revjmike's blog

What am I doing?

Well, at the moment, I'm entering information on my computer. (At first I said "typing;" but then I realized that I almost never "type" anymore!)

I was really talking about "what am I doing?" in the larger sense: what am I doing with my life?

I spend a great deal of time taking care of my wife, Gay. She lost her sight nearly six years ago, has diabetes but can't do her own blood sugar, and has several other maladies that keep her worn out and me busy and tired. Since I am also the one who does laundry, almost 100% of the home cooking, keeps the apartment clean, does the shopping with her help and sometimes with her in a wheelchair cart, and pays the bills, I never have to "look" for something to do.

What I am particularly talking about, though, is what I am doing for pay. I am turning in my resignation from LabCorp at 1 AM tomorrow morning. It is my two weeks' notice that I have found another place of employment. On April 17th I'll be going through orientation at a local long-term hospital where I'll be assigned to general laboratory duties on the night shift of 7 PM to 7 AM. I'll work three days per week and every other weekend or so. I believe I shall enjoy this work much more because it isn't as "routine" and of such high volume as LabCorp. I shall also appreciate the multiple days off between night shifts. Since I occasionally worked 10 or 12 hour nights at LabCorp, I am sure I can handle the physical strain of this, and with the increase in pay I am getting we'll be better off financially as well.

I have some concerns, though:

1. Will I like the folk with whom and for whom I am working? My first impression was positive; but what will they be like long term?
2. Will I be able to handle the volume of a wide assortment of laboratory work taken on over night? Even though this is exactly the kind of work I was doing prior to being in ministry, I haven't had to keep blood bank, chemistry, urinalysis, microbiology, and hematology/coagulation work all going at the same time.
3. Will their computer system and program be more or less "user friendly" than the one at LabCorp?
4. Will my skills at drawing blood (phlebotomy) tax my 61-year-old hands even though I don't have a "shake" yet.
5. Will my regular absenses from the apartment of 12 1/2 to 13 hours be a problem for Gay since she can't check her blood sugar currently for that full amount of time? Will she have other problems needing someone at hand to help her while I'm going?

Even though I am VERY rusty in some of these areas, I believe the skills I have will simply be improved with time; and I'll be more than "OK" in this new place of employment. I know a new "voice" blood glucose machine has become available and for sale at a very reasonable price (under $100). If all goes well I'll get the chance to see her try it; and, if she can, I shall find a way to purchase it.

I also know I'll miss my relationships with several of the folk at LabCorp; and I wonder if my resignation will strain that relationship with some of them during my next 10 work days. There are some very fine people working there; and all of them want to do the best work they can with the best equipment they can get.

But two weeks from today I'll be in a conference room with others discussing my new place of employment, it's benefits and expectations and a much stricter dress code for the future.

I hope for and expect the prayers of many who know me well.

The Politics of Apathy

The last time I was actively involved in a political campaign was when Louis B. Nunn, former Kentucky governor, was running for Senate. I was in a heavily Democratic County in Kentucky and met a wonderful Republican lawyer who helped me get involved. I attended a meeting/dinner/fund raiser for Governor Nunn; and afterward he had his photo taken with "Senator" Mike Mansfield. (For those who don't know this, Senator Mike Mansfield, Democrat from Montana, was the majority leader of the U. S. Senate for sixteen years. I am proud to share the same name with this patriot.) I still remember the theme song of the Nunn campaign that said in part, "Nixon/Nunn...More than ever..We need Nixon/Nunn where the national theme left Nunn out and said "Nixon NOW." Nunn lost. Nixon won. Watergate occurred. The rest is history including a turn to the very right by the Republican party and a period of learning about world culture, politics, and an experience of going from the "haves" to the "have less" and working toward being among the "have nots."

Except for regularly voting in primary and general elections, I had been more-or-less uninvolved in politics until I learned of John Yarmuth's campaign for Kentucky's Third District congressional seat. Even though I had never been a Louisville Eccentric Observer reader, I spent many Sundays watching John Yarmuth on Wave-3 TV's "Hot Button" where political discussions with a moderator and a Republican were held each week. John Yarmuth was a quick thinker; and I rarely disagreed with him. (When I did disagree it was generally because I am even more vehemently opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, though John is certainly far from the Republican concepts of this war.)

I attended the first meeting of the "John Yarmuth for Congress 10 Club" a couple of weeks ago; and I can remember saying to someone, "I'm pleasantly surprised to see some folk under 40 here." Why? Why was I surprised to see young folk present for a political meeting in 2006?

Because of the increasing way in which large corporations and other large groups have influenced the voting and elections of our national and state elections since the days of Nixon/Nunn, many or maybe even most young folk are just plain apathetic to the election process. Then after seeing Al Gore lose because of a partisan split on the Supreme Court in 2000 and John Kerry lose in an election where he got the most votes they wonder if it is all worth it---especially the multi-million dollar costs of the elections themselves. I guess I was also surprised because John Yarmuth is closer to my age (I am 61. He's 58) than to the ages of the young folk who were present at this meeting.

I likely wouldn't have watched the movie "Election" without the help of my friend, the Reverend Allen Gibson; but I enjoyed it and its message made me think. At the time its main star was Matthew Broderick; but it would likely list Reese Witherspoon above Broderick if it were to be released today. In this "win at all costs" student election it is hard to know if anyone really deserves to win. The fact that the "I don't care" party leads in the polls gives you the idea of the kind of apathy toward the electoral process I am talking about.

So, "Why John Yarmuth"? John Yarmuth has a long public record through LEO and is definitely the brightest person who has entered the process. There is at least the potential he won't get tainted by Washington-style politics because he doesn't need to have this job but really wants to serve his country. He didn't serve in Viet Nam nor Iraq or Afghanistan; but had he voted his heart prior to this most recent war he would have been one of the few who could see the damage this war would do to our reputation as a nation worldwide and even though Saddam might still be running the show there it wouldn't have cost nearly 2,000 American lives and the lives of many other soldiers from countries around the world. It is also likely the people of Iraq wouldn't be involved in their current civil war, or almost civil war. (BTW, as far as I know there were no Iraqis involved in our civil war.) Our "War on Terror" has simply increased the number of terrorists. It would have been one thing to go after the criminals responsible for the deaths on September 11, 2001. That was the correct thing to do; but to create a need for war by manipulation of data is an entirely different thing.

John Yarmuth was against this war before it started. So was I. He wrote about it. So did I. He sees the falling apart of the social structures put in place to help protect those who can't protect themselves, the "little" guys and gals; and he wants it to stop as I do. He sees our freedom of speech, habeas corpus and other freedoms threatened or eliminated by the GOP's use of fear to win elections along with corporate donations, some of them illegal, and illegal spying on American people, etc., etc., etc.

It is time to stop the loss of the freedom for which our forebears fought. It is time to elect an intelligent, creative, caring individual to congress. The possibility that I could play a real part in that process is exciting enough to me that I am staying awake when I should be sleeping to help see that it gets done.

You won't see any apathy in my desire to elect John Yarmuth to congress. I hope all of those at the meetings feel the same way.

For more information about how you can be involved in helping to elect John Yarmuth to congress, go to the following URL:
http://johnyarmuthforcongress10club.blogspot.com/?pop=1

Prayer is prayer, or is it?

People who know me know I don't have a whole lot of conservative bones left in me, if any. This is particularly true theologically, sociologically, and politically. While I believe that all people are susceptible to the possibility they might become mass murderers some day in the right circumstances, I also believe there is a goodness in every person waiting to be drawn out and grown through the love and faith and presence of another one and another One. I think it will help you to know "up front" of my progressive or liberal tendencies so you won't be surprised about what I am going to say. (For those of you who are very liberal it won't even be a surprise.)

For the first time in my life a Muslim offered to pray for me and my wife. I didn't ask for the prayers; and I didn't expect the offer. Why didn't I expect the offer? I'm not sure. Perhaps it was the tension that exists between Muslims and Christians and Jews in the area of the world where our military is currently fighting. Perhaps it is my lack of ever having a close, personal relationship with a person of Muslim faith. For whatever reason, though I was surprised by this offer.

Since he said this as I was leaving work, I immediately began to think about the quesions that rise (at least some of them) from this offer:

1. Does God answer the prayers of Muslims?
2. Do Muslims pray in the same way Christians or Jews pray?
3. Do Muslims share faith in the same God as the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jesus?
4. Would most Christians consider my friend, Mohammed (from work) to be a man of "true faith"?
5. Why do I even question the prayers of anyone?
6. What do I do when one of my Buddhist coworkers offers prayer for some reason?

My short answer to all of these questions is this: I am glad Mohammed is going to pray for us. He appears to be a man who has studied the scriptures of Abraham and of Jesus and of Mohammed the prophet. It doesn't matter to me whether he prays the same way I pray or not. The monotheistic faith of Muslims means they MUST believe in ONE God. (The Hebrew scriptures say it this way: "The Lord our God, the Lord is One."

I believe many, if not most Christians would believe Mohammed was a man of "true faith" if they got to know him as a person. His faith is as visible as his dark eyes and ruddy skin. He knows a great deal about the Christian and Hebrew faiths; and he can compare them to you without putting down your faith or building his above yours.

Questioning the prayers of another is like questioning the money someone is offering you. Even if you don't believe it is real, accept it and find out! A gift IS a gift, after all.

The final question is answered in a way you already can figure out. If a Buddhist coworker offers prayer, I will glady accept it. Not only that, I may become proactive about asking those of other faiths to be in prayer for us as I also offer prayers for them in their daily relationships with God and with one another. I pray that the Lord of Love, Jesus Christ in my tradition, will be ever more visible to them and in them.

So thanks, Mohammed, for making this offer. May God bless you as you are in prayer and work and in all of your family life.

Mike

revjmike's blog

I don't have time for a "real" blog tonight; but I wanted to say that I am back online as of now. I'll try to say something, whether significant or not, soon.

Mike in Alb at Easter 2004
Mike at Work

Back to the Future?

I just finished reading a blog by Keith Oberman of MSNBC. He tells of finding footage from his days with CNN Sports where he managed to interview what would become, twenty-plus years later, the producer of his program on MSNBC. You can find Keith's article here. It is a few paragraphs from the beginning and titled "This couldn't be true, could it?"

That reminded me of two stories of surprise of my own. In 1964 I married Gay Landis Harris, a graduate of the OTHER high school in Boyd County, Kentucky, Paul Blazer High School, located in Ashland, Kentucky. We met for the first time at Kings Daughters Hospital in Ashland where she was working as a Nursing Assistant and I was working as a Laboratory Technician. For me it was literally love at first sight when I saw her. Gradually my charm, intelligence, and humor got her to overlook my lack of handsome features; and this beautiful, intelligent woman actually encouraged me (or so it seemed) to ask her for a date. I did. She say, "YES!" and the rest is history. We married the next year; and we have gone through all the ups and downs most couples who survive forty years of marriage know.

The first surprise was my picking up an old photo of the children's choir at what was then "Second Methodist Church" in Ashland. I saw old friends who were still children in the photo. I spotted two of my three sisters, a friend who is now the Reverend Anita Rayburn, and other tykes who were part of my world in that day. Then suddenly I looked down at one of the persons in the photo again! Could it be? I think it is! Yes! That is Gay Harris in that photo with me when we were about seven and nine years old respectively. We had no memory of meeting one another previously; but there in the photo was the fact---we'd known each other for years! It was a delightful serendipity for both of us.

The second surprise related to one of Gay's close high school friends. Gay knew her as Diana Judd, who "hung out" with Gay and a couple of other friends a lot. Diana was a beautiful, intelligent girl; but she became pregnant senior year; and the subsequent negative publicity of that (in the 1960s) led the parents of Diana's friends to force them to avoid her. She eventually moved away; but Gay did not forget her because of what a wonderful person she had been in high school.

In the mid-1980s my wife and I became fans of the singing duo: The Judds, composed of a woman named "Naomi" Judd and her daughter, Wynona. We both enjoyed their music; and were always impressed about Wynona's mother continued to look so attractive as she was already in her forties at that time. Later on in the 1980s we moved back "home" to Ashland and Gay was hospitalized for a short time. While she was there one of the nurses came into Gay's room and asked her "What do you think about Diana?" She didn't actually know how to respond because, as far as Gay was concerned, she hadn't heard much, if anything about Diana since they had graduated from high school.

It was then that Gay learned that Naomi Judd, of THE Judds was the Diana with whom Gay had shared and played as a teenager. She was already world famous; but Gay knew her only as "Diana," with whom she'd graduated in high school, and with whom she lost contact.

One final note: I believe Naomi (Diana) Judd was a beautiful young woman; but she was no more beautiful than my wife of forty years and who lost her sight three years ago. She doesn't have to deal with my getting older because she can't see it happening. At nearly 59 years of age Gay still has brunette hair, with very few streaks of gray. She's not as thin as Diana/Noami; but she certainly is beautiful in spite of all the difficult events the years of thrust upon her---from chronic illness to betrayal of friends and even church leaders while we were in ministry. She doesn't look like that girl in the children's choir, nor even like the one in the 1964 Paul Blazer High School Annual, where you see photos of both Gay and Diana. She was probably seen as an "also ran" among the good looking girls in the class of 1964 at Paul Blazer; but she has surpassed them all since that time -- doing some modeling in the 1970s and continuing to look very young even into her 40's. Even today I look at her; and I cannot see an aging woman who is married to an aging man. I see one who has matured into someone even more beautiful -- a woman after God's own heart.

I among all men am most blessed.

What is faith in the midst of change?

We are in the midst of emotional/financial/spiritual turmoil because of our realization that we must move toward or to Louisvillle by the end of June. Why?

1. We have not found a place to live.
2. We have no current funds for the move, the deposit, or the first month's rent.
3. We also need to purchase our regular quarterly medications, which will cost over $1,000, during the time period of this other major change in our lives.

So what is faith in the midst of all of these changes?

• Is it doing nothing but pray in the hopes that God will somehow act supernaturally to "save the day" for us?
• Is it asking friends and family for their prayers, in hopes that more people praying will evoke a better response from God?
• Is it apartment hunting with the hopes that the money might come by the time it is needed?
• Is it asking for the help of others, churches, even the government?
• Is it a mixture of the above?
• Is it something else?

I am praying, planning (within the scope of little scientific basis for those plans), asking, and waiting. Faith, it is said, is the substance of that for which we hope. When we realize it we have it; and it isn't based on faith, but "reality." When we hope for it, pray for it, work for it, ask for it, even beg for it, we do so in faith HOPING for a good resolution, even if it isn't exactly the solution we sought.

Faith isn't the absence of doubt, or the absence of fear, or any of the other types of things folk would tend to call it. Faith is simply going on into the unknown with the knowledge that, in the end, the same God who loved us before we were born will protect us when we are old. Faith is acting as though the thing for which we hope is a "done deal," that we know somehow what we need will be given to us.

So we don't know how it will all end; but we know we're in the hands of God.

Mike

The Execution of Terri Schiavo

revjmike's blog
OK. I admit it. I only used that title to have a better chance of getting someone's attention. I don't believe what happened to Terri Schiavo was the same thing as an execution. I do not, however, consider it to have been accidental or passive.

Terri Schiavo was as alive as you are; but she was allowed to starve to death because she was unable to feed herself, or even to swallow. If she were in the Commonwealth of Kentucky the feeding tube would still be inserted unless she has a living will that stated what her "husband" said were her wishes. In other words, Kentucky's law says you are assumed to want to stay alive unless there is proof you wanted it otherwise. Not so in Florida, however! This, in itself, is part of what makes this situation interesting and difficult. In Oregon Michael Schiavo could probably have even persuaded a doctor to prescribe something that would have "finished her off" in a very short period of time since they have an "assisted suicide" law in that state.

When did we decide that life is not worth living unless it meets some special criterion or criteria? Do I deserve to live if I am blind, deaf, or mute? Do I deserve to live if my IQ is below 100, below 75, below 50, below 25? What about physical disabilities? Should the authorities say I shouldn't be fed if I am awake, talking, and breathing, but cannot move from one place to another without help, nor eat on my own, as in the case of Christopher Reeve?

The fact is that Terri Schiavo was alive. She may or may not have been able to understand or even perceive the world around her. The stories surrounding her tend to lean toward her being totally unable to determine what was going on in the world surrounding her, more or less like a sponge in the ocean. Yet does that mean it wasn't a life? Does it mean she should be allowed to starve to death? Does it mean the state should be involved in this determination of starvation?

What if she really did know what was happening in the world around her, but just couldn't react to it "normally" so that others could determine she was actually cognizant? Would that make her less or more alive than someone who was totally unaware of that world? Would her life be less or more valuable if her mind were working, but trapped in a body that would not allow her to make that fact known to those around her?

You see, I am one who knows that death is simply a part of the process of what we call "life." I heard someone say on the radio this morning that they hoped to keep Terri from dieing. How? Were they going to freeze her until some method for restoring brain cells was developed; and even then how would they keep her from coming to terms with death at some point in time? ALL DIE! Everyone ends up as dust. There is no escaping this finality in these clay shells in which we are housed.

We in the "first" world tend to think of medical help as a greater source than it really is. It can PROLONG life, perhaps; but it cannot keep us alive forever. That is not part of the way the world works.

So Terri Schiavo is dead at the hands of those who refused to let her be fed. It seems to me this is not what is meant by using artifical means to keep someone alive. Some folk who have lost their esophgases due to cancer or burns use tubes just like Terri's to feed themselves. The fact that she was fed in this manner did not mean her life was of less meaning than someone who could feed themselves.

We have become a culture of youth where those who aren't productive are presumed to be of less value than those who are more productive. We are not generally angry about abortion nor euthanasia. We are unwilling to take the action necessary to keep mass starvation from occuring in some parts of the world because of the effect it would have upon our own economic status.

I grieve Terri Schiavo though I never knew her because she represents a life that was considered worthless. Thus the Tutsis or American slaves were considered in various situations. This is the attitude of the Arab highjackers who flew into the World Trade Center about the value of their own lives and the lives of the thousands of people occupying those towers.

Life is always a gift to be accepted. What we make of it depends on us, upon God, and upon those around us. Terri's parents were giving her a better life than she otherwise would have enjoyed. May we accept our situations in life as gifts from God to be enjoyed or even tolerated, but always knowing that in life or in death we belong to God, to be loved by God, and to be used by God.

Mike

He Is Risen; but I am tired!

revjmike's blog

I was born two days after Christmas in 1944. Even though I cannot remember it, I am sure I was in my mother's arms in public worship at Easter in 1945. In fact, I was probably in worship at what is now Christ United Methodist Church in Ashland, Kentucky, the church we attended until I reached high school age.

I was born in Florida at an Army Air Corps Hospital near Sebring. At the age of three months my mother and I traveled by train to my parents' hometown of Ashland while he continued to serve in the Air Corps. Since I have no memory of missing Easter worship for the rest of my 60+ years, I feel certain the two of us, perhaps with my grandparents on the Mansfield side and aunts and uncles as well, were there at "Second Methodist" to celebrate this, the greatest of all Christian Holy Days. I have no doubt that, even as an infant, I could tell there was something special about this day when the crowd overflowed into the balcony and the outer hallway.

The reason I am writing about this is that today, March 27, 2005, I was not in a service of Christian worship. Probably for the first time in my life, and definitely for the first time in my memory, I failed to attend corporate worship on Easter Day. In fact, since my retirement from United Methodist ministry, and my current employment as a Medical Technologist on night shift, I have become a virtual church dropout.

The reasons for this are manifold; but my shift work, coupled with the two hour drive to and from work each day leave me exhausted on Sundays and Mondays, my "real" days off. My wife Gay, who is angry with the United Methodist Church anyway, refuses to go anyway. That makes my decision easier to make; and, to my surprise, I didn't feel guilty about missing worship; but I was disappointed that I wasn't with a local congregation in all the joy of the hope of Resurrection we possess because of what we celebrate this day.

I have no idea what Resurrection is like. I know it isn't what happens to a chrysalis when it becomes a butterfly. I don't believe that our decayed bodies will suddenly become living, physical bodies either. Even if they do, will we be recognized by others? There is evidence that Jesus' resurrected body didn't look like the one he had prior to Resurrection. Just look at the stories in the four Gospels, especially Luke 24 if you want to see what I'm talking about. Yet I do believe there is life beyond the grave in some form; and I believe that hope of Resurrection began on that "third day" long ago when by God's own desires Jesus was Resurrected.

So, since I was not in corporate worship, I am reminding myself, and any others who read this, that "He is not here! He is risen, just as he said."

I also want to say that Jesus' Resurrection means we who believe should be sure that Christ and Christ's message are living in us. The scriptures say, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." In this glorious hope I live out each day. In this glorious hope I celebrate each day's rising from the "deathlike sleep" to another day of life and joy in the Holy Spirit.

May God bless us with many more days of life in this world, or in the world to come.

Mike