There's A Little Black Band On My Wrist Today"

Today's blog is going to take some twists and turns. Bear with me. 

The picture above says one thing. "HOPE". How could that  moment, that photo happen in communities and villiages that teach them to hate and kill?

I don't comment on my personal faith thoughts to much .  But I had a discussion after a racquetball match yesterday with two other long time men of deep faith. Both are from different denominations. The conversation was about grace, hyper grace and who is embracing it, and how they are spinning it or using it for their own needs.  Grace or Law.  To be sure, different faiths embrace it differently with different outcomes.

One friend took time to forward me an article of one writers thoughts on the J.Prince Christian ministry and his books on grace.  With pages of opinions based upon his view of scripture, he sliced and diced "gracefully" ;) upon what he saw as the errors of J. Prince’s movement and a book by this teacher.

In the end he ended his long dissertation with  : Last line:  If radical grace is taught in the context of the message of the kingdom of God to give it balance, it can be a great teaching that lifts up Jesus and transforms individual lives who can transform nations.

OK, I'm laughing. Why didn’t he write just that and  have saved us all a half hour of reading and most likely hours for him to write it ?

In the end, it affirmed one thing in my little brain.  All the denominations and factions of Christianity remind me of how intelligence “can” divide more than unite. 

If you presuppose an ending and then backtrack through the entire scriptures to find any and all scripture that might fit into your ending, and hence forth build a case for "whatever" to defend your new position, you are in danger of just plain being "out of balance". From that place many things can happen; that although not incorrect, create divisions and more divisions.  Start with M. Luther and go forward to the formation of all the modern religions under the banner of Christianity.   Smart “MEN",  just plain thinking they know something others don’t, begin to believe they know better and must enlighten and divide by those mere thoughts and teaching.. And they will teach their minions "who" is correct and who is in "error".  Thankfully within the faith of Christianity we don't kill each other for not aligning with a specific view of our faith.

Thankfully because of the Cross, because of free will, we have choice.  Yes there is much blood in the Old Testament and reasons why under that age and time things played out that way.  But the Bible, as a combination of Old AND New testaments together, create a beautiful living, breathing, complex Last Will and Testament for us to read and live by. Thankfully it does not speak of killing those who would not convert. And that makes me think then of other teachings and religions as the world spirals into more local sectarianism's within religions.   And here the blog takes the next turn today.  

I love taking and  posting photos with my blogs. Today from here on out. No photos. Just my thoughts as I type.   

And as a side bar, a special thank you to all of you who have taken time to tell me you read this blog over the years. Outside of friends and family, i do appreciate the comments and notes of thanks. 

And that makes me think of the current state of Islam. There are so many people under one global faith who have latched onto or jumped onto a specific teaching within their faith to the detriment of being balanced and or effective for a God of love.

  If you believe in the 4 levels of Islam that are taught, then you have to ask yourself some serious questions. I'm trying, and I'm in the middle of that conundrum. 

If I relate it to my faith (which we all do)  then I say, I want to be more like Jesus. The more I can be like Him the holier and more effective my life will be. The more of the Word I read and apply, the holier and more effective my life will be. For I love the Word because it was at the foundations of it all, long before it became written and preached.

So I apply that thought to the Koran and a few billion people who read it and follow it in many different sects and manners.   And I see that there are very radical statements in the Koran that if followed, will create no choice, no free will and will create a world for me that is absolutely NOT the GOD I know. 

Perhaps I love living in America because of the Bibles influence on our democracy of free will and choice and liberty as opposed to Dictatorships, Caliphates and those who would eliminate choice and freedoms to uphold whatever they deem “acceptable, righteous behavior” worthy of life, or death if you disagree.

Where do you go with that? Even dialing back from the highest level of a righteous Muslim, where a caliphate or mandatory strict sharia has to be for all, what is acceptable for everyone to live with who does not believe this, but wants everyone to have the rights to seek and follow God. 

When push comes to shove, if a moderate Muslim wants to be a better and better Muslim, do they have to embrace Sharia and fight for it? And in America, in a democracy, is a Sharia acceptable?, Should religions be allowed to try to grow and force another way of life on the rest of the nation? France, England, and yes Michigan have areas and neighborhoods that have purchased land, homes businesses and decided they should be Sharia, and are, and will be defended as such.

Should this be acceptable in America or under any democracy?

Big Question:  SHOULD EVERY POTENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR OFFICE HAVE TO EXPLAIN THEIR BELIEFS ON SHARIA IN AMERICA AND A DEMOCRACY? WOULD'N'T THAT BE PRUDENT? (and how would Taquyyah play in that...)

Now if you say yes Sharia should be allowed in America, then I’m lost. How can religion be allowed to take over Govt. and secular services under a holy law, in a system that was built to allow freedom for all.  They just don’t and cant coexist in my brain. Tell me how this can happen,  unless the whole point is to subvert and change the entire system like communism has said they would like to do to democracies for ever.  

For me, I desire all peoples to have the choice to believe what they want to believe. But not to the detriment of all others if they don’t believe. I truly believe this is the heartbeat of America and Americans.  Israel has been fighting this problem “forever”. Leave them alone in their little sliver of land mass. But radical Islam just can not. They want them dead and gone as much as they want the end to America and anyone who chooses Freedom of choice.

What is the “free” world gonna do. What can we do to join together to say no to Any one group who are hijacked in a belief system that they believe tells them its’  “believe our way, live under our rules or die”? 

We have to, as the worlds people, say NO.  This is not acceptable. We will not let you subjugate the world under your knives and guns. To try to fear the world into submission with threats of your death by whatever means is the worst. 

America has become a very selfish and narcissistic nation of people looking out for themselves.  Nothing has made the nation unite to fight for our rights. We take them for granted and expect our sons and daughters to stand with arms to protect those rights and keep us safe so we can focus on ourselves and our castles and retirements. 

This will change if we do nothing.

I can tell you that I love all peoples. I want to live in peace as a Christian with all faiths and those with no faith.  Most people of “faith” or even atheists believe in freedom of choice. When you take choice away you take away life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness unless it’s under your laws or death.

Not gonna happen. Free people will fight against dictators (if given tools), or even without by laying in front of tanks or firing squads.  How far does radical peoples in the name of God have to go before the world stands up and says, enough? 

In Christianity I would say it lays at the feet of teachers, preachers and pastors. 

If they teach radical thoughts with sectarianism's that end with, “believe in Christ as we do, or die”. These teachers must be somehow stopped from teaching creeds and beliefs that promote subjugation or death. How can we in a civil society do this where we say we want free choice and free will?

And then there is Taqiyyah. Where it was ok’d centuries ago for any Muslim to be able to lie about anything in order to continue to wage war against the infidels, or anyone who appears to not be willing to bow to God as their Allah as they believe they should. So you could convert Christ, any social system, any anything in order to infiltrate the enemy so in the end you could overtake your enemies and create your domination over the world.  Really… ?   

How do you feel about that if you’re an average person trying to get along with everyone?

Fear? Yup. That’s the tool.  If you’re afraid of me and what I’ll do to you, then you’ll obey me. 

But i have to gain enough power over time to be able to make you fear me. Until then I’ll just subversively gain power in your systems as a pacifist or whatever to gain it.

Again I ask, can and does Sharia belong in a democratic society? If not, the world better begin to make that clear “REALLY” fast, because it is being implemented all over the world in smaller communities everywhere.  And in that it begins to administer holy laws that are fear or pain or beatings or mutilations or death based.  These “holy leaders” may say “well if you do not obey the laws you must be punished”. And then the above sentences are laid out and fear is used to subjugate all peoples into obeying god as they see it.

How far are you willing to go in a free world with freedom of choice to protect that right. 

Are you willing to wait until your house is surrounded and you are personally affected?

I’m sure everyone would either say, “it’s not close enough to me, or don’t tread on me”.

But how do we unite and let our nations know that we stand together against such crazy monsters?  Do we take Israel’s stance? Do we just amass our borders and only fire and fight when fired upon?  Do we just have secret police looking for these enemies of our free nations and quietly taking them out without out knowledge?  Do we set a bar that says, you’re with us or you’re leaving, and how does that even work with Taqiyyah available?

Friends, I’m asking questions.  A lot of them, and I hope you are to. 

Like Israel, we are not against Islam and peace loving people or any other faith or non faith.

We just want to live free and have choice. If you want to take that away, and that means at any cost, then you leave us “the world” no choice but to begin to take other measures to stop you. 

Put down your words of convert or die. See them in your teachings as ancient and not relevant. Look for love not law in your teachings. Look for grace and mercy in your teachings not hate and judgement, for if God is who we think He is, He doesn’t need our help to judge us all on this earth…

Me, I’ve found a little black band on the Internet.  One I can wear that calls for solidarity of the world to peacefully stand against any radicals who say  ‘believe like us or die’. I  look forward to 10’s of millions of people of all faiths and not faith, standing globally with arms raised with these bands of peace on their wrists saying, “Enough, "we stand united”, not on our earth.

If you follow Islam and are a peace loving Muslim, you should love the freedoms democracies have allowed you and I,  and you should stand up with the rest of the world  and fight against the teachers and monsters who are subverting generation upon generation of young people to religious death machines. God is choice, and He and He alone will judge us on our choices. And if you don't believe in God then choice is what you believe in, and you should fight harder than the rest of us while you're breathing.

More to come. Pray for peace. God is good, Life is great.

Nobody Likes Spanking

This is not a picture of me with my only daughter in the early 80's.

However it could have been because the old wooden spoon was the impersonal giver of consequences, and she always did that with her hands before she received as many swats as her age at the time.
 And if she covered her butt with her hands I'd calmly add one swat each time.
I think she always received one more swat before moving her hands in defiance.

I never spanked my children at moments of disobedience. Always 3 chances and a look and a warning  followed by those great words " Ok, that's it, up to your room (or go to the bathroom) or tonight when we get home you'll get "x". We'll deal with it then. And if you do it again now, we'll just add more on. Sorry, I love you but you had all the other options first."

I hated spanking my kids. Each one had their own levels of "testing you for power and control".

Certainly our daughter was the most obstinate, cunning and willing to fight for control.  She's now my hero/super mom of 4, and I pray she never has to spank her kids for disobedience. She'd honestly tell you - she deserved it, learned from it and certainly has respect not disdain for authority. 

Methods?

Spanking should be the last resort, but IMHO it should be a measured resort for some (not all).

And if you were abused as a child, you should seek therapy and NEVER spank your kids.

Like alcoholics who quit and never drink again. So it should be for the abused.  Get help and take away your chances to repeat the cycle.

The above pic and list shows other good options.   

 Ok, side bar...  right now as I type i see the heads of cut off children in the middle east stuck on metal fence poles as their punishment for not obeying or converting to radical monsters, and the world turns an eye away from that....  

All right I'm back on topic now.  Personally I never delivered consequences of a spanking at the moment of disobedience and never with "personal anger" in my words or voice or delivery. 

There was always a discussion of what they did wrong, how many chances they got. Then it was, let's get this over, hug, tell you I love you,  and the words I'm sorry you chose to not obey. I hope I don't have to do this again.." followed by a prayer and long hug again.

This was never "hitting", "beating", "slapping" "Pinching"  or all the things much worse than that.  I've discussed in counseling broken adults over the years many stories  of their childhoods where they were treated beyond human in abuse, and I'm sure the abuser parents were abused and it doesn't make it right... ever.

 I can't repeat any of those brutal stories and they were usually tied to sexual abusers as part of the punishments. We're talking SICK people here.Yet today why is it that the word punishment is almost becoming a crime. Like saying the word "sin" or "commandment" or "holiness", they are words that no one wants to really discuss or owe up to anymore.
Now if you know me, you know I AM the "grace" guy not the law and punishment guy.  I am NOT the guy who ever quoted scriptures for punishment like "spare the rod spoil the child".  You certainly don't need a bible to teach you about respect honor and obeying authority.  With that said, I do believe in consequences and spanking is one of them.  When do you cross that line from spanking to child abuse? That is a very very big brother, gun control, abortion, equal rights, racism, political type of question with very passionate answers.   

I do remember being 14 in 9th grade gym class, playing my harmonica at my locker and being pulled into Mr. Riddles office to get the old jock strap bend over wooden paddle with holes in it smack.  I remember tears, and suck it up, and that i hated that guy from that day forward and still do.  Punishment has to be measured and fair. That was just wrong and cruel, even if I sucked at harmonica (which i didn't). 


Police abusing their authority is another example of whats wrong with power in the wrong hands. I'm also guessing every cop who abuses authority was abused as a kid. It's so sad and we need honest solutions to discover peoples histories before we give them (at least) public authority .
I began the thought this morning of even blogging on spanking.  Part of me said, "ooh don't do that, people might think you believe in child abuse".   CNN this morning had a debate on it over the A.P./Vikings story from this last weekend, and they couched it as "hitting" not "spanking". Over and over it was "hitting your child is legal, the only person you can legally hit is your child".  CNN headline: "Spanking is Child Abuse".  Never did they say "spanking" as anything humanly acceptable. Never did they mention punishment for behavioural change, other than to say "hitting doesn't work it's abuse". Agreed, hitting is bad. Really bad.

Well, every child is different. Every person and their history is different. Family histories are different. Abusers are abusers.
God, I wish there were a test that could identify the behavior of (an abused person) so the world could find a way to help them and get them help to stop it before it continues to another generation.  But measured spanking for behavioural modification based differently on each child's personality is not "hitting" or "abuse" . Not until it's twisted into something it's not,  by someone who most likely is re-peating a sick cycle of past personal abuse.

 Why is it that words have to be twisted to conform to an ideology.  Define beating for me.   Spanking, Rodney King,  Reginald. Denny?

I was beat up twice as a kid. Once by a group of guys. I hate that word, it has bad memories for me and I'm guessing I'm not alone.  Is it not a vile word. Yes It Is.  Now add it to a child, and it's incomprehensible. 

You look at this photo and it makes you very angry. It certainly does to me. I see the faces of to many foster children from my childhood. It evokes beating and child abuse. Anyone hurting a child out of their own pain and inability to cope needs to be stopped and get help.
Yet IMHO of being raised in a family that raised 100 foster children and then growing up to raise our own 3 kids,  spanking is not synonymous with abuse or beating. 

 Lets say you hate being poked and a friend keeps poking you in the ribs. You finally say "dont' do that" and they continue. You finally choose to try to stop it. You think it out, and you warn them. You don't want hurt them, so you measure out something (you think about it not just react to it). Let's say they finally poke you and push them hard away and yell, "don't do that again".  That is a measured response and you hope they will understand. No one was injured. That would be the response of someone most likely who was never hit or had been abused. Those abused, would most likely just start a fight. 
Tragically, there are so many generations of adults that were hit and beaten by parents who were beaten even harder, and the cycle continues. 

  Beating of any kind is totally vile. There is some kind of disconnect between measured discipline for a purpose to help a child "stop or change" their behavior,  and or the losing control by lashing out of ones personal anger and history onto a child as it was most likely done to them. 

Time Outs...     are great. Who doesn't use them. 
Take Aways...  Yes,  taking away things is great.
Pinching...  Never was pinched, but if someone pinched me under the arm I'm sure id strike back no matter how old or how big they were. 
Verbal shaming and humiliating.... Never Never Never acceptable and possibly as damaging as hitting. (yup hitting).
Hitting... Not acceptable. ever.... ever... If you hit your kids, (punch, slap, pinch) you need help- so go get it today, it's mean and cruel.   

 Personally,  I probably could have used alot more spankings, time outs, take aways, and more, and it might have saved me from a lot of early poor choices.  But I didn't get, and I can't go back.  However, I certainly spanked our three children up to the ages of 5 or so whenever they reached the end of the other options. . Each child had a final spanking at some point around 5 or 6  where they finally said. Ok, enough, I'll obey, dad loves me and i need to listen and respect his words.  All of a sudden, for each child,  a light bulb went on and like potty training,  they never did it again..  Amazing...   Now my daughter who's in her 30's and a super mom of 4 received "twice" as many spankings as either of our boys put together. That was her personality. Super Strong and defiant.  Go figure. I don't know if she spanks her kids? I've never seen it, but I somehow believe if those kids cross the lines to far, she or her psychologist husband would have no problem laying down the law of love for their benefit and protection..    I have friends who never spanked their kids, their kids grew u just fine, and that was their way.  I certainly wouldn't say their kids turned out better.. that would be a totally subjective  statement from either side and not fair. 

A kid steals cigars, pushes and disrespects store owner as he steals and leaves, walks down the middle of the street with contraband, disrespects a policeman who tells him to walk on the sidewalk, assaults a police officer and taunts him about shooting him.   This poor boy never learned to respect authority and lost his life as a result.  So sad. Had he learned to respect authority (his parent or parents) would he have done any of that? Don't think so... Learning respect changes you however it happens.

 Now with that said, there are twists to this. Mental twists.  I listened to stories of parents that had to literally whip their kids on the butt till their teen years. Others who put on boxing gloves with their boys once they became teens and spanking wouldn't work in helping them respect authority. Many of those kids had other mental health issues to deal with and medications in many cases to weed through.  Sadly  it just took forever for those kids to give up the "control" to a parent and obey.  They would not obey, no matter what the price. My dads brother was that way. He got beaten horribly by my grandfather and never cried no matter what happened to him. He became the toughest kid in the neighborhood and hated bullies. My father on the other hand obeyed much more and didn't have to get punished.  I always felt bad for both the kids and the parents who were trying to keep their kids from hurting themselves. 

Hurting people hurt people.  They use hands, drugs, words, knives, guns or anything they can to lash out or reciprocate when hurting.  And add religion to your anger and abuse and it's an even worse cocktail.  I sadly think that most of them do not seek professional help, hide their pasts and then become repeat offenders on their own children.  

Adrian Peterson is a sports legend. I'm a fan. I'm so sorry for his own childhood and the punishment he received. I hope he finds a better way and that his son realizes his dad loves him in spite of himself.

It seems it takes Super Stars set upon  pedestals to fall off and be found mortal and broken and shamed for us to deal with so many of life's shadow issues.  I pray the abused, wherever they are,  will seek help today to stop the repeating cycles.  It's so tragic. No child EVER deserves to be hit, shamed or beaten.  It's permanent, and lasting with scars.  But again... I'm not talkin bout a spanking here. I'm talking about terrible abuse.

Those who live lives of Faith would say  "Spare the Rod Spoil the Child." Please don't say that. Although it's scripture, it's been used by so many as an excuse for abuse.  Then there is  "God can heal your past".  Well, yes He can, and yes He want to, but scars will remain and when scratched they will still hurt, bleed and invoke a quick, and in many times unwanted response that leaves you saying,... geesh, I only poked you, I was kidding, lighten up..   Attention folks... kidding too often, is not funny at all either.  Kidding is poking, and you might not like the response you think you will get from someone who's weak spot is poking.

So what do we do for our kids and their kids and our friends and neighbors and the people in the sphere of our influence about all of this today?  

I think we should talk openly and honestly.  We should forgive each other first, then give up our pasts,  and then talk openly to professionals,  and then talk to our kids about our scars, bad choices and abuses. Make some good movies about balanced parenting not just the extreme positions on both sides....  Unconditional love is the answer to stop the cycle of violence. It's super natural. In my life, it started at the cross and it's available only in a super natural manner. And yet with that, we accept that love and are afraid to be real because the rest of the world lives conditional love and we are all afraid of being judged before healed.

And everyone said AMEN, you start first.

What do you think..

PS.  And by they way, speaking of abuse?
http://www.worldometers.info/abortions/
There have been 29 Million babies aborted world wide as of Sept. 15th this year. 
Yes I did say THIS YEAR. 

As usual, please free to comment, Share, re-post on social media and "follow" this blog.

I Really Really Need You, Really

If you're leading people and volunteers.
please memorize these 5 words

" Manipulation is cheating, not leading"

I like starting my blogs with a relative photo to my theme but today I can not because any photo of any person or minister I'd put up would make it look like I'm pointing my finger at them. Ok I'll post myself because I've been guilty of what I speak. 

I had a music video posted the other day and one of the people who commented on it was a gentleman named Larry Broughton.   Larry who?  Exactly.  Now I don't know Larry,  but in the age of the ether and social media "sharing" not just "liking" is one of the best ways to... well.... "share" things that affect you. When folks share my posts or music, I try to look them up in my quiet time and say thanks. 

So I search out Larry and find out he's a veteran and a motivational speaker amongst other entrepreneurial things. Well on his site I see 5 words and they hit me like a 2by4 between my headlights.
They come from a book called "flashpoints" that he's written. I don't own it, but again :), we "share" it in hopes of exposing it for good.   So yea, now back to those 5 words.

I read, Manipulation is cheating, not leading, and the faces and voices of every horror story from a tear filled, wounded ex-staffer or volunteer I've ever counseled flashed by my brain. Half sweat and nausea came over me as I took a deep breath.  Wheewww, theres a trigger point in my life Jesus, let's pray about that one today huh?

So there it is, 5 words. Memorize them.  I'm done,  have a nice day..

Holy Bio Terroristic Caliphate Batman.

 If only we could call Batman or Superman or the Ninja Turtles to deal with our enemies..

Having just finished  writing a screenplay with cool weaponry and their delivery by trained soldiers, my mind is filled with the thoughts that run through the minds of content creators. I call it the "What If".

I've not wanted to say this for sometime but, oh, I've thought it and I think it may be behind some of our Governments unwillingness to talk about a "strategy". To form a strategy you must spell out what you're dealing with.  Right... That's probably not as easy to share as you'ld think.

Think about our two wonderful doctors working to save the world. from Ebola. They are the opposite of Terrorists. Like Medics in war they are potential martyrs for life.  And when we found out they were infected with Ebola and that they were coming home in quarantine, there was a lot of "What If" going on.

Tom Clancy probably wrote about all this 15years ago, but since I don't read his stuff I wouldn't know.
Well, What if the crazy caliphate driven masses are convinced by the Imams or ayatollah to either smuggle their ways into Africa to contract Ebola as their weapon of suicide or purchase it or some other Small pox type virus on the black market through fellow radicals in Africa or somewhere. What if they head back to the Mt's in the middle east, test it's actual incubation period on martyrs, plan an invasion then infect hundreds of western looking passport carrying ISIS martyrs for the ultimate death as a bio martyrs. Traveling here before their fevers start so as to be undetectable by heat scan (which has been employed before in Japanese scares on airlines) and sending a dozen or so infected Westerners to every Sunday football stadium for a grand football outing and then just planning days to infect the cities down town areas  until they lay down and die with their great video martyr note at their side....  How you gonna stop that... How do WE protect our nation from that? Sounds like a Screenplay hey?  Well it's not.. yet..

Forget suicide bombs and transportation delivery. The movement to bio terrorism via martyrs is their logical move to this ignorant Midwesterner in fly over country. Starting with Ebola, we now  have the mosquito driven encephalitis virus that just surfaced in Japan... again..  Well, will we see more and more of these viruses just "pop" up in dense population areas?  Are the wild claims of conspiracy folks about the Bilderberg group eliminating the population from 7billion down to 1.25billion really plausible? 

 Who knows.  Call Jesse Ventura I certainly don't know and speculating is not my job nor my pay grade. But, protecting my family is, so what is the best way to be informed and be safe as a nation. as we go about our 40hr work weeks raising families and trying hard NOT to think about this stuff. Where is there NO spin..    Listen to the main 3 cable networks? Yea, ok , i peruse them each for 15min a day to see what I already know they are going to spin. Talk radio? same deal...  Newspapers? (not in America for sure).  Web blogs and web news sites? yea, but again anyone can say anything on the web and it's repeated as gospel...  So what do you do?

I guess look at all the comments and facts you can at your disposal and look at the past and look at what someone says they want to do to you or in Russia's case (what they've already done) and decide if it's a hill to die over and rise up about.   For us, in the end I pray for whomever the President is. Can't imagine the intel he is deciding from and the powers that push him apart from his own moral conscience and convictions about war and morality and America's standing in a global community.  He has to make the call and live with it, and we have to act accordingly and deal with the aftermath.   Presidents make good and bad decisions. They all do. Let's hope he's praying and listening to more than his Blackberry and caddies suggestions at these times.  We need him to focus on our safety.  I think that one is one of the few things he promises in his Oath Of Office and I'm praying he'll think about the nation not his legacy or party. I'll pray the same for the next president as well.  Land in Montana could be getting expensive very soon..

I suspect god fearing muslims in America will soon be having to make serious choices about all of this very soon. Once these Caliphate driven muslims begin striking here, the very existence of any Muslim family  in the country will sadly be in jeopardy  for fear of ties to them.. Remember the Japanese internment camps.. That was nothing, they went willingly and humbly. Yes America will have to make terrible choices ahead to protect our borders.  Oh yea,,,, borders... :/    


I'm posting these thoughts on my blog today after seeing that another Reporter was beheaded today in the Mideast. My last Facebook post on that was removed so I'm guessing that any thoughts I  have about any of this will be here on my blog and then posted to social media where it can be blocked but not eliminated...  

Pray for your leaders every day and pray for God to give wisdom to them at this time.

Branding?

When does branding cross the line.

With the State Fair in full swing, Jane and I opted to go to the Mill City Market instead. Only 1,000 people instead of 150,000 to avoid. 

One of the things I love is Branding and Advertising. When it's good it incredibly effective.

When it's not it usually embarrassing.

My whole life i look at tee shirts. The copy, the design, the logo, the slogan, the colors, the placement, the front vs the back and then the takeaway. Here's a tee shirt that you could stare at for 10 seconds trying to figure out what the heck it says, and then still look again to be sure. (BAD tee shirt). Have you even been able to figure out what it says yet?

On men it's pretty easy to see tee shirt copy.  On women depending on their genetics, it's much harder.

I can't tell you how many hundreds, no maybe 1000,s of times I've looked at a tee shirt of a women on the street, in a store on an escalator, elevator. On a bus, in a car, in a plane, with a chain. 

When they are easy to read it's a simple glance and "yes, no, ok, funny, bad taste".

But when they are not easy to read but are compelling i stare like a guy trying to read a menu without his cheaters on (don't go there)..  Really, honestly, no intent on staring. Just want to see what it says or is pitching that they were willing to adorn on their body for the day. 

And then it happens.. I subconsciously realize the woman is staring at me and my innocent stare for clarity becomes horribly embarrassing. 

I have to then say as fast a possible. "what does your tee shirt say"? and look them in the eyes. Then I can finish with the cool or funny or nice comment and turn away. 

If I do what comes naturally, I'd look up and say sorry for staring or say nothing and look away. But that would reflect the opposite of what I was actually doing and I'd be forcing myself into false guilt for something they should have thought about before putting a tee shirt over their chest.

Here's another one. "Vineyard Worship".  I still own a Wine Import Licence. I've had people read that I represent Vineyards and then they ask me " WOW, cool, what Vineyard Church do you represent". My answer usually of "no, real vineyards, like wine, like millions of bottles..", gets a less than enthusiastic response.   So now with this Vineyard Tee Shirt... If you're not in christian circles and understand who and what "Vineyard is", a normal person would look at this and think hmm. nice big "V" between the breasts. Is she exposing her love of her grapes of life, maybe she is a Wino or a Vinologist.
  Laugh you may, but truly this copy should be on the "BACK" of a tee shirt not the front. At least that would eliminate most the awkward stares..  Hmmm maybe that's it, you can only put this stuff for women's tee's on the back. I'm serious, I don't have a personal problem with women's chests but I do have a problem with feeling embarrassed for reading their tee shirts and then getting the look for reading what they put on to be read...  sheesh.

So I'm at Mill City Market with my wife yesterday.

 We're buying dark chocolate samples with lavender and sea salt and, and, and a woman walks up next to us who runs a restaurant next store. Shes in jeans and a tee shirt. Of COURSE i look to read the tee shirt. I always do I look at every advertising on anything. Well thank god my wife didn't see me, or her friend the chocolate lady. And thank god the tee shirt was only TWO WORDS in a large green serif font with good kerning,  and it only took a 1/4 second to read it and look away. That was until it sunk in.  Two Words   EAT LOCAL.  EAT over one breast and LOCAL over the other.   Now I was born at night, but not last night.  You can't tell me that you put a tee shirt on like that and not realize what you're saying or having fun "playing". This woman walked away and I said straight away to the shop owner and my wife. No woman should wear a tee shirt that says "eat local" over her breasts. It's just not right.  Well, both women were shocked and laughed and said hmmm you're right. The owner said, I'll let the restaurant lady know that next time she stops by.    I'm thinking, riiiiiight. like she doesn't know what she's doing. 

So in the spirit of fairness and to help the world understand the value of marketing placement I'm asking all marketing companies to from here on out change all marketing for men to be different.

Unless you're as crazy as Mr. Anorexia here who will not live long and prosper, I'd submit that all ads must go on men's Zipper flys or over the crotch area so that if a woman (or a man) wants to see what a man is showing as interesting or cool, she has to look at his crotch to read it and then get the look back from a guy after she notices that he's noticed that she's noticed.  Maybe this would spark a change without words being spoken...

Unfortunately ad sizes for men would vary based on confrontation and, oh heck, the more I think about it, let's eliminate all advertising except on hats, yea hats. Shoot everyone should wear hats anyway to help fight skin cancer, to be cool, to be special..   I mean no one could be offended by a hat.

I've had  100's of hats.  Other than being banned from some church platforms with one on,  or wearing the wrong type of hat for the wrong occasion, it would solve the sexist ad wars.  Heck, how bad can you screw up wearing a hat anyway...

Ok, I give up..

And just remember your words have multiple meanings, be careful what you wear.

Unless you're quite sure of what you want to say.

I think i'm gonna get the tee shirt that says
 "Don't wear the tee shirt if you don't want me to read it".

What Art Is Holy... (Good Fruit / Bad Fruit)

Have I said how thankful I am for the Internet in spite of people using it for ill gain, or falling/jumping into painful addictions online.
Well, I tripped over a Russian born artist yesterday and landed on my knees with a prayer of thanksgiving. Why are we attracted to some things and not others. I'll pass on 1,000 videos of race cars and deer stands or sports bloopers but watch 10 of an artist or musician.

  Growing up, I'd visit galleries and wonder how certain looks and styles were painted. My father was an artist, but having to work on commercial art to make a living, I never was blessed to watch him create art in multiple mediums. After his death we found multiple hidden art cases destroyed with black mold that contained art from his youth he'd painted but didn't want to display to himself or us for only reasons I could guess. "it was to painful to see his passions never realized".  Here's one of my fathers pastels that was saved from circa 1950. I cut black mold off of the corner but the face was salvageable. Did your parents have passions never realized?  Do you ? 

Like many of you who loved art growing up, when cartoons were over and black and white movie hours began,  I turned to PBS on Saturday mornings to see... art?   Now unlike cooking by Julia; which taught me early that drinking wine, or brandy, Grand M. or Pernot, or or..  while cooking is not only acceptable but comical albeit dangerous for amatures. Well in art, on our 5 channels of TV,   there were just a few paint by numbers wacko painters doing velvet elvis style art with drone voices and a pallet knife. Flailing a million palate knife pine trees with a white fan brush to follow for light or the blot blot circle brushes whirling out bad Monet-ish textures.

Now my wife and I have had the privilege over the decades to spend many days walking through European galleries. I'm sure close to 10,000 paintings easily. With that said, I still have a few etched in my head to this day.  99.9 percent I could go view again and say "oh yes, I remember  that.  But without seeing it again... no memory.  Ah yes, arn't the sorting of memories what make life marvelous or misery..

There was the basement of a Catholic Church in a small town in Europe. 5 floors down in a dark and musty room with a single light bulb swinging was this painting of "the good samaritan". No cameras were allowed in this church and I can only imagine in 400years how few people have ever seen this painting. It was painted on a wall and was perhaps 7ft wide..

 I felt led: (a spiritual justification to disobey rules)  to hold my Nikon against a wooden pole on time exposure to get this photo in this dark room when the few people coming through had left the room. I've spent hours studying this painting over the years.  It's a treasure.  The 1800's U.S. western style sky with the donkey. The wealthy (righteous man) walking by without helping. Sidebar: I'm at a loss how taking photos of art to expose it to the world is bad? But that's another issue.  And so I'm back to Vladimir Volegov (who I do not know personally) and how I see his art today as so very God inspired regardless of what Vladamir believes..

Vladimir's oils have this soft innocent beauty to them.  Another example of, "regardless of your beliefs or faith, what is inside of us is what comes out of us  in our lives and art.  And our faiths can not be a blind excuse or justification for good or bad outcomes or quality in our actions and lives".  
God has instilled gifts/seeds  in every persons life that naturally produce good fruit if discovered and allowed to grow.  I believe we then take the credit for what's given supernaturally, and we then perhaps give that credit back to whatever god form we are linked to (or not).    

In my faith, i've come to realize that there are so many gifted people who live outside of my beliefs in God and His plan for mankind in redemption through a cross. How do I reconcile their gifts as holy if my faith says they are not redeemed? Can I call this art God inspired? Can I call it worshipful if the artist is not redeemed according to the thoughts of so many teachers in the history of my faith?   

Yes I can. Oh yes I can and I do and I will.  For  God's children whether redeemed by the cross or not are still His children whether they accept Him under my understanding of Him or not.  No, I am not making a judgement either way about salvation or eternity here. Only God has that job, and His living word (as I believe it) will be finalized by our own choices and actions individually.  I only hope that my life might be some example on some days of a life redeemed through the cross of Christ instead of a selfish, narcissistic aging artist.   Can Christ teachings redeem my life enough daily to make it a life that is loving enough to make another man say "I want to be like that, I want that love".  Outside of shedding that love; His love each day, I have no claim or judgement on anything or anyone except by my own life example (which is certainly fallen).  

My faith, my ashes into beauty, my paintings, songs, writings and words are my creations and like Vladimir, an expression of my giftings to the world.  And to be sure, I believe God will judge them differently than men. 

I always relate God to our earthly fathers. If you had two sons and one was a natural athlete and one was handicapped. If you went to watch both play in a football game, which one would you be rooting for more? Even though you love them the same..  Of course the one without natural abilities who is trying his best regardless of failure.  Come on, you can do it, atta boy, atta girl, I love you, you're the best. 

Friends, God is rooting for us, each broken and blessed soul. I believe the gifts He bestows on each of us are part of our journey to find Him. To come home and say thank you dad. To learn to dialogue and ask Him questions where we are capable of understanding His answers. 

And then there are those days where I stumble over a Vladimir. And his beauty and incite to have a team that films and edits his multi tool methods of painting in new media for all to see and be inspired. To inspire new young artists in this process. 

  And although I'd tell you i'm concerned about what Vladimir believes as it relates to his eternity. I'm sure he may feel the same about me and both of us about the world.  Yet I see the beauty of God in his work and art and I thank God for His gifts manifest in Vladimir. To God be the glory for the things He has done.  Some may want to judge the fruit by the type of tree, I'd prefer to judge the fruit by how it affects my 5 senses. I may see a Large Mouth Bass under lilly pads in my sleep, but I now can imagine the beauty of this Water Lilly painting as well. Always good to have options:)

Good fruit Vlad, Good fruit!  

How do you enjoy and relate and share art based upon what you've been taught? I look forward to your thoughts.

Till next time..
Craigt

The "New" Cracks In Society

In life, this complex journey of our souls, there are choices we make. As much as we'd like, we don't get to choose the end result, just the path each day.  And in that choice each day we walk, we run, we stumble and we fly.   There are many of us who don't really like the regular path. We see the masses as a confused and messed up place. We enjoy silence over the sound of a trading floor, rain on a tin roof or tarp over the sounds of airconditioning and cable. We don't really fit in much and we don't know why half the time. Is this you? Are you one of the misfits of metro.. There is nothing wrong with you. You are beautiful and complex and searching like the rest of God's creation. 

A percentage of the world has always been "you".

I used to hitch hike in the 60's and felt a freedom like none other. Other than the occasional gay predator who'd pick you up (as a guy) or the hippie, mostly good regular people from all walks of life would just help you move from place to place.  Those days are gone and now you just see pan handlers on metro street corners or groups living in community parks or under bridges and other "secret" places where they can try to sort out this life they struggle with to fit in and survive.

I love finding these people. It takes time. It takes effort, it takes a willingness to take time to go away and search. To take those off the road  the paths to somewhere.

Paradise campsite at Mill Creek is one of those places for me.  An off the map camp site along the Yellowstone river in Paradise Valley.  I've come to learn that free campsites are not only a hidden treasure out west, but they have become a place where the working homeless..... LIVE.....

And  so it was again this week. 

I drove from Bozeman to the North Entrance of Yellowstone Park in hopes of finding a paid camp spot in the smallest area of the Park.  NE Slew Creek. If you've read my blogs over the years this is my favorite quiet place. Only 13 camp spots and it's where the legendary wolf packs live and where the troubled bears of Yellowstone are placed when they don't fit in to the rest of the park life and people.. Lot's of Buffalo live there along with the rest of the park life. The cutthroat trout are the biggest there and you can only fly fish and catch and release with barbless hooks since those fish are protected. Well, i drove the couple hours to the park only to find the 1,000 total camp sites FULL. Now what, it's 4:30 and what are my options with the sun setting soon.  It's no fun setting up camp in the dark in the rain...
First Carballa came to mind. 10 or so free camp sites near mile marker 25 at a drift boat launch site North of Gardiner along the east bank of the Yellowstone and North of the JimDandy canyon rapids where the crazy people float.  Carballa is where I met old Mac Daddy Mackensie a few years ago. Mac's a millionaire on paper but poor in cash.  Like many multi generational Montanans who've inherited land now worth millions, they take odd jobs and live as often as possible in free camp spots in tents and trucks.  Ole Mac carries a drift boat, motor bike, giant skeeter tent and sleeps under a tarp. Drinks Merlot or Tequila till he's done howling at the moon, then beds down on the ground with a bible on his chest and passes out under a tarp... He is a treasure of a human being and I love seeing him every time I'm in Montana at a free camp site somewhere.  So as i passed Carballa in the distance from the highway I could hear old Mac Daddy singing Willie Nelson at the top of his lungs while yelling Rev.Craig T. I love sharing happiness to the world around me. It's all I wanna do. Here a pic of Mac Daddy, and another loner Pattiecakes who moved from Wisconsin years ago along the banks at Carballa a few years ago.

I drove North as the sun was setting and then there was Paradise.  I pulled off the highway up to that remote site and all three spots were taken. Slowly i passed a young man with a pickup truck and two dogs. Sittin in a chair reading a conspiracy novel i shout. (only three spots here eh?) Yup, but you're from MN huh? (yea Mpls). Well, he says if you got a tent, I'm sleepin in my truck with my dogs, I could use some company tonight so tent up on my spot. 
You see that's how it starts. You take the road, and say hello whenever you can.  This night and next few days would educate me to a whole new generation of travelers. Single young men with dogs as companions who work jobs but live out of their vehicles because there are not reasonable places to rent with dogs and so they live spring to fall trying to save enough to rent a warm room for the winter with their best friends.  

This is Daren. A young 20something, educated kid from Detroit Lakes MN. So this is how it goes.
Can i offer you a crappy BudLight?  No he says but I guess since it's hot out, yer Buds cold, and I've got no beer I'll take one.  I only drink local micros but i'm tapped out.

Daren goes on to tell me he's a carpenter but used to be a cook and he was whisking up some hollandaise for eggs Benedict from the back of his pickup with his two German Shepard's standing guard.  You like the blues? he asks me. Not my favorite I say but I like anything done well.  Well Craig, meet my dogs, Elwood and (?) her name escapes me. Shes 7 and Elwoods just over 1. They are my best friends and companions on this journey. 

This picture of Elwood was from the next morning as he stuck his nose under my rain fly to shake river water all over me and wake me up. I'm lying in my tent scratchin him from my back as I took this pic. These two kids played in the river from morning till night waiting for new drift boats to pass and other cars to come into camp looking for one of these 3 hidden spots.  

Elwood J. Blues was the calmest 1yr old shep I'd ever met and he laid at my chair more than at his masters most the time. (no i didn't feed him scraps). 
Well back to Daren. He's a rock hunter and collector who has his private spots in the valley he shares with no one. He knows rocks well and sells them for cash to collectors on the side. 5k alone this year he said with a smile.  Look Craig, this is a petrified pine cone. And out of his pocket he hands me a white and green rock. I'll be darned, it was exactly that. A fully petrified pine cone with all the ridges and leaves.  Amazing.  
Than I asked him where he's living and he begins a story that lasted through the night about his life, his cop dad, re-marriages, being run over on a big wheel at 3 and a less than good relationship with his dad.
Tears, well, i bottle it all ups, but I live out of my truck with my dogs and move from free camp site to free camp site while doing constructions jobs as they come.. I'll have enough hopefully by winter to be able to share a place with someone till spring.

Yup there is was. This is the new working homeless.  Not feeling sorry for himself, or asking for help. Daren is a hard core conservative who believes that you shouldn't take from others but work for it and leave me the hell alone.  
Why do you do this i ask.  Well, Craig, In MN it was all drinking beer and watching football in a garage somewhere. What the hell kind of life is that? , and off to Montana i went as the black sheep leaving the MN fold..  I'll take this over that any day. I wish I could see my family or have them visit me but it is what it is. I mean there's only room for me and two dogs in the back of the pickup.. :)

That night he pulled out his Drambuie at the fire and I shared a pinch of my 100proof Ennis Montana Rye fire water. Just a sip, that's all. I had just 3oz in a little flask that I like to have as a sip before i leave the fire and head to the tent to see a billion stars and my old friend the milky way. 

About midnight a jeep rolls in and a burly voiced kid in his early 30's pulls into the camper spot that had been there all day vacant with a (beware of dog) sign on the old beat up pull camper. Out comes a dog and Elwood and sister and this new friend begin the dance of getting to know each other for an hour or 30mph tag in the dark. 
Now I'll call this kid Jim.  An Iraq vet on a navel ship in electronics he served on the same ship one of my young brothers did US Carl Vincent, a two nuclear reactor war ship.  Jim working at a hotel in Livingston MT. and was a rock collector... yup, and.... lived out of his camper with his dog, moving from free camp site to free camp site.  Sitting at the fire (sry no picture of Jim), they talked of rocks and politics and freedom and their best friends and where the best places were to camp that no one knew about.  It was like a secret language between them.   They didn't want sympathy, they didn't want a hand out. They loved and served their country in different ways but just couldn't find places to live that were affordable as single white men with dogs. 
I asked them about women and it got kinda silent. Well,  dating is pretty tough.  Hi, I'm a 27 yr old sgl white male who lives out of a truck with a dog. I get a shower every now and then and I'm sure you'd like to go out with me.. So, here we are with are dogs along a river.
Jim says, Well, I spent alot of time in the brig, and beat up passed out on my face in my drinkin days. Once i start, 3 days passes quickly.  I asked him how he's surviving today.  He pulls out a pipe and loads a bowl an says; "a few tokes in the morning, and a few before bed". Keeps me from drinking.. .well not totally but only one beer and never in public or at a bar." I loved his honesty and told him so straight out.
  I only felt bad for their dogs that have to be tied up or in a camper 12hrs a day as they worked their jobs.  Their employers didn't know they were homeless, and prob. would not have hired them if they had been honest about it but here they were.... surviving.    Now of course they asked me what I did and after hearing I'm a reverend and a wine importer and entertainer and..... the conversation let to ... well whatever they wanted to ask me.  I'll just say, I got to be a honest teacher of Jesus truth and love about love, life, pain. Answering many charged points about how the church is full of lies and corruption and politics and they want no part of it I agreed and deflected and explained how this journey of exploring God in our lives is more than a building of men and women that they don't relate to anyway.  Do you believe in God?  Yes, they both chimed in their own way.  Well, our journeys tonight are all the same and yet different. I'm in no place to tell you what's right for me is right for you right now but keep asking questions and praying to the stars for answers because He created this for you to enjoy and He is listening, and in my humble opinion He loves us all equally. When you stop praying and asking questions. When you stop seeking you will cut off the very essence of hope. 
It was a great night of learning for all with new friends from "somewhere" on a night on a river with three dogs and river running through it.

So today as you read this, be thankful for what you have. Plan for and look for those open roads not traveled. You just might find what you're looking for that day in unexpected places.  And me, I'd just done a party 100 miles away at a billionaires ranch with an equally wonderful group of generous people with means, who had gathered to give back from their wealth to those with less than from the special op's military veterans community. 

With or without, people can be happy and fulfilled. One thing is for sure, we all have our gifts that we can bless each other with, where ever we find ourselves. 
My prayer today is that we as a nation find a way to build places for young men like this to bed down and sleep with power and water and a barn to put their animals in during the day as they try to sort out the GenX questions of life and future.  

The next day Daren convinced me in the rain to travel up a mountain with his dogs to some old gold mining camps high up old chico springs road.  In the rain we dropped his truck tires from 80 to 40 pounds pressure to make the climb a bit simpler....   that will be my next blog most likely.. stay tuned, we're taking more less traveled roads into God's beauty.. 

From the top of the mountain in the rain,  and until next time..   

breathe deep and smile.