eulogies...

I just got finished delivering my first eulogy at a funeral. We traveled to Richmond last night to attend the funeral of a young man who was in the youth group Sarah and I led about 9 years ago. He died in a wreck last weekend.

I wrote a eulogy for my mom's memorial service two years ago but was unable to attend the service becuase I got food poisoning the night before. So, in a way, I guess this was my second eulogy, but first time delivering it.

I'd say it went well and I feel that God gave me good words of comfort, but I hope I don't have to do that again for a long time, or ever again...whichever comes first.

One funny note from the day though, was that I received a promotion to Reverend! Evidently, whoever wrote the bulletin thought I was ordained and it read like this:

Officiating:
Rev. Brian Hughes
Rev. Pete Davis

After the ceremony, one guy shook my hand and said, "Nice job, Reverend." I was caught off guard and somehow squeaked out a thanks.

Obama on reform...

Are you sitting on the fence in this presidential election? Or are you thinking that I'm crazy for supporting Obama? Or do you support Obama and simply want a few more reasons to feel good about your decision? Either way, take some time and watch this video. It outlines the types of reforms (political, governmental, and regulatory) he plans from Day 1 in office. I think you'll have a hard time arguing any of these points.

I'm still here...

I haven't disappeared. I've been sick. The last week and a half I had a pretty rough cold, sore throat thing going on. Then the girls got colds, and now Sarah's sick. Sarah also spent last weekend in Asheville, NC getting trained to be a doula (labor assistant). I've been tutoring twice a week and Sarah just wrapped up a Bradley class. My dad was here this weekend helping me with a few projects around the house (I'll post pictures later). So anyway, I hate excuses, but I just needed to share why I haven't written much as of late. To quote one of my favorite movies, "I'm not dead yet." And to shamelessly quote another, "I'll be back."

learning the art of kissing up...

So either Kyla is the absolutely sweetest little girl in the world, or she is perfecting her flattery techniques. Case in point:

The two times of the day when I typically get the most frustrated with the kids are meal time and bedtime (I'm sure every parent can identify). For some reason, Kyla enjoys getting down from her chair and moving to different chairs throughout the meal. That's no big deal except she has spilled her food on the floor several times while scooting around. Well it happened a few nights ago while I was outside watering the flowers. Kyla came out and told me she spilled her yogurt. I had originally gone outside for a little break from the craziness inside, so I didn't really react. I just said, "Sorry about that." She came back in and actually cleaned most of it up. When I came back in, I asked her, "How did you spill your yogurt?" I was totally expecting to hear a story about moving her bowl and I was preparing lecture 153 entitled, "How many times have I told you not to move your food around the table?" She looked up at me with her baby blues and replied in a sweet voice, "I bumped it with my elbow because I was getting down to come give you a hug and tell you I love you." Desire to give lecture: dead.

Then tonight, I had put the kids down (Sarah wasn't home) and had settled down to watch a little TV and enjoy a nice snack of chips and salsa. About a half hour later, Kyla came walking in the room (she totally slid under the Daddy Radar which can usually detect the slightest movement upstairs). Thankfully, I wasn't too frustrated at that point, so I calmly told her she needed to get in bed. She said, "Here are some flowers that were in my kids' Bible." She handed me some pressed petals that we found in an old Children's Bible that she keeps in her room. I said, "thanks, but you need to get in bed now and don't get out again." She replied as she left the room, "Ok, but I was just trying to learn about Jesus dying on the cross." How can I get upset at that???

She's totally undermining every possible moment for me to lecture her. Where is the fun in that?

quote of the week..,

From Karl Rove on Sunday:

"McCain has gone in some of his ads -- similarly gone one step too far," he told Fox News, "and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the '100 percent truth' test."

This from the King of Politcal Spin!

great commercial...

Normally I would never support anything even closely related to McDonald's, but I saw the following commercial a few times during the VT football game today and I love it! While I certainly don't endorse McDonald's coffee (not just because it's bad quality, but because it probably only costs $1 because the people who grew the beans don't get paid), I do endorse this commercial because it is funny!

what is it good for?

The 7th anniversary of September 11 brought back too many bad memories for me as I know it did for most Americans. I get squeamish every time I see the images from that day. Maybe it's because I spent weeks after that day filling my mind with the endless news coverage. Perhaps it's branded on my heart because Sarah and I traveled to NYC and saw Ground Zero with our own eyes one week after the towers fell. Whatever it is, I'll certainly never forget what I felt that day and the following weeks.

What I wish we could all forget is the warrior mentality that overtook American politics following 9/11. We're good, they're evil. We're right, they're wrong. Those who are not with us are against us. We were suddenly no longer invincible and that stung probably even more than the loss of innocent life. We were suddenly afraid of everything, and with good reason.

However, I wish we could go back and do things differently. There are several questions I would like to ask about our response to 9/11 and in my own feeble way, I'll try to answer them...we'll see how it goes. I'm trying to work these things out in my mind, so bear with me. At the heart of these thoughts is my growing sense of pacifism, my desire for peace, and my belief in God and that Jesus called Christians to love our enemies.

Should we have gone after Bin Laden? Yes, I think we should have focused all of our energy and attention on finding Bin Laden. I certainly don't know all of what went on in the planning of our invasion of Afghanistan, but it seems like we tried to take on too much all at once. I feel like after searching for him for a while, maybe we should have waited for a while instead of sending more and more troops leading to an occupation of the entire country. Would that have seemed cowardly? Maybe to some, but keep reading.

I have read that some estimate the cost of the War on Terror is going to hit upwards of $2 TRILLION, some reports aim closer to $4 trillion! Wow. And that is just government costs. That doesn't take into account the burdens that families have endured from losing loved ones, the lifetime of medical costs of those injured incur, the cost of $4/gallon gas on the nation, and the endless untold expenses. Is war just about money? No, but how would our world be different if we invested that money in peace-loving ideals instead of war?

What if we took $2 billion and invested in building schools, roads, small businesses, and water filtration in Afghanistan and Pakistan instead of dropping bombs? Do you think there would be so many people lining up at Al-Qaeda's door willing to wear a bomb? Probably not? That might sound foolish and I realize it's not as easy as it sounds. There are lots of things to consider here like international relations and corrupt governments. But isn't it always right to try to bless others?

What if we would have taken another few billion dollars to insure uninsured Americans? Or given more help to first-time home buyers, invested in public education, improved health care for veterans, or built more green energy infrastructure to wean ourselves off of foreign oil?

What if we would have avoided war with Iraq? That's a whole other story in and of itself.

I know these things were probably the furthest from our minds on 9/12/01, but maybe they should be on our minds now. How would we respond if something like that happens again? What can we do to help improve our image in the international community so fewer people hate us? What can we do to purge our addiction to oil (not just foreign, but all oil)?

These questions are one more reason I cannot support McCain/Palin. They are both incredibly divisive people when it comes to foreign policy. In today's world, I don't think we can stand up and say we are good and they are evil. If we do that, we are getting into the same game as the Islamic extremists. We need to find ways to bless our enemies (and more specifically the people who are oppressed by our enemies) which the Bible clearly tells us is the best way.

I feel like Obama would be the best at reaching out to our enemies to work things out diplomatically. He has said he will open talks with adversaries. I also saw a poll of about 20 other countries who said they would rather see Obama win the presidency and the Queen of Jordan expressed her desire for the United States to reinstate itself as a leader of inspiration, hope, and ideas in the world. To me, Obama has the best shot at doing that.

I couldn't help but notice...

I must say that I thought McCain did a much better job with his RNC speech than I expected. He kept his speech mostly positive. Palin's speech was more entertaining, but McCain's more dignified. I was disappointed by the demonstrators and at one point I started feeling sorry for McCain that the delegates were more focused on drowning them out than they were on him. I think the theme of the night was a little irrelevant...McCain is a war hero, Obama is not. I certainly don't discount McCain's POW experience, what a nightmare that was and I am sure that it had a lasting impact on his life. However, I feel like that's all I hear him (especially at the Civil Forum with Rick Warren) and his supporters say these days besides "Drill, baby drill!"

At any rate, the main thing I noticed was that McCain's entire speech was delivered in front of a giant blue screen! In case you hadn't heard, he gave a speech months ago in front of a large green background which Stephen Colbert turned into a challenge...make McCain more interesting by using the green screen to insert video. One of the responses is below from that challenge (you can see more on youtube). Didn't the RNC realize they were doing it again? Either this was a major gaffe or perhaps it was done on purpose for some more press time. Either way, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the blue screen. I'm sure Colbert will have a field day with this one Monday night on his show!

quote of the day...

We just finished watching an episode of the "The Office" online (one of our favorite pastimes) and I have to share this quote.

Andy: "He shouldn't have to be worrying ... how am I going to pay my kid's orphanage bills?"

It's much funnier if you watch the episode "The Chair Model," but I'm still laughing about it!

rather disappointed...

I'm sure that conservatives everywhere are waking up this morning quite satisfied. Palin delivered quite a speech last night. I can't help but feel disappointed, though. I had hopes that she would come out and deliver a positive message, a nice introduction to herself and her family. She did do that, and she appears to be a warm, caring person. However, she came out swinging with some pretty harsh criticisms. I get the feeling that she is a pawn in the huge political game. She was promoted to be an outsider and a ray of light into the campaign. She evidently spent nearly 2 whole days working with McCain's speech writers. One of the speech writers was quoted as saying, “After she delivers these lines, McCain’s decision to choose her will be much more obvious.” Like I wrote last night, politics is a dirty game. I just hope for Palin's sake, because she is such a seemingly warm, genuine person, that she's fully aware of what she's getting into. But I get the impression that she is just falling in line to be like the rest of the politicians.

getting a little tired...

I was just brushing my teeth a few minutes ago and a surprising thought crossed my mind. I'm growing quite tired of the presidential race. I've tried to keep from overloading myself with all of it, but I think I've about reached my limit with the conventions over the last two weeks. I find the whole process to be kind of like driving past a bad traffic accident. I want to drive by without a glance, but I can't help but slow down, crane my kneck and take in as much as I can before moving on.

I'm alternating right now between typing and watching Guliani's speech at the RNC online. His speech perfectly underscores why I am growing tired of the race. Seventy five percent of his speech has been mocking and bashing Obama. Earlier I saw a headline stating "Palin set to slam Obama in convention speech." I also heard Mitt Romney criticizing the Northeast Elites in a speech. Isn't he a bajillionare from Massachusettes? Last week, I watched the Democrats take plenty of cheap shots at McCain as well. Aren't all of these key leaders from both parties professing Christians? Shouldn't we be speaking out of love and not tearing our brothers and sisters down? Why can't it be more about the positives and less about the negatives?

I'm not new to politics. I've been around it my whole life and I understand that insulting is part of the game. I also believe that there is no person who has gotten to the point of being able to run for president without ever having done something a little on the sketchy side. Playing politics at this level is a dirty game, no exceptions. But even with that understanding, I will never understand the lack of humility and the excessive belittling that comes at this level of politics.

I will also never understand the passion at which individuals support candidates. I support Obama. I believe he is the best choice. I even went so far as to put a bumper sticker on my car. But when I watch these conventions, I just have to scratch my head. So many people seem willing to do anything to defend these candidates whom they don't even know personally. This has become so evident in the past few days with the support people are throwing at Palin. All of a sudden, thousands of Republicans talk about her as a fearless, corruption-fighting, maverick who is going to shake up Washington. How can they be so sure when so many of them had never even heard her name until a week ago? I'm sure she's a great person and I'm sure she works hard and does a good job. I look forward to getting to know more about her. But how can one be willing to argue in defense of a person they know nothing about other than a few tidbits we've gotten from the news? It seems like you might want to give it some time before you behind her so much. I'm intruiged.

Anyway, I'm probably just a little exhausted from the conventions, but I just really want the election to hurry up and get here so we can move on. Oh! Gotta go! They just announced Palin and I want to watch her speech!

interesting choices...

I've been watching the political scene pretty closely the past two weeks, and what a big two weeks it was! I've been trying to figure out what effect, if any, the VP choices each candidate has made will have on the election. I'll be honest that I don't know much about Joe Biden other than he has had an impressive career and seems to have some pretty good foreign policy experience. I look forward to hearing from him in the near future.

I was also quite shocked to hear of McCain's choice of Palin for his VP running mate. I think he either made a completely crazy, desperate reach for youth and the female vote, or he made a bold and risky, ingenious move. I guess only time will tell.

I am saddened to read, though, about Palin's seventeen year old daughter. I'm not so sad that she is a pregnant teenager as I am that she will be paraded out in the media over the next few months without much say in the matter. I've already read some pretty spiteful things about her in different places. Palin had to know this would happen to her daughter and I can't imagine doing that to my kids. I hope that Palin's family took that into account when they made the decision to run.

Palin does seem like a wonderful person with strong convictions and a good track record (outside of that ongoing investigation into her alleged firing of a state official who refused to fire her ex brother-in-law...sounds like fodder for a daytime talk show). But she seems like such a risky pick due to that investigation and her daughter's pregnancy and the little fact that she's only been out of the country one time (in the 90s as mayor, I think, and she had to apply for her passport then). Her lack of foreign relations experience will certainly be a huge target. I can't imagine that she's going to be able to handle Biden in a debate either. But I could be wrong.

Like I said, only time will tell. One thing is for sure, this hurricane sure puts a wrench in the works for the RNC! It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the week shapes up. I have a feeling McCain will be able to capitalize on this crisis to underscore his experience even though he won't get all the limelight that Obama got last week.

I certainly cannot wait until the first debate! I'm not sure when it is, but I have a feeling the debates will be a pretty big determining factor.