Fam

I just remembered a quote from my dad!

"You have so much mud on your pants, you could plant flowers!"
(to the little kids after a particularly fun day)

Poetry

My sophomore classes are starting a poetry unit tomorrow, with the freshmen classes starting a different poetry unit the week after. I don't like poetry a whole lot, mostly because I haven't studied it and don't quite know what I'm looking for, plus it takes work! But I like this one by Emily Dickinson, #657 or "I dwell in possibility":

#657 ("I dwell in possibility")
I dwell in Possibility--
A fairer House than Prose--
More numerous of Windows--
Superior--for Doors--

Of Chambers as the Cedars--
Impregnable of Eye--
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky--

Of Visitors--the fairest--
For Occupation--This--
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise--


I guess to me, this tells of my desire to be all that I can be and to experience life to the fullest, wherever God may lead me.

Sorry this article is so long, but I think it really illustrates Israel's position in the recent conflict with Gaza known as Operation Cast Lead. I do not think that Israel is immune from making mistakes simply because Jewish people are God's chosen, but who else puts up with hostility for years on end without serious reaction?


Tragedy is no crime
Unfortunately I could not find the name of this editorial's author, but it came from Jerusalem Post

You are a freshman university student on the first day of a philosophy course. Your professor poses this ethical dilemma: A devoutly religious man is shooting at you with an AK-47. He is determined to kill you and your family. Is it moral to shoot back? Before you answer; consider that he is shielded by his pregnant wife and three young children.
Ordinary Israelis know what any undergraduate not suffering from a death-wish intuitively appreciates - namely, that human beings should not intentionally injure other human beings but may sometimes need to resort to violence to keep themselves and others from harm.
We are sensitive to the heartrending loss of innocent life in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. Arab and foreign press reports claim upwards of 1,300 Palestinians killed, including 300 children and 100 women. It will take Israeli experts time to accurately determine how many of the dead were truly non-combatants. For now, there are huge discrepancies.
Of the 900 enemy dead that Israeli intelligence had reportedly identified by last Thursday, about 250 were said to be non-combatants. The blame for their deaths rests solely with Hamas. Hamas provoked this war, and then fought it from behind Palestinian men, women and children.
Still, for some knee-jerk enemies of Israel like the 78-year-old British MP Gerald Kaufman, even the killing of "militants" is inexcusable. He's implied that Israel's shooting of a Hamas gunman is akin to the Nazis' murder of his grandmother during the Holocaust. We can have no common language with someone whose moral compass is so warped. Kaufman, like the mullahs in Iran, has convinced himself that Israel is exploiting the "continuing guilt from Gentiles" over the Holocaust "as justification for their murder of Palestinians."
That broken record won't play. Presumably, Kaufman means the "gentiles" who control the United Nations. But how sympathetic are they to Israel's right of self-defense? Or perhaps he means the "gentiles" in the international media? How convincing is it to suggest that they side with Israel in their Gaza coverage?
Even Kaufman's notoriety as a "Jewish critic" of Israel has lost its cachet - such critics are hardly a rare species.
And anyway, Kaufman has been siding with the Palestinians since 1988, when he endorsed the first intifada.
The Kaufmans of the world apart, Israel can also do no right in the eyes of those critics who believe that our existence here is an "original sin"; that since there were 600,000 Jews here in 1948 and, arguably, twice that number of Arabs, any partition of Palestine was inherently "theft." We have no claims on the hearts of those who embrace the Arab narrative so utterly.
BUT WE'VE also been let down by those who profess to believe that the Jewish people do have the right to a homeland. Why is it so hard for them to comprehend the nature of the enemy we're facing in Gaza? After all, the theology that motivates Hamas is analogous to the fanaticism that brought down the World Trade Center, exploded London's transport system, and continues to spill innocent blood from Bali to Mumbai.
Israelis are told that no matter the provocation, we are "too quick" to resort to force. As if negotiations with Hamas were an option; as if eight years was too quick.
And if we've acted so "disproportionately" in our brutal march to triumph, how come the enemy is still standing and declaring victory?
To the morally obscene charge that we've committed "genocide" in Gaza - does anyone seriously doubt that were genocide our goal, heaven forbid, there would be 500,000 dead Palestinians, and not 1,000?
What other army drops warning leaflets and makes automated warning calls prior to attacking? Why is it ethical for Hamas to fire from a mosque or over the walls of a UN facility, but unethical for our citizen-soldiers to save themselves by responding with heavy weapons?
The truth is that no Western country faced with a similar set of circumstances - fighting an enemy that principally targets non-combatants while hiding behind its own civilians - would comport itself with higher moral standards than the IDF.
Sophomoric ideals about wartime morality are barely tolerable in Philosophy 101. When mouthed by leaders and pundits who should know better, they reflect intellectual laziness and dishonesty.

Text Cloud

This is so small! But I found this link on Phil's blog, which I read a couple of times a year. But I've wanted to do this text-cloud-thing for a long time. I just wish it were bigger. If you click on it, you can see it better, and you can also go to the wordle site...Yea for text clouds!!!

Ahava Israel

I'm sure you get tired of looking at my Israel pictures. I admit, sometimes I get tired of them, too...but very rarely. ;) Here are some more pictures of my IBEX semester, 3 years ago this month.

Jezreel Valley, I believe

They have been married for almost 5 months!!! Heather & Austin Surls

Damascus Gate, one of the coolest gates of the Old City

Sunrise over Jerusalem, when a bunch of us spent the night on the roof of Petra Hostel during excavation weekend

Macalister and I. A few of us bought him for Todd, but the fish died. We replaced him with Jeroboam II, who also died. So we gave up and made Todd a book instead. ;)

B and I at the Herodian, where my home pastor, Todd Johnson, and his wife Sharon went in high school...and Todd fell down it. You can't see the Herodian in this picture, but it is big. And very rocky, just like the rest of Israel. (We didn't really get in trouble, we just posed with this IDF guy.)

Hike to the Aijalon Valley. It gets very muddy in the spring!

Meet Dr. Pleeplious Gooourdon

Brought home by Danielle and Sherrie
Kristened and kreated by Kat
Photographed by Jennica
Laughed at by Lester
Adored by all

What Gunner Learned

Gunner is the Dean of Men at The Master's College, which is where I graduated from in May and where I am currently getting my teaching credential. He used to be an RD of the off-campus guys' dorm, which was pretty cool, I hear. I know a bunch of the guys who lived there, and they are all cool, too. I actually stayed in that dorm for two weeks while taking 6 units of post-session classes after my freshman year of college. (The on-campus dorms were being worked on.) The dorm is now closed because Master's doesn't currenly need the space, since, unfortunately, attendance has been down. The guys from the dorm put on quite a good show of expressing their sadness over the closing. Think sackcloth, sad faces, and solidarity. ;)
One of my favorite professors at Master's was Todd Bolen. He was an IBEX prof and is now getting his doctorate at Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas. He posted this link to Gunner's blog, about what Gunner learned this year. I haven't really talked with Gunner (he played Frisbee a few times), but he seems to be a really cool, genuine, godly guy. I'm sure the people who actually know him would agree. Any way, here are a few things he learned last year that I thought I would post:

I learned that you don’t study for the major tests in life. They just arrive unannounced, and you realize that you were (supposed to be) preparing all along. So if you only study and train because you have scheduled tests approaching, you will be hopelessly unprepared for the unscheduled (and usually much more significant) tests in life.

I learned that you will never be a man of prayer unless you relentlessly and ruthlessly choose to be one.

I learned that self-perceived reputation tends to make you lazy, especially if you’re a man-fearer, because the goal of a man-fearer is a good reputation, and once you’ve achieved that, your only responsibility is maintenance.

I learned that complacency is encouraged by a challenge-free life.

I learned that putting things off only makes them harder, and that actually doing hard things is often easier than you expect.

I learned that I don’t get to choose all of my battles. I am responsible to fight the fights that God puts in front of me.

I learned that the search for contentment never ends, because contentment was never meant to be a search.

And you thought...

the new law in California was bad! A new law was passed in November giving farm animals more space to move around. My roommate Kat comes from Fresno and says that this new law will have a huge fiscal impact on both the farmers and the consumers. It will cost the farmers more to buy extra space for the animals and will reduce their efficiency in caring for the animals. Also, the need for extra room means that some meat sources will be reduced, since you can only have so many animals in a certain space, and space is limited. As a result, prices in the grocery store will go up (go stock up on chicken now!). I'm all for being kind to animals, but I think this is taking it a little far. Any way, all that to say, the new law is not as bad as a few laws passed recently in a few European countries.

Dad was so excited to tell me about a certain article, that he saved it from the paper yesterday and read it to me when I came home from house-sitting. I went on-line and found the related article (so I wouldn't have to type the whole thing ;) ).

Switzerland grants sweeping new rights to animals
Strict new laws that went into effect across Switzerland on Sept. 1 have some wondering if legislators have overreached in efforts to safeguard the animal kingdom.
It is now illegal to flush live goldfish down the toilet. The law stipulates that they must first be knocked out and killed before being disposed of.
Fishermen may no longer practice catch-and-release fishing, and the use of live bait is prohibited.
Pets such as parrots and hamsters may no longer be kept by themselves, and livestock such as sheep and goats must have at least “a visual contact with their fellows,” under the new 175- page law.
Dog owners are now required to take classes to learn how to keep their pets from biting.
Even with regulations saying that pigs have the legal right to shower and freshen up after rolling in mud, the country’s leading animal rights group, STS, says the new law doesn’t go far enough.
http://www.earthweek.com/2009/ew090102/ew090102m.html

Poor little animals...next thing you know, animals will be allowed to buy houses, and you will have a crocodile for a neighbor. Don't let your kids play outside without supervision!!!

Mom says...

there isn't a way to make this time/end/break up (I hate those words)/whatever easier, but God is there for comfort.

Pastor Todd today preached the introduction to the study of Philippians. He talked about the establishment of the church in Philippi, way back in the book of Acts, 10 years prior to the book of Philippians being written (see, I paid attention ;) ). Paul was prevented by the Holy Spirit from going to Asia and Mysia to preach the Gospel. Pastor Todd made the point that Paul was doing something that wasn't bad, it was even good; it was preaching the Gospel. But God said no; He had another plan for Paul. He sent Paul a vision of a man pleading for him to come to Macedonia to help them. Paul heeded the call, and the first church was started in Europe! (Acts 16)
Pastor Todd then cross-referenced to Psalm 37:23, which says

The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way. ESV
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way. NKJV

He then said he was going to add to the verse, in a good way. Pastor Todd said that the steps and stops are established by the Lord.

"He's got His reasons when He says no."

That really is a comfort right now. As I said before, the hard things in my life have been used by God for good. I say hard things because they were very hard for me, even though compared to losing a family member, a limb, or a life, they really aren't that bad. But that's beside the point. When I thought that all was lost, when I thought that I could never be happy with the way life was going, when I thought that though God never makes mistakes, it sure seemed like it this time, God came through. In many different ways.
And I believe He will do it again.
God says He will withhold no good thing from the one who walks uprightly, and that the one who trusts in Him will be blessed. (Ps. 84:11-12)

Pray that I will walk uprightly, trust in Him for what is better, and not listen to the little voice that whispers in my ear,
"pity yourself, and doubt."

Tough guy
Lexie, looking through her glass at Gio: I can see you, but you look burly.

Me: Blurry.

Lexie: Burrrly.

Zap Zap
Luke: When you are electrocuted, your hair sometimes stands up.
Lexie: What is alexiscuted?

Band of Byers
Luke: I found a guitar pick! Now all I need is a guitar! We can start a band. I can practice when we drive around in the van, "Mother, I Love You"!

Ummmm, are we all there?!

A few weeks ago, in Nevada City
Two people were in the same coffee shop as I, looking at a painting on the wall and commenting on it. I looked at the man, who had blood on his chin and forehead. I also looked at the painting. When I looked back at the man, he caught my eye.
"I'll fight you! I'll fight you over the loveliness of her!" he said, gesturing at his friend at the table with him.
"Oh, time to move on!" I thought, walking away. I wasn't worried, but didn't want to stay in the situation.
"Yeah, you run! You run!" he exclaimed, rather lackadaisically, after me.
I didn't run, but I didn't make eye contact again, either.
See, Nevada City is known for hippies, druggies, and other interesting characters. Another local stopped Amos and I in October, trying to explain to us where some interesting houses were:
"Yeah, you go down this street and that street and then this street, and there are houses built on rocks."
Hmmmmm...Thanks buddy. We'll try to find This Street and That Street, but in the mean time, you might want to move so you don't get run over. You're standing in the street.

A few days ago, in South County
Mom wanted a book of stamps, so I headed to Longs before going up to Grass Valley.
"Do you have a book of stamps?" I asked the cashier, who was tall and had very curly hair.
"Mmmm, yes we do. Do you mind holiday stamps?"
"No. How much are they?"
"$8.40."
"Okay, I'll take one."
"You want one stamp?" He seemed surprised.
Trying not to smile, I said, "No...I want a book of them."
"Oh, okay."
Glad we clarified that one.

Yesterday, in Roseville
After visiting the mall to spend some of the money on a Christmas gift card, I headed to Panera Bread to use the free wifi. I decided to get regular house coffee and asked the cashier for a regular cup, rather than a to-go cup.
He searched for a few moments before finding a mug that looked too small to be the size I had ordered. I took the cup and glanced inside, just to be sure.
I was amused and a little shocked to find not dust, but a few chunks of something in the cup.
"Uhhhhhh," I said, tipping the cup back toward the man.
He took the mug and looked inside.
"Uhhhhh, do you want me to wash it?" he asked, as if I had just requested for him to wear it as a hat.
"Ya know, I'll just take a to-go cup. Thanks!"
The sad thing was, I'm pretty sure he was the assistant manager, if not the manager. I wish I had thought to tell him that I was a secret shopper, and his shop had just failed. Big time.

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
-Matthew 11: 28 NKJV

When the LORD brought back the captivity of Zion,
We were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
And our tongue with singing.
Then they said among the nations,
"The LORD has done great things for them.
"The LORD has done great things for us,
And we are glad.
Bring back our captivity, O LORD,
As the streams in the South.
Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.
-Psalm 126 (A psalm of ascents) NKJV