Tuesday, June 27, 2006

You hear something once ......

"He gossips habitually; he lacks the common wisdom to keep still that deadly enemy of man, his own tounge" MARK TWAIN
Why cant things be left alone ......why cant people "tend to their own little red wagon" as my math teacher from high school used to say....why do people insist on saying things about people with no way of knowing if what they are saying is true? Or just make things up on the fly?........People often mistake plain and simple gossip for the truth.....We are all guilty of it ....if you are being honest with yourself you will say " YUP he is right on this one ....I love me some gossip" We do it at work ....we do it while eating ....we do it at church for goodness sake.....I DO IT ....so dont get on any type of high horse about me preaching ...I am preaching to the choir here folks.....My problem is when people make up complete and utter lies to tell about people. I mean if you tell me that "Jason cooks chicken that tastes like crap" and its true thats not so bad really ....that is just the truth......BUT if you outright lie about someone that is wrong and a terrible thing to do ......It not only hurts them it could hurt their jobs ....it could hurt their families ....it could even hurt you in some way.....its called KARMA .......I try to do right ....I really do .....I try to be even handed and good natured with everyone but sometimes you have to decide between right and wrong.....I have friends who right now are suffering in some way because of whats been said about them . COLD THINGS.....things that should never be said and I feel terrible about having to even explore the option of not being friends with someone as a result of these things .....but thats what I feel like I have to do ....It is not right ....I wish I had the words to to bring some type of comfort to those being talked about but know this----I support yall.....I respect yall......and I will stand by yall. Plain and Simple. Karma .....it works The Mission Trip was a blast but it almost seems like old news now and I really dont have any drive to post about it ...... SUPERMAN RETURNS TODAY.......I am just about to bust a gasket about this one folks but I am nowhere near as excited and my geek friend Nick.....Tomorrow night at 9:30pm we will be there to see it ..... George W. Bush does not even follow the laws that he signs into law......!????! I wish I could say that I am deeply shocked by this little bit of info....I wish I could say that it makes me want to protest in the streets....But to be honest I am no longer shocked my this sham of an administration .....They get us involved in a war in a country that had nothing but hate for us but no means to do anything to us.....Dont use the argument of WMD.....it dont hold water and you know it ......They snub their noses at the economy with the hope that it will turn around.....they trample on the civil liberties of american citizens and also crap on the idea of the Constitution.....I could go on but I am sure there is some type of limit on the length of blogs.....and now today it comes out that he signs something at the same time he signs a law in being that basically protects him in the future from the same the law he expects not just terrorists but american citizens to follow.....this President is scary folks ....SCARY....Ben Franklin said it best " Those who are willing to give up a little freedom for a little security ...deserve neither" Two years and counting ....... I had something I was going to post about the flag burning discussion going on in our overpaid Congress this week but I think I have said enought for tonight .....See ya round

Where to begin .....

Something is wrong with my blog .......I cannot seem to make new paragraphs at all ....and one big long paragraph is no fun......bear with me while get this stuff fixed

Friday, June 23, 2006

You can always go home..........

Today is Friday June 23 and we are home from the mission trip. I am sick. My mother is sick. My nephew was sick. Besides all this it was a fantastic trip and I will post about it Monday in greater length. See yall monday...........................

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Three Things....

MISSION TRIP 2006
I leave in about 8 hours for a week of mission work in western North Carolina. There are 14 of us going. It should be a great week of renewal and reward as we help redo the childrens area of a womens and childrens shelter. Hopefully I will have some pictures to post when we get back.
Keep us in your prayers.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME...
I have to say there is maybe nothing better than sitting in a chair watching your nephew and his friends play baseball. It is amazing to sit and watch some of the parents get so wound up about a game and then to look at their kids and see the absolute look of joy and fun that they are having. These kids want to win but after its all said and done ....they just want to have fun!!!! And I honest to goodness to think they have a blast. When down by 11 runs they come off the field with such excitement. Its contagious. They won last night and lost tonight so they are still in the hunt for the top prize . I dont think it really matters though because these kids came together back in March as strangers and are leaving mid-summer as friends. That's what its all about folks. The Journey!!
I wish um luck in the other games .

HAPPY FATHERS DAY
Today is Fathers Day. To all those Dads out there I hope its a great day for yall. I especially want to send a big hello to my Brother. Today will be tough on us. It was weird this week having thoughts about the upcoming Fathers Day and then realizing that I wont buy a card this year or find Daddy some shirt he would never have worn anyway..... HA . The first year is indeed the hardest. The past few weeks have hit hard for me and I dont know why . I looked at pictures on my camera that I have saved and they go back to last December and there are pics of Daddy on the camera . I have them printed off and saved at home but I still cannot bring myself to delete the photos from the camera. In my mind I think its like I am saying goodbye again. Its hard ...no doubt about.
I love you and miss you Daddy.

Talk to yall next weekend !!!

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Older ....maybe not wiser.......

Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that happen to a man.
Leon Trotsky

Tonight it happened to me .....it has or will happen to just about everyone in their lifetime.....you maybe be 65 when it happens ....you may be 85 when it happens ....or you could be 32 years old like I am .....and tonight it happened to me ....What is this IT I am talking about ?? Tonight I realized for the first time that I am getting old.....I dont mean that I am some crusty old man with hair growing on my ears .....I mean I can now officially say that I dont understand alot of what folks alot younger than me are saying or doing .
I went and watched the Dalraida Ducks play softball tonight and they actually beat First United Methodist Church. After the game I was invited to go have dinner with Andrew and all his friends. I have not seen Andrew in a while so I tagged along .WOW!!!! Besides a very few select things , I have nothing in common with folks their age . They range in age from 18-25. They all have jobs. They all go to church ( I think). They drive cars or trucks , pay taxes YADA YADA YADA.....but that is where it all stops.
We sat there in WINGS for 2 friggin hours and I felt like a stranger in a strange land. They talked about things they have done together and that in itself is fine. But OHHHHH the things they have done !!! I just dont get it . Even when I was their age I did not do these things .
Let me add to all this they burped, talked loud, took countless pictures of each other ,yelled at the folks playing ball on tv and also kinda yelled at the folks sitting next to us . I have never been so ready for a night to come to an end. Maybe all this goes along with how my life has changed this year.
I need good conversation. Good adult beverages. Good friends that can make me think and laugh. I need a conversation that goes beyond the age old question " What is the difference between a nanny goat and a billy goat?" Please dont get me wrong ...These are good decent people ...it is just that I have grown and they have not . Not yet at least. Thats life . I sound like such a snob right now ...I know I do . But this is where I am in my life.

Sunday morning we head out for a week in North Carolina doing mission work at a local womens and childrens shelter. I am excited to be going to North Carolina. The work should be great. I hope its hard and that we are asked to push ourselves . Get out of our comfort zone. Make a small difference perhaps.
My friend Nick is also going the same week to NC but another part of the state . They will also be doing mission work.
Please keep us in your prayers all week . God Bless

Thursday, June 08, 2006

So Long, Farewell and Goodbye !!!!!!!!!

Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos. ~Charles M. Schulz I am big on quotes ....maybe it is because I am not smart enough to think of anything good on my own so I just borrow from someone else but nevertheless this post might have more of it's fair share of quotes. The title of this post comes from the last episode of MASH.
This coming Sunday a good friend of mine is leaving Montgomery for her new job in Mobile. I have to admit when I first heard that we were getting a female minister I was a little worried. Yes I am a democrat and yes I believe in all things proggressive BUT I am human and I was worried how our church would handle a woman as its senior minister. I wish I could say that everyone jumped in line right behind her and pledged their support but that did not happen. In fact some never fully gave their support at all. This blog is not about that though. This blog is about how much I have learned from Misty and about how much I will miss her around the office.
First of all Misty has kept me pretty grounded these last two years. She had the great disadvantage of having to deal with a guy like myself who had never had a full time youth ministry job before. He ability to let me do my job and not bother me was a great help. Of course she offered advice about things and at times she really really wanted me to do certain things the the youth or children but she never pushed me. She truly realizes that people are called to do certain jobs and she allows then to do them. I say THANK YOU for that.
Second Misty kept things very lose and easy going at the office. Many church offices are kinda stuffy. They can be rigid and quiet, but I am happy to say that ours has been a blast for the last two years. I will never forget the CANDY WARS between the offices, the long talks in Her office and the Thursday lunches with JH. Many of the conversations during those Thursday lunches will be taken to my grave!!!!
Misty was a rock of strength these past few months for me. She gave words of comfort to a grief stricken family. She held my family as we waited for days for some type of absolution. When the time came and Daddy passed away she was as close to us as Nick, Susanne and Drew. They were our family. As much as any person related to us by blood. They cried with us ...and they held us ....if something as shocking as losing your husband,father,brother,grandfather could be made better is was having someone like Misty near us. She was and is our friend.
I will miss her joy in our office. I will miss the sweet sounds of a little boy wanting the ball and bat in my office. For more than the first time in the past few months my heart is breaking.I am tired of saying goodbye to people.
We have to remember what the Wizard of Oz told the Tin Man " A heart will never be made practical until it can me made unbreakable."
Misty will do great in Mobile .....she will care and comfort for many down there.....she will grow and she will feed many. I will greatly miss her.
God Bless Misty....God Bless Your Ministry I love you and will miss you .
I close with a quote...

"Be courteous to all, be intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give then your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks the adversity before it is entitled the appellation."
President George Washington 1795

Monday, June 05, 2006

What Makes things go bump in the night ??

The other night we sat and talked about the possibilityof whether ghosts actually exist. I am one who firmly believes that they exist. Have I ever seen a ghost? NO....Do I want to see a ghost? DOUBLE NO .....Having said that I think they are all around us in some form or another.
Evidence has been collected for years that there is something out there. People go to "haunted houses" and search for images or sounds or anything that they might then take back and say "See I told that old house was haunted".
Maybe I want to believe so much that I will buy into any of the sights and sounds you see on television. Usually around Halloween there are tons of specials on many different channels about the existance of the supernatural beings. The things that go bump in the night . I once heard a lady say that maybe all those things we see out of the corner of our eye or those weird chills on our necks are actually something supernatural. Something to think about .
A good friend of mine said that ghosts are just Satans way of making you doubt. I dont know if I buy that one. I mean lets say you live in a haunted house of some kind ....and you hear crap and see crap all the dang time ....weird things are always happening. Maybe it brings you closer to your faith. Maybe all the weird stuff makes you examine your own spiritual life. Maybe it makes you realize that you should not have bought the creepy house at 1313 Mockingbird Lane from the Munsters. Many people are pushed closer to their faith when bad things happen. It has happened for thousands of years.
I have had vivid dreams about the dead in the past. Colorful, scary dreams that awaken me and leave me feeling sick for hours. I dont like that feeling and its just in a dream . I could not imagine living some type of a life where you are around things everyday that make you feel like that.
There is a really cool show on television called GHOST HUNTERS. It is usually on Wednesday nights on Sci-Fi. These guys from Rhode Island investigate supernatural happenings all over the country. From Maine to California. They work for Roto-Rooter by day and do this stuff on the weekends and at night. Their main goal when they go into a place is to walk out and say that the place is NOT haunted. If you watch any of the shows you will see that lots of times they do just that, PROVE ITS NOT REAL. Every now and then though they get the crap scared out of them and they have to say they think the place is haunted. I have watched this show for about two years and I have to admit I have seen some weird things. Anyway, it's a cool show and gives a good balanced view on the subject .

IN OTHER NEWS.....
I leave for home tomorrow after conference is done, We are painting pottery this week for Wonderful Wednesdays, Mistys last Sunday at DUMC is Sunday, Conner is using the big boy potty now and loves it , I hope to see a movie ths Friday night, the roads in Mobile suck,
I guess thats about it for now and I have to admit that this bloggig can be kinda fun.

ps I stole the ghost blog idea from Nick....sorry but he is wrapped up in Superman blogs right now.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

A good Martini aint easy to make........


All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is a part of ourselves; we must die in one life before we can enter another. ~Anatole France

It seems that my posts tend to come late at night ...either I cannot sleep, I am just getting in or I am just off the phone with someone. Well its 11:44pm (early by my standards) and here I sit pounding out another FANTASTIC post.
If anyone in the Montgomery area had a chance to be outside this past Saturday night then you know how wonderful it was. It is not often that you will hear me comment about wonderful weather in Alabama in June but Saturday was one of those nights. The humidity was gone and you could actually sit outside without breaking a sweat. Usually around these parts that does not come until October. Some of you all are saying "OCTOBER"??? , but yeah I mean come on lets get real.
We once again tried to solve the worlds problems over "adult beverages". While not the best of ideas in some households it tends to work pretty good for us. While talking to Nick and Laura I kept coming back to something in my mind over and over again. It is something I have talked about on here before and that's ....fear. We are all trying to figure ourselves out. I know, I am 32 years old and should have a pretty good idea who I am and maybe for the most part I do know. It is just at times I think , maybe I dont want to know. Its staring me right in my face and I cant see it because I am so damn sexy HA ! But for real, I know the day will come when I will leave the job I am in now, I might move away (North Carolina or England), I might meet that women I am supposed to spend the rest of my life with BUT the mere thoughts of this make me so nervous. I am very comfortable in many aspects of my life. Therein lies the problems I think, I am too comfortable.
I took a drastic step this week when I confronted some issues head on and maybe drastic is the wrong word but it was hard for me. I am not saying its the "new jason" but it felt really good to confront the problems. It felt great to leave that sanctuary of comfort and deal with things.
I applaud those who go after what they think is "Them". It might be a new job, or a new location or maybe buying some new shorts. It makes them happy and in some way it all makes me happy. I guess I want to repay that in some weird, strange way. None of this makes any sense except to me and my feeble mind.
On a purely personnal note someone in my family took the first step this past Saturday morning towards some healing. I applaud him for it , I respect him for it and most of all I love him for it. God Bless him.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Is it raining, is it pouring is a hurricane a blowin...


"There are three things that can happen in a ballgame, you can win the game, you can lose the game or it can rain." The great baseball manager Casey Stengel said that many years ago about weather and sports. Today marks the return of hurricane season here in the western hemisphere. As can be imagined many people along the coastal areas of our country are now collectivly holding their breath for the next 6 months. I have to admit hurricanes and the weather that comes with them fascinates me in so many ways. I can remember as a child sitting up when a bad storm was approaching. I would sit with Daddy and listen to the radio about the landfall here or there. You have to also remember that we lived in rural Macon county so we had no cable. The radio provided us with tons of info. Now yall at thinking we live up on Walton Mountain or something HA. We can now sit in front of our televisions and watch by the hour where the storms are approaching.
Nine months ago Hurricane Katrina knocked New Orleans to its knees. I recently watched an episdoe of the Ellen DeGeneres show and she went back to NO. If we were astounded by the depth of destruction 9 months ago I was UTTERLY SHOCKED to see that not very much has been done to even begin reconstruction. There are pockets of activity. Burbon Street is up and running, work is being done to the Superdome but the lower 9th ward sits in darkness. Many people who have been down talk about the lack of sounds in many areas. No cars, no voices for the most part and perhaps the weirdest thing is there are no birds. About three weeks ago a report came out that the levy system that "protects" NO would not be ready for the start of hurricane season. How is that possible? How could we not see to it that something so important to a city is still not working right ? Hell it never worked to begin with. Why does it take so much time to get anything done ? I am a huge fan of FDR ...many of you all know this. His style was to "get it done". He was proposed the idea of a large building to hold all military offices in Virginia, in late 1940.The Pentagon with its 4 million squre feet of office space was designed in one weekend during the summer of 1941. Ground was broken on September 11, 1941. Most major work was finished in a little under 16 months. WHY cant we employ the same standards in a time of emergency? Why is NO left to suffer and the coasts of Florida,Texas and South Carolina are rebuilt with such speed it makes your head spin????
Reaserchers in the United States predict that 17 named storms will form this season. Nine will become major hurricanes with the possibility of five being Katrina sized storms and New Orleans is not ready!!!!!!!
I want to go there ...I want to walk in the ruins of that city .....I want to walk out covered with the dust......I want to bring home some part of what was once a beautiful and eclectic city. I want to take my nephews before its gone. I want to see it before its gone. I want to speak with those most affected by Katrina. Maybe by going and seeing it for myself I can better understand.