Author: Robert

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At the Moment I Would Rather Think of Yoyoka.

The past two days I have been mulling over Attorney General Jeff Sessions  and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders using the holy witness of the meek & mild Jesus the Christ. the Bible, (the One Who is God with Us) as a means to justify taking kids away from immigrants seeking asylum (a legal act), especially when it is apparently being done in an attempt to scare parents into not attempting to seek asylum in or attempt to immigrate to the US. I am proud that the Southern Baptist Convention recognized that this is evil and not consistent with family values. I’ve typed a little concerning my disdain for the action and the misuse and misinterpretation of scripture in an attempt justify evil. I just haven’t figured out exactly what I want to say yet. That will come later.

Therefore, I thought I would share a video that shows the opposite of children being frightened by those who are supposed to protect them (just in case you haven’t read Romans 13:1-7, the passage being used to justify taking kids away from their parents who at worst have committed a misdemeanor, the verses say that the authority that rulers have is supposed to be for the good of those who are ruled. For good. Not for evil.). The video below shows eight year old Yoyoka, who aspires to be a global drummer. The video is her submission for the 2018 “Hit Like a Girl” drum contest. Yoyoka seriously throws down. There is great joy displayed on her face, rather than fear. I believe our government should act in such a way that any kids it deals with experience such joy rather than fear. People who agree with Ronald Reagan that “the most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help”, should not be trying to justify the government taking kids away from parents.

SIDE NOTE – I will eventually post my thoughts on the misuse of scripture by Sessions and Sanders. Probably tonight after Pam and I watch the Incredibles 2. While at the moment I would rather think of Yoyoka, I can’t stop thinking of what the children who have been detained, and their parents, are facing.

SIDE SIDE NOTE – I heard about Yoyoka while working on a new paver patio for our backyard and listening to the wonderful NPR Politics Podcast. You should listen to this podcast. It is wonderful.

SIDE SIDE SIDE NOTE – here the present paver situation.

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Dear Festival Foods … Move Here

  1. Festival Foods I’m pleading with you to come to the Point area (i.e. Stevens Point, Plover, Whiting, Park Ridge, etc.). I have found the perfect location for you.

Continue reading “Dear Festival Foods … Move Here”

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I Saw Navel Gazing

 

A year and a half ago I used the above photo “edited” of the statues of the Satyres en atlante which depicts Omphaloskepsis (navel gazing) during a message at Tapestry.  I used it to talk about some a tendency people sometimes have to contemplate what seems deep but actually doesn’t matter to real life, i.e. navel gazing. I had forgotten that the statues were located at the Lourve . So when we went to Paris I was thrilled to walked into the section of Roman antiquities and see it standing in the middle of one of the rooms.

I left my photo unedited because of two things:

  1. It is on my own self-hosted blog and not a 25′ screen at church, and
  2. The bulge that I covered up is actually just the knot of the wrap that is around their waste. I just thought it would be too distracting during our worship gathering to leave it uncovered and try to explain that it was merely where the wrap was tied. Also, covering the knot with the word “art” was pretty funny, so that was also a win.

SIDE NOTE – if you are considering a vacation anywhere you should talk to Pam. She is amazing at planning. You would not believe how little we paid for all four of us to go to France and basically be able to do anything we wanted to do because of her skills in vacation planning.

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One Year Into Robinhood

I’ve posted before about Robinhood, a free investment platform that I started using a year ago, but I thought I would post about it again for two reasons:

  1. Apparently Joe H decided to join Robinhood and it looks like he used an old invite link  that I had posted, so I received a free stock. I received one share of Under Armor. This is by far my highest price free share yet (UAA closed Friday at $21.36, where as my previous highest value free share was about $4). Thanks Joe! I hope you got a nice share like my brother did – he received a free share of Apple.
  2. I’ve been investing speculatively through Robinhood for a year now so I could judge how I have done.

As you can see from the graphic attached to the post my return for the year was 13.75%, whereas the S&P 500 for the same dates brought a return of 10.783%. Thus I beat the S&P by 2.967%. Of course, that is counting my free shares for referring people to Robinhood, and the S&P doesn’t get those, so I probably lost to the S&P.

Maybe it is a good thing that I don’t handle anyone else’s retirement. 🙂 BTW if you want to try Robinhood and want a free stock use this link  http://share.robinhood.com/robertt429. I’ve had a blast doing a small amount of speculative investing through Robinhood.

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2nd Day Airbnb

I’m sure I’ll post more about our adventures in France later on but it will take a while to think through some of them – for example my very complicated feelings about cathedrals. For now I will once again post the video I made to show my mom the Airbnb we are staying in for the next two days. I’m impressed at the excellent, affordable places Pamela has found fur thus trip. Downtown is a brief walk and the Museum of the Battle of Normandy and Bayeux War Cemetery are just at the end of the block. Pamela has organized an amazing trip without us being stuck on preplanned tours or in hotels.

Speaking of corporate, the plan for the evening was to visit a French market, buy supplies, and made supper back at the Airbnb. Unfortunately, by the time we got around to it all the markets were closed.  Mickey D’s saved the day … or at least kept our stomachs from growling.

SIDE NOTE – here’s Pam at the restaurant where Julia Child had three meal that changed her life and led to get taking up French cooking. Pam loves Julia Child and I tried to encourage her to have a meal there but she decided against it. 150 Euros for Frog Legs and Duck in Blood Sauce weren’t her type of thing.

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Hour Reminders Next Week

How I typically draw out Jesus as the mediator.

Today in Tapestry I encouraged the “threads” to pick one or two moments during the day to use as a reminder that as a disciple of Jesus Christ we should recognize Him as mediating our present experience. In other words, for a follower of Jesus we would connect with, view, and experience everything through Him.

I used this image as an example:

I have written about Jesus as the mediator of our lives in this post. Such practice has been a part of the church for a long time as the canonical hours. I will be singing the doxology, a prayer that recognizes that all things do praise God, while also being a confession and commitment that we will praise God.

Anyhow below is the church Google Calendar with the canonical hours setup as a reminders.  That way you can subscribe to the calendar and have reminders on your phone.