Email volley with a former student

First, for those of you that read last week’s column, where I left the keys to the van in my classroom, I had to share this with you. Eventually one of the cheerleaders got fed up and went into my room to help look for the keys.

She returned to the van, keys in hand, which she had found underneath someone’s pom-pon.

“Typical man,” she said, “men don’t know how to look for things!”

Now this week, I thought I’d share a conversation I recently had with a former student of mine from L.A. Chris Freet now works in the PR dept at the University of Oklahoma Athletic Dept. These were two emails, not an instant messenger chat- I hate those things, but I present it to you here in transcript form just because I thought it would be easier to follow.

Chris: I am enjoying the regular conversation.

Ted: Me too, I’m sorry it’s taken more than a week to get back to you. Monster case of bronchitis took me out one day and the rest of the week has been a bear.

Chris: I will prompt with two questions for the next one. Is Bush going to be reelected?

Ted:There’s nothing money can’t buy. Let’s see, the Republicans hated Clinton so much that after 6 or 7 years of not proving any Whitewater wrongdoing, they tried to impeach him for philandering. Then, when they lost the popular election in 2000, they had the predominantly Republican Supreme Court decide. What do you think?

Okay, I’ll get off of the “vast conservative conspiracy” trip for a minute. Seriously, I think it will be tight, just like last time, but I do think he’s vulnerable. You’re dissatisfaction is evidence. You and I are the biggest swing vote. White, male, working-class, rural or Southern. They call our demographic “the NASCAR vote.” But, unless Jesse” the Body” Venture throws his hat into the ring it comes down to five of the “ten little Indians.”

General Wes Clark, Southern (but not too Southern), a decorated vet, offers the most macho alternative. Good choice for Sec. of State or Defense if he doesn’t go all the way and Bush loses.

FLA Sen. Grahm, from right down in Bush Bro country, has gone so far as to sponsor a NASCAR pickup truck. How’s that for appealing to those with red necks, white socks, and blue collar jobs? But, most Americans hate Florida almost as much as we hate California and New York, don’t we?

NC Sen. John Edwards, young, dashing, espousing idealistic but impractical rhetoric about NAFTA and manufacturing jobs. Look for him to run again and again and again if Bush gets re-elected. Hey did I tell you I actually met him last week? I’ll have to send you a copy of the column I wrote about it.

MO Rep. Dick Gebhardt, tearing a page out of the Gore playbook is putting on the “pissed off middle class white guy” routine. He’s the most traditional center-left, healthcare and insurance for everybody Democrat. I predict a strong third for the nomination, look for a cabinet job if a Dem gets in.

And of course, Vermont Gov. Dr. Howard Dean, MD. Still the Democratic front runner. Savy, speaks his mind, not the party line, great money maker. He even looks a little like John McCain. He can take Bush, he’s a helluva lot smarter, but doesn’t come off as a boring egg head like Gore and Bill Bradley did. However, folks like your sister and brother-in-law and parents won’t like his positions on homosexuals and abortion. Other weaknesses include his wife. She’s no beauty pageant winner but more importantly, she’s a doctor too and plans to keep her practice if Dean’s elected. Too real, too strong, to independent for stay-at-home-barefoot-and-pregnant hyper conservatives.

Besides, Liberal former governor of a small New England state with a doctor wife- sounds an awful lot like NBC’s the West Wing. But ever since I saw him as JFK in “Missiles of October” in Government class in high school, I thought Martin Sheen would make a great President. Will life imitate art?

Chris: And Should Eric Gagne win the Cy Young?

Ted: He hasn’t done too well against Arizona this year, but anyone with a 1.27 ERA deserves a look. Obviously the Diamondback Dou (Schilling & Johnson) isn’t in the running this year. But Kevin Brown was always my (least) favorite Dodger. Which do you think I follow more closely, politics or baseball?

Patriot’s Day

“Patriotism;” Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines it simply as “love for or devotion to one's country.” Oddly enough, they date it’s creation as 1726, just fifty years before our country came into being. “Patriot is an older word, 1605. It’s taken from the Greek roots for Patriarch, as in your fathers. Webster’s defines a patriot as “one who loves his or her country and supports its authority and interests”

The question is, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

The Boys Scouts of America taught me to love you less than God and almost as much as my immediate family.

What are you? Who are you?

Is a country a place? I love your terrain. I love your panoramic views, your horizons and highways. I love the searing heat of my native Arizona and the cool, damp, subtropical sea breezes of the California coast. I love the aroma of pine trees in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I love the dramatic landscapes of Colorado, the serenity of Wyoming and New Mexico. I love the chilly waters and pebbly shores of the great lakes in Michigan. And I’ve sure come to love the rolling hills of Iowa that seem to embrace you and the aromas that come from the fields when the corn and soybeans are ready to be harvested.

Is a country a political entity? I’d have to admit to having a love-hate relationship with you then. Sometimes I feel like I’m the rebellious teenager, other times I feel like you’re the impetuous, sometimes annoying child and I’m the exhausted parent. Why can’t we always see eye to eye?

As much as I HATE to admit it, there have been times that I’ve been embarrassed to claim you. Like when your own people were enslaved or hanging from your trees, or when thousands of them were cut down in one day in Oklahoma City, not by outsiders, but by one of your own. Or when we are millions are never born because others think of them as decisions, rather than as people. Or when I reflect upon how much how few of us horde and consume while so many others starve and suffer. There have been so many times when your way was not the right way.

But, there are other times when I couldn’t be more proud of you. Like how much how many suffered and sacrificed for others on this awful day two years ago. When I think of how much how many suffered and sacrificed to literally save the world sixty years ago when evil incarnate walked the earth. There have been so many times, so many times when your way has been the most right way, when you led the way, even when others refused to follow.

Is a country songs and colors? Pomp and ceremony? Is a country the sum of it’s symbols? I love red, white and blue. Your anthems bring a lump to my throat, even more since this awful day two years ago. But while I venerate your flag, I will not bring my self to worship it. In the end it is only cloth and ink. Rather, we should “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

It is not the red of thirteen stripes of a banner, it is the red of the life blood of your patriots that matters. Deep in the ground of Lexington and Anteitem, of Normandy and Sicily and Glaudal Cannal, and yes, of Manhattan.

What is a country? Is a country a system? Laws and processes and precedents? Is it a shared ethos? A morality, founded on God’s eternal laws?

I love that you still work. Through abuse and corruption, investigations and scandals, swings of the pendulum, the system that is America still works.

I love that you promise me that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

So that no denomination is corrupted by the power of being your “official” religion. So that I can seek God as I understand Him and as He reveals Himself to me in His Word. Even if that means that false religions are free to flourish here too.

So that I can speak my mind without being jailed or fined or murdered or persecuted.

So that people can read this.

So that we can gather peaceably for social, political, or religious reasons. So that thousands could gather in 1963 to hear a black preacher with a dream.

So that we can complain about you, complain to you, and “throw the bums out.”

Is a country a people? We are so many. So different. So imperfect. So angry with each other, so disrespectful of each other, so selfish. So human.

So warm, so giving, so caring, so committed, so daring, so intelligent, so powerful, so patient, so helpful, so important, so united. So sewn together not by race, not by creed or color, not by language, not by song or culture, but by choice, by commitment, by conviction, by country.

I love you to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach. I promise to do my best to do my duty to God and my country. I’ll help, I’ll give, I’ll vote, I’ll volunteer, I’ll hope, I’ll continue to believe in you.

I’ll pray for you.

I’ll remember.

I’ll remember all my fellow patriots who were lost this awful day two years ago.

I’ll remember, will you?

Cousin Campout

I missed out on a rite of summer last weekend. The annual McCutcheon “Cousin Campout” at the St.Thomas Moore center. To be honest, we never really go to camp. We go on Sunday morning and stay for the worship service and lunch. This year we stayed home to make sure the LYF Contemporary Service went smoothly at St. John’s. Just as well since all four of us seem to have come down with winter colds.

One reason I’m disappointed that we missed it is that my father-in-law Allen’s aunts, Erma, Marylin , and Janette are some of the biggest fans of this column, and never fail to tell me so. That always feels great. Even if Janette thinks I’m becoming a Republican (God forbid- no offense intended Republican readers).

Mike and Marylin Schiltz and their crew are just about the best at coming to weddings and baptisms!

Something we can all learn about our families is in Deuteronomy 5:9-10; “…I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

It’s painfully obvious. Weight problems, alcoholism, child abuse, infidelity or incest, these are problems that are hereditary. Even things like smoking, credit card debt, gambling habits or dropping out of school are patterns that our children imitate.

All of us have skeletons in our closets and a few fruits and nuts hanging in our family trees. I’m not about to pretend that our family is any different. Be that as it may, I want to point out to you the wonderful promise of this Bible verse.

First of all, notice that all of the negative cycles can be broken. It may be difficult and painful, it may take “three or four generations,” but it can happen. They say it takes 21 days to make or break an exercise habit, one study claims that it takes two years to quit smoking, but it can be done. But look at the other half of the verse- God shows love “to a thousand generations” of those who love Him!

Twenty or more generations ago, back in the early seventeenth century Robert Peck decided to answer God’s call and became a pastor. Just a couple of generations later, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins came over on the HMS Mayflower, fell in love and made history. Seven generations later, one of their descendants, George Washington Bidlack settled in what became Crawford County, Iowa. He was a leading Republican in Iowa, but I don’t hold that against him. If Abe Lincoln had been president when I first registered to vote, I’d like to think I’d probably register GOP too.

One of his daughters, Ella, married John McCutcheon. Our daughter Ellen is named for my great aunt Ellen and for Ella McCutcheon. These McCutcheons are who the Cousin Campout is named for.

One of the most beautiful worship opportunities I’ve ever been a part of was last year, at the funeral of Julie (McCutcheon) Meyer. She’s one of Verl and Linda’s triplets from Dow City. She died of cancer, leaving a husband, Matt and a three year old son behind. She was my age. But I’m telling you, it was incredible what a legacy of faith she left behind and how many people’s lives she touched as a nurse and with the ministry she and Matt had to college kids at their church in Lincoln, Nebraska.

John and Ella McCutcheon’s daughter Grace, married a fella by the name of Art Samuelson. Grace was down right famous throughout Iowa as a stern but loving school teacher. Their love and faith impacted generations of their descendants too.

One thing they passed on is this corny tidbit; Art’s favorite hymn was “Amazing Grace” and Grace’s favorite was “How Great Thou Art.”

Our other Daughter, Grace, is named for Grace Samuelson.
All the folks at the McCutcheon Cousin Campout do all of the same things you probably do at your family reunions. We eat a pot-luck, we joke, we reminisce, we swim, we sweat, play cards, play games and even award door prizes. And we all have our family sins and problems, we’re no better than anybody else’s family.

But what I appreciate most about the Cousin Campout, is that at this family gathering they worship together. Different denominations, different generations sing praises to their Savior to tell Him how much they love Him, discuss how He has worked in their lives, and pray to thank Him for blessing their families for these many generations.

He loves you so much. He’d rather have you love Him than hate Him. Test Him and you’ll see Him bless your family for a thousand generations.

Cheesy puns put ‘unity’ in ‘community'

by Theodore J. Chipmonk

I have to hand it to Rosie Lally and Lucia Lincoln. They've done it again. Last weekend's benefit production put on by the Charter Oak Shelter House Committee was a laugh riot.

But it was a whole lot more than funny, it was democracy in action and it was exactly the kind of thing that makes small towns so wonderful.

The show was everything it set out to be. How many Broadway plays can say that? Of course, what it set out to be was silly, cheesy, puny fun. This play was everything a small town ought to be, and everything you look for in a friend or neighbor- totally unpretentious, self effacing, and able to laugh at them self. That may be due, a great deal to Rosie and Lucia.

Ms. Lincon has been teaching, (or “coaching”) drama at Charter Oak-Ute High School long enough to have established herself as a community institution. There are some powerful values that seep into the way she writes, plans, produces and directs her plays. It’s pretty obvious that she very deliberately tries to include as many people as possible.

As a result, more people are exposed to the creative process than usual. That way, we take ownership for it, we respect it and it’s more important to us. That also means that more of us “get cultured.” More of us attend such a play than normally would.

Another result is that the creative process is exposed to more hands, more input. Rosie & Lucia know we’re not professional actors and enjoy our idiosyncrasies. Heck, they take advantage of our personality quirks. In the case of last weekend’s play, they took advantage of our names.

It’s gotta drive them crazy. Having so many people learning and rehearsing parts has to start feeling like herding cats. But they manage it like pros.

Some would argue that “too many cooks ruin the soup.” Maybe so and that may be a problem if you’re trying to make Viennese turtle soup with truffles, but if you want a good ol' jambalaya, the more input the better. Lincoln and Lally actually ask for input, encourage improvisation and solicit creativity. What results is something that reflects who we are as a town, and is more our voice than either of their voices alone.

I know it sounds hokey to compare a High School English teacher to Thomas Jefferson, but just like he was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence but it was really written by the whole Continental Congress and is historically considered to be an expression of “the American mind,” Lucia starts out writing a fun little play but it takes on a life of it’s own and it really represents Charter Oak and belongs to Charter Oak, more than to Lucia or Rosie or any one else.

When I married Bethany, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that I didn’t just marry her, I married into a family, what’s more, I didn’t just marry into a family, I married into a town. That’s a wonderful feeling, even if it was a little intimidating at first. A stereotype we city native have of small towns is that they’re exclusive, stodgy, and unwelcoming to outsiders. Charter Oak broke the stereotype for me. It has been warm, accepting, understanding and has enthusiastically made me feel like a welcomed member of the community.

When we’d first come back to visit from college or California, I’d have a hard time placing names with faces. Bethany told me that there aren’t TOO many names to remember. If you know Neddermeyer, Kuhlman, Meseck, and Staley, you know almost about everybody. Thanks to last weekend’s play, I can put a lot more faces with a lot more names.

Those are the kind of values that Lucia’s dramas and her directing style embody. As a fellow teacher, I watched her at play practice to see what kinds of “teacher” things she does. Immediately following practice she made an effort to touch base with everyone she could. She praised them for their performance, gently suggested things she’s like them to add or change and often noticed things they did on their own that she thought contributed to the play.

Lots of us may have moaned or even cringed when we were asked to be involved, but think about two things; First, one of our pastors in California said that if you want someone to become a member of a church, you should “give ‘em a job.” Active participation automatically creates commitment. Second, one of the great things for armatures (and high school students) about having a huge cast is that they’re all short, easy parts. Anyone is more apt to help if they aren’t overwhelmed by how much they have to do.

In other words, “Many hands make light the work.” Or as Red Green says on IPTV, “We’re all in this together.”

That’s what community is all about. That’s what participatory democracy is all about. Helping each other, enjoying each other’s camaraderie. As everybody knows, the family that plays together stays together. I think that that has to be every bit as important as businesses or a school. If we enjoy working together to help each other out, we’ll stay afloat. I’ll bet we’ll even improve our town some, like by being able to build a new shelter house down at the park.

It may have been a corny, cheesy line at the end of a corny, cheesy play, but we ought to thank Lucia and Rosie for “putting the UNITY back in COMMUNITY!