Thoughts From the Abbey – February, 2014

The Arrival

This trip was different from the beginning. As I approached the Abbey I felt like a runner at the end of a long distance marathon. It took every last bit of strength I had to arrive and I felt like I practically stumbled across the finish line. Then I collapsed in the peace. It was only 11:15am and I was exhausted, worn out, hungry, tired. Did I mention I was tired? I slept for the hour before lunch, then returned to my room and slept until dinner. Then I returned to my room and slept until 5:00am when my alarm went off. I had decided that, although it was clear I was exhausted, I didn’t want to sleep through the entire weekend and I always enjoy my time worshipping with the monks. So I showered, worshipped, prayed, had breakfast, returned to my room, and this time, stayed awake.

I don’t think I’ve ever arrived at the Abbey feeling quite as broken as I feel this time. Coming here has always helped me to see just how much stress I’m living under as I do my best to live every day serving my Lord and standing up under my own sin and feeling the effects of the sin of others. But this time I’m truly spent. Having a moment to stop and think clearly has allowed me to see just how hard this past year has been physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Thoughts on Thomas Merton’s Thoughts

I read a book I found in my room called “Thoughts in Solitude” written by Thomas Merton. I’ll preface this by saying I have found Merton to be, in general, a bit too esoteric for my liking. But, I did find some thoughts I enjoyed which sparked some thoughts of my own which I thought I would share.

“This, then, is our desert: to live facing despair, but not to consent. To trample it down under hope in the Cross. To wage war against despair unceasingly. That war is our wilderness. If we wage it courageously, we will find Christ at our side. If we cannot face it, we will never find Him.”

This struck a chord with me because the total desperation and despair I see all around me both in my neighbors, and even my children, seems to envelope them and cause them to completely shut down. It’s as if they have “consented” to allow despair to overtake them and they exist day to day comfortably enveloped in despair but no longer living. It’s this very despair and surrender that I pray against and try to argue against. It’s this despair that I try to fight with words of encouragement and reinforcement when I see my friends or family succumbing to it. But it seems so pervasive through every aspect of life that it’s become a never-ending battle. But it is encouraging to be reminded that Christ is by my side fighting it for me if I will just remember to invite Him to the fight.

“Temperament does not predestine one man to sanctity and another to reprobation. All temperaments can serve as the material for ruin or for salvation. We must learn to see that our temperament is a gift of God, a talent with which we must trade until He comes. It does not matter how poor or how difficult a temperament we may be endowed with. If we make good use of what we have, if we make it serve our good desires, we can do better than another who merely serves his temperament instead of making it serve him.”

…

“A temperamentally angry man may be more inclined to anger than another. But as long as he remains sane he is still free not to be angry. His inclination to anger is simply a force in his character which can be turned to good or evil, according to his desires. If he desires what is evil, his temper will become a weapon of evil against other men and even against his own soul. If he desires what is good his temper can become the controlled instrument for fighting the evil that is in himself and helping other men to overcome the obstacles which they meet in the world. He remains free to desire either good or evil.”

I have struggled with bouts of anger all of my life. Most folks who know me find that hard to believe, but that’s only because I chose many years ago that I wanted to do good, not evil. I’ve always struggled trying to reconcile the anger in me with my desire to serve God. There’s a part of me that thought it would go away after I gave my life to Christ. And although it hasn’t gone away, it has certainly changed. It has become a strength that I can call on to overcome. A strength that helps me persevere when I might give up. It no longer controls me, but I control it. It aids me in being a better servant and has given me resolve when I have felt weak.

“What is the use of praying if at the very moment of prayer, we have so little confidence in God that we are busy planning our own kind of answer to our prayer?”

This question truly convicted me. I often struggle with my prayer life. I wonder if I pray enough, or about the “right” things. I find ways to couch my prayers with words like “your will be done” which, in my heart, often means “I don’t actually expect you to do anything, I’m just praying because I’m supposed to”. On the one hand, it seems ridiculous to me that I would doubt Christ’s direct involvement in my life since I can see clearly the many times and places and ways he has saved me from my own self destruction. On the other hand, I still harbor these doubts of whether I’m doing His will or my own.

“…we cannot have true compassion on others unless we are willing to accept pity and receive forgiveness for our own sins. We do not really know how to forgive until we know what it is to be forgiven.”

I can’t begin to put into words how powerful and important I think this is. We have all heard of (or seen) the person who claims to follow Christ but has no compassion for the downtrodden or the person lost in their own sin. I have always wondered if such a person has been willing to publicly acknowledge their own sin and be forgiven by the person they wronged. I suspect not. It’s a truly humbling and terrifying experience. I have seen people who get angry at their own sin and then become just as angry or more so at the sin of others. But this is not beneficial nor what we are commanded to do by our Lord (for those who claim to belong to Christ, that is). Instead, we must accept Christ’s forgiveness for our own sin but we must also ask for and, most importantly, accept forgiveness from the person (or persons) who were affected by that sin. For those who say some sins (particularly the ones they commit) can affect only the sinner, you’re wrong. Sin always affects those around us whether they know the cause or not. Then, and only then, will that person be able to truly forgive when they are wronged by the sin of others. And please keep in mind, nobody can sin against you, they can only sin against God. If someone steals your car, the fact that they stole YOUR car is irrelevant. The fact that they stole anything is a direct sin against God, the creator of the universe. His claim doesn’t just trump yours, it eliminates yours. But it would be right for that person to ask for your forgiveness because their sin affected you.

“What one of us, O Lord, can speak of poverty without shame? We who have taken vows of poverty in the monastery: are we really poor? Do we know what it is to love poverty?  Have we even stopped to think, for a moment, why poverty is to be loved? Yet you, O lord, came into the world to be poor among the poor, because it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. And we, with our vow, we are content with the fact that we legally possess nothing, and that for everything we have, we must ask someone else’s permission? Is this poverty? Can a man who has lost his job and who has no money with which to pay his bills, and who sees his wife and children getting thin, and who feels fear and anger eating out his heart – can he get the things he desperately needs merely by asking for them? Let him try. And yet we, who can have many things we don’t need and many more which are scandalous for us to have – we are poor, because we have them with permission! Poverty means need. To make a vow of poverty and never go without anything, never have to need something without getting it, is to try to mock the Living God.”

This isn’t really relevant to me as I have never taken a vow of poverty (although I have experienced it). But I thought it was extremely insightful to how the vow of poverty really works with monks in the church. After all, they are supported by the larger church and by whatever incomes they earn (this Abbey makes and sells fudge). Realistically, they would never be allowed to truly go without while under the care of the Catholic Church. So, is it truly poverty when it’s really just a matter of being supplied all your needs but not owning anything?

And of course, that makes me think about generational poverty that is supported by safety nets designed to ensure those who can’t support themselves are taken care of. They too have many things they don’t need and some things which are “scandalous” for them to have based on the “permission” of the government. And a person reliant on the government would be no more likely to go against that government than a monk would go against the Church. Somewhere in all of this is a perverted parallel, I think. The Church is funded by the voluntary gifts of those who give to the Lord. Whereas the government is funded by the involuntary taxation of everyone. But perhaps that’s a topic for another day. J

“Books that speak like God speak with too much authority to entertain us. Those that speak like good men hold us by their human charm; we grow by finding ourselves in them. They teach us to know ourselves better by recognizing ourselves in another. Books that speak like the noise of the multitudes reduce us to despair by the sheer weight of their emptiness. They entertain us like the lights of the city streets at night, by hopes they cannot fulfil.”

This really stood out to me because I find I can read until I collapse if it’s about politics or technology or even just some good fiction. But I find I tire too quickly of reading the word of God and I don’t reach for it as often as I want to. Instead I find myself enticed to more “interesting” reading than the Word of God. It’s a sad statement to be sure, but an honest one. Hopefully in confessing it I can ask for the Grace of God to change it.

About Mary

On Sunday morning I attended the morning teaching. I almost didn’t because the topic was listed as being about our inheritance and, to be honest, I wasn’t overly interested in the topic. That’s not to say that I’m not interested in the eternal life and communion with God I will receive when my work here is done. I guess really I was just a bit gun-shy about where the topic would lead. Anyway, the topic ended up being more about Mary instead. I have to say it was very interesting. I’m not saying that I necessarily accept everything that was said at face value (there were many extra biblical references and a couple of mystics involved in the teaching), but it was helpful to understand much of what I see in the Catholic tradition about her. One thing I really appreciated that the monk said was that they don’t worship Mary, they love her (that has been a concern of mine). And that, in their opinion, she wouldn’t accept worship anyway, but instead turn anyone toward Christ.

Another thing the monk said that I truly appreciated was that although there are many ancient texts available to read about Christ, the apostles, Mary, etc. (that is, extra biblical references) everything you need for salvation is in the canonized bible. What I appreciate about that statement is the acknowledgement that we can disagree about certain points of theology and still agree that we are brothers and sisters in Christ so long as we can agree that Christ was who he said he was, the Word made flesh, and that he came on purpose to take the punishment due each one of us for our sins against God, and that those who believe receive his Holy Spirit and are saved. Outside that, we can agree to disagree or simply wait to ask Him ourselves.

Speaking of Extra Biblical References…

Don’t get the idea that I think anything not in the Bible is wrong. In fact, in general, I’m a big fan of extra biblical references because they have typically backed up what can be found in the Bible. OK, I’m going to do it. I knew I couldn’t avoid it forever. Let’s talk about Bill Nye and the whole implication that you can’t trust anything that was “translated from some ancient language into American English” and therefore can’t trust the Bible.

Now, Mr. Nye is a fan of peer review and scientific process. So are scholars of old texts. In fact, there are a large number of ancient texts which refer directly to events in the book of Genesis. You know, that book that you have been led to believe is full of fairy tales? For instance, in Genesis 10 there is a description of the areas that the descendants of Noah began to settle. One of those areas was in northern Syria where we also find what are called the “Ebla Tablets”. These are a collection of “thousands of commercial, legal, literary, and epistolary texts that describe the cultural vitality and political power of a pre-patriarchal civilization in northern Syria.”(NIV Study Bible) The dating of these texts puts them about 2400 B.C. and would then be describing the culture of the descendants of Noah’s son Shem before the birth of Abraham (in 2166B.C.), which begins the era of the Patriarchs.

Then there is the Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur. A Sumerian poem dated at about 2050 B.C. which “mourns the destruction of the city of Ur at the hands of the Elamites” (NIV Study Bible). For those who didn’t check out Genesis 10, Elam is also one of the descendants of Noah who settled in Mesopotamia, which stretched kind of from Northern Syria to the Persian Gulf.

Are you bored yet? If so, you’re not alone. My brain turns to mush when I study history too. And that’s the point. The book of Genesis and the next 4 books that Moses wrote are history books, not fanciful entertainment for children. Is there some poetry in there? Absolutely. A little creative license on genealogies? Thankfully, very likely. In fact, it is believed by scholars that he intentionally left out an unknown number of generations when he wrote the genealogies. That’s not to say he didn’t have them, he just didn’t need to reproduce them here. Anyone who has read through the Pentateuch may beg to differ (because the genealogies are really long), but there you have it. This is why extra biblical sources are so important, they can help us confirm timelines. And more importantly, not only do they help us date events in the Bible, they confirm the events recorded in the Bible. Another thing to keep in mind. If you don’t think God Himself was involved in writing and preserving at least the Pentateuch, let alone the whole Bible, consider this: Moses somehow managed to write the history of the Universe (as it pertained to God and His chosen people) in the desert wilderness, up to the date of his death. Oh, and about the last 1000 years of it matches up with extra biblical records. As we discover other ancient texts, since archeologists continue looking for them, perhaps we’ll find more extra biblical material to corroborate dates, events, and people recorded in the history of the Bible texts.

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What Do You Have To Hide?

Since the 9/11 airline hijackings and subsequent deaths we have seen a significant change in people’s willingness to give up freedoms for security. We have been warned over and over again how dangerous and elusive this threat is. Two huge new agencies were created; The Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Agency. The TSA was “created to strengthen the security of the nation’s transportation systems and ensure the freedom of movement for people and commerce.” The DHS combined 22 pre-existing federal agencies under one umbrella with the mission “to secure the nation from the many threats we face.”

And so it began. We have sent military troops into Iraq and Afghanistan to fight “the war on terror”. Only one problem, this country is not actually “at war”. You see, to be at war requires Congress to officially declare war on a nation. Prior to the propaganda of “the war on drugs”, the word “war” had a real meaning in government. In fact, that is why the U.S. was technically never “at war” with North Korea. It was a “police action” involving the U.N. Therefore, it didn’t need the approval of Congress or a formal declaration of war.

But I digress. The point I wanted to make is that the U.S. Is not at war. The reason I make this point is that the government has been excusing many of it’s constitutional transgressions based on congressional war powers because we’re “at war” with “terrorists”. But “terrorists” are really just criminals. It is a crime to kill one person and it is a crime to kill 100 people. Why you kill is irrelevant. Murder is illegal and assault is illegal.

So, let’s focus on the controversy at hand. Why does it matter if the NSA or other government organization monitors my phone calls and e-mails? The first objection many folks will point out is that it’s impossible to have enough people listening to all of those conversations and reading all those e-mails. And, even if it were possible, who cares? Let them listen to me talk to my mom about the weather or my friends about what we are going to do Saturday night or connect me to my YouTube page where I show off my trip to the State Capital building. I’m not doing anything illegal and I have nothing to hide.

Here’s the trick. The monitoring is done en masse by automated software applications such as NarusInsight. There has been a great deal of work done on mass processing of data to search for “intent”. This means that computers listen to the phone calls and read the e-mails, not people. Now, off-hand, that might sound pretty good, and legal. After all, nobody is being “targeted” because all communications are processed. No individual people or government employees are actually listening in or reading the communications so it doesn’t seem to run afoul of privacy. After all, is your privacy really being invaded if it’s an automated computer program reading your e-mail and listening in on your conversations? Well, yes, it is.

Here’s a question you should be asking yourself. What, exactly, is the system looking for? Remember a computer program is only as smart as the programmer and only looks for what it’s told to look for. So, what does our government think a potential terrorist looks like? Well, the DHS has a document that lists 7 suspicious activities. I take issue with 4 of the 7:

1. Surveillance – “Someone recording or monitoring activities”. So, that’s pretty much everyone with a smart phone or recording their family vacation.
2. Elicitation – “People or organizations attempting to gain information about military operations, capabilities, or people”. So, that would be any conscientious objector to war because they tend to be the ones who most want to know what’s going on in order to have an idea of when it can end.
3. Acquiring Supplies – “Purchasing or stealing explosives, weapons, ammunition, etc.” So, purchasing weapons and ammunition is a sign of terrorism. Of course, the fact that we have a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to bear arms and a large number of recreational hunters wouldn’t be a problem.
4. Suspicious persons out of place – “People who don’t seem to belong in the workplace, neighborhood, business establishment, or anywhere else.” Yeah, that’s not vague. So, basically, if you’re a minority, you might not “seem” to belong in a certain neighborhood or business establishment. Because, of course, if someone doesn’t look like you, they might be a terrorist.

The problem that I am trying to point out is this. There is really no way to know in advance if someone is going to commit a crime unless they tell you. We have automated programs labeling individuals as “possible” terrorists and anyone suspected of terrorism can be treated as a military combatant. This means you can lose all of the basic protections that are the cornerstone of the American legal system. We still have many people held on terrorism charges who have not been tried after years of confinement. That’s not how this country’s legal system is supposed to work. If a terrorism “suspect” does not have legal protection and the above extremely vague indicators could mark you as a terrorism “suspect” then we have a defacto system that allows the abduction, confinement, or execution of nearly anyone for any reason.

So what do you have to hide? In a system that is beginning to lean guilty until proven innocent you may have more to hide than you think. If nothing else, if random, circumstantial evidence is available at the push of a button then we are increasing the chance of false positives in the system. That’s a much larger problem when you aren’t guaranteed a timely trial or other protections afforded by the constitution. It’s important for our country to re-focus on the fundamentals of small government, a small military for defense, and freedom above all. It’s important that we not have secret laws or secret interpretations of laws. It’s important that we remember that our government must follow the same laws that we are required to follow. That’s what government by the people and for the people is about. No amount of totalitarian monitoring and enforcement can keep us safe. Giving up our privacy and freedoms for the perception of safety is a poor choice. This is the home of the brave and the free. It is not the home of the scared and the enslaved.

48 Hours Off-Grid

Background

My wife and I have been interested in emergency preparedness for quite some time. She is a volunteer for the Medical Reserve Corps (although currently inactive) and I’m an Amateur Radio Operator (though I haven’t had a great deal of time to put toward emergency communications lately). We have always felt strongly that the Lord put us in this neighborhood to help our neighbors in times of need, and we have been able to do that in various ways over the years.

I wanted to paint that background in order to help others understand where we were coming from with this project. There are all sorts of folks interested in “prepping”, and they are interested in it for various reasons. It would be quick and easy for someone to misunderstand and think we’re some kind of “doomsday whackos”. We’re not. We have, however, had friends and co-workers go without water and/or electricity for up to two weeks because of storm winds. We’re also aware of the many other disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, which have caused severe, sustained, disruption to basic services and utilities.

Having been involved in some of the Red Cross and City of Cincinnati disaster planning, we know that the worst case plausible scenario for this area is an earthquake large enough to break the main gas pipeline and damage multiple electric grids during the winter time. This would leave folks across the Midwest with no power, no gas, and conceivably no water when the temperature outside is below freezing.

We are still beginners and learning so we certainly aren’t up to being prepared for that kind of disaster. However, for this scenario we presumed a few things. First, that we have already been “off-grid” for about a week and have therefore exhausted all of our fridge and freezer food and emptied the water out of our house pipes. We also presumed that all gas, water, and electric service was disabled. We also assumed that we would be attempting to continue on with life as normal as possible and that we would be needing to help feed others in our neighborhood, as we live in a densely populated neighborhood with a high poverty rate.

Supplies

Let’s talk about some of the supplies we had in advance that helped us complete this test. First, we have a 55 gallon rain barrel full of water with a spigot near the bottom. We don’t have a water filtration system yet so this water could not be used for drinking but could be used for washing (hands, bodies, laundry, etc) as well as for flushing toilets.

Second, we had 30 gallons of drinking water in 5 gallon containers. This was used for drinking, cooking, washing dishes, and in some cases washing hands or anything that interacted with our food.

Third, we had a wide variety of canned and dried foods. We own a dehydrator, so my wife has dehydrated a wide variety of food products for long term storage at room temperature. She has also canned a good amount of our meat so that it too can be stored at room temperature for extended periods of time (years). Remember, we are running on the assumption that everything in the freezer will have thawed and gone bad.

Fourth, we built a Zeer pot. This is a refrigeration method which works best in drier climates than ours but did the job adequately in mild temperatures with a higher humidity. This allowed us to keep some of our fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs, and powdered milk cool and preserved.

Fifth, we built a cardboard oven which uses charcoal as it’s heat source. This allowed us to bake brownies, although it’s clear I need more practice with the use of such a device. Keeping the temperature controlled and the heat evenly distributed proved to be far more difficult than I had anticipated.

Finally, we have a variety of oil lamps, flashlights, and batteries for light at night. It’s a little less important during the summer time when the days are longer but during winter, spring, and fall you can lose light pretty quickly and you want to be able to continue your work even in the early evenings.

In Practice

Some obvious “practical” problems arise very quickly. Let me start with body waste. We are all accustomed to pressing the magic button that takes our excrement away. Thankfully, it’s actually a very simple physical mechanism that, barring significant backups, will continue to work even with everything shut down. It does need a little help though. A gallon ice cream bucket, half to three quarters filled will, when dumped directly into the toilet, flush the toilet for you. For obvious conservation reasons, we only did this when necessary.

Health and hygiene is something that many people think need to go to the wayside in an emergency. We would argue that keeping up your health and hygiene in an emergency situation is even more important because there is less room for error. We kept fresh drinking water in the bathroom in a pail to be used with soap to wash after using the facilities. We felt that 2-3 uses was good before replacing the water, but this is really up to individual preference. Sponge baths were accomplished effectively the same way with a larger pail.

Some folks tend to go into emergency eating mode and try to live off granola bars and fruit roll-ups. We took a different attitude toward this utilizing my wife’s varied pantry. We had spaghetti with meat sauce, bannock, oatmeal, fried Palenta, eggs, and fruit. In fact, we even had brownies for desert thanks to the oven we built. Emergency situations are stressful enough. It’s a bad idea to suddenly and drastically change your diet at the same time. Keeping as many things as “normal” as possible can help with the emotional and physical stability of everyone while getting through the emergency.

Final Thoughts

I think one of the most stunning things to me was the lack of distraction with no electronics. I sometimes forget just how large a part of our lives is devoted to the use of electronics whether it’s looking up information online or calling/texting a friend. Even entertainment tends to come from a TV or streaming video online. It was really nice to sit on my front porch and read a paper book and listen to my wife sing. It’s these simple pleasures that I think we forget about and lose with all our electronic distractions.

So, the end result? We did fine for 48 hours and, if needed, could have easily finished up the week. We would like to improve the use of our space though. Our basement and back patio could be put to better uses. Our basement for food storage and our back patio as a secondary outside kitchen. We would also like to get a shed to store fuel and other items. Having a couple more rain barrels and all of them connected to our downspouts would also be ideal. But for now, we have a good start and we’ve learned that we have the basic supplies and tools we need. Now we can improve on that and be more confident in our ability to provide for ourselves and our neighbors in an emergency.

You can watch the video my wife made as part of the contest that got this going in the first place here.

Death, Guns, and Perspective

I have been hearing a great deal of talk about gun control, gun violence, and gun rights lately. It got me wondering what some of the real statistics were and how it fit in with the rest of life. I found a copy of the October 2012 edition of the National Vital Statistics Reports entitled “Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2011”. It gives a useful breakdown of how people die in the U.S. Here are some take-outs from the information:

The population midway through 2011 was about 311,000,000. In 2011 there were 3,953,593 births and 2,512,873 deaths. So, about 0.8% of the population died and about 1.3% of the population was born. Of the 2.5 million deaths, the top 5 categories of causes were as follows:

1. Diseases of the heart – 596,339 (24%)
2. Malignant Neoplasms (tumors) – 575,313 (23%)
3. Chronic lower respiratory diseases – 143,382 (6%)
4. Cerebrovascular diseases (strokes) – 128,931 (5%)
5. Accidents – 122,777 (5%)

Seeing accidents so high got me wondering how many people die of gun accidents. You hear from time to time of these things happening on the news and a close friend of mine lost a family member due to a gun accident.  So, here are some take-outs from the accidental death category (not complete):

1. Motor vehicle accidents – 34,677
2. Falls (as in falling to your death or an elderly person falling and not being able to get back up, etc) – 26,631
3. Firearms – 851

So, it appears you are significantly (31X) more likely to accidentally fall to your death than accidentally get killed with a firearm. Another concern some folks have is that a firearm can be used to kill yourself. Here are some statistics about that:

1. Total number of suicides – 38,285
2. Use of a firearm – 19,766 (52%)
3. All other uses – 18,519 (48%)

So, there is certainly some credence to the fact that firearms are a preferred tool for suicide. However, I think that the fact that about half the people who commit suicide find another means also makes the point that if someone is going to do it, they will find a way. A gun may be convenient, but it isn’t necessary.

Then there is the question of gun violence and people being killed with a firearm. Here are the stats:

1. Total homicides – 15,953
2. Homicides by firearms – 11,101 (70%)
3. All other homicides – 4,852 (30%)

So, if someone is going to kill me, they will probably do it with a gun. Since it’s not possible to keep guns out of the hands of someone who wants to kill me, it seems like my best defense is to have a weapon of similar capabilities. Quite frankly, a knife, a stick, or even a 911 call will not reduce my odds of being shot at. However, a weapon to shoot back with may reduce my chances of being murdered.

So here is my biased interpretation of the data. There are an insignificantly small number of accidental deaths from firearms compared to all of the many other accidental deaths. Although a firearm is used in a significant number of suicides, I doubt that a lack of firearms would reduce the number of suicides. Finally, if my life is truly in danger from another person, it’s going to be because they have a gun. Unlike in the movies, the bad guy with the gun always wins when he has a gun and you don’t.

I think, in short, that the concern about average folks carrying a gun are overblown. We’ve already seen that a person intent on killing many people will find a way, even if it’s with improvised explosives in a pressure cooker. We can’t make the general populace safe by disarming the law abiding citizens. Quite frankly, we can’t make the general populace safe period. The world isn’t a safe place. We all take some level of a sense of security from different things. Some folks might have expensive security systems on their home or vehicle. Some hire body guards. Others build shelters, and still others lobby for larger police forces with cameras on every street corner and UAVs in the sky.

As for me, my sense of security come from the Lord. But I’m not opposed to a Glock in my pocket.

Racism

I was in a bible study with men and boys one night when an unusual event took place that got me thinking very heavily about racism. A black cat crept up behind two of the boys and one of then was suddenly startled by seeing it in the corner of his eye. Of course, watching a young boy being surprised by a cat is funny and we all laughed and various friendly jokes were made about the cat being a lion and how it was going to eat him and all of that kind of good-natured fun. Then, the youngest of the boys (my son) said something that was unusual. He said “He’s going to eat you because you’re black.”

Now, this is certainly an odd thing to say. Although, coming from my son, it really didn’t surprise me much at all. This is because he’s known to say completely nonsensical things when he wants to be part of a conversation but doesn’t have the right words to do so. But these two boys didn’t know each other at all and the other boy responded with “That’s racist!”. He didn’t really seem offended, just surprised, and my son didn’t really know what he meant but knew he had said something wrong so he did what I’ve taught him to do. He said nothing, and the conversation moved on.

Maybe I should have dealt with it right then and there but I didn’t feel there was an immediate urgency or conflict between the boys and it’s such a big hard topic that I wasn’t sure I could handle the layers properly right then and there. These two boys had stumbled across a larger problem that I have only been somewhat aware of. I would like to break down what I think happened here, show where I see it repeated throughout our society, and voice some concerns about where it could go.

First, I think it’s safe to say that if my son had said “He’s going to eat you because you’re wearing yellow shoes.” it would have been laughed off or ignored because everyone would have realized that it was a nonsensical statement. So really, the issue here was that he said “you’re black”. When it boils down to it, that was the “racist” statement. Now, I don’t see that as being a racist statement, but this young boy did. Having raised a couple of children who use words incorrectly semi-frequently, I’m fairly certain I know what the problem here is. The problem is that he and I don’t have the same definition of “racist”.

My definition of racism, if one were to ask me, is hating another person because of their race or skin color. According to Dictionary.com, racism is:

1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.

3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.

So, apparently my definition is at least one of the recognized definitions and I certainly recognize the other two points as being a more complete answer. And yet, by that definition, I still don’t see my son’s comment as being racist, but the other young boy did. Why? My suspicion is that he has a slightly different definition of racist.

So the question is, what is that definition. If I look at the part of the phrase that obviously was offensive I see something interesting. My son said “You’re black”. Now, as a stand-alone statement this is true, and very obvious to any young boy. He could just as easily told the other boy “You’re tall” or “You’re bigger than me” and it would have been just as true and not offensive to the other boy at all. But for some reason, pointing out his skin color was offensive enough to reply with “That’s racist”. From this interaction I would think it’s safe to say that this boy’s definition of racist is something to the effect of “Anyone who isn’t black, pointing out that I am.”

That conclusion hurts my heart because I feel like it must come from a shame about his own skin color that ought not to be there. But I see echoes of this on a larger scale. For instance, it would not go over well in some circles for me to say that my neighborhood has as many black as whites and a growing number of Hispanics. I could, however, say that live in a “diverse” neighborhood. In my neighborhood I hear many African-Americans calling each other disparaging names in a friendly manner that would not be tolerated for me to say. It’s almost like we all are supposed to pretend there are no physical differences, or cultural differences, and call that politically correct and race equality. Meanwhile, by making these obvious topics off-limits between the races I think we unintentionally engender a shame or taboo of diversity.

So, what should I tell my young son, who is not old enough or mentally strong enough yet to understand the complexities and intricacies of “race relations”? Should I just tell him “Son, when you talk to someone who’s skin color is black, don’t mention the color of their skin.”? That would be like saying, “When you talk to someone who has red hair, don’t mention the color of their hair.” It is a ludicrous statement in any other context. And of course, as young children do, he’s going to ask “Why?” How do I answer that? I guess the simplest and most honest answer I can provide is “It might hurt their feelings.”

Racist is an ugly word. The people who are correctly described by that word are ugly in spirit and I do not associate with them. We must be careful though, not to misuse this ugly word or it will lose its potency and we might forget how awful its real meaning is. But I also worry that in creating all of these politically correct words and ceremonies to get around mentioning skin color or ethnicity we are, in fact, fostering a hostility in those groups by making the mention of their physical properties “taboo”, as if it were something to be ashamed of. That right there, it seems to me, could cause true racism against whoever is seen as having implemented such a taboo on something as unalterable (and irrelevant) as skin color. So the unanswerable question I am left with is, “Could society as a whole be unintentionally increasing the likelihood of racism in the name of “tolerance?”

Thoughts from the Abbey 2012

Settling In

I arrived as I always do. My head was full of the business of life, my body was tense, and everything was normal. I was asleep within an hour, having unpacked and settled in with prayer. After waking up long enough to have dinner, I went to the welcome session for new folks (which I always do).

After some study time I fell asleep and woke on my own about a quarter to 6. This year I am in the South Wing where the monks used to live. There aren’t as many monks as there used to be so this wing is used as overflow for male guests. The wing is set up dormitory-style with 8 rooms to the shared showers and restroom. I managed to get up, take my shower, and begin some early study before breakfast when I heard the rooster crow. For some reason it reminded me that long ago and far away, I woke up early without an alarm clock.

Hospitality

I only mentioned the welcome session because it got me thinking about the whole concept of an abbey. A place to choose to live apart from the rest of the world. It felt to me a little like having your best players on a team bench themselves. Of course, one shouldn’t dismiss the power of prayer and they certainly pray a great deal about current issues around the world. But it seemed wrong somehow to have people who are devoted to God choose to recuse themselves from the world. We need as many workers in the field as we can get.

Then I thought about the hospitality ministry they have. It really is a God-send for me and no doubt the many others who come. It made me wonder about why there aren’t more places like this. Maybe not so large as to have a thousand acres to walk around on, but at least a place to have quiet and be surrounded by other believers. Of course, the main thing that strikes me is that it would take a great deal of money to run something like this at no charge. I am truly grateful that this place exists.

Excitement at the Abbey

Breakfast was exciting (for a silent monastery). The first interesting event was my noticing a man at the next table praying very fervently (though silently). I thought this was very deep and spiritual but wondered if his food was going to get cold. Then I noticed he was a rather fidgety prayer, his fingers kept moving. Upon further, (but discrete) inspection, I discovered he was not praying, but texting. When I realized this I wondered if it might be disruptive to the person across the small table from him. My concerns were quickly alleviated when I realized she was also texting. Now, for those of you who have been to the Abbey before you may be screaming “Blasphemy!” For those of you who haven’t you may be thinking “So what?” You’re probably both right, it’s a bit of both. But I figure it’s no different than the occasional written note Tom and I have passed to each other under our doors. Really, I was more impressed they had a signal.

The excitement didn’t end there though. Just as I was leaving I heard that all too familiar sound of breaking glass. I turned around there was a fellow who looked rather “shocked and somewhat embarrassed” (for you Veggie Tales fans) looking down at a shattered juice glass. His hands were full of his own tray and he certainly didn’t look like he knew what he should do. (How do you ask for help when talking isn’t permitted?) I resumed leaving… for about two steps. I’ve always had this battle in me about being helpful and being in the way. I have a tendency to think that others are far more capable of handling any given situation than I am so I leave so as to not get in the way. But it didn’t take me long to realize that in this situation, my help would be appreciated. So, I turned around and started collecting the glass shards. For those of you who don’t know, over the years I have cleaned up glass fragments by hand many times and have quite a knack for doing it without cutting myself. Being rather clumsy myself, I’ve broken many glasses over the years. I was about done when the kitchen worker showed up with a broom to get the rest. Unfortunately for her, she apparently doesn’t have my practice with broken glass and she managed to cut herself on a piece. But, it all got cleaned up and I went back to my room to study.

Thoughts on Adoption

Aleah and C.J. Brought up the question of us adopting again recently. Really it was more Aleah who brought it up. Heather and I talked about it for a bit and like last time, I was far more reluctant to the idea than she was. That is not to say I don’t want to adopt or am unhappy that we did. To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve known what my hesitation is. I think I’ve put the pieces together though. I have been struggling with the amount of friction and frustration between family members I’ve seen over the past year. More recently, we’ve been able to work out some of the sources and things have begun to improve. There is always going to be friction though, and of course the old saying says to pick your battles. I think part of my confusion has been “What battles should I pick?”

Heather said something recently that really stuck with me. She reminded me that our goal in adopting was always to save children for Christ. That their spiritual foundation was really the primary focus. That’s not to say we aren’t trying to get them ready for the basic life skills to take care of themselves. But at the same time, we know that God can and will provide for His children. Our job is to plant those seeds of Truth in their ears so the Holy Spirit can do His work in them. I feel like we have been faithful in that regard.

So then, if we are to adopt more children then it begs the many questions of when, and how many more, and how many can we take at a time and not lose our sanity or the battle for their souls? I think this is the part that has been overwhelming me a bit. It’s only beginning to dawn on me that I’m not giving God enough credit for being able to heal our hearts as well as those of our children. I think I need to believe more strongly that He is more capable than we are obedient. Meaning he can bring more children to Him through us than we have faith to trust Him to do it. Therefore, we will only bring as many children to Him as our faith allows, not as many as His ability allows.

So then the real issue is our amount of faith. This is an interesting conclusion for me to come to because of something Heather has been saying recently. She mentioned an old testament passage about a fellow named Gideon who asked God to do something to prove to Gideon that He would make Gideon successful in battle. Heather suggested we do something similar. She has done so in the past and God was faithful and did all of the miraculous things she asked. I’ve been struggling with doing something similar for adopting children but I couldn’t figure out what my problem with it was. I think I may have a better idea now that I have studied that part of scripture and looked at my own situation. Gideon put that request in for proof after God had already very clearly spoken to him and given him direction on what to do. Gideon’s faith was weak, so he asked for proof not once, but twice in a row. He even says to God “Don’t be angry”.

So here I am presented with a similar situation. I know God called Heather and I to adopt children in order to bring them to Christ. We currently have two children who, despite their broken and angry backgrounds, have a sincere thirst to serve God. Both have been baptized and both try sincerely to live their lives in a way pleasing to God (the best they know how, just like the rest of us). So, with a clear call to adopt and clear success that could only have come from God (all of their therapists and case workers have been amazed at their improvement), why do I still have so little faith in God to use me successfully? I think some times I feel that I am too broken for even God to use.

What is “Biblical”?

One of the common themes throughout the book “How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth” is to be careful to understand the original context and intent of a passage (exegesis) before trying to put the passage into practical use in our lives today (hermeneutics). One of the examples was showing the pericope (per ik o pay) or story of Zacchaeus as an example of a rich man entering the kingdom of Heaven and at the same time that the pericope of “the rich man” did not mean that giving away all possessions was necessary to be saved. However, in reading about Zacchaeus, I noticed that he chose to pay back 4 times anything he had cheated someone out of as well as give half of his possessions to the poor. This was a response to Christ’s request to stay at his house that day. This story stuck out in my mind because recently I had heard that paying back four times what you stole from someone was “biblical”. Now, I’m not saying it’s a bad consequence at all. It was the justification of “it’s biblical” that had caught my attention. When I heard those words it made me think that somewhere there was a directive in the old or new testament that talked about repaying 4 times what you steal from someone. I have been reading through Exodus recently and had read about some of the old testament laws regarding theft and murder but didn’t remember seeing that one. All that to say that the true context of the pericope had nothing to do with teaching about punishment for thieves or cheaters. It’s important for us to be careful not to turn a single example into doctrine or law when it was clearly not intended as such.

God’s Glory and Miracles

I’ve felt a stronger struggle on this visit than others. A struggle between wanting to feel in control of my life and feel like I know what is best for me and my family vs truly surrendering to God’s will. See, the problem with surrendering to God’s will is He has a tendency of performing miracles. That is, he brings you success when all evidence and common sense say it’s impossible. So, I can choose to wait to do God’s will until I feel and see that it is possible or, I can choose to walk in faith that I really do know God’s will and he’ll make it succeed because it’s His plan and then He gets all the glory for the success. If I can point out all of my good planning and preparation then the glory belongs to me, not God. But I’m not on this Earth to bring myself glory, I’m here to bring God glory by letting Him do miracles through me.

My children are evidence of God’s glory. There is nothing I can point to and say “Yup, they have made that miraculous change because of this particular thing I did”. There is no strategy I can teach or practice I can show you because all I did was love them the best I could with the love God has given me and teach them who Christ is. God did all the rest. Thankfully, I don’t even have to do my part very well. God can use anyone for His glory, the less likely the better. This is because He continues to show His power and authority when we choose to trust in Him.

Helping the Needy

I had a thought about giving monetary support to a crack-head or any other person who has an addiction or pattern of very foolish choices in their lives. Have these people not suffered enough already by their poor choices? I would certainly much rather give some food or warm clothing or shelter as they need it than money (for obvious practical reasons). But it isn’t always practical to have food on me to share or to invite a stranger to stay in my house. It is, however, possible to have a little money to share with a prayer to God that it will be used for their health and not their detriment. At that point it is between them and God. I have shown love in giving, despite my misgivings.

Now, it has been argued that giving money is akin to giving a drunk a drink. I’m not certain I’m convinced that’s true. I have not given the drunk a drink, but a choice. God also gives us the freedom to choose to follow Him or not. Now, if the person is someone I am able to spend more time with and create a relationship with then I may tailor my help more specifically to that person and I may choose to only provide needs, instead of cash, to help reduce the temptation of misusing any monetary support. But again, there are those who I can invest the time and energy to help more, and there are those I can only help a little with some money and a prayer.

Locked Out! How to gain access to your Windows computer when you forget the password

This may be a bit controversial because this article is going to give step by step instructions on how to gain access to any computer running Windows regardless of whether or not you know the password. Let me start by saying that using this article to gain access to a computer you aren’t authorized to access is a Federal Crime under Title 18 Part 1 Chapter 47 Section 1030(a)(1) and punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

That being said, I have two reasons for wanting to write this article. First and foremost, as a tutorial for new techs entering the field because a forgotten password or accidentally (or maliciously) changed password is something you may need to repair. The second reason is for folks to realize that physical access to your computer is all it takes for anyone with basic technical skills to gain access to all of your files. At the end of this tutorial I’ll talk a little about protecting the data on your computer.

First, you will need to download a program called NTPASSWD. You can go to the main web site for it at http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/ and follow the links to download the “Bootdisk”. I recommend downloading the Bootable CD Image “cd110511.zip”. The reason for this is that you are more likely to find a computer that boots off the CD drive by default than off a USB drive. Once you download the ZIP file you will need to extract it. Most current versions of Windows will allow you to right-click on it and “extract” it. Once extracted you will have an ISO file.

An ISO file is a disk image that can be put on a CD or DVD. However, you need to be careful. Don’t try to just “copy” the file to the CD. You will need to use software that allows you to “burn” an ISO to a disk. If you don’t have a program to do this, IMGBurn is a simple little program that you can use to do the job. Find it at http://www.imgburn.com/. Download and install this application and then follow the instructions for writing the ISO file to a blank CD.

Once you have come this far you now have a bootable CD that can be carried around for whenever you need it. So long as the system you are working on has a working CD-ROM drive you’re pretty much set. Now, how to use the tool:

First, you are going to want to insert the disk into the CD-ROM drive. Obviously this is most easily done while the machine is powered up. For very infected computers I try to get the disk in the tray during the boot-up process and before Windows actually starts loading and then cut the power. Next, you want to boot from the disk during start-up. You may have to go into the Boot menu during start-up (the function key for this depends on the machine) or you may have to go into the BIOS to change the boot drive sequence. Since every machine is a bit different I’ll leave it up to you to figure out how to get the PC to boot off the CD-ROM as that is outside the scope of this little tutorial.

Once you have booted to the CD you will find that you get a welcome message with some optional commands. I’ve never found it necessary to use them. If you wait too long reading them, the program will move on and boot into the first step.

Here you will be asked to choose the Windows Partition you want to edit. The default is typically correct. As the instructions listed above Step 1 indicate, you can typically just press Enter through most of this process. When you choose your partition here you move on to Step 2.

First you are asked the path to the registry files. Again the default is typically correct. This programs has the flexibility to help you with unusual installations, however. That’s why the option is given.

This next part of step 2 shows you the core system files available and asks you what you want to do. The SAM file you see there is where the user passwords are stored. We’re going to do a Password reset so we can just press Enter for the Password Reset option. This begins Step 3.

Now that we have chosen to reset the password we are shown that the SAM, Security, and System files have been loaded. We now have the option to edit user data and passwords and we’ll do that by pressing Enter again.

We are now shown a list of all the users. Notice that there are users you didn’t know existed. There are more user accounts on a Windows machine than you typically see. This is true of all operating systems. Notice you can also tell which are administrator accounts and which are disabled or locked. We can choose which account we want to change. If I only need the user account (Michael) then I could simply choose it. I can alternatively choose the Administrator account (that all Windows machines have) to log in with that account alter and makes any changes to any user accounts I need. That’s what we’ll do in this example simply by pressing Enter.

I am now given more information about the Administrator account. I am also able to make certain changes to the account. I can clear the password, change it (notice that this is considered risky), make a user account an administrator, or unlock the account if it’s been locked. I’ll choose to clear the password by pressing 1. Notice I can’t use the default value any more.

I now receive a message saying the password is cleared. However, the changes to the registry have not been made yet so I’m not really done. I’m now going to quit by pressing the exclamation mark.

I’m now given the option to go back and do more editing but instead I will press Q to quit which will bring up the final step. Step 4.

Here I am asked if I want to write the files. I have to press Y for yes. The default is no so watch for that.

Then I am asked if I want to try again if there were any problems in writing. Sometimes there will be and you will have to reboot and start the process over again. In this case I can press Enter for the default.

I am now out of the menu system and sitting at a prompt. This is where I will eject the CD and reboot the machine. I now can log in as administrator with an empty password and make any changes to the machine I need.

So how can you protect your computer from data theft when it’s this easy to get into any computer? Well, there are some great encryption programs available that will encrypt either certain folders or your entire disk depending on how you want to approach it. I recommend TrueCrypt http://www.truecrypt.org/ for most Windows systems. If you are running the Ultimate or Enterprise editions of Windows then encryption is built-in with BitLocker. If you run Ubuntu, encryption is also built in as an option when you install it on the computer. The reason encryption works is that the password for loggin into the computer is not necessarily the same as the password for the drive encryption. And, even if it is, if you blank out the password then the wrong password is sent to the encryption program. This is why encrypting your drive protects you even if someone can erase your user password.

Safer Web Browsing

After years of the mantra being repeated over and over, most people know not to open e-mail attachments from people they don’t know.  Slowly but surely, people are beginning to realize it’s also not safe to open strange, unusual, or unexpected attachments from people they do know either because e-mail addresses are so easily spoofed and e-mail accounts are more and more frequently hacked into. However, I would like to remind folks of the new battleground. Virus writers are getting their software into your computer when you browse seemingly safe web sites. That’s right, no downloading or prompting by you is necessary (although sometimes you do get prompted and just click “OK” because that’s what you’re used to doing).

Now, I’m not going to get into the technical hows or the even the whys of these viruses. My focus is on ways to help reduce your risk. First of all, you want to make certain that you keep whatever anti-virus program you have up to date. Most of them are pretty good at updating themselves and becoming very annoying when they get out of date. Don’t ignore these warnings. Updated anti-virus software is very important these days. I often hear people say “I don’t have any viruses, my computer works just fine and I don’t have any anti-virus software at all!” The truth is, most viruses won’t break your computer, that’s not their goal. So really, there’s no way to know if you’re infected without good anti-virus software.

However, anti-virus software only works by detecting a virus that’s already on your system. It’s better if it can’t get on your computer in the first place. To that end, it’s important to keep your web browser software and all of it’s plug-ins updated properly. I found a great site that does this for free and even provides excellent links to help you update anything that has known security flaws. The website is https://browsercheck.qualys.com/. I strongly encourage you to go to this site and get any recommended updates.

One of the ways viruses slip into systems is through advertisements. The bad guys have on several occasions managed to get their wares delivered through advertising company servers. One way to block this is by using the Adblock Plus plug-in for the Mozilla Firefox web browser. This wonderful plug-in blocks a large number of advertisements and if you take some time to learn how to use it you can teach it how to block advertisements it doesn’t already know about. Not only does this increase your web browsing safety, but it tends to speed up the loading of web sites and you don’t have to watch annoying animations scrolling across your screen anymore.

Speaking of animations… Some of the more annoying advertisements and all dangerous viruses that spread through your web browser require your computer to run something called “scripts” on your computer. These are effectively little programs that can do things on your computer. They can make some of your favorite sites (like Facebook) work properly and let you do things such as chatting and your Farmville. However, you can choose to install a plug-in called NoScript for Firefox which will stop all scripts on a web site from running unless you specifically allow them. Admittedly, this feature is not for the feint of heart as you will need to manually allow scripts that you need for your favorite sites to work. However, over time, as you train NoScript, you will have to do less with it and it will protect you from many unexpected problems. And again, it will greatly speed up the load time of web sites.

The real trick about viruses being spread by visiting a web site is that we have become accustomed to web sites being able to do very cool things. Unfortunately, that has required them to have far too much control over our computers. For instance, there is a web browser technology called ActiveX that was designed by Microsoft. It allows web designers to do some very cool things. Unfortunately, there is no way to keep your computer safe from malicious ActiveX software. You can read more about the dangers of the technology on Microsoft’s own website. Also, you won’t find ActiveX in other browsers (like Firefox) partly because it’s too insecure.

I hope this short article has been somewhat helpful. Admittedly it is not extensive and I have not gone into comparing all of the major browsers such as Opera, Google Chrome, Safari, etc. However, each browser has it’s features and limitations and the Qualys web site can check the security of each of your browsers. Internet Explorer is the only browser that I’ve found to have effectively no advertisement or script blocking capabilities and it is, in general, the least secure of all browsers.

How to run a startup or boot script as root in Linux

Every once in awhile I have wanted to be able to run a specific script automatically when Linux starts regardless of the user. Typically, I have also wanted that script to run as root because I’m doing random odd things like unusual mountings or whatever. In this case, I wanted to set up an IPv4 tunnel to an IPv6 host so that I could access IPv6 only web sites.

So, while the focus of this article will be the startup script, I will also briefly discuss the IPv6 setup. So, to start, you want to create a shell script that will execute the commands you need. In this case we’ll call it LaunchIPv6Tunnel.sh and here are it’s contents:

ifconfig sit0 up
ifconfig sit0 inet6 tunnel ::209.51.181.2
ifconfig sit1 up
ifconfig sit1 inet6 add 2001:470:1f10:5ba::2/64
route -A inet6 add ::/0 dev sit1

Now, I am going to need to be root to do these next steps. Here’s how to become root:

sudo su

Then type in your password when prompted. Next you want to copy your file to the /usr/sbin folder. Now, make it so it runs always as SuperUser (root) by doing the following command:

chmod +s LaunchIPv6Tunnel.sh

Now, the real trick to launching this script is in editing the /etc/rc.local file. Simply add the path and name of your script before the return 0 and you are good to go. Mine looks like this:

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will “exit 0” on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.
/usr/sbin//LaunchIPV6Tunnel.sh
exit 0

The next time you start your machine the script will run and away you go. You may want to test your script manually first to make sure it doesn’t cause any errors. As a side note, if you want your own IPv6 tunnel, you can go to http://www.tunnelbroker.net to get a free tunnel connection.

Lights Out Family Day

I would like to share a recently started tradition in our family. It’s called Lights Out Family Day. It was an idea I had awhile back but didn’t follow through on. My loving wife gave it to me as a Christmas present and I’m very glad she did. The concept goes like this. Once a month, I wake up in the morning on a Sunday and turn off all of the electric circuits in the basement except those running the fridge and freezer (and furnace in the winter). As a family, we intentionally spend the day together in the house. No electronic devices (that can be run on batteries) are permitted.

It’s always a little hard. We forget how dependent on electricity we have become. But what I also notice is that it almost “forces” us to be together. With no radio or computer or remote control toy to distract us from each other we quickly find the only way to be entertained is by talking to each other or playing with each other. We read books out loud, play board games, play in the back yard, or just talk.

A couple years ago there was a huge wind storm that came through the area and knocked out all of the power to 10’s of thousands of homes. Many were without power for a week. I remember that during that time there were countless stories of people who saw their neighbors for the first time because without AC it was more comfortable to sit outside on the porch. Neighbors were having cook-outs together because one would have a large grill and others had food going bad in the fridge or freezer that needed to be cooked. I heard the stories of how people in my neighborhood used to sit on the porch and talk to each other. I think electric conveniences have taken away some of our focus on each other.

So, we have Lights Out Family Day where there is little choice but to focus on each other. It’s only once a month, but I always look forward to it, even though everyone isn’t always real happy about it. I think one of the things I really enjoy is turning on our oil lamps and putting up some candles for light and having dinner and playing board games as it gets dark. Of course, in the summer it won’t be as big of a deal. But in the winter time we spend a good chunk of time in mostly dark. I think it’s a good reminder of how work days used to work. You got up with the sun and went to bed when it was dark because you didn’t have much choice. You couldn’t really work in the dark well and you had to make as much use of the natural light as you could.

This is a family tradition that I hope will last for a long time.