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"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" From Scott Richert:
Not much is known about Saint Stephen's origin. He is first mentioned in Acts 6:5, when the apostles appoint seven deacons in order to minister to the physical needs of the faithful. Because Stephen is a Greek name (Stephanos), and because the appointment of the deacons occurred in response to complaints by Greek-speaking Jewish Christians, it is generally assumed that Stephen was himself a Hellenist. However, a tradition arising in the fifth century claims that Stephen's original name was Kelil, an Aramaic word that means "crown," and he was called Stephen because Stephanos is the Greek equivalent.
In any case, Stephen's ministry was conducted among Greek-speaking Jews, some of whom were not open to the Gospel of Christ. Stephen is described in Acts 6:5 as "full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost" and in Acts 6:8 as "full of grace and fortitude," and his talents for preaching were so great those Hellenist Jews who disputed his teaching "were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit that spoke" (Acts 6:10).
Unable to combat Stephen's preaching, his opponents found men who were willing to lie about what Saint Stephen taught, to claim that "they had heard him speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God" (Acts 6:11). In a scene reminiscent of Christ's own appearance before the Sanhedrin (cf. Mark 14:56-58), Stephen's opponents produced witnesses who claimed that "we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place [the temple], and shall change the traditions which Moses delivered unto us" (Acts 6:14). (Read more.)


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Who You Work With Can Make All The Difference
Sometimes a bad day at work can be made all the better by some great co-workers and then you could be Freddie Prinze Jr, who hated one co-worker so bad he stopped working altogether.
In the real world it probably isn't as simple as saying, "I don't like working with so-and-so therefore I'm not going to work at all." But in Hollywood that sort of thing can sometime fly. And I guess for a while it did for Prinze.
So who made him so miserable?
Freddie spoke with ABC News at Comic-Con this weekend and addressed why he hadn't been doing too much since being part of 24 in 2010. And that reason is Kiefer Sutherland.
Yep, calling Kiefer out Freddie straight out said
I did '24,' it was terrible. I hated every moment of it. Kiefer was the most unprofessional dude in the world."
He is quick to add that he would say those words right to Kiefer's face and that he believes a lot of people who have worked with the younger Sutherland would say the same thing.
Still Kiefer may not have felt the same way. He had very nice things to say about Prinze back in 2009 when he was first added to the cast. But by the end if their run, Prinze did not feel the same way. Kiefer's had no comment on Prinze's quotes as of yet.
But some people just aren't meant to work with each other. Sometimes we just clash with someone for whatever reason.
So have you ever had a co-worker that made you want to leave your job? Have you actually left a position because your co-workers were so bad? We may not all be able to just stop working like Freddie Prinze Jr, but you can try to find a better situation if your work environment is no good.

subset: commoncrawl


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Rhode Island State of the State Address 2003
Following is the full text of Rhode Island Gov. Donald L. Carcieri's State of the State speech, delivered Feb. 4, 2003.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, my fellow General Officers, members of the General Assembly, members of the Judiciary, distinguished guests, my wife (Sue), my mother (Marguerite), my family, and my fellow Rhode Islanders.
It is an honor to stand before you tonight to offer my first "State of our State Address."
I approach this evening mindful of the fact that we are living in a world fraught with peril and uncertainty, punctuated, tonight, by a sense of sorrow as we mourn the loss of seven of this world's brightest, boldest and most intrepid citizens.
I ask you to join me in a moment of prayerful silence in memory of the talented and courageous crew of the space shuttle "Columbia."
As a nation, we are also wondering tonight whether we are on the brink of war.
As of today, more than 1,500 Rhode Island reservists either have been deployed or are poised for deployment abroad. It is the largest, single National Guard deployment since World War II.
Sue and I have been on the tarmac and have participated in the emotional send-offs -- the good-byes to loved ones. These men and women are brave. Their families are strong. This nation is well served.
Tonight, as a tribute to ALL the women and men participating in "Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Enduring Eagle." I would like to recognize the sacrifices of three Rhode Islanders who have already answered that call to duty:
First Sergeant Thomas Dolan of North Kingstown; Master Sergeant Ronald Matthews of Providence; and Lance Corporal Allan Peabody of Coventry.
Their loved ones are here tonight. They, too, are making countless sacrifices --- whether as wives, parents, or children. They are shouldering many burdens. And they're doing it for our nation ... for each of us.
I'd like to ask family members Johnnie Mae Matthews, Christine Dolan and Christine Peabody to stand and be recognized. We salute you and offer your families our heartfelt prayers:
Tonight, we draw our thoughts to our own State of Rhode Island. I sense new feelings of hope, optimism and opportunity wherever I go.
As I said in my inaugural speech, our citizens are expecting a government that is competent, ethical, empathetic and accessible. And one that works together.
I have been governor for 28 days, 6 hours and 52 minutes. We've hit the ground running ... determined to reinforce these themes.
My first official Act on Day One was to issue an executive order on ethics. I will be pursuing more.
Two days later, I hosted a State House press briefing with the leadership of the General Assembly and put forward legislation calling for a Constitutional Amendment providing real separation of powers.
In the following days, we officially put to rest the idea of a container port at Quonset. We sped up deliveries of home heating oil. We opened up new facilities to shelter the homeless during the recent cold snap. We committed resources to fund affordable housing. We reached an agreement to seek a better deal for the taxpayers on video lottery terminal proceeds.
We reorganized the Economic Development Corporation-changed its mission and focus. We got to work on the "Big Audit" and are putting together a forward-looking budget proposal for fiscal year 2004.
We hosted our first "Open Door Thursday" session.
I christened a new generation, double-hulled barge the size of a football field built by Rhode Islanders.
I am meeting with the leaders of the General Assembly weekly.
Tomorrow, I will sit and talk with students from Hope High School.
So ... yes ... we have been busy. We have been engaged. And we have only just begun!
Tonight, I would like to share my vision for our future. [It's] my vision for making Rhode Island "work better." [My vision] for making Rhode Island government leaner, more forward-looking and more responsive [and] for building a state we can all be proud of.
We have major challenges facing us. But they are manageable if we work together. Our fiscal situation is difficult, but not as bad as many other states'.
Tonight, I will outline the steps that Rhode Island must take in order to flourish. It's all about choices.... and we need to make tough choices.
My comments this evening will touch on four main topics:
What we're doing to create good, high-paying jobs in Rhode Island.
What we're doing to fix our schools.
What we're doing to cut the cost of government and balance the budget.
And what we're doing to run our State better!
First and foremost ... jobs.
It's a subject that's on everyone's mind. If it's not your own job that you are worried about ... maybe it's your spouse's job ... or you're worried about future opportunities for your children or your grandchildren.
In order to make Rhode Island the "jewel of New England," we must provide our citizens with real job opportunities.
We must do what we've never done before --- set ambitious goals for job growth and challenge ourselves to meet them.
Until recently, our job growth has consistently lagged our neighbors.
Tonight, I am setting a goal: we will make Rhode Island a leader in job growth in New England.
Our goal is to create 20,000 good jobs in the next four years. I believe in setting ambitious goals. It will focus all of our attention.
We will march forward with new and different uses for Quonset. (Like focusing on technology and marine trades. We'll make Quonset a recreational destination, too, with, perhaps, a waterfront esplanade and bike paths!)
And we will work aggressively to help our local communities generate local jobs. That's key. Partnering with you and with the leaders of the communities you represent.
We must build partnerships with world-renowned entrepreneurs and scientists already in Rhode Island. We are seeing a growing number of biomedical research companies putting down roots here in the Ocean State-drawing from the intellectual strength of our colleges, hospitals and medical school.
Let me mention one success story: Epivax. A locally owned company, based in Providence. They are developing a vaccine to treat and ultimately prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.
Doctor Anne De Groot founded Epivax while working at Brown University. It's an example of how we can move ideas from the research lab to the commercial marketplace. We need more pioneers like Doctor DeGroot.
Doctor, will you please stand and be recognized?
To leverage the power of our intellectual capital, I am proposing several targeted initiatives that will help us broaden and grow the economy.
First, we need to double our investment in our business incubators. We call them our Slater Centers. Right now, we have four such centers, each focusing on an area where Rhode Island has a competitive advantage. The $7 million that's been invested thus far has generated more than $100 million in private investment and nearly 300 jobs. Epivax is just one example of how planting the right seeds can yield an abundant harvest.
Secondly, to further nurture the industries of tomorrow, I am proposing that we invest in research and development at the University of Rhode Island. Rhode Island ranks dead last in the nation in research and development dollars expended by our public schools of higher education. We need to change that. I am proposing that we build a new Center for Biotechnology and Molecular Biosciences at URI. Such a Center will attract world experts and businesses, alike -- folks who will bring high quality jobs with them.
By the way, we must also change our rules to allow our professors more freedom to commercialize their inventions.
Thirdly, I am proposing that we dramatically increase our investment in worker training programs. We have a relatively new biotech company in this state, Amgen, located in West Greenwich, right off Route 95. Amgen is investing one billion dollars in Rhode Island. One billion dollars!
They need workers. Skilled workers. And Rhode Islanders need jobs... good jobs.
There's a gap there.
We need to help Amgen --- and companies like them --- fill that gap. We will create a world-class biotech training facility to provide the skilled workers.
The State of Rhode Island will furnish the seed money to get this project off the ground. We will send a strong message to biotech firms across the globe that Rhode Island is ready to supply the talented workforce that 21st century companies demand. I want to take this opportunity to recognize the work of Lt. Governor Fogarty, Senate President Irons, and many others who have been advancing this project.
Simply put: what we intend to do is crank up our economic development efforts, to turn the ideas emanating from our colleges and universities into jobs and to train our workforce to fill those jobs.
But that's only part of the equation. We need to give our children the tools to prepare for the adult world and those good jobs.
By motivating and helping our young people experience success in their schools.
I am committed to raising the achievement of our low-performing schools. We will begin by implementing a cutting-edge high school redesign program at Hope High School. By separating schools into smaller clusters, we will ensure that each youngster receives the individual attention she or he needs. We will inspire our young people to excel in the classroom and achieve their goals. I'd like to share an example.
Joining us tonight is Christine Auxier. Christine has taught in the Theater Department at Hope for 11 years. She has been gifted with a special ability to ignite passion and excellence in her students. Christine is accompanied by one of her students, Larinda Baker.
Larinda is a star! Under the guidance and encouragement of a caring teacher, Larinda has risen to the pinnacle, traveling abroad, performing in an internationally acclaimed theatre festival, and achieving the highest of scholastic honors. This is the kind of success we need to encourage.
Won't you join me in recognizing the accomplishments of Christine Auxier and Larinda Baker?
I would also like to recognize the entire Hope High team, led by Providence Mayor David Cicilline, Superintendent Melody Johnson, Principal Nancy Mullen and (most importantly) the teachers at Hope High School. Hope's future success will pave the way for redesigning schools throughout Rhode Island.
Essential to this task is supporting our teachers. Teaching is an honorable and noble profession. My father, Nick, was a high school teacher and coach for 38 years. He changed lives. We have to give our teachers the training, resources, and environment they need to teach. A lot has changed in the classroom over the years.
Many of our children are exposed to life in its harshest and rawest form. But that doesn't change the basic learning needs.
In order to create a better environment for our teachers, we must give our principals the training and authority to manage their schools. And we must engage the parents and community. I will be recommending that the Department of Education increase its funding of both teacher professional development and principal training programs.
You may be surprised to learn that Rhode Island has a high rate of adult illiteracy. It's heartbreaking. The waiting list at some literacy centers reaches into the thousands. I am proposing to increase our investment in adult literacy training. By helping Rhode Islanders acquire the skills to fill out a job application or read the directions on a medicine bottle, we also widen the pool of talent to staff the businesses of tomorrow.
The ever-rising cost of higher education is putting "the dream" out of reach for many of our youngsters.
My wife and I were both able to go to college because of the state's scholarship aid program. That program, regrettably, has been allowed to wither. Tonight, I am proposing that we double our state support for scholarship grants.
At this point, you may be wondering, "How can I be talking about investing when we've got such major budget problems?"
As I mentioned earlier, it's all about choices. Our future success depends upon the choices we make today. We must be willing to redirect the money we are already spending.
One of the major problems we face is that the cost of staffing state government is too high. Recognizing this reality is not meant to diminish the good and honest contributions of state employees who work hard. In fact, I would like to take a moment tonight and thank our state employees for their commitment and dedication.
In the budget I will be submitting shortly, we are avoiding layoffs and preserving social service programs. However, that will necessitate adjustments to the spiraling costs of our benefit programs.
At the same time, we need to undertake a comprehensive review of our State's organization. To reduce our real cost of government, we must redesign it.
I am announcing tonight that we are formulating a project to begin this task --- the crucial phase of the "Big Audit." A steering committee will be formed with leaders of the General Assembly, labor and Department of Administration Director Bob Higgins. This committee will provide oversight to work teams that will be composed of our state employees. I am convinced this exciting project will unleash great potential.
We must confront these costs to close the $200 million budget deficit that is projected for each of the next three years. Tax hikes are out of the question. We are already too heavily taxed which is inhibiting our job growth. In my budget message, I will outline our thoughts in more detail.
Creating jobs. Strengthening our schools. Wrestling our budget problems to the ground. We can only achieve these successes if we commit to working together and making the difficult choices.
Rhode Islanders can take pride in the cooperative spirit that has existed in this chamber in the few short weeks we have been in office. A fresh breeze is blowing, indeed. The new General Assembly leadership and I have come together to find solutions to some early issues. For that, I thank them.
I believe we share a common vision --- to build Rhode Island's image as a well-run, business-friendly state that cares deeply about its people and its unique quality of life.
It is in that spirit that I ask all of you in this chamber tonight to demonstrate to the people that their government can work together and pass a clear and strong separation of powers bill.
We have an historic opportunity. For too long, Rhode Island has been encumbered by an outmoded system of government that was designed for a time long past. Twice in the last four years, Rhode Islanders have voted overwhelmingly to change the system and create a government designed for the 21st century.
So, my fellow Rhode Islanders, what would I like you to take away from tonight's State of the State message?
First and foremost, we're working hard. We're shaking things up. We're generating new ideas. We're building trust in government. We've heard so many encouraging things from so many of you.
We are going to balance the budget and do it in a way that will not harm those who rely on our help.
We're going to re-design State government to free up money so that we can provide for a brighter future.
We are going to work with the cities and towns at the local level to deliver jobs and opportunities in the neighborhoods and at Quonset.
We are going to open up public records.
We're going to find a permanent solution to the issue of affordable housing.
We're going to throw our energies into tackling the rising cost of health care. Our low-income neighbors, our elderly and our working families need RELIEF.
We're going to devote time, money and resources to cultivating industries where we have a competitive advantage.
We will see to it that all of our citizens live in dignity. We will provide safety to the hungry, the homeless and the sick.
We're going to enact separation of powers by working with this General Assembly.
And --- oh, yes --- a couple more important things!
We're going to fix the Registry of Motor Vehicles. There is absolutely no reason in the world why we can't make things move faster there. We are going to make it possible for people to register their vehicles on-line.
And we're going to tear down the Jamestown Bridge. Finally. (I am putting money in next year's budget to begin that process.) It's a safety hazard that the Coast Guard has repeatedly warned us about. I don't want anyone to get hurt.
In conclusion, we're investing, we're reorganizing and we're chipping away at some of our more entrenched problems. We are making progress.
We are a State with great potential. We have many assets and advantages. [We have] great natural beauty, fantastic cultural diversity, thriving arts and entertainment, outstanding universities, and a wonderful quality of life. We are poised for exciting growth opportunities.
I am energized and optimistic. If we summon the courage to work together, tackle our problems and make those difficult choices, we can lay the foundation for a bright future. Now is the time to do it.
I would like to thank the members of this new General Assembly for their support. There's clearly a new cooperative spirit.
We are truly blessed in the State of our State.
We are blessed by those courageous women and men serving to protect our freedom.
We are blessed by the gifts of our special place.
And we are blessed by the opportunity to serve as stewards and leaders.
For all of that, thank you. And may God bless Rhode Island and all of America.
All State of the State Addresses for Rhode Island :
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California Tax Controversy and Litigation Specialists
If you are involved in a tax dispute in California, Dakessian Law can help—no matter what stage of the process and no matter the odds. We handle audits, protests, settlements, appeals and litigation with the Franchise Tax Board, the State Board of Equalization, the Employment Development Department, as well as local government.
Our founder, Mardiros H. "Marty" Dakessian has 20 years of experience in this area. He started his career working for two different members of the State Board of Equalization—first as graduate research assistant to the Honorable Dean Andal—and then as Legal Counsel to the Honorable Claude Parrish, the current Orange County Tax Assessor. Legal publication Law360 has named Marty Tax MVP four times and he has been named a Super Lawyer® four times as well. In all, we bring several decades worth of experience to bear for our clients.
As important as experience is focus. We spend all of our energy resolving our clients' California tax disputes. We know when to negotiate, but if the deal is weak, we won't hesitate to go the distance. Know that we are passionate advocates who will stand with you and for you.
If you need assistance with California franchise and income taxes, sales taxes, business taxes, payroll taxes, property taxes, or local business license and other taxes, we welcome the opportunity to work with you.


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Send me any number of these:
- A summary of your story structure/plot.
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Get help with plot structure, when you've introduced your characters, fill in possible plot holes, seek out possible unresolved storylines, writing style suggestions.
I'll read everything you send, and give you as many questions as I can to improve your story.
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If your formatting isn't what I've asked for, then I will format accordingly, and ask you to pay for any pages not covered by the $10/pg fee.


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Stewart's Tree
Cathy Campbell
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Subtitled 'A book for Brothers and Sisters When a Baby Dies Shortly after Birth', this little picture book is intended to help explain sibling loss to young children.
Ellen has been waiting for a new baby – 'something special' but her new brother Stewart is very weak and never makes it back home. He's been 'lost' is how her Granny puts it.
Ellen searches all over the house for Stewart even in the washing machine,
wondering perhaps, if he's gone to the moon in his spaceship.
Her parents then help her to understand the new baby has died and isn't going to come back.
Together they plant a cherry tree for Stewart, so they will always have a special place to remember him.
The book concludes with a guide to bereavement aimed at adults, written by qualified clinicians; this includes some suggested activities.
Sensitively told and illustrated, with gentle touches of humour, this is a book that one hopes few people will have need of, but it could prove invaluable to those families unfortunate enough to suffer such a bereavement. Schools, nurseries and children's centres should certainly keep a copy on their shelves.


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I've read a couple of craft blog posts with using egg cartons as a sorting container, and it gave me the idea to make something quick for V to play quietly with on the table.
I stamped out hearts in 12 different kinds of paper, and then glued one of each heart at the bottom cup of the egg carton. That's basically it.
It took her a long time to sort all the hearts — I had 12 of each paper, into 12 spaces. That's a lot of hearts. I had to help her and to encourage her along. She happily finished it once but wasn't intersted in repeating it again. I left it on the window sill and she took it down to play with it the second day, but only to play with the hearts.
I'll hold on to it for a little bit longer and see if we can get a few more sessions out of it.


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Following a plea to several felonies, the state dropped charges against Charles H. Leonard last week in 15 of 20 or more burglary cases opened following a chase and search through Cortez in December by several law enforcement agencies.
Notices that "criminal charges will not be filed" were entered in the court record May 14 and May 15 by assistant state attorney Pamela Buha in 15 separate burglary files.
Leonard signed an acknowledgement and waiver of rights in April to four grand theft auto charges, armed burglary with a firearm and burglary to a structure.
A hearing June 27 will determine his penalty — the maximum being life, minimum 10 years — but Leonard's plea "requests a sentencing hearing with a cap of 22 years in the department of corrections."
Two additional cases against Leonard still are being investigated by the Manatee County State Attorney's Office.
"I believe there's one file that he's not entered an admission," which is still being investigated, and "another one there's been a plea," Buha said.
Leonard is being held in Manatee County jail without bond on a parole violation from a previous sentencing in September 2010, stemming from a July 2010 arrest for fleeing and eluding police in a stolen car.
His December arrest involved several units of the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, a helicopter and a K-9 unit, and Bradenton and Palmetto police departments.
According to sheriff's office reports, a small handgun was found inside the stolen vehicle Leonard had been seen driving. After the arrest, he reportedly admitted to stealing the car and other vehicles, and to numerous burglaries.
Leonard's sentencing will be at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 27, before Twelfth Judicial Circuit Judge Janette Dunnigan at the Manatee County Judicial Center, 1051 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.


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Anyone who watches the riotous recent Cake video "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" next week for the umpteenth time and doesn't recognize the characters needn't seek treatment for amnesia. The band is rolling out two or three new versions of the clip.
The alternate takes, shot two weeks ago in New York and Mexico City, are similar in theme to the original, in which various folks critique the song as they listen to it through headphones.
"The one in New York is fun because people are really animated in that part of the world," said Cake frontman John McCrea from his home in Sacramento, California. "The footage from Mexico City is interesting because there we're like another form of Coke or Pepsi, a product being foisted at the citizens, and their reactions are intriguing."
Cake agreed to shoot multiple versions of "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" when their label convinced them the entertainment value of the original would wear thin when viewers were no longer surprised by the interviewees' quirky comments.
"They wanted us to do like 15 different videos, but I think three or four is enough," said McCrea. "Anyway, you find more things the more you watch it, so it doesn't burn out that fast."
It would seem strange for almost any band to release three or four versions of virtually the same video, but Cake have habitually bucked trends and defied expectations (see "Cake Make Music For Themselves, By Themselves On New LP"). Rather than hire a name director for "Short Skirt/Long Jacket," they merely handed over the cameras to a couple of friends with minimal video experience, which kept the costs of the project way down. Then, McCrea tackled the editing himself.
"I think the whole thing will probably end up costing less than $20,000 for all the videos," gloats McCrea. "We're pretty pleased about that. We don't want to put any big directors out of business, but we definitely don't want to become indentured servants to the man by spending a fortune on a music video."
Simple and affordable as they were, all three videos entertainingly offer an alternative to even the more alternative rock clips.
"I wanted to get across the idea that people are more interesting than celebrities or musicians," said McCrea. "I also wanted to come to grips with the fact that a video is just an advertisement for a song. So the idea was to make it sort of like a BluBlocker [Sunglasses] commercial. Just let people try on the sunglasses and describe what they see."


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The Federal Ministry of Environment was established at the inception of the new Civilian Administration under the leadership of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in June 1999 to ensure effective coordination of all environmental matters, which hitherto were fragmented and resident in different line Ministries. The creation was intended to ensure that environmental matters are adequately mainstreamed into all developmental activities.
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The 1998 Princeton Lectures on
Youth, Church, and Culture
Growing Up Postmodern:
Imitating Christ in the Age of "Whatever"
Descartes is history. That's the conclusion of postmodernity. Foundational truth is out, relativity is in. Trace it to Hiroshima, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Challenger explosion. Technology is not the panacea we thought it would be. Trace it to Watergate, liposuction, spin doctors. Truth is not an objective reality anymore. Trace it to institutional differentiation, Baskin Robbins, cable TV. Choice can paralyze as well as liberate.
Nobody knows this better than the young people whose coming of age coincides with the turn of the millennium. They live in a world where microchips are obsolete every eighteen months, information is instantaneous, and parents change on weekends. The one constant in the postmodern adolescent's experience is upheaval. Truth changes daily. The signature quality of adolescence is no longer lawlessness, but awelessness. Go ahead, youth say to the church. Impress me. When everything is true, nothing is true. Whatever.
It's true that we live in a world that considers truth too relative to specify. The comics brought us mutant "X-‐Men" and now "X-‐Women"; consumer thinking brought us X-‐brands and X-‐spouses; pop culture brought us X-‐Files and Generation X. The letter "X" is having a banner decade, labeling "whatever" we don't have the time or the inclination to explain.
Maybe the word "whatever" found its way into the contemporary adolescent vocabulary because "X" describes precisely the Truth they seek. In the early church, the Greek letter "X" (chi) referred to Jesus Christ. This generation of young people is neither the first nor the last in search of "X." Paul recognized this quest in the Athenians, who went as far as to erect an altar to "an unknown god":
What you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. . .The One who is Lord of heaven and earth. . . made all nations. . . so that they would search for God. . . . God will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom God has appointed, and of this we are assured because God raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:23-‐31)
We all seek "X," God's Truth beyond relativity. We are here because we are called to imitate and obey and proclaim this Truth to all who worship unknown gods. The Truth is out there, for young people and for us. May you find grace to peruse the "X-‐Files" of your own life in the days ahead, as we grope for "X" together. Though, indeed, he is not far from each of us.
Director, Institute for Youth Ministry
1998 Lectures
- "Communities of Faith for Citizens of a Postmodern World"
- "Just What Is Postmodernity and What Difference Does It Make to People of Faith?"
- "Who Is Jesus Christ for Us Today?" As Asked by Young People"
- "Youth between Late Modernity and Postmodernity"
- "Faithful Becoming in a Complex World: New Powers, Perils, and Possibilities"
- "Home and Pilgrimage: Deep Rhythms in the Adolescent Soul"
- "Global Issues Facing Youth in the Postmodern Church"
- "Imitating Christ in a Postmodern World: Young Disciples Today"
Faithful Becoming in a Complex World:
New Powers, Perils, and Possibilities
As leaders of youth in church and society, we need to become more faithfully aligned to our purpose and vocation. We need to recover the essence of what we already know and to take steps into a deeper recognition of what is at stake and how we might best proceed. We need to reflect on what is timeless and what is dramatically changed in the experience of the generations coming into adulthood after us. This kind of reflection has a particular importance in the time in which we have been asked to live — a time of "growing up post-modern ... in an age of 'whatever.'"
William Willimon describes "the postmodern world" as a time of permanent, discontinuous change. We appear to be living in a "cusp time," one of those turning points in history — a time that generations after us will look back on and probably name in yet some other way, much as we now look back on the Renaissance and the Reformation. We know that the people living through those periods of history did not speak of themselves as living through times of rebirth and reform. It is more likely that they simply felt that familiar patterns of life and belief were shifting. Many people must have longed for things to "get back to normal."
The evidence that we live in cusp time is multifaceted. The new sciences — the new chemistry, biology, and physics — reveal a far more interrelated and dynamic universe than has heretofore been imagined. At the same time, new weapons of violence alert us to an unprecedented scale of shared vulnerability. These developments, coupled with a new ecological understanding of the integrity of creation, are awakening us to a more interdependent reality. Our cosmology is being recomposed in fundamental ways.
One dimension of this changing consciousness is evidenced in our apprehension of economic reality. Each of us increasingly lives not only within local, regional, and national economies but also in an interdependent global economy. Our hopes page 38 and anxieties are fueled daily by events taking place half a world away. Postmodern reality is shaped by a complex web of economic forces in which we — and often, especially, our young people — are both consumers and consumed. Moreover, this shifting environmental-economic reality is matched by enormous change in our ecumenical reality — our sense of the whole inhabited world. Most of our young people are coming of age within a new meeting, and often a collision, of social-religious cultures.
In this new environmental-economic-ecumenical context, the blurred boundaries and fragmentation that mark the postmodern world abound. Yet, in order to flourish, every adolescent generation must be initiated into a cultural world that provides identity, community, coherence, and meaning. This is the context in which you and I have been called to practice ministry for and with youth.
My professional life is now located at the Whidbey Institute in Washington State. The Institute creates learning retreats and conferences that bring professionals from many sectors together to address the spiritual challenges that lie at the heart of the critical issues of our time. We also have an important program for teenagers, The Power of Hope, led by Charlie Murphy and Peggy Taylor. Offered in several different locations, this program is designed to nourish a viable hope among adolescent youth. In March 1998, one hundred fifty young people from across a broad social spectrum gathered in Portland, Oregon, for a weekend of small workshops and large events that encouraged genuine conversation, nurtured interior reflection, stimulated creative expression, and inspired participation in a wider community of belonging, responsibility, and commitment.
I had the privilege of observing one of the workshops titled "Talk Poetry." The leader, a gifted African American poet, invited a circle of twenty young people to "just take a few minutes here and begin to write. Just write what you find coming to mind, and try not to censor it. "Poetry," he said, "is the music that comes through, but first you have to break through the fear."
After a considerable period of silence and writing, he invited the young people to read to each other what they had written — one by one around the circle. Halfway around, a tall, lanky young woman read her offering with considerable power. Later, I asked if she would send me a copy. It reads:
Sagesse Gwinn
BROWN HOPE, COLOR AND SWEETNESS, GREEN PANTS,UNDERPANTS, TRANSCENDENTAL HOPE AND EXPERIENCE,WINDOW, LIGHTS REFLECTED THROUGH EYES REALIZE,SUN RAIN, GOING HOME, HERE STRANGERS, CHANNELINGpage 39EMPTY FREE SPACE, SICK SORROW, NOT AND THEN AGAINAT AN ANGLE, A T-SHIRT, A MURAL, A POLITICAL STATEMENTA SPIRITUAL STATEMENT 8 8 8 8 8 8 A STATEMENT OF SELFAND WORDS THAT END AND START IN SSSSssssssss THISPULSE,THIS RHYTHM ONE ONCE, NOW IN TIME ANDMOVEMENT AND GRACE, COLOR AND WOW WIGGIDYWOGGIDY, ZIGGIDY ZOOMIDY,WOW TICK TACK A TICK ARICK RACK A ROCK, DEATH, STILLNESS, LIVE BIRTH REBIRTHNOT BEING AFRAID OF FEAR AND FEARLESS BEHAVIORNOT BEING AFRAID OF DREAMS VISION QUEST VANITYWHAT IS IT,VANITY, PULSATING RHYTHMIC REMEDY, PLAGIARIZINGVANITY AND EGOTISTICAL EGOS WITHOUTANY SHADOW OR ECHO OR WHAT,WHO,WHY, WHENDID I JUMP AND WHEN WILL I LAND, DID I FALL OR AM IFLYING CAN YOU FEEL MY BREATH AS YOU BREATHE ANDTHE AIR BECOMES A PART OF US AND THEN THE PATTERNSSHIFT THE MAGIC OF THE CARPET THE CARPET FLIES INTOTHE EYES OF COLOR IDEAS STREAMING FORTH WITH LIFE,FERTILITY,COMMA COMMA COMA COBRA ANDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SNAKE PERIOD TURN EACH SELF INTO ASTORY LIFE THE PAGES FROM THE HEART AND SOAR ANDSING AND OHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT A FEELING OFFREEDOM KINGDOM AND PEACEFULNESS IN FULLNESS OFSPIRIT AND BODY AND EVEN MY TOES AND MY FINGERS AFAMILY, A COMMUNITY, A TRUST, A REFLECTION, ASTRENGTH.A LETTER A [ ]A LETTER A SYMBOL WHAT, BAT MAT CAT INTO REGRESSION,NO SUPPRESSION,HELL NO HELL O HELL OAMERICA
If the postmodern world is marked by the blurring of traditional boundaries and fragmentation, this is a postmodern poem! It is also fragments of life being turned into jazz. Youth ministry in our time requires the capacity to imagine how, within this improvisational world, young people can discover faithful, meaningful, and joy-filled pathways into adulthood as adults and teens together must create new patterns of life.page 40
Faith Development for the Common Good
For more than twenty years, I have been studying the development of faith. I have particularly studied the third decade of life — the "twenty-something" years. 1 Initially, I felt that it was important to speak about faith in a manner that could embrace the whole human family. Following on the prior work of James Fowler, I described faith as the activity of meaning-making in its most comprehensive dimensions embracing all that is ultimate and most intimate — an activity that all human beings share, whether it is expressed in religious or secular terms.
Later, however, I discovered that I wanted to research a particular kind of faith, the faith that is manifest in practices of love and justice. I wanted to study the formation of people who, even in a postmodern world, are able to live on behalf of the common good rather than just for "me and mine." With my colleagues, Larry Daloz and Cheryl and James Keen, I began to study more than one hundred people who are able to wade into the growing complexity, diversity, and moral ambiguity of our time and live as the kind of citizen-leaders we need. We interviewed people from many walks of life who as a group roughly represented the demographic make-up of our society. We explored two primary questions: How were their lives formed? How did they sustain a commitment to the common good? These are critical questions for leaders in youth ministry as we must ask, "How do we respond to adolescent youth in a manner that enables them to become adults who are faithful to the common good?"
A New Commons
Of course one might quickly and rightly ask, "Whose common good?" In a pluralistic world, we are immediately suspicious that a narrow notion of the common good may be imposed upon all. Thus it is useful to meditate on the image that informs the concept of the common good: the commons.
The image of the commons has shaped the civic, political, and economic imagination of our society in a primary way. In its most classic form, it was the New England green where everyone could have a cow; it was surrounded by the church, the schoolhouse, the general store, the bank, the town hall, and a flock of households with the farmlands beyond. But the commons also took many other forms: Main Street in middle America, the bodega in the Puerto Rican community, the wharf on the West Coast, the square at the county seat on market day in the South, the ice-skating pond in the winter. The commons was the place where people met, talked, listened, and worked out how they were going to live together over time.
The commons does not function well as merely a nostalgic, romantic image. The commons holds a mix of human sins and graces. Yet the image of the commons page 41 matters because the commons was the center of a shared world. Across the boundaries of race and class, people who reflect on the power of the commons in their own experience often remark, "I think when I was growing up [within a tangible sense of 'a commons'], there were more people who cared about you."
Though fragments of an earlier sense of a more cohesive commons remain for some, all of us are now plunged into the life of a new commons — global in scope and personal in influence. The challenge of youth ministry today can be understood, in part, as the task of attending to the formation of human life within the context of the powers, perils, and possibilities of the new global commons. Those of us who stand in the Reformed tradition believe that to be sons and daughters of the Reformation is to know that we are forever called to ongoing reformation at the hand of God. That does not mean we like it. It does not mean that ministry to youth is made easier by this knowledge. But it does provide perspective as we seek to align our lives and commitments with the youth to whom and with whom we minister in the dramatically changing world of the new commons.
New Powers
The powers, perils, and possibilities of the new commons intersect in important ways with the considerable new powers, perils, and possibilities that mark the life of every adolescent who is stepping into adulthood.
Our society is keenly aware that adolescent behavior is fueled, in part, by significant changes in hormonal activity and by the development of the capacity for adult sexuality. But dramatically underecognized is the potential for a simultaneous development of new powers of mind that can, in turn, foster new powers of heart and soul. As Jean Piaget has taught us, the early teenage years harbor the development of "formal operational thought." This means that if a young person dwells in a context that encourages it, the adolescent years mark the emergence of reflective thought and the capacity for abstract thought. Objects can become symbols — keys to whole patterns of meaning.
Embedded in this new power is the capacity for "third person perspective-taking." This is an extraordinary achievement. The grade school child can manage only "second person perspective-taking." That is, when the grade school child stands where I am now standing and looks at the podium, he or she knows that you see the podium differently from where you are sitting. But to mentally see what you see, the grade school child must abandon his or her own perspective and mentally run around to where you are sitting in order to "see through your eyes."
The achievement of "third person perspective-taking" is what is practiced in a complicated conversation. You know what you are saying and feeling, and at the same time you are listening to the other person, and you are seeing what they are saying. page 42 It is as though you are a third person who can see the whole interaction between you and the other, and how each is affecting the other, and you can hold the whole thing at once. It is a very complicated mental operation. And it is a big deal. It changes the way young people experience themselves in the world.
We do our young people a great disservice when we speak of this new power simply as critical thought. New questions can now be asked, and they can sound critical; however, the essence of this emerging power in adolescent lives is the capacity for reflection and for wondering in new ways about the relationship between self and world. 2
This new power is vital in the development of both the moral and the spiritual life. It allows the individual to take into account the perspective of the other — even many others. It enables the individual to come closer to participating in the perspective of God. It represents an enlargement of consciousness and an enhanced capacity for wonder.
One Saturday afternoon, I met a friend who had just come from a bar mitzvah. "Oh, Sharon," she said, "this was the kind of occasion that is one of the best parts of being Jewish." Then she described how the young man who was having his bar mitzvah happened to be a particularly small thirteen-year-old. As is the custom, he had prepared a passage to read in Hebrew and a question that arises from the passage that he posed to a selected circle of friends and wise ones who had gathered on his behalf. In the circle that day was one of the most revered philosophy professors at Harvard. After a pause, it was this professor who first responded and said to the young man, "You know, I wonder about that, too." This was an initiation into an adulthood of wonder and new possibility.
When I first began formal research in faith development, I interviewed a person who is now in a position of significant religious and educational leadership. As he reflected on his formative years, he told me that he had grown up in a Presbyterian church. When he was in the ninth grade, his family had visited New York City at a time when Billy Graham was there on one of his crusades. This man was moved by the powerful music, and what Billy Graham was saying that particular evening made more sense to him at that point than the answers he was receiving elsewhere. He responded to the altar call. But what seemed even more significant to me was a moment three weeks later on a family vacation when he was lying on the beach alone. (Now at these points even articulate people often become quite inarticulate in faith development interviews, and this was the case here.) "That sun was OK," he said. As I worked to listen into what he meant, it was clear that in that time alone on the beach he had an important experience of communion, an enlarged communion, between himself and the sun, the universe — Life, Spirit, God.
Such listening often triggers one's own memories. I thought, "Well, when I was page 43 in the ninth grade I don't remember that the sun meant much to me." Then I thought, "But the moon did." (Now, anyone trained in Jungian theory might respond, "Yes, he is a male and was attracted to the sun, and you're a woman...." But let's set that aside for the moment in the service of another insight.)
When I was a teenager, at night before I went to bed I would often stand at my bedroom window and pray. When the moon was full, it served as a focus of soul and spirit. I know that I was not praying to the moon, but it did serve to anchor an enlarged consciousness and a sense of participation in a wider world of being. That experience was qualitatively different than when I had prayed six or seven years earlier.
Once when I spoke of this, someone responded, "What you are suggesting is that the adolescent will have a high." Indeed, in the period we describe as adolescence, the changes going on in body, mind, and spirit will find their expression in some form of "high." Whether the milieu is fast cars, sex, music, sports, religion, drugs, or bungee jumping, the adolescent soul will seek a new home in an expanding world of new wonders and possibilities.
New Perils
Along with this new capacity for an enlarged consciousness, there are also new perils. Enlarged consciousness creates new self-consciousness. This can be both wonderful and terrible. Some of you have known young people who, when they were perhaps nine years old, seemed to be sturdy and resilient, confident, even feisty, and great to be with. Then you do not see them for awhile, and suddenly they are not only fourteen, they are also tongue-tied, self-conscious, and not nearly as comfortable with themselves or anyone else as they previously appeared to be. Or, if they remain outgoing and engaged, there is, nevertheless, a marked difference. Now able "to see the other seeing me," they are vulnerable to the tyranny of the "they." What do "they" think? How am I seen in "their" eyes?
One sixteen-year-old expressed it to me this way: "I wonder what they are thinking about me, because I know what I am thinking about them." In the circle of Talk Poetry that I described earlier, another young woman who spoke appeared capable, articulate, and socially an integral part of the group. Yet she had written:"! am nervous about being accepted. I am OK here at The Power of Hope. But I am still nervous about being accepted."
In this new awareness, this enlarged consciousness, there is not only a new capacity for a "high." There is also a new capacity for angst — for a new recognition of suffering, fear, dread, and a highly charged sense of the threat of meaninglessness.
Another young woman, Erin Lopez, who spoke in the circle of Talk Poetry, read this poem, composed during the second round of writing. It is titled "Snake."page 44
At the base of my spinepoison-energy, collectscoiled in hatred, in anger, in acidhate, aggressionfear — blocking; me, every movement I makepainfulscreamingfor attentionhear me, feel THIS, Acknowledge ME! – SHE screams,she, hissesshe, SIGHS …Here, at the base of my spinecoiled in its own misery — energy, of miserylies a poison-Snake-why do you hurt mewhy do I carewhy do you hate mewhy doesn't Goddess/God Care& she wraps her haughtiness around herlike a smug teacher= pain as her ally& sniff & speak & say:pain, is a teacher, no one ever forgetsSnake,this pain it kills, it killsmesnake why do you hurt me so? I beg plead cry rawall she does is coil, tighter — sniff, snarl, grimace,breathe,SighHhhIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
When I asked Erin if she had some idea of what Snake represents, she responded with a compelling sense of tentative, thoughtful awareness. "I think so. And I think when I figure it out, then I will be able to go on stronger." My own sense is that though we very well may not know at all what this poem is about in its specificity, it conveys the capacity of young people to know the painful depths of the reality we all share.page 45
Interiority — At Risk
A growing competence in perspective-taking, a new self-consciousness, an enlarged capacity for wonder, and the ability to be in dialogue with one's own pain and the pain of others all reveal the adolescent's readiness for the development of interiority. Depending upon the nature of the surrounding environment, the adolescent soul can grow deeper, wider, higher. If the adolescent is encouraged to listen within, space is opened in which Spirit can more fully become at home. There is more space for inspiration, for creativity, for becoming. There is more space both for wounding and for healing. Whether or not this spaciousness of spirit is enabled to grow is determined in significant measure by how you and I minister, because the culture at large has set this capacity for interiority at risk.
I had the privilege of working with the MBA program at the Harvard Business School as they began to readdress ethics and leadership in the curriculum. During this time, we discovered that the pressures to meet the terms of competition that come from outside the self can thwart the development of reflective interiority. Further, in a society in which all are increasingly, systematically distracted and entertained, inner reflection comes at a premium. Yet the development of interiority remains essential to the formation of a mature conscience — the capacity to reflect on one's behavior and to make ethical choices.
In several sectors of youth ministry we find new attention being paid to the value and importance of young people having time for shared silence. This is one of the signs in our time of the faithfulness of the church. This dimension of ministry was not evident even a few years ago. There is a growing recognition that perhaps we need to change our ways of ministry to be responsive to what is now at stake as a new generation comes to adulthood in a world of multitasking and the pervasive presence of video technologies and other electronic media. 3
Accordingly, I am deeply grateful that my stepdaughter, Kate, and my stepson, Todd, have grown up in the faith and company of Quakers — the Society of Friends — and that they have learned the power of shared silence and listening within. This has occurred primarily within the context of a wonderful set of retreats for Quaker youth in New England. Every six weeks or so, Young Friends gather from all over Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. They are led by Chris Jorgenson and a wonderful staff who work with her. The staff has a genius for creating good space with clear boundaries in which the Young Friends can themselves become responsible for the welfare and decision-making of the group, which is often as large as seventy for a single retreat. Part of how the staff creates and maintains safe boundaries is to set three clear rules, which the young people themselves help to maintain: No drugs or alcohol, no sex, and "keep the caps on the magic markers."
With this in mind, I asked Peggy Taylor, who leads The Power of Hope program, page 46 how they create safe space. They also have three rules: No drugs or alcohol, no sex, and (interestingly) no media — no boom boxes, no magazines, no Walkmans. Much of their program is built around creativity, and the arts and music abound. But it is music and art that the young people create within and among themselves. They are not rendered passive. They are not encouraged to be mere consumers. Space is provided where young people experience community and can gain access to the creative, transforming power within and among them. They are initiated into active participation in the power of new possibilities. With the leadership of committed and creative adults, they discover positive images of their own emerging adulthood and experience what it might mean to work with others to create a viable future for all.
The New Media in the New Commons
In light of the adolescent readiness for imagination of self and world, it is vital to pay close attention to the role of the mass media in the new global commons. If every generation of adults, by intention or default, passes to the next the "best" by which we have come to live, our generation is primarily using the technologies of the new media to transmit that imagination into the heart of the commons. It is, therefore, a matter of considerable import to note that approximately $4.5 billion is spent worldwide on advertising every year, and a growing percentage is targeted at teenagers and children. The bodies and souls of our youth are being transformed into the image and likeness of markets. I believe that generations after us will look back with sadness and dismay to see that we were so seemingly naive about the power of images to shape the souls of our youth.
Those of us who stand in the Protestant tradition are people of the Word. We are not so much people of image and sacrament Now in this new time of reformation, we are being challenged, I think, to reclaim a rich, religious understanding of the power of images and the way in which they become embedded in us. On behalf of a generation that is steeped in the visual and the tactile as primary ways of learning and communicating, we need to get up to speed.
In Common Fire, we describe the kinds of images that are important to the formation of the citizen-leaders that are now needed. Among these are three of particular importance for adolescents. The first is positive images of self. One woman told us, "I was seen as a 'watercolor' child all through high school. I've worked hard to find more vibrant colors. . . . I have oil paints in my soul." 4 Young people are seeking positive images of self in the new global commons.
Second, we found that it is also very important to have images of "the world as it is" — images that are true, including images of things that should not be so.page 47
One person we interviewed, a legislator, often remembers a line from Pericles. '"We [must] obey those unwritten laws that it is an acknowledged shame to break.' . . . You've got to have a consensus that certain things are simply not done." Young people in the new commons need clearly defined images of truth, beauty, justice — and injustice. 5
Third, it is critically important that on the threshold of adulthood, young people have planted in their souls images of meaningful transformation. Cynicism thrives wherever life presents itself as static or ruled by lesser powers than the transforming spirit of life itself that Christians profess to see in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the birth of the church.
Therefore, as we seek to respond faithfully to this generation of youth, one of the central questions before us is, "Who is crafting and mediating the images by which this generation will live and die?" Certainly one answer to that question is the film industry.
Titanic — An Attracting Story
At the present time, James Cameron's Titanic promises to break box office records, and notably large numbers of teenagers are flocking to this film. 6 Reflection on the story and images mediated by this film and observed through the lens of adolescent powers and vulnerabilities that we have sketched here may be useful in thinking about ministry to and with youth in our time.
In a New York Times article harvesting international commentary on why Titanic is such an attracting film, Andre Klib in Bonn, Germany, was reported to have said:
The love story of Titanic is merely the wrapping on what really drives the movie. It is a picture of a wholeness that we have lost, the picture of a sunken world in which, from the captain to the mechanic, from the immigrant to the millionaire, everyone had a secure place. At this end of our Titanic century, after the collapse of Communism as the last integral ideology in anticipation of coming conflicts and crisis, the world can no longer be seen, grasped, in great structures of thought. Only through images [metaphors] can we still understand the world. The cinema delivers the images in which humanity and the cosmos blend again in a feeling of unity. 7
Young people would probably not describe why they like Titanic with anything like the words of Andre Klib. But perhaps we can glimpse how it might be that this film does, in fact, function for teenagers in a manner very much like what Klib describes, as Titanic captures important pieces of the adolescent's reality in a blend of humanity and cosmos.page 48
A Love Story
This rendering of Titanic is a love story featuring a handsome young man, Jack, who is booked in steerage/third class, and a beautiful young woman, Rose, who resides with the upper class. Echoing the mythic strains of Romeo and Juliet, the story is of romance writ large and confirms the power of love to transcend social expectations and even death. But we are mistaken, I think, to believe that this alone accounts for the power of this film for this generation.
Unamuno has written that the temple is the place where we go to weep in common. In today's society, movie theaters function as temples for many, 8 and there is a good deal of evidence that Titanic creates a place where people go to weep in common. I understand that it is considered quite legitimate to cry at the end of Titanic — every time you see it. What is the crying really for?
Titanic is a film in which Prince Charming and hundreds more die because of a quest for wealth and headlines, combined with hubris on several fronts, including serious miscalculations about the ability of technology to triumph over nature. Many of our young people understand the resonance of these themes with the patterns of our own time. 9 But note that at another level this film is also about "absent parents."
The film says nothing about Jack's parents or family; they are never referred to in any way. He is on his own — a young man off on an adventure across the Atlantic. We learn that Rose's father has somewhat recently died, and he apparently squandered or mismanaged a fortune, leaving his wife and daughter with only the appearance of wealth, even less affection for him, and little for each other. 10 Moreover, in a desperate effort to preserve financial and social security, Rose's mother is apparently willing to sacrifice her daughter (in this case to a loveless marriage). The aspiration to financial security at any cost appears to be the only image of adulthood that this mother has to offer her daughter — the image in which she, herself, has lived her life. Images of "absent parents" ring true and serve as images of "the world as it is" for many youth today.
What is most interesting is that the youth, finding no place for themselves in the adult world at the center of things (for example, at the "family" dinner table in the first-class dining room), seem to flee to the margins of the ship, the margins of this floating replica of society. Most of their big scenes happen at the railings. In the first big scene, Rose, driven to despair and falling into deep angst, runs to the stern, crying, and threatens to jump overboard. Jack, hearing her distress, follows her. It is there that they meet for the first time, as he coaxes her back from the railing, prophetically describing how cold the water would be and how quickly one would die.
When they next meet they appear again at the railing, this time amidships. In page 49 a delightful bit of play, he teaches her how to spit off the side of the ship. It is a positive step in her attempt to break out of the conventional constraints for a woman of her time. Rose provides an image of a new woman, breaking out of the inappropriate strictures of her society, claiming life as best she knows how — certainly a resonant image in today's society where, for example, an inordinate number of young women are in treatment for eating disorders that arise from a toxic mix of both an effort to resist inappropriate expectations and an aspiration to fit the body images purveyed by an advertising-saturated culture. 11
In perhaps Titanic's most widely advertised scene, Jack and Rose are again at the railing — this time perched on the tip of the bow. The sunset is resplendent, the music soars, and as the ship dangerously picks up speed, they are "flying." In this dramatic moment, the energies of the young couple combine with the tremendous power of the ship, the beauty of the sea, and the cosmos itself. It is a "high" — an absolute, glorious "high"! This is followed by a descent into the bowels of the ship (again at the margins rather than at the center) for spirited dancing with the others in steerage and for lovemaking in the baggage hold — all an extension of the kind of "high" so resonant with the adolescent soul.
After the ship has struck the iceberg and is going down, we see Jack and Rose, now having come full circle, again at the railing where at the opening of the film she was courting death. A transformation has occurred. Though she has refused a secure seat in a lifeboat with her mother in order to remain with Jack, Rose no longer wants to die. Together they make every possible reach for life. She wants to live if she can also love. Through the power of relationship, despair has been transformed into hope. As the ship is heading down and the stern rises up out of the water, they climb up on top and cling to the railing in a valiant, tenacious bid for life against the odds.
After the ship goes down, a piano top becomes a raft that can only hold one of them. Jack urges Rose to claim life, even as the icy grip of the sea carries him away.
Rose chooses to live, and we are led to believe that she later marries, has children, and lives a very adventurous life. Through her, Titanic becomes a story of love and transformation — and also a story of a kind of faithfulness.
At the end of the film, Rose is an old, wise crone who has been brought by the treasure seekers onto a ship above the place where the Titanic went down. A part of the drama has been built around the huge blue jewel that the false fiancé gave her, the coeur de la mer — the heart of the sea. The search for the Titanic has been, in part, a search for this jewel that insurance records claim went down with the ship. Not so. Rose has kept it across all the years, telling no one. In the night, when there is no one about, still in her long nightgown she slips out of her stateroom.page 50
Then, in the last great scene at a railing, she takes this extraordinary jewel hanging from a diamond necklace and drops the whole thing into the sea, as it were, giving what she can to the one who gave her life. This gesture transcends any quest for wealth and fame. It is a gesture of fidelity to a more meaningful story than would be told by the headlines that would flow if she revealed her treasure. In an age of divorce, cheap profits, and celebrity politics, the adolescent soul hungers for gestures of fidelity.
Likewise, the adolescent soul hungers for truth-telling and for images of things as they are. In America it is difficult for us to acknowledge the racial tensions that still plague us and the growing class divide. Titanic is a vivid portrayal of both. Recently I was in conversation with a mother whose young teenage daughter had gone with her to see Titanic. Afterward when they were talking about it, the daughter, in her own way raising the issues of economic class, said, "If we had been on the Titanic, which deck would we have been on?" And her mother (who knows that they would have been on the upper decks) responded, "What deck would you want to be on?" Her daughter said, "I think I'd want to be on the lower decks."
This film dispenses positive images of self. Jack is not only good looking, he is a new kind of man. He does not wield a gun. He is not only courageous, he is a very connected guy. When Rose is debating the merits of suicide, though they have barely met, he says, "Well, if you jump, I'll have to jump, too; I'm involved now."
Finally, there is one more image that may be particularly important for us who seek to minister to and with young people. Rose's survival was dependent not only on the courage, good humor, and fidelity of the young man she learned to love. Her survival was dependent also on the good adult who figured out how to get the people out of his not-full lifeboat into another not-full lifeboat so that he could return to seek out anyone still alive in the freezing water. In this current rendering of the Titanic myth, he is the only one in the many only partially filled lifeboats who is able to act in a manner that transcends merely his own salvation.
A "Good Enough" Story?
For all of these and undoubtedly other reasons, Titanic is a powerful story for many young people today. In some ways, it is a good and important story. But is it good enough? Is it sufficient? I don't think so. Therefore, I pose the question: Why isn't Titanic a "good enough" story for the personal, social, and spiritual formation of the next generation?
As I ponder this question, there is another scene that is at work in my soul. Several years ago, I lived in an apartment in an old Victorian home originally built by Mr. Mahan for his family in New England. He later died on the Titanic before his family was fully grown. Several weeks after the tragedy, a man who had survived came page 51 to visit the family. He told them Mr. Mahan had been in one of the lifeboats, but when he had realized that there would not be room for all, he had left the lifeboat. He was last seen standing at the railing of the ship, saying his rosary. This piece of the Titanic story was told to me by his granddaughter, who devotes her considerable energies to working on behalf of encouraging economic support for the people and institutions of Haiti. She is a devout Roman Catholic Christian, and she believes she has a legacy to live up to. It seems to me that her grandfather had been given stories and symbols by which he could live — and die.
What stories, symbols, songs, and practices of life do we have and want to offer as gifts to the formation of a new generation living on a new commons? What are the primary images of self and world that are being offered to them as they are ready to enter into the perspectives of others and to enlarge the space within their own souls? For large numbers of youth, the mall and MTV as well as school, soccer team, and perhaps church constitute "the commons." What legacy will assist them in becoming creative citizens in a world that none of us can quite yet imagine? Do we have true stories to tell about the transformation of despair into love and hope? Do we live and give an honorable account of the sacred integrity of creation and our embeddedness in it? Do we orient our youth to technology in ways that are free of hubris? Do we model a gracious anticipation of who our youth are becoming and provide real space for them at the center of our common life? Do we embody an excellence of adulthood to which they may aspire?
In Pennsylvania, not very far from here, is the Radnor Meeting House, the home of the Radnor Society of Friends. Dorothy Steere, a woman now in her nineties who raised her two daughters in that meeting, recently asked one of them, "What was it like for you to grow up in Radnor Meeting?" Her daughter responded, "When we were young people in this meeting, we didn't really understand what you adults got from sitting in silence. But we knew that 'whatever' it was, we wanted it."
In an age of "whatever" that is full of promise, peril, and new possibilities, we seek, sift, and sort images for ourselves and for the generations after us to live by. We find ourselves asking haunting questions like: When are we being faithful in a changing world, and when are we merely compromising? In such moments, you and I demand guidance and insight from an ancient memory. We may find ourselves drawn to the letter written to the church at Philippi where we read again the timeless text: "Finally, my friends, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. And what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you." 12page 52


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Businesses are concerned over the recent outbreak of legionella. According to legionella health safety UK guidelines, the public must get medical treatment as soon as they experience symptoms of the illness.
The legionella bacteria are responsible for the pneumonia-like illness collectively known as Legionellosis. Legionnaire's disease is a fatal illness that can infect everyone. People have a higher risk of contracting the disease if they are 45 years of age or above, heavy drinkers, smokers, suffering from chronic kidney or respiratory disease, or have a weakened immune system.
The bacteria are found in natural water systems including lakes, rivers and reservoirs. They are also common in man-made water structures such as evaporative condensers, whirlpool spas, and cooling towers. The bacteria can proliferate if the conditions are favourable. According to the legionella health safety UK guide, most of the outbreaks are linked to legionella growing in man-made water systems.
People get legionnaire's disease by inhaling air or water that has the bacteria. Its symptoms are same as the flu that includes fever, high temperature, chills, muscle pains, cough, and headache. In severe cases, people suffer from pneumonia and show some signs of mental confusion.
According to legionella health safety UK authorities, there are risks of the disease in the workplace as long as it has a water system that can be a source of bacteria growth. There are risks of legionella if the water system has water temperature from 20 to 45 °C, spreads droplets, stores water, and has a source of food for the bacteria.
Cooling tower and hot and cold water systems are also considered as common sources of the bacteria. Legionella health safety UK guidelines also list air washers, humidifiers, indoor decorative fountains and emergency showers as other sources of the bacteria.
Employers and building owners must do their best to control the risks of the bacteria growth. Legionella health safety UK authorities state that business owners are responsible for taking the necessary precautions to decrease the risks of exposure to the bacteria. They must identify the sources of risk, manage the risks, prevent risks from happening in the future, keep records, and carry out other duties regarding the safety of people in the workplace.
Employers must have a written risk assessment for the water systems in the workplace. It must have a description of the system that includes the most recent blueprint of the system. The workplace is safe from legionella outbreaks if the risk assessment concluded that there is no significant growth of the bacteria.
Testing for open water systems must be done every quarter but there are instances when sampling must be done more frequent. For closed water systems, testing is done only when it is necessary according to the risk assessment for legionella. Authorities will conduct the tests on the water samples to find out if there are signs of legionella growth.
Employers and building owners can appoint someone to monitor the presence of the bacteria as stated by the legionella health safety UK standards. Authorities said that anyone can be one as long as they have the skills to implement strategies and control measures.
For a Legionella Risk Assessment contact us at www.safe2use.com


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What Is High Risk Auto Insurance?
If you have ever seen an advertisement for a company offering SR22 insurance, the odds are good that the company sells high-risk auto insurance. This is because, in general, drivers who need to file an SR22 are those who have lost their existing insurance. If a policy has lapsed due to non-payment, or if it's been canceled due to your driving history, you may be deemed too risky for the standard auto insurer. Many companies offer policies specifically tailored to the needs of these high-risk drivers.
Defining High Risk
Insurance companies assess potential customers based on risk level. Essentially, a person who is seen as likely to be involved in an accident will be viewed as "high risk," and they present a higher potential cost to the insurer based on the likelihood of the company needing to pay for a claim. This means that drivers who are viewed as high risk will pay more for car insurance, and they may not be eligible for a standard auto policy.
Several factors can cause a person to be viewed as high risk:
- A history of multiple accidents
- Age, particularly for young teens or drivers over age 65
- A DUI conviction
- Multiple traffic violations
- A history of non-payment or allowing a policy to lapse
Since all drivers must carry liability insurance in order to drive legally, there are solutions in place to allow people to obtain insurance even if they would not otherwise qualify for a plan. These high-risk insurance policies can be sold directly to the customer or, in some states, may be mediated through another agency. Policies are sometimes sold under the heading of "nonstandard auto insurance."
Assigned Risk Policies
Some states, such as California and New York, offer "assigned risk" plans for drivers who cannot obtain insurance through any other means. These will be mediated through an organization like the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan (CAARP), which connects high-risk drivers with policies underwritten by various insurers. Instead of selling insurance directly, CAARP and related organizations act as brokers. The premiums are paid to the broker and passed along to the insurance company. The insurance company in turn pays for any claims filed on the policy.
The purpose of assigned risk plans is to spread out risk over multiple companies insuring a specific area. This prevents a single insurer from carrying too much risk and protects its finances.
If you are unable to find auto insurance on your own in your state, check to see whether an assigned risk organization operates where you live. Your local DMV or independent insurance agency can probably point you in the right direction.
Companies Offering Coverage
Many insurance companies offer high-risk auto insurance. Often, these are the same companies that advertise low-cost insurance and plans that can be purchased and put into effect immediately. By courting buyers who want to pay low premiums, they can sell the same minimal-coverage policies to standard-risk drivers as they offer their high-risk customers, effectively lowering the company's overall risk level.
Here are a few of the most well-known high risk auto insurers:
- Titan is the non-standard insurance branch of Nationwide. It has the same infrastructure and underwriting support of Nationwide, but it focuses purely on hard-to-insure drivers.
- Acceptance is available in 12 states, predominately in the south and Midwest, and it caters to drivers looking for affordable rates as well as those who need high-risk coverage.
- The General is one of the best-known high-risk insurers thanks to its catchy commercials and aggressive direct-sales tactics. Drivers who apply for insurance can often get it approved and print a proof-of-insurance card the same day.
- AmWINS is an international company offering high-risk auto alongside several other types of insurance, including group benefits for employers and other types of business insurance.
- Integrity Insurance sells both standard and non-standard auto policies as well as other types of insurance, like homeowners and business. A number of discounts are available even to high-risk customers, allowing you to keep your rates down.
- UAIC, the United Automobile Insurance Company, specializes in nonstandard auto insurance for individuals and companies.
Many other big-name insurance companies like State Farm and GEICO sell non-standard auto policies as well. Depending on your situation, you may be able to qualify for insurance through one of these companies.
Higher Cost and Minimal Coverage
Since these policies present a greater potential cost to insurance companies, high-risk policies will tend to be more expensive than standard auto policies with the same coverages. The cost difference will depend on your driving record, age and other risk factors, and it will vary from one area to the next. The price difference between policies can vary by state.
Additionally, many nonstandard auto policies offer only minimal coverage, meaning basic liability insurance that meets the levels laid out by the state. Additional coverage may or may not be available depending your situation. It's best to ask the company about what coverage is included in the policy and whether they will cost more than the initial quoted price.
Staying Insured
The good news about being a high-risk driver is that it is a temporary situation. As you build up safe driving experience, you may find that you lose the "high risk" label and can once again qualify for more affordable coverage. To save money on your car insurance in the future, focus on driving safely today and paying your premiums on time so that you never have to deal with a lapsed or canceled policy again.


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It's whisky time! I wrote a blog a couple of days ago about whisky, in it I talked about a few of my favourite whiskies and I didn't mention Mortlach, or Talisker, or Glen livet or Bunnahabhain, most remiss of me!. Some of the best whiskies I've ever tasted have been from distilleries I think of as good, but not a favourite, like when I visited Islay the second time. We had visited Laphroaig and Ardbeg, both absolute favourites, and done the tours, we missed out on a tour at Lagavulin as they were doing maintenance (but we got a good tasting!) then the next day we went around to Bruichladdich, we did the tour which stopped last of all in the warehouse. At the time the on site bottling hall was preparing to bottle the 15 year old at cask strength, there was a bulk container of freshly emptied casks, and the tour guide dipped in a 2 litre testing cylinder and then passed it around. Well, on that day, in that warehouse, that was one of the best whiskies I've ever tried. It must have been a combination of the smell of the damp, cold warehouse, the rain outside, the fact that we were on Islay (camping!) the sea breeze, whatever it was, that was a stunning whisky. We raced into the shop and bought a bottle (obviously) When we reached home a week later, sat in the warm dry living room, with high expectation, we opened the bottle I'd purchased. I won't say it was a dissapointment, it was very good, but no match for that stunning warehouse dram. It was much the same when Mum and I visited Old Pultenay, we had driven around the west coast of Scotland, and then along the north coast, a quick trip to Orkney, then back down the east coast. First stop on the way south was at Old Pultenay, we did the tour, and ended up in the tasting room as usual, at the time you could fill your own bottle from a cask of 15 year old, having tasted it first. Again, in that room, with the smells of the distillery, having done the tour, that whisky was excellent, and I had to have a bottle, and it is really nice, but not as good as it was in that room! It just goes to show that the circumstance in which you drink your whisky makes a huge impact on the perception of that whisky. One of the reasons that I don't have a favourite whisky is that although the output from some distilleries is generally fantastic, along comes a certain bottle from another distillery which is absolutely stunning. Glen Grant is not a favourite distillery of mine but the 25 year old that I had was wonderful, as is the Berry Bros and Rudd 1974 bottle that I have. The same can be said of Bowmore, good whisky, I like it, but the SMWSbottle that my brother in law had a couple of years ago that really did taste of Parma Violets was a revelation. This is one of the best things about whisky, and one of the reasons that I like whisky events, you can never pre-judge a bottle, you may know the distillery style, and it may not be to your taste, but there may be an expression from it that takes your breath away, all you can do is try as many whiskies as you can (in moderation, of course!) and buy the ones that impress you, without paying too much attention to the label.
Related articles
- A few drams…… (islayvisits.net)
- Whisky wins (matadornetwork.com)
- Nissan Leaf ensures high-quality whisky from Isle of Islay (green.autoblog.com)
- Whisky FAQ- Blended vs Single Malt, the simple question with a not so simple answer. (malaysiangwailou.wordpress.com)
- Buyer's Guide | A Gentlemanly Guide to Single Malt Scotch Whiskey (selectism.com)
- English Whisky (richardaitkins.wordpress.com)
- Macallan 1946 52 Year Old (smellthecork.blogspot.com)


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From the Sunday Herald -
Labour's biggest Scottish donor has vigorously denied helping former council boss Steven Purcell flee the country after he suffered a breakdown and admitted taking cocaine.
From the Sunday Times -
NINE days ago Willie Haughey, one of Labour's biggest donors and an ally of Gordon Brown, was spotted at a secret crisis meeting in a pub car park in the south of the Glasgow. He was flanked by two smartly dressed businessmen. Nearby, a plump man sat in a car, clearly agitated.
Make of the above what you will...
update - Have a look at what aangirfan has written


text: Home Virtuoso Traveler February 2016 Swamp Things: Seeing – and Saving – the Florida Everglades Virtuoso Traveler February 2016 Swamp Things: Seeing – and Saving – the Florida Everglades Swamp Things: Seeing – and Saving – the Florida Everglades For the birds: Sunset in the Everglades. Swamp Things Florida's Everglades is one of the most diverse – and endangered – ecosystems on earth. Share Pink flamingoes and (below) floating aquatics. Story by Susan Hanson Originally appeared in the February/March 2016 issue of Virtuoso Traveler. On Earth Day 2015, President Obama chose the Everglades as the backdrop for his speech on the impacts of climate change. The setting was apropos, given that these 1.5 million acres comprise not only the largest protected subtropical wetlands in the U.S., but also one of the most diverse habitats on the planet. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, Everglades National Park hosts some 1,300 species of flora – including cacti, bromeliads, and nearly 40 types of orchids – and is the most significant breeding ground for wading birds in North America. What's more, one in three Floridians count on the Everglades for their water supply. "Being surrounded by such a vast area filled with wildlife and vegetation is unparalleled," says Lynne Adams, a Virtuoso travel advisor based in Bonita Springs, Florida. Yet this fragile ecosystem is as threatened as the many endangered species – including the leatherback turtle, manatee, and Florida panther – that find sanctuary there. Visiting the Everglades, Adams adds, is vital to appreciating its importance, and thus to saving it. Luckily, the park lies within an hour's drive of Naples, which, she points out, offers "world-class golfing and boating, excellent restaurants and shopping, and some of the best beaches in Florida." SEE IT 3 Ways to Explore the Everglades … Private guided pole boat and airboat tours, along with a sunset Champagne excursion to a bird rookery, top an eight-day, custom-crafted exploration of the Everglades and South Florida with Virtuoso's on-site tour provider. Pedal through the Everglades' pine savanna and venture into a swampy cypress dome on Backroads' six-day multisport adventure. Other highlights include kayaking in the Florida Keys and strolling Key West. The Ritz-Carlton, Naples, a 450-room resort overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, offers guided Everglades excursions that include a visit to historic Everglades City. SAVE IT … and 3 Ways to Help Preserve It. Everglades Foundation – Conducts and sponsors scientific research to help understand, restore, and protect the Everglades' unique ecosystem. Friends of the Everglades – Founded by famed journalist and staunch environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas to encourage governmental protection for the wetlands. National Wildlife Federation – Works to ensure that state and federal Everglades protection and restoration acts are properly funded and enforced. Find a Virtuoso travel advisor here. « ‹ › »


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The most adorable shorties ever made! A flat panel pair of shorts, with an elastic waist, adorned by a sweet ruffle around the front. A tie at the waist adds the perfect touch of femininity and innocence.
The gingham are woven. The denim is a knit.
These run true to size to a tad generous! Wash with like colors and lay flat to dry!


text: Romania - With the success of Cristian Mungiu and Cristi Puiu at the latest Cannes festivals, one might imagine Romania to be a country in love with cinema. But these big names fall on deaf ears when it comes to most people living in Romania's villages. Some of the older folks haven't seen a big-screen movie since Ceausescu's Kino caravans roamed the villages projecting propaganda movies. But that's where Tudor Baciu steps in, or rather, drives in with his "Cinemobile". The 28-year-old came up with the idea two years ago, while awaiting the TIFF film festival, held in his hometown, Cluj-Napoca. He envisioned himself driving around the country in a small van bringing movies, free of charge, to people who have no access to a cinema. Baciu had spent many months in the countryside as a child and grew to appreciate the simplicity in its way of life. For years, he dwelled on the idea that he wanted to do something to improve the lives of villagers in Romania. His friends loved the idea. He was able to obtain some money from a crowdfunding platform that allowed him to recondition his van, a Volkswagen T3 from the 1980s, and buy some basic equipment: the screen and sound system. The first movie screening took place in Cojocna, a village some 25km from his hometown. Ever since, he has travelled around the country to more than 25 villages.


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Looking for a better option for rehearsal space out of the grind of Manhattan? Terry Knickerbocker Studio is located in the heart of Brooklyn's Industry City.
Surround yourself with fellow artists and makers in Sunset Park, New York's fastest growing neighborhood.
For all acting studio rental inquires, call today about our beautiful spaces at 718-801-8999
All studios must be paid for at the time of booking.
Cancellations within 24 hours will result in forfeiture of payment. If you arrive more than 20 minutes late for a booking, your space will become available to other patrons and will result in forfeiture of payment.


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Enlarged pore size is a relatively common distress for many people. The appearance of them alone can be quite concerning, but along with that, they can also lead to blackheads. Although pores cannot physically be made smaller there are some tips to make them appear smaller:
These tips, combined with pore minimizing products can effectively reduce the appearance of pores. Contact our office today if you would like to address your enlarged pores.