Las Vegas Nights

Of all places to have a church conference! Las Vegas! We had a great time and learned a lot - we learned that you should not hold Church conferences in LV....

A few more Lily pictures -

Lily and Natalie -

Does this remind you of Lily?

When I was at the Transforming Church conference in LV, an artist was painting pictures while the speakers were talking - this one reminded me of Lily -

Challenging and disturbing poem

Here is challenging and disturbing poem I heard on The Writer's Almanac. I don't know the author - but I can't shake this poem. Check out http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org and get the pod cast!

Thoughts?


Poem: "Hard Rain" by Tony Hoagland from Hard Rain: A Chapbook.

Hard Rain

After I heard It's a Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
played softly by an accordion quartet
through the ceiling speakers at the Springdale Shopping Mall,
I understood there's nothing
we can't pluck the stinger from,

nothing we can't turn into a soft drink flavor or a t-shirt.
Even serenity can become something horrible
if you make a commercial about it
using smiling, white-haired people

quoting Thoreau to sell retirement homes
in the Everglades, where the swamp has been
drained and bulldozed into a nineteen-hole golf course
with electrified alligator barriers.

You can't keep beating yourself up, Billy
I heard the therapist say on television
to the teenage murderer,
About all those people you killed—
You just have to be the best person you can be,

one day at a time—

and everybody in the audience claps and weeps a little,
because the level of deep feeling has been touched,
and they want to believe that
the power of Forgiveness is greater
than the power of Consequence, or History.

Dear Abby:
My father is a businessman who travels.
Each time he returns from one of his trips,
his shoes and trousers
are covered with blood-
but he never forgets to bring me a nice present;
Should I say something?
Signed, America.

I used to think I was not part of this,
that I could mind my own business and get along,

but that was just another song
that had been taught to me since birth—

whose words I was humming under my breath,
as I was walking through the Springdale Mall.

PandA Party

Peter and Amber both have birthdays in October, so we have a joint birthday party every year. Peter has gotten into country western music this last year, so I bought him a cowboy hat for his 32nd birthday.

Blogs are really for Grandparents

I just decided that Blogs are really all about Grandparents bragging about their wonderful grandchildren. Here are some pictures of Lily in her Elmo suit - that was too small and we had to return. Jedi in his bear suit (he came with his own bare suit). And Lily in the new toy I bought myself, so I can pull Lily and Jedi (when he is older) behind my bike.

Great New/Old Puppet Show

Micah Mann performed the debut of the rebuilt version of the old National Puppet Theatre version of Hansel and Gretel at the Arts and Olive Festival in Redwood City - He did and awesome job - the crowd cheered! It was too windy for the masking and we could watch Micah work the puppets. I was quite impressed when he used his foot to swing over a hook off that was facing the wrong direction - Imagine a puppet in each hand and a foot rising to relocate a hook off - only a veteran puppeteer would appreciate the beauty of that move and envy the guy who could do it with grace.

check out their new web site with new videos at www.nationalpuppets.com