The power of one good idea

Humanity -- what an amazing resource of talents, skills, hopes, and achievements we are! 

Unfortunately opportunity doesn't play out equally around the globe.  Especially in third-world countries, women are expected to be the oxen, the toilers.  But things are not hopeless.

I believe there is a universal Mind who cares about Her creation, who is infinite in resources and practical ideas for transforming lives.  It does take people with vision and unselfish lives to bridge the gap.

This great little video shows how one creative idea can improve the lives of an entire village.  Although it starts out on a gloomy note, stick with it to the joyous conclusion.

Church World Service (CWS) is one organization which finances life-changing projects.

Love for humanity

Chaplains in Iraq

Do you know what Chaplains do? They are out there with the troops, running, marching, doing physical fitness exercises, on the front lines of battle. Unarmed, these dedicated men and women go wherever their soldiers are.

Did you know the United States is unique in providing chaplains for the military? Many countries do not. So in joint exercises allied soldiers are often glad to sit in on US chaplain services.

A couple of Christian Science Army chaplains are making little junkets around the country, explaining their work to fellow church members.

The stories these women tell are of obstacles overcome through prayer -- from preaching to a pack of wild dogs in the desert who lay down and listened attentively before deciding not to have a chaplain for breakfast, to finding the stanima to run regularly with the men, to overcoming obstinate resistance to women in the military.

What stays with me came in the Q&A session after the talk. The question was something like, "How are you as a Christian Science chaplain able to conduct a non-denominational service?"

The answer went beyond the training received in Seminary. "If you have a great love for humanity, you see the holiness in everyone. That's what you connect with."

If you've read this far, you might like to order a book by Kim Schuette, recording the contributions of Christian Science military chaplains from 1917 - 2004. It's a very good read!

The Christian Science Military Ministry: 1917-2004
by Kim M. Schuette
Brockton Publishing Company, Indianpolis, IN
1-317-487-6868
brocktonpublishing@sbcglobal.net

Who to vote for?

Palin - a feisty VP choice

Who to vote for?

The Democrats made a point of giving Americans hope for change.

The Republicans are emphasizing experience and proven ability to work across the aisle (in the Senate – being able to work with the opposition to get laws passed).

In a different context a friend told me the other day of a business colleague who had been promoted to a major management position. However, this person came with no management experience. He was, she said, making a lot of disastrous “beginner mistakes.”

There are so many unanswered questions. How can we tell who will make the best decisions in such an uncertain and interrelated world?

Well, history can be helpful. New Testament Bible history, specifically. Jesus didn’t get involved in politics. When his life hung in the balance, and he was asked if he was indeed a king, Jesus replied that his kingdom wasn’t of this world.

While Jesus paid taxes, his concern was that people find a new and loving relationship with their God that in turn leads to greater caring, more honesty, less selfishness. He taught people to lean on that God – Spirit, Truth, Love – for their needs.

Not bad advice today.

We can pray that this one infinitely wise Mind governs this and all other nations as they co-elbow for equality and respect among the countries of the world. That no matter who is elected, that person and his administration be controlled by one infinite intelligence that unites rather than divides, that brings the spiritual qualities needed for good leadership.

We can all pray to support a righteous government.

Divas discover nature

"Whatever you do, don't lean!"

(How to not tip over)

The local REI store has this amazing arrangement with the DuPage County Forest Preserve. They co-sponsor programs. They share a common goal of helping people learn about and appreciate nature. What a happy concept!

Thursday night was “Divas only” (ladies night!) – some kayak instruction followed by a paddle around Hidden Lake.

Nine of us showed up. Ray, a senior ranger for DuPage County, met us in the parking lot, and directed each vehicle to the boat launch – a modest gravel stretch sloping to the water. There two competent and friendly REI kayak instructors, Margie and Colleen, greeted us.

They spent a good thirty minutes explaining the basics of kayaking, before launching each of us in our little boats. The first thing we noticed was a little furry head moving across the middle of the lake. Turned out to be a beaver. When he decided we were too close, he dove, smacking his broad tail on the water as he disappeared.

A gaggle of Canada geese three times considered settling on the lake for the evening, but turned away when they saw our little boats dotting their sleeping area. There are other small lakes nearby, so they had handy alternatives.

We paddled twice around Hidden lake before darkness threatened to really hide it, and we headed for the boat launch. We each stroked swiftly toward shore, gathering momentum to get as much of the kayak on land as possible before debarking.

We helped our instructors pull the boats up to the rental truck. We gathered paddles and PFDs (personal flotation devices) into a pile as well. Divas stick together.

I appreciated the womanhood of these ladies. It’s very special. They were modest, funny, friendly, eager to learn, attentive, caring, helpful. And they loved being out on the lake in the evening. Even with powerlines skirting the edge of the preserve, and traffic audible from a nearby Interstate, the middle of the lake was totally peaceful.

And nine women gained further insight on engaging respectfully with nature, and finding renewal.

“All nature teaches God’s love to man…”
Mary Baker Eddy

History in the making

Respected news host Jim Lehrer

in Denver

I wasn’t planning to watch much of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. I turned it on mostly so I could say, Yes, I watched some of it.

Yet as Jessie Jackson, Jr. gave his speech, it dawned on me. This is history! Perhaps more than any other convention in America’s short life.

Tuesday evening featured the first woman in our country who has had a clear shot at the White House. While she didn’t get the nomination, she came close. Really close.

Simultaneously we have the first African-American with a clear shot at the White House with the nomination of the Democratic party. Whether he is elected to the presidency remains to be seen. But someone who is not traditionally white stands at the threshold.

That these two people are where they are represents the best of democracy in action.

I’m not happy about opposition bashing – from either party. It should be obvious that you don’t make yourself bigger by pounding the other guy down. Even though the bashing has so far been light-weight, I’m more interested in specific proposals and carefully thought-out plans for progress.

Still this convention speaks of long-awaited maturity for the American people. As Hillary said of her run as a woman, “We didn’t break the glass ceiling, but there are 18 million cracks in it!”

What does granite do when a galcier comes through?

When an irresistible force meets an immovable object

Margaret’s grand gesture took in the surrounding mountains as well as the lake our little boat was bouncing across. Above the purr of the motor, she explained, “These are all granite. This is all glacial formation.”

The deep lake scooped out eons ago by melting ice nestles snuggly among sunlit mountains and a brilliant blue sky. Somehow fir trees, redwoods, and manzanita shrubs have gained a roothold among these rocks.

At breakfast next morning, Jackie threw this out, “Have you ever thought about the granite that withstood the glaciers?” We hadn’t.

In spite of the power of the moving melting ice mass that excavated deep lakes and upheaved massive boulders, granite mountains remain.

I learned from Wikipedia that granite is igneous rock, meaning it was once molten. As it cooled and hardened it changed into the solid form we see today.

So how might this molten stuff-that-becomes-granite that-withstands-glaciers relate to you and me?

Even though we seem weak and vulnerable, our Maker has made us spiritually solid enough to withstand adversity. By turning to that one infinite Mind who created the universe, many people, including me, find strength, courage, and useful ideas.

Sometimes discovering and using these spiritual qualities means giving up my own view of how solutions should come about. But without exception, divine Mind’s ways are always better.

I think it’s because we tend to think in finite terms and limit our ability to do good – and God's purpose for us is unfettered.

God sees our unlimited potential, and shows it to us as we are willing to connect with that higher view. That purpose is much greater than to be just another rock thrown on the shores of time.

Each of us is made of solid spiritual substance that, something like granite, fully represents all that's enduring and good and true.

The gift of giving

Helene's son Kenny on his horse Cowboy

- about 50 years ago

A favorite song by Peter Link says God’s gifts are given generously to each of us. That each of us has at least one specialty: perhaps patience, kindness, generosity, mothering, fathering, teaching, healing. That these gifts are God’s love in action.

He goes on to say that sharing these gifts goes on endlessly, because the giving of our goodness to one another is never done!

Don’t you love this sense of purpose unconfined!

My friend Helene celebrated her 93rd birthday earlier this week. She thought nothing would give her more joy than to have her favorite birthday pie, lemon meringue, surrounded by her best friends. So she prepared two tables with crocheted placemats and her fine china for this select group of women. I was honored to be included as one of four not from her generation.

As we ate, blue jays, cardinals, goldfinches, and hummingbirds provided constant entertainment for those facing the windows.

The conversation was lively and stimulating. At one point I wished I had one of those new Flip camcorders to record some of the local history being recounted.

These vibrant women were gifts to me that day. They included a retired school teacher, a retired business owner, a woman still active in her family business in her ninth decade, a retired mayor, as well as those who had been simply devoted to their families, now grown and flown.

They stay active, interested in their communities and their neighbors. Their lives say they understand that the giving goes on endlessly, because the gifts God has given us are always fresh and new. They never wear out, never deplete, never deprive or compete.

Each of us has our special gifts that need to be shared.

No more age limits!

Have you seen those cutesy emails about Baby Boomers reaching Social Social Security age –that detail in a humorous way the aches, vulnerabilities, and deterioration accepted as normal for seniors?

While it’s probably better to laugh than to cry, I must protest.

Might age be a state of mind? Musicians and politicians (very strange bedfellows) often stay physically active and mentally sharp decades after others have retired.

Grandma Moses stands as a worthy example of a woman who, unexpectedly, launched a new career in the arts in her 70s.

Another woman who defined “productivity” during her senior years was Mary Baker Eddy – author, editor, publisher, lecturer, teacher, and preacher. She wrote, “Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man, governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness.”

In fact, when Eddy wrote those words, the average life expectancy was 45 – so that age 70 (threescore years and ten) is about 60% greater. Google reveals the life expectancy in 2007 in the United States at 78 years. So, an increase of 60% over that, using Eddy’s cheery estimate, would be 125 years. In other countries, today’s life expectancy is even greater – 82 in Japan, 81 in Singapore, 80 in Sweden, Australia, Switzerland, Iceland, Canada, and France.

So why not anticipate vigor, freshness and promise -- right through 125 years of age? What if the antidote has more to do with attitude than we think? -- to not measure or limit anything good and beautiful in our lives.

This includes deciding whether to forward even those emails that, while eliciting chuckles and smiles, spread an accepted curtailment and inevitable decline of intelligence, health, and mobility for those past a certain number of years.

Yes, the lives of those in all generations can embrace “all that is good and beautiful.”

The ad below affirms the satisfying surprise of challenging assumed limits for age and gender too.

Turning lives around

Valuing others' lives --

A mama swan protects her babies.

One of today’s encouraging phrases runs something like, “He did a complete turnaround.” Or “She did a one-eighty -- referring to the number of degrees required to change from facing in one direction to facing the exact opposite direction. North to south, east to west.

I love when “one-eighty” praises someone’s ability to make a dramatic course correction.

Jesus was always doing that – turning people’s lives around, facing them in new and promising directions. It was as though he put a gentle finger under a downcast chin and lifted the gaze from the ground – helping them to see their world on an eye-to-eye basis, literally lifting their self-esteem to glimpse their worthiness as children of a loving Father.

The woman dragged to him for judgment makes a great example. From the scant information provided, it sounds like an entrapment – she had been set-up and caught having sex with a man not her husband. The Pharisees, Jesus’ self-appointed very public critics, had tossed her in front of him as so much trash, daring him to not have her stoned to death as Moses’ law required.

Jesus let them rant awhile and then posed a solution. Anyone of you, he proposed, who has never committed a sin, never done anything wrong, go ahead and throw the first rock. His simple statement demanded honesty and self-knowledge. Quietly, they all left.

And the woman! What a sense of freedom and relief when Jesus helped her see that no one was accusing her anymore. He sent her home with the admonition to stay out of trouble - specifically to sin no more. Was he was showing her God-given sinless nature? the satisfaction and self-worth that come from recognizing the genuine beauty and purity of her true femininity?

When he healed people – blind, crippled, diseased – usually long-time sufferers, he restored purpose and value. Jesus' life message was one of hope, healing, transformation.

He told his followers to do what he did. I wonder, if we all made a special effort to value those who come into our lives today, how much hope and purpose we might bring without even knowing it? Might we just help turn somebody's life around?

Simple Politics

A rainy Super Tuesday

outside a local polling place

Super Tuesday in the United States has come and gone. This was the day when 22 states, including my own Illinois, held caucuses or primary elections.

The Presidential candidates all seemed pleased with the collective results.

And judges. Who can possibly know all the judges (or any of them) running for election, and which ones are qualified.

In recent years, state and city bar associations have created websites that rate the judicial candidates as Well qualified, Qualified, or Not qualified.

I was pleased to note in reading the brief comments about the Well qualified judicial candidates, that most were noted for their integrity, and were well respected by their peers.

These sheets can be printed out and taken with you into the voting booth. Choosing the Well qualified and the qualified helps keep good people in the judicial system.

Mary Baker Eddy -- whose life spanned the 19th and 20th centuries -- founded the Christian Science church, several magazines, an international daily newspaper; she was a popular teacher and author.

It's hard for us to realize today that there was a time when American women did not have the right to vote. Eddy passed on nine years before the passage of the 19th amendment granted this right.

Even so, such was her stature that in 1908 the Boston Post asked about her politics.

“Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy has always believed that those who are entitled to vote should do so, and she has also believed that in such matters no one should seek to dictate the acations of others.

In reply to a number of requests for an expression of her political views, she has given out this statement: --

I am asked, ‘What are your politics?’ I have none, in reality, other than to help support a righteous government; to love God supremely, and my neighbor as myself.”

That rather simplifies things, doesn’t it.

Women of courage find their voices

Two recent events stand out for me. One was a panel of women of faith. I walked two blocks to the event with the driver of the car parked ahead of me. She herself was an amazing woman. I was so glad to hear her voice.

Rose is writing a paper on the ordination of women in the Catholic church. We discovered we had both read “The Gospel of Mary Magdalene” by Karen King, which posits that Jesus’ real message was hijacked – by men – officially in 325 AD, and has been mostly buried ever since. What remains is what men have permitted, and what remains missing is the voices of women.

The women on the panel – a Jewish Rabbi, a Catholic sister, and the (woman) president of the Islamic Society of North America – made warm, yet serious, presentations about the roles of women in their faiths.

But what stuck with me most was Rose’s courage. Her heart tells her that Jesus’ ministry was very woman inclusive. Her church tells her women are excluded from giving sacraments. She follows her heart in an uphill struggle.

The other event was Friday morning’s 44th Annual Greater Chicago Leadership Prayer Breakfast, sponsored by the Chicago Sunday Evening Club. A wonderful Gospel choir sang throughout.

This choir with the descriptive name of “Harmony, Hope, and Healing,” functions to give back to marginalized women their voices. These women, primarily from shelters, are survivors – women who have recently escaped abusive situations. Violence had silenced their voices, and this joyous choir helps them find the songs their lives are intended to be.

Their final number, “This little light of mine,” strongly confirmed the choir’s success in achieving their goal. The showcased soloist proved that she had indeed found her voice, and used it to improv for her Lord – as she soared all over the treble staff and beyond. She followed her heart and found the courage to let her light and her voice shine.

Appreciating men AND women

First it was Polish jokes. When poking fun at cultures became politically incorrect, blonds picked up the brunt of appearing empty-headed. Close after came humor bashing men. Lawyer-knocking jokes still make the rounds. Wit making seniors look foolish enjoys popularity as well.

While I confess to having chuckled at the novelty of each appearing joke group, it dawned on me that bashing people groups isn’t friendly. And, even though some of the jokes are really funny, I don't want to be part of putting others down.

This is because I tremendously value what the women in my life (Polish, blond, and otherwise) share – empathy, concern, wisdom, joy, encouragement, nurturing, honesty, helpfulness, flexibility.

And I love what men bring to the mix – breadth of vision, spontaneity, adventure, quirkiness, humor, dependability, respect, thoughtfulness, generosity.

I have a dear lawyer relative, and his stability, kindness, caring and goodness mean all the world to me.

And seniors -- those gentle, wise, active folks who have been around the block a few times, are always there with help and advice. Even the curmudgeons have marshmallow hearts.

For that matter, I treasure my Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic, Christian Science, Baptist, agnostic, and other friends whose worship I may not know, for the honesty, cheer, and daily dedication they bring to our relationships.

Since I credit God as the source of all that's good in life, I thank Him/Her for this wonderful variety of people who so enrich my days and years.

I take heart in the diversity with which God expresses His love and comfort for letting us help each other. This world isn’t always an easy one, and we need one another to strengthen our journeys with hope, courage, joy, and the confidence that we each have something worthwhile to contribute.

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Keep out of debt altogether,

except that personal debt of love

which we owe one another.

If you love your fellow man

you have carried out all your obligations.

Paul to his Roman friends

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Riper years, and what's next?

In the early days of TV, there was a great program called, “Life begins at Eighty!” Each week wonderful men and women in their 80s would share insights into their hobbies, activities, and busy lives. Oddly enough, you didn’t hear these folks discussing diseases or diagnoses. They were too busy living life.

Decay and decline are not laws. Someone wisely observed, “You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.” The women in my family are incredible. And they do laugh a lot. See laughter blog.

An amazing octogenarian aunt has just begun going to college for the first time in her life. She is loving her teachers, her classes, her classmates. She’s working hard and earning some of the best grades in the class. And her dear husband is cheering her on.

Tired of the low activity level retirement was providing, something in her intuitively rebelled against the world’s “over the hill” attitude. Auntie is living this sentiment by Mary Baker Eddy who thought a lot about what advancing years should bring. Eddy wrote, “Men and women of riper years and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness or gloom.”

And, “Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight.”

Would you believe, as this column was being written, a friend emailed the following link. It’s a great video example of women of riper years having a ball!