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description=For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. I Corinthians 13:12;

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not all that may be coming but be it what it will i ll go to it laughing herman melville moby dick july 12 this is that day of the year that i think about life s adventure it s my made up birthday i grew up having to celebrate my december birthday every other year my sister had hers in the same month we had to rotate who got a birthday party both of us were scarred for life makes a great story i married into a family that had several other december birthdays add to the giant birthday in december and one doesn t stand a chance when i got much older i made an executive decision and moved my big day to july in theory worked great some years i end up with two celebrations other years i miss out altogether it is what it is probably time to give up birthdays anyway the director christopher nolan has his epic the odessey premiering at the end of this week the almost three hour long film takes audiences on the voyage of trojan war hero odysseus on his journey home to ithaca the 10 year adventure written by homer is a western civilization essential before the world was literate these great stories helped shape reality and passed on core life lessons can you see those faces sitting around the fire eyes wide waiting for the next monster to emerge from the sea hollywood today removes our imagination and shows us with its imax film technology all we should see and feel our world is poorer for it every mountain top is within reach if you just keep climbing barry finlay if you ve never read the story once you see the film you might be amazed at the strange world in which the odessey takes place all very normal to odysseus and his crew of course the gods and supernatural characters seem to have every sort of personality disorder you could imagine each must be manipulated like a two year old having a meltdown at target religion in their world was based on trying to appease these disturbed characters this is one of the revolutionary ideas that monotheistic judaism and then christianity introduced to the ancient world the living god was not a social construct that reflected all the weird and distorted characteristics from humanity instead he stood apart and taught the ideals we could aspire to be after this birthday albeit made up i see how the odyssey story is much like life traveling through disease disasters storms betrayals and deaths a journey in a leaky boat i work so hard to make this world a wonderland but it s not really my home all around me during my journey i have passed so many obstacles and opportunities i have made both foolish and smart choices i don t have as much control as i m led to believe i ve met a host of creepy characters and heroes all along this journey and i m sure there are more to meet i ve got a hero in my sights this year we live such independent lives it s almost impossible at times to see the influence of others but so we do not set our sights on the things we can see with our eyes all of that is fleeting it will eventually fade away instead we focus on the things we cannot see which live on and on 2 corinthians 4 18 the only journey is the journey within rainer maria rilke in homer s story odysseus and his men were away for twenty years that wasn t the plan it took ten years for the greeks to break through the walls of troy the journey home due to storms misadventure and the interference of the gods took another ten years when odysseus finally returned he found his wife penelope had waited for him refusing clamoring suitors for years his son telemachus was there as well grown into manhood and ready to help his father reclaim his place even my imagined birthday reminds me this july that i too have faithful family and friends ready to love and embrace me leaky boat and all this is what lasts people don t take trips trips take people john steinbeck this has been a season of deaths public figures and people in my own story have suddenly been taken from life here one minute and gone the next others i know are on a longer journey to heaven this is a hard passage one i know well odysseus set off after the trojan war for ithaca with 720 men they were swept off course and endured many tragedies all but odysseus perished during those years he was the only one to crawl out of the sea back to his home i am reminded that mortality is an inevitable part of this journey thankfully it doesn t have to be the end of the story by randy wilson in uncategorized july 13 2026 817 words leave a comment why all the hoopla i venture to suggest that patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime adlai e stevenson soccer will never catch on in america it s a youth sport at best our football is a completely different animal from the visiting fans from all over the world to the chanting u s a mobs packing stadiums across the country everyone s preconceived notions melted in seconds like a snow cone under the current heat dome everywhere one looks from the sonic drive in to the buc ee s bathroom visiting fans from around the world are astounded at the taken for granted daily pleasures of living in america who would have known that unlimited refills or our vast open roads would elicit such astonishment aren t you proud of all the friendliness that s expressed from coast to coast not that surprising right what about the national support for a sport that most people here know very little about what s the deal about a red card we just completed the nba championship games where scoring happens in seconds our own real football can have fast driving offenses that also score points in just minutes this soccer that we ve been watching takes forever if ever to score a single goal but that doesn t seem to matter anymore americans have been packed into the stadiums proudly hailing the national anthem cheering to the very last minutes fans at home have broken viewing records for the network sports bars and viewing parties across the country are packed for every game at the start the fans belt out the national anthem right along with their fellow citizens there at the stadium that nation wide experience of what s called esprit de corp only comes along once in a lifetime unfortunately how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of and which no other people on earth enjoy thomas jefferson what s been happening and why let me put on my social science hat and try to make a stab at explaining these unusual phenomena american sociologist robert bellah 1927 2013 studied our public gatherings like sporting events despite two opposing teams in a bitter contest we always join together with one voice to sing a national anthem and even at times honor heroes with a common lump in our throats bellah used the term civil religion to describe these practices that bind us together in common symbolic and deeply meaningful rituals america doesn t have a state religion that other societies have always had for us we rely on secular events to pull us together patriotism and sports work so well for us in this way think about the olympics as the perfect combination of the two remember our ice hockey team that beat the soviets in 1980 it was a cold war triumph without firing a shot after ww2 the media helps in dramatic ways to pull us all together from coast to coast into common experiences all at once right now our religious institutions seem to be failing us in many ways a lot of voting on peripheral issues splitting up denominations public moral scandals right and left now subconsciously our society craves experiences that offer significant meaning helping us feel joy and pull us together these games even though here today and gone tomorrow fulfill an important social craving we didn t know we had humans are social creations we can t make it all alone if you wanted to invent a device that could rewire our minds if you wanted to create a society of people who were perpetually distracted isolated and overtired if you wanted to weaken our memories and damage our capacity for focus and deep thought if you wanted to reduce empathy encourage self absorption and redraw the lines of social etiquette you d likely end up with a smartphone catherine price americans feel deeply divided right now the latest survey reports that number to be 80 that s incredibly high our political leaders are in the business of dividing and conquering in order to get nominated a politician has to appeal to his her primary base that means swing wide right or left messages that unite don t sell at that level our system is broken and socially unhealthy events like the fifa world cup give americans a chance to experience unity feel national pride sing the same songs with neighbors on either side of the street and wear the colors that tell the truth about who we really are when it matters ww2 911 natural disasters amber alerts school shootings or when your neighbor is diagnosed with cancer our political culture is so broken right now that it probably cannot notice the real causes behind intense and unexpected reactions at these american games these are signs that our population craves unity pride and meaning we always eventually grow tired of the civil warfare politicians are like bad horsemen who are so preoccupied with staying in the saddle that they can t bother about where they re going joseph alois schumpeter maybe what president nixon remember him called the great silent majority has now become extremely loud and proud about these soccer games who would have thought that fifty years after nixon and in the summer of our 250th year americans would be singing john denver with one voice that we would need a win so badly by randy wilson in uncategorized july 3 2026 894 words 1 comment in praise of fathers before i got married i had six theories about raising children now i have six children and no theories john wilmot 1647 1680 father s have been here since the start of things father s day hasn t been around that long didn t become an official american observance plus all those cards at the grocery store until presidents lbj and nixon when i taught college classes my students always agreed that fathers were essential it was much more difficult for us to come up with explanations for why it was so easy for dads to leave their families it is believed that today almost one third of all children in america live without their biological father present in their lives children who grow up without their father are more likely to drop out of school become pregnant as a teenager commit crime abuse alcohol and drugs live in poverty go to prison listen there is no way any true man is going to let children live around him in his home and not discipline and teach fight and mold them until they know all he knows his goal is to make them better than he is being their friend is a distant second to this victor devlin my sister and i didn t have our biological father to launch us into our futures as a father i tried to be intentional and make up the difference for all that i had missed it was hard because i didn t have much history to work with what saved us all was my wife and her wonderful family god is always there to carry us through as a grandfather i m now setting my sights on emulating the lifesaving role models i had i feel a responsibility to be both grandparents to my grandchildren today i endeavor to be part of the supporting cast lately i keep putting my shorts on backwards it s not really a big deal until i try to put something into my pocket takes me a little while to realize the universe is not spinning in reverse there are too many of our sons and daughters walking around in the world today living in a backwards universe today s public schools resemble minimum security prisons a day at the beach these days can be more like an end of the world apocalypse more teenagers are addicted to drugs alcohol smoking pornography screen time and gambling than ever before in our history during the summer my grandchildren spend tuesdays with me my daughter told them it s like going to camp but you don t have to spend the night or take a shower there s a splash park down the road it s a fun activity for both an eight and four year old after about an hour my granddaughter the four year old starts working her way around all the picnic tables sampling the snacks and lunch items of each family group she chit chats with kids and moms she s running for speaker of the house i tell her she needs to find out the names of all these new playmates instead hollering across the waterpark hey friend like a mini me lbj nobody will listen to you unless they sense that you like them donald miller their dad has to travel out of town every other week or so for the whole week it s very hard on him he wants to be here and be involved in their lives every single day that s what he s always done he agreed to the work role change so that they could all stay here and not move a trade off for stability dads probably make many sacrifices that we never know about while we re growing up while i m watching them running to and fro splashing around like huns sacking rome i wonder what i will be able to do year after year to keep them from feeling like they re living in a backward universe how many years of their lives will i be able to help i m certain i can keep them from putting their shorts on right side around most days i did get it right for my granddaughter s swimsuit on the second time we went to the splash park after a big argument a child looks up at the stars and wonders a great father puts a child on his shoulders and helps them to grab a star reed b markham by randy wilson in uncategorized june 20 2026 726 words 3 comments a rite of passage in learning to learn again we can learn of this wisdom and allow our children and so ourselves to become the free whole individuals this good earth has prepared us to be joseph chilton pearce we ve all had rites of passage it s a familiar term but when you ask someone it may be difficult to nail down a concrete definition each society has specific events that occur that mark important transitions in life these change with history we re not celebrating a teens first cattle drive or when grandpa s pocketknife was passed down these days it s the first day of school driver s license or getting an apple watch individuals don t invent their own private rites of passage these are cultural markers that provide meaning and entry into the larger civilization what can you remember as you grew up how did you know for sure you had arrived at a new age stage the passage to the front seat i instigated such a rite this week my grandson has completed 2nd grade he is eight years old that means in texas he has graduated from the car seat allow me to remind you that when i was his age my comrades and i rolled around in the beds of pickup trucks like sacks of wet laundry look how far we ve come my grandchildren both of t...