Keep the Candle Burning
Point of Grace
You think youre alone there in your silent storm
But Ive seen the tears youve cried falling down and trying to drown
The flame of hope inside
Let me tell you now, tell you now
(chorus)
When youre walking in the dead of night
And your soul is churning
When your hope seems out of sight
Keep the candle burning
All it takes is one steady heart in a world thats turning
Shine a light and pierce the dark
Keep the candle burning
Keep the candle burning
When youre down and youre discouraged
When the darkness clouds your view
Youve got to gather up your courage
You know the lord is gonna see you through
Let me tell you now
Tell you now
(repeat chorus)
One ray of light always breaks through
Follow wherever he takes you
Wherever he takes you
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
Let's say I break into your house...
(This came from an e-mail forward)
A lady wrote the best letter in the Editorials in ages!! It explains
things better than all the baloney you hear on TV. Can you relate?
Recently large demonstrations have taken place across the country
protesting the fact that Congress is finally addressing the issue of
illegal immigration. Certain people are angry that the US might protect
its own borders, might make it harder to sneak into this country and,
once here, to stay indefinitely. Let me see if I correctly understand
the thinking behind these protests.
Let's say I break into your house. Let's say that when you discover me
in your house, you insist that I leave. But I say, "I've made all the
beds and washed the dishes and did the laundry and swept the floors;
I've done all the things you don't like to do. I'm hard-working and
honest (except for when I broke into your house).
According to the protesters, not only must you let me stay, you must
add me to your family's insurance plan, educate my kids, and provide
other benefits to me and to my family (my husband will do your yard work
because he too is hard-working and honest, (except for that breaking in
part).
If you try to call the police or force me out, I will call my friends
who will picket your house carrying signs that proclaim my right to be
there.
It's only fair, after all, because you have a nicer house than I do, and
I'm just trying to better myself. I'm hard-working and honest, um,
except for well, you know.
And what a deal it is for me!! I live in your house, contributing only a
fraction of the cost of my keep, and there is nothing you can do about
it without being accused of selfishness, prejudice and being an
anti-housebreaker. Oh yeah, and I want you to learn my language so you
can communicate with me.
Why can't people see how ridiculous this is?! Only in America....if you
agree, pass it on (in English). Share it if you see the value of it as
a good smile. If not blow it off along with your future Social Security
funds.
A lady wrote the best letter in the Editorials in ages!! It explains
things better than all the baloney you hear on TV. Can you relate?
Recently large demonstrations have taken place across the country
protesting the fact that Congress is finally addressing the issue of
illegal immigration. Certain people are angry that the US might protect
its own borders, might make it harder to sneak into this country and,
once here, to stay indefinitely. Let me see if I correctly understand
the thinking behind these protests.
Let's say I break into your house. Let's say that when you discover me
in your house, you insist that I leave. But I say, "I've made all the
beds and washed the dishes and did the laundry and swept the floors;
I've done all the things you don't like to do. I'm hard-working and
honest (except for when I broke into your house).
According to the protesters, not only must you let me stay, you must
add me to your family's insurance plan, educate my kids, and provide
other benefits to me and to my family (my husband will do your yard work
because he too is hard-working and honest, (except for that breaking in
part).
If you try to call the police or force me out, I will call my friends
who will picket your house carrying signs that proclaim my right to be
there.
It's only fair, after all, because you have a nicer house than I do, and
I'm just trying to better myself. I'm hard-working and honest, um,
except for well, you know.
And what a deal it is for me!! I live in your house, contributing only a
fraction of the cost of my keep, and there is nothing you can do about
it without being accused of selfishness, prejudice and being an
anti-housebreaker. Oh yeah, and I want you to learn my language so you
can communicate with me.
Why can't people see how ridiculous this is?! Only in America....if you
agree, pass it on (in English). Share it if you see the value of it as
a good smile. If not blow it off along with your future Social Security
funds.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
QOTD
"I love Bob, but am I in love with him. I think what I'm in love with is the idea of getting married. I'm in love with the idea of not being single." -- Nurse Curly on Doogie Howser MD.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Five Years Later
"Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?"
As opined in his blog, so will I.
It was my Senior year at Truman State and I was living in Campbell Apartments up by the football field. I remember turning on the TV to see the first tower already on fire. My initial thought was, how did the pilot hit the building, there's no fog. Then as I was watching the second plane slammed into the other tower and I said to myself that someone is attacking the United States. Who that someone was I wasn't quite sure, but I knew at that point that the relative peace that my generation had been blessed with since the Berlin Wall fell was history.
At that point I went to Violette for my first class and found everyone glued to the various TVs that line the walls in that building. We did have class, but that was the only class for the day as the rest ended up canceled. It was right after my first class that I learned about the Pentagon being hit too. Even being in the middle of nowhere Missouri I was scared of what was to come. Subconsciously I must have been looking for shelter because the rest of the day I spent working in the Math and Computer Science Department Computer Support Office with my fellow student Eric Norige. The reason I say that I must have been looking for shelter is that this office is in the core of the building with brick walls on all sides and no windows.
It wasn't until I got back to my apartment that afternoon that I realized my parents had been trying to get in touch with me. Dad was worried because he had been on Southern Illinois University's campus during the Kent State riots and he remembered being caught up in a mob that torched the ROTC building while he was walking downtown Carbondale. Knowing that the National Guard had a depot across from my apartment didn't help ease his mind.
I also remember talking to my friend Jill who at the time worked for the exchange student office at Truman. She was telling me how scared the foreign students, especially of the Muslim faith, were that we (the American students) would take out our anger, fear and rage against them. Many were scrambling to find ways home as they did not feel safe in the country or they were worried about not being able to get back home.
Where are we now five years later? Well I for one still got tears in my eyes listening to the clips on the radio of the newscasts that day. It scares me that we seem to be more worried about politics now in this nation than the problems at hand. Terrorism hasn't gone away, if anything it's more prevalant today. We've got to stay on the offensive and keep them off guard. The politics of appeasement that occurred in the 1930s with the fascist regime of Nazi Germany unfortunately is returning. Iran and Syria are both known state sponsors of terrorism yet the world community would rather suggest that they change there ways than to actually enforce it. There is no united will at this point, I only hope that it doesn't take an act of terrorism of a scale tens or hundreds of times greater than the 9/11 attack to make the world realize that the terrorists won't just disappear. The style of attack used on 9/11 read almost completely out of Tom Clancy's novels Debt of Honor and Executive Orders. I hope that Sum of All Fears (read the book, toss the movie) never comes true.
As opined in his blog, so will I.
It was my Senior year at Truman State and I was living in Campbell Apartments up by the football field. I remember turning on the TV to see the first tower already on fire. My initial thought was, how did the pilot hit the building, there's no fog. Then as I was watching the second plane slammed into the other tower and I said to myself that someone is attacking the United States. Who that someone was I wasn't quite sure, but I knew at that point that the relative peace that my generation had been blessed with since the Berlin Wall fell was history.
At that point I went to Violette for my first class and found everyone glued to the various TVs that line the walls in that building. We did have class, but that was the only class for the day as the rest ended up canceled. It was right after my first class that I learned about the Pentagon being hit too. Even being in the middle of nowhere Missouri I was scared of what was to come. Subconsciously I must have been looking for shelter because the rest of the day I spent working in the Math and Computer Science Department Computer Support Office with my fellow student Eric Norige. The reason I say that I must have been looking for shelter is that this office is in the core of the building with brick walls on all sides and no windows.
It wasn't until I got back to my apartment that afternoon that I realized my parents had been trying to get in touch with me. Dad was worried because he had been on Southern Illinois University's campus during the Kent State riots and he remembered being caught up in a mob that torched the ROTC building while he was walking downtown Carbondale. Knowing that the National Guard had a depot across from my apartment didn't help ease his mind.
I also remember talking to my friend Jill who at the time worked for the exchange student office at Truman. She was telling me how scared the foreign students, especially of the Muslim faith, were that we (the American students) would take out our anger, fear and rage against them. Many were scrambling to find ways home as they did not feel safe in the country or they were worried about not being able to get back home.
Where are we now five years later? Well I for one still got tears in my eyes listening to the clips on the radio of the newscasts that day. It scares me that we seem to be more worried about politics now in this nation than the problems at hand. Terrorism hasn't gone away, if anything it's more prevalant today. We've got to stay on the offensive and keep them off guard. The politics of appeasement that occurred in the 1930s with the fascist regime of Nazi Germany unfortunately is returning. Iran and Syria are both known state sponsors of terrorism yet the world community would rather suggest that they change there ways than to actually enforce it. There is no united will at this point, I only hope that it doesn't take an act of terrorism of a scale tens or hundreds of times greater than the 9/11 attack to make the world realize that the terrorists won't just disappear. The style of attack used on 9/11 read almost completely out of Tom Clancy's novels Debt of Honor and Executive Orders. I hope that Sum of All Fears (read the book, toss the movie) never comes true.
Trust
I was sent this in a weekly reflection e-mail.
A Prayer
Trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient at being on the way to something new,
and yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability
and that it may take a very long time.
Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within us will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing that His hand is leading us,
and accepting the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.
Amen.
A Prayer
Trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient at being on the way to something new,
and yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability
and that it may take a very long time.
Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within us will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing that His hand is leading us,
and accepting the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.
Amen.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Lyrical Thought #27
The Last Fallen Hero
Charlie Daniels
Oh, the cowards came by morning and attacked without a warning
Leaving flames and death and chaos in our streets
In the middle of this fiery hell brave heroes fell
In the skies of Pennsylvania on a plane bound for destruction
With the devil and his angels at the wheel
They never reached their target on the ground
Brave heroes brought it down
Chorus:
This is a righteous cause so without doubt or pause
I will do what my country asks of me
Make any sacrifice
We'll pay whatever price
So the children of tomorrow can be free
Lead on red, white and blue
And we will follow you until we win the final victory
God help us do our best we will not slack or rest
Till the last fallen hero rests in peace
Now the winds of war are blowing and there's no way of knowing
Where this bloody path we're traveling will lead
We must follow till the end
Or face it all again
And make no mistake about it, write it, preach it, talk it, shout it
Across the mountains and the deserts and the seas
The blood of innocence and shame
Will not be shed in vain
Chorus
God help us do our best we will not slack nor rest
Till the last fallen hero rests in peace
Charlie Daniels
Oh, the cowards came by morning and attacked without a warning
Leaving flames and death and chaos in our streets
In the middle of this fiery hell brave heroes fell
In the skies of Pennsylvania on a plane bound for destruction
With the devil and his angels at the wheel
They never reached their target on the ground
Brave heroes brought it down
Chorus:
This is a righteous cause so without doubt or pause
I will do what my country asks of me
Make any sacrifice
We'll pay whatever price
So the children of tomorrow can be free
Lead on red, white and blue
And we will follow you until we win the final victory
God help us do our best we will not slack or rest
Till the last fallen hero rests in peace
Now the winds of war are blowing and there's no way of knowing
Where this bloody path we're traveling will lead
We must follow till the end
Or face it all again
And make no mistake about it, write it, preach it, talk it, shout it
Across the mountains and the deserts and the seas
The blood of innocence and shame
Will not be shed in vain
Chorus
God help us do our best we will not slack nor rest
Till the last fallen hero rests in peace
Friday, September 8, 2006
Jazz
It's been a long time since I got to listen to live Jazz. Recently I joined the Jazz band at LLCC, but I've been a bit overwhelmed by the talents of the other trumpet players. Because of this I called my friend that is a Jazz trumpeter and retired band director and asked to take some lessons. While talking to him he invited me to come hear his band.
Tonight I went and did just that. It was great to get to hear some great players playing the classics. It reminded me a lot of my college days when we'd go to the Jazz place in Kirksville. One of the dentists in town (aka Dr. Wisdom) bought this house and turned it into a place for Jazz performances. Usually it was him on a piano, Chris Ellman on drums and a mix of horn players from Truman.
Hopefully some day I'll be good enough to play in a group like Don's or Dr. Wisdom's.
Tonight I went and did just that. It was great to get to hear some great players playing the classics. It reminded me a lot of my college days when we'd go to the Jazz place in Kirksville. One of the dentists in town (aka Dr. Wisdom) bought this house and turned it into a place for Jazz performances. Usually it was him on a piano, Chris Ellman on drums and a mix of horn players from Truman.
Hopefully some day I'll be good enough to play in a group like Don's or Dr. Wisdom's.
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Facebook Draws Ire
QOTD
"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."
~Dr. Suess
~Dr. Suess
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