San Francisco thinking

Having been to San Fran lately, I am pretty sure fireplaces are the least of their worries. It's a shame some place so blessed with natural beauty can be so mentally and spiritually dead.

Old Memory...

OK, you will not really appreciate this like I do, I am sure, but please indulge me (Hey, it's my blog). I don't know why, really, but this memory just came back to me as I was thinking about Thanksgiving and all the family reunions we used to have around this holiday. I guess there is just too many of us now and too many places to go and things to do and blah, blah, blah, but my whole extended family used to get together every year, usually at my uncle and aunt's house in Houston. We always had way too much food, people and fun but the thing I remember most vividly was standing around the piano as Aunt Billie would play song after song and we would sing and sing. Sometimes just the aunts would sing or just the uncles and they always had their favorites: mainly old hymns that I am afraid nobody sings anymore. Then one of the aunts would beg all the cousins to come sing our song. We would finally all drag up there and sing "Eliezer Call". You can find the story of Eliezer and Isaac and Rebeccah in chapter 24 of Genesis but this is the song we would sing:

ELIEZER CALL

(1) 'Twas a day in early spring time by an ancient wayside well, Eliezer paused to rest his camel train. He had found a bride for Isaac, 'ere the evening shadows fell, For his weary journey had not been in vain. So, he took the fair Rebekah, decked in jewels rich and rare, Back to Abraham and Sarah far away, Where Rebekah loved her Isaac, and he loved Rebekah fair, Oh, it must have been a happy wedding day.

CHORUS

Oh, get ready. The evening shadows fall. Don't you hear the Eliezer call? There's going to be a wedding. Our joy will soon begin, In the evening when the camel train comes in.

(2) So the blessed Holy Spirit from the Father God above, Has come down to earth to find a worthy bride, For our Isaac over yonder has prepared our tents of love, For He wants His fair Rebekah by His side. We have left our kinfolks gladly, we have bade the world good-bye. We are going to a land beyond the sky. We shall soon behold our Isaac in that blessed eternity. What a happy, happy meeting that will be!

Thanks for the indulgence and maybe you just had to be there to appreciate it. I'm glad I was.

Is Gun Control hitting what you're aiming at?

I am very conflicted about this. Is it murder or self-defense or just protecting the neighborhood? What concerns me is that I am afraid that our confidence in "The System" (whatever that is) has degenerated to the point that we are rooting for the guy who just killed two people.

Salute to a Veteran

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day, November 11, 2007. Most parades and celebrations and speeches will be today and today I want to thank all veterans with a salute to just one hoping I can honor all of them with his example. George E. "Bud" Day joined the Marines when he was seventeen years old and spent his career in the military. One can read his story here and here but beware it is a graphic re-telling of some of his more than five years in a Vietnamese prison camp.

Asked many times what sustained Americans in this environment, Colonel Day answers: "I am, and have been all my life, a loyal American. I have faith in my country, and am secure in the knowledge that my country is a good nation,responsible to the people of the United States and responsible to the world community of nations. I believed in my wife and children and rested secure in the knowledge that they backed both me and my country. I believe in God
and that he will guide me and my country in paths of honorable conduct. I believe in the Code of Conduct of the U.S. fighting man. I believe the most important thing in my life was to return from North Vietnam with honor, not just to return. If I could not return with my honor, I did not care to return at all. I believe that in being loyal to my country that my country will be loyal to me. My support of our noble objectives will make the world a better place in which to live."

Thank you, Colonel Day! I hope our children and our leaders read your words.