This chick can read your mind

Ok, this’ll blow your mind. Go here to have this chick read your mind. It is amazing! She totally read my mind like five times. Ok, maybe it’s just a super clever trick; but it’s still rad.

Peace, hope and love.

don’t kick friendly toads

So, there are a plethora of really big toads around here. They generally hang out with our fat cat who doesn’t have many friends anyway so it kind of works out. Last night I was coming in through our front gate in the dark when I saw an object on the ground. It was slightly smaller than a softball and appeared to be one of the blossomed seeds from a nearby tree. I wasn’t really thinking what I was doing so I cocked my foot to give it a swift kick off the sidewalk. Luckily, it hopped away just in time. Yep, it was definitely one of those oversized toads. Needless to say, if I had kicked it we both would have felt really terrible.

I was telling Jess about it tonight and she said something that was a little funny on the surface while at the same time being kind of meaningful. She said, “the moral to this story is to look before you kick”. In light of the fact that, more than likely, most of the interpersonal turmoil in our lives is caused by misunderstandings, we should definitely remember that little antedote. Human tendancy is to instantly jump on the defensive when we feel like we’re being attacked. We kick things that we think are miscellaneous tree leavings and they’re really just friendly toads.

Let’s all try to remember that… and remember that those “misunderstandings” are also a chance for us to love.

1 Cor 13 4 – 7 Love is patient, love is kind… is not provoked… does not take into account a wrong suffered… bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Peace, hope and love.

The Government Option

I read a shirt the other day that said, “Government healthcare is healthcare with IRS compassion and Post Office efficiency”. Now, that’s pretty funny; but everything else I’ve been hearing and reading about Obamacare is anything but humorous. I’ve heard that it will inevitably lead to rationing (hence the dark humor in the cartoon above), lower quality of healthcare seems to also be an inevitable end, and it will arrive with a price tag soo astronimically enormous that it will force our already too high taxes through the roof.

I know a lot of Canadians are urging us not to go ahead with it. Apparently many of them have been simply jumping south across the boarder whenever a serious need arises… as opposed to waiting in line for a critical and time sensitive surgery or procedure. The Brits as well are urging us to hold on to what we’ve got (expensive though it may be) in light of the fact that they pay upwards of 78% income tax to cover their healthcare.

But, I’m curious what ya’ll think. Especially you Micah, seeing as you’ve only recently returned from our northern neighbors. If you’re against it and just don’t know what to do, go here and sign a petition (already over 1.1 million strong).

Peace, hope and love.

Capitalness is next to godliness… or something

My good friend posed a great question to me the other day in response to this post in which I said in passing that I believed capitalism to be the closest thing to a godly system. He said, “Why is capitalism the closest thing to a godly government? Wouldn’t a government in which all work together for the good of all be better? A land where there are no poor? Everybody piles together what they have so that everybody goes without need.”

I think the answer to that is charity. In a system where people are free to ply whatever trade they prefer to other people who need their particular expertise, in exchange for goods or services there is, at the end of the day, freedom for the individual to freely give.

For instance, I entertain people with my guitar and get paid for it. They get nice and folk-rocked and I get a pay check. I then have the freedom to, not only take care of my own family, but to help others who might have need. In a communist system the individual does not have that freedom. The individual has been subverted by the system.

In its unadulterated form, capitalism allows everyone to do just that, “work together for the good of all” to ensure that no one goes without. I would hope that everyone would agree that charity is a fundamental Christian principle. That utopian type concept of “everyone piling together what they had so that no one is in need” is the work of the church not the state.

Communism historically just makes everyone, with the exception of the governing body, poor; and, with everyone poor, the government is the only thing that can be free to be charitable. Historically and certainly practically, capitalism is the only system that allows for charity because the individual is given the choice to be free with their assets.

Matt 24:34-36
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Peace, hope and love.

Here’s a little something for ya

Here’s a show I’m doing up on the North Shore of Oahu in a town called Wahiawa. This venue, Higher Ground, is essentially a coffee house; but it has the raddest, state of the art sound/recording system on the Island. The guy that runs it also runs a music supply store a couple shops down so I’ll probably sound better than I have in a while. As well, Nick Andrade is a fresh new sound with a bit of an Island groove in his right hand that I’m sure you’ll dig. Anyway, if you live on the Island and are in the mood to be good and folk-rocked (which honestly, who isn’t), come on down… or up, or whatever.

Peace, hope and love.

And another thing

Here’s another thought I had. I had a dear lady friend of mine once moaning to me about her pitiful upbringing. How she had to play make believe with sticks and mud instead of all the nice synthetic wonders the other kids at school had. How she was thrown together a thrift-store-sales-rack wardrobe every year because she was the oldest of six and her family didn’t have much money. I remember her vowing to me that she would never submit her children to such humiliation.

So basically, she would rather her children not live than have them in second hand clothes.

I’ve done quite a bit of traveling throughout Central America and Asia. I seen quite a few 3rd world countries where the families work hard all day long just to keep food on the table. Just like Juan, a guy I knew in the Phillipines who lived with his entire family (wife, two daughters, two son-in-laws, five grandchildren) in a two room, cement block house, with palm tree thatch and a mud floor. They didn’t have nice stuff, their kids played with sticks and mud but they were happy. And they trusted God to provide for them… and He did.

Peace, hope and love.

overpopulation

I hear people talk about over population a lot… these people have obviously never been to Nebraska. In reality what we have is over-congragation; that is, people are just kind of migrating to certain parts of the world and stuffing themselves in wherever they can sort of fit… specifically Honolulu. So, to those who tell us to slow down on the populating, I recommend these two things. First, a driving trip across the USA, making sure you pass through Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana… well pretty much everywhere in between California and St. Louis.

Second, to consider this thought I was introduced to in a book called Born Fundamentalist, Born again Catholic, the author of which explained having kids as being “generous with God”. If people potentially provide the greatest amount of pleasure to God out of all His creation, then having kids is in essence being generous with Him. And, if that’s our mindset, then He’ll take care of the details (finances, yada-yada). Think about it.

Peace, hope and love.

the simple things

Well, it’s Thursday out here on the Island (and a lot of other places in the world…) and I’m feeling grateful. I’m grateful for quite a few things really; but today, I’m especially grateful for the simple things.

See, we are blessed to be where we are, with whom we are and doing what we are, whether we realize it or not. I’m not talking about the bigger things right now; although, Lord knows I am blessed to have my wife and kids with me on a tropical Island, where I play guitar for a living. No, I’m talking about the little things that can easily be taken for granted. Things like coffee with a friend… music, playing it or just listening… Things like the senses… those tricky things that so easily get thrown in the “Lord save me from them” category. I’m sitting at my computer with the sound of the wind slapping banana fronds against the window and the occasional bird chirping, the breeze from the rusted out fan oscilating on the other side of the room keeping me cooled down, the smell and taste of my third cup of the day lingering, watching these words play out across the page, and I know I am blessed.

So thank You Lord for coffee and for the stifling heat, thank You for the sound of my little girls growing up and for the blessing it is to watch them smile: thank You for everything, the big and the simple.

Peace, hope and love.

Sweet Sophia

Here’s a new song for ya’ll. It’s a lullaby of sorts for my youngest girl. The greatest thing about this video is the commentary from the drunk guy at the bar, “are you going to make a video out of this or something?”

Thanks to my good pal Nathan Bryant for shooting and sharing this show I played last month in Colorado Springs, Co. Blessings to you my friend.

Sweet Sophia
Well the clouds rolled in by 8 am like the eminent November
it’s hard to tell if I was pushed or fell, I was too young to remember
and all the things that I’ve come to believe are written on the stars and trees
and on the heart of a girl named Sophia
~~~~~~~~~~
lay your head down darling, close your eyes
rest in this love and dream sweet Sophia dream
~~~~~~~~~~
well the sky was dark and quiet like the calm before the storm
over this ancient highway running to the heart of where we’re going
when all the hope and beauty in the world is summed up in this girl
with the face of an angel, sweet Sophia
~~~~~~~~~~
You are here, this is where you are where the light is stronger than the dark.
And if you would open up your heart to the Giver of the divine spark, open up you heart sweet Sophia.

Peace, hope and love

Socialized

Lately I been kind of keeping tabs on what’s goin’ on in politics. I’ve been staggered by the enormous amount of money our government spends. The thing is, this is our money that they are spending… they are creating something way too big to pay for and are spending our money to feed the beast. Now, I’ve never been especially political. I vote and all; but I never get too involved in things outside of the voting process. Basically I help put ‘em in office (or not) and let them do what we hire them to do. But… as I said, lately I’ve been checkin’ things out. It’s simple common sense: if you make something so much bigger than you have money for you need to either make it smaller and managable, or you raise taxes. I was talking to a good friend of mine who makes some pretty good money. Now, he’s not abnormally rich by any means, he just makes a decent living. He did a little research and found out if all the new taxes proposed go through he’ll be paying out 78% of his income. Something’s happening here… something’s not right…

I got this picture off this guy’s blog called the red mantis. It’s not every day you google something (a picture of marx and lincoln) and get the exact thing you googled for. Anyway, my father-in-law Dave puts out a news letter every week called Things Worth Saving and I found this quote in this weeks addition.

“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.” ~Abraham Lincoln

Peace,hope and love.