The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

Vereses

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The best song’s have more than just one verse, don’t they?

The best song’s not only have more than one verse, but a killer chorus that bounces around in your head like a bullet ricocheting around in a steel encased room.

But we don’t believe it!

We know it, know that the song has multiple verses, might even be able to sing through everyone of them like a long Dylan song gone amok, but we just don’t believe it–or at least act like we believe it.

The Apple commercial with Robin Williams, borrows his speech from his role in Peter Weir’s 1989 film, DEAD POET’S SOCIETY. In the film, Williams plays a teacher who inspires some pretty rigid academy students with his unorthodox teaching methods and passion for poetry. Williams ends the commercial with his oft-quoted line from the film:

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Through the Wringer

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A long, hard Winter will have you not only actively wishing, but dreaming about Summer.

You don’t always need a Winter, though, do you?

Growing up was always one of the greatest times of the year wasn’t it? For me, it meant that we could spend a whole week at my grandparents WITHOUT my brothers and sister.

I was King for a week during that time. I always got to pick the menu for the week, and lima beans wasn’t on it. I could pick out the flavor of ice-cream I liked the best and if I wanted to, I could stay up and watch Johnny Carson.

I always took the opportunity to tell my grandmother what terrible people my parents were; why they made me take out garbage, put my clothes in the hamper, make my bad and even had the audacity to make me do the dishes from time to time.

I remember asking my grandmother what terrible things her parents made her do, and she would tell me it was many, many tasks too horrible to describe, but one in particular, doing the family wash, was the worst because they didn’t have a wash machine. My grandmother would have to haul the family laundry into town, wait while it was being done, and then have to come home afterwards; an all day event, she bemoaned.

She told me she’d remembered very vividly when their neighbor was drafted into the war and he boarded up the house and moved his family in with the in-laws and asked my great-grandparents if they’d be so kind as to take care of some of the things they were leaving behind. Wouldn’t you know, one of them was their wash machine. It’s the kind you actually find out on the back porch of an antique store, the one with the tumbler and wringer. She even proudly displayed a nasty scar on her hand where she’d actually got it caught in the wringer.

She said, chasing that old wash machine across their dirt basement floor as it would shake, shimmy, spit, and spew suds all over the place was a kind of peace on earth–besides she could now do the family wash at her convenience and not for a whole Saturday.

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Smudges

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W H A A A A A T?

You may be wondering why people have marked up foreheads today…some, you might be able to see as an actual sign of a cross and others are going to look like smudges that have been unnoticed and unattended.

Before you go with a, “Ummmm, there’s a big black smudge on your forehead,” card, just know that it’s Ash Wednesday, the official day of the 40 days of Lent.

Most liturgical churches celebrate the occasion, but it’s not ever found in the Bible as one of the “OTHER” Silent Commandments. There are some peculiar settings for the ritual, though.

Smudged Cross Wearers are not trying to show off today and or pronounce, “HEY LOOK AT ME, I’M A REAL CHRISTIAN!”

The Smudge is worn to remind the Wearer and the See-er of the Smudge, “FROM DUST YOU WERE CREATED AND TO DUST YOU SHALL RETURN.”

Hmmmm, a nice way of saying, “DEAD-SINNER WALKING!”

But and it’s a rather Big, B U T, sporting the Smudge is actually meaningless unless there are some inner change that shows up outwardly much greater than the Smudge itself…and of the the two, this one hopefully is more noticeable and longer-lasting than the Smudge.

. . .For this, there is a Biblical Mandate from the book of Isaiah 58:5-7 and truly it transcends all Religions and becomes Universal because each Religion actually embraces:

“IS THIS THE KIND OF FAST I’VE CHOSEN FOR YOU, ONLY A DAY TO HUMBLE YOURSELF? IS IT ONLY THE BOWING OF ONE’S HEAD LIKE A REED AND FOR LYING ON SACKCLOTH AND ASHES? IS THAT WHAT YOU CALL A FAST, A DAY ACCEPTABLE TO THE LORD? IS THIS REALLY NOT THE KIND OF FASTING I HAVE CHOSEN FOR ALL: TO LOOSE THE CHAINS OF INJUSTICE AND UNTIE THE CORDS OF YOKE, TO SET THE OPPRESSED FREE AND BREAK EVERY YOKE? IS IT NOT TO SHARE YOUR FOOD WITH THE HUNGRY AND TO PROVIDE THE POOR WANDERER WITH SHELTER–WHEN YOU SEE THE NAKED, TO CLOTHE HIM AND NOT TO TURN AWAY FROM YOUR OWN FLESH AND BLOOD?”

. . .So, getting Smudged may not be of utmost importance, wearing the smudge for a day, even less, but literally S M U D G I N G others with your kindness, compassion, care, UN-CONDITIONAL LOVE, acceptance, and assistance (FOR MORE THAN A DAY OR A SEASON OR A MERE OBSERVANCE). . .well now. . .

May I be the first in line to not so much offer my broad forehead, but my Open Heart!

Join me!

GET SMUDGED and SMUDGE UNCEASINGLY!

Passers-By

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Dead Poet’s Society, 1989.

Some say the movie is timeless and that it should be a requirement for Teachers before teaching their first class.

Maybe that’s selling it completely short and putting it into a $1.00 or under re-sell bin at a rummage sale.

The story in 1989, 2014, and most like in 2089 will never be about teaching or learning or living or dying.

Truly–it’s about you!

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Being THAT GUY

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Maybe it’s not so much about being Remembered as it is simply not getting FORGOTTEN. . . .

I’ve NOT been remembered LOTS as a minister, a Life-Celebrant, a Spiritual Care Coordinator with hospice, a Wedding Liturgist, a Speaker for Leadership, Communication, Spirituality, End-Of-Life Issues. Maybe too many times. But I have literally, powerfully, emphatically NOT been Forgotten.

Most of the phone calls I get to fulfill any of the roles above is merely been because I’ve NOT been forgotten.

I’m sincerely, intimately, “THAT GUY!”

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A Gift

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Dare I take up the next 6:19 minutes of your Life?

Dare you squander it?

Dare you Miss It?

Michael Pollack. You certainly know the name, right?

I didn’t know of him…never heard of him before 10 minutes ago.

Billy Joel.

I’ve liked his music since his very first song, “Piano Man” in the early 70’s.

I remember one story, because of his busy concert schedule, he was going to miss his only child’s, his daughter’s Birthday and she was devastated by the news…he was more so.

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Rocks from Above

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Classic Story for not so classic folks!

PREMISE: WHEN WE DO GOOD, GOOD HAPPENS TO US!

He worked overtime, but not for the overtime. He worked because his best friend, with terminal cancer couldn’t. His friend had tried his best, but his best was becoming more and more his worst. His friend wanted to maintain his life, just by working a few hours every day, he felt he could have some normalcy. His friend was wrong. He was becoming weaker, more sick day by day and now to keep up the pace, overtime had to be applied.

Hey, what are friends, true friends, truly for, if not to help out a sick friend?

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YOU, Planter of Seeds

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Well, the countdown has begun, hasn’t it. The teams, the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks, for the Super Bowl have now been decided for their ultimate showdown on Sunday, February 2.

Recently what’s been bigger than the game are the Commercials. Millions of dollars per second are charged for select spots.

What was your favorite last year or have they been that quickly forgotten and very soon replaced?

Paul Harvey’s GOD MADE A FARMER ranks up there for me, for not just last year, but many a recent Super Bowl. The Commercial advertises Ram trucks but maybe like me, they could have saved the millions for the real message we received, and still do from the Commercial.

YOU, we, are all Planter of Seeds, aren’t we?

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Caring just a Little. . . .

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Nope. . .it’s NOT what you’re thinking.

First, you might really be asking what kind of seeds are those?

As soon as I say, “MUSTARD SEED,” Look where your mind goes…right to the Gospel Gutter: IF YOU HAVE FAITH THE SIZE OF A MUSTARD SEED. . . .

Nope! It really isn’t what you’re thinking.

It may well be so that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can move a mountain. . .but if you have the Caring Compassion the size of the a mustard seed you can, continents!

She suffered the death of a child and she was devastated to say the least. She, understandably so, was unconsolable. She sought council from her Priest, her friends, her friend’s friends. She went to the best Counselors and Advisors–Nothing–there was no Peace, no consolation, no relief, real or now, imagined.

Some ONE suggested something that was a little out of the ordinary, and in this particular case, way off the well-traveled paths and even the over-familiar ruts. A Holy Man. A Guru. A Spiritualist. . . .

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