BSA + LGBT = ?

It's not the algebra problem from hell.... it's the topic of conversation on the radio as I began my day. My thoughts on this may surprise some of you.  Some will be disappointed...some angry...some excited...some supportive...some all of the above, but I was surprised to realize how much of an opinion I have about this and I felt that my thought train took a couple of turns I didn't see coming...

First, let me lay this out there...if you were unaware, I am a Christian, and as such, I do believe that the issue of sexual orientation is an intrinsically moral issue.  I also realize that I, personally, am guilty of a plethora of other things that are intrinsically moral issues.  Because of that, I put forth every possible effort to not cast judgement on others because I am no better than anyone on the face of the earth... and I mean that in a "neither Bin Laden, Hitler, Ted Bundy, nor Adam Lanza should be considered any worse a person than me" sort of sense.

I realize that my little boy will very likely grow up having friends and acquaintances, co-workers and family members who ascribe themselves to the LGBT community.  This strikes no fear in me.  I do not shudder in the depths of my soul because of it.  The same things are either true of me now, or have been in recent years. 

From a human rights/equal rights standpoint, I see the LGBT agenda (if I'm allowed to call it that) as legit.  No one should be treated with any less value than anyone else, for any reason, anywhere, at any time.  All people are made of the same stuff. We breathe the same air. We all seek significance. We all need love to live. I think it would be great for BSA to publicly ascribe themselves to all of the above. 

However...

At this point in time, I come down on the "nay" side of things for BSA changing their policies about openly gay members and leaders. 

"What!? Why!? What about all that you just said about equality and all that jazz!?"

In short, BSA has all those same rights.  Camping, pinewood derby, hiking, and knot-tying are not what makes Boy Scouts. In fact, no organization is made based on its actions.  Organizations are made based on the values that drive their actions.  

I will always have more respect for someone who is thoroughly convicted in their beliefs and disagrees with me wholeheartedly than someone who wavers and flip flops and happens to agree with me for the moment.  

If BSA wants to remain a respectable organization I believe they should stick to what they claim as core values, whether you or I or anyone else disagrees.  Surely we can all agree that they have the right to do so.  After all, isn't that what tolerance is all about? 

Driving for Adventure...

It's been a part of me as long as I can remember...

We recently had a bit of icy weather in my neck of the woods, and as soon as the first frozen precipitation hit the ground, my spider-senses started tingling...

This afternoon, I headed out to drop off some things at the post office and pick something up at the pharmacy for my wife. I accomplished those things and then found myself taking the long way home...

I stopped to take some pictures...

And then my wife called...

It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was a little perturbed with me... "I just don't understand why it is that every time we have some bad weather, you have to find a way to get out in the middle of all of it."

"Well, that depends on how you interpret 'bad weather.' I mean I think its actually quite beautiful out here with all the ice and everything..." Yeah, don't worry. That's not what I said...at least not out loud.

Entire forests have been leveled in order to make the paper for books that discuss the innate drive for adventure in men, but does my affinity for driving in snow and ice, torrential downpours, etc. qualify as a "drive for adventure" or is it better classified as "adventure driving," or maybe "two steps shy of volunteering for death?"

I'm not alone in this, am I? Is there anyone else out there who loves few things more, when the weather throws a curveball, than to jump in your choice mode of transportation and go check stuff out?

I do know this much... Herein, lies a great example of the double-edged sword... my adventurous spirit, willingness to try almost anything and inquisitive nature are some of the things that my wife loves most about me and some of the things that will undoubtedly open plenty of doors for me over the years, but those VERY SAME things are the exact junk that drives my wife crazy.  This, friends, is the wonder and amazement of love... as well as the appropriate time to head back to the house.

Pens, Tongues, and Guns

Nope, that's not the title of my new hard rock album, just a Cliff's Notes version of some thoughts I had lately. Consider the following:

The pen is mightier than the sword.
-Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.
-Sir Richard Steele

Shoot, if a picture is worth a thousand words, maybe cameras should be in this discussion, as well, but here's the path my mind train has followed since yesterday's post...

I found out about something yesterday that has possibly changed the world forever. A guy down in good ol' Texas, by the name of Cody Wilson, has launched something called the Wikiweapons Project. In short, anyone with a 3D printer can download a free file and make his/her own firearm components in the convenience of their own home. No serial numbers...completely untraceable...cheap...disposable...biodegradable. Here's where we jump off the cliff...

On one hand you look at that and say "cool!" But on the other it scares the crap out of me. At that moment I remember that we should look at things objectively before jumping to emotional conclusions, so...

What about Gutenberg? In his time, knowledge was power... more specifically, printed books separated the haves from the have nots.  Even crazier, the printed matter that mattered most was actually the Bible! The ones who had a Bible and knew how to read it were the most powerful people in many parts of the world, but then the printing press...and the power structure crumbled...

Then came the modern age of science and logical reason, ushered in by the very printing press that had destroyed the pre-modern age...more and more material became available to the common man. More and more men (and women...shudder the thought) were, therefore allowed to question the almighty scientist.  Eventually there were more questions out there than could be answered in a satisfactory amount of time and people became exhausted with the asking and power shifted again... knowledge in the post-modern world is based on each person's own life experience and what "works" for them, however that may be defined.  the lines are blurred and before long the only certain things are death and taxes (that statement alone is worth volumes of attention and thought).

What of words? If those two statements at the top are true then the most destructive thing any of us could ever possess is a tongue.  And if that's true, then all this conversation about "gun control" is a mute point.  Anyone who's read Lord of the Flies or, more modernly, the Hunger Games, knows that when it comes down to it, a large amount of weaponry can be made utterly useless in the absence of chatter that may or may not be based in truth. Deception is the most vile trap of all.

So here we are... if one of the only things people can agree on across the globe is that dead is dead and no one wants to be found in that condition (for the moment, just forget about the whole zombie apocalypse thing), has this guy in Texas brought us to the precipice of another revolution of thought for the developed world? Are we doomed to hit the reset button and return to a power system based on some derivative of even greater physical threat because small arms are no longer an advantage and the world has become so saturated with readily-available information that knowledge is now powerLESS? Are the haves and have nots soon to be separated only by large arms that are not and never have been available to the average person... but.... wait for it.... eventually will be because of the ever-increasing level of knowledge and cheap technology?

The questions that this one little "Ctrl-P" brings up are seemingly endless...

So is Cody Wilson a modern-day Gutenberg...leveling the playing field for all mankind and telling the "powerful people," "Sorry, you're gonna have to find something else to hold over our heads because everyone with a computer has an endless supply of weapons." Or is he nothing more than a cavalier fool, equipping the Libyan terrorists in the VW van so they can go after Doc Brown?

having cake and eating it too (or giving people a voice and telling them to shut up)

We've all heard it before... "If you want to make sure nothing happens, put a committee in charge."

I'm happy to report that this is not always true... but I regret telling you that I'm amazed at how much it is the case.  Even weirder, though, is that this isn't something that seems to have developed overnight,... or is it?

If I had a dime for every time I heard a discussion about how much the government can't do because of gridlock, I would be using this blog to bemoan my higher taxes. But has congress slowed down or has our expectation sped up?

Don't worry, I'm not jumping off into the abyss of political discussion.  This is just one of a gazillion examples... committees in your office, your leaders at your church,...deciding where your family will go eat on a Thursday night.  The speed of information has accelerated at an astounding and exponential rate.  The Mars rover tweets pictures from it's camera and the whole world can see them in a matter of minutes....

All of this illustrates the difference between information and wisdom.  Almost anyone anywhere can obtain endless amounts of information about anything any time.  Understanding what to do with it, however, takes time.  Occasionally, quick and swift decisions are in order and even required, but even those things are based on the vast wisdom that has been acquired over a long amount of time that gives you the ability to "make the call."

Many love to fantasize about firing all of congress and doing a line-change on Capitol Hill... but it seems like that could be equally disastrous because then you'd have a group of men and women who had zero experience and had to figure out how they worked as a group.  Shake up the committee in your office at a rate of 100% and you'll bring progress to a screeching halt, quite likely.

The truth is that we all love to have our voice heard, we just don't like the part about listening to others when its their turn.  Representation in any forum or format is valuable... it's not easy to maintain... and last time I checked, most in the world believe it's worth dying for.

Jillian, Sunny, Running, and Your Whole Life...

Today's post comes from a few assumptions:

1) Biggest Loser is the greatest show ever to hit TV (even better than Seinfeld and maybe one day I'll delve into why)

2) I run, therefore, I am

3) Jillian Michaels is my favorite trainer in the world.

Hang with me for a couple of minutes and I promise to show you something that amounts to way more than a TMZ article about what happened on that one show with that girl in that place...

I'm finally getting around to reading Born to Run. I love it. It rouses my soul in all the right ways... but one passage stood out to me today, especially after Jillian's talk with Sunny on last night's episode of Biggest Loser:

"Perhaps all our troubles--all the violence, obesity, illness, depression, and greed we can't overcome--began when we stopped living as Running People. Deny your nature, and it will erupt in some other, uglier way."  -Born to Run, Chapter 15

Sunny was struggling with living up to the expectations she believed her parents had for her to become a doctor.  Runners, more than any other athletes, it seems, struggle on a daily basis to deal with injuries or to avoid them altogether. Most of the people you know, athlete or not, live every day feeling like there's some kind of monkey on their back. A struggle with morality, the bossman, illness, destructive relationships, addictions, terrible self-image,...the list goes on, ad nauseum. 

Is this passage from my current read onto something? Compare it to the following:

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." - Apostle Paul, Philippians Chapter 4

To me, these two passages clearly echo one another.  What would the world be like if people didn't spend so much time focusing on what not to do, and instead spent their energy on doing what they should? What if the people you know quit talking about all the things you shouldn't do and began encouraging you to do what was good for you? What if you quit kicking the living crap out of yourself for all the mistakes in your past and began finding joy in all the positive things you could fill your day with? 

Is this ringing a bell in your heart? It does in mine. Make today the day you shift your momentum. Roll that big rock the other way. Quit saying "no" to all the crap and start saying "yes" to all the things that can fill your heart and soul with joy.

what your kids expect...

My son has no idea how profound his words are...

Back in October, I went to Africa for a mission trip and left home for 10 days.  It took a lot of work for me to convince myself that it was okay to leave my family for that long with my son not even two years  old yet (go ahead and cue the stories from people who think that statement makes my life posh beyond belief).  When we explained to him what I was doing, I was well aware of the fact that he had no ability to comprehend that Dada was going away for 10 days, but we explained why by telling him that I was going away for a while "to help people." He latched onto that and I'm happy to say that it has become a staple explanation for many things...

what is that ambulance doing? help people

what is that firetruck doing? help people

why is Dada getting a phone call and leaving the house at 10pm on a Tuesday? help people

This morning when I left, I gave my little big shot a hug and told him I was going to work.  He responded by saying "Dada go work... help people."

BOOM!

I realized that my son operates under the assumption that anytime I'm not with him it's because I'm doing something to help someone. That's heavy, Doc... I mean, on one hand, I couldn't be happier that he's gotten that impression of what his dad is about, but on the other hand, it kinda scares the running shoes off of me.  That's a lot to live up to... am I making good on that? Is my life truly focused on helping others? 

I know one thing... in terms of what I tell him and what I hope he will learn and live by, the litmus test for a good day is "Did I help someone today?"