Hurricanes are nothing to mess with. As of this writing we have yet to find a way of quelling or harnessing their immense power. They blow where they will; and upon reaching land their devastation is complete.

Preparing for a hurricane’s destructive forces is a matter of individual and regional efforts. Business owners, home owners, and government agencies all need to depend upon each other for cooperation to assure the common safety of a local community. Hurricane preparedness involves shuttering windows, checking pumps, stocking food supplies, backing up electronic files, and generally storm-proofing one’s personal and professional domains.

We should be so diligent in storm-proofing our own lives for the complex assaults of daily living! The unsuspected mishaps that assail us each day can dishevel our balance and leave us vulnerable to plunge into depths of despair or dangling directionless in a state of disaster. Whether unforgotten, unwelcome bills, business downturns, problems with the car, or major threats like relationship breakups, drama with the kids, or betrayal of trusts, being ungrounded, unprepared, can leave us in limbo with no sense of where to turn for guidance or help.

Imaging a Hurricane as our model, in what ways have you prepared for unexpected adversity? What do you need to put in place as a buffer against life’s contingencies and calamities? Food stores, financial reserves, escape routes, insurance against flood, fire, life or limb? You know the sign— Plan ahead ? How often have many of us thought of preparing for disaster after-the-fact? Too late. Planning ahead is precisely that— planning ahead. It is not waiting ‘till the storm is neigh, it is not thinking about preparing. It IS planning ahead.

When it comes to a deliberation about our life’s purpose, what we do with our life, planning becomes a considerable consideration. We dare not come up short as we storm-proof our basic thrust in life. We must give adequate attention to discerning just exactly what it is we are designed to do. Seek guidance from friends, ask for the insights of those who have already trodden your proposed path; listen to your parents and spouse. Work hard to not choose unwisely.

When it comes to our service of God and country, make sure you have considerable understanding of what they are asking of you. Have you ever read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, let alone the Bible? Having a full, clear understanding of God’s design for you will storm-proof your beliefs when those times of doubt and uncertainty come. And never, never finally make up your mind. Learn to learn, adapt, adjust, and listen for new marching orders constantly. God is a God of clarity, not confusion.

Be sure that life’s minor and major hurricanes will come. The choice to be prepared and grounded is up to you. Your choices will have wide reaching consequences of your family and this society. So help us God.

 

Have a nice week,

Gary

blue cheese

            “Blue cheese (or bleu cheese) is a general classification of cow’s milk, sheep’s milk, or goat’s milk cheeses that have had cultures of the mold Penicillium added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue mold, and carries a distinct smell, either from that or various specially cultivated bacteria. Some blue cheeses are injected with spores before the curds form.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_cheese]

What is it about blue cheese that excites the taste buds of some of us and turns the stomachs of others? Is it the thought of mold mixed in, the pungent smell of a rotten egg, or the crumbly, sticky feel of the cheese? For the bleu cheese aficionado the injected spores, the distinct aroma, and the smooth creamy texture, coupled with a dry water table cracker, instills an image of an appetizer fit for a king.

People are a lot like blue cheese. Wrapped up in our shiny clothes (like the Maytag Bleu in the picture), putting forth our best image. Yet, to some people we come across as stinky inside; not someone you would want to get to know. To others, the shiny persona merely conceals a savory congenial soul within. The peculiar thing about blue cheese is that you have to develop a taste for it: after a time that taste evolves into a discerning palate, discriminating between brands, regions of manufacture, and even animal of origin. People are the same way.

Some people, we are drawn to right off the bat: others, well…, they take some time to get used to. Given a chance, even they will begin to grow on you, smell and all. We must develop the ability to not pass judgment based on first impressions, lingering aroma (or stink), or predisposed conclusions about people, especially ones who are kind of moldy. That mold has seasoned them over a long period of time; they now have a lot more taste to their lives that we might, surprisingly, enjoy.

A goodly number of my friends, close friends, are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to discerning tastes in food, taste in music, religious expression & fervor, refinement in culture, and choice of leisure-time activity (eg- I like test-driving Maybachs & Jaguars; they, bird watching, fishing.) We’re different, yet close friends. Our differences are the strength which feeds our friendship. Judging or condemning one another never enters the portrait. [Well, maybe at first.]

God has definitely NOT created us all the same, let alone equally. We have a responsibility to help those less fortunate, to care for the sick, the broken-hearted, the weary-of-life. And we have a divine directive to learn from people who are genuinely different from ourselves. They have a lot to give: so do you. Get to it. And share some bleu cheese while you’re at it.

 

Have a nice week,

Gary

Ingenuity

Ever hear about the Egg of Columbus?

Columbus was dining with many Spanish nobles when one of them said: ‘Sir Christopher, even if your lordship had not discovered the Indies (America), there would have been, here in Spain which is a country abundant with great men knowledgeable in cosmography and literature, one who would have started a similar adventure with the same result.’ Columbus did not respond to these words but asked for a whole egg to be brought to him. He placed it on the table and said: ‘My lords, I will lay a wager with any of you that you are unable to make this egg stand on its end like I will do without any kind of help or aid.’ They all tried without success and when the egg returned to Columbus, he tapped it gently on the table breaking it slightly and, with this, the egg stood on its end. All those present were confounded and understood what he meant: that once the feat has been done, anyone knows how to do it. (Girolamo Benzoni, History of the New World, 1565.)

Why is it that some of us think imaginatively and others do not? If your life is one of eking out a living in severe poverty, ok…, understandable. But for most people in developed nations this is a somber query. Is there a relationship between doing what you’re told, playing by the rules, living up to someone’s expectations of you, and non-creative thinking? Or is it our fear of being wrong, or fear of making a mistake that causes too many of us to think inside the box, exclusively?

It’s time we started thinking innovatively about, well, everything. Government agencies working together, a North American Economic Union, multi-purpose religious centers (Jews, Muslims & Christians using the same facility), then let our communities use it as a Country Club or Counseling Center in the afternoon or during the week. Or what about local families providing one meal a week through a delivery service for those going through tough times. Maybe even military personnel providing security for Banks & Day-Care Centers! Remember Johannes Gutenberg (printing press), Eli Whitney (cotton gin), Thomas Edison (electric light bulb), Marie Currie (radioactive elements), the Wright brothers (powered flight), Clarence Birdseye (frozen foods), Alexander Fleming (penicillin), Ralph Schneider (credit card), Stephanie Kwolek (Kevlar) Martin Cooper (cell phone), Steve Jobs (Apple), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Ray Fuller (Prozac).

So take that eccentric, whimsical idea tucked away in the back of your head or hiding in the back of your desk drawer— get it out, work on it. You may be the one person to discover, even to create a solution which no one else has thought of. Each of us has more God-given gifts than we will ever use; so go gentle with that egg.

 

Have a nice week,

Gary