kenlassblog

On this leg of our group tour through Washington DC we visited the famous national mall area, bookended by the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, with the familiar long, rectangular pool in between. Memorials to those who fought in the Vietnam and Korean wars are also here. The large plaza at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial has apparently become a common staging location for protests of many kinds. While we there, a small group of young women were loudly yelling their condemnation and disapproval of something. I couldn’t quite make out what it was.

The protestors were engulfed by the flow of thousands of tourists milling about the area, largely ignoring their cries. I thought if this had happened in an Alabama city, there would be TV crews everywhere. It would be “breaking news” and the talk of the town. Yet here it seemed clearly regarded as a routine occurrence, hardly warranting the attention of anyone.

This would certainly not be true in places such as North Korea, Iran, Russia or China. I was reminded of the privilege of living in a country where protest and free speech in a public place are allowed within reason. A country where I can express my opinion, but also where I am free to ignore the protests of others.

We were on a tour of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. All manner of aircraft are on display there. But one plane in particular sent a chill through me. It was the Enola Gay. THE Enola Gay. This was the actual plane that, on August 6, 1945, dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion carried the power of 15,000 tons of TNT. Estimates range as high as 140,000 people on the ground were killed instantly by a fireball 840 feet in diameter, packing a temperature of more than one million degrees Centigrade.

Nine days later, Japan surrendered, ending the pacific theater of World War II. As I stared in awe at the historic aircraft, I focused on the cockpit. I pictured Captain Paul Tibbets sitting in there. The 30 year-old Illinois native was the pilot who gave the order to release the bomb. I wondered what was going through his mind. He was following orders of course. But he must have had some pause at the massive destruction of many innocent human lives he was about to initiate.

The enemy was also trying to develop the bomb. They would surely have used it on us if they had completed it first. Freedom is not free. Its cost has been beyond tragic.

For both sides.

Sharon and I recently took part in a group tour of Washington DC through our church. We travelled by bus, covering roughly 1,300 miles round trip. There were 52 people on the bus for the seven day adventure. Most of them we did not know. But for that week, they were our neighborhood, our world. We travelled together, toured together, and ate meals together.

By the time we arrived back home, we had gotten to know many of them much better. We had made new friends. The sights and sounds of our nation’s capital were impressive and exciting, but making new relationships gave us the warmest feeling inside.

You are not alone. There are folks out there with similar problems, similar circumstances, similar experiences. Good folks just trying to find their way through life like you. We are, by nature, social creatures. Don’t be afraid to get involved in group activities, to approach new people and start new conversations. You may be surprised at how quickly you can bond with others. You can never make too many friends.

Especially good ones.

I have had the opportunity recently to speak to and work with many teenagers at our local high school. And I must say, I am impressed. There is a tendency for we older folks to just stereotype today’s young people as merely media-addicted, shallow robots. I did not find that to be true.

These teenagers were smart, eloquent and savvy. Their heads were in the right place, they understand the world around them, their values are solid, and they have the desire to live right and make the world a better place. They’re not stupid, naive children, and they deeply resent being treated as such. They understand and accept discipline and rules. They are mannerly and polite. I was pleasantly surprised to learn I could have intelligent, serious conversations with them. This was not the image that is commonly painted of our youth.

You know what? I think the country’s going to be all right in their hands. If it can survive being in our hands.

If your faith in God’s programming for all living things ever wavers, you might consider the sea turtle. Female sea turtles mate in the ocean, then instinctively return to the beach where they were hatched, use their hind flippers to dig a 20 inch hole in the sand, and lay 50 to 300 eggs in the hole. Then they cover the hole, often even bringing twigs to disguise it, and return to the sea, never to see their offspring again. They will go through this reproductive process multiple times in a season, and always in the dark of night for safety.

30 to 60 days later, the babies hatch, also usually at night, and somehow know to crawl into the water and seek shelter and food. Only about one in one thousand will survive to adulthood because of predators, which explains why females lay so many eggs. Just enough for the species to continue. Hatchlings never know their parents and receive no training, yet they are born with the instinct to function and repopulate.

It is hard for me to believe this could happen through sheer evolutionary processes. I have to believe The Great Programmer is at work.

Well, that was a depressing experience. My passport was approaching expiration and I chose to renew it online. As part of the process, I was asked to provide a digital photo of myself. Since I really didn’t have anything recent handy, I just raised up my phone and snapped a quick selfie.

The depressing part was when I compared the selfie to my photo on the expiring passport, a photo which was taken ten years ago. You don’t really feel your face and head aging. It just sort of sneaks up on you. My hair was gray, there were new lines on my forehead, wrinkles on my neck and puffiness under my eyes. On my previous photo I looked like a spry mature adult. On the new one I looked like an old guy. There was a lot of change in ten years.

The aging process is a thief in the night. So gradual you don’t feel it taking place. But rest assured the clock is ticking. Treasure every day. Make the most of every opportunity. Love and appreciate being loved. Don’t let a passport photo take you by surprise.

On a recent trip to the beach on the Alabama gulf coast Sharon and I were sitting under our umbrella watching the relentless waves roll to the shore. Suddenly we noticed a school of dolphins out in the distance leaping out of the water and plunging back in. They looked so cute and playful.

After a while I decided to wade into the shallow water to cool off. I was about hip-deep when I heard a lady scream about 20 feet to my right. I turned just in time to notice a dolphin had jumped right in front of her and scared her. The dolphin bounded out of the water several more times right in front of us. I was stunned at how huge and powerful it looked. No longer cute and playful, it really was a bit scary. It looked like it could knock us over and take us down in a heartbeat. Fortunately, it showed no interest in us and continued down the coast line.

It reinforced to me that some situations and circumstances look harmless from a distance, but if you get too close to things you don’t understand, you could be in danger. The world can be a frightening place if you find yourself where you don’t belong.

If you want to find out about somebody’s life, just check their refrigerator door. Ever since the invention of the kitchen magnet, fridge doors have become billboards for pretty much everything going on in our lives. On our door you might find appointment reminders, pictures drawn by our grandkids, prayers, football schedules, phone numbers, photos, coupons and much more.

I suppose we put stuff on our refrigerator door because that’s a place we know we are always going to come to every day. So when we come for food or drink, we look at the array, and are reminded of all the good things, the important things, the urgent things going on. When my grandkids come to visit, they light up when they see their drawings on our fridge. It’s special to them. And to us.

Want to show someone you love them? Put their photo on your refrigerator door. Then invite them over and make sure they notice it. It’s a subtle, yet special way to show you want them in your life. And that you’ll be reminded of them every time you get hungry.

When you reach the age where you can look back at your life in retrospect and see how it all fit together, you realize life is like a big jigsaw puzzle. When you first dump out the pieces, the task of fitting them together to make a clear picture seems near impossible. So you start with something simple, like maybe the edges, and build your way into the heart of the image. Eventually, with hard work and determination, you insert that last piece, and step back to proudly admire your work.

My hope for you is that one day you can step back and look at your life, and be proud and thankful for the complete picture. There’s still time to fit the pieces together. Another set of eyes can help you spot connections you may have missed. Studying God’s word is a good way to get an idea of what that final product should look like.

After all, He’s the one who designed it.

We had painters working on the outside of our house. They were all Hispanic. They worked hard all day long in brutally hot weather. At one point I had to leave the house to run an errand. As I approached my car, one of the workers approached me and asked me something in Spanish. I could only shrug my shoulders and indicate I didn’t understand him.

So he pulled a phone out of his pocket, typed something into it, and held it close to me. A voice on the phone translated for him and asked me if I could leave a key under the doormat so that he could paint the window frames on the inside.

I know that’s pretty common stuff these days, but how cool is that? Such communication would never have been possible back in my young days. Technology is not all scary and bad. We take it for granted but it has enhanced life in some remarkable ways.

By the way, I answered him by proudly saying “Si”. The only Spanish word I know.