Growing Old Ain't For Sissies

NUMBER ONE HUNDRED FIVE
An Intimate Moment

The following description of what is happening in this picture is taken from the World Book Encyclopedia, 2003 edition. It is “G-rated.” I learned something reading it, perhaps you will also.

Reproduction in flowers involves two main steps: (1) pollination and (2) fertilization. Pollination is the transfer of pollen from a stamen to a pistil. Fertilization is the union of a sperm with an egg cell. Fertilization occurs in much the same way in all flowering plants. However, there are two methods of pollination: (1) cross-pollination and (2) self-pollination. Cross-pollination involves the transfer of pollen from a stamen on one plant to a pistil on another plant. In self-pollination, pollen is transferred from a stamen of one flower to a pistil of the same flower or to a pistil of another flower on the same plant.

Cross-pollination is the method of pollination in most flowering plants. The method requires an agent to carry the pollen from flower to flower. Insects are the most common agents of cross-pollination.

Many insects depend on flowers for food. Bees live on nectar and pollen. Honeybees also use nectar to make honey, which they feed on in winter. Butterflies and moths also live on nectar, and certain beetles and flies feed on both nectar and pollen. As an insect travels from flower to flower in search of food, pollen grains stick to its body. Some or all of these grains may brush off onto the stigmas of some flowers that the insect visits. One or more of these flowers may thus become cross-pollinated.

When searching for food, an insect could easily fail to visit a particular kind of flower unless the insect was attracted to it. Most flowers that depend on insects for pollination are brightly colored or heavily scented. Each kind of pollinating insect is attracted by certain colors or odors and so visits certain flowers rather than others. However, more than one kind of insect pollinates most insect-pollinated flowers. For example, moths and butterflies visit many of the same flowers. A few kinds of insects and flowers have developed highly specialized relationships with each other. These flowers are pollinated only by a particular kind of insect. For example, bumble bees are the type of insect that pollinates the red clover flower.

Pollination by bees. More kinds of flowers are pollinated by bees than by any other kind of insect. Bees cannot see the color red. Otherwise, they have a keen sense of sight. They also have a well-developed sense of smell. Bees are strongly attracted by yellow and blue blossoms, especially those with a sweet odor. Unlike people, bees can see ultraviolet light. Many flowers, particularly yellow ones, have elaborate ultraviolet markings. These markings attract bees to the flowers and even pinpoint the location of the nectaries.

Many of the flowers pollinated by bees have a highly complicated structure that encourages cross-pollination and discourages self-pollination. For example, a bee can reach the nectar of a snapdragon only after brushing against the stigma. It then cannot leave the flower without touching the pollen. Furthermore, the bee cannot touch the stigma after it touched the pollen.

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“Then God saw everything that He had done, and, look, it was very good.”
Genesis 1.31

NUMBER ONE HUNDRED FOUR
The Battle of Perryville

There is a whole subculture of folks that are still fighting the Civil War. This poem was written in October 2002 after watching one of the battles re-enacted. The Union, believing they had been defeated, went off to Tennessee and Kentucky was saved from occupation by the “Damn Yankees.” Kentuckians fought on both sides of the conflict but there doesn’t seem to be much animosity either way these days—folks just spend a lot of time and money dressing in the Blue or the Grey and doing accurate reenactments of memorable battles.


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THE BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE

Four thousand five hundred Yankees
And three thousand five hundred Rebels
Are all around us, dressed for the part,
Ready to reenact the battle
That turned the Rebels back
In old Kaintuck.

But in the line for funnel cake
And plates of butterfly chips
The real battle rages: "Don't you drop that,"
She hisses through gritted teeth, " I told you,
Never mind the bread, but eat that meat!"
Her great size betrays a history of clean plates,
Her husband's size is similar. The small boy
With the hot dog now grown cold,
In grubby limp bun, is rail thin,
Has never cleans his plate, it seems.
"I told him," she says, "just eat the meat."
The Dad is silent, having heard it all before.
Turning on the child again, she charges back,
"Don't you dare drop it, I'll wear you out
If you drop that hot dog - He's going to drop it
So he won't have to eat it…you watch him Harold,
Make him eat it now, or else…"

Like the battle fought a hundred forty years ago,
This battle is indecisive. As the Rebels thought
They were winning while they were losing,
And as the Yankees thought they were losing
While they were winning,
So the mother seems to keep the hot dog
From falling by sheer power of her will,
While the boy, long on patience, waits for
The proper accident to happen.

With the skirmish in the food line
Quietly raging back and forth,
I take my funnel cake
And retire from the smoky battlefield.

10/02
103


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In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free;
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

From The Battle Hymn Of The Republic
Written by Julia W. Howe in 1861 while visiting a Union Army camp on the Potomac near Washington, D.C.

NUMBER ONE HUNDRED THREE
Recognizing A Stroke- A Public Service Blog

A normal part of growing old is the possibility of a stroke. The American Stroke Association lists these warning signs:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden, severe headache with no known cause

Stroke is a medical emergency. Know these warning signs of stroke and teach them to others. Every second counts:

Call 9-1-1 immediately if you experience symptoms!
Time lost is brain lost!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

*Ask the individual to SMILE.

*Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS over their head.

*Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (ie. It is a sunny day today.)

If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call 911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers urged the general public to learn the three questions. They presented their conclusions at the American Stroke Association's annual meeting last February. The Association has not yet included this simple test in its educational material yet but it is believed that widespread use of this test could result in prompt diagnosis and treatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage.


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“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Proverbs 2.23

NUMBER ONE HUNDRED TWO
You Cannot Serve
May 14, 2005

We have recently changed churches, driven out by the thunder of Oompah! The following has several strands that will come together if you stay with me.

Writing about the use of film in religious services, Sally Morganthaller, nationally known worship consultant, author and speaker, had this to say about contemporary Christian worship:

“In the past 30 years, worship in the United States has shifted largely from sacred experience to didactics, 20 minutes of praise chorus singing notwithstanding. (Increasingly, those 20 minutes are perceived as a black hole of sameness to be endured rather than a scant half hour of probable spiritual epiphany.) Contemporary worship –consisting largely of a welcome, a 20-minute song set, special music, and preaching—is the preferred style of worship among America’s most popular churches. (In 1999, 38% of all churches used praise and worship choruses during worship, while today that figure stands at 74%.)”

She goes on to observe that the church is so mired in praise choruses that are all in one key, musically and emotionally, that it seldom finds the dance of divine revelation and response, of divinity and humanity, of joy and pain that characterized worship in the past.

In discussing these things with a young friend who is firmly committed to the value of Christian rock music, I have discovered an analogy that has helped me to help him to understand who Oompah! (the god of Christian Rock Worship music) really is. (Sadly, where praise and worship choruses are brought in to “modernize” the service, Oompah! is usually not far behind.)

Possessions in some form or other are necessary to life. New Testament Greek uses "chrema," "ktema," and "hyparxis" as general words for property and possessions. Accumulated wealth may be denoted by "ploutos," riches, and "thesaurus," treasure. Material wealth can also be personified as demonic power, Mammon (mamonas).

Mamonas comes from the root "aman," which means, “that in which one trusts.”

Material wealth is not a bad thing in itself. In fact, it is a blessing. But when it supplants God as the object of a person’s love and trust, it is personified as a demonic power, Mammon—an object of worship, an idol.

In the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16.1-13) Jesus shows that the love of wealth is powerful, it can get things done, but that it is also a competitor for the worship that belongs only to God:

"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon."
Luke 16.13

Understanding Mammon, think about Oompah!, the God of Christian Rock Worship Music. Oompah! lives in pure rhythm, pervasive backbeat, in-your face rimshots, and mind-numbing volume. These things have their place in the world of music but when they are let into the house of God and put to the service of worship, they are soon personified--they become Oompah!

Christian Rock Music is brought into the church with the noble intention of attracting young people and enabling them to worship God in a style of music to which they have become accustomed. This music is brought in as a servant to the church. But Oompah! is not cut out to be a servant—he insists on being a master. He is never satisfied to be just an enabler of worship; he is only satisfied when he has become the object of worship.

Oompah! demands absolute allegiance—he is a competitor for the worship that is due only to God. He gradually eats up or absorbs anything that does not please him. He agrees that “you cannot serve two masters,” and he demands you serve him. His demand is that “You shall have no other gods before me.” You may get by with the words of “Amazing Grace” from time to time (as a sop to the pesky old-fogy “Traditionals” and geriatric geezers) but the old hymns are tolerable only when embedded in the music of a full rock and roll treatment.

This parallel is not exact but close enough to give you the idea. Just as money wrongly used and illicitly loved becomes in God’s eyes Mammon, a demonic power, so Christian Rock Music, wrongly used and illicitly loved becomes Oompah!, a demonic power—you cannot serve God and Oompah!

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Beware lest the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all write Ichabod above the doors of those houses of worship where "Jesus the Rock" has been dumbed down to " Jesus who rocks." JTC