kickin' it with sonseed



ht: dr. james

Overheard...
By: Pixie

I personally believe that...



sounds a lot like...



I'm not in the business of telling US Americans how to vote. I just find things such as this interesting.

apocapolitical commentary
by: kevin smith clark

In Project Bail-Out, each member has a name. His name is Henry Paulson.

His name is Henry Paulson.

His name is Henry Paulson.

His name is Henry Paulson.

His name is Henry Paulson.

chris rock riffs on bill clinton and barack obama



damn that's funny stuff.

ht: rick

musing...

"do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more." -luke 12:4

"prayer leads us to the knowledge that 'all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.'" - julian of norwich

last week i was living in the house of fear. every day it was a battle to keep my browser off of nytimes.com and to control my rising panic regarding the stock market. at present, i have precious little money in the market, but my development job is closely attuned to movements within the market. hence my fear.

on wednesday, in the middle of that dark week, i hurried onto an orange line train at wellington, captured one of the last remaining seats, dug out jesus for president and started to read.

or at least i meant to read.

almost immediately my attention was drawn to the black swiss army briefcase which abutted my leg. on top of the briefcase i noticed multi-colored cards, adorned with beautiful arabic script, that were were being pondered one at a time.

i wanted to focus on my book and harbor the illusion that i am without prejudice.

but i couldn't help myself.

eventually, after five long seconds of inner turmoil, i glanced at the keeper of the cards and noticed that he was middle eastern. i wish i could say that he was arabic, persian or egyptian, but i didn't want to stare.

sullivan square was coming up and i had a decision to make. should i trust that this man's intentions were as earnest as my own as i sat there reading jesus for president? or should i save myself from the minute possibility of being victimized by another madrid, another london?

i got off the train.

i sat in shame.

waiting for the next orange line train to forest hills.

in the days that followed i dug into the scriptures. i sought a fear of God that would strengthen me to serve. i confessed my idolatry of the dollar and my failure to love my brother, prayer partner, image bearer. i preached, with tears in my eyes, looking for the house of love.

for your personal devotional time



ht: al keida

memorandum from captain random...

john mccain still thinks the "fundamentals of our economy are strong." i'm thankful for more hope we can bereave in.

today i've been wondering how the church and her mission would be altered by a long-term recession. other than encouraging compassionate redistribution, providing financial and sustainable life skills training and, if need be, turning a few of those ginormous family life centers into places where displaced families could really, you know, live their lives, i don't really know what the church in the context of depression would look like. thoughts?

the boston cohort is gathering tomorrow night (9.15.08) at danny's diner in somerville (300 Beacon Street, near the porter square stop on the red line) around 7 p.m. we'd love to see you there.

little p's laughter is the sweetest sound in the world.

this weekend, i was once again amazed by my eclectic, incredible group of friends. i do not deserve you.

overheard: traveling with autism

today the new york times had an excellent multimedia feature that focused on how a family has intentionally introduced their autistic child to the wonders of travel. anyone who has heard me talk about my experiences accompanying and empowering people with disabilities has probably heard me say that "family is the greatest disability." stories like this, as well as my interaction with many of our participant's families, reminds me that families are the greatest source of ability as well.

anyway, i enjoyed the story and i hope you do as well.

the hastily written, under-contextualized political report

yesterday we, along with an incredibly eclectic group of new and old friends, attended the barack obama rally in manchester. throughout the event i was impressed by obama's focus on progressive policy, detailed comparisons of his proposals and mccains' and the hopeful, positive tone of the whole event.

although i don't talk politics on the blog much, i am definitely an obama backer. though the polls are tight right now i think obama has the wind on the economy, the war and resource development. for those reasons, in my better moments, i believe that the american public will eventually decide to arrest the elevated entropy of our nation by voting the neo-con edition republicans out of office.

that being said, my one concern with obama's platform, and with contemporary american politics in general, is that our leaders constantly promise significant change that requires little or no sacrifice from ordinary citizens. that is why i completely agree with jeff jacoby's opinion that the change we need cannot simply be funded by increased taxes on the top 1% of americans. in order to bring economic stability to the nation and provide the innovative resource development and sweeping access to health care that this nation needs, we will need not only to tax the rich and strategically retreat from economic blunders such as the iraq war, but we will also need for the middle class to sacrifice by rolling back the bush tax cuts and so requiring the investment of ordinary citizens in the redevelopment of our beleaguered nation.

of course, that's only my opinion. i could be wrong.

Summer of Sam (and Mac)
By Kevin Smith Clark

When Ken Rosenthal makes a reminder that this is the 10th anniversary of the McGwire-Sosa battle, all it does is tell me, “You’re getting old.”

Believe me, I was completely caught up in the hoopla that summer. Living one hour (sans traffic) from Wrigley definitely added to the excitement. We’d never seen anything like this in baseball (some may argue 1961 Maris-Mantle, but that was an age of single-camera baseball coverage and no internet), and fans turned out in droves. I went to see the Cardinals at Comisky (now US Cellular) in July because McGwire would be there (he didn’t disappoint, hitting #32 that evening). It was all surreal…and then…

Canseco. Caminiti. Congress. Cowardice. Here I am, 10 years later, hoodwinked, bamboozled by two guys who will (whether or not they ever confess) a huge asterisk on their careers because of a lack of integrity. Two guys sealed their fates when they wouldn’t just own up to the allegations. “I’m not here to talk about the past.” Well, I am, Mr. McGwire and Mr. Sosa. I quote Jimmy Gator from that beautiful film Magnolia, “The book says, ‘We might be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.’” What sucks is every time a Ryan Howard, Josh Hamilton, David Ortiz, or Albert Pujols goes yard, the past ain’t through with us. Every time another player gets suspended, the past ain’t through with us. McGwire and Sosa ignited the fuse of our suspicion, and, henceforth, every Home Run champ will be placed under a microscope. His blood, urine, and hair will be examined. His former high school coach and his baby’s mama will be questioned. I can’t enjoy the long ball like I used to…perhaps it’s God’s way of forcing me to enjoy great pitching…and BTW, when did a 3.75 ERA become good? Where are Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax when you need them? Sorry, there I go talking about the past again.

Bled State
by Kevin Smith Clark

In late 2000, my mentor, Dr. John Castelein, wrote the following: "In the 2000 presidential election, truth is not non-partisan."  It took me eight years to fully appreciate this line.  Living in a battle-ground state has been nothing short of exhausting.  I'm sure you all remember Ohio's role in 2004.  Shortly thereafter came Coingate involving a trail of Republicans that led to Columbus (for more info, google "coingate" or "Tom Noe"...that should do it).  But, in this state, the truth is anything but objective.  I can't tell you how many ads I see on a daily basis..."John McCain is more of the same"..."Obama wants to tax you more"..."McCain wants to sodomize your mother while pouring sugar in your gas tank"..."Obama is a closet terrorist"..."McCain will ship your job to Mexico"..."Obama will drive your job to Mexico".  Somewhere in all of this is the truth.  And, literally, only God Himself knows it.  It's extremely difficult in my hometown where the most important issues are (in no order): stance on abortion, stance on gay marriage, stance on prayer in school.  And there's not much audience for dialogue (let me be crystal clear on this: I'm against the first two and think the third is irrelevant).

We are approximately 60 days from Bipolar National Showdown III, and I'm sick of the smack-talk, endorsed and unendorsed commercials, "eight is enough", "raisin' McCain", Sarah Palin (yes, she does look look like Tina Fey and yes, I hope they totally lampoon her on 30 Rock this year), Joe Biden's bad hair (we know you have plugs...i remember your hair during Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill), and ANWAR.  I think I'm sick of the Kingdom of America.  I'm returning to the Kingdom of God.

That's what living in a Bl-ed State feels like: a large family of manic depressives who forgot to take their crazy pills...because John McCain won't provide them for free.

this just in!

now that the republican national convention is winding down, the organizers are finally sharing their planning documents with the general public. according to these recently released documents, the four authorized responses to the speakers' staccato applause lines are as follows:

a) woo!
b) boo!!
c) moo!!!
d) USA! USA! USA!

thursday's memory verse

"some trust in dow jones and some in f-16s, but we (me?) trust in the name of the Lord our God."

~Ps. 20:7, GSV

musing...

"show proper respect to everyone, love your fellow believers, fear God, honor the emperor." i peter 2:17

"always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. but do this with gentleness and respect." -i peter 3:15

"a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." -proverbs 15:1

as a child one of my mentors taught me that respect is defined by the object.  thus, you respect a man or woman when they respect you. 

as you can imagine, this advice, when combined with my contrarian nature, led to constant conflicts with adults and authority figures. when my friend's meddlesome mother encouraged me to help my mom clean up after supper, i asked who gave her the right to tell me what to do. likewise, when an art teacher chided me in fourth grade, i decided to make her lunch duty a little slice of hell by organizing a student sit out. i could go on, but you get the idea.

i'd love to say that God, the Holy Spirit or scripture turned my act around and taught me that respect is a loving act that one extends regardless of the integrity of the object, but that simply would not be true. instead, i learned respect over the past year and a half as i've persuaded, begged and pleaded middle managers at the local market basket and supervisors at walgreens to give my students an opportunity to transition into the workplace. as a beggar you learn pretty quick that if you're asking an employer about an opening, "sir" or "ma'am" is a far more welcome introduction than "hello chris" or "hi nancy." the more formal my language got, and the more southern twang i slipped in, the more successful my cold calls were and the more convinced i became that the road to relationship is paved by respect.

tonight, as i stumbled across the scriptures above, i was reminded of this basic lesson that took me 30 years to learn and i've wrote it down more to remind myself than to instruct others. i readily admit that i still struggle with popping off to cops and when i slide into southern speak you'd best put your boots on, but i'm learning that respecting others is close to the holy and hidden heart of life.

blow win blow, burn fire burn

lately i have been getting up early to pray the daily office. when i get the chance, i have also been listening to funeral by arcade fire whenever i wash the dishes or do my chores.

clearly, neither of these practices are remarkable.

what is weird is that almost every morning over the past two weeks, i have woken up two or three minutes before my alarm blares with the following fire lyric pulsing through my head: sleeping in is giving in. no matter what the time is.

have you ever had a lyric infect your mind in this way? if so, please share what, how and when. if you'd simply like to affirm my sanity, i would appreciate that as well.

three cheers for city mission of schenectady!

when one reads stories about pentecostal pastors faking leukemia in order to cover up sexual sins and focus on the family "humorously" calling for its rapidly diminishing audience to pray for rains of biblical proportions to wash away obama's acceptance speech it is easy to lament the current state of evangelicalism.

fortunately, as i was reminded today, there are still thousands of integrous, passionate evangelical organizations such as city mission of schenectady that are serving both their communities and Lord remarkably well. today the entire quadrilateral development crew had the privilege of touring city mission's remarkable campus where the formerly homeless and working poor are offered a home, given opportunities for holistic life development and are sent back into communities as contributors and healers. throughout the day mike, their executive director, and liz, their development director, taught us not only why relationships are the key to mission, but also taught us how to establish relationships as the key of our development program.

i would like to thank jim, liz and everyone at city mission for hosting us for the day and providing me with the most amazing illustration of john perkins' and the christian community development association's focus on redistribution, relocation and reconciliation that i have ever experienced.

musing...

in milan's majestic, facist inspired train station there is an enormous, flip character train schedule that rat-a-tat-TATs the day away. one muggy july afternoon, damn near a decade ago, i sat directly beneath the board as strike inspired delays bore the day away. after the second or third hour of frustration, i noticed a cute little girl peeking and smiling at me from around her mom's shoulder.

once she directed her attention my way, i did my best to maintain it by crossing my eyes, flipping a coin as high as the board and generally just goofing around. eventually, with nothing else to do, and with her parent's tacit, if unspoken, permission, i spent the next few hours ignoring the board entirely as i challenged the girl and her brother to "quarter basketball," gave them airplane rides and found any number of ways to keep us occupied. as the evening came to an end and the board finally announced my potential departure, the parents used the few english words they knew to tell me that they were croatian refugees who were fleeing the serbian campaigns of ethnic cleansing, which were apparently proceeding even throughout the american bombing. that chance encounter taught me how small the world really is and ended up being the most meaningful experience i had in two weeks of european travel.

right now i'm not stuck in a milanese train station, but i am adjusting to a demanding new job where the incessant rat-a-tat-TAT of the clock reminds me of grant deadlines, donor events, and quarterly revenue reports that are constantly drawing one second closer. i hope in the midst of the swirling excitement and fear i don't miss out on the relationships and chance encounters that will ultimately mean so much more than one more personal win or loss.

cha-ching!

and we thought she was only an attention whore.

musings congratulates debbie phelps and nbc for doing their best to make an epic athletic feat damn near unwatchable.

ht: npr's only a game.

sounds like someone* is having...

a case of the mondays.**


* if, by someone, you mean g13.
** if, by mondays, you mean having a finger up your ass, scoring a new script and being forced to forswear alcohol, caffeine and marital relations for two weeks.

hip-hip hypocrisy!

in a move designed to admonish china for their investment in the sudan and extend president bush's impotent assertions regarding human rights, the u.s. flag bearer at friday's lavish* opening ceremonies in bejing was lopez lomong, a former sudanese "lost boy" who is now an american citizen and 1,500 meter runner.

while happy for lomong's personal success and intrigued by his personal story, i cannot help but note the hypocrisy of the american team's "statement" regarding human rights. maybe i'm crazy, but i suspect that a symbolic action condemning america's embrace of torture, practice of secret rendition and passionate persecution of unjust wars would make a slightly stronger statement about the american** commitment to human rights. sometimes i wonder if there is any end to american hypocrisy.

current reports out of china suggest that in response to american insolence, china's flag bearer at the closing ceremony will don this symbolic dress.







* woo boy. no one throws a party like an asian authoritarian regime.
** f*ck yeah!