Questions about working from home

I heard a discussion regarding working from home. Companies are supposedly finding greater productivity form employees working in their own homes. Those engaged with the subject noted that Silicon Valley's real estate prices are extremely high. If folks can clock in from home, perhaps employees will choose to live where more of their salary goes in their pockets and less goes to housing and cost of living.

Well I thought a bit further. Companies could also save on tolerance training. Employees from various backgrounds wouldn't have to intermingle. They wouldn't overhear each other's conversation in the break room. I wonder if the workplace, for many, isn't the last avenue where one has to encounter someone who sees life from a very different perspective. Eliminating mixing eliminates the need for tolerance.

Or does work from home expand the need for tolerance training? Is your den, which is doubling as your office work property or private? If you submit work assignments on your home computer, can you write inflammatory posts on the same screen? Maybe, workers will be required to roll through Computer-Based Learning on these subjects at home. What happens to a society that has to learn how to get along with others through a slideshow?

I don't know.

I just finished watching “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.” The simple courage of Ransom Stoddard to fight his own battles for the rule of law. This courage inspired a large chunk of a western territory to vote against the bully.

Not good. The bully calls Ransom out, “Leave or die.” Of course Ransom chose to stay. He held no chance against the hardened, cruel Liberty. Liberty played with Ransom, shooting him in the arm. Liberty lifted his pistol for the kill shot. Ransom lurched his pistol at the other gunman. Shots shouted, Liberty Valence crumpled and died.

Courage based on the rule of law so animated this fictional character that he carried the entire plot. So what? You and I might ask. It’s a piece of early sixties fiction. Does fiction shape society or vice versa?  The answer is possibly.

Do we have such insulation arising from our speaking to our current culture

Trees and seasons

Dead vines dangle from skeletal maple finger limbs pushed to swinging by a semi truck's breeze. Their mostly yellow-green pods send out the only color of the ensemble.

Trees live backward. Their hands and arms are covered with color when the world lays warm under summer's spell, yet when winter threatens they drop their leaves and stand shivering, uncovered before us all.

How to save tears

Crying is a common occurrence for babies and toddlers at Walmart. I have witnessed more than one “tear storm” where one wailing child incites others to respond in solidarity. So why all the sad songs in the place whose motto is “Save Money, live better?”

Most retail super department stores are designed to be an overload. The sounds, smells, sights and textures shout, “We are great and have what you want.” Add in large numbers of shoppers and associates and any tot is bound to be overwhelmed. 

So what can parents do to help their children face this confusing  activity?  

1) Don’t shop when your child is tired.
           Tired + overload = major stress no exceptions.

2) Double team shopping as much as possible.
          Single parents are amazing. Ask a friend to join you for help.
          If you have a significant other shop when you both can take part.

3) Screaming kids need to know that shouting ends shopping.
          If the child has been fed, changed and is rested
            then one adult takes the child out of the store to let him or her calm down.
          If one adult is shopping, then the trip ends until the screamer is under control.
            Leave the cart parked unobtrusely.
            Leave the store, calmly making clear that screaming children don't get to shop.

4) Never threaten something you aren't willing to carry out.
          Counting to three only works if something bad happens at '3.'
          Crazy threats are seen through by the child. They can figure out that you won't 'Spank them
            right here.'

5) What about spanking?
          I wouldn't try it in a store.
          Sometimes a child gets so worked up and out of control that a tap on the butt is needed.
          If '3' is a spanking, then end the trip, take the child to the car and do what must be done.

Kids don't instinctly know how to act while department store shopping. The large open spaces invite running. All the merchandise begs to be grabbed. Its up to a child's parents to teach kids how to behave in such spaces. Now if only I could get my oldest to speed it up while clothes shopping.

New Evolutionary Theory

It’s Steaming

A fellow associate and myself have taken those few minutes of free time at work to rethink the theory of evolution. I believe we make a strong case for monkeys evolving FROM humans. Let me lay it out for you.

1. We have no tails. We carry what is called the tail bone, but no actual tail. Tails would be immensely useful! Balance, grabbing things, “Gibbs slapping” others in the back of the head. Most monkeys have them. Us nope. Tails evolved from the tailbone. 
2. Real birthday suits. We have to make clothes and buy clothes and give clothes to the Salvation Army. Monkeys are born with theirs. They change size as the primates grow. They shed for heat and thicken for cold, a definite evolutionary advancement over our pathetic efforts to cover ourselves. Fur evolved from clothes.
3. Jungle lost cities. These ancient ruins found deep and far from current civilization are evidence that ancient monkeys have left behind as they have evolved past the need for them. With coats and tails and prehensile toes as well as fingers they foot waved “goodbye” and made their life beyond the grind that you and I now toil in. Deserted cities.
4. So called lack of language. I can hear it now, “But we can talk and make cool stuff, what about that?”  I would like you to think (irony) on this. Monkeys have evolved past spoken and written words. As all good Star Trek fans know advanced races speak telepathically. They only reduce themselves to speech for the backwards humans. Same here. Its all in their head.
5. Cavendish demise. Both National Geographic and Science are reporting a new strain of virus that renders Cavendish bananas sterile. My associate and I are convinced this is the work of the monkeys. They have determined this popular banana was the key to their evolution. Prolonged daily exposure to the fruit brought on the tail and the fur and other changes of which we are in the dark about. They have been experimenting for decades to isolate a way to “take out” the Cavendish and have finally succeeded. We will continue to hit our heads against the evolutionary ceiling of humans, while they evolve in peace.

Evolution turned on its head, and remember “It’s Steaming” in a pile right on this page.

Why should blue give hope? Why does a clear sky pass on comfort? It blocks out the gaping black of space. Is that why?  Eyes hold blue for some. Does that color rise from a hopeful mind or a cloud gazer?

Blue does raise my thoughts from grey, failed slush. Blue brings energy, marks future horizons. Blue is clean without the starkness of bleached white. Deep blue carries authority like a war bitten admiral commanding his marines.

Would blue drift and wrap me in peace if I had been born under an orange sky? What if I lived under the blue almost endlessly like a scorpion in the desert? Would I hope it’s oppressive, unblinking gaze were erased by the reset of night. Then black might be my hope in its velvety safety.

Science has it Backwards

A fellow associate and myself have taken those few minutes of free time at work to rethink the theory of evolution. I believe we make a strong case for monkeys evolving FROM humans. Let me lay it out for you.

1. We have no tails. We carry what is called the tail bone, but no actual tail. Tails would be immensely useful! Balance, grabbing things, “Gibbs slapping” others in the back of the head. Most monkeys have them. Us nope. Tails evolved from the tailbone. 
2. Real birthday suits. We have to make clothes and buy clothes and give clothes to the Salvation Army. Monkeys are born with theirs. They change size as the primates grow. They shed for heat and thicken for cold, a definite evolutionary advancement over our pathetic efforts to cover ourselves. Fur evolved from clothes.
3. Jungle lost cities. These ancient ruins found deep and far from current civilization are evidence that ancient monkeys have left behind as they have evolved past the need for them. With coats and tails and prehensile toes as well as fingers they foot waved “goodbye” and made their life beyond the grind that you and I now toil in. Deserted cities.
4. So called lack of language. I can hear it now, “But we can talk and make cool stuff, what about that?”  I would like you to think (irony) on this. Monkeys have evolved past spoken and written words. As all good Star Trek fans know advanced races speak telepathically. They only reduce themselves to speech for the backwards humans. Same here. Its all in their head.
5. Cavendish demise. Both National Geographic and Science are reporting a new strain of virus that renders Cavendish bananas sterile. My associate and I are convinced this is the work of the monkeys. They have determined this popular banana was the key to their evolution. Prolonged daily exposure to the fruit brought on the tail and the fur and other changes of which we are in the dark about. They have been experimenting for decades to isolate a way to “take out” the Cavendish and have finally succeeded. We will continue to hit our heads against the evolutionary ceiling of humans, while they evolve in peace.

Evolution turned on its head, and remember “It’s Steaming” in a pile right on this page.

Fill the Earth

I have been studying Genesis and writing sermons to keep the mind strong. In my studies I have noticed that God was pretty serious about humankind spreading out across His creation. As I was working at Walmart one day I began to see why, I think.

While working out in the boonies of the Endless Mountians in Pennsylvania, I see a cross section of Bradford County's population. Great diversity lives all around me. I have seen ladies wrapped in Indian Sari's beright colored and regal. I have heard several different languages and taken in a variety of skin colors.

I believe God was so insistent on humans filling the earth because the Lord built into each of us the ability to adapt to our surroundings AND pass these adaptations on to our offspring. It reminds me of the song I learned in United Methodist Sunday School. "Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world."

My Blessings

Recently I have gazed back at my life. Maybe I do so because the house grows quiet from the family jostle. As the kids  move into wider places, I have finally focussed a realization which I want to share.

Less than one month before my 14th birthday I raised my lever action 22 cal rifle to take a bead on a skittering squirrel. Sitting 20 yards down hill Rick was lowering his rifle after a couple missed shots. In that moment I realized that my cousin sat too near to my line of fire. In that fraction I chose to move the rifle with my finger still on the trigger. BANG! He was gone to heaven before the ambulance could even arrive.

A reasonable life after killing a cousin would have made me a lonely little man, mostly broken yet soldiering on. I would have expressed extreme cynicism and sarcasm so that few would want to be around me. Which would have been fine with me, I would have rather be hermited away from others. Surrounded in a wall of depression I might have lived out my days isolated from everyone.

A worst case scenario would find me drowning in alcohol in a ditch after fatally hitting a tree at high speed.

Look what God encouraged instead. David Souder, Larry Youse Jr. and I led a prayer meeting in our public school that reached many kids with the hope in Jesus. I sang in our church group, The Revelation Singers. We toured a bunch of churches and shared that same hope with many more. I graduated college and seminary and pastored in multiple churches.

In my first church I met my wife at my thirtieth birthday party and we have enjoyed almost 24 years together and been granted the privilege to raise 4 kids. I have taken more than one youth group on missions trips to Chicago, South Dakota and Tijuana. I enjoyed singing in the Houghton College Choir my senior year (which took a lot of voice lessons to get there). I have met many great saints of the church most unsung now.

I have certainly struggled over the years. Depression shoves into my life repeatedly. The sheer weight of it has turned many a day into a marathon of push just to get the basics of living done. Other days my thoughts are a battle between self condemnation and moderation. The weapons of the one barely blunted by the right reason of the other. 

A few years into my first assignment in Canada, I began hearing voices. At this I sought counseling. After several sessions with a caring Christian counselor I dealt with one of the more painful aspects of Rick’s death.  The voices ceased without return. 

My poor young bride had to console a tearful groom as many old pains felt safe to surface during our first few years of marriage. My most recent counseling experience allowed me to step off “The Healing Journey” Bible Study in a small group over the course of a year. 

With a distance of 41 years I need to right some theology. God didn’t cause Rick to die, my mistake did. If I had waited one more second and involved one more thought, I likely would safely brought the gun down. I panicked for the right reason, but with the wrong result. For years I tried to convince myself that God wanted Rick dead. I don’t believe that now. It may have been a case like Job where God said, “Look at that Ed Ross.” Then after the shot God responded, “Sit down, Satan, that was way more than enough.”

I think even more likely God cried as Rick was hit. I believe God teared for Rick and his pain. I believe God wept for the upheaval of all involved. Then I believe God decided that as far as He was able this shot was only going to be the end of one life. Thank you, Lord.