Ran Gainesville's Turkey Trot 10K Race This Morning

In the grand scheme of things, I have to admit to not being a morning person.  Part of this has to do with my work schedule, which sees me finishing my shift at midnight, with one or two more hours before I succumb to sleep.  So getting up around six or seven to run a race (and they're almost always held early in the morning) by itself puts me square into the discomfort zone.  Add to that the fact that the humidity outside during this time of the day is usually very high,  and so I already had a couple of strikes against me when I set out on the 2016 Turkey Trot 10K (6.2 miles) race, held annually in Gainesville at the Tacachale center off Waldo Road and 16th Avenue.  Oh, I forgot to mention that I turned 60 last month and could stand to lose about 20 pounds...

This Turkey Trot was my third in Gainesville...back in 1974 and 75 I ran a couple of shorter races with the same title (naturally centered around Thanksgiving, too) in Davie, Florida.  I am very familiar with the course, which is a mixture of dirt trails, pine needle paths, and asphalt roads that wind through and around the center, which provides residency and care for the disadvantaged.  I felt pretty good physically this time around, in spite of the previously expressed reservations, as I drove into the place...the folks running this event were fantastic directing the parking, which went flawlessly.  I paid the entry fee, got my tee-shirt (see picture), and pinned on my number...3443.  I could tell that there seemed to be a high number of participants...later I found out that 430 finished the 10K race.  I maneuvered myself before the start of the race into the midst of the throng, and when it began a little past 8:30, it still took me 15 seconds to even reach the starting line.  And as expected, for the first two miles or so, I focused my efforts on trying to avoid being trampled or trampling others.  Eventually, though, the crowd thinned and I was able to enjoy the experience more.  Still, I had to go it slowly at first, and this was reflected in my final time...

My official time given on the race results website [link] was 1:01:13, more than four minutes slower than my 2014 time.  In my gender/age group (m/60-64) I finished in fifth place out of nine...smack dab in the middle.  For the entire finishing field, I was in 227th place out of the 430.  I'm not disappointed with running the race slower than in years past...I approached it after all as a training run, rebuilding confidence about running longer distances.  In that I was very successful.  And since I am getting along in the years, I checked out where I was "age-wise" against the field: I was tied with two others for 28th oldest finisher out of 430...now that sounds a lot better than 227th...

Although it did dip into the 30s a few nights ago here in Gainesville, this November has been warmer than usual, and this was true today.  During race time, the average temperature was around 65 degrees and the humidity a very uncomfortable 85%...I'm used to running outside when the temperature is a bit higher and the humidity a lot lower...

11/20 Sermon on James, Part 9

Last Sunday's sermon on the Bible's New Testament book of James covered a lot of material, but The Family Church's pastor Philip Griffin was able to place everything under a conceptual umbrella, talking about foolishness toward our possessions instead of putting God first, ahead of them.  The passage of interest, as we approached the end of this epistle, was James 4:13-5:6, reproduced below in the New International Version via the Bible Gateway website:

^{4 13} Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

5 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. ² Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. ⁴ Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. ⁵ You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

Pastor Philip's sermon focused on five foolish choices he sees people make regarding their money and possessions, as delineated by the passage from James: leaving God out of one's plans, hoarding instead of sharing, reneging on debts, no generosity amid prosperity, and forgetting Jesus is the goal, not material gain.  By not recognizing God's preeminent role in one's life, there is a tendency to become consumed with worry and control.  By making the accumulation of possessions the top priority, greed fueled by continuous discontent (the "myth of more") and fear of the future due to lack of trust in God's provision both poison one's daily life.  Also, refusing to honor debts owed others demonstrates that money is considered more important than people...and of course God.  Following Jesus commands generosity, sharing, and responsibility...and consequently placing money and "stuff" in their proper, limited roles in one's life...

There is one section to this passage that wasn't emphasized in the sermon, and that was the part exhorting us not to boast about the future.   Let's make our plans...yes, that is part of responsible, mature living...but make them with the acknowledgment that God is supreme and has the authority and power to change them according to his design for our lives...

Usually I post these sermon articles on Thursday, but I made an exception this week.  Happy Thanksgiving!

List of Some National Leaders

During this past presidential campaign, just as Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson was trying to ratchet up his momentum, he was interviewed by MSNBC's Chris Matthews.  Matthews, in all likelihood suspecting that Johnson was ignorant in a lot of things outside his ideology, threw out what on the surface seemed to be a "softball" question: who is your favorite world leader?  You can take any country outside the United States...just tell me one of their leaders that you like.  Anyone. Anywhere.  Gary Johnson couldn't answer the question.  When I saw that, I thought, yeah, the dude's a real ignoramus, all right...and then I realized that I wasn't too knowledgeable about the heads of the various national governments, either...

Most countries have an official head of "state"...a more or less ceremonial role...and the effective head of the government...the real power.  In the British Commonwealth nations like the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, Queen Elizabeth is the head of state.  In the United States, however, the two roles both are taken by the president.  Russia's head of state, President Putin, actually exerts the real power while the Prime Minister functions as Putin's surrogate.  But you're waiting for a list of the effective government leaders, right? Well, here is a short one...sorry if I left out your favorite country...

United States: Barack Obama---President
Canada: Justin Trudeau---Prime Minister
Mexico: Enrique Nieto---President
Brazil: Michel Temer---President
United Kingdom: Theresa May---Prime Minister
France: François Hollande---President
Germany: Angela Merkel---Chancellor
Spain: Mariano Rajoy---President
Russia: Vladimir Putin---President
South Africa: Jacob Zuma---President
Egypt: Abdel Fattah el-Sisi...President
Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu---Prime Minister
India: Narendra Modi---Prime Minister
China: Xi Jinping---Gen. Secr. of the Communist Party
Japan: Shinzoo Abe--Prime Minister
Australia: Malcolm Turnbull---Prime Minister

There, that's a starter list for you in case you're thinking anytime of running for president.  But be warned, reader: by 2020 this list is certain to drastically change...

Plan to Run in Gainesville's 10K Turkey Trot Race on Thanksgiving

As of this writing, I have every intention of running the 10K (6.2 miles) Turkey Trot race here in Gainesville, held each Thanksgiving morning at the Tacachale center off Waldo Road.  I've run it a couple of times before and consider it to be a good warm-up race to longer events coming up in the next few months.  The last time I ran it, the ground was thoroughly soaked from extensive rain in the previous days, forcing the runners at times to hop around the course...composed mainly of pine trails...and try to avoid slipping or stepping into mud.  This time around, though, we've had very little rain, so the course should be easy to tread.  I'll be working the night before, getting off at midnight...I prefer participating in races when I've been off the previous day.  But still, I shouldn't have any problem: I can nap some later, after the race...

Some Thoughts on Football and Soccer This Year

The end of the college football regular season is approaching and my University of Florida team has played above and beyond most sports analysts' preseason expectations.  Yesterday they won the Southeastern Conference's East Division for the second consecutive year after pulling off a heroic last-second goal-line stand on the road against heavily-favored LSU.  Now the Gators are 8-2 and will face Florida State next week in Tallahassee before heading off to Atlanta to once again play against Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide for the conference championship.  Let's see if they can't pull off a couple more miracles...

After finally starting to follow the already-enfolding National Football League season last week, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Miami Dolphins, the team I traditionally support the most after having grown up in the area, sporting a winning record of 5-4 with four straight victories.  Now make that 6-4 and five straight after they made an improbable comeback on the road today against the Los Angeles Rams, scoring two late-game touchdowns after being shut out for most of it.  I heard, though, that their offensive line is decimated with injuries...hope they can get it together for the stretch run to the playoffs, in which the Dolphins are now only one game behind for a wild card spot...

And I can't finish this article without referring to what almost the entire rest of the world calls "football" but which we here call "soccer".  In Mexico, their premier professional league is finishing up their fall "Apertura" split season and will soon be starting their Liguilla championship playoffs.  A few of the teams that made the field of eight for the playoffs were those consistently good each year, like "my" UANL Tigres, Club America, and Pachuca. Tijuana, usually in the middle or bottom of the standings but vastly improved now, finished at the top this season.  And then there is Necaxa, which just this year was promoted from the next lower league (called Ascenso): in their first season back in the top league, they made the playoffs, quite an impressive feat...I wonder how far they'll go...

Just Finished Reading Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, is one of those books that was renown and celebrated (and criticized) years before I ever got around to reading it.  But now the deed is done and I'm ready to give my reaction...

In The Kite Runner, the country of interest is Afganistan, the narrative tracing back to 1971 while it was still a kingdom and "progressing" along to a coup d'etat establishing a republic in 1973, the Soviet Union's invasion and occupation through the 1980s, the civil war in the nineties following their withdrawal, and then the takeover by the brutal Taliban in the late 1990s.  Yet although I learned quite a lot about this land and its people, beliefs, and culture through this book, it is more a story about betrayal, redemption, and forgiveness than history or geography...

Amir, the protagonist and narrator, is a member of Afghanistan's dominant ethnic group, the Pashtuns...who as Sunni Muslims tend to look down upon others, especially the Shia Muslim Hazari people. Amir's father is a prosperous businessman who has taken under his wings as servants a Hazari man and his son, who is Amir's age and named Hassan.  As Amir points out repeatedly with copious examples, Hassan is loyal, humble, and courageous...all qualities that Amir admits to be sorely lacking in.  After Hassan has repeatedly and faithfully defended Amir from others over the course of their almost brotherly friendship, Hassan one day finds himself in desperate straits...and Amir cowardly abandons him to his fate.  This betrayal, along with the guilty fear that others will learn of it, haunts Amir for years on end...how can he ever redeem himself or be forgiven?  And it is this that is truly the core theme of The Kite Runner...

Speaking of the book's title, kite flying in Afghanistan is quite a competitive interactive sport, much different from what we in the United States are accustomed to.  Whereas kite flyers here vie to see how novel or fancy of a kite they can make and keep airborne, Afghan kite flyers engage in combat between their kites, using sharp-edged string to sever their opponents' kites from their strings.  And when you've cut off a kite, then the race is on for the first "kite runner" to reach it as it falls to the ground...it's a "finders keepers" kind of competition.  And who is the best kite runner in Hosseini's tale?  None other than Hassan...

It's obvious that The Kite Runner owes a great deal of its popularity to it being published in the years soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  Both President Bush and his wife Laura read and praised it, and the book won numerous awards and was adapted to film.  Yet in Afghanistan itself there was a great deal of criticism, the bulk of it aimed at what some of their people regard as unfavorable depiction of the Pashtuns.  Needless to say, the Taliban weren't too happy with how it portrayed them, either.  I myself read it as a human drama and as a confirmation of what I had long known: no matter how exotic the culture may seem on the surface, folks are motivated by pretty much the same things, for better or for worse.  It's a good book, and I highly recommend it...

Quote of the Week...from Mohandas Gandhi

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
                                                                                                  ---Mohandas Gandhi

My most immediate reaction from this quote, which I picked up watching my Cox Cable TV's ambient music channel (943), has nothing to do with its content: the attribution is "Mohandas" Gandhi, the celebrated hero of India's independence movement and a pioneer in peaceful resistance.  I'd always used the name "Mahatma"...another of his quotes shown on the very same channel uses it as well...so which one is it?  After further investigation, it turns out that Mohandas was his original first name and that Mahatma, meaning "great soul", was later given him by a famous Indian poet.  Either usage is fine, but now I kind of like Mohandas more...

The second most immediate reaction I got is that Gandhi's words are about happiness and how to attain it...a very common theme in many famous quotes, especially among those that pop up on my television screen.  And they all seem to have one thing in common: seeking happiness in itself simply doesn't work...it always seems to be the result of focusing on something else.  And that "something else", in Gandhi's opinion, is to coordinate your thoughts, words, and actions to make them congruent and your life consequently one of integrity.  I can't say I disagree with this, and it is a pretty simple formula to reach that blissful state we all want to experience...but I also have to admit to having a long way to go before I reach that "harmony".  I try to think of fictional characters that embody Gandhi's quote and I immediately came up with two: Hassan, of Khaled Hosseini's book The Kite Runner (which I just finished reading), and Forrest Gump.  But I don't necessarily have to delve into fiction in order to find role models...there are a few folks I know who appear to be more or less in tune with their thoughts, words, and deeds...and yes, they seem to be happy as well...

11/13 Sermon on James, Part 8

Last Sunday The Family Church, which I attend here in Gainesville, continued its series on the book of James, a short piece loaded with exhortations and wisdom found toward the back of the New Testament between the books Hebrews and 1 Peter.  Our pastor, Philip Griffin, once again gave the sermon, this time on Chapter 4, Verses 1-12...which we have here in the NIV, thanks to the Bible Gateway website:

 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
⁴ You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? ⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”  ⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

¹¹ Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. ¹² There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

What is going on within our own hearts, and how does it affect our relationships and our calling in life? This passage addresses that: if we harbor wrong motives and desires which the world system places before us instead of that coming from God...especially if we exalt our own pleasures over everything else...we will be misled and fall into disunity and conflict with others.  But friendship with God brings grace and solace if we approach him in prayer with humility as empty vessels, possessing nothing on our own but needing everything instead...i.e., embracing spiritual poverty, as the pastor noted.  With this fundamentally changed outlook and its fruits of new behaviors marked by grace, compassion, and forgiveness, relationships can be developed with God's unifying love strengthening them...

In presenting this talk, Pastor Philip employed an allusion to the game of baseball: imagine a baseball diamond, with home plate, first base, second base, and third.  Then project on these bases the stages of Christian development...home base represents Christ himself and the acceptance of him as savior.  First base is character, which is expressed by the transformation through time of one's own heart as a believer.  Second base is community, which are the relationships the believer forms and fosters, be they marriage, family, work, church, friends, neighbors, etc.  And third base represents competence...finding and implementing God's calling for one in his or her life.  The pastor pointed out that the bases have to be run in order...you can't skip home (salvation) to get to first (character), and you can't skip first and successfully form and maintain relationships (second base).  Good word picture, but I have one question: "Who's on first?"  Abbott and Costello aside, this is still a pertinent question.  For it seems to me that all four bases are simultaneously in play, and we all have to deal with that.  After all, the work within our hearts to improve our character is a lifelong task: one never leaves first base, in a manner of speaking. But perhaps a better way to look at it...and here the baseball analogy loses some of its force...is that as we mature and grow in our character, the next area, community, will then grow.  So while we're engaged in all areas, it's the growth and effectiveness within each area that is ordered, from home to first to second to third...

Finally Ran Ten Miles

Back on October 31, I tried running for 10 miles but had to settle for only 3.5 after my then-sore throat gave me continuous coughing fits.  This morning I set out once again to run around my neighborhood, but this time just to see how I felt as I "ran" up the miles.  In the end, I ran those 10 miles, with a final time of 1:39:57.  The temperature was in the low 70s and the humidity hovered around 40%: really nice running conditions.  It was very sunny, though...no problem: I just wore my sunglasses.  I ran while listening to my mp3 player.  The music? A shuffled mix of the collected works of Radiohead, Regina Spektor, Kasabian, Beck, David Bowie, Arcade Fire, R.E.M., Sufjan Stevens, and Gorillaz...

Having finally gotten back over this milestone of running 10 miles, I feel encouraged to continue training for upcoming half-marathon (13.1 miles) races in the north Florida area.  It's been a long time for me: my last half-marathon race was in February 2015, although I have run a 15K (9.3 miles) and three 5Ks (6.2 miles) since then...

I feel none the worse for wear after my run today, and my throat gave me no trouble.  Of course, sometimes I do get leg or foot cramps a little later on as I go through my recovery period.  One thing for sure: I'm going to take things easier tomorrow...

Trump and Future Supreme Court Nominees

Yesterday I went into what is probably a flight of political fantasy by suggesting that Donald Trump might help his own political relations with the Senate by pushing the Republicans to let his predecessor's U.S. Supreme Court pick to go through the confirmation process before he himself is sworn into office on January 20.  Trump has already flatly stated that he would only pick candidates for the high court from a list of 21 he has made public for a couple of months.  But it wouldn't necessarily be breaking a campaign promise if my idea is implemented...after all, Merrick Garland is Obama's nominee.  Still, I'm realistic enough to recognize that the president-elect won't take advantage of this opportunity to preemptively break the spirit of certain gridlock and obstruction that awaits his presidency.  After all, the Democrats in the Senate remember only too clearly what the Republicans under Mitch McConnell's "leadership" did to Obama during his two terms as president...

As for that short-list of Trump's SCOTUS possibilities, here are the names, courtesy of the Trump campaign website:

1. Keith Blackwell
2. Charles Canady
3. Steven Colloton
4. Allison Eid
5. Neil Gorsuch
6. Raymond Gruender
7. Thomas Hardiman
8. Raymond Kethledge
9. Joan Larsen
10. Mike Lee
11. Thomas Lee
12. Edward Mansfield
13. Federico Moreno
14. William Pryor
15. Margaret A. Ryan
16. Amul Thapar
17. Timothy Tymkovich
18. David Stras
19. Diane Sykes
20. Don Willett
21. Robert Young

I only know a couple of these names...Senator Mike Lee (of Utah), a staunch tea-party conservative who is incidentally a close political ally of Ted Cruz and a great speaker, and Justice Charles Canady, who has been on the Florida Supreme Court for several years and served a stint on it as Chief Justice.  I'll be checking on some of the other names to see how viable a list this will be for Trump to draw upon.  After all, he will have to get whatever nominees he does choose through the Senate confirmation process...by no means automatic with the Republican control of that body already narrowed by two seats in the recent election...

Assorted Thoughts on a Cool, Overcast Day

Today has been one of those days here in Gainesville that I relish: overcast skies and cool, dry weather.  I went out on a neighborhood run and thoroughly enjoyed the experience...now I'm sitting outside my most frequented Starbucks writing this.  Since I don't have any special topic to write about today, I decided instead to touch upon some miscellaneous things about which I've written recently...

That run I did this morning was short...only 3.3 miles...but I feel that I have turned the corner in my efforts to get my running distance back up to 2010-levels.  The problem with today is that I began my run too late and realized that spending too much time out there would put undo time pressure on the rest of my activities before I went off to work.  I'm still holding out hopes of getting in a half-marathon race before year's end, although if it happens it won't be until December.  I do plan to run (for the third time) in Gainesville's 10K Turkey Trot at the Tacachale center on Thanksgiving Day...

I've reached the point in political discourse with others where I don't feel comfortable expressing my opinions without them flying off the handle and getting hyperemotional, whether they were for or against Trump.  So instead I think I'll just limit my opinions to my writing and some of the mature folks in my life I can trust to keep things in perspective.  I will say this: the incoming president has a golden opportunity to change the atmosphere of confrontation and obstruction between the Oval Office and Congress during this lame duck session of the Obama administration.  For example, he could show his influence and statesmanship by insisting that the Senate go ahead with the Merrick Garland Supreme Court nomination that the current president submitted many months ago but was held up by Majority Leader McConnell.  This would get things off to a constructive start in terms of preventing retaliatory obstruction by the Democrats and would show Trump's strength of leadership even before he stepped into office.  But I don't think he has the guts or wisdom to do this, and we'll end up seeing more of the "same ol' same ol'" posturing and nonsense that serves no one...

I carefully watched the pregame ceremonies before the National Football League contest between Seattle and New England to ascertain how the players would behave during the national anthem and the presentations honoring our veterans.  I was impressed in a positive way...I think that some of the players did hold their heads down, which to me is still respectful and yet expressive of their concerns about what they see as unwarranted violence against blacks by the police.  I'm sure there are still players following Colin Kaepernick's lead by putting on a show of defiance, but on the whole I think the League, with its imperfections, is trying to play the role of peacemaker while still honoring our great nation.  So I'm once again following NFL football, not that my "boycott" ever meant anything since I've never spent a dime on a game or any of their products anyway...

I'm sitting here facing north and am noticing that blue is breaking out in that part of the sky.  Oh well, the cool dreariness was good while it lasted.  Besides, I'll be indoors soon at my job, cut off from this wonderful weather...

Florida Gators Football Team in a Good Place Right Now

The 2016 edition of University of Florida football wasn't given much of a chance to do anything, according to many of the so-called experts in our national sports media.  Yet here they are in mid-November with only two games to go in the regular season, sporting a 7-2 overall record and leading the Southeastern Conference's East Division.  It's true that the remaining games will be difficult to win: Next Saturday at Baton Rouge against Louisiana State and the following week against FSU.  And if the Gators do manage to get by LSU, then they will be playing against the number one team in the country, Alabama, for the conference championship...and then there's still that season-ending bowl game to think about.  Not an easy road to travel down, to say the least.  Still, this team, coached in his second year here by Jim McElwain, has shown a great deal of resilience to get this far.  Although their quarterback play has been inconsistent so far and plagued by injuries, the improved offensive line has allowed them to play a more ball-control type of attack that has helped keep their defense off the field and less tired.  With a couple of exceptions (their two losses to Tennessee and Arkansas), that defense has been spectacular! And don't get me started talking about their placekicker Eddy Pineiro...

Back in 2009, when Florida had already won two national championships under Urban Meyer and was shooting for a third, the fans here simply got to where they expected, as a matter of course, another championship, with anything less considered to be a failed season.  That's been pretty much the case during the last few years with the Alabama fans, too.  For me, I'd rather have a competitive team, the way the Gators are now, that makes a good run almost every year and is still in contention for a title late in the season.  Sure, Florida has its shortcomings in some areas, but they have a lot of spirit and a coach who seems to be a genuine leader.  Let's just suppose that all of the bigshots on TV who aren't giving UF any chance for the remainder of the year are wrong and that the Gators instead win their next three games.  That would mean that Florida, with a 10-2 record and the championship of the toughest conference in the nation, would be in a position to make the case for inclusion in the four-team national championship playoff.  But would that be a realistic assumption, given that they still would have lost two games?  My answer: remember LSU's two-loss national championship team of 2007...

It's fun to be this late in the season and still be able to daydream about my hometown team, realistically or not...

Just Finished Reading Ruth Rendell's The Best Man to Die

The Best Man to Die is the fourth book in the late English mystery writer Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford series.  As has been the case in all of her books I've read so far, this book is very England-centered and goes deeply into that country's culture...and often different vocabulary.  Once again, Kingsmarkham's Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford teams up with his deputy inspector Mike Burden to go after a couple of mysteries, this time the late night murder of a suddenly-prosperous lorry ("truck") driver and a fatal car crash, one of the victims unexplained by her presence and identity.  We get to know the inspector's family better, with his daughter coming to town...and dumping her boyfriend's dog on him to take care of for a while.  And against his own wishes, a lift ("elevator') is installed in his police station...guess what happens when he finally decides to ride it alone?

The Best Man to Die, for me, was the most satisfying of the Inspector Wexford novels I've yet read.  We have here the red herring suspects, problematic disappearances, and seemingly inexplicable situations that are staple fare in mystery stories.  And that "lift" ride plays its own role in how it all is resolved at the end.  A short, fun sleuthing mystery!  Now onward to the next book in this series...

Quote of the Week...From Oscar Wilde

What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.
                                                                                                  ---Oscar Wilde
Here's a new feature to this blog: the "quote of the week"...

Although I have an incredible number of TV channels to choose from, I often find that all of my surfing through them is fruitless and end up on Music Choice, which here in Gainesville with Cox Cable occupies Channels 900 and up and offers genre-based music.  On Channel 943 is Soundscapes, which features instrumental music that is often called ambient, new age, or space.  I like the soothing music on it, but I also enjoy viewing the various quotes that pop up on the screen every few seconds.  Their messages are generally encouraging or philosophical in nature, and some have practical value.  These quotes range from famous historical figures to current celebrities, and while I generally agree with them, every now and then I have to object...a few weeks ago I wrote about one like this from Oprah Winfrey.  But today's quote is from English writer Oscar Wilde, probably most famous for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which I recently read .  Sometimes in order to understand a short statement like a quote, you need to know its context.  And while the above quote might take on a clearer meaning if I knew Wilde's own circumstances in making it, it seems to me to have a universal application...

First of all, I will say that I wholeheartedly agree with Oscar Wilde's quote, and that's mainly because he used the word "often" to connect bitter trials with blessings in disguise.  Not all bitter trials resolve themselves in a favorable manner to us, and it is small consolation to say that at least we "learned" something from them...often that lesson leads to cynicism and despair.  On the other hand, the writer of the Bible's New Testament book of James, which my church has been covering of late, fully embraces the opinion that passing through difficult hardships makes one stronger in faith and perseverance.  And wasn't it the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who once wrote, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger"?  As far as I'm concerned, the attitude I take through whatever trials I am experiencing will largely determine how they are resolved, as well as the resulting change in myself that having gone through them will reveal.  If I throw up my hands and play the blame game against others as well as "Monday morning quarterback" with all kinds of hindsight-based recriminations, then my mind is focused on the past and not on how to get through the crisis.  On the other hand, if I reduce the trial to specifics and tackle each sub-problem within it in a dispassionate and constructive manner without pulling down others around me into a negative cloud, then I am much more likely to arise from the difficulty stronger and more confident in my ability to face problems in the future...

I think a lot of folks who are in a state of despair over the outcome of this recent presidential election see themselves as going through a bitter trial.  But instead of descending into cynicism and hatred, it will be more constructive to look at the steps they can take from now on, given the changed circumstances, to forge for themselves and those around them a better future.  No, I'm not happy Trump was elected, and I'm afraid he's going to do some pretty awful things as president...hope I'm wrong about this, I know I'll be elated if I am. But there are things I can do, and then there are things that are beyond my control: how well I get through "bitter trials", regardless of their nature, depends in large part on me being able and willing to recognize the difference...

11/6 Sermon on James, Part 7

This past Sunday at Gainesville's Family Church our pastor, Philip Griffin, continued his series of talks about the New Testament book of James, with this seventh installment being about wisdom: how to recognize what it is, how to obtain it, and how to know when you have it.  The scriptures covered are James 3:13-18, which are shown below, in the New International Version via the Bible Gateway website...

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. ¹⁵ Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. ¹⁸ Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Regarding the "good" life in Verse 13, Pastor Philip pointed out that the original Greek word used here was not the "good" that means "moral", but rather a different word meaning "beautiful" or "attractive"...i.e. an attractive, beautiful life for others to see and follow.  He referred back to the first chapter, which stressed the importance of hardships in gaining understanding and perseverance.  First, one needs information, which leads to transformation, which leads to application.  If a believer isn't applying God's wisdom, then maybe it's an issue of what's deep down in the heart...which ultimately derives from the information that they have accepted as truth, which is the wisdom of the world and not that of God...

Near the end of the talk, the pastor brought up what he regards as the three stages of relationships, be they in the context of marriage, family, workplace, church, or simply friendships: the honeymoon stage, the conflict stage, and the true relationship stage.  With the honeymoon stage, people look upon each other as they want to see them.  With the conflict stage, each recognizes the other does not meet up to their previously idealized expectations...and they try to change them to conform to those expectations.  And with the true relationship stage, the parties finally recognize and respect each other...through the wisdom and maturity attained after weathering the conflict state...for who they truly are and not as projections of their own desires and goals.  Unfortunately, many relationships do not survive that important conflict stage into maturity and they end, often bitterly.  And many also try to rekindle that honeymoon stage by going outside the relationship with others...not a good idea either.  That does not mean that in a true relationship there is never conflict: but when conflicts do happen (and they will), they are instead addressed and resolved in a compassionate yet honest manner that respects the personal integrity and dignity of the other, with grace and mercy playing preeminent roles...

I wasn't able to make it to church to hear this sermon, but was still able to get it by going on the church's YouTube video website.  You can follow it as well by clicking on this link: [link]...

Just Finished Reading James Patterson's The 8th Confession

Continuing with James Patterson's Women's Murder Club crime series, I just finished reading The 8th Confession, yet another writing collaboration of his with Maxine Paetro.  Once again, the setting is San Francisco and the main protagonist is police homicide investigator Lindsay Boxer.  She typically works informally with her friends Cindy (a reporter), Yuki (an assistant d.a.), and Claire (a medical examiner), trying to solve murders and disappearances while each deals with their own personal issues as they meet together to brainstorm everything out and give each other support.  This particular story features two main plot lines: a string of mysterious deaths of rich and famous people with questionable reputations and the brutal beating death of someone who appeared to be an advocate for the homeless.  I enjoyed this book a lot, even though the police once again are abusive and deceitful toward suspects and witnesses...a distasteful recurring element of this series.  Although some of the earlier novels in this series weren't very good, Patterson and Paetro have, with this eighth entry published in 2009, got their formula down pat and seem very comfortable with the characters...both the heroes and villains are believable and interesting, and that's what makes it all work for me... 

Escape the Election With The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel came up with a pretty cool idea for those of us who are completely burned out on this year's election: from three o'clock this afternoon until midnight, it changes its programming to something it calls "Escape the Election".  While some of the media outlets are gearing up for extreme election results coverage and analysis, this channel will be continuously presenting beautiful nature scenes, accompanied by light jazz music.  Not that The Weather Channel gets into politics anyway, but I guess their thinking is that they'll get more viewers with their promise of "no coverage".  It just so happens that I'll be at work for the entire duration of this alternative to the election: I would have preferred them to have extended their show until at least two in the morning.  On the other hand, I have a surefire remedy for those who don't want to risk seeing election coverage on their television set: TURN IT OFF!  Go sit outside, go to a park, do a jigsaw puzzle, play a board or card game with your family, take a nap, read a book, clean out the garage, listen to your own music collection, cook, meditate, pray, eat, go running or biking or whatever sport you like...I think you get my point.  Besides, I seriously doubt that every single TV channel will be devoting itself to the election results...I imagine that most of them aren't.  Still, I'm happy that The Weather Channel is offering this service today.  Only one problem: sooner or later, we're all gonna have to come to terms with the election results.  Sigh...

Oh, by the way, you might just want to keep off the Internet for the rest of the day, too.  And that especially means Facebook! Well, unless, that is, you're one of those who thrives in the middle of all this political crap...

Two Days Before the Day After (the Election)

The Sunday before last, at a little past noon, I got the brilliant idea of driving out to the nearby Millhopper branch of my Alachua County public library system, where I knew they were holding early voting for tomorrow's election.  I was going to stand at the entrance with my camera and photograph the plethora of different campaign signs planted there...and call it the "2016 Election Sign Garden".  Alas, when I arrived, though, two police cars were there flashing their blue lights and a number of people were holding campaign signs and waving at passers-by, effectively messing up my "garden"...so I left without taking a pic.  Fast forward to yesterday afternoon at the same location...I had a library book due and I was looking for another to check out, but I was wary of encountering early voting congestion there.  No need to have worried: early voting had ended, along with every single campaign sign that had been planted there.  Well, my election garden was gone, but I enjoyed the complete lack of any reminder of this horrendous, discouraging campaign season...

With an acknowledging nod to the title of one of my favorite South Park episodes, today marks "two days before the day after the election".  Although Wednesday is my ultimate goal, with the nasty, awful campaigning hopefully finally placed behind us, I have to recognize today...the "day before"...as the last complete day of the campaign.  For as soon as the polls close tomorrow evening...at least here in Florida...I am going to celebrate, regardless which candidates end up winning the various races.  I will be at work when the results of the presidential race begin to filter through the media and, as was the case in 2012, will find out who won through hearsay from my co-workers...I myself will instead be listening to David Bowie, Beck, or an audio-book on my mp3 player...

Melissa and I plan to go vote at our local precinct tomorrow morning.  Personally, I don't like voting early, although if it suits others then the more power to them.  I feel a sense of civic pride that I am a responsible participant in my country's representative democracy when I go to my polling place on election day.  And I feel a sense of camaraderie with others who are also there to vote, whether they go along with my choices or not.  Voting is a celebration of the great freedom we have in America to choose our leaders...but I'm afraid that many of us refuse to accept the results unless their preferred candidate wins.  Whoever wins the Presidency will be my president and the winners of the other races will represent me in their future positions, whether or not I voted for them...this is an essential element of democracy that every citizen should understand.  It's too bad that so many will not recognize this and that, whoever wins, a substantial portion of the population will be in a state of near-rebellion, refusing to accept their newly-elected leader as legitimate.  You can openly express your opposition to the new president's policies and actions and campaign for his or her defeat in the next election...but somewhere along the line you need to agree that this individual is your duly elected president, and with that agreement comes the expectation of respect for that office...even if you dislike the person occupying it...
 

Our Trip to North Georgia

For the last few days, Melissa and I traveled around northern Georgia, enjoying the mountains, shady trails, and an old-style railroad that reminded me of The Polar Express...albeit without Tom Hanks or the hot chocolate.  We saw our share of sites, staying overnight at Kennesaw and then spending two days in the far northern town of Blue Ridge.  There we rode their passenger train to the Georgia/Tennessee border, with a brief layover in the towns of McCaysville and Copper Hill.  Then we drove over to Anna Ruby Falls in the northeastern corner of the state...what a beautiful hike along the brook with all of the different plants and the massive stones...by the way, Melissa drove around the steep mountain roads like she was brought up there!  After a two-mile-long traffic jam surrounding nearby Helen, which was oversaturated with tourists searching for a restaurant or business that could accommodate them, we headed down to Gainesville (Georgia) to link up with I-985 for our journey back.  But alongside US 129, close to the I-985 entrance, a number of sections of the GROUND were on fire, with flames lapping up on the street as we passed by! Yes, a "city on fire"...I believe that was the title of a book I read recently.  I wonder what that was all about...

Our hotel accommodations were splendid throughout the trip, and we had a couple of great dining experiences with southern-style restaurants...Mike's in Ellijay and Southern Charm in Blue Ridge.  Once again, I was struck by the good-natured, natural hospitality of the folks living in this region.  We had to pick and choose where we went, so there's plenty of stuff left for us to do in future outings in north Georgia.  All in all, a great time for Melissa and me!

And now, a whole lot of pictures...

The Doomsday Scientist

A few days ago I was watching the National Geographic Explorer TV channel and a program was on about global warming/climate change, hosted by Bill Nye (the Science Guy).  I think it was just a year old, so we're talking pretty recently.  Toward the end of the show he interviewed a University of Arizona ecologist named Guy McPherson, who predicted that there will be no more human life on Earth by the year 2030.  Yes, that's what he said...we'll be extinct by then, and it will be due to the cascading effects of human civilization-caused superheating of the planet from built-up carbon dioxide as well as methane gas.  The seas will become lifeless and the oxygen will disappear from the atmosphere.  McPherson didn't explain all of his reasoning to Nye, but I did look him up on Wikipedia and saw his blog page, which goes into much greater detail about his somber conclusion on humanity in the near future...

In looking at the current situation we have with increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, McPherson decided to investigate the Great Permian Mass-Extinction of 250 million years ago, when almost all life on Earth was obliterated.  The trigger event for this seems to have been the eruption of massive super-volcanos in what is now Siberia, causing fires over the area and smoke and ashes surrounding the planet.  But the fires then ignited the masses of coal deposits underneath the surface, and Earth went into a long-term greenhouse effect with mass releases into the atmosphere of methane gas, much more potent in its greenhouse effect than CO2.  The oceans and the atmosphere were starved of oxygen and nearly all of the animal and plant species on Earth became extinct.  Now that process back then, as McPherson recognizes, took place over a much longer time span than the global warming going on in our time.  But in both cases, he emphasizes the concept of "self-enforcing feedback loops" that accelerated the process back then and now as well.  For example, global warming melts ice in the far north, but that ice melting exposes holes in the Earth where large methane deposits have been held dormant for millions of years.  Now they are being released into the atmosphere and speeding up the heating.  The more the heating, the faster the methane is exposed and released, which speeds up the heating further...

Guy McPherson does not place much hope in the efforts taken today to restrain carbon emissions, and he thinks a carbon tax is ridiculous.  No, he believes we have already gone too far, and this process leading ultimately to his predicted doom in the too-near future began with human civilization thousands of years ago with the advent of agriculture...

I just heard about this guy last week and already the world's coming to an end?  Uh, please give me a little more time to ingest this!  But McPherson does seem to have his own following, a growing doomsday cult if you will.  His conclusions show to me how someone, if they package their theories in a compelling manner, can pretty much sell anything.  Listen to the folks who are global warming deniers: some of them sound pretty convincing, too.  Look, if we're all perishing in fifteen years anyway, it won't matter, in terms of our habitat on Earth, what I do now with my time or "carbon footprint", and if there is no human-induced climate change, the same is also true.  So in a perverse sort of way, Guy McPherson, with his presentation of impending and certain human extinction, is making the point for folks who want to just forget about climate change and do whatever they want with the environment, for better or...more likely...for worse...