Father's Day

No matter how well – or not – you get along with, or got along with your father, stop today and remember him. Embrace the good times, and try to learn from ones that were bad, if only to not do those things yourself.
Most of my times with my father were good, I was fortunate. Oh, of course there was a rebellious ‘I hate my father’ spell when I was a teenager. But it passed, soon enough.
My father had a quick temper (that I unfortunately inherited). He would yell a lot, but strangely when it was something serious he often took it calmly.
As mentioned in another Father’s Day post, he hunted deer with bow and arrow. This hobby led him to purchase the ‘latest and best’ in bows, and at one time his pride and joy was a ‘recurve’ bow. Of course, one day when there were several of us kids around, we had to try to string it and shoot it and of course we were doing it wrong and broke the bow. We spent the day in terror of what he’d do to us when he got home from work, and we met him with the bad news at the front porch – he stopped, looked at his bow (and no doubt thought of the cost of replacing it, definitely an issue in those days) and sighed and merely said ‘well that’s what happens when you don’t know how to do something the right way’ and went on in the house. Maybe he hoped we’d learn from that to stop and do things the right way – and maybe we did learn it, a bit.
Other things I learned from him were a strong work ethic – the cows had to be milked at 6 o’clock – that’s both 6 o’clock’s every day – I told that to some of the partners and dispatchers when I was driving truck, when they’d comment that I almost always got deliveries on time (unless there was a real reason not to). He worked hard his entire life and I don’t doubt that one how or another I will too.
He never stopped finding new things and I hope I never do either. He always wanted to see new places. He loved back roads, and taking a new one to see where it went. His interests were widely varied - from opera to deer hunting – and he could have a conversation about all of them. He had no tolerance for fools.
One night, when I was a very new driver, I was coming home from a friend’s house up the road, and slid on the ice and went into the trees. No major damage except for breaking all the little squares in the grill of the car. I walked home, he came up with I forget which vehicle and pulled the Chevy out, and then at some point found a way to repair all those pieces. And only said, ‘yep, that ice can be tricky’.
My mother used to say, when someone would call or something would happen to bring him to mind, ‘your father is very close’. He was very close when I had the wreck with the truck: I rarely dream about him (although I often do about my mother, another story) but I had several times for a short while. Then, the wreck happened and although it was bad (and scary) enough, it could have been a whole lot worse. I said at the time that something did the right thing for me, but thinking on it, I rather believe it was someone being close enough to make it happen. After the wreck I didn’t dream about him for a long, long time.
His birthday would have been on Tuesday. I’ll try to have some strawberry shortcake this week to remember him by.
Do something to remember your father by.

My Sunday morning sermon

The Tony Awards are presented tonight – Broadway’s equivalent of the Oscars, the awards every show hopes to win, to insure a place in the record books and hopefully boost ticket sales and create a longer run.
One of the shows nominated for several awards is ‘The Book of Mormon’. It’s billed as a ‘religious satire musical’. It’s written by the creators of the animated series ‘South Park’. I haven’t seen the show, nor have I ever watched the series, which, from what I’ve heard, is very – for want of another term – irreverent, and has language that used to be banned from tv.
Several friends have seen ‘The Book of Mormon’ and have raved about how good the show is. They say the show is very funny, the story line is sweet, the songs and dancing great and overall it’s the best they’ve seen – and they’ve seen (and been in) a lot.
The authors call the show ‘an atheist’s love letter to religion’.
I haven’t seen the show, haven’t listened to the score, and probably won’t. Not that I don’t like comedy, musicals, sweet stories. But one song in the show is titled: "Hasa Diga Eebowai", which translates from the Ugandan in the show to ‘Fuck You, God’. I just can’t rationalize, in any context or translation, a show that has a song with that title in it.
Not that I’m a prude, I admit to being a long way from that and to using the word myself probably way more than should be done. And I’m not overly religious either, although I do have some beliefs that go along religious lines – and some that probably don’t.
But to put a song with that title and theme into a musical show – nope, just can’t understand that. Just can’t understand what it adds to any plot. Just don’t understand the creative process that would come up with something like that.
So, I guess I just won’t be hoping that the show wins any awards. And I hope that someone points out the wrongness of that title, that song. It probably won’t be done, but I can hope.
Because here’s what I think: that whether you believe in God (or any God) or not, to so crudely and blatantly and publicly send the message that title and song do – and you can say all you want that it’s a satire and people know that (which I’m not sure all people will realize)- is just wrong. And it should be noted as wrong, not given an award for it.

Are they EFF*#+ kiddint!?!

In the 'are they fucking kidding department for today:
A school district in Silsbee, TX, is demanding that a family pay the district's legal fees for a lawsuit brought by the family. The suit was over the issue of their daughter being tossed off the cheerleading squad because she refused to cheer for a basketball team member who had raped her. Yes, he's still on the team, and yes, the school had her removed from the squad because she would not say his name in an individual cheer. A petition is online to voice your opinion, mine is below:
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/tx_cheerleader/?rc=fb_share2

By taking this stand you are condoning and even encouraging rape and all forms of physical and sexual assault. To have this done by anyone is unconscionable, to have it done by persons who are entrusted with the education of our young people goes so far beyond that, there are no words to describe the unfairness and inappropriateness of your decision. A long hard look should be taken at your thinking and attitudes towards victims, women and your reasons for wanting to be involved in the education of the young people of your area. This is just flat-out wrong. Would you want to do it, had the rape happened to you? Would you demand that your daughter cheer for her rapist. Ask yourselves those questions, give an honest answer and then reverse this decision. You do not deserve to be in the positions you are, if you truly believe yourselves to be right. I can only shake my head and hope that you do not represent the thinking of the majority of people in your area, and that your incredibly wrong attitudes are not passed on to others, especially the young people whose care and education have been entrusted to you – a position of trust you so blatantly obviously do not deserve.