I was so blessed to be home with the family this Labor Day… and we did well… a lot of the things that I remember as a kid.
The grill on the deck... ready for action!
I bought this six man tent from Sportsman’s Guide about four years ago and never took it our of the shipping box. When we moved to the Fur Peace Ranch from Hillside Farm I rediscovered it and last week when Izze talked to me about camping I broke it out of the box. Now that we know ho to put it up, we could do it in 15 minutes. That said, it was under-instructed and it took us about 45 minutes to figure it out… which we did without raising our voices once.
A miracle!
The Slumberjack.. ready for action
Ready for a night under the stars!
A serious young lady ready for bed...
We spent two nights in the tent, and it’s still up so there’s some more ‘camping’ in our future. The stars in the night sky have been simply spectacular!
The morning skies haven't been too shabby either!
After an exciting night in the tent… a walk on the old road with Maverick.
The ladies check their email while Maverick reflects...
Just to be home with the family on this beautiful piece of earth… Priceless!
Then Izze and I went for a putt!
The Breakout, Izze... and Mary Catherine
Never a bad time for a bike ride… but wait, there’s more. We went to the Skyview Drive-In up in Lancaster and saw Finding Dory and Secret Life Of Pets.
Same as it ever was...
Then on Monday evening, we went to the lake at Stroud’s Run.
Izze drives the boat
A happy girl at the helm!
Well folks, that’s about as good as it gets! Fall is coming, my daughter is in 6th grade, my son is in college the Pho Peace restaurant opened today and life is good!
Twilight at the lake.
Where the hell did grace spur come from? I meant grace.
Rich, that’s why I posed my original thought as one of dichotomy. Are gracee spur and karma mutually exclusive? Or do they run on different tracks? If grace is a function of love, it is of the spiritual realm. If karma is a function of our choices, it’s of th temporal realm. I realize >a href=”#c-33997″>@rich lindbloom
I’m butchering eastern philosophy, because karma isn’t that simplistic. But, that’s why I like grace. It don’t get no simpler than that.
Lest we forget.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPheJw_O1OU
Ancient history to some.
My last student with memory of 9/11 graduated two yeas ago.
She was two in 2001 and remember asking her mother why the firemen were crying. A distant memory in her mind – kind of Jim Morrison “Ghost crowd the child’s fragile eggshell mind” stuff She remembered the sights and SMELLS ! Her mother verified again as we reviewed her story years later. A little girl with her mother passing body bags and crying firemen.
I remember going to FF John Heffernan’s mass shortly afterward at Saint Camillus in Rockaway Beach. Mrs. Heffernan had been hopeful Johnny would be found alive up until the mass. She pulled the priest aside just before mass and told him she knew he was gone but that maybe they would find him. ( He was shortly afterwards ) At the end of the mass as I sat with my mother a nun came up to talk and said it seems like every day, so many.
Later I was in Rocky’s and talking with Chris Byrne (Seanchai) about this and he had mentioned he had just played at the funeral of his son’s sports team that he co-coached
with. I think he wrote a beautiful song to remember thing by.
I remember another FF friend arriving home for the first time from the rubble and his daughter running out to jump into his arms and hug him. He described the hose as useful as pissing on a forest fire, with 40 stores flames on either side of him in the street. He also told me to call our Iron Worker friend ( who is fighting illness related to 9/11) and tell him I Love him. I sent them both a text before I wrote this.
Peace and love always to all of you
Peace
Love All Ways
Rich, that’s why I referred to it as a dichotomy. Are they mutually exclusive, or do grace and karma both play a part in the spiritual realm. Grace has nothing to do with how one acts, karma is all about what one does. I look at karma as being more about governing our temporal existence, grace comes from outside the temporal realm. I know I’m butchering some eastern philosophy, because karma is not as simplistic as I’m making it sound. But, that’s also why I like grace. It don’ get simpler.@rich lindbloom
It’s a refreshingly cool night in Chicago. I was finally able to crack the windows wide open and turn off the AC, after a week of hot and humid weather. After doing battle with the weeds in the gardens for the better part of the afternoon, I finally relaxed in my chair and caught up with my Words With Friends adversaries. (by the way, someone one needs to write a song called, “I fought the weeds, and the weeds won!”)
At any rate, after finishing catching up in my various WWF games, I read a few of the articles on the giant cut down fight that is our national election this year. Did you ever get in a cut down fight in high school – if you did, you just know one of the candidates is going to shout, “Your Mama!’ in the upcoming debates.
To regain my sanity, I decided to see if there was anything new on Jorma’s delightful blog. I was pleasantly surprised that the topics of grace and karma were being bantered about. Abraham Lincoln once said “It’s better to not say anything and let people think you are a fool, than to speak up and remove all doubt.” i really should take Honest Abe’s advice more often….
My two cents is that there is a big difference between grace and karma. Actually, karma seems to be quite antithetical to the notion of grace. Karam seems to be more of a cause and effect proposition. You do good, you get good., and vice versa. Grace is more of a you do bad and you still get good.
My dogs always come to mind when the subject of grace comes up. I had a friend who used to keep track of the reasons not to have a dog. (my dog actually chewed the tassle off my new loafer one day after work while I was napping, for example.) Bob got up to about reason #59 at last count. The truth of the matter is, our dogs do get away with murder occasionally. I love the line in Talking Heads song Animals –
“They wander around like a crazy dog
Make a mistake in the parking lot
Always bumping into things
Always let you down down down down.”
Despite the “mistakes in the parking lot,” our love for them is unconditional for the most part.
Our first dog had a fetish for my wife’s down pillows – he destroyed three of them – just hers for some odd reason. I was taking a shower one fine summer morning, when I heard what sounded like thunder. I looked out the shower window and noticed there was nothing but blue skies. As Scooby Doo would say, “Rut row.” I opened the bathroom door, and Fuji, our 100# Akita was violently shaking the pillow in the hall way.
The hallway looked like a chicken coop gone wild – feathers everywhere. When I took what was left of the pillow from the Fujster, I hollered in my serious voice, “Bad Dog!” Of course, I was scratching his belly before I went to work – hard to stay mad at a dog. My wife’s reaction later that day will not be found in Cesar Millan’s dog training videos anytime soon. “I heard you were bad fluffy wuffy this morning.” That’s grace in a nutshell.
I recently finished a book called “One Way Love – inexhaustible grace for an exhausted world.” The authors basic premise is there is nothing we can do to earn God’s grace. It is an unconditional gift. So much of the grace we show family and friends in our lives is rife with contingencies. “If you get good grades, we’ll love you” “If you admit you are wrong, I’ll think about forgiving you.” “If you buy me flowers and candy, I’ll think about loving you.”
The story of the prodigal son is a classic example of grace, and it’s counterpart – our efforts. It’s actually a story about two sons. It’s the classic struggle between control – the good son, and grace – the prodigal son. As Gerhard Forde noted, “You see, we really are sealed up in the prison of our conditional thinking. It is terribly difficult for us to get out, and even if someone batters down the door and shatters the bars, chances are we will stay in the prison anyway.”
In the story of the prodigal son, the miscreant son was welcomed home with open arms, “while his older, self righteous brother stood alone in the courtyard, fuming with bitterness. His offense at the grace his brother received stranded him out in the cold, away from the joyful celebration inside.” If it doesn’t pertain to us, most of thetime we want to see the bad punished.
But as the author of the book notes, ‘Grace is radically unbalanced. It contains no but: it is unconditional, uncontrollable, unpredictable and undomesticated – or else it is not grace. Doug Wilson probably gave my favorite definition of grace; “Grace is wild. Grace unsettles everything. Grace overflows the banks. Grace messes up your hair. (that was my favorite) Grace is not tame. In fact, unless we are making the devout nervous, we are not preaching grace as we ought.”
Think about how that notion could effect all our relationships in life. Instead we say, “I’ll forgive you when you…. I’ll love you when you… You’ll have to earn my…”
I’ll take grace over karma any day. I kind of like the part of doing bad and still getting good. Next to our love for are furry friends, a parents love for their kids is about as close to grace as we’ll come. I’ll never forget an old Sally Forth comic strip. One of her kids asks her if she loves them and Sally replies, “You’re still alive, aren’t you.”
Barbara tends to to get into cat fights with all my friends named John and and others on this site, so this is for her and them and me:
For Phil, cause he friend
I think I’m sophisticated
‘Cos I’m living my life like a good homosapien
But all around me everybody’s multiplying
Till they’re walking round like flies man
So I’m no better than the animals sitting in their cages
In the zoo man
‘Cos compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees
I am an ape man
I think I’m so educated and I’m so civilized
‘Cos I’m a strict vegetarian
But with the over-population and inflation and starvation
And the crazy politicians
I don’t feel safe in this world no more
I don’t want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore and make like an ape man
I’m an ape man, I’m an ape ape man
I’m an ape man I’m a King Kong man I’m ape ape man
I’m an ape man
‘Cos compared to the sun that sits in the sky
Compared to the clouds as they roll by
Compared to the bugs and the spiders and flies
I am an ape man
In man’s evolution he has created the cities and
The motor traffic rumble, but give me half a chance
And I’d be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle
‘Cos the only time that I feel at ease
Is swinging up and down in a coconut tree
Oh what a life of luxury to be like an ape man
I’m an ape, I’m an ape ape man, I’m an ape man
I’m a King Kong man, I’m a voo-doo man
I’m an ape man
I look out my window, but I can’t see the sky
‘Cos the air pollution is fogging up my eyes
I want to get out of this city alive
And make like an ape man
Come and love me, be my ape man girl
And we will be so happy in my ape man world
I’m an ape man, I’m an ape ape man, I’m an ape man
I’m a King Kong man, I’m a voo-doo man
I’m an ape man
I’ll be your Tarzan, you’ll be my Jane
I’ll keep you warm and you’ll keep me sane
And we’ll sit in the trees and eat bananas all day
Just like an ape man
I’m an ape man, I’m an ape ape man, I’m an ape man
I’m a King Kong man, I’m a voo-doo man
I’m an ape man.
I don’t feel safe in this world no more
I don’t want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore
And make like an ape man..
(Peace pipe, Jim style)
Pace e bene
^A follower.^ His comment is representative of his earlier comments posted here on other discussions. Spreading disinformation and insults. Not G-dly at all.
Or is it the 800 lb gorilla.
Sounds like an atheist or humanist. Narcissistic personality disorder – sounds Freudian – WTF. We were having a nice conversation then the 600 pound gorilla entered the room.
I agree with your comment.
An individual who expects others to blindly follow their directives and obey their orders, has narcissistic personality disorder. Here in the human realm, it’s bad enough to be a narcissist but that behavior only hurts the narcissist.
Allowing oneself to be easily led by a narcissist leads to following the path of their folly.
You are new here and I like your comments. You are not likely to be easily led by any commenter here.
@Carey Georgas
John Lennon’s Instant Karma’s lyrics are really good. “Better recognize your brother; Everyone you meet”
It’ll knock you off your feet.
Or you can call it Instant Karma.
That’s grace in action, Nick.@Nick L. Eakins
Or it bites your leg. That’s a good metaphor for karma.@johno </a
You can’t keep kicking a dog in the head and expect it to be your friend. There comes a time when it walks away.
Even though you’re right about unmerited – my take is you have a better chance of receiving grace if you’re a good soul than an evil one. God loves a good, happy soul. There are so many good souls out there and He does send grace to all. Only God knows what’s really going on in our hearts. We can just sit here conjecture on Jorma’s blog.
@Carey Georgas
Thank you, sir, for providing such a gentle forum.@Jorma
@johno My take on unmerited means we can’t be good enough or bad enough for grace. The rain falls on the just and unjust. Love responds to gratitude, not obedience. Now, that’s just the way I see it. I ain’t no preacher – just a ponderer
Grace is unmerited blessings – which is what we all hope for. In order to receive grace you should strive to live a righteous life. God loves obedience and it’s so easy to live right. Jorma is definitely blessed.
Karma is more of a totality thing. Jorma is a very kind, warm person. He always was and always will be. His music is very sincere and uplifting. Because Jorma is a pleasant soul and has lived a good life he has good karma. We can all have good karma and receive grace if we just live right. Love thy neighbor. Love is the key.
My definition of grace is unmerited favor, which may just be a semantic difference. Karma is the balancing act. My belief is that grace represents the power of love, karma represents the power of our choices. Grace does a better job for me in my understanding of why good things happen to bad people, and vice versa. But, it also requires us to put the old ego in the back seat. (or maybe that’d be the car seat).@Jorma
Hey Carey… I love discussions like this… thanks for opening the door, and to everyone else who came through.
Hey Jorma, one of your best posts (and some very good comments), go on! And have fun with the Slumberjack, the night-sky-stars are waiting to be looked at…
@Jorma
I like that
@Jorma
Can’t speak for anyone else but I’m certainly glad to not get everything I’ve got coming to me.
Making memories,,,Izze will treasure them for a lifetime.
🙂
karma vs. grace is a spiritual dichotomy that would make for excellent discussion, but I’m too new here to know if that would be appropriate. At least we can think about it, if we wish.
Hey Carey… Jorma here…
Here’s the way I see it…
Grace is unearned mercy…
Karma is a balancing act between reward and payback…
you are a blessed man.. Fantastic stuff!
Grace and gratitude go hand in hand. No wonder your life is so full of blessing.
Phantastic weekend!
It’s all karma Jorma, you were such a nice guy your whole life. You were always nice to me. You deserve everything that comes your way.
Love that you share your gratitude for the simple gifts we have been given. Keep on trudgin’!
…that road of happy destiny…
The picture of Izze smiling says it all
Dulce vita