Author Archives: Andy

Random Thoughts

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I’m interested in lots of things today, so fire up your randommeter.

  • End of Iraq War – Obama announced today that virtually all U.S. troops will return from Iraq by year’s end. I didn’t like this war when it began. I voted for Kerry and Obama largely because they promised to end it. And now it’s almost over. Is Iraq better off? In some ways, yes. In other ways, no. Is our country safer? I doubt it. Was our “victory” worth over 4000 American lives, countless Iraqi lives, $750 billion, and the huge strain it placed on our military and military families? I don’t think so. I’m not a fan of everything Obama has done (and left undone), but he delivered on this one. Now, if we could do the same with Afghanistan…
  • 33 Years – My birthday is tomorrow. I’ll be 33 years old. Supposedly that’s how old Jesus was upon his death. And He didn’t really start his ministry until age 30. So he changed the world in just 3 years. I’ll try to remember that next time I start feeling like the big kahuna.
  • Quit Sending Your Leftovers to Foreign Countries – Few things opened my eyes as much this week as Haiti Doesn’t Need Your Old T-Shirt. It describes how well-meaning Westerners destroy local economies in foreign countries by flooding their markets with unwanted goods. Free or super-cheap Western goods undercut the local merchants, growers, and manufacturers and make it much harder for them to make a living. You know how Americans are complaining about being unable to compete with the low pay and poor working conditions in foreign countries? This is a similar situation, only reversed. According to this article, the best way to help struggling people in other countries is to pump money into their economies rather than goods. Why? They can spend that money and move it around, where it works like rising water in a dry marina, raising all boats together.
  • Just Let It Go – I’m fighting the temptation to own and solve other people’s problems. From what I’ve seen and heard, other people struggle with that, too. Perhaps you’ve might have noticed that I can be a bit opinionated? It’s not necessarily bad to be opinionated, but it does give me the tendency to want to jump in with solutions when other people might not want my help. People don’t usually like that. It also stresses me out because I get frustrated if they don’t follow my wonderful advice. It’s so easy to forget that there’s only one person I can control – not my coworkers, not my wife, not my children, not my friends or family, just ME. And I don’t always do even that little job all that well. So I’m trying to stop getting so worked up about what other people do, say, and think.
  • Rangers – Nolan predicted Rangers in 6. Who am I to argue with that? So as of now, that means we take two of three in Arlington and then wrap it up Wednesday night back in St. Louis. But for the sake of the fans, I hope we win in five so it’ll happen at home. Imagine the wild rumpus at Rangers Stadium Monday night if we can pull that off.

Water is Basic Aims for Self-Sufficiency

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Water is Basic, an IBC-backed African organization, drills wells in South Sudan to provide clean water to thirsty people. In three years, Water is Basic has drilled over 350 wells, providing clean water to hundreds of thousands of people. One of the things I love about WIB is its focus on local leadership and labor rather than outsiders. People from our church currently provide much of the funding and some consulting and guidance, but it’s really a South Sudanese group.

Recently I was thrilled to read the latest update from WIB. WIB has developed a plan to achieve self-sufficiency through various types of internal/local funding within two years. In other words, it won’t need Western money anymore, although I doubt the leaders would turn it down. Through a combination of local investment, a small contribution from each community for well maintenance, and generating revenue by drilling some wells for commerical purposes for a fee to subsidize those built for residential purposes, WIB hopes to be in the black before too long.

Bravo to Water is Basic for providing an outstanding example of how successful an African non-governmental organization can be.

Haiku Tuesday – Baseball

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In honor of the two-time American League Champion Texas Rangers (sounds good, eh?), I’m declaring today a special Haiku Tuesday. Write your best Rangers haiku and post it here. If you’re Cardinals fan, you’ll have to post your haiku somewhere else, perhaps on a piece of toilet paper.

Four games from the end
Last year’s run will tilt the scale
Ginger ale for all!

Can our city stand
World titles from the Mavs and
Rangers in one year?

Series-bound again
We all can’t wait to see the
Rangers win it all

Want to see the game
But four hundred bucks per seat?
Watch at home for free

Your turn.

Thirteen Years

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It’s so easy for me to get frustrated and stressed out by the little difficulties of parenting – tantrums, poop disasters, defiance, pottytraining accidents, having to interrupt my terribly important task of surfing the Internet to do something for them. Sometimes my goal is simply to survive…until Jenny gets home, until naptime, until I can carry my screaming toddler outside the busy restaurant, until their bedtime when I can rest and have an adult conversation with Jenny. The boys and I have lots of fun together, but sometimes parenting is just really, really hard.

Part of the reason it’s so difficult is the tension between wanting them to be happy and wanting to help them become good people. As a father, I love to see my boys happy. Their laughter is one of the most beautiful sounds in the world. Their smiles are sunshine with an on-off switch. But I also have a responsibility to mold them, train them, and inspire them to become the young men God wants them to be – men of honor who accept responsibility, know right from wrong, think for themselves, lead courageously when necessary, and live for things greater than themselves. Molding clay requires effort, pressure, and time, and my boys don’t always enjoy being molded. But I’m too duty-oriented to simply give up and let them do whatever they want. They deserve more from me, even if they can’t see it right now.

Arrows

The sermon tonight was about children. Our pastor has five of them, and his youngest just left for college in August. Despite all the freedom that empty-nesthood provides (money and time and vacations, oh my!), he and his wife cried like babies on the way home. They had prepared their children well and launched them all into the world, like arrows toward a target in his analogy, and their home would never be the same without each of those arrows. Jenny and I have two arrows to launch, Brenden Matthew and Jonathan Andrew. Right now they are merely sticks with the vague shape of an arrow. Each day we try to whittle them a bit. Someday we’ll help add feathers and tips, pull them back, and let them fly.

Tomorrow

Later tonight I read a fantastic article called Notes from a Dragon Mom. If you have some Kleenex handy, I highly recommend it. The author has an eighteen-month-old son who is dying of a rare genetic disorder and probably won’t live past three years old. While she understands “normal” parents’ desires to prepare their children for the future, for her son those aspirations are a waste of precious, precious time. Instead, she simply tries to make his life as comfortable as possible and to love him as well as possible while she still can. (May God give each of us such a person, no matter when our end might come)

Brenden is already over three years old, older than the boy in the article will probably ever be. Jonathan is roughly the boy’s age. Three years is not a long time.

Before I know it, they’ll both be in elementary school, wearing braces, shaving, leaving for college, getting married. Thirteen years from now, Brenden will likely have his driver’s license. Maybe he’ll be driving my old Fit. (Or the minivan, heh heh) Maybe he’ll have a girlfriend. Thirteen years isn’t that long a time, either. Thirteen years ago, I was a sophomore at Baylor living with a sports-nut roommate, working for Camp Fire’s after-school program, and trying to figure out what to do with my life.

It wasn’t that long ago.

A few more blinks, a few more sleeps, and we’ll be looking over college brochures with the boys, only by then maybe colleges won’t even publish brochures anymore because all marketing will be online.

Before I know it, I’ll be the one subtly begging for their attention instead of them begging for mine.

Today

I spend too much time screwing around on the computer and on my phone instead of being present with my children. I spend too much energy worrying about whether they’re going to turn out right. I work too hard trying to survive instead of simply enjoying every minute I have to spend with them, both the fun moments and the difficult ones. I’m too quick to get mad at them for behaving like toddlers instead of mature adults. I spend too much time working on my arrows and not enough time simply appreciating them. And I’m tired of it.

The New York Times author said it perfectly:

Parenting, I’ve come to understand, is about loving my child today. Now. In fact, for any parent, anywhere, that’s all there is.

I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but I want it. One day, one way or another, they’ll fly away. I want to enjoy them and make them happy and love them well while helping them grow into Godly young men, not instead of. I want to be all there instead of partially there. I want to embrace every snot-, poop-, and Ranch dressing-covered moment with them while they’re still here.

Figuratively, of course, because that’s just nasty.

Occupy Everywhere

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Our government is barely functional. The economy sucks. Nearly 10 percent of working-age adults are out of work, and about 10 percent more are underemployed, working part-time instead of full or waiting tables with a master’s degree. Health care costs are skyrocketing. The people in charge don’t seem to have the answers. Their primary focus seems to be staying in power, which requires catering to their most significant contributors. The wealthiest Americans control a bigger share of our nation’s wealth every year. The middle class is shrinking. Many of those who have jobs are still struggling to survive. People are angry, and they don’t feel like our leaders are paying attention.

It’s a recipe for some protestin’.

Inspired by recent anti-government movements in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe and the American protests of the 1960s, the Occupy movement gives struggling, disenfranchised people a way to express their frustration. After beginning with a small group of protesters in New York called Occupy Wall Street, the movement is spreading throughout the country and now to other countries as well. Occupy Dallas, for example, is camped out near City Hall.

With no centralized structure and coordinated largely through social media like Facebook and Twitter, the movement seems disorganized. Critics claim the protesters don’t even know what they want, have no solutions, and simply have nothing better to do than complain about corporate greed and political incompetence. Many Baby Boomers have trouble understanding the protesters’ complaints because they came of age in a different time with a much healthier economy. And yes, the protesters do look funny using their iPhones to protest the record profits of huge corporations like Apple. And some of the groups are making ridiculous demands, such as government-provided port-a-potties for them to use while they protest. But I still think there’s something to the movement.

I’m certainly not a sociologist, but this movement seems like a long-simmering pot that is finally reaching a boil. The protesters have some legitimate gripes. Although the economy hasn’t affected my job or changed our lifestyle in any way, people I know have been significantly hurt by the downturn, and I’m just as frustrated with our government’s failure to lead and get things done as you probably are. The statistics on income inequality, although not completely surprising, made me realize how big the gap is between the elite (the 1 percent – the wealthy, the political leaders, celebrities, etc.) and the rest of us (the 99 percent, which includes any poor schmucks who make less than about $290k/year according to recent census data).

If you listen to the protesters and read their signs, some of them sound like they resent the elite. As a result, the elite (and many regular people who sympathize) find it easy to blow off their criticism as jealousy and sour grapes. I don’t personally resent the elite. Many of them, probably most of them, got where they are through a combination of God-given talent, luck, and lots of hard work. But it doesn’t seem right to me that so many others work just as hard, maybe even with similar amounts of ability, but can’t stay above water. No one has full control over all aspects of his life. It’s ignorant to claim that anyone who can’t find work or can’t climb out of a financial hole is simply unwilling to work hard enough. Yes, some of those people are lazy and unmotivated, but others are just as dedicated and hardworking as you or me, if not more so. Effort is not the only variable in the equation. I don’t know the best way to narrow the gap. I’m not an economist, either. But I do think it’s a worthwhile goal.

Enough of that soapbox. No one knows what concrete impact this chaotic movement will produce. But it’s fun to watch. If nothing else, it’s getting people talking and giving frustrated people a voice. If the protesters can organize themselves and their gripes and produce some viable solutions, perhaps they might actually get something done. Go get ’em, 99.

Brenden’s Preschool Open House

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On Thursday, Brenden’s preschool invited us over for open house. We parked our minivan next to all the other minivans and entered B’s world for a short while. The time gave us a clear picture of why he likes it so much:

  1. Every teacher obviously loves preschoolers.
  2. They work hard to implement a structured, varied curriculum that keeps them busy throughout the day. Brenden’s 3-year-old class includes a nature center, music center, home-ec center, number board, tons of books, arts and crafts, building blocks, and more. Just outside his room, they are growing marigolds in the class garden. They’re also learning bits of Spanish and French. But despite all the different activities, the teachers aren’t slavedrivers who demand the impossible. Somehow they seem to have the right balance between learning and fun.
  3. The playground is huge, with playsets for different ages, plenty of space to run, lots of Cozy Coupe-style cars with a two-lane “road” around some of the play areas, and sports equipment. Brenden and Jonathan both had a blast just playing out there.

The boys kept us busy, but I managed to snap a few pictures that you can see here.