Reverend Blue Jeans

Interesting Venture

I have just learned of an interesting, just-launched venture called Underdog Laboratories.  Underdog’s watch-words are innovation, sustainability and design.  Their mission is broad – to make things that are better.  To date, Underdog Labs has projects going that involve tapping the energy of molecular motion, making money circulation greener through reducing the use of coins, more effective offerings of micro-brewed beers, and reducing the transmission of disease through more effective hand hygiene.  Take a look at their website at www.underdoglabs.com – it’s a bit sparse but totally fascinating!

Happiness

Hello, Everyone!  Since my last posts we have had the annual Bishop's Committee retreat, Dixieland Sunday and a Sunday School overnight at church.  A really fun theme has emerged grounded in a truly unusual source: "Presidential Prayers" was the theme for the BC retreat, and we took particular notice of this conclusion to Andrew Jackson's second Inaugural Address: "Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that Almighty Being before whom I now stand, and who has kept us in His hands from the infancy of our Republic to the present day, that He will so overrule all my intentions and actions and inspire the hearts of my fellow-citizens that we may be preserved from dangers of all kinds and continue forever a united and happy people."  Happy?  what about a happy people?  "What is the cornerstone of our country?" I asked.  "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," was the ready response. 

We quickly discovered that happiness was referenced -- not only in other prayers, but in the Scriptural pages Bibles were open to as presidents have taken the oath of office.  (Several presidents chose Matthew 5, and in modern versions these Beatitudes are translated "Happy are the ..." which is especially interesting in light of the civic context of our discussions.)  Sure, there were plenty of connections to help in times of danger, to liberty and justice -- but what was this happiness thing that kept surprising us?  We began to think about the ways happiness is easily trivialized or ignored, and that the things that make us smile often seem too silly to share.  Songs began filling our minds, too -- particularly as we moved past "Happy Birthday" -- "Don't Worry, Be Happy," and "Happiness Runs" (check out Christine Lavin's version of this Donovan hit -- thanks, Bob!) were the top two hits.

Meanwhile, Lent has begun so I'm trying this instead of giving up soda, chocolate or video games: I'm installing the question, "What about Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" right in front of my nose (for me that means on the bathroom mirror).  I'm going to make it my query when we're making plans at church, and I'm going to ask it with respect to how I treat the folks in the world around me.

I'm also bookmarking happynews.com-- it's not a glitzy site but it yields tons of joyful perspective along with links to all sorts of gladsome stuff -- check it out!  Today it led me to a story I loved a while back on Extreme Makeover, Home Edition about Patrick Henry Hughes.  Patrick was born with no eyes, and with no ability to fully extend his arms or legs. Do you know about Patrick? You won't regret it if you take a few moments at the site for his new book http://iampotentialbook.com/ (where you can watch a synopsis of his story) or at his personal website, http://www.patrickhenryhughes.com/.

This Week's News

Many thanks to everyone who made Annual Meeting on Sunday such a great success!  Of course that includes, first of all, our friends from Congregation Betenu who brought our scrumptious luncheon.  Then there was Rob Landry's excellent job presenting the treasurer's report and the proposed budget -- thanks to everyone who has stepped up to support our continued ministry this year!  We look forward to new fund raising efforts, and are very grateful for the increased pledging!  Thanks also to Debby Granberg as she takes a break from the Bishop's Committee, to Pete Linkroum who is beginning another term as clerk, and to Jane Howard who is joining us as an "at large" member.  This year's convocation delegates are Rita MacAuslan, Steve August and Bob Hughes; Tricia Mellor and Ann Pike are the alternates.

Today I got my brand new truck!  It is another Ford Ranger, but it is a super cab, so I will no longer be jamming miscellaneous stuff behind the seats.  The color is dark shadow gray with a chrome grill.  Unless it is taken by next week, my plate will be +R2D2+.  I am very thankful for the help and advice of the salesman, and for the resources to make this purchase now -- just in time for another snow storm!

I'll sign off for this evening with a tribute to Tim Gibson since this week marks the fourth anniversary of his death in Iraq. 

Inauguration Day

The enthusiasm and joy with which America has welcomed the Obama family to the White House is palpable and it is contagious.  No one seems to mind, today, that we are being promised a long road to economic recovery, and no one seems to mind being called to serve.  Can the President sustain his energy?  Can we truly join him in the tasks at hand?  Will tomorrow really bring change, and the day after tomorrow justice and goodness?

What I know is that the words and symbols grip me: Maybe the quotation that stands out most for me is something like, "If we all wait for someone else to do something, nothing will get done."  What I realized is we don't have to do big things to change the world because a lot of little changes make big change.  I listened yesterday to a video in which many, many people pledged to make a difference -- their pledges included huge commitments and ordinary ones: "I pledge to take good care of my children.  I pledge to turn out my lights when I am not using them."

So after I listened to the Inauguration I decided to shovel a neighbor's driveway: not half an hour later the gas delivery truck arrived, parked in that cleared driveway and, because of the side of the truck that bears the hose reel, it turned out to be MY delivery.  What a simple pointer to the reality that helping someone else is helping myself.  When I got back inside, I returned a phone message from someone looking for help: because the family van did not pass inspection, a lady needed a ride to her cataract surgery -- I can do that, absolutely.

Mother Teresa said we don't have to go to India to make a difference -- we can love the people who need our love in our own homes, our own neighborhoods, our own places. 

Getting better ... being better ... making a better world -- it won't always seem as shiny and new as it feels today.  But it sure beats living our lives in our own little bubbles and exhausting ourselves trying to keep the bubbles from bursting.

Happy New Year!

Creating this blog site last year was exhilarating in spite of the many challenges of learning a new medium.  When I returned here a few days later, I could not remember what I had done, nor how I had done it -- so I gave up, in spite of having paid for the account for a full year.  Now I am bored with my most recent video game compulsions, it's cold and dark, and a new year -- so I hereby resolve to learn my way around my own blog site!  I've thought about changing its name since there's at least one other person on the web using "Reverend Blue Jeans," but it suits me.  Besides, I would make a federal case out of changing it and be derailed again from posting.

Time is both strangely elastic and oddly illusionary: certain moments are clothed in eternity, some speed away faster than frightened rabbits.  Some times cannot be cajoled into hurrying onward, and some past times seem both present and distant as the shining full moon.  Every New Year I remember the global excitement and anxious concerns as we turned our calendars from 1999 to 2000.  How can that already be nine years ago?  I do not know -- but I do know this: If you have come to share with me at this site, I want to thank you ... I want to make your time worthwhile ... and I certainly want to wish you a joyous New Year!

Getting Started

Welcome to my brand new baby Blog!  As a child of the sixties, nearly anything can occasion an identity crisis.  So it is no surprise that I sat here for quite a while with my head in my hands and my thumbs pressed over my eyes under my glasses, trying to think what to name this child.  Would it be formal, or not ... religious, or not ... serious, or not ... personal, or not ... Well?  Yes, of course.  Would I write news, views, reviews or to the people in the pews?  Yes, again.  My mental thumb paged through images and potential names from Star Wars, Harry Potter, hymns, the Bible, nicknames, aspirations, heroes ... Nothing clicked.  Could it have taken Curt Schilling this long to name his 38 Pitches?

Then my brain dropped its phonograph needle on an old 45 playing, "Reverend Blue Jeans."  What was that song, and who sang it, anyway?  Would the lyrics of the rest of the song mean I was calling my Blog by a name that bore unintended innuendos?  Search engines to the rescue!  Now there's a surprise -- it was Neil Diamond, always somewhere on the periphery of my awareness in the days when I preferred The Doors, Iron Butterfly, Cream, Simon and Garfunkel and the Beatles.  Only it wasn't "Reverend Blue Jeans."  It's "Forever in Blue Jeans."  The idea of a public voice that is heard, misheard, peripheral, remembered, revisited and demythologized added a bonus to the descriptor's fit.

So I took a looked at the rest of the lyrics: "Money talks, But it don't sing and dance, And it don't walk ... I'd much rather be, Forever in blue jeans."  So the name suits me: an Episcopal priest who far prefers blue jeans to panty hose ... a person who has always craved money to give it away to help someone else ... one who knows and trusts that the song and the dance live on, but Dad was right when he said you can't take the money and the other stuff with you.

Plus, I like what "Reverend Blue Jeans" says to you -- this is a place for you to be comfortable, relax, have a cup of tea, a coke or milk and a cookie.  The work here is more like mowing the lawn or painting a room than it is like conducting business or running for president.  The enjoyment here is more like tossing a baseball in the side yard than playing a a championship.  Thanks for visiting -- Come back when you can.  Like Charles Gibson, I hope you've had a good day, and I hope you have a good night.