The Simple Seventies

Most of us received the news of Mary Tyler Moore's death, this past week, with a mixture of sadness and reminiscence.  Since the show was originally released in 1970, when I wasn't even born yet, and it ended in 1977, when I was just five, I don't have many memories of the show itself.  I was definitely more of a fan of the Electric Company and Mr. Rogers Neighborhood at that age. The obituaries have all been talking about how the show highlighted gender equality, feminine strength and the sexual-revolution.  But, forgive me, I don't think that's why we will all miss Mary Tyler Moore!

 There is one image from that show which indelibly sticks in my mind, and which I even remember taking note of as a four and five year old child.  That is, of course, the picture of Mary Tyler Moore throwing her hat in the air as the credits were rolling at the beginning of every episode.  The picture is enclosed above in case you forgot it.  And why does that image stick in all of our minds (including actors, directors, producers and commentators like Carl Reiner, Ted Knight, Terry Gross)?  It is because that one simple act, throwing a hat in the air, is emblematic in a way of the entire decade of the 1970's.  That time period was:

The Simple Seventies
Across the board, from fashion (bell bottoms, bowl cuts, denim) to music (The Carpenters, Simon and Garfunkel, Billy Joel, Elton John), to television (The Rockford Files, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Eight Is Enough), there was a beautiful simpleness about the 1970's.  And perhaps it is because I was living in Boise, Idaho at the time, and things really were simple, but technology was simpler then too.  In the seventies cassette tapes and record players were still in use.  Remote controls for televisions didn't exist.  People still rolled down their car windows with their hands.  The perfect photograph for any budding photographer was capturing a young woman wearing bell bottom pants sitting on a flowery, mountainy, hill, with the sun behind her, blowing dandelion parachutes into the air.  And so, when Mary Tyler Moore died this past week, I think part of all of us also felt that a part of simplicity also died along with her.

The Simple Seventies were of course followed up by the:

Excessive Eighties
The eighties were about excess.  And excess is never beautiful.  In fact, there was something sort of disgusting about the eighties.  I look at pictures of myself, in elementary school and Jr. High wearing power ties and blue blazers (I was only 12), trying to imitate that stock broking tycoons I saw on TV.  I remember my Jr. High folder cover that had Michael Jackson wearing a white be-sequined glove, and the ever present eighties perm.  Whatever can be said of the eighties, they were certainly not simple.

The Excessive Eighties were, not to belabor the point, followed then by the:

Self-Absorbed Nineties
I was living in Scotland and Denmark for part of this decade, and I can still remember the general disdain that Europeans felt for Americans then (and perhaps even more-so now), at our apparent self-ease and self-perception that we could do anything.  I will never forget watching Whitney Houston singing the National Anthem before a huge sporting event in the early nineties, just as our planes were about to drop bombs on Saddam Husain and the country of Iraq.  We thought we could do it all!  Save the world.  Stop all the dictators.  The nineties were not simple either.

It is too early to say what to make of the 2000's (or the naughts as they are called by some).  Perhaps they will actually be so non-descript as to not even have a singular image by which to understand the decade.  But, I miss simplicity.  I miss hats being thrown into the air on a cold winter afternoon.  I miss clunky old gas guzzling steel-doored cars.  I miss bell-bottoms and actual Kodak photographs printed on real yellow photo paper.  I miss shag-green carpets and naugahyde furniture.  The only NET I had as a kid was the one that I caught tad poles in behind the house in the creek that we would play in from morning until night.  I miss:

The Simple Seventies!

What about you?

All For Now,

GB

The Trouble With Transitions

Transition is easy.  It's what comes after the transition that is hard!

It's never the change that kills you - it's the rebound!

It's not the ascent to the top that gets you - it's the descent to the bottom!

It's not the journey that poses the challenge - it's the return home!

These basic axioms of life were seemingly proven this past weekend when I drove the rainy streets and freeways of Southern California, in the midst of a torrential downpour.  With two hands glued to the steering wheel, and two eyes fixed on the road, I wondered to myself where the highest numbers of car accidents take place for the average person.  The answer, according to Google (I waited until I got home to Google - in case you are wondering:-), may surprise you.  They occur right around people's driveways, and within five minutes of their house.  The theory goes that as people take long car rides to different places, they tend to focus very closely on the freeways and roads that they are not familiar with.  On the other hand, when people get closer to home, they let down their guard, they pay less attention, they get into crashes. 

Similarly, the hard part about launching a spacecraft into outer space, I am told, is not getting past the earth's atmosphere and into orbit, it's the re-entry back to the earth.  The huge heat forces that a spacecraft has to guard against, and the penumbra of things that can go wrong, are the dangerous part of space travel.  Most spacecraft and astronautical problems occur on re-entry.

And, not to belabor the point, but more people die on the descent from Everest every year, than the ascent.  Again, the reasons for this phenomenon are easy to understand.  A climber, focussed on the top of the mountain with energy, vitality, excitement and initiative, does whatever it takes to make it to the top.  However, it's when the body's resources are spent, and the mental energies are depleted that mistakes occur and accidents happen.

The basic truthfulness of this premise is probably enough of a blogpost to sustain most of us this week.  It literally applies to every aspect of our lives (our health, our relationships, our work habits, our parenting experiences, our finances).  However, here are a couple of application points that I have been pondering.

Our country experienced a great transition this past weekend.  We changed one leader of the free world out for another - we changed Presidents.  For Trump supporters, it was a "tour de force" and a herculean accomplishment, to help an individual who came not from not just the back bench of American politics, but from way outside in the parking lot.  We have never had a President like Trump before.  Never before has such a feat, in the estimation of some, been accomplished.  And yet, to apply the previously articulated principle to my point, getting elected isn't really the hard part - it's what comes next.  It's the governing.  If you will, getting elected was the mountaintop experience, the descent (and I mean this just metaphorically) is the day to day act of moving forward.

One imagines as well, the transition and post-transition for former President Barak Obama.  Like many of his predecessors, it may be that the office isn't what does him in, it is what comes after that causes the fatal blow.  For former President Lyndon Johnson, it was the cigarette that he lit up on the Marine One helicopter (that soon led to many packs more), that led to his early death.  For Obama too, it may be that leading the country for eight years was the easy part.  The hard part may be transitioning into something different and new, as a "youngish" man who has just left the most powerful post in the world.

Church leaders also experience the transition/post-transition challenge on a regular basis.  The hard part is not the building of the new sanctuary, the hard part is the transitioning people from the old sanctuary (the vessel of so many hopes and dreams over the years).  The new incredible building is built, but people like the old one better.  The challenge is not starting a new contemporary worship service, the challenge is the problem which arises afterward that you never expected (the neighbors begin to complain about the sound levels, the church attracts a different group of people than ever before, the sound system isn't sufficient).

Some people have called this the rubber band effect.  If you shoot a rubber-band at someone (I've been practicing, I have elementary school aged kids), and the rubber band hits the other person, it isn't the front side of the rubber band that causes the sting, and the welt, it's the back part which quickly follows there after, and makes the snapping sound.

The answer to this scientific phenomenon for our personal lives, is of course, to always be ready for the thing that comes after.  To expect a backlash, a rebound, a rubber band snap.  We should remember not to expend all of our energy on the forward motion, but to save up enough energy, reserve, strength, fortitude, patience, and resilience to deal with what comes after.

All For Now,

GB

The Sasha Model

On this Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and on this, the last week of Barak Obama's Presidency, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on perhaps a lesser figure on the global political stage, but a person that all of us can learn an important lesson from.  I want to focus on Barak and Michelle Obama's younger daughter - Sasha.  Sasha Obama (15), and Malia Obama (18) are often cited by her father, the soon to be former acting President Barak Obama, as the two most important achievements of his life. However, at his final, valedictory speech to the nation this past Tuesday night, Sasha, the younger daughter, was nowhere to be seen.   "Where was she?" many people wondered.  The rumor mill around Washington was active.  Was she on a secret spy mission somewhere?  No.  Did she misbehave and was she grounded at home in the Whitehouse?  No.  The answer, as it turns out, was much more mundane than all of that - Sasha was at home doing her homework!

As a father of two budding young female world leaders myself (my two daughters Haley 8, and Sheena 4), both of whom have reams of homework themselves every night, I instantly knew that Sasha's explanation for her absence from her father's speech was correct.  Sasha had an exam the next morning, and was studying to make sure that she did as well as possible the next day.  It turns out that CNN actually did some background research on the story and found a link on Sasha's school's schedule and found that a science exam was in fact being held on Wednesday the next morning (Wait...there's no secret log-in to get onto the school's test schedule so that outsiders like CNN can't snoop into the private lives of ordinary American citizens?  I digress).  Rather than attending her father's goodbye speech, a speech she had no doubt heard countless times before in a myriad of different forms - Sasha was doing her homework.  Well done Sasha!

So, this morning I want to lift up Sasha Obama in my blogpost, and everyone, for that matter, over the next four years of civic life in America who will, for one brief moment, turn off their TV clicker, put down their I-Phone, stop checking Facebook, cease putting pictures on Instagram, and dare I say stop tweeting messages to the general public - and who sits down to do their homework.  I even have a name for it - I am calling it:

The Sasha Model

The Sasha model says that there are actually more important things than watching the news.  There are more important things than trolling the internet.  There are more important things than even attending an historic national event put on by your father - if he is the President.  In other words, there are more important things than "observing" in life.  This is a good thing to remember.  Because it sometimes seems like we are doing something in life, when actually we are doing nothing.

Recently, comedian Judd Apatow sat down with New York Times reporter Maureen Dowd to articulate the same idea; "There's a danger," he said, "on the internet that you think you are accomplishing something.  So you see an article about a disease and retweet it and think 'It's cured now!' and you've fooled yourself into thinking that you've done something productive."

Lest you think I am getting preachy with this blogpost, I want you to know that I am really writing it to myself.  Perhaps more than anyone I know, I can tune into news every evening and be captivated by every news story that emerges, and feel that by watching it, I am somehow participating in the larger American narrative.  Every morning, I commute for one hour up to Santa Barbara from where I live in Oxnard.  A friend recently said to me, "What are you doing with all of that time in the car?  Are you using it wisely?  You could learn a language on tape, or listen to audio books."  Another friend actually gave me tapes on how to learn modern Greek in three simple months.  Am I listening to them?  No.  The answer is that I would rather follow the recent news stories of whatever is breaking or emerging from the ever more scintillating and scathing news-cycle that occurs every minute in this country, than do my homework.

So that's it. On this MLK day weekend, that's my blog.  Do your homework!  Whatever that homework is.

Thanks to a 15 year old high school sophomore for teaching us all this lesson!

Thank you Sasha!

All For Now,
GB

Gathering Strength

My aunt Sheena, who lives in England - and who also happens to be a World War II concentration camp survivor - frequently talks about moments in our lives which are periods of collecting energy.  These are not necessarily always understandable or decipherable moments, but they are vitally important for the harboring internal reserve and power.  Without them, we could not do what we are being prepared to do.  She calls these periods -  moments of;

Gathering Strength

One of my favorite genres of writing are climbing novels and biographies of adventurers.  The best of these, from an American literary standpoint is, Into Thin Air by John Krakauer.   The book is about the fatal climbing accident that occurred on Everest in 1996 and that claimed the lives of several of his best climbing friends.  The book is about climbing, but really, it is about the human quest for greatness and summiting all kinds of things (our fears, our goals, our hopes, our dreams).  Krakauer talks about how summiting Everest is not really about simply shear strength and "daring-do", but it is also about waiting.  It is about waiting for the right moment to push for the summit.  It is about waiting for the clouds and the storms to part long enough for climbers and adventurers to make a big "push".  It is about simply lying in their tent and doing absolutely nothing [picture above of climber waiting at the base camp of Everest].  Krakauer talks about how days upon days were spent at the base camp, just sitting in their tent and reading.  And Krakauer is not alone in this.  Every climber ever to reach the peak of Everest has done the same.  In Krakauer's words; "While tent bound on Everest, Mallory and his companions would read aloud to one another from Hamlet and King Lear."  But really, what they were doing is;

Gathering Strength

I have a friend, named Dustin Stevens, who is an extreme athlete.  He has run countless marathons.  He has run the vaunted Iron Man triathlon in Hawaii several times.  He is currently training, amidst all of his other life actives, for the famous Birkebeiner cross-country ski race in Wisconsin - the gold cup of cross country ski races in America.  Dustin tells me that athletes have a name for this notion of gathering strength.  It is called - "tapering".  Tapering, in Dustin's observation is the act of, "building your strength over a long period of time - but pairing back your training right before a big race, in order that when you are entering that race (in swimming, or running, per say), you have that, 'extra amount of strength' and endurance to compete really well."  Tapering is another way of talking about;

Gathering Strength

And so, I have been thinking about what gathering spiritual strength might mean.  What would it mean for God to offer a person a period of downtime or a lull in their life during a certain point, in order to prepare them (to gather strength, to taper) for the next leg of life?  What would it look like for a person to be able to go inwards (spiritually, physically and emotionally) in order to gather strength for what comes next?

There are many moments in Jesus' life when he seems to be intentionally pulling himself away from the group, or the crowds or the action in order to gather strength for the next big hurdle.  Right after John the Baptist is killed (Jesus cousin and friend in ministry), Jesus withdraws to a remote region of the Sea of Galilee (the Gerasenes), to pray and be by himself.  There are frequent examples of Jesus, "slipping into the crowd" in his ministry.  Where was he going, what was he doing?  What about the 30 years of Jesus' life that were lived before his ministry began that we know virtually nothing about.  Was Jesus gathering strength?  And what about the last three years of his ministry which burned bright and hot.   But even in these, Jesus drew himself away again and again.  The best example is when Jesus goes to the garden of Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion to pray and to prepare and to;

Gather Strength

What time period are you in right now?  Are you in the midst of a metaphorical push to the summit of Everest, or are you in a time of gathering strength?  The summits of life will always be there.  But before they are attempted, because we are human, we must, all of us, draw inward.  Even the best of us only has a certain amount of energy.  So first we must be;

Gathering Strength

All For Now,
GB

What America Makes In 2017

Today is Jan. 2, the second day of the new year, and it also happens to be the day of four College Football Bowl Games.  Are you watching them, or are you headed back to work like me?  In case you are inclined to watch the Bowl Games today, while you are pretending to do your work at your computer, but are really streaming a game at your desk, here is the line-up:

*  1:00 - Outback Bowl
*  1:00 - The Goodyear (Cotton Bowl)
*  5:00 - The Rose Bowl presented by Vizio
*  8:30 - The Allstate (Sugar Bowl)

And if there ever was a sign of the change of America, of how it is moving its economic base from agriculture to other industries, it is how the Bowl Games that we watch are named.  Originally designed to promote the tourism regions of the places where the Bowls are held, and to promote the local agricultural mainstays, the names of the Bowls were chosen for the thing that that part of the country did best.

Hence, the Rose Bowl, the first of its kind - started in 1923 - was so named because Pasadena and Southern California had a huge flower industry that it was trying to promote.  The Sugar Bowl was chosen as a name in Louisiana because of the huge sugar plantations that existed there.  The Peach Bowl was named in Atlanta for the massive peach business there (Also the reason that Peachtree Presbyterian Church was named - Peachtree).  And so it went.  The Orange Bowl and the Citrus Bowls were in Florida because of the massive Orange and Citrus markets there.  The Cotton Bowl was in a part of Texas where cotton was grown.  But no more, (or rather, not as much...).

Shakespeare once said, "A rose by any other name is still a rose...."  But that may not be the case when it applies to football and what we name our games.

Today, the major industries in our country are no longer agricultural, but they seem to be (based on the names of our Bowls), fast-food and banking and insurance.  Consider the names of all the Bowls this year, and judge for yourself:

*  Chick-fil-A Bowl - Fast Food Chicken
*  Playstation Bowl - Video Games
*  Outback Bowl - Middle Range Restaurant
*  Goodyear Bowl - Tires
*  Allstate Bowl - Insurance
*  Gildan Bowl - Clothing
*  Raycom Media Bowl - Broadcast Television
*  Autonation Cure Bowl - Autoparts
*  R+L Carriers Bowl - Freight and Trucking
*  Popeyes Bowl - Fast Food Chicken
*  Lockheed Martin Bowl - Military Equipment
*  Dollar General Bowl - Inexpensive Merchandise
*  Quick Lane Bowl - Oil Change
*  Capital One Bowl - Financial Services
*  Camping World Bowl - Camping Equipment
*  Motel 6 Bowl - Cheap Hotel Rooms
*  Russell Athletic Bowl - Athletic Clothing
*  Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl - Fast Food Chicken

Only the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, still played in Boise, Idaho has retained its agricultural roots and its original farming name of potatoes.

Notice that fast food chicken restaurants and financial services are popular names for Bowl Games.    No less than three of the Bowl Games are named after chicken restaurants.  If we are what we eat, as a nation, we must be a piece of fried chicken.

One funny name combination is the Allstate Bowl which is played in the Mercedes Benz Stadium.  I wonder if you can get your Auto-Insurance at the same time that you are buying a new car?

Maybe I'm just being sentimental and showing my age, but I do miss the days when the Bowls were named after fruits and vegetables.  Somehow they seemed more wholesome and innocent.  But perhaps college football sports has also, at the same time become less wholesome and innocent.  Perhaps the entire college experience has become less wholesome and innocent.  Perhaps our nation has become less wholesome and innocent.  One commentator yesterday applauded a running back from Alabama (Scarborough) who decided to refrain from joining the professional National Football League this year so that he could potentially make more money (a purported $20 a year) by waiting a year.  "Good for that young man, what a hale and smart young fellow:-)"

I better finish this blogpost, now that I look at the my watch.  The Outback Bowl is about to begin - and I am getting hungry:-)

All For Now,

GB

Cared For

Recently, our family has been investigating the possibility of getting a pet.  Because we are renting in Southern California, a "smallish" indoor dog seems the best option (Can you say - "Labradoodle?")  Our quest for a canine companion, however, has caused me to cast my memory back to some of our best pets we had growing-up.  We had a West Highland Terrier named "Macky" that had been sort of neglected by its previous owners.  Mack was a little bit "nippy" when we first got him, but after a couple of years of nurture, he became more docile, and good natured.  We had an African Grey Parrot named "Kiki" that had been tormented by its previous masters by hitting it with a broom handle.   Whenever we would broom the kitchen, the bird would go crazy for fear that it would be hit again.  So, we broomed less, but we nurtured more.  The bird calmed down after time.  In both cases, some of our best pets were animals that others had discarded, or mistreated for whatever reason, but made huge transformations simply by being:

Cared For

This notion of the transformative nature of being "Cared For" is true not just of abused pets, but it is true of a lot of other things.  It is true of houses, it is true of children, it is true of businesses, it is true of spouses, it is true of plants, and yes it is true...even of churches.

About ten years ago, I was asked to consult on a church near me that had declining growth in attendance over the past several years.  There was a lack-luster attitude, in general, about almost everything in the church.  In front of the sign to the entrance of the church were weeds that were growing up above the letters.  The church office was piled high with garbage from many years of disregard.  The church yard was unkempt and sprawling with weeds.  The large cross out in front of the church was weathered and paint was chipping off of it.  In short, the church just did not look cared for.

Not just the building, but the congregation itself seemed un-cared for.  Many of the shut-in members had not been called on in years.  When people got sick and went to the hospital, nobody followed-up or prayed for them.  Many of the staff at the church did not even have their own work-space or computer terminals to do their work in.  The congregation were not cared for.

When, I was asked to give my "expert opinion" on what steps this church could take to help it to grow and come back to life, I felt torn.  Because I was hired as the consultant, I sort of felt tempted to come in with some big theological concepts about how this church could grow.  I was tempted to talk about "Missionalism" or "Simple Church" or "Total Quality Management".  But I knew that none of these concepts was the "magic bullet" of what would help the church, at the end of the day.  What this church needed was to be:

Cared For

I said; "Ok, to start with, someone needs to get out there are pull some of those weeds in front of the church sign.  And then, we need to clean up this office.  And the cross out front needs to be re-painted.  And most important, we need to get to the nursing home and see some of those who are there, who haven't had visitors in a long time."  My advice was basic, but over the next several months it proved that it was helpful.  The church began to grow again, there was positive spiritual-energy in the church where there had been waning activity.

Caring for a thing (or person) that hasn't been cared for is not only about giving that thing (or person) long needed attention.  It is about that.  But it is also about giving that thing (or person), long needed worth.  By taking time and caring for them, you are helping that thing (or person), also to take stock in themselves.  You are causing others around them and say, "Wow, I never noticed you before, you are beautiful."  And what I have learned is that this worth-giving dynamic, of Caring For something or someone is what is at the heart of the Christian gospel.

All For Now,

GB

The Chartres Model

In north, central France, there is a cathedral that was built in the 12th century and that is one of the most stunning architectural achievements in history.  It is the Chartres Cathedral, in Chartres, France.  With flying buttresses, French Gothic masterpieces, hundreds of ornate sculptures surrounding the building, original windows that still survive intact, and 350 foot ceilings at the high point of the nave, it is truly one of the wonders of the world.

What many people do not know is that the central isle of Chartres Cathedral also has a very unique design.  One of these design features is that it has a slightly slanted central isle - slanted upwards from the back doors of the church to the altar.  In other words, when you enter the cathedral, there is a slight incline as the central isle moves towards the front.  Scholars have debated about this unique architectural facet for years.  Some think it was an intentional theological part of the original design, so that those who walk in the back of the church are literally walking upwards as they approach the altar up front.  Others think that the incline is simply due to years of sinking ground, and settling structures, from centuries of use.

But my favorite explanation for this architectural peculiarity is that the floor slants downwards towards the back door because years ago, animals were often brought into the church to be blessed by the priest, and for high religious ceremonies.  Sometimes those animals, while walking down the isle (or up the isle, as the case would seem to be), would leave behind traces of what animals do best - poop.  The easiest way to clean the cathedral, then, was to simply broom-push and wash the animal excrement downhill starting at the high point on the altar, and brooming it downhill through the back door of the church.

This image, of having a slanted door and washing out animal waste has got me thinking.  And I am wondering weather it wouldn't be a good idea for modern churches to have the same slanted floor-plan phenomenon - so that all of the bad things that sometimes happen in the middle of churches can then be easily washed out and washed away.  Consider this:

Every Sunday each of us brings with us to church, a certain amount of fecal matter that has collected in our lives from the week before (most people call this "sin").  We bring it to church, and during confession, we pray a corporate prayer of assurance of pardon.  And that usually does the trick.  But what if, instead, all of that waste product that is built up in our lives, could just be shot out the back door with a great power-washing of the central church isle every week?

How much easier would it be, for example, after a particularly difficult church board meeting, to just say, "Ok, a lot of hard things were said here tonight, before we leave, we are just going to broom/wash away all the crud that has collected over the evening."

All of the pain that is sometimes experienced in church - people letting us down, of hopes of the future not being fruited, of expectations not being met, of the unkind things that are sometimes said in church - they could, with one great washing and spraying, be sent right out the back door of the church.

What if the next time a church was involved in a case of abuse or graft and criminality (as sometimes happens), rather than years of working through painful and difficult legal cases, all of the awful raw waste product could just be shoved out the back door?

One of the things I love about the, and why don't we give it a name...

The Chartres Model

Is that it puts in place an expectation for bad things to happen in church, and for there to be a public and regular cleansing of those things.  One of the hurdles some churches face is that when bad things occur, there is sense of surprise or shock - "How could such a thing occur (I have heard people say)...in a church".  With the Chartres Model, there is a predetermined notion that bad stuff will occur there, and there will need to be a public washing.

I also like the notion that all people, whatever they have done, or might potentially do (and in this case, all animals), are welcome in church.  My favorite phrase here is - "No perfect people allowed".  Another way of saying this might be, "Come to our church, bring whatever you are, and whatever you will leave here, and we will wash it out the back door."  There, in church, they could then bring all of their "waste".  And then leave it behind, and then wash it out.

One last thing.  The Chartres Model brings new meaning to the lyrics of old church hymn, "All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all..."

And then washed out the back door, whatever else was left behind:-)

All For Now,

GB