Gracious and loving God,

I offer my thanks for another day to experience, another day to discover the myriad of miraculous ways your Creation manifests Itself. For too many, the experience is indescribable suffering and need. Even though I am blissfully blessed, that will ever be incomplete until such joy is universal. Let my experience be of communion with all your Creation, and may I ever be mindful that your gracious love embraces the least as surely as it sustains me. Let my life shine with the Truth of your redeeming love as it dispels Evil's darkness. May I live my life in ways that are pleasing in your holy sight. Amen.

Now Pay Attention!

I just had to post this quote from one of my favorites:

I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning , or destroyed it altogether.
- Alfred North Whitehead

We're On Our Way

I'm chatting online with Rebecca who's in Arizona while Mary prepares spaghetti in our new common kitchen for this evening's meal. I've not elaborated on our experiment in family relations that commenced in earnest last Tuesday. What has been in the planning stages for a couple of years now is putting rubber to the road, so to speak. It's an experiment in more eco-friendly, economically efficient housing. Somewhat to our surprise, after having first looked into communal living through the Boulder Free University back in the early seventies, it turns out that the seminal community consists of our daughter, Rachel, and her husband, Steve. We have literally split the housing costs fifty-fifty which provides us with much more amenable common areas (kitchen, dining, living, entertainment, etc) than we could afford separately. As the experiment progresses, I anticipate that other areas more conducive to a sustainable lifestyle will emerge for our common sharing. To borrow those two words used in the New Testament to describe the reaction of those who witnessed the reality of the Christ in their midst, I am both astonished and amazed that the dream is becoming real.

Mission Accomplished?

I have, dear Reader, been remiss in recording my thoughts. I excuse myself by rationalizing that relocating is a time consuming process. The move is now past tense and the process of settling in has begun. After calling Las Vegas home for nearly fifteen years, I am finding it difficult not to think that we are just on vacation. The comfort of familiar furnishings will aid the acceptance Fort Collins as our new home. I have received word from a former coworker that the timing of my retirement from DAFS is even more fortunate due to another wave of major reorganization in just the two weeks since I left. I feel such great compassion for those I left behind whose lot requires they stay in DAFS’ employ. The day must come that We the People who keep this great country running receive the respect and equality which are foundational to a democratic society. This is the critical subject I look forward to examining in detail now that I have freed myself (at least for the moment) from the bondage of subservient employment. But for now…it’s back to unpacking.

Thank You, Paul McCartney

...for singing what must be sung:

The End Of The End Lyrics:

Tuesday Afternoon

While I'll have more time to write in retirement, I've decided to give first priority to my daily journal. This, then, will be my distinction between journaling and blogging. While I understand that it would be more efficient to combine the two, I confess that I am not brave enough to bare my every personal thought in public (I can appreciate that some readers may disagree). Anyway, I'm going to continue to try to Incite the spirit of love through selections from my journal that I choose to share with you.

From yesterday:

“Christians” burning books? Extremism is the clue to the inauthenticity of the irreverent claim to a particular identity. “I am not a crook.” “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” Where from hell are you coming up with any association of the vulgar burning of the Koran with the life and teachings of Jesus bar Joseph of Nazareth, the one whom I suppose you publicly proclaim as your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Your billboard is partially correct: this is the work of the devil.

Can there be any greater satisfaction that outsmarting spell check?

hymn pro totus

Within You Without You
Artist(Band):The Beatles

We were talking-about the space between us all
And the people-who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth-then it's far too late-when they pass away.
We were talking-about the love we all could share-when we find it
To try our best to hold it there-with our love
With our love-we could save the world-if they only knew.
Try to realize it's all within yourself
No-one else can make you change
And to see you're really only very small,
And life flows ON within you and without you.
We were talking-about the love that's gone so cold and the people,
Who gain the world and lose their soul-
They don't know-they can't see-are you one of them?
When you've seen beyond yourself-then you may find, peace of mind,
Is waiting there-
And the time will come when you see
we're all one, and life flows on within you and without you.

A Labor Day Hymn

It has become a Labor Day tradition to post these words which ring so true:

Working Class Hero

by John Lennon

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and class less and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

P.S. I've posted pictures of the retirement party thrown by my coworkers on Flickr.

Sleepy Sunday

Mary and I are "recovering" from hitting it hard yesterday. It's difficult to grasp that our Friday deadline is now less than a week away. We're watching Paul McCartney's performance at the White House that we recorded earlier. It is a pleasant way to revive the many memories of that era. Those were turbulent times which seemed dangerous at the time but pale by comparison to whatever insanity has gripped our nation today. We were able then to identify the Nixon administration as the culprit in stark contrast to the anonymous corporate takeover of government we are experiencing today. This situation is not going away any time soon. Right now, though, it's time to concentrate on the next chapter (yes, OTR, there are more than two), and to resume the fight from the perspective of a Rocky Mountain high.

Second Stage Countdown

We move to Colorado in ten days.