Greensboro" and there you will find it! Join up and contribute!

This group is for pictures taken of or from downtown Greensboro, NC. I am defining downtown as bordered by Lee Street on the south, Martin Luther King and King street on the southeast, Spring Street and Freeman Mill on the west, Fisher and Murrow on the north, and Murrow on the west. Maybe there is a better definition.

Center City Park - A Different View

City Center Park as reflected off the Bank of America Building, N Elm and Friendly, Downtown Greensboro, NC, Sept 4, 2008.

Moved by McCain

I will confess that I had grown weary of the McCain POW war hero story. It just always seemed like a patriotism one-upmanship thing to me. I was glad when Fred Thompson (I think it was him) acknowledged that being a POW does not qualify one to be president. I was glad to hear that said. But all in all my reaction had "OK, do we have to hear that story again!"

Last night in listening to McCain I think I finally got it. Frankly I was moved, to tears, as he talked about being thankful for his sufferings for what they taught him. And to get a feel for the thousands of acts of kindness, courage, encouragement, support, love, real and true love, POW to POW gave me another insight to McCain's heart. But mostly it was understanding how the event changed the man.

It seems McCain had a kind of conversion (not necessarily a religious one though it may have been, I don't know), a personal transformation that reached into the core of his person as he walked through his suffering. He learned through suffering. He learned a lot about himself, his pride, has selfishness, his cockiness, his independent spirit. And he ultimately survived and avoided suicide or death by withering away because he was loved and served and encouraged by his fellow prisoners. He was a broken man physically and otherwise, but not just in the sense that he finally gave in to the torture and said things his torturers told him to say. No, it was deeper, a deeper kind of being broken.

I understand now John McCain's motivation, his gratitude, his desire to give back, to give of himself in public service. I am reminded of Tom Hank's character in saving Private Ryan and those haunting words at the end, "Earn this." Of course no man could possibly earn such a thing, and I am brought to tears every time I watch the grown up Private Ryan at the end of that movie weighted down by that terrible burden.

I don't think McCain carries that sort of dreadful burden. His I think is more a burden of gratitude, of service, of giving back, of wanting to make better the country that provided the men who loved him and served him and kept him alive. The narrative makes sense to me now. His "America first" makes sense to me now - not merelty some patriotic blather but a deeply ingrained perspective forged in his sufferings.

It doesn't mean that all of his quirks left him, or that he had no more pride to deal with. But it is very easy to read pride into a man bucking the system than one playing by its rules when it isnlt really there.

And I really don't think McCain gives a lick about party. He just fits better in one than the other.

Calling education THE civil rights issue of the 21st century I think is profound and spot on. I agreed with every single word he said on that subject.

I also thought is was deeply thought provoking to speak of how our present approaches to a multitude of issues were formed under a different set of assumptions and rules, and that we have to adjust to the new world we find ourselves in - adjust and change in almost every area of government. I think that that is a profound thought which I have not heard articulated in this campaign and which I think is correct. The old guy, the grey haired one, he seems to be the one most in tune with today, and how we must adjust and change to address creativelty the new world in which we find ourselves - that new "flat" earth we now walk upon.

All in all I was most moved in both conventions by John McCain. I look forward to voting for him.

Flags, Real and Reflected, Downtown Greensboro

As reflected off First Citizen's Bank (I think), Green Street side, Thursday afternoon, September 4.

Can anyone tell me the name of the building on the corner of Friendly and Elm, kitty corner to Central City Park? I have lots of cool reflection pictures off that building and I am not downtown and can't remember which building it is.

See my new downtown pictures here - LOTS more being processed.

Joel

For more new downtown pictures go to my Flickr photostream.

The Future of Journalism

I found this working through a pile of papers. So all of you across the street at the Greensboro N&R, here's your competition! Madeline and Abigail obviously had fun with this. It looks best on large. Now why did we get her that old type writer?

September Songs

Can you believe that September is here? I love September, so I am glad – fall in the air, lots of critters about (birds, butterflies, spiders, and other bugs mostly), late season flowers in bloom (especially the wildflowers), the pennant race in baseball, the beginning of football season, getting outside more, and a new year (since we tend to live by the school year, September first feels like New Year's day to me). It’s a great month all in all.

Hey, here's a question. If you can think of ANY song with the word September in the lyrics or title I'd like to know it. I have a short list but know there must be a LOT more of them out there. Send 'em on!

To My Friend Jeffrey

Jeffrey Sykes who writes the excellent blog A Priori Concepts dropped a challenging existential/religious/philosophical question on us today. In his words:

Open Question:

What is the life lesson I am supposed to learn from a life full of instances where my greatest successes are tinged with intense failures and life’s most pleasant experiences are colored with the pain of significant loss or impending devastation?

I’m open to all interpretations.

I would normally try to answer such a question by an appeal to Genesis 3:15-19, the book of Ecclesiastes, and Psalms like Psalm 73. I think I will try to do that, maybe later. But for now I thought I would offer a larger answer (given my propensity to ask the same questions - you know, like every other day), an essay, written to myself really, and dealing with much the same stuff, particularly in the middle and end. It is entitled The Creation Mandate. It is a Christian reflection about the meaning and the frustration of work. I would be interested in its applicability to your (or anyone else's) situation.

Hope this helps,

Joel

Spam Reaches Deeper

Ed Cone addressed comment spam on his site last week. I've been getting a ton of it on my Word Press blogs. Even the spam filter program can't stop it all. Well, to clarify, it does push into a "moderate" category, so at least it doesn't hit the public view. It hasn't happened yet in Blogger.

Facebook has been hit hard by spam in the last few weeks with phony Wall messages being sent out in the name of some person to others on their friend list. Usually the message points the reader to a not very nice web site.

And today I got comment spammed for the first time on my Flickr site. Under a lovely picture of a sweet child was this comment. And by the way, cristian202005 is an empty account - phony - I looked it up. I don't know how they stop individuals or companies from creating phony accounts and then posting comments like this. Maybe they should purge all accounts that have no pictures.

Joel

cristian202005 says:

Acura ,
Alfa Romeo,
AMC,
Aston Martin,
Auburn, Audi,
Austin,
Austin Healey,
Beck,
Bentley,
BMW,
Bugatti,
Buick,
Cadillac,
Chevrolet,
Chrysler,
Citroen,
Cord,
Daewoo,
Daihatsu,
Datsun,
DeLorean,
DeSoto,
DeTomaso,
Dodge,
Eagle,
Edsel,
Factory Five Racing,
Ferrari,
Fiat,
Ford,
Geo,
GMC,
Honda,
Hummer,
Hyundai,
Infiniti,
International Harvester,
Isuzu,
Jaguar,
Jeep,
Kia,
Lamborghini,
Lancia,
Land Rover,
Lexus,
Lincoln,
Lotus,
Maserati,
Maybach,
Mazda,
Mercedes-Benz,
Mercury,
MG,
Mini,
Mitsubishi,
Nash,
Nissan,
Oldsmobile,
Opel,
Other Makes,
Packard,
Peugeot,
Plymouth,
Pontiac,
Porsche,
Qvale,
Renault,
Replica & Kit Makes,
Rolls-Royce,
Saab, Saleen,
Saturn,
Scion,
Shelby,
Smart,
Spyker,
Studebaker,
Subaru,
Suzuki,
Toyota,
Triumph,
Volkswagen,
Volvo,
Willys

And the Dumb-Ass of the Year Award Goes to...

Me.

Have you ever done something so stupid that you felt like you had to tell everyone first before they found out otherwise? You know, that way you get to put your own spin on the thing...:-)

So, my daughter Anna, the track whiz, well, she has this little neighborhood lawn mowing business going. She has always been a very hard worker and is very tidy about mowing and weed eating and such. Anyway, she has gone off to college now, but the problem is, the grass around here is still growing. So, how can she keep her customers? I offered to mow this one man's yard for her and send her the money until mowing season stops. Good old dad.

The nice man from down the street dropped by Friday on his way to the beach and gave me the thirty bucks to send to Anna, plus some tomatoes and cucumbers from his garden. He also invited me to help myself to anything that was ripe while I was mowing.

So, Monday morning I took off down the street pushing the mower. Anna always listened to her iPod while mowing which would make it impossible for her to hear us calling, so I thought I would take mine with me. Led Zeppelin IV came to mind as good lawn mowing music, and I had just turned on the iPod as I pushed the mower into the guy's driveway. "Hey hey mama said the way you move..." You get the picture. So I cranked the Honda mower up and started mowing.

The guy had nice grass. Really nice grass. Our mower is stuck on "mulch"mode for some reason and I had to go over parts of the lawn several times. I like mowing. I used to do it a lot before Anna took over. She doesn't like it when I mow. The lines are all weird. She does perfect lines.

Anyway, I got to the guy's backyard - more long lush grass. I am about half way through with the back yard when I remember what the man said about the vegetables. I looked around...no vegetables. Hmmm. I looked next door. Mucho vegetables!

I was mowing the wrong yard!

My heart sank. I knew I would have to cancel my lunch appointment. I was trying to think how I could explain away what would be a very long mowing job to my wife. I was also worried the folks might show up and shoot me. I had the thought - for real - am I senile? I thought about just leaving - just getting out of there - but then I said to myself, "I've gone this far I may as well do a good job."

So, I finished. Then I went next door and mowed the yard I was supposed to mow. Finally I got home. There was no way around it. I had to tell my wife. She tried not to laugh because I can be very sensitive about being laughed at. But my 11 year old couldn't contain herself. I'll exact my revenge. In time.

Later in the day I'm just finishing mowing my own yard and I look down the street and see a car in THAT driveway. Thinking there's no time like the present I marched down to apologize. I mean the guy had REALLY nice grass, and I've had a run in or two in my day with Lawn Nazi's, kind of like Anna but way bigger with a few Bud's for the heat, so I was a little worried the guy might just kick my butt right there on the spot. Or call the cops.

I walked up the drive way. There was a little girl looking at me from behind the glass door in that "never talk to strangers" kind of way that makes you feel like a total, well, you know. I said "Can you get your dad" and then I heard a voice from the garage.

The guy came out and I introduced myself. We shook hands. He seemed young enough to be my son. I told him that I had come down to offer an apology, and he was like, "OK....?" probably wondering what in the world had I done. I told him the story. He seemed worried at first not knowing where it was all going, but then at the punch line he laughed and was very gracious.

He said he had just gotten back from Virginia Beach and was tired and had been thinking about how he had to mow the grass and all, and when he drive up, there it was, all mowed. He even said I did a good job (which I need to tell Anna), but then he may have only been trying to make me feel better. He offered to pay me. "No," I said, "I can't accept any money. I'm just sorry it happened." He offered to have us down for a cookout and then we commenced to talking about deep sea fishing about which I know nothing whatsoever.

I had to go. We shook hands. I told him I'd see him around. I said, "You don't HAVE to tell all the neighbors if you don't want to." He laughed.

I'm just waiting for warning posters to start showing up in the neighborhood with the picture of a man pushing a lawn mower - "Beware of the Lawnmower Bandit." Then I'll have to move for sure. Maybe to SC. Ahh, a silver lining....

Rebekah on Hike up Moore's Knob Trail

This is one of my favorite pictures I have taken in a long while. As I often say, if you press the shutter button enough times some of the pictures are bound to come out looking good. In this shot the green tint is natural - not photo-shopped or anything. It was the way the sun was filtering through the leaves at that moment, With her green shirt set off by the dark tree trunk behind her for contrast, it makes for a cool study in green. It was a lucky shot. I think I might photo-shop it a tad to lessen the shadow on her face.

You can see more pictures of our Sunday August 31 hike up to Moore's Knob, plus a few new shots of downtown Greensboro, on my Flickr Photostream.

Perkins Follow Up

Given some of the feedback (comments and e-mails) to my post Developers, Perkins, and Our Shared Environment, I do sense a need to clarify and elaborate.

I have not talked to Robbie Perkins in years, mostly because we travel in different circles (you think?). When I did know him he was only ever nice to me, as was his wife. In fact, I liked the Perkins family very much. Robbie always carried himself in a gentlemanly demeanor. I thought of him as a gracious person and a good and decent man. I would suppose that those qualities have a significant role in his electability.

I wrote what I did about his comments regarding water runoff because I wanted to illustrate the "mindset" of developers, a mindset which has always mystified me somewhat.

And truth be told I have gotten more and more disenchanted with the power which the "developer" class yields in local decisions. There does seem to be a quintessential good old boy network ("boy" being used loosely of course) going on here. When otherwise good and decent men and women are drawn into making back door deals and decisions which impact the public good, who work the system and take advantage of poorly written laws that give them undue power, who use their wealth to "help" like minded folk get elected, and who use their influence on city and county councils to advance their industry if not their own companies, then no matter how good their motives may be what you have is an incipient corruption. I think it has gone well beyond incipient. But I would not myself call Mr. Perkins a sleaze ball as did one commenter. I don't think that way about him.

I think her is just being a developer, a developer mixed up in local politics. It's a bad combination.

I am interested in reading more about Protest Petition issue as brought to my attention by triadwatch. The TREBIC cartel does concern me, and it seems cartel is not an inappropriate designation.

Election Watch: Experience Isn't the Issue

Well, not for me anyway. We have had great presidents with little experience and terrible presidents with lots of experience, and lots of mediocre presidents of both kinds. Thus I don't think either side will ultimately win the "experience" argument.

I'm more experienced than her.

She is more experienced than him.

To me they all sound like school children.

Washington has its own built in machinery. There are career politicians and diplomats and bureaucrats abounding. The place practically runs itself. I think what is more important is intelligence, values, judgment, and of course one's political philosophy.

Where these folks actually stand on the issues, and to what degree any of them will be able to put together the kind of bipartisan coalitions needed to tackle the very real problems we face together is more important to me.

Truth be told I think many people I know are experienced and smart and creative enough to be president. I think if you dropped me down up into the White House I would be a decent president. Well, except that I need my sleep. All those 3:00AM calls would really start to wear me down.