I realize Podcast have been around a good long time and that this post is probably a day late and a dollar short, but it was only this summer that I bought an IPod (Silver 160GB classic) and started to take advantage the variety of Podcast that are available for free.   In the 9 months that I have owned an Ipod,  I estimate that fully half of my listening has been spoken word Podcast in addition to my 40gb of music that I own.   My National Guard duty station is  almost 5 hours away and if I have to venture deeper into the bowels of Illinois, I often have a 12 to 13 hour round trip on my drill weekends.   Nothing makes this time go by quickly than being immersed in high quality Podcast.  Here is a short list of some high quality Podcast that I enjoy.

1.  Philosophy Bites

This program is hosted by Nigel Warburton and David Edmonds and features contemporary philosophers discussing the ideas of past philosophers or their own work.  This program usually runs 15 to 20 minutes and it always amazes me how succinct Nigel Warburton is in his handling of sometimes complex topics and ideas.   Dr. Warburton presents the topic, it's relevancy and then allows the guest to flesh out the topic at hand.  Along the way Dr. Warburton subtly guides the conversation to address key objections and problems without ever tipping his hand to his own philosophical leanings.  The tone of the Podcast is never combative regardless of the issue at hand and every single episode is a intellectually dense and rich.  I am amazed how Dr. Warburton can reduce so many ideas into such a short program without losing much of the nuance.  This is especially true when dealing with philosophers who are often in love with their own voice!  Warburton and Edmonds have started a complementary program called Ethics Bites that deals with, as the name implies,  applied ethics and expands the guest list outside of the traditional philosophers of academia.  

2.  The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Chapel Messages

Because of my wife's work schedule I am not able to attend Chapel here at SBTS, but ITunes automatically downloads all of the chapel messages for me on to my IPod.  Trying to disregard my bias, I think that the preaching that takes place twice a week here at the Louisville Campus is some of the best preaching to be found anywhere.    Not only do the faculty preach but also guest preachers and theologians from around the world such as Graeme Goldsworty,  John Piper, Millard Erikson, Mark Dever, Irwin Lutzer,  and even CH (MAJ GEN) Douglas Carver, the Army Chief of Chaplains.  One sermon that caught a lot of attention lately is "I Kissed a Girl and I Liked It"  by Dr. Herschel York.  That one caught my eye on the list of sermons and it was a great exposition of 1 Corinthians 10:1-13.  

3.  The Classic Tales Podcast

There are those purist who will not listen to Audiobooks, but when you are on the road as much as I am, a printed book is usually not an option.  B.J. Harrison presents Classics short stories from the 19th and 20th century and does it for free.  His readings are energetic and entertaining without losing the essence of the tale being told.  Some of the stories do not interest me, but when they are FREE, I have no problem just deleting them off my Ipod.   At the beginning of the year Harrison read Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs and presented it in serial form as it was originally published.  Every Friday for several months I eagerly downloaded the next few chapters and was on the edge of my seat to hear the adventures of a Tarzan that had not been given a Disney lobotomy.  That is one great book and a very manly book that every young boy should read (or listen to).

4.  The Productivity Show

This show is designed for all those who are into GTD (Getting Things Done), social media, and other buzz worthy methods of work and communication in the modern age.   The show took a two year hiatus, but it seems that it is starting to come back to life again.  There are plenty of back episodes to feed the your inner productivity geek.  

5.  NPR:  Intelligence Squared

When I am in the mood for polite and congenial I turn to Philosophy Bites, when I want to hear an intellectual throw down,  I turn to Intelligence Squared.   It is billed as:

"Oxford-style debating -- one motion, one moderator, two to three advocates for the motion, two to three against -- in New York City. Each evening begins at 6:00P with a complimentary wine reception. Before the debate starts, you cast your vote for or against the evening's motion. Those results are displayed midway through the debate as each side makes its statements. After the panelists’ opening remarks, the audience has a chance to ask the speakers questions. The question-and-answer period is followed by brief summations from the panelists and a final audience vote. The votes are then tallied and a winning side is declared."  

There are many good and thoughtful debaters in these Podcast and sometimes it is good ol' fashion sophistry.   A recent assertion was "Major reductions in carbon emissions are not worth the money" and it is great to hear thoughtful conservatives present their case instead of commentators such as Bill O'Reilly spew bile and lean on their populist crutch.   Republicans need to get back to business of convincing us of their ideals and this show is a good example of that.  If the topic can be divided into liberal and conservative,  the conservative side seems to win every time, which surprises me in an audience that NPR would attract in New York City.  

Those are my Top Five Podcast but there are thousands more that can be downloaded on practically any topic that interest you.   Several of my Podcast are an acquired taste such as the Being and Time (Heidegger) course that can be downloaded from UC Berkeley (that one needs a warning label) or the several dozen history Podcast that I follow, but that is the great thing about Podcast:  The are FREE and tailored to specific audiences.   Go download some for your next commute or when you are doing laundry!

There are two realities about my life that come into conflict with one another on a daily basis.  The first is that I have a wide range of dissimilar responsibilities and activities.  The second is that I have a really sticky clutch that keeps me from shifting gears quickly.  If I do not have a large block of time to ramp up into an activity I have a tendency to procrastinate on that activity.  For example,  my wife got home at 1400 today and I have a guitar class at 1500.  What do I do with that one hour?  I can accomplish a lot in one hour of solid work, but it takes me an hour to get to that hour of productive time.   My day is filled with these sorts of moments.  There is a block of time from when Eleanor goes down for a nap and my wife gets home,  an hour long block between Tracy going to bed and the time that I go to bed, and an hour and a half between my guitar class and my world religion class.  That is about 5 hours in a day that could theoretically  be used for a large amount of productive work. 

At this point many would say that this is time that they use to unwind, whatever that means.  I believe in the need to unwind, but doubt that quality unwinding can be done when a 100 different task are floating around undone.  The greatest periods of relaxation come only when there is a palpable sense of accomplishment.   In addition to these periods of relatively predictable periods of time there are those unexpected extras that you get now and again, like the extra hour I have today because my guitar class was canceled.  How do you shift gears quickly to take advantage of these times?  Here is a list of ideas that I am working to implement.

1.  Have good system to manage and track your responsibilities

I am implementing the Getting Things Done process and being able to quickly establish some hard edges to your projects and take in your landscape quickly is probably one of the greatest advantages to GTD.  Implemented fully, the GTD system allows you to quickly have a list of next actions depending on your context (at the computer, driving around in your car, sitting at your desk, etc.)  If you have to stop and think about what needs to be done, then you lose an important chunk of time and set up resistance in your path.

2.  Be neat and orderly.

I am no neat freak, but there is something to be said for being able to find your stuff when you need it.  Looking for the book you need, the pen that you need, or the documents that you need puts up a path of resistance that you have to overcome.  This resistance is what leads to procrastination.  Yesterday I prepped a bunch of food for healthy meals and snacks and put them neatly in the fridge.  This helps me overcome the resistance of eating healthy (which is hard enough already) lowers the chances I will just grab something quick from McDonalds.  Now, I am trying to deal with the crush of school books that I have, the amazing amount of reading that I have to do and having them in the right place at the right time with the assigned reading in front of me.

3.  Be willing to work in place.

I have traditionally done most of my work in coffeehouses over the years.  I am not disturbed by a house full of children and I have access to unlimited amount of good coffee.  Unfortunately, this sets me up for another path of resistance to overcome.  If I cannot work in my current location, then I have to pack up and drive to a coffeehouse.  This takes time and effort that can be used on the work at hand. During the course of my Army duties,  I might find myself in an armory, in a barracks (with limited power and Internet),  or even in the field where I might even be with out the most basic comforts, like a desk.   In my current situation, having a good workspace at home with a running agreement with my family for some solitude is critical to working in place.

4.   Shut down distractions

If you have a five hour block of time then 10 to 15 minutes of Facebook and email is fairly reasonable and can be used on breaks or to warm up a bit, but when you only have an hour then 25% of your time is down the tubes.  It also means that I might not have the time for my wife's daily debriefing (not that kind!).  She needs to give me the run down of what happened at work.  This is certainly important, but I have to, now and again,  say "I will be happy to hear about what happened at work, but right now I need to get some work in before I have to go to class."     The distraction issue is one reason I did not go with a Blackberry last week when I got my new phone.  I need some sort of firewall between me and the outside of the world or I will just be reacting not acting. 

5.  Forget the priorities

I realize that this is heresy for some devotees of older "time management."  But if you have your mind managed rather than your time, you can work intuitively instead of artificially.  What good is it if I have 1 hour to work on something and I have a list of 15 things marked with an "A"  or "Urgent"   Then I have to subdivide between the "A" list anyway because I can only do one of them in the hour or two that I have.  

I have been getting a flood of spam from the Window Live Space.  Everyday I get spam comments on my postings and bogus friendship request.  I realize that I have said this before, but this time FOR SURE.  I own the www.fearandtrembling.org  name so it should not be a problem for my regular readers.  I do think that you will need to renew your RSS when I get the new site together.

I also need a radical shift in the content of my blog.  I am seriously constrained about the amount of Political commentary I can make due to my officer commission,  I place all of my personal stuff on my Facebook Page for friends and family,  and these two topics made up about 2/3 of all my post.  I can either focus on Chaplaincy in general,  take it in a purely theological direction or talk about organization issues.  I will have to think this over some more....

Recently a friend of mine expressed concern about Rick Warren's lack of inclusiveness by invoking the name of Jesus during the 2009 Presidential Inauguration.  In the days leading up to the event, the Blogosphere and political commentators were all atwitter over the question of, "Will he or won't he invoke Jesus?" They asked the question as if saying Jesus in a prayer would bring the machinery of democracy to a grinding halt or, from the other perspective, as if not saying Jesus would bring some great harm to the cause of Christ.  This prompted me to reflect again on the religious pluralism that we have in the United States and to attempt a definition that is workable.   This campaign season has been littered with terms of questionable definition.  Terms such as unity and inclusiveness are frequently used with no regard for workable definitions.  What are we to be unified around and into what are we being included?

Let's look to religious pluralism first.   A common understanding of religious pluralism equates to the flattening out of all differences between the various religions so we are left with a civic religion devoid of any particularities.  This position is usually held by the marginally religious or the radically non-religious in our country.  Not surprisingly, it is this segment of our population that generally cries foul when the name of Jesus is invoked (although much less when other faiths display their doctrinal distinctions.  This a topic for another post).  The argument usually proceeds something like this:  If there are those in the audience that might be offended by a particular religious tenet, then it must be ejected from any public display of religion.  Is religious pluralism dependent on a radical privatization of religious expression? If this rule is to be applied to all religious expression it would effectively stop all public religion or at the very least reduce it to shallow platitudes and vague spiritualism.  Surely this cannot be the definition of religious pluralism.

As an Army Chaplain in the making, I minister in a world of intense religious pluralism and must have a more accurate and workable definition of pluralism to uphold the oath I have taken as an Army Officer and honor Jesus Christ as my savior.  There is a constant tension that cannot be addressed with the type of pluralism above.  The military chaplain works right between the first two clauses of the First Amendment.  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."   The Army cannot establish a religion, but they cannot prohibit their soldiers from exercising their beliefs either.  Sending men and women into a combat zone with no provision for their religious expression restricts their first amendment rights.  You cannot just plunk a civilian minister or priest into a war zone and there are few Baptist churches in Afghanistan!  This is especially true of religions such as Catholicism that depend upon priest administered sacraments as part of their right expression. To the legality of prayer in Jesus name, or any other name for that matter, the courts have consistently ruled that public prayers of this nature do not constitute establishment.  The Constitution states that the congress shall make no law establishing religion.  It is a difficult to make the case that public prayers of invocation or benediction are law. 

My aforementioned friend was not, however, referring to the legality of Rick Warren's prayer, but rather that he "missed the point"  of some perceived notion of inclusiveness.  Under my friend's definition of pluralism, Rick Warren would refrain from invoking Jesus for the sake of inclusiveness, but I would put forth that he needs a much different definition of pluralism.  The real virtue of religious pluralism is not the sanitizing of religious distinctions, but rather the true expression of all religions simultaneously under a common adherence to the Rule of Law.   No one is required to give equal value to the religions of others, but under the Constitution we are required to respect the value of people of other faiths.  The great virtue of America is not that we all think or worship alike, but rather than we have diverse views and can peacefully co-exist in relative safety.  Invoking the name of Jesus does not violate the rights of others to worship differently.  There is no compulsion and there is no establishment.  In the same way,  I am not offended or threatened when those of other faiths express themselves.  Someone publicly invoking Allah does no harm to me, my faith or the cause of Christ.  It is not until my safety and welfare have been threatened that my rights have been violated.  

Now specifically to the events of Inauguration day,  Rick Warren's prayer reflected this latter definition of religious pluralism.  He faithfully represented himself and his faith group, but also tipped his hat to the religious freedom that we all enjoy.  It should not be strange to our ears when a Evangelical Christian mentions Christ in a prayer.   This second definition of pluralism is clearly expressed in the following segment of the prayer.

Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.

When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the Earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.

And as for as the invocation of Jesus in his prayer, it was actually a much more privatized direction than I would have gone.

I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus (hay-SOOS), who taught us to pray, Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

Rick Warren successfully walked that line between the first two clauses of the First Amendment the we military chaplains do on a daily basis.  He expressed his faith and recognized the rights of others to do the same.  If inclusiveness means that we will all be able to express our religious, political and personal values in an atmosphere of civility and respect for one another, then I applaud inclusiveness.  If, however, inclusiveness means that I must suppress my free expression of conscience for the sake of a perceived unity, then I want no part of it.  Good job Rick Warren.         

There has been a common narrative about the failing car industry:  The Big Three are failing because they have not made more fuel efficient cars.  You hear this narrative repeated in news reports, you hear it senate hearing, and you hear it screamed by the blogosphere, but is it true?  The Chevy Malibu gets 30 mpg, the Toyota Camry gets about 30 mpg and the Honda Accord gets about 30 mpg.  In fact I was driving around in a National Guard Chevy Impala all over the state doing military business and I got 34 mpg ALL WEEK in that larger car!

The call is for the Big Three to offer more hybrids, but although no specific numbers are known, Toyota is thought to LOSE money on every single Prius sold!  Is this the magic formula for bringing the Big Three back to profitability?  Selling cars at a loss?  This sounds like a recipe for AMTRAK part II.  Will the car “czar” be approving designs as they come off the drafting board?  Will congress members take up clay modeling?  Maybe there will be a special commission to get rid of that goofy piece of chrome on the front fender of the new Ford Focus? (Ok, I can go along with this one)

The fact is that Toyota’s and Honda’s sales numbers are down nearly as much as the domestic automakers, but these companies do not have the debilitating legacy cost of UAW workers and their car plants are heavily subsidized by the southern states in which they reside in the form of tax breaks and incentives.  This puts them in a much better position to weather the downturn that is more a function of the credit crisis than it is gas prices or car design.  The UAW is substantially out of line with the wages of any other industry in the United States.  When the sales go down, the Big Three still have to keep paying workers for not working and retirement benefits that are second to none!

I am all about buying great gas mileage hatchbacks (this is a personal choice) but the big three have to sell a full size explorer to actually make a profit on a car considering their labor environment.  Is it any wonder that these are the vehicles that they have focused on for the past 10 years?  Have the “evil” car companies forced us to buy SUV’s?  People have been buying these SUVs for 10 years and car companies actually make a profit when they sell one.  The gas price surge of the past 3 years has hurt these sales, but with gas going back down, is there any doubt that Americans will go back to big vehicles?  I love my Ford Explorer for its utility, safety and reliability and now that I can fill the tank for $35 instead of $80, I love it all the more!

Let’s just call this bail out what it is.  It is, or should be, a short term lift for the companies until the economy starts to turn around again and the money starts flowing through the credit market again. If a car “czar” does anything, they should help the car companies achieve parity with other car makers in the area of labor.

This is from an MSNBC article on China’s reaction to the new Guns and Roses album, “In an article Monday headlined "American band releases album venomously attacking China," the Global Times said unidentified Chinese Internet users had described the album as part of a plot by some in the West to "grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn."

I had high hopes for the Top Secret plan to use Axel Rose to topple the Chinese Government, but it looks like that is all up in smoke now.  It is all up to Lindsay Lohan now.  Godspeed Lindsay, Godspeed.

Every now and again I have these burst of organizational inspiration.  They generally come when my life is spinning out of control and I feel the need to grab the reigns with at least a symbolic gesture.  Every time this happens I come up with new methodologies for living or techniques for bringing order to the chaos.  As time passes, many of these ideas fall by the way side because they are more complex than they need to be or because the idea just does not fix a problem that is great enough to warrant the extra effort.  BUT,  some of those ideas carry on and continue in my arsenal after they have proved effective.  By far, one of the greatest things I have ever done in this area is sock management.

My family has a "sock basket" that all socks go into to be sorted.  This basket is always full and an inordinate amount of time is spent rustling through this basket look for a matching pair.  This is almost always when someone is late for school or work and it causes a great deal of frustration.  I was part of this menagerie until I got smart.  A man needs only 2 kinds of socks for daily use: black socks and white socks.   If you are a soldier, you also need green socks, so most men need 2 kinds and some men need 3.  Anyway...  One day I threw away every sock that I owned and bought a large package of identical white socks and a large package of identical black socks.  I then roll each sock individually in a style that I learned in Basic Training.  To do this you... 1. lay out the sock flat  2.  Roll it up tightly like a Little Debbie Swiss Cake (starting at the toe) 3. Roll the upper few inches of the sock around the rest of the sock.  I never have to worry about matching socks.  I never worry about a sock that goes missing for a period of time.  I never have to root through that confounded sock basket!  Then every 6 months or so, I throw all of my socks away and start over again.  I also do the same thing with my white t-shirts and underwear. 

I recently dumped the sock basket onto the table, covered it in lighter fluid and burnt it in the grill out back.  I mistakenly thought that this would encourage my family to follow suit on my technique.  I was wrong.  The little sock basket has been replaced by one of the regular laundry baskets and it is larger and fuller than ever!   When I asked my daughter (K) to follow my lead she said, "But Dad,  I like pretty socks..."   I suppose that there is no arguing with that kind of girl logic.  There is also no good way to roll women's and girl's underwear.  I have given up on that project.   I must be content with my personal items being managed in this way because training women to do something with their panties other than shoving them into an amorphous drawer full of sundries is futile.  And another thing: Why do women's shirts button backwards?   It is maddening.

In a bizarre turn of events an investigation team has concluded that the Iron carrier Edmund Fitzgerald did not sink due to the November 10, 1975 storm that was previously blamed for her disappearance.  Lead investigator, Roger M. Cook said "I am shocked at the daring displayed by the Somali pirates in their hijacking of a The Fitz."  It is unclear how the Somalis were able to sail the vessel to the open waters of the Atlantic, but Cook went on further to say, "...they (the Somalis) are tricky like that."  

Back in the eighties and nineties I was exposed to several time management techniques that had an emphasis on priority making.  Anyone who has read Steven Covey or used a Franklin Planner knows that priority setting is a central component to their systems.   One of the reasons that I have gone down the GTD path is that it never ask me to prioritize my projects and task with an A, B or C.   GTD reflects the way my mind works.  I cannot program my brain to think in terms of priorities and I suspect that many other people cannot either.  While driving in the car today I heard the perfect song to illustrate the way most people really think.   It is one of the greatest songs ever,  Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell.

The song is about a man who works the telephone lines in the wide open expanse of the Midwestern plains.  As he is driving along he is thinking about his job, "Lookin' in the sun for another overload." But intermittently his mind moves to a love that is either lost or far away, "I hear you singing in the wire. I can hear you thru the whine."  Back and forth the lineman's mind wanders from the most mundane, "And if it snows that stretch down south,won't ever stand the strain."  to the most deeply reflective, "And I need you more than want you. And I want you for all time."  (This is one of the best song lines ever written).   How should the Wichita Lineman prioritize the stretch of line down south and his love for the girl?   This guy has to make sure the lines stay up and he needs to love the girl.  His brain just cannot assign an A, B or C to these parts of his life and neither could I. 

Picking up milk from the store may sound unimportant compared to writing a thesis, but somehow they both pop into my head with equal force if neither are accomplished.  As a church pastor,  I have never been able to keep my "job" confined to  9a to 5p Monday through Friday (I had a church member that insisted that Sunday was not considered a workday for me!) and why should I?   I certainly did not stop being a husband or father during those times that I was doing pastoral things.   I stopped trying to compartmentalize my life a long time ago so why should my organizational system force me to prioritize all of these different responsibilities in my life?   They ALL have to get done one way or another.

I am not saying that getting milk is more important than the love that I have for my wife, but rather I want to work intuitively through out my day.  GTD allows me to put the "cranking widgets" items into the GTD system so my mind is more free to think about the deeper things of life.  This is why "Figuring out the doctrine of the incarnation of Christ" is never going to find its way on to my projects list and I will never schedule "Love my wife."   My short term memory cannot prioritize those things correctly, so I let the system take care of the mundane task for me.  In this way my mind is free to really delve into the real priorities of life.

Now some of you hardcore GTDers might ask, "What is the NEXT ACTION on the Wichita Lineman's lost love?"   Let's not push the analogy too far...

The United States Government is about to sink untold billions into an industry that will not sell me the car that I want.  I like to put pencil to paper and work out the numbers on my transportation options and the Ford Fiesta Diesel passes the mustard for my family's needs.  This car gets 62.5 MPG on the highway on diesel!  "But Diesel is more expensive!"  many people will tell you, but is it twice as expensive? Right now diesel is 50% higher than gasoline and the differential is bound to close soon.  Diesel, by their nature are also more durable due to the heavy duty construction and the lubricating value of the fuel itself.

I own a 2002 Ford Explorer that is fantastic.  I get 18 to 23 MPG in my Explorer, but if you factor in the fact that I have 6 passengers (and often 7) then the gas mileage on the Explorer is not that bad.  With a large family I need something larger than average, but 90% of the miles that we drive are with 4 or less passengers, so a second car that is an econo-box makes financial sense.  My round trip (with in and around mileage) for a drill weekend is about 600 miles.  If I had the Ford Fiesta Diesel this would work out to be about $28 dollars in fuel cost at today's prices.  My Saab convertible makes the same trip on about $50 dollars worth of fuel.  The Explorer would take closer to $70 for the same trip (at today's prices which are surely not going to last!)  When diesel gets closer to Gasoline (and is sometimes cheaper) this differential grows even more.

BUT,  The Big Three Automakers will not sell us cars that they already sell around the world.  It is their belief that we will not buy these kind of cars.  These are the same three companies that are on the verge of bankruptcy.  Lee Iacocca saved and transformed Chrysler in the early 80s by quickly retooling to build cars that people wanted to buy.  Is there a Lee Iacocca visionary in GM right now that will use the government investment wisely or will it be more of the same.   One of my favorite cars of all time was my Gold 1983 Horizon with a 2.2 and 35 mpg.  I spent very little for it, got great gas mileage and literally drove the wheels off of it (it has 294,000 miles when they towed it away). 

Of course, the biggest problem with the Big Three is the UAW.  The fact is that Honda and Toyota do not have to deal with the UAW and The Big Three have legacy cost that are eating them alive.   If the UAW does not make serious concessions, then they are going to kill their golden goose.  This whole situation seems like a crisis in the making.  No real innovation sitting in our driveways (sure, they have cool things at the car show!), poor management, cannibalistic unions,  and an economic recession are taking their toll.  Part of me wants these companies to just fail, but the harm to the nation,if that happens, is too great.  I just hope the car companies do not start the "It is patriotic to but an American car" ads like they had in the late 70's and early 80's.  The patriotic thing to do is build a great car that everyone wants to buy! 

All summer long I was subjected to an endless stream of PowerPoint Presentations that were usually no more than the standard outline form projected on the screen with ACU print backgrounds to make sure you remember that you are in the Army.   This experience has led me to question the purpose and execution of PowerPoints.  If a slide presentation is mind numbingly boring, is it really accomplishing what it is intended for: Education?   That is a pretty easy question to answer in my mind. 

It seems as though presenters use the PowerPoints slides to bolster their lack of preparation (In the Army its often a case of "Give me your flash drive, you have a class to teach in an hour) or or poor presentation skills.  One would think that the Chaplain School would have a good supply of those who can get before crowd and bring a message, but I believe the that Chaplains do not bring their pulpit skills into the presentations that they are making.  This is probably due to some imaginary and unconscious  division that we sometimes make between secular and sacred communications. 

On my plate right now I have several presentation projects on the horizon of both small and large proportions.   I have a suicide prevention briefing to do on the next drill weekend and I can say that the suicide training that we received at CH-BOLC was the worst four hours I had ever experienced in a classroom.  This is an important topic and it deserves to be taught with some real consideration for effectiveness.   The second project is the "How to Avoid marrying a JERK"  seminar that I have planned for spring.  Dr. John Van Epp developed the material and has an effective presentation style that is comfortable and disarming, but this skill masks over the somewhat lackluster PowerPoint slides that come with the teaching materials.   If that PowerPoint is combined with a less skillful presenter, then there is an audience out there that is in for a world of hurt.

Right now there seems to be a convergence of disciplines in my life that is pointing toward the solution.   First of all, my New Testament professor, Jonathan Pennington,  has a refreshing narrative/storytelling focus to the study of the Gospels that has been beneficial to my understanding of the Gospels. The often times speculative "behind the text" analysis of the scriptures leaves me cold.  I have also found a website that talks about using storytelling techniques to create your presentations.  I hope that a Narrative technique,  the use of my pulpit skills and a minimalist approach to slide creation will go along way in creating presentations that pop instead of sink.  Despite accusations to the contrary, I don't do this sort of thing just to hear myself talk.

Request #1

I am putting together a set of worship materials for military worship services.  There are are all kinds of free bibles in the KJV (or NIV) that I can get, but I use the ESV to preach and teach.  I would like to have a set of about 30 ESV paperback bibles that I can ruggedize with 100 MPH Tape and take with me from unit to unit.    This gives me an opportunity to put a solid translation in their hands and everyone knows how annoying it is to have a different translation than the preacher.

I am asking that you consider purchasing a paperback ESV Bble from this link and send it to my address:

J Kent Kroencke

107 Fenley Ave.  APT K3

Louisville, KY 40207

 

Request #2

I am also trying to develop a hymnal that I can put together.  This is a difficult project and I would like to hear the input of my readers.  There are several factors that have to be taken into account.

1.  There are Christians of various denominations in military worship services.

2.  There are Christians of various ethnic background in military worship services .  For example, a Caucasian church usually worships much differently than an African American church.

3.  The songs should be able to be sung A Cappella sing instruments and musicians care often in short supply.

4  The songs should be of a timeless nature and well tested theologically.  I have seen modern praise music totally fall flat in a field environment because it is too hard to sing and has an appeal limited to evangelical types.  I have observed that worship that is closer to being liturgical in nature is the most effective worship in this context since it grounds the experience in something well known "from back home."  You cannot underestimate the power of the familiar to a soldier plucked from his home and put in the desert.  

Put your thinking caps on and send your recommendations to  jkroencke@msn.com

1.  He has an inordinate fear of elves

2.  When ever he hears the phrase "even more so" he compulsively says "ruvydumso" in his head and even out loud at times.

3.  He likes any song with a "Whoooo Hooooo" in it.  For example,  Midnight Train to Georgia or Song #2 by Blur. 

4. J must have his t-shirts and underwear rolled military style in his dresser drawer to feel as if his world is under control.

5.  J was once kicked off the Guitar Hero display at Wal-Mart by store employees so an eight year old could have a turn.  This is turn prompted his wife to buy the game for Christmas so she would stop being embarrassed.

6.  J rubs his toes on a blanket he has had for 38 years.

7.  He gave himself carpel tunnel by playing pinball too much in College and still has shooting pains in his hands now and again.

8.  J cannot preach with his glasses on.

9.  He thinks that the hatchback is the ultimate form for a car.

10.  He has had a recurring dream that he was operating an underground ring of pizza makers that always gets raided by fascist government storm troopers in a twisted dystopia.  He always escapes to make more pizzas, but just barely. 

In seminary, it is common for students to slip almost imperceptibly into a pattern where they dissect the Scriptures rather than be nourished by them. Systematic theology, hermeneutics, an almost endless stream of textbooks, and memorization of Koine Greek noun declinations can lead someone, if left unchecked, to a place in which their faith is void of the wonder of Jesus Christ. After several years of turmoil as a local church pastor, I thought that academia would be a place of rest and revival for me, but it was only the trading of one diversion for another. This is not to say that there is no value of either turmoil or academia, but when either turmoil or learning come without the love for Christ, wilderness becomes just wilderness and not a place where ones faith is tried, tested and grown. As I read Christ is Lord, it reveals both what I have become and what I should be as a Christian.

I was surprised when I first saw Anne Rice’s Christ is Lord on the syllabus for Introduction to New Testament. I was at Chaplain School at the time and none of the chaplains around me had read the book, but I was eager for a first take from somebody. I had read the entire Vampire Chronicles after finding Interview with the Vampire in the liner notes of the 1985 album, Dream of the Blue Turtles, by Sting. The song Moon over Bourbon Street is written about the protagonist of Interview with the Vampire, Louis. For an unknown reason, I began by reading the second book in the series, The Vampire Lestat, also released in 1985.

I was drawn into the world that Anne Rice had created and read the books in just a few sittings. Being only 14 at the time, I had more uninterrupted time for this kind of reading. Rice’s Vampire series dramatically and skillfully dealt with issues of Good and Evil in sincere and compelling manner. However, Rice’s supernatural world was devoid of God, at least from the perspective of Lestat, and left many readers with more of a romantic fascination with the undead, than with hearts that earnestly sought the answers to larger questions about God.

I enjoyed the Vampire Chronicle series and count the books among the most memorable of my pre-Christian days, but after my conversion at age 22 and 15 years studying the scriptures I brought some negative preconceptions of what Christ the Lord would be like. Would this book have the same homoerotic undertones of the Vampire Chronicles? Jesus depicted as a homosexual is a perspective that several scholars have taken in recent years. Would Jesus be like the child vampire Claudia from Interview? It would not be a stretch to write a depiction of Christ as a child who is not really a child. Or would Rice depict Jesus as a type of Lestat; relishing in his supernatural power? I knew that Anne Rice had a talent for crafting a story, but what preconceptions about Christ did she bring to her writing? These are the circumstances that I found myself as I began to read this book.

The opening chapters of Christ the Lord were awkward. It’s as if Rice had the same struggles that many of us do: balancing raw historical data with what that data truly means to the narrative. From my background of reading and using academic commentaries and biblical resources, I recognized a laundry list of these historical/contextual facts that one might see in a “history and context” heading preceding an expositional commentary. It was as if the bare facts were being included and checked off as she went. Jesus and his family spoke Aramaic: CHECK. There was a large Jewish community at Alexandria at the turn of the millennium: CHECK. There are apocryphal accounts of Jesus performing miracles as a small child: CHECK. It is also clear that Rice desires to protect distinctly Roman Catholic doctrines such as the perpetual virginity of Mary. This is displayed by Rice’s depiction of James, the bother of Jesus and future leader of the church at Jerusalem, as the older brother apparently not born of Mary and another plot line used to explain the other brothers and sisters of Jesus.

At this point in the book I had to make a decision. Would I approach the rest of this book as I would a systematic theology tome and perform a point by point critique of the theological statements made by Rice as she told this narrative of the young Jesus? I decided that I would allow the narrative to play itself out and reserve judgment as to what Rice was trying to say about Jesus in her historical fiction. As in our reading of scripture, it is poor scholarship to stretch a literary genre past its intended purpose. We cannot treat the Bible in the same way we would treat a science text book and I would not push this fictional book to be something along the lines of Calvin’s institutes. I have more to say concerning Rice’s Roman Catholic perspective, but I will save that for my conclusions.

When I let go of these stringent theological requirements for Christ the Lord , I found myself being caught up in the story and could recognize one of the most enduring and important questions that has been asked since the first century: What does it mean for God Himself to become flesh and dwell with men? I wrote a paper last semester concerning the two natures of Jesus, divine and human, and how the Chalcedonian Creed states that both natures exist in Jesus without mingling. This may seem like an academic question along the lines of “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”, but the idea is central to the Christian faith. If Jesus is not fully God then his sacrifice would not be sufficient for our salvation and if He is not fully man then He cannot die a substitutionary death for our sins. If one accepts this doctrine, then a further question would be: “What would this God/man be like?” I suppose that one could leave the discussion on the doorstep of Chalcedon’s precise, if hard to imagine, construction; but what Christian has not wondered in his or her heart what kind of child Jesus was if he had a fully divine nature or were puzzled as they read in the scriptures that Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus when Jesus had the power, and obviously the inclination, to raise Lazarus from the dead. How could Jesus, who has the attributes of God, not know the “day or hour” in which He would return?

Working backwards from the end of the book I will provide one example of how Anne Rice imagines this God/man as a small child. In the last chapter it is stated that God gave Jesus to Mary and Joseph to be raised, not to the priest of the Temple or to the Pharisees. God being the sovereign and intentional kind of God that he is can be said to have had a specific purpose for this. I believe that one can safely assume that Jesus was intended to grow up with, be influenced by, and experience life as a part of a family. Rice correctly depicts the family of Jesus not being the modern version of the nuclear family with Joseph, Mary, and the kids, but rather an extended clan that lives, works, sleeps, eats and even dies together as a large group. This would answer the question that many people have about Mary and Joseph “losing” Jesus in Luke 2:41-52 when they started for home after visiting Jerusalem. Rice discretely portrays Jesus’ personality being shaped and influenced by those around him. When Jesus clears the Temple of the moneychangers in John 2:13-17, His words and attitudes were foreshadowed by his Uncle Cleopas, a postulated brother of Mary. Joseph is portrayed as a quiet and patient man who is always concerned about the timing of what he tells Jesus about the circumstances of His own birth, a trait seen in Jesus throughout the Gospels with His own disciples. Jesus’ attitude toward women is seen in His relationship with little Salome, a cousin. Jesus is not portrayed, as I feared, as a strange man-child, but rather as a young boy who does not know exactly who he is. The larger arc of this story is Jesus discovering the circumstances of his birth from those around him.

Another striking feature about Rice’s book is the balanced portrayal of the various groups of people who interacted during this period in History. The Romans are not portrayed as evil conquerors, but rather as a stern police force that is concerned mostly with peace and order. There is a powerful scene in which the extended clan encounters a force of Roman soldiers who are searching for insurgents. Pharisees, for Rice, are more sympathetic characters than depicted in most Baptist sermons that I have heard and are shown to have a variety of motivations among their ranks. Rice handles these groups and their interaction with accurate detail and avoids the stereotyping that detracts from a true understanding of the Gospels and the times in which they were written. It is clear that Rice has thoroughly researched this era and attempted to thoughtfully recreate it in a way that communicates the essence of the times.

One of the most moving sections of the book is a postscript that Rice includes at the end of this novel. Rice gives a detailed and unflinching account of her movement away from and then back to the church. Rice also writes a scathing and well reasoned indictment of those who call themselves New Testament scholars, yet despise Christ. Rice not only attacks their attitude, but questions their scholarship as well. Rice correctly states that much of what passes for scholarship in the field of New Testament studies is a collection of unfounded assumptions built upon unfounded assumptions with a predetermined position that the four Canonical Gospels are somehow not credible witnesses while depending on questionable and/or obscure resources for their own theories. What I hear from Anne Rice in both the text of her narrative and in the postscript is that she is a woman who has a genuine love for Jesus Christ, believes that He is the Son of God and desires know Him more.

I am reminded of an encounter that I had at Army Chaplain School after a long day of learning the origins and basic tenants of Islam. The more I heard about Mohammed and Islam, the greater love and appreciation I had for Jesus Christ. It was not the religion of Christianity that I grew in love for, but rather the person of Jesus Christ Himself. I looked to my right and a young Catholic priest was sitting next to me during the presentation. Despite the gulf between our respective doctrinal positions, this priest did not seem like the “separated brother” ( a Roman Catholic term for Protestants) that I once viewed him as. There are isolated points within Christ the Lord that I disagree with, but like that day in Chaplain School, I see past the doctrinal differences and see Anne Rice as women after God’s heart and her story as a devotional to that love.

On a personal note, this book reminds me of why I study the scriptures and why it is important to discuss the difference, for example, between Jesus as homoousis (of the same essence of the Father) and homoiousis (of like essence with the Father). The Christian faith is all about discovering who Jesus is, what he did for us and what he continues to do for us. Systematic theologies are one way to approach the big questions and narratives such as this fine “sanctified” fiction are an important second way. This book rekindles the wonder that I should feel when I consider Jesus Christ. This book is not perfect in its portrayal of the Lord but no less so than any systematic theology that I have read!

This morning,  Kaiser (my third grade son), asked if he could walk to school.  My initial reaction was, "No!" As I thought about the request, I wondered, "Why not?"   the school is just six blocks down the road, we are in one of the safest areas of Louisville and most importantly, I was a "free range" kid at a much younger age than Kaiser.  I was walking to school by myself from the very first day of Kindergarten (although my mother followed me at a stealthy distance).  I went to the nearby Lytle Park, went to my two best friends' houses (Kevin Boske and Randy Aubin), and generally rode my little yellow Schwinn Swinger with banana seat wherever I wanted to go.  Are there really more dangerous psychopaths roaming our streets in 2008 than in 1978?  Are the cars and traffic more deadly? 

I have also watched many parents at my children's functions be particularly smothering of their sons.  Sometimes it sounds like a twisted chorus of "Sit down,  be quiet, stop playing so rough, and stop running."  There are times when little boys need to be reigned in, but when do they get to go be boys?  I took a walk with Kaiser the other day and he showed me all the places that the fence around our apartment complex can be breached easily,  he and his friend's "weapons" cache, and other various landmarks where great adventures have taken place (either real or imagined).   It reminded me that I spent a great deal of time playing along the railroad tracks that run through Lytle park.  There was thick brush that separated the tracks from the rest of the park which made for fantastic forts, trails and hiding places.  The brush has been cleared away now  and I cannot help to think that we are concerned about maintaining the natural habitat of frogs, but not the natural habit of 8 year old boys. 

I want my son to go and do what sons ought to do: explore, create, destroy, conquer, build, and generally bring order to his little world.  I was afforded a great amount of freedom by my parents and I appreciate that now that I am an adult.  When it was time for me to go off on a hiking trip to New Mexico with Boy Scouts, or to basic training, or off to college, I was comfortable heading out into the world on my own.  Sometimes, I got hurt (like the two deep scars on my thumb and for finger from pocket knives and the one on my cheek from a picket fence that broke when I fell climbed it, and even a broken wrist when I crashed a bike I was using to escape from a bully in Jr. High) and sometimes there were conflicts with other boys, but in the end my flesh was sewn up and I learned a few lessons about getting along with other people.  I would not have learned these lessons if my mommy stepped in every time there was trouble.  She did drive me to the emergency room on several occasions; Thanks Mom.

When Kaiser was about three, Tracy made the statement, "I don't want my son playing with guns or playing violently."   I responded by explaining to her that this was a losing battle. Soon after she said this, Kaiser bit his morning toast into the shape of a gun and started to fire it.  It is not about squelching the aggressiveness of boys,  it is about giving them a foundation of values to guide and focus that aggression.   The next time Kaiser and I take a walk,  maybe I will breach the fence with him and give him some hints on fort building.  We never really grow out of it...

I really enjoy putting duct tape on things (100mph tape as it is known in the Army) and you can make run of the mill civilian objects into high-speed/low-drag military gear that would feel at home in any foot locker or duffle bag in the COE (contemporary operating environment).  The first item shown here is a standard ESV leather bound bible that has been ruggedized with some duct tape and an exact-o knife.  I was tired of my bible falling open and getting squished in my ruck sack,  so I fashioned this cover that has embedded rare earth magnets in the back flap and keeps the bible closed under most conditions.  I also have a duct tape cross on the front made of successive layers of ever-widening pieces of tape.  The duct tape also protects it from the elements and, a more likely scenario, coffee spills.   In the future, I will make duct tape pockets on the inside to house ready-to-go sermon printed on water-proof 3x5 cards, invocations and benedictions, and other Chaplain items ready to preach on the fly.

In the next picture is my ruggedized thumb drive.   I bought a "sport" thumb drive that I kept on my dog tags, but after a week in the field, it was filled to the brim with sweat.  I know many are saying "ewwwwww' right now, but you go out into the South Carolina heat with all of your body armor and TA-50 without sweating a bit!  My answer to the problem was a new duct tape cover,  a 550 cord lanyard to make it easier to find in my pocket, and a data encryption program that protects the contents.   On the subject of OPSEC,  I cannot believe how many troops walk around with their entire life on unencrypted  thumb drives in combat zones!  Anyway....  I am always in search of things to duct tape.   I recently duct taped the really nice box that my Ipod classic came boxed in and now use it to store all of my loose name tapes and unit patches for my ACUs.  

I was sitting in a coffee house in Sullivan, Illinois (the only coffee house for miles) and I looked down at my cell phone with SEVEN missed calls in rapid succession from Tracy.  "Hmmmm" I said "That must be important."   I called Tracy back and nearly the first words out of her mouth were "I'm PREGNANT."   Well that was interesting news.  Apparently, the relationship strengthening of the previous month had an unanticipated consequence.  As regular as clockwork, whenever God strengthens us financially, spiritually and emotionally, there is about to be another challenge thrown into the mix.   I should be expecting it by now that the "other  shoe" is always going to drop!

Tracy is 38 and I am 37, so it is not like we are too old to have more kids, but both of us had envisioned moving into the next phase of our life and that will now take some radical revision, but such is the Christian life lived in faith.  After the initial shock, I have to remember that when I look at Eleanor (another surprise), I cannot imagine not having her in our family.  We were a little bit freaked out upon news of her arrival, but it was well within the providence of God to bless us with Eleanor.   Now we will have children born in every place that we have lived:  Carbondale, Tolono and Louisville.   The strangest thing is that more than one doctor has told Tracy that she should not be able to have babies.  I look back on the first year of our marriage when Tracy was unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant with our first child together and have to laugh at the conversations that I had with Tracy trying to reassure her that one way or another, it was going to work out. 

Now we are full on into the naming game.  If,  (and I am praying for this) the baby is a boy, he will be named Dietrich Allen after Dietrich Bonhoeffer the Lutheran theologian/Nazi resistance fighter and my Father, Allen Kroencke.   A girl name, however, is up for grabs.  The current list is Charlotte, Violet, Vivian, Gwendolyn,  Greta,  Virginia, or Claire.  Any opinions or suggestions?   With three girls already, we are pulling for a boy, but I refuse to get my hopes up and be will be thankful for whatever God gives us. Its a good thing that I am not going on this deployment this week!  I am not sure Tracy would be hot on the idea of having the baby without me around!  If the timing works out, the baby will be about 2 before I am qualified for a deployment and Eleanor will be starting kindergarten.   Tracy would be able to stay at home, if she chooses, while I am deployed. 

I have just returned from attending a Family Readiness Group meeting and talked to many spouses that are just starting to feel the pain of having their soldier down range.  After we finished with all the official business we had a time to talk about what they were going through.  I was also able to share some observations with the group and try to pull together many of the comments that I heard into a common theme.  That theme is the lack of military community for National Guard Families. 

The lack of military community manifest itself in many way.  Many parents were having troubles with  school districts who have little understanding of the needs of children with deployed parents.  I would like to think that this is mostly from ignorance of the issue, but I have heard a few stories that have had more than a little malice to them as well.  I commend those school districts out there that have taken the time to understand the issue and how best to serve these children.

Many of the spouses have told me stories (including my own) of how upon stating that their soldier was deployed, found themselves defending the war to good intentioned people who were expressing sympathy by bashing the President.  There are military families that are for the war and those who are against the war, but the fact is that most of those families do not want to hear a political diatribe from people on either side of the issue.  There is an understanding in military communities that the politics of the war do not matter as much as the fact that all the families and soldiers are in this together.  The civilian government makes the decisions and the US Military follows those orders. 

Guard families do not usually begin a deployment viewing themselves as an "Army family", but most families quickly realize that they speak a different language than their civilian friends and even some of their close relatives.  It is hard to explain, but their is a real sense of connectedness between military people and military families that is not shared by the outside world.  On active duty Army, this connection is strong and quick to form, but the in Guard and Reserves in takes more work due to the fact that our Guard families are spread out among all of the communities of Illinois.  Guard families often feel alone and misunderstood. 

People  treat you different when your soldier is deployed.  They act as if you are somehow incomplete. Everyone who talked to Tracy seemed to be more interested in when "J was coming home" instead of being interested in her.  This was often accompanied by an "I will pray for you."  Guard spouses are not marking time when their soldier is gone, they are living their lives.  Continue to pray for their families,  but also take their kids out for ice cream and a movie now and again.  Go over and change the oil in their car, listen to the strange noise that it is making when you put it in reverse,  Mow their lawn,  clean out their gutters, take their son to his Cub Scout meeting and most importantly don't give them your pity. They might be having a difficult time keeping it all together, but they don't have a disease.

I said in the title that these are the challenges of being a National Guard family, not absolute road blocks.  We might have to work harder at it, but our families can seek each other out and build that community that the Active duty families already have.  We can use the Internet, the telephone and special events to get together with people who are suffering the same things that we are.  It is not to commiserate with one another, it is to support one another and be around those who understand what we are going through.  In this way our families can get a glimpse of the bigger picture and learn that their soldier (and they themselves) is part of something much bigger than themselves.  When I go into public I always receive praise from those who are proud of me and thankful for my service as a soldier, but I say that I am proud of my family and the families of all our soldiers who suffer and sacrifice right along side every one who puts on the uniform.

Let's recap...

1.  Don't make Military spouses defend their soldier's service to their country.

2.  Understand that their children have special needs during the deployment and might act up at school or act differently in general.

3.  The US Armed Forces are making sure that the soldiers have three hots, a cot, clothes on their back, a vehicle that works (and that is armored!) and a job to do.  The National Guard family might not have that kind of quality attention.

4.  The greatest support you can give a solider is the piece of mind that there is a community of friends and family that have come together to take care of their family while they are doing a dangerous job.

Supporting the troops takes more sacrifice than a putting a yellow ribbon on your car.  Our nation is at war and most people feel absolutely none of the effects of that war.  It is easy to forget about the deep sacrifices that our Military personnel are making.  

Back in July of 2006, one of the first post that I made in this blog was about my physical fitness.  At that point I was 235 lbs and I soon went to an even higher all time weight of 252 by January of 2007.  Since that shocker of a weigh-in and the decision to go back into the Army,  I have been changing my eating and exercise habits.  I have yo-yo-ed a bit in my fitness level and weight, but the trend has been downward.  As of this week I am at 210 lbs and 21% body fat and I increased my APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) from a pathetic 142 in May to 211 at last month's test.   the real test is whether I can improve on that score without someone forcing me to get out of bed at 0430 every morning to run or do muscle failure.

There are several more considerations that I have included as part of my physical fitness routine.  First of all, I have to fit it in with the tremendous amount of school work that i have to do and the responsibilities I have to my family. Second,  and this is probably the most important, I need to create a fitness regime that will get me to a 300 PT score without killing me.   The Army is filled with guys my age that have done too many sit-ups, jumped out of too many planes and ran on too much concrete.  Now they have lingering injuries.  If I am going to be ready for the physical strain of a deployment (wearing body armor 16 hours a day in burning desert or high altitude mountain regions), and do so will in my 40's  (coming up fast),  then I am going to have to rethink the mindless pounding out of sit-ups and knee wrecking miles on the road to pass my APFT.  I have never been injury prone, but I do not want to push my luck. 

I have been looking at (and actually tried) Pilates as an exercise regime that will help me achieve my goals.  Despite many of my Army comrades saying things such as, "dude, that is kinda gay",  I think it might be a good way to improve my functional strength,  prevent injury and do it all for the long term.  I am also going to resist doing the long distance runs like marathons.  You do not have to run marathon distances to max the 2 mile run! I am only 2 minutes off my max the way it is, so I am not going to hurt myself to shatter that max by a minute or more.   I am not much of a swimmer, but that is another  low impact way to build strength and improve my cardio. I will also go back to weight lifting, but do all of my exercises on a Swiss ball with dumb-bells.  This is a hint from my XO and it will keep me from trying to go for bulk and keep me focused on functional strength.

So,  it has taken two years, but I have dropped 42 lbs.   I have an ultimate goal of 189 (so I can pass the weight limits without being taped for body composition), but for now I am going to shoot for that magic number of 199.  210 has been a giant plateau for me in the last year, so I need a special effort to bust through and then I have just 10 lbs more to reach my goal.    Chaplain school was another big wake up call for me.  As far as I have come, I have a lot more to go to be a 40 something chaplain that is deployable and can be deployed without wrecking my body.  I want to be able to retire from the Army without knee or hip replacement surgery!

I was studying Sunday afternoon when I noticed that the wind was picking up a bit.  I checked weather.com and saw that hurricane Ike was moving up through Illinois and I figured that this wind was from that disturbance.  Within an hour of checking the weather, the wind really started to pick up.  Although there was not a drop of rain, the winds in Louisville were gusting up to 80mph according to the Bowman Field metrological station and trees started to come down all around our apartment complex.  My Saturn got a branch through the windshield and other cars in the complex were totally covered by debris.  As I drove into the entrance of the Village Manor, the road was blocked by an enormous tree that had come up at the roots.  The first tree pictured here actually fell on, or rather around, a guy who was running to move his truck.  Out of nowhere he found himself surrounded by this massive tree!  There were about five or six of this size tree around the apartment complex and many more pieces of tree laying about after the storm. 

It was not long until the power went out and I knew that it was going to be some time before it was restored.  We broke out the candles, drank all the milk, and waited for the lights to come back.  Monday morning came and we found that the power outage was city wide and 350.000 people were without power.  LG&E had a Press conference that morning stating it would be 10 to 14 days before all the power would be restored!  Apparently our water heater has an electric pilot light, so instead of searching for a shower for two weeks, I packed up the cars and went to my parent's house in Mattoon.  I had some Guard duty at the end of the week anyway, so I will just stay here and, hopefully, Tracy and the kids will head back on Sunday.  Until then, I will get a head start on some chaplain duties ahead of my units deployment and Tracy can visit some Illinois friends.  Strangely enough, no one in Mattoon even heard about the damage in Louisville.  All the news has been focused on Texas, I suppose.