What a Retired Denvy Does

So what does a retired person do throughout a day?  More specifically what does Denvy do in a day this week?

"I'm up to watch the sunrise," I state, which around Ground Hogs Day allows me to sleep, or at least lay around in bed, until the summary of the local news just before the "Today" show comes on.  During the warmer months of the year one has to roll out before the 5:33AM Stateman's Journal electronic news is delivered.

There's the early morning routine answer to the call of nature integrated with the awaking the computer and checking the overnight spam interspersed with some meaningful emails.  It's these good emails that dictate what happens for the next couple hours, well, these emails and the ones on the to-do list which were formulated during the evening transition to sleep and the morning's awakening time.

There are responses to Wendy, a recent college grad, who is creating a new non-profit organization to help educate orphans in Africa, and specifically a new website on a new server.  And the responses to Kirk, a former student, who is updating a website for the community baseball team he coaches.

Depending on the time of year and month, emails are exchanged with Katie for programming for the Western Compass campus ministry, with members of the pastor nominating committee regarding the status of candidates, with people helping setting up a pilot project to house and provide meals for homeless families, with church members for the Peace Justice and Mission business, with supporters of the Relay for Life fight against cancer and with those dealing with the computers at the Polk Community Free Clinic.  The good news is that I really like what these groups are doing.

Then there's time to open the iPad and play a game of solitaire or check the weather or read parts of a book.  That's my quiet time.

Did I mention starting the wood stove, bringing in firewood, preparing and eating breakfast, washing the dishes, feeding the dog, cat and chickens.  Some days washing clothes, watering plants and cleaning house split into the agenda.

Then there's an opportunity to write policies and job descriptions, create rosters and contact lists, and contact people about volunteering for the homeless project.  We received a letter yesterday indicating that our request for a $500 grant for this project was granted.  Laying out plans and agendas for the pastor nominating committee are a part of this time in the day, and this can extend throughout the day.

This week Monday only had a weekly PNC meeting in the evening and Tuesday had a PJM meeting with a presentation on a proposal to introduce a health system similar to the Canadian system into Oregon.  Wednesday had a 2-hour meeting with Wendy and the weekly bell and vocal choir practices.  Thursday was full with a meeting with some interns in the morning, WC meeting at one, meeting with Kirk at four, dinner with WC at SingFay at five, and college basketball games at 5:15 and 7:30.  However, it's snowing and everything is cancelled (waiting for word on the basketball games) and so there's time to write this blog entry.

Continuing on with words about the remainder of the week, there are four Skype interviews with pastoral candidates between 9:30AM and 3:00PM on Friday.  Saturday has a funeral at two, a Valentine Day dinner at Falls City at five, and two basketball games that evening.  Sunday seems routine except for Dr Lace apple cider making event about the same time as church and so we will miss that.

It's nice to catch some lunch about midday and nicer still if it's at 1:00 so we can manifest some silliness by watching the archived Zorro show.  Today the show interrupts an ongoing news broadcast following the snow storm which has closed schools, businesses and highways.

For variety in the day there are opportunities like pruning trees, mowing lawns - even in the winter, cutting firewood, working in the wood shop, pulling weeds and the like.  During colder days there's organizing pictures, writing the family history, painting on the paint-by-number project - for color blind non-artists, or stoking the fire.

Evening, if there's no meeting or scheduled event, may see us watching Dr Martin or a Blazer's basketball game on television while Gail does some handwork and I play at website design.

Oh, there is the final act of crawling into the waterbed and falling asleep as Jay Leno talks to himself.  That is what a monologue is, isn't it?

The Start of 2014

Three days ago I witnessed the change to a new calendar for the 70th time, provided we assume that I could witness the change of a calendar at the age of seven months.  In five months we will celebrate the start of another decade and our 45th wedding anniversary which is literally on the first day of summer.  It's not that these numbers or dates have any more significance than any other year or any other date, but it just feels like a good time to share and celebrate life with everyone we know.

By the way, I intend, by my own declaration, to be 60 years old.

We experience a change of lifestyle after youth and bearing our offspring.  The name mid-life crisis is given to this time.  I believe that 70 and even 60 years of age is either past mid-life or at least on the back end of that phase of life.  But there is a change to my lifestyle now.  Perhaps it needs a name.  Maybe it has a name, like retirement.  Maybe it should have a different name because retirement has a very specific connotation.

Each morning is better than the previous.  It's a joy to be able to wake up.  Each sunrise or overcast foggy morning is a piece of art greater than the previous one.  Each day is open for me to fill.  I have been blessed to with plenty of hair that is not gray on the top of my head and with the ability to walk and work.  Each day is a gift which I wish to graciously accept and fill so that it's the happiest day of my life.  A part of this effort is giving to people, mostly my time and my talents.  So my days are full of the routine, cooking, cleaning, answering emails, feeding the dog and chickens, and the non-routine, meetings, planning for meetings, responding to the results of meetings, sometimes teaching.

I sit more in this phase of life, reading, writing, thinking, listening, watching.  I wish to walk more to benefit my muscles and for my sensual enjoyment.  I wish to read and write more to learn more and to pass on what I know.

This post-mid-life phase of life is a gem, one continuous communication with God absorbing every gifted second.

At this moment I think of Rick, a friend of a casual nature only, but now I feel so close to him.  It's been over twenty years since I last saw him and then it was only once or twice a year, but after the news of his death in a car accident in Alaska before Christmas I think of him daily.  At this moment I would like to think that he could give me some of his writing skills which he displayed so well in his books and articles about living in Alaska.

Rest while, Rick.  I hope that I can carry forth the naiveté, and the fresh and caring view of life and nature you displayed.

When did it start?

Often it's difficult to know when something started.  Like the rain that's dominating the outside this morning.  Not only don't I know when it started in our yard, but I don't know when this storm that moved in from somewhere else dropped it first drop.

I suppose I can go back, thanks to modern technology, and see when I wrote the first entry for this blog, but even then I don't know if the blog started at the time the computer reveals.  There probably was a gathering of thoughts and ideas and intentions even prior to that moment.

Typically a book has a start, a first word, a first phrase.  "It was the best of times..."  "It's quitting time."

I've run into a theological question about beginning.  It's not when did God come into existence; I'll accept the God with no beginning and no end, an eternal God.  It's not when the universe came into being; I'll accept science's best theories about the big bang or whatever billions of years ago.  It's not when humankind evolved from whatever hundreds of thousands of years ago.  It's more like when did humankind receive a soul.

Could this be the creation story as written in the Bible?  Could it be that upright walking animals already existed on earth and there was this moment when God made a special connection with one species and humankind received a soul?  Science traces the evolution of the physical structure of humankind and its evolution regarding the use of tools and technology, but what about the evolution of the spiritual being?

There are an endless number of unanswered questions in science and theology and in many cases, at least in my mind, the answers are not relevant; the answers won't change things one way or another.  Is this one of those questions?  Probably.  So enjoy the rain as it feeds the earth and its inhabitants.  And be thankful for a warm dry house and great friends.

Where we are

It's late July and the windrows of grass that lie in the fields for some two weeks have been threshed, baled and moved off the fields.  The last rain was over a month ago and the temperature should again be around 90˚.  It's been said that this summer is nearly perfect and probably the best weather in the nation, or maybe the world.  I agree.  Today is the first day after four days of VBS and the 17th anniversary of the marriage of Marc and Tina.

As the sun rises this morning I'm thinking about where I was on my 17th wedding anniversary and all the beads on my necklace.  The necklace is 16 years old as it was given to me and all members of a mission trip who did VBS in Wasilla, Alaska.  Its main central feature is a replicate of the Methodist cross.  On each side of the cross are a pair of beads representing each mission trip taken since that day, beads that represent two trips to Alaska, Mexico and Tanzania, five trips to clean up and rebuild after Katrina, one for the trip to Ukraine and many for local "trips," about two dozen in total.

By 1986, the year of our 17th anniversary we had built five houses, moved to Trapper Creek to start the Toy Mill business, traveled 43 states in five months with our children, and made our first trip to Europe.  Gail served on numerous committees, led the Trapper Creek volunteer ambulance service and was in the process of starting a local medical clinic.  Denvy also served on several committees and had just been appointed to the Borough Planning Commission.

As the sun creeps over the horizon I'm exhausted just thinking about what happened in those years.  And that was just a start because there have been another 27 years since then.

Moving on

The news during the past week has been more than grim; it's sad, it's depressing, it's overwhelming.  After the shooting of 26 children and teachers in Newtown conversations have moved toward the use and ownership of guns and the care of persons using or abusing them.  Gun control conjures up ideas of giving up some of one's freedom and even rights, yet it remains a primary avenue in conversations for the reduction of mass killings.  In one news broadcast someone said that this event and the pursuant conversations will change people's thinking.  While that may imply that those who were against gun control will now favor some control, I find in my case that I will move from passive role to an active role in promoting gun control.

Probably my passive attitude was grounded in the idea that many family members and friends favor the free use of guns and claim a right and need for guns.  I've heard say that some sleep with a loaded pistol by their bed.  I wish to not insult their opinions which I'm sure are as valuable as mine.  I also know that expressing one's opinion too publicly may color the tone of any other conversation and even hinder possible resolutions.  But there comes a time when the importance of other conversations falls below the need to resolve the immediate problem regarding guns.

Bits and pieces that I find interesting include the statement that personal ownership of guns will prevent crime because the good people can defend themselves.  There were no "good" guns in Newtown to stop the "bad" gun so that situation doesn't confirm to refute this theory.  In Portland several days earlier during a shooting in a mall, a legal gun in the hands of a trained individual was aimed at the shooter but the trigger was never pulled for fear of hitting a bystander.  Hurray for the wisdom of the legal gun owner but not merits for the idea that "good" guns will stop "bad" guns from killing.

It's also interesting that there are limitations with regard to the types of guns that can be used for hunting and the number of rounds in a clip when hunting, but there are no limitations on the types of guns that have little use but target practice and killing people.  Limiting the ownership of automatic guns with clips with a large number of rounds isn't the end of the world.

It is argued that the constitution of the United States gives us the right to bear arms.  Indeed it does.  It was written at a time when the country was just coming into being and individuals and states were concerned about a central government forcefully taking rights from people and states.  That's the same constitution that didn't consider women or non-white persons eligible to vote.  We've learned and matured a lot over the centuries.  Visualizing the federal of the USA to overpower its citizens is just not in the cards these days.

So the conversation will continue, and I will be back.

Today's Issues

I never figured that I could solve the world's problems but I hoped that in some small way I might help make the world a better place to live, or so goes the cliché.  In some senses I enjoyed working within conflicts in what we now call conflict resolution.  But now that I have been confined to this planet earth for more than 25,000 sunrises, I just wish conflicts would melt away, big and small.

The student leadership here at the university has decided that our campus ministry is not represented properly by student leadership and is considering taking our "student club" status away.  The part of this issue that I wish would melt away is the unknowns because we haven't had an opportunity to discuss this face to face.

And then there is technology which is somewhat ironic because as a instructor of technology for pre-service and in-service educators, I should understand the issues and how to solve them.  I don't.  At least not enough to prevent me from getting frustrated when it takes me 30 minutes, several "force quits" and a complete shutdown and restart of the computer to print two Word documents.  Oh, I know it's operator error, but it's still beyond where I want to be.

Now that that is resolved, I find the classroom where I work on my projects, filled with students at a time when it is typically available for my use.  So I'm in my office.

Here I am bickering about the small things in life while Easterners are fighting the autumn weather after Sandy the sub-tropical storm destroyed their homes, their infrastructure, their environment and essentially their lives.  So take a deep breath, and count your blessings; the sun is shining after another night of downpour.

Returning from Tanzania

Internet is not the only thing missing in Tanzania that we take for granted, such as running water, electricity, toilets that flushed or appear to be cleaned recently. Smooth streets or roads would be another item to add to the list along with street signs and rules of the road. Despite that little complaint about our experience in Tanzania, life is great.

We've just started our 16th full day in Tanzania and a packing for our evening flight back to Portland via Amsterdam. Each day gave us greater insight into the conditions of the people, particularly the orphans and children, of this culture. They are victims or at least the products of a country whose government is far from overcoming corruption and a people strongly grounded in very old traditions. "We've always done it that way" goes far beyond an attitude and becomes a part of the rut in which the people with very few opportunities or hopes for change exist. Creativity and resources on the streets don't appear available but the number of people is huge.

Yet there's a glow among the people. Every one of them will either greet you with "Jambo," their equivalence of our "Hello," or will return a greeting if you offer one first. The handshake, offered by most men, starts with a hand clasp like our America handshake, proceeds into a clasping of each others thumbs and back into our American handshake. The youth taught us one where you start by lightly grabbing each others arms near the elbow sliding so the hands meet and become fists. The fists tap each other on top of each other, first one, then the other and then tapping knuckles together. Finally you tap your chest three times with the fist and extend your arm to point to the sky. We have no idea what this means but it was a bounding moment.

There is an ever presence of young men selling their wares ranging from newspapers, to sunglasses, to maps, to jewelry and even washing your wind shield as you wait at a red light. This last unsolicited sales starts with no invitation or approval on the part of the driver. The cost of this 15-second wash with a water-filled rag and hand-held windshield wiper usually gets 200 shillings (about 14 American cents) if you have such a coin handy.

This area is so dry; everything seems to victim to dust. We experienced no rain so we've not experienced dust turning to mud. Interestingly there are several climate changes between Arusha and the destinations of the safaris. The climb to the rim of Ngorongoro Crater is a rainforest probably due to the early mists in the higher elevations. The crater itself is again very dry this time of the year. Around Lake Manyara there are trees and thickets but the lake is low during this dry season.

Because the availability of Internet did not allow us to write daily, we will attempt to recreate our journey in retrospect in this blog over the next several weeks. The intention is to also create a website in Saxowsky.com of this journey.

Sent from my iPad