Rhythms of the Tides-October 2019

The Tide was coming in this morning. There were not ferocious waves crashing on the beach. The waves may have been all of 1 foot. They just kept lapping up further in on the shore. One came in too high, too quick and soaked my sandaled feet. No worries; they’ll dry.

It was about 8:30am and the Tide was coming in. I can honestly say I’ve spent maybe 3 total minutes of my entire life contemplating Tides. I guess I always assumed it’s a 12 hour cycle, you know: a sunrise to sunset kind of thing.

It’s not. 

Maybe you already know this, and I’m sure I studied it in “Earth Sciences” in like 4th grade, but the Tides are an all day repetitive, rhythmic thing.

There is High Tide and Low Tide twice a day, basically every 6 hours. 

But not precisely. 

There’s ebb and flow.

There’s Rhythm, not Balance.

Today my sandaled feet were soaked by the Atlantic Ocean for the umpteenth time. I spent a large part of my childhood in the Mid-Atlantic and New England states so the ocean wasn’t completely foreign. We visited repeatedly growing up. I’ve been able to continue that tradition; my children have been to the Atlantic repeatedly. Early next year the Mrs and I will be blessed to join work friends for a few days in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and touch the Pacific Ocean there for the second time. And last April, while musically serving some missionary friends through the World Music Mission, my toes, feet and ankles waded into the Indian Ocean off the Kenyan coastline for the very first time. That was pretty cool (or more accurately, rather warm)!

It was at that event that Steve and Gwen Smith of Potter’s Inn Ministries spoke. Steve made one comment in particular that struck and stuck: “The concept of BALANCE in life is not in the Scriptures; instead the Bible exemplifies and teaches RHYTHM.” 

Balance-A lifetime struggle of failed reality. 

Rhythm-A new old concept. 

Steve is right: the concept of Balance is non-existent in Scripture. Webster’s 4th definition of Balance says it’s “the state of being in equipoise; equilibrium; even adjustment; steadiness.” This is what the Bible does not commend. Feel free to search the word “Balance” in a Bible concordance app. It is used in the Holy Writ to refer to weights and measures, but not the modern concept of equilibrium in life. In our mad-paced, Western way of living and working, everybody talks about Balancing the demands of life. Yet we ignore the very clear, like original 10 Commandments clear, concept of Sabbath. 

Sabbath is rhythm. 

Sabbath is recurring. 

Sabbath is God-ordained, expected, again commanded. 

Yet I’ve lived much of my life in a frenzy. (I’m sure the communal “WE” fits here, but let me stay in first person confessional mode.) That frenzy lets me worry about everything and anything. I squeeze out a little-bit more _______. Then I’m all knotted up requiring a visit to my Chiropractor. I’m weary, bloated, unfocused and unbalanced. I need supplements or dietary adjustments. I need a day off or...wait...a day off. 

Maybe just 1 day. 

Like a weekly Sabbath.

“Well no duh, genius. You’re out of Rhythm. You run, figuratively and literally, until you’re wiped out. Your bones ache. Your head aches. Your heart aches. Yet you didn’t and don’t stop.”

The internal monologue is honest.

I KNOW better.

I simply haven’t lived it.

The Tides are front and center today because me and the Mrs are taking a few 

days away, a short vacation. I know we’re blessed with both means and opportunity to do this. Thank you, Lord. In the same praise-filled moment comes the realization that for many years, I’ve seemingly lived as if it’s constantly High Tide, always the moment to strike, move, do and charge the enemy as Shakespeare implied. There’s been a conscious, repentant change in that regard over the past 2 years.

It’s Tuesday. Tomorrow the live Tide watching for 2019 will conclude and we return to home life reality away from the condo. The Tides will continue to come in and go out. 

Never Balanced. 

Just in Rhythm.

The Hospital Billboard October 2019

While driving into the heart of downtown Dallas last night for a concert, I saw this message on a billboard: “In the past year 17 rural hospitals in Texas have closed. Mr President, stop tweeting and start leading.” I was driving so I couldn’t snap a pic of that specific billboard but I instantly remembered the message (but here's a pictoral reminder of what creeping traffic in Big D is like at rush hour).

•Hospitals-mostly private or state run entities (there really isn’t a federal hospital complex beyond the VA).

•Texas-a financially self-sufficient state.

•Rural America-experiencing population decline across the board.

I’m scratching my head as to why anyone would pay for that billboard. Why would anyone blame the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for this particular problem? Especially a problem that’s been decades in the making. Rural decline isn’t 

anything new. States and private entities running (and at times mismanaging) hospitals has been the norm. What exactly do the billboard creators expect this President or any President to do?

Before you roll your eyes and blow past this read, understand I’m not here to defend the current top seat occupier. Those who’ve taken the time to get to know me know I lean decidedly conservative but I’m not a blind lemming of any President (or any elected official, actor, preacher or rock star). This President is his own best advocate and simultaneously his own worst enemy.

Like him or hate him, he’s the one sitting at the Resolute desk. 

Not you.

Not me.

And obviously not Hillary.

Instead, the hospital billboard brought back up a recurring thought. I’ve been mulling a lot lately on this fresh and epic and toxic liberal/conservative divide in the nation, the kind of divide that has some group of folks create a billboard blaming the wrong person and imputing the solution on an institution to which it has never belonged. I’ve also been mulling on the role of government both as envisioned by the Founding Fathers as well as the way we’ve progressively turned in recent years. On a related note and tone, I’ve been mystified by the calls for tolerance aimed at someone like me by the very people intolerant of me and my viewpoint. Add in the calls for the federal government to solve everything while one-sided-only-personal-liberty is demanded: “I have the right to do x-y-and-z with my body, children, money, etc and you have no right to speak about my choices” and you hopefully can see my curiosity.

This swirling partisan dilemma is engulfing many good Americans. It’s not even a discussion at this point; it’s just rancorous, nasty and derogatory. It centers on “personal feelings and perspectives” but not on the Constitution nor the purposeful structure of our government. And if we’re all not careful, it could suck both sides into a hopelessness vortex from which there is no return. On the left there’s the notion that if Trump isn’t removed (by impeachment if not by the next election) then all of humanity is doomed. Friends on the right are digging in, literally digging in, and burying guns, gold and spam just in case “those crazy lefty libs” get more influence.

Stop, friends.

Just STOP.

Breathe.

We, the People of these United States of America, have encountered and endured much.
And we’re still here.
It would be wise to look to history as a guide more than “personal feelings and perspectives”. Your particular 18, 28 or 68 years of life, feelings and perspectives are just a blip in the life cycle of this great nation. We’ve had wars that truly threatened the very survival of humanity. We’ve had Presidents who couldn’t get out of their own way. We’ve been frontally assaulted by ideological enemies looking to obliterate our way of free living by flying planes into our people and landmarks. We’ve had strong Congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle; we’ve had laughably inept Representatives and Senators. In some current specifics, we still have much of that.

And we’re still here.

We're still America.

We’re still THE place people dream of running to; they build flotillas to get here, not to get away. 

Blue passports with the US emblem emblazoned on it are coveted around the world.

We’re still here.

Here’s my point: the moment you think your point of view must be imposed on everyone, say by posting a misguided billboard in downtown Dallas or passing a sweeping law restricting liberties or muzzling those who disagree with you, you’ve missed it! Not everyone agrees with you, nor should they. The Constitution is clear: I am a free man. I can think, say and do what I want. There are obviously limits, as in not causing actual physical harm to others, but my Thoughts, Beliefs, Convictions, Values...the way I am, is none of your business. I am a free man. The way I vote is my choice alone. And the same goes for you. Thoughts, even words, are NOT the enemy to anyone. They’re proof of free thinking.

A prime example of this partisan outrage was clearly evidenced recently when talk show host Ellen DeGeneres was seated next to President George W Bush at Cowboys Stadium for a game (Jerry Jones—get your team together, man 🙄). https://youtu.be/lSZtjol7mJA

People around the world went nutzoid on social media, the left especially, condemning Ellen. Her response was gracious, comical and correct: we don’t all have to agree to 1) get along and 2) make this nation work. 

Reasoned discussions by civil people will solve it all. That’s how we got here, folks. Reasoned men argued for weeks on end in Philadelphia in the late 1700’s after their fathers and grandfathers escaped tyranny in Europe. Reasonable people passionately looking to persuade others of different beliefs—THAT is America! What is un-American, for example, is the criminal behavior we've seen of physically attacking someone of a different persuasion because they show up at a political rally for their candidate. 

And so we come into the election cycle of 2020 with all the same “if So-and-So wins, ALL IS LOST” tripe. It is certainly true that unqualified or skillfully deficient people can hurt us in the near term; but what’s more true is that We, the People, at home, say in rural Texas, can solve most of our own problems, including healthcare delivery systems, without relying on anyone in Washington, DC. THAT is American through and through!!

But it’s incumbent on us to handle it and not rely on the incumbent or challenger to fix it all. Here’s a thought: maybe we should stop spending money on billboards on I-30 and instead gather local friends to create a workable small scale healthcare safety net for our neighbors. 

(Here’s a related opinion piece from the Dallas Morning News by Dan McCoy of BCBS of TX highlighting the rural hospital problem)

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/12/31/texas-rural-health-care-is-in-trouble/

Margaret W, the Liberal VS Joal D, the Conservative

Margaret W (anonymously last-name-initialed here) recently wrote me a letter, the kind that requires a postage stamp and envelope and a few days to traverse from the north-central part of the nation to my humble abode in the republic north of the Rio Grande.

Interestingly, I don’t know Margaret.
That didn’t stop her.
No, sir!
Margaret wrote to tell me off!!
Not a little, but more like a royal-just-short-of-cussing kind of tell off.

So you’re probably wondering what I did to the elderly Ms W to cause, deserve or precipitate the letter.


As best I can tell (not knowing her) it was just one thing: I publicly spoke up on a matter of government regulation.
I exercised my rights as a Citizen.
More precisely, I exercised my Constitutionally constructed and protected rights.

The rub?
I’m a conservative in most matters (believing in extremely limited government and excessive personal liberty) and Margaret is not. She, therefore, felt it her duty as a self-proclaimed-zealous-liberal to straighten me out.

Me, a complete stranger.

How this confluence of events transpired is fluke-ish beyond the pale, but insightful into the dissolution of Civility in the U.S. and the uselessness of certain styles of “news reporting”.

First, I feel it necessary to give a bit of a lesson in HOW our governmental processes work. Before some of you get all knotted on “I don’t need no stinking lesson from a blankin’ conservative”, take a breath; I’m only going to explain the procedures of government available to all sides.

When there is a regulatory policy change proposed by the President, Congress or bureaucracy, that U.S. federal agency opens a 30 day public comment period. Literally anyone can leave a comment For or Against the proposed change. Those comments are now, in 2019, posted on an online page at that given agency’s website (think EPA, OSHA and so on).

I knew of a proposed change I wanted to comment on (and No, I won’t tell you the specifics—this is about the principles in play here with ol’ Ms W and me). I went to the appropriate site, left my 2 sentence, 17 word comment and that-was-that.

Some 3 weeks later Margaret’s letter arrives in my mailbox. I read it, annoyed to get "fanmail" like that, and I literally ripped it up and tossed it in the recycle box (because yes, this Conservative believes in recycling). As the day progressed, I continued to mull on: HOW exactly did total-stranger-Margaret know MY views? I had forgotten about posting the comment on the agency website. I knew I didn’t post anything on the socials, I’d never spoken my opinion in public where someone’s cell phone could capture me, just nothing. I told my lovely wife about the letter. I even pulled the torn letter out of the recycle box and taped it together for her to read. She, my lovely that is, was just as mystified by it and began an online search for Ms W, my comment and all things even remotely related.

Here’s the detail-to-process-turn: a lazy NPR reporter apparently saw my comment on the government agency website, my comment being the first conservative-leaning comment among nearly 38,000 logged and decided to quote me to the world. More precisely the reporter decided to quote my 2 sentences and fill in “obvious-to-him-alone” details (full-throated-sarcasm) attributing my opinion to support of the President and his position. Said reporter never tried to find me for further comment. I’m not really that hard to find based on the spelling with which Dick and Bonnie labeled me. Lazy Reporter Guy just did the least amount of “research” for his piece to get published and for him to get paid.

Get this: he wouldn’t try to find me, but ol’ Margaret W sure did! From her rest home in Michigan she tracked me down, even looking up my educational history online. She was clear to tell me many things like:
1) I should be ashamed of myself for my views and
2) because of my opinion, I obviously can’t be a Christian and the ending volley
3) “Seriously, if you were my son, I’d disown you.”
(Yes, that was the closing line.)

So turn with me back to this concept of Civility in Public Discourse.
I exercised my rights.
In doing so, no one was harmed.
I used my freedom of speech in the appropriate context.
Yet an unskilled reporter and an enraged liberal pounced into the limelight showing their utter lack of Civic Understanding and even Human Civility.

These times we find ourselves in, with the rancid, acrid tone of excessive one-sided, on both sides, partisanship and do-it-our-way-or-else-ness, usually just makes me roll my eyes with a frowning smirk. That ain’t how America works, folks.

But the letter from MW crossed a line, leaving me smirk-free. Instead of letters to strangers, we need more Citizens engaging in the appropriate forums; we must reduce the attacks on individuals and segments. Instead, we need an informed and freedom loving people engaging each other and their elcted representatives for the best in all areas. Less social media, more face to face discussions.

Momentary diversion: I secretly enjoy the “man on the street” interview videos where an uninformed (ok, I’ll say it) ignorant protester tries to sound profound yet only confirms their ignorance on camera. Said ignorance nearly always stems from a complete misunderstanding of the Constitution.
They make demands that can’t be met by a politician’s finger snap.
They self-righteously condemn anyone who disagrees with them.
They vaporously pontificate on what’s wrong with the world but offer no solution that THEY themselves would agree to live under.
And their comments always smack of US vs THEM; it is never WE.

And THAT is the problem today, highlighted by Margaret's letter to me, a complete stranger.
Disagreements on policies and positions are actually good and healthy. The way we get to the best decisions is by pulling and pushing on each other’s ideas. Absolute refusal to move and instead take a do-it-my-way-or-else-I’ll-get-you approach will not help anyone. You can throw the temper tantrum and even write a total stranger a letter, but that won’t move the needle nationwide. Instead, the Margarets of America would be better to get a history book and study Adams vs Jefferson. They didn’t walk in lock step, but they made America amazing; they started the making of what it is today. The incredible wonder of America is the vastness and diversity while remaining One Nation Under God Indivisible with LIBERTY and Justice for ALL (including me and you and Margaret and NPR boy).

Sadly, I have the feeling that the NPR reporter isn’t going to change. I doubt Margaret W will either; she seems a little set in her ways. I can only hope the rest of the American "WE" will change. Bring back Civility in our discourse. Bring in ideas that align with the very documents that brought us here...”We hold these truths to be self-evident that ALL men are created equal (including me and you and Margaret and NPR boy). You should constantly write to, speak to and engage with those who are elected and positioned to bring the change. That’s how we make a more perfect Union.