goodness

I had the pleasure of helping my friends Abbie and Shane get married last night. It was one of the simplest ceremonies I've ever done, and one of the coolest. No long prayers; no schmaltzy readings; just simple promises to take care of each other in love: to share the rest of their lives, to give and receive, to inspire and respond, to speak and to listen...wonderful promises.


I also saw a fantastic movie the other night. The Pursuit of Happyness. If you haven't seen it, you should go rent it, or borrow it from your local library. A fantastic movie.


The leaves have managed to find enough moisture to make for a glorious fall, which we did not expect. I love fall.


I got a one-hour massage on Friday. Everyone should get one-hour massages and thank their massage therapist afterwards. I'm still thankful. Thanks, Dan! I think churches should offer massages as a ministry (Solomon's Porch mentions massage therapy as one of their ministries, which is pretty darn cool.)


So I am swimming in goodness right now. I just wanted to share that.


Pax,

The Pilgrimm


Oh, yeah, I have a few days off, so I get to stay at home on a Sunday morning and hang out in my pajamas and listen to resurrection Sunday on 91X. Still more goodness!

venting in progress: mind yourself

@%&*$@%&!

rass-a-frack-a-rack-a-nackin' stupid people!!

Back in the early 90's, a time rife with good music and really, really sucky music, along came a band that said, "we might suck but we don't care." Okay maybe the didn't really say that, but the music really wasn't that good, and the lyrics weren't even close to being profound--I'm not even sure if they were intended to be taken seriously.

Who is this band?

Infectious Grooves.

The song I'm singing in my head right now?

"Infecto Groovalistic."

Why you ask?

Because there's this part in the song where they sing, "I hate stupid people!" (over and over and over again).

Why you ask?

In August of 2006 three people committed a horrible crime against an autistic foster child. The foster mother reported him abducted from a local park, when, as was later determined, she and her husband and her husband's live in girlfriend had wrapped the boy in a blanket and duct tape and left in a closet for the weekend while they all went to a familiy reunion. When they came back Marcus was dead, so they burned the body and hid the remians in an abandoned house's fireplace. Perhaps you've heard the story.

Leading up to, and all through the first trial (the one for Liz Carroll, the foster mother), the media and communities reached by the media had already convicted and executed the woman. She was found guilty, and sentenced to 54 years to life. After this the husband went to trial and made a plea bargain. By pleading guilty--and he was the one who actually killed Marcus and disposed of the body--he was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison. The girl friend--who was also part of the whole thing--was offered immunity for testifying against David and Liz.

Now Liz Carroll wants a new trial because she says she was not given a fair trial.

None of this is why I'm singing Infecto Groovalistic.

Now that Liz Carroll is pointing out the lack of fairness in her trial. You should hear the howls of disagreement and the cries for blood. "She deserves a special place in Hell for what she did to that child!" "Somebody needs to dig a ditch, shoot her in the head, and let God deal with her!" "She should get done to her what she did to Marcus--that poor baby! Let him look down on her in hell while he's in heaven." (Not real quotes, mind you. These are my synthesized versions of all the hateful, lynch mob, comments that I've read on my local paper's webpage. But they're pretty durn close to real.)

I wonder how many of these heaven and hell sorting lynch mobbing people consider themselves "born again"? Or have heaven and hell merely become mythological places of justice and judgment based upon how we follow the laws of the nation?

Please understand, dear readers, that I am not condoning their actions; I am not saying that Liz doesn't deserve punishment for the crime. But I do not believe she--or anyone who is part of a highly publicized trial like this one was--can get a fair trial in the area where the crime was committed. I'm also curious as to how she got a much harsher sentence than the husband did. Seriously, the live in girlfriend gets immunity, David Carroll gets 16 years to life and Liz gets 54 to life?

And how does howling for blood, or stakes for burning her on (a literal comment by one of the paper's readers) bring back a boy that was put into foster care by a mother who did not want him.

Gandalf the wizard says to Frodo, after the latter speaks of wishing Golum to be dead: "Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends."

I'll say to everyone who reads this what I said last Sunday to my church: If you don't like what's going on, step up and offer an alternative. If you don't like how foster parents act, then become a foster parent yourself. If you aren't willing to make a difference, then please, just be quiet. Because the more you say the more I hear...

Infecto Groovalistic

the luckiest man...

On Jennifer's birthday she asked a friend of ours to do a photo shoot. So on my lunch I popped in at the theater to say hi--and when we looked at the pictures you could tell when I was there because the lovely lady just shined. As I was leaving Jennifer ran over to give me a kiss and Tony caught the moment.

All I can say is: He's the luckiest man alive!