Anchors Aweigh My Boys!

Just thought I'd pause to note that today, September 1, 2007, is the day of my official retirement from the United States Navy Reserve! A little over 26 years ago, I raised my hand in front of a Navy recruiter in Atlanta and embarked upon my Navy career. Today, I transferred officially to the "retired list" as they say in the Navy. Here's a picture of that fateful day in 1981 when I was sworn in.

Here I am a few weeks later at Officer Candidate School. The transformation had begun!

Transformation Complete -- my first official portrait, as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy.

Here is one of my favorite photos. The Navigator at work. I can't remember what harbor we were entering, but this was a typical pose for me in those days (mid-1980's):

This next one was taken in Boston Harbor at the Commissioning Ceremony for USS Bunker Hill (that's me in front walking with a sword strapped on). Some readers of this blog may remember that day:

This picture was taken in the Persian Gulf in 1987, during Operation Earnest Will.

On liberty in Athens, Greece with my shipmate Udo, a great friend to this day:

Christmas dinner 1991 on board USS Normandy. One of the many holidays I spent at sea or on foreign shores:

This is not a particularly good picture, but it was taken aboard USS Normandy, in New York Harbor, where I spent my last few years on active duty. The World Trade Center is in the background.

Finally, here is a picture of my wife and daughter by my side as I was being promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 1993. Thank you to my dear wife and children who put up with my many absences over the years when duty called. I was honored to serve my country, but I'm sure glad to have more time to spend at home.

Blasphemy in the movies

Interesting and thought provoking video clip about Hollywood and Christianity. Think about it.

Jamestown Quadricentennial

Well, the L family attended the Jamestown Quadricentennial celebration yesterday, and it was great fun! There were stirring speeches, picnics, "sword fights," antiquarian book sales, funnel cakes, balloon rides (alas, sold out before we could get tickets), and the highlight -- the dedication of the Jamestown Children's Monument.

The weather was perfect. Jonathan Falwell delivered a speech last night that his father, Jerry Falwell, had planned to give at the event, prior to his untimely passing last month. I had the distinct pleasure and honor of meeting and exchanging a few words with Howard Phillips -- one-time presidential candidate under the Constitution Party banner.

There were thousands of families in attendance, many in period costume. The atmosphere was peaceful and wholesome. Just great!

Here's a picture of the memorial with two of the L boys admiring the new memorial shortly after its dedication.

And later, on the banks of the James River:

If you have lots of bandwidth and time on your hands, you can see more pictures by Clicking on the image below. (Most of these pictures were taken by daughter M)

Quiz Answers (see previous post)

Poet #1
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from The Village Blacksmith

Poet #2
Rudyard Kipling, from L'Envoi

Poet #3
Edgar Guest, from See it Through

Guest, by the way, is not as well known as he ought to be in American Poetry circles. He is looked down upon by the academic elite because his poetry is so sentimental and formulaic, but I really like it (being a sentimental and formulaic kind of guy myself!)
His poem Only a Dad is a great one to read to your Dad on Father's Day, if you want to see a grown man cry.

And now for something completely different

Sometimes around the dinner table we will engage in a fun family activity we call "quiz questions." This is a little game where I get to dream up random questions and present them to the young-uns to see who can answer them. Questions can be on any topic: history, geography, Bible, math, science... whatever. (A perennial favorite is "name the three branches of the federal government." I don't know why, but I just like asking that one.) Since I have to present the questions in machine gun fashion from my little mind, sometimes it's a challenge to dream up questions at a fast pace. Tonight, I asked this question, "who are my three favorite poets?" It's sort of an unfair question -- like Bilbo asking "what have I got in my pocket," but, like the hobbit, I decided to let the question ride. What do you think the answer is? My children answered two of the three correctly, but I did have to recite several verses from one of the poets before they could name him. I was pretty sure sure they'd never come up with the third, so I gave it to them.
So there's the question of the day.
Since you don't know me as well as my children, I'll give you a hint by posting short samples of each poet's work:

Poet #1:

Toiling,--rejoicing,--sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose.

Poet #2

When Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it -- lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew!

Poe #3

When you're up against a trouble,
Meet it squarely, face to face;
Lift your chin and set your shoulders,
Plant your feet and take a brace.
When it's vain to try to dodge it,
Do the best that you can do;
You may fail, but you may conquer,
See it through!


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No fair using Google to find the answers!

For the Ladies

Since my last post was so heavy on the manly stuff, I should mention that one of the men at the Titanic dinner was Matt Chancey, whose wife runs a super website for women called "Ladies against Feminism." My female readers may find it to be a helpful and encouraging resource. I'll put it this way, if I were a lady, I would really love this website. You can make up your own mind by going to http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com if you're so inclined.
Ciao

A Night to Remember

Two nights ago, my son Daniel and I had the great privilege of attending the 11th annual Christian Men and Boys Titanic Memorial Society dinner in Washington DC. This is a group of men and their sons and grandsons who meet each year on or near the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic to honor the men who died that night for the principle of “women and children first.”

It is difficult to describe the wonder of such an event in 21st century America. In today’s society, the idea of “women and children first” is treated at best as a quaint anachronism, and at worst as a scornful misogynistic threat to all things modern and progressive. Yet, each year, the men and boys of The Society spend an evening together to celebrate this foundational premise of Christian Manhood, and to encourage one another to restore and advance the cause of sacrificial love and manly courage.

Clad for the occasion in our finest coats and ties, we shared a splendid meal in a private room at a restaurant on the DC waterfront, and sat for hours talking with each other about the ideals of manly virtue and the challenges of rearing Christian warriors in a society so at odds with the notion of Biblical Manhood. We were entertained by the fabulous baritone singing of balladeer Charlie Zahm. Finally, at 10 pm, our dinner speaker, Mr. Doug Phillips, rose to deliver an inspiring 90-minute stemwinder of a speech honoring the sacrifice of the men of the Titanic and others like them who demonstrated similar manly Christian virtue during the past 400 years of American history.

One interesting element of the speech was Mr. Phillips’ description of what he described as “the most politically incorrect monument in America,” the John Smith monument on Star Island, in the harbor of Portsmouth, NH. Now decayed and broken, this monument to the founder of Jamestown once included a majestic pillar topped by the impaled replicas of the decapitated heads of three Muslim warriors. The story behind this unusual monument is too long to recount here, but is worth reading sometime. If you’re interested, you can click here to read the remarkable story of John Smith’s adventures before he came to Jamestown.

After the dinner speech, we enjoyed more music from Charlie Zahm, including a moving rendition of The Minstrel Boy, accompanied only by his expert playing of the Irish Drum. (I’ve always loved that piece, especially since it was chosen by Teddy Roosevelt as the regimental song for his Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War.)

Finally, just after midnight the men and boys of the Society set out on foot for a short stroll down the Potomac River waterfront to the Titanic Memorial. I had never before visited this particular monument. Indeed, it is hidden away in a very obscure corner of the District of Columbia. It was erected in 1931 by the “grateful women of America,” in honor of the men of the Titanic who went down with the ship in order to save the women and children. Whether they were first-class society ladies or third-class washerwomen from the steerage compartments, their lives were placed in higher esteem by the men of the Titanic than own mortality.

The Titanic Memorial is a statue depicting a man with arms outstretched, Christ-like, looking out over the waters of the Potomac river. Inscribed on its foundation are the words:

TO THE YOUNG AND OLD
THE RICH AND POOR
THE IGNORANT AND THE LEARNED
ALL
WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES TO SAVE WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

As the men and boys, about one hundred of us, gathered in the chilly darkness at the foot of the monument, we sang together, a cappella, six verses of Nearer My God to Thee, while a wreath was laid at the monument, and each boy reverently in turn placed a single white carnation at the base of the statue. Thus strengthened, inspired and encouraged, we each parted to go our separate ways and to return to our homes -- to the women and children who awaited us there.

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I didn't take the following picture. It shows the Titanic Memorial in daylight.

The Jamestown Children's Memorial

Those you who heard me speak last week at Fairwood may remember my discussion of the Jamestown Children's Memorial project. If you are interested in more info on that or want to contribute CLICK HERE for the details. If you have children who want to contribute a dollar, I recommend they include a note with their donation. You might suggest they write a sentence or two beginning with the words "I am donating to the memorial because..."
This would be a good social studies/history project for you homeschoolers out there (note to self).
The link provides info on how to donate on line, but if you don't want to hassle with that, the snail mail address for donations is:

Vision Forum Ministries
Attn: Jamestown Children's Memorial
4719 Blanco Rd.
San Antonio, TX 78212

Also, it has been announced that Queen Elizabeth will be travelling to Virginia in May in connection with the Jamestown 400 Celebration (forgive my un-PC use of the word "celebration" in connection with this event). I am hoping our family will be able to travel to Jamestown to see the Queen when she is in the area, not that I have any illusions about being able to actually get as near to her as Karena and her little ones did. If any of you friends want to join the fun, drop me a line and feel free to stay at my place during your travels. We're only about an hour and a half from Jamestown.

If you can't make it for the Queen's visit, you might want to connect with Vision Forum Ministry's Jamestown Quadricentennial celebration in June. Or if you prefer, you can check out the PC "Official Commemoration" being sponsored by the National Park Service. In any case, feel free to visit us and enjoy some Southern Hospitality while you're in the area.

My Amazing Mother-in-Law

For the past couple of months I noticed that my water bill (I’m on the county water system) had been going up… way up. An extra 15 thousand gallons a month up.

Knowing that there were no leaks in my house, and not having seen any evidence of a leak outside, I thought naively to myself, “I’ll have to go down the courthouse and talk to the folks in the water department to let them know there’s something wrong with their billing system. After all, HA!, if I had a leak of 15 thousand gallons of water every month, surely it would be obvious, wouldn’t it?

So I procrastinated.

Then, suddenly something happened. Just in front of my house a little stream appeared. After a little probing of the ground, the stream became a pool. Then, after a little more probing, it became a small pond. Uh, oh… maybe I do have a leak. In the water main. I’ll call the water department, and they’ll come right out and fix it.

That’s not the way it works.

When I called the water department, I was informed that the homeowner is responsible for leaks in the water main that occur downstream from the water meter, as in this case.

After some encouragement and help from my in-laws, who were visiting at the time, I decided to dig down and try to uncover the leak. Pa (my father-in-law) was willing to fix the leak himself if I could dig it out. So I bent to the work with shovel and bucket in hand. Now, of course, this did have to happen during the coldest weather we’ve had in our area for three years. Digging through the slosh and mud proved to be beyond my skill. After a couple of hours, I had barely scratched the surface. The mud acted like a suction against my shovel and lifting it back out took tremendous effort with every scoopful. As I bucketed out the water in the hole, it streamed back in as fast as I could empty it. Soon I was out of steam and realized that it was time to call for a plumber with some heavy equipment.

I called a plumber who agreed to come out and size-up the situation. When he arrived early the next morning, he confirmed the obvious -- the water main had a leak. “That old blue pipe hasn’t be authorized for ten years, it gets brittle when it reacts with the chlorine in the water – no wonder you’ve got a leak.” The plumber pronounced his verdict. “You need a whole new water line dug from the meter to your house.” Estimated cost $3500-$4000. “We’ll dig a trench through your yard to the meter – of course we’ll probably have to take out some of your trees, and your fence will have to come down.”

Ouch! Couldn’t he just fix the place that was broken?

“No,” said he, “the only thing to do is to replace the whole line. No telling where the leak is anyway. That area where the water is pooling probably isn’t the exact location of the leak, and it would be too much time and effort to try and locate the actual break.”

The work couldn’t begin right away, as permits would be needed before work could start, and, anyway, he didn’t want to dig while the snow and ice were so thick on the ground. So off the plumber went, and off I drove to work, with a heavy heart, and no clue where I would come up with the money.

As I was driving to work, my cell phone rang. It was Pa.

“Ma (my mother-in-law) wants to take a shot at digging down to that leak so I can fix it.”

“She can’t do that!” replied I, “it’s 14 degrees outside, and besides she’ll hurt herself – I know. I nearly broke my back trying to dig that hole yesterday!”

“No, she’s really excited about this. She wants to do it!”

It seems that what fueled her enthusiasm was a passing comment from a man from the utilities tracing service. (I had called for a tracer to come out and mark the locations of my buried electrical lines, knowing that some digging would be needed, and not wanting to dig through a buried cables or phone lines). The utility man offered a plausible theory that suggested that the water line could well be located right at the bottom of the little pond.

After explaining all of this to me on the phone, Pa went on, insisting that Ma be allowed to try to dig down and find the leak, and avoid my having to put in a whole new water line.

“She’ll hurt herself… she musn’t do it,” I objected to Pa, “I appreciate her offer but this job is too big.”

“I’m telling you she’s excited about it. She can’t wait to start digging!”

“Look, that mud weighs a ton, and it’s a mess. Uh, you really think she can do it?”

“Yes, the leak is there if she can just dig down to it.”

“Well, look, I don’t want her to get hurt, but, uh, if she really wants to try, then go ahead, but don’t feel obligated. This job really calls for some heavy equipment.”

(I should point out here that dear Pa just had a knee replaced, and has a troubled back, or he probably would have been digging himself. Besides, bless him, he was already installing new custom cabinets at that moment in my laundry room.)

I hung up my cell phone, fully expecting a call back within an hour saying that the job proved to be too much, and she had to call it quits.

The call didn’t come.

Instead, I got a call several hours later from Pa.

“She did it, she’s uncovered the pipe about four feet down!”

“You're joking.”

“No, she did it. I’m going to Lowe’s to get the part I need to repair the leak.”

Another call an hour later.

“It’s all fixed.”

I was dumbfounded, humbled, and, needless to say, extraordinarily grateful.

When I got home from work that night, Ma was all smiles, and there was no more leak.

How can you ever thank people this wonderful. She even (claimed) her back wasn’t sore. How is this possible?!?! Boy, I sure felt like a wimp, but a very grateful wimp.

I wish there were pictures. She apparently was covered in mud and slime so thick her clothes were having a hard time not sliding off, and she sank into mud so deep she couldn’t pick her shoes back up out of the mud. She had handed bucketful after bucketful of mud up to Joe who would dump it out and hand the bucket back down to her.

The most gratifying moment was when the plumber called back that night to discuss the job and I told him his services wouldn’t be needed after all. I wanted to tell him, “my mother-in-law fixed it,” but I thought that might sound mean and too incredible to be believed. And, if you had seen the job yourself, you would have thought it incredible too.

Now that I’ve had a little time to reflect on the whole situation, I see it as a beautiful example of the kind of mercy God brings to those he saves. We are utterly unable to fix our own sin problem. No matter how hard we dig, the sin just washes back into the empty place again. We can’t save ourselves no matter how hard we try. Then along comes Jesus – God incarnate. He says, “here let me do it.” We say, “you can’t – it’s too big – I’ve tried – you’re too special – I’m not worthy that you should do that for me…” and so on. Then, not because we are worthy of it, but because he loves us and wants to do it, Jesus throws himself into the mess, and suffers all the agony himself. What can we say about so great a salvation as this?

Words of Wisdom

"If we drove out a mediaeval tyranny only to make room for savage anarchy, we had better not begun the task at all. It is worse than idle to say that we have no duty to perform, and can leave to their fates the [nations] we have conquered. Such a course would be a course of infamy. It would be followed at once by utter chaos in the wretched [country]. Some stronger, manlier power would have to step in and do the work, and we would have shown ourselves weaklings, unable to carry to successful completion the labors that great and high-spirited nations are eager to undertake.

"The work must be done; we cannot escape our responsibility; and if we are worth our salt, we shall be glad of the chance to do the work - glad of the chance to show ourselves equal to one of the great tasks set modern civilization. But let us not deceive ourselves as to the importance of the task. Let us not be mislead by the vainglory into underestimating the strain it will put on our powers. Above all, let us, as we value our own self-respect, face the responsibilities with proper seriousness, courage and high resolve."

No, these words were not uttered by George Bush during his State of the Union. The above words are excerpted from a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt in 1899. He was refering to the islands taken from Spain during the recently concluded Spanish-American war. (the words in brackets in the above excerpt read "islands" in the original.) How truly these words fit the situation in which our country finds itself today with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan. What a contrast to the snivelling and disgraceful resolution passed by the Senate this week.

Here's another gem taken from the same speech by TR:

"The man must be glad to do a man's work, to dare and endure and to labor; to keep himself, and those dependent on him. The woman must be the housewife, the helpmeet, the homemaker, the wise and fearless mother of many healthy children. In one of Daudet's powerful and melancholy books he speaks of "the fear of maternity, the haunting terror of the young wife of the present day." When such words can be truthfully written of a nation, that nation is rotten to the heart's core. When men fear work or fear of righteous war, when women fear motherhood, they tremble on the brink of doom; and well it is they should vanish from the earth, where they are fit subjects for the scorn of all men and women who are themselves strong and brave and high-minded."

TR believed that abortionists should be given the death penalty, as should any man who forced a woman to have an abortion. It was unthinkable to him that any women would willfully have an abortion -- in his mind the only reason for such a horror would be that a women was forced into it against her will.

What would he think of America today? I can only imagine he would be apoplectic with rage and disgust. Where is the Teddy Roosevelt of our time?

The State of the Union

I give the president high marks for his State of the Union speech tonight. I thought it was his best SOTU address to date. Some of it I endorsed completely, but I can't say that I was enthusiastic about everything he said.

I believe he is overly optimistic about the motivations behind our enemies (the terrorists). He reiterated in his speech his belief that evil tendencies on the part of terrorists will be overcome by the development of democracy throughout the world. In his view, the lack of freedom is what foments terrorism. I believe, on the contrary, that the ideology is the thing. The London bombings, for example, were carried out by Muslim terrorists who were citizens of the U.K. You can't argue that they were frustrated by a lack of freedom in their society. Similarly, it wasn't lack of freedom in Germany in the 1930's that drove the Nazis to power. Evil belief systems are the problem, and they need to be eradicated in order to achieve victory. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean you have to kill everyone who has wrong thoughts. You do have to overcome evil with good, and there are various ways to do that, but they all begin with recognizing evil and naming it for what it is.

I admire the President, and I very much want us to succeed in Iraq. I believe he is right to send additional troops at this time. His plan is a good one, and I definitely agree that a stable Iraq is better than an unstable one, so I am very much in favor of his program on that score.

Time will tell.

I'm Glad I'm Not a Rabid Patriots Fan

But I do feel sorry for my friends up North, who tonight are crying buckets over the loss to Indianapolis. Football holds a passing interest for me. I enjoy watching it, but not enough to go out of my way to watch or listen to a game. Still, I did tune in for the final seven minutes of the Patriots game tonight. I had to coax the radio in my living room to pick up a station that was carrying the game (tuning in my t.v. rabbit ears was a non-starter -- way too much trouble). As the a.m. station faded in and out, I could picture my friend Paul B. biting his fingernails down to the bone with every passing second. With one minute to go, and Indianapolis ahead by 4, the radio announcer declared "For you folks at home, this is NOT the time to go to the bathroom!" Just then I had the evil thought to call Paul on the phone and pretend I didn't know the game was on, but that would have been cruel (fun, but cruel).
So, my New England friends and Patriot fans everywhere, my condolences. I really would have liked to see your team go to the Super Bowl, but there's always next year!