"Happy Holidays" means more than it used to...

I remember "back in the good ole' days" when you went to the Post Office to buy stamps and found that you had to choose between several Christmas designs. I went to the Post Office yesterday and found a whole new dilemna. There was a poster with SIX options for "Winter Holiday" stamps!

On closer inspection, I found that the first choice was....well, exactly that...a "Winter Holidays" collection. You know...gingerbread man, snowman, candy cane...just "winter" stuff. That one gets TOP BILLING. The lady in front of me was making her displeasure known to the guy in front of her..."So Christmas is SECOND now, is it?! We've got to get Christ back into Christmas!"

Well, needless to say, she got my attention. I look more closely at the poster... OK....what is on the menu this season? You've got your "Winter Holidays" collection, you've got your "Madonna and Child" stamp, you've got Hannukah stamps...the EVER popular KWANZA stamp and...what's that one? EID?? That writing looks Arabic.... Hmmm....

By now, the TWO people in front of me were quite animated in our discussion of EID as a holiday. Trust me...in downtown Louisa, VA there won't be a particularly large demand for EID stamps. I won't mention the name of the USPS employee behind the counter who let me know they didn't like it either!

I did some research on EID and I learned that it is the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. ...and now, of course, it is a nationally celebrated "Winter Holiday" since the USPS deems it worthy of a stamp. In the year 2009, EID falls on September 21st. A "Winter Holiday??" In 2013, it will fall on the 8th of August. Hmmm...will it be a "Winter Holiday" stamp then?! How many Muslims will be buying EID stamps in December to celebrate the end of their fast that took place in August or September?! Could the USPS do anything more ludicrous? I guess maybe it makes sense to them....but it is totally lost on me.

I really can't wait until 2015 when EID falls on July 15th. I guess we'll have stamps with EID commemoration on them instead of flags, to celebrate the month of July. That red, white & blue, stripey....starry cloth thingy our ancestors died to honor will be totally out of vogue as a sign of old-school nationalism by then. We're far too inclusive to honor a nationalistic symbol that way any more!

(Edit: It dawned on me this morning that we have made the transition from "tolerance" to "inclusive". The USPS had to stretch to find a way include the Islamic community in this festive season, so they chose EID as their option.)

(I hope you can read my cynicism and still get my meaning. I am really bothered that the USPS is honoring a Muslim holiday on a stamp.)

Book Review: "What difference do it make?"

Book Review: What Difference Do It Make?
By Ron Hall, Denver More, and Lynn Vincent

Contrary to popular opinion, one life does make a difference. The choices you make will make a difference in your world. That is the core message of "What difference do it make?", the new book by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.

Ron is a white elite Art Dealer and Denver is a black man who was homeless until Ron's wife Deborah decided to make a difference. Their first book "Same Kid of Different as Me" is about the choice that Deborah made to make a difference in the sphere of homelessness in her city. Deborah later died of cancer. This, their second book, is about the difference that Deborah's life made and is continuing to make in the lives of people all across the United States.

The chapters of the book each trace a thread of change that came about as a result of Deborah's life, and - perhaps more importantly - the book that chronicled her choices. While the book is about the effect of one life on the homelessness surrounding her, the more important lesson to be learned is that you CAN make a difference in your world. Each chapter follows the story of someone who was touched by "Same Kind of Different as Me" and how they were changed. It further goes on to tell how that individual chose to make a difference in their world as a result of reading the book.

While there are a few elements of the book that cause me to question individual choices of the people being chronicled, I found the book to be very motivational. Most people I know are moved by the plight of the homeless, but are paralyzed by ignorance. They are plagued by questions about what to do and what not to do in order to bless people and help them.

Denver give a new definition to "blessing" and helping". He says that you "bless" someone by giving them a gift that tells them they still matter in the world. He says that you help someone by stepping down into the pit with them and staying long enough to give them a boost so they can climb out. He would approve of either action as a Godly response to homelessness.

One of the things that struck me as among the most remarkable comments in the book was about "blessing". Denver says that you cannot bless someone and judge them at the same time. He says that you must give your gift to God as you hand it to a homeless person. You can't focus on blessing them if you insist on judging how they might use your gift.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "What difference do it make?" and would recommend it to just about everyone. I wouldn't say that it will answer all your questions about homelessness and how you should respond. However, it will give you some simple pointers on some things to NOT do, and some ideas on how to begin. Get a copy and read it. I don't think you'll regret it! You definitely won't look at homelessness the same way afterward.

Book Review: The Gifts of the Jews

Book Review
"The Gifts of the Jews"
How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels
by: Thomas Cahill
ISBN 0-385-48249-3
Paperback, $14.95
Nan A. Talese/Anchor Books


I bought a copy of "The Gifts of the Jews" because a professor highly recommended it as a moving tribute to the Jewish people. Based on who recommended the book, I expected the book to be respectful of the Biblical record, but I soon found that it wasn't what I expected.

Cahill opens the book with a graphic verbal depiction of the nature of worship and the attitude towards gods in the people and culture in the Fertile Crescent prior to Abram's arrival on the scene. He does a good job of comparing various early literature to discern the difference between various forms of belief, and attitudes toward local deities at the time. He spends more time than I thought was warranted giving a graphic description of the sensual worship rituals of the ziggurats with their priestesses - making his book seem more like a paperback romance than a respectable work of historical research.

As you can tell by now, I was not overly ecstatic about Cahill's presentation of the roots of the Hebrew people. However, what I did appreciate was the credence he gave to the idea of Abraham's belief in his personal covenant God. The "evolution" of the belief in a god that Cahill outlines is a decent perspective to read, in order to understand how Abraham's neighbors would have viewed his insistence on belief in a personal Creator God.

At times, you would almost believe that Cahill was a believer. He seems at times, to have great respect for God. However, he shows no great appreciation for the Biblical record, and thereby blows his "cover" in my mind. This man is no believer. He honors his own intellect above any idea of God.

Cahill lost all credibility with me when he said:

It is no longer possible to believe that every word of the Bible was inspired by God. Fundamentalists still do, but they keep usp such self-delusion only by scrupulously avoiding all forms of scientific inquiry. They must also maintain a tight reign on their own senses, for, even without access to modern biblical criticism, any reader might wonder at the patchwork nature of the scriptures, their conflicting norms and judgements, outright contradictions, and bald errors. But even without resorting to modern scientific methodology or noticing what an inconsistent palimpsest the Hebrew Bible can be, we must reject certain parts of the Bible as unworthy of a God we would be willing to believe in.

When you strip away the camoflague, you see that Thomas Cahill, not God, is the final arbiter. God must be judged by the almight Thomas Cahill. The phrase "a God we would be willing to believe in" implies that we are the final judge of all that is right or wrong.

If God is God, then I do not have the right to set standards for Him. I cannot set a certain standard for God and only believe in Him if He performs to a level that meets my satisfaction! If I am the final judge...then I am God. If I am God, then I can cease my search for Him. I have already found him in the mirror!

While Mr. Cahill is a masterful writer, I cannot recommend this book for anyone who truly desires to honor God, or the Biblical record of His work among His people. I can only recommend it to anyone who seeks to have more fuel to fire their belief in "the almighty in the mirror."

All others....move along...there's noting to see here.

Princess Perils for Vanessa Hudgens

I don't usually pay attention to the scandals that the mass media produce. This time I have to say something. I saw on Twitter a couple of days ago that Vanessa Hudgens was a "trending topic". Trending Topics on Twitter give you an idea of what the users of Twitter are talking about. Sometimes, it is nothing at all, but when a star's name begins to appear, there is usually an event in that person's life that people are talking about and thus the trending topic.

I followed the trending topic to see what the conversation was about and learned that Princess Vanessa has yet another set of risque photos making the rounds of the internet. This happened in 2007, and she promptly apologized for her mistake. It was handily dealt with as a lapse of judgement and Disney didn't even bother slapping her wrist.

From what I've read, Hudgens' lawyers are saying that the new set of photos are from before the first set surfaced on the net. (As if that makes it all better?) The scandals and the reactions of the people around them say a lot about our attitudes toward purity and standards of behavior! It begs the question, "Why?!" Why would she take the pictures? Why would she show anybody else? Why can't Disney react with anything more like guidance? Why is she still a role-model for tweenies?!

I wanted to comment briefly on the "Why did she do it?" question here today. Vanessa Hudgens started acting when she was 8. I am not saying that 8 year olds should not act. I am saying, though, that it is the job of an eight-year-old's parents to keep them grounded in reality. At some point, it became more and more important that Hudgens follow acting. That is when the grounding in reality starts to become more and more important.

I have a lovely 13-year old daughter. She has always been the apple of our eye. From her early days, we have praised her for her intelligence and personality. I never wanted to see her develop the attitude that being pretty is the final measure of a human being. If we are not careful, that is the message we send to kids, and I wonder if that isn't the message that Vanessa Hudgens began to get.

Disney liked her. Zach Efron liked her. The cameras were always rolling. Was that enough? Maybe just a little experiment with the cameraphone. It is a private matter. Nobody will know. *POOF!* Innocence gone.

On the first occasion of pictures finding their way onto the net, her lawyers expressed dismay that a "private matter" was making it into the public arena. Who could control such things?! Well....Vanessa could've controlled the matter. She could have not taken the pictures.

Once upon a time, you had to take pictures on film. You had to have the film developed. You knew that someone handled the photos, and would see them. Now, we think we can take risks that aren't really necessary because, "Nobody will know." Ask Vanessa Hudgens if anybody knows about the photos she took in private.

I am writing this post for parents. Teach your kids values that will keep some degree of purity as a characteristic of their lives! If anybody has a problem with that word "purity" showing up multiple times in this post...then we really ARE in trouble!

Book Review: DEATH by Meeting

I have decided to try to do a review of the books I read, so you can get a preview of some of the things I read. I hope you find this useful. I will start with a book I just finished, and in a couple of days, I will do a review of a book I finished about a week ago. "DEATH by Meeting", I really enjoyed and think it will be a very useful book to anyone who has to run meetings in their work. The next book I review will be one I loved to hate for most of my reading of it. :-)

"DEATH by Meeting" is by Patrick Lencioni, and is written in the form of a "fable" to teach a new concept. For that reason, it is actually a pretty light read. If you are one who skips to the end to decide if they will like the book or not, you will get a complete misconception, since Lencioni recaps some of the key concepts taught by the fable in a couple of chapters at the end.

I won't steal any thunder from the book by telling any more details that to say that Lencioni advocates through the story, the idea of doing your meeting "on purpose". Don't expect one kind of meeting to be a "one-size-fits-all" affair. Conflict, drama and context are your friends in getting vital information onto the table in your meetings.

Lencioni's protagonist in the fable gets the executives to understand that the first 10 minutes of any meeting, like in a movie, will set the stage for the rest of the movie, and will probably determine whether people are engaged or bored by the rest of the piece. Meetings are no different.

The idea of doing meetings in varied ways to match the topic and purpose should NOT be news to any of us, but the fact is that in MOST organizations, a meeting is a meeting is a meeting. They are all the same and most of the participants would give their left arm to have an acceptable excuse to miss the meeting. Lencioni crafts a wonderful story to help executives grapple with some concepts that will help protect their organization from "DEATH by Meeting". I would encourage anyone who needs to run meetings in their role in their organization to read this book and implement as much as possible. It is a good read and makes some excellent points!

As a final point, I would say that my wife commented on the speed with which I finished this book... I usually plod carefully through non-fiction to make sure I get the point. Since Lencioni wrote this like a well-lubed work of fiction, I flew through it and couldn't get enough! :-)