60 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 3-14-18”

  5. oh, my, goodness, six, are you talking to yourself??
    I am so tired. No rain today so I got out my phone with the stopwatch and did my running on the sidewalks at school, the hilly sidewalks. I even added another minute of running. So I am up to ten minutes of running, off and on. Then I came home nd went out for a walk. I wanted to make five miles for the day on my fitbit. I think I overdid it.
    Tomorrow is the last day of the term. Prayers appreciated. I am so tired of this one child yelling at me. Ready for a break.

    Liked by 4 people

  7. okay, I’m dealing…
    Michelle, when was this photo taken?? Obviously after the fire, but to see so much green grass is amazing.

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  10. I like the green in the picture. It’s brown and white here. I miss green.

    Bible reading done. Nice to read the Word in a quiet house. That’s one benefit of insomnia.

    Time to launch into my day. I don’t think I’ll have time for a nap, anyway. Too much to do. I hope those four hours of sleep I did get will be enough.

    Back to my busy world. I’ll probably catch up with you all in April. After the 7th, things will slow down again.

    I’ll leave you for now with the music my duet partner and I will be playing April 7. It’s about 20 minutes long, and since I know classical music isn’t a favorite for some of you, I wouldn’t expect you to listen to this. But if you do want to know what that big work is that we’ve been practicing, here it is. (I play the high part.)

    Blessings,
    6

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Morning! Chas I believe fantasia is free form…all types of styles/forms in one piece? But what do I know…I should leave it to the professionals on this blog! 🎹
    I knew that photo had to be from Michelle up there…around the forest we would title that “beauty from ashes”….after the Black Forest fire, the forest floor revealed small sprigs of green…fresh green that would take your breath away. The following Spring, wildflowers were popping up all over. The stark contrast of the charred remains of the pines and the lushness of the green forest floor was stunning. New beginnings…there is a lesson in there somewhere….difficult journeys can indeed cause roots to grow deep….and bring life!

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  13. Nancy Jill is correct, Chas, a fantasia is a free form piece of classical music. Other classical forms have a set structure, such as: the Sonata, which is a 3 movement work for solo instrument with/without keyboard accompaniment; the Concerto, which is 3 movement work for solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment; or the Symphony, which is a 4 movement work for orchestra. Actually, the 1st movement of a Sonata, the 1st movement of a Concerto, and the 1st movement of a Symphony all have the same form (called Sonata form incidentally): Theme I, Bridge, Theme II, Development, and Recapitulation of Themes I & II.

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  14. Yesterday’s wreck on I-10 effected me in more ways than a 2 hour inconvenience. I immediately thought of the parents who would have to travel here into the unknown to take care of their children. My heart broke for them.
    I have a client who is a fireman/firemedic. He told me yesterday that he read the “call sheet”. First responders reported 37 “walking wounded”. They had expected worse than that. The accident happened at 6:15 or so in the morning. He said that was good because most people would have been asleep. That meant they didn’t brace for the accident and therefore fewer broken bones. They suspect something medical happened to the driver. I pray that is so and he didn’t fall asleep or is found negligent in some other way.
    A local church opened it’s doors to those released from the hospital and the families who came in. They had cots set up when the students arrived so they could try to get some sleep. Local restaurants brought in food, and the Red Cross showed up with therapy dogs.
    They are asking for gift cards to give to the families for food and gas. I do not attend that church and probably wouldn’t based on them being non-denominational, but I do respect and appreciate what they have done.
    Last night, watching the news, I got teary eyed when the second bus pulled into the school in Houston with a police escort and NO press allowed. Can you imagine how THOSE parents felt?

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  15. Today is Pi day. Last night, I mentioned the math savant Daniel Tammet, who uses his synesthesia to do incredible calculations automatically. He also set a record for quoting Pi to 22,514 decimal places.

    I also see that Stephen Hawking has died today. To have lived to 76 with ALS and accomplished so much should be an inspiration to those who receive that terrible diagnosis. It is sad that he could never see the beauty of the Creator of the universe that fascinated him.

    Liked by 4 people

  16. The above picture reminds me of my response to the climate change people. “Oh, the earth will survive. We may not, but the earth will, long after we are gone.”

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  18. Kim, I tried the “the earth will survive” response to one person who was talking about climate change. Her reply, agreeing that the earth would survive but that humans didn’t disserve to survive displayed such a contempt for her fellow humans and so chilled me that I have not tried that response again. Only in the rarified West can people talk casually and callously about the extinction of humanity as if it was a good thing that they can hardly wait for to happen. A few years of near starvation in a war zone would do such people good. Besides, I do not think the earth will survive the extinction of humanity. The Bible says the earth was made to be inhabited (Isaiah 45:18). Humans were made the stewards of Creation. Our sin has made us poor stewards (I strongly disagree with those Christians who justify mistreating the earth because it will eventually be destroyed by fire; because if we are bad stewards, we will be called to account for that to the Creator), but we are still needed. It is a fallacy that nature would tick on unhindered without our interference; it is a fallacy that the untouched wilderness is a prosperous paradise. Even the seemingly empty and fruitful places have been found to have been altered by humanity in some way. The prairies of North America were tended by the First Nations for the propagation of buffalo – the European settlers didn’t develop a wild grassland inhabited only by buffalo and other wild animals, they destroyed the careful farming of the First Nations. The jungles of the Amazon were farmed by the natives of the Amazon for centuries before logging companies turned their eyes towards its wooded wealth. The truly empty places are utter wastelands (Isaiah 13:13-22). The earth was made to be populated:

    For thus says the LORD,
    who created the heavens – he is God!
    !ho formed the earth and made it –
    he established it;
    he did not create it empty,
    he formed it to be inhabited! (Isaiah 45:18)

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  19. I took the photo yesterday, about five miles from my house. Here’s what I wrote on the prayer line by mistake:

    That’s a view up Lake Thomas Harris Road coming up to the Fountaingrove housing area. The fire swept down that hillside and then up this one and consumed lots of expensive houses. Anything that isn’t green in the photo burned, except the sky of course.

    Driving up this road, most of the lots–some on the golf course that did not burn–are for sale.
    I was struck by the contrast between the very green grass–it IS that green–and the blackened gnarled trees. I can’t post a photo like that on FB for fear of hurting people, but I thought you might find it interesting.

    Liked by 3 people

  21. We’re all covering what will be a 17-minute ‘walkout’ by high school students today (a show of solidarity with the Parkland teens who are protesting gun violence). All 11 papers are being mobilized around this for some reason, so we all have schools we need to go to this morning at 10 a.m. Something different to cover for a change, anyway. I covered LAUSD education in the 1980s and spent quite a bit of time on local campuses and doing stories about students, teacher and school board issues.

    At some point during those years teachers went on strike for 10 days, a story that culminated in putting in an all nighter at the district when negotiations finally wrapped up and there was a settlement announced probably around 3 a.m. That was before the internet, so then it was back to the office to write a story. Of course, more details and quotes came out in the hours following that (when I was sound asleep at home) so much of what I filed wound up getting rewritten anyway by another reporter who was updating it throughout the day for what was back then our late afternoon deadlines. The good old days, little did we know it then. 🙂

    But I digress. Today it’s the kids and the demonstrations are being strictly limited in time (or at least that’s the plan). I need to connect with the teacher in charge to get on campus, he told me yesterday he didn’t think it would be an issue for us to come inside but we’ll see.

    Meanwhile, dog park worker texted me last night, his shoulder was giving him a lot of grief so he’s probably going to the doctor today (good idea) — I’ll offer to pay since it happened on my property doing work for me, but I am also hoping he has good insurance. This also will leave me trying to line up someone else for some of the tail-end things I was trying to hustle through right now. Just glad he (apparently) wasn’t hurt any more seriously, that sounded like a pretty scary fall off the porch.

    Cowboy’s still in, safe and sound, after his afternoon jaunt through the neighborhood yesterday. And I’m trying to get all my income tax stuff together for Saturday.

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  22. Don’t get me started on schools….too late..
    This will be a nice break for the children. Son tells me they spend a great deal of their time at school, surfing the internet, chatting, listening to music they have downloaded from questionable sites. Get them outside for some fresh air will be nice. Oh, and a casual drop by the school will indicate that is the case, though many are also on their smartphones, not allowed in class of course.

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  23. A mass cell phone call-in to local lawmakers is part of the organized activities so it’s all good.

    I see on FB some parents are keeping kids home, in part due to what turned out to be a not-credible threat of gun violence yesterday at one of the local high schools and also objections that kids who don’t want to participate will be allowed to sit in class or the auditorium but may be stigmatized as a result. I was asking the teacher about that yesterday, what about kids who don’t maybe agree with the message or solutions being proposed? Seems like a lot of group-think, but then that’s what teens are good at (we were no different in our day).

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  24. Husband comments that most school shootings appear to have been done by disgruntled students. So it is not generally that somebody from outside is coming in and killing children and teachers, but students killing their peers. It has been going on since guns and schools were around but there has been a dramatic upturn. Why? What is going on in the minds of the students? Our theory is that perhaps, being taught that their lives are meaningless and it is a dog eat dog world, they are simply following it up with action.

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  25. Or are we are making such a big deal of it nationwide that they are attention seeking and not mature enough to see the ramifications of their actions? I really don’t need the heart wrenching details of a shooting in Wyoming. National new doesn’t need to sensationalize it.

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  26. I asked the teacher yesterday if there was attention also being given to student mental health issues, intervention, etc. He said yeah, that was also important … but my sense from what I’ve read is that the walkout is confined strictly to guns.

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  27. I see the story is all over CNN and other outlets. Talk about overkill. But I have my marching orders so I’m off …

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  29. It seems after a fire the grass grows greener. Around here some farmers burn their hay fields in the Spring so the hay grows thicker.

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  30. Lots of interesting topics. Mumsee’s comment above is most likely the main problem.
    And I will leave the music discussion to you experts. I didn’t understand most of the explanation.
    But:
    Michelle/Kum from the prayer thread.
    . I am watching “Outnumbered” on FoxNews now. It is a situation where a lone guy is accounted by four beautiful women in short skirts. I notice that it is almost universal that women talk with their hands. So? I think it’s mostly a female thing and I wouldn’t change if it were my style.
    And walking around while teaching is a good thing.
    At Southwestern seminary, they emphasized using the style that is comfortable for you.
    Some walk around, some stand behind a lectern. Each has a message..

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  31. My wife feels the same way about school shootings. If the students are taught that we are no better than animals, then there is nothing wrong with killing.

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  32. Not ‘accounted” above. “accosted is the word I wanted. I misspelled it and selected an alternative the processor suggested without looking.

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  33. Boy continues to astonish me. I say the item costs $2.67 and you give the clerk $5.00. How much do you get back using smallest number of coins? Before I can finish asking the question, he has figured, in his head, $2.33 and spouts out the answer. Then we begin the climb up from $2.67, which he managed quite well today, thank you, along with all of the other problems. Thanks for praying and telling your stories.

    Liked by 4 people

  34. DJ, IIRC, Homeowners insurance policies include an endorsement called “Incidental Workmen’s Comp” that would cover you guy’s injuries if he should decide to claim it as such.

    Liked by 1 person

  35. thanks Linda. It is worrisome especially if his injury might require any kind of surgery. Someone thought his insurance would come after me for that.

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  37. I am the same age as those caught in the first highly publicized mass school shooting in Columbine, which was heavily covered both by Canadian media, and by the homeschooling media – both ATI and Focus on the Family had their takes on the tragedy (guess what ATI blamed). Thus, I have come to maturity accompanied by the spectre of possible violent death occurring in educational institutions. I have taken part in lockdown drills and the thought crosses my mind when in crowded lecture halls of how best to seek safety should such a situation arise. In the end, I trust the Lord for safety in that, as in everything else.

    Sin is ultimately the cause of all evil that is committed. But I am not so sure that modern education can be so glibly blamed, or bad parenting, or media coverage, or any of the other whipping posts that conservatives like to drag out in such cases. I am currently reading C. S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man, in which he talks about modern education resulting in ‘men without chests’ and I find myself disagreeing with Lewis’ drift. I agree with Lewis that teaching people only to debunk things, rather than teaching them ideals, will only make people cynical. But I disagree that Lewis’ conservative ideals are necessarily the right ones. Ideals of patriotism, of time honoured tradition, of personal honour, of familial duty, etc. may all in the end be merely idols.

    God does not give his glory to another, not even to that great conservative ideal, the family – “He that follows me and does not hate his father and his mother cannot be my disciple.” When one looks at other conservative societies, such as traditional Hindu or Buddhist or Islamic societies, one sees that familial duty becomes a stumbling block to following Christ; personal honour becomes a justification for murder or suicide of the dishonoured; tradition becomes a prison of the past; and patriotism becomes a method of justifying the destruction of those different from you (I have been reading about how the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar were first denied citizenship and then killed or driven out by the Buddhists of Myanmar). Even in the past in Europe and the Americas, such conservative ideals showed the same ill fruit. The nationalistic pride of European colonizers often led them to wantonly destroy the natives and oppose missions to them; while personal honour led to duels being fought to avenge honour and dishonoured men doing the ‘decent thing’ by killing themselves. Do not assume that such ideals can save our society. Mass shootings are a symptom of a problem, a problem which is ultimately one of idolatry (Romans 1:18-32). Replacing liberal ideas with conservative ideals would only replace one idol with another.

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  38. Ultimately, the path of history is to bring glory to God, to shed light on Him alone. If we find our salvation as humans lies in anything outside of Him, on anything that we can grasp without having to acknowledge Him, then it is no salvation at all. The aim of what God does in the world is not to make us all form democratic countries, or to build strong nations, or to form large corporations, etc., but to build the Church of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed are the poor in spirit, Christ said, for they shall see the kingdom of God; blessed are they that morn, for they will be comforted; blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He will lift you up.” (James 4). If we could solve our own problems, if we could answer our own questions, we would never see the need to seek out our Creator. Only those who are humble enough to admit that not even our best ideals, not even our strongest efforts can save us from the consequences of sin will find peace in the One who is our peace.

    Do not discourage the youth who seek answers, for “he that seeks, shall find.”

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  40. I don’t believe a lot of them are seeking answers, they are repeating what they were told.

    I remember participating in a walk out once in high school. It was the thing to do. Pretty sure I have no idea why we walked out.

    After listening to sixteen year old tell me what he believes is the problem, I am fairly certain it comes from speaking to his peers and the teachers. No mention of the need for God though I know several of his teachers are believers.

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  41. Mumsee, if I had been asked what the cause of the Columbine shooting was in 1999, I would have replied what I had been told and what I was fully convinced of at the time, which was the demonic power of rock music had led to the tragedy. I discovered, years later, that the rumour that the shooters were fans of shock rock performer and self proclaimed Satanist Marylin Manson was in fact, completely false. That is why teen should be encouraged to demand the truth, whatever the cost, be it to the likes of the NRA or to the likes of ATI.

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  42. How likely is Johnny, marching off to school for the day, to be shot in a school shooting?
    How likely is Janey, being knit together in her mother’s womb, to be killed by an abortion?
    Why is a living child more valuable than a living child?

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  43. Mumsee @ 3:40
    When I was working part time for the USDept. of Agriculture while in seminary, they sent around instructions of what to do in case of nuclear attack.
    Report to the post office.

    Liked by 1 person

  45. Mumsee, one can be both concerned about Johnny being shot and Janey being aborted. Using Janey’s situation to stop discussion of Johnny’s situation is just the reverse technique of using Johnny’s situation to stop discussion of Janey’s situation. I have observed that while liberals do the latter, conservatives do the former. Both commit a logical fallacy, called whataboutery – as in the hypothetical exchange: “The poor people in our town need better housing.” “What about the starving people in Africa?” Such a fallacy does not disprove the original concern, it merely attempts to derail the discussion and exasperates the person who had raised the concern. There is a command in the New Testament to fathers not to exasperate their children, suggesting whataboutery would not be beneficial to use with a teen raising questions about school shootings.

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  46. In case there is any doubt, I actually care as much for the children outside the womb as inside the womb. My questions were merely curiosity as to why there is such a surge of anger for one and not for the other. Hmmm. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Not a lot of room for anger, and yes, I do know that anger is allowed. We see a lot about these school shootings, which are ugly and evil and all that. And we don’t see so much about the much more likely prospect and the legality of being deliberately killed in your mother’s womb. It is okay to care about one without taking away the care for the other. Yes, we should care about each death and what caused it. But it appears the chances of being killed in school are quite slim (like one in a million) as compared to being killed in the womb (like one in two and a half).

    Now that I am thinking about it, that walk out I participated in was probably pro life as it probably took place in ’74.

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  47. Speaking of guns in schools, there was a hilarious scene in the Andy Griffith show where the hapless deputy Barney Fife, while scolding Gomer Pile for handling his gun dangerously, accidentally shoots off his own gun, and this news story reminded me of it: http://www.businessinsider.com/teacher-fired-gun-in-classroom-accidentally-injured-students-2018-3

    A California teacher who also serves as a reserve police officer reportedly injured three students on Tuesday after he accidentally fired his weapon during a lesson on gun safety.
    Dennis Alexander was about to show the class how to disarm someone when he pointed his gun at the ceiling to make sure it wasn’t loaded, local NBC affiliate KSBW 8 reported.
    It was, in fact, loaded, and Alexander accidentally fired a shot into the ceiling. When the bullet fragments ricocheted, some of them flew into the neck of one 17-year-old student, his father told the TV station.

    “He’s shaken up, but he’s going to be okay,” Fermin Gonzalez said. “It’s the craziest thing … It could have been very bad.”

    Gonzalez said he only learned about the accident when his son came home with blood on his clothing and the bullet fragments still embedded in his neck.
    Alexander apologized for the incident, and both the Seaside High School and the Sand City Police Department quickly placed him on administrative leave. Police are investigating the matter.
    “I have concerns about why he was displaying a loaded firearm in a classroom. We will be looking into that,” Sand City police chief Brian Ferrante told KSBW.

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  51. Ok Folks. It has been a long one. Mentally exhausting. I have a huge problem on my hands but it really isn’t my problem…it’s the other broker’s problem because his seller and his agent didn’t disclose what they knew. Anyone with half a brain could look at the contract and the date of the HOA meeting and reach a conclusion.
    I shall pretend to be Scarlett O’Hara and I shall think about it tomorrow.
    I am not off to the bath to regroup and relax.

    Oh, and for the first time in a long time, I actually went to the grocery store this afternoon and cooked dinner for my husband. He is happy.

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  52. I’m behind on reading the comments, and not sure I’ll catch up tonight (only reading a few at a time between other things), but I want to add something to the discussion of school shootings. Quickly glancing at the comments I didn’t fully read yet, I don’t think anyone has said this yet.

    The truth is, there are not more school shootings these days, just that we hear more about the ones that do occur. Although, more recent shootings have had a higher death toll. But gun violence in general is actually way down from the ’90s.

    https://reason.com/blog/2018/02/14/yes-this-is-a-good-time-to-talk-about-gu

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  54. I’m beat. Worker had X-rays but says followup appt isn’t until tomorrow afternoon — my only guess is that they’ve read them and determined there’s nothing broken, torn or fractured (thus requiring immediate attention). But I don’t know.

    Another high-pressure period. I have most of what I need for taxes (which I need to deliver on Saturday). Had to move some more things around in the house and now that looks a bit worse again. Sigh. And looks like I’ll need to come up with a Plan B handyman plan around here while worker recovers. I’m so close to finishing, but not there yet.

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  55. Only four comments while I was off teaching all day and then went to the store? A slow day and now you’ve ll gone to sleep. See you in your morning. Term is over!!

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  56. An 84-year-old man in Northern Ireland complaining of frequent falls and weakness on the left side of his body discovered that it was due to a massive air pocket that had filled the bulk of a section of his brain.

    Sometimes I feel like there are several air pockets in my brain.

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  59. Morning ya’ll….everyone still in bed? I think we are having an issue with a coyote or two…territorial stuff happening on my property and Lulah is undone…she chased one off the property last night around 10 and I woke up this morning hearing them howling…seemed like they were right under my bedroom window…oy’!

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