All that’s required for happy retirement

Posted: November 4, 2013 in Uncategorized
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An electronic column from MainStreet just ran across the Yahoo news feed and it is entitled, You Need This Much for a Happy Retirement. Knowing that I would be retired some day I read on.

According to the research of this author happiness (and we presuppose the kind of happiness that financial security can bring) requires several factors to be in place. The first is earning an average salary of at least $100,000. The second is owning a home whose value is at least $300,000. The mortgage should be paid off or nearly so. All these add up to creating the kind of income streams that provide for a comfortable retirement.

My response:

First, I assume all this refers to the financial security and freedom a person will have in retirement with fixed income streams as opposed to other kinds of happiness.

But who in the world was this article written for? What social world? The average income in the US is right at $40K. The average house value in the Midwest is right around $180K and in the East and West upper $200Ks. A minimum wage worker gets $15K a year and struggles on food stamps and, in our state that did not expand Medicaid, no health insurance.

If happiness in retirement is defined by these indices that means that an overwhelming majority of the American public will have a very unhappy retirement.

If these observations are true then we ought to be preparing our public at large to cope with great unhappiness down the line as most of them – an overwhelming majority of them – will not attain these markers by a long shot. Or is the implication that we should move the actual reality for everyone up to that? How? Or plant an unrealistic expectation that this is possible when in actuality it will not be for most?

Who was this article written for? I’ll tell you who. Those making over $100 K with a home value of $300K or more. And they will define what a happy retirement resembles. God help the rest of the country or world that might define happiness as a roof over the head, food in the belly, health care and some extra money to go play bingo on Friday nights. I hope they’re happy enough.

If this article was meant for the general public it is twisted indeed, almost sadistic. If not, then why not keep it where it belongs, targeted to that slender slice of the population who will nod in appreciation and know just how true it is?

Stay up with your Interfaith News!

Posted: October 29, 2013 in Uncategorized
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One of my pleasures is serving as a contributor to Columbia Faith and Values. This online news source is one of the best around, reflecting on global, national and local interfaith stories. It’s easy to subscribe to the online newsletter. Would you consider adding your name to the mailing list? You won’t regret it!

Just click here.

Earthing, not Earthling!

Posted: October 28, 2013 in Uncategorized
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Just finished a book by Ober, Sinatra and Zucker entitled, Earthing: The most important health discovery yet (Basic Health, 2010). I received the book as a gift, a thank you from a woman in her 90s from a book study I attended. She enthusiastically endorsed it and, as a thank you for my presentation, sent me a complimentary copy.

The thesis is simple: We’ve become separated from the natural source of our healing, the earth, and reuniting with it will create well-being, healing and increased vitality. Why? Because the energy field of the earth syncs with ours and restores much to its right frequency. How do you do this? By removing the barriers between you and contact with the earth.

Insulators would include anything we use to insulate against electron shock – like rubber or wood. That means most of the soles of our shoes, no longer leather but most usually made of some artificial petroleum material. Walking barefoot on the ground is about the best thing you can do. Up through the ground comes the energy into your highly sensitive millennia-in-the-making feet. Also, any contact of skin against the earth’s skin can only be good.

Sleeping is another matter. Sleeping “grounded” on a conducting pad that is connected to an earth stake protects against random electrons and resets our own field with that of the earth’s field.

Earthing is a very interesting book and its premises are well supported by some good studies. By the end I was rethinking everything from walking on the beach to foot rubs to “take off your shoes you are on holy ground.”

Review of City of God by Sara Miles

Posted: October 26, 2013 in Uncategorized
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City of God coverThe original Jesus Freak, Sara Miles, is coming out with a new one, The City of God: Faith in the Streets (Jericho Books). To read my review in Columbia Faith and Values click here.

On the edge of the cliff

Posted: October 16, 2013 in Uncategorized
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As the pack of lemmings approached the precipice a few in the front warned the rest what would happen if they continued to follow the same course. Most were persuaded that those foreword observers were exactly right; it would be detrimental to proceed in this way. But in the rear huddled a very small contingent that couldn’t actually see what others could, only what they imagined to be true. They could not see the disaster awaiting them or believe those who could. In short order this very small but noisy group began to make pronouncements to the frightened crowd. They urged them to surge forward for glory, for the right, for the freedom of all lemmings. And the rest, against their better judgement, shrugged their little shoulders and moved passively toward the edge of a fate that was entirely avoidable.

The spiritual themes of Gravity

Posted: October 14, 2013 in Uncategorized
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My column in Columbia Faith and Values was posted today:

Sandra Bullock in Gravity

Sandra Bullock in Gravity

She utters an affirmation of faith that derives from no religious creed, tradition or teaching. It comes from the guts of her life, out of the margin between death and life, the razor’s edge between what is known and not known. If there were an altar at which she could have knelt it would have been this one, the altar of love, suffering and hope. And there she surrendered … click to read entire article

A Prayer for the Nation

Posted: October 3, 2013 in Uncategorized
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Oh God of the nations and this nation, of all peoples and this one:

If there is a harvest today it is not only of corn and wheat, pumpkins and squash; the harvest of life comes not only from the work of our hands but also from the sacrifice of others, a vine of bounty under which we recline but did not plant. We give you thanks for their sacrifice, willing and unwilling, and the countless ways in which our feet have been strengthened for this path. To take it for granted is to dismiss those who spilled their blood or the blood of others. We bow before you, humble and humbled.

We come before your inscrutable judgement begging forgiveness for harm committed as the result of our own arrogance and pride. We have not sacrificed ourselves for the good but sacrificed the truth on the altar of false witness.  Through your mercy set us free from all forms of hypocrisy, malice and the pride that destroys easily and without conscience.

In such a time as this we lift special prayer for all clay-footed leaders, ones who must govern when difficult choices must be made. Like us, our leaders are self-centered, vain and power-hungry, not seeking the common good as much as what benefits them most. Set them and us free from the shackles of sin that we might taste the sweetness of harmony and common cause.

We receive the challenge of our times, O God, and if there is a way that we might become leaven in this lump of humanity, a light in the darkness or hope in hopelessness, give us the needed gifts that we might share them.  If this is your will and purpose and if you are waiting for us to act on your behalf, fill our hearts now with the right spirit so that they may overflow in goodly places, for your ways are peace, wisdom, justice and compassion most especially when their opposites roam the land.

Through the power of the One who tasted your reign even before it arrived,

Amen.

(Tim Carson, October 2013)

Breaking Bad … for Good

Posted: October 1, 2013 in Uncategorized
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So the notable series came grinding to its expected and unexpected finish. I confess, I was hooked. I was hooked on Breaking Bad, its plot and characters, the gritty way human nature was revealed. Read my entire article at the Columbia Faith and Values Blog.

Fourteen Reasons Not to Jump

Posted: September 29, 2013 in Uncategorized
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Just after I heard about the suicide of an acquaintance I ran across this poem from Bryana Johnson (Ruminate, Issue 29, p. 64):

Fourteen Reasons Not to Jump

Because you are young with many soft rains in front of you. Because you are old with many soft rains behind you. Because of the sharp blood of the trees and the smell of the ground that rises on every side.

Because of the bread in your cupboard that you left uneaten. Because children have killed for bread. Because the world is a great killing field. Because the world is a vast ball room. Because of the lilies of the field.

Because the green earth will never let you go. Because she has always been like a gray miser chasing pennies across the tiles. Because the royal and cerulean sky does not want you. Because you have no wings.

Because out of diamonds gripping the ground comes the spring, a chorus of crocuses. Because someday you may find a puzzle with five thousand pieces and put it together, cardboard slice by cardboard slice.

Mavis Staples at Roots and Blues

Posted: September 23, 2013 in Uncategorized
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It was a great festival, Roots and Blues was. The relocation to Stephens Park was brilliant. Once they get enough food, porta potties and shuttles it will be even better. And invite the Rootsy and Bluesy groups that give it its flavor rather than who happens to be popular (Black Crows? Really?).

Mavis Staples Live

Mavis Staples Live

Broadway was proud to be the sponsor the Gospel Brunch, the new Sunday afternoon addition to the festival. Headliner Mavis Staples, up in years and tottering after a knee surgery, drew in the crowd like bees to honey.

I’ve overdosed on the sounds of Blues Traveler, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, BB King and Gospel. At least enough to hold me until next year.

Rabbit trail: On Saturday I left the festival and traveled to our Jazz service in Rocheport. Afterwards as I drove back to the festival I tuned in Garrison Keillor. His special guest was the mandolin playing freak of nature, Chris Thile. I first encountered him through Nickle Creek. But he outgrew that format in time and formed the Punch Brothers and then collaborated with all manner of eclectic combinations of styles, instruments and musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma.

On Keillor’s show he played an incredible J.S. Bach piece originally scored for solo violin. It was astounding and is joined but equally stunning settings on his new recording of Bach on mandolin. But the real stunner? As good as everything I had just heard at the Roots and Blues Festival – everything – and our very fine Jazz service that boasts some of the very finest young up-and-coming jazzers around – Chris Thile playing on a radio show I accidentally tuned in between what I thought were the real musical events took the golden ring. Handily. Without a whiff of competition. Just like that.

And isn’t that how it is? Somewhere between our planned schedule, those things which represent the matters at hand, we discover something truly revelatory, beautiful and astounding on the way. Like grass growing out of the cracks in the sidewalk we find the remarkable. Tune in to this remarkable feature on Thile to see what I mean: Chris Thile and Bach

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