Starbucks is having trouble - their profits are down ninety seven percent in the third quarter.
Economists say Starbucks customers are switching to cheaper alternatives ... like cocaine.
- Jay Leno
I've lived in Colorado for just over 4 years now. I love it, no doubt about it. I remember a friend (Mary) asking me shortly after the 2 year mark if I "still see the mountains." I was able to answer a resounding "yes!" I was even impressed with myself that I still noticed the mountains. We as humans tend to take things for granted when we're ALWAYS blessed with their presence. Think the song "Don't know what you got, till it's gone." We forget to be thankful. We forget to be thankful for people. We forget to be thankful for grace.Pedro the Lion is loud in the speakers, and the city waits just outside our open windows. She sits and sings, legs crossed in the passenger seat, her pretty voice hiding in the volume. Music is a safe place and Pedro is her favorite. It hits me that she won't see this skyline for several weeks, and we will be without her. I lean forward, knowing this will be written, and I ask what she'd say if her story had an audience. She smiles. "Tell them to look up. Tell them to remember the stars."
would rather write her a song, because songs don't wait to resolve, and because songs mean so much to her. Stories wait for endings, but songs are brave things bold enough to sing when all they know is darkness. These words, like most words, will be written next to midnight, between hurricane and harbor, as both claim to save her.
Renee is 19. When I meet her, cocaine is fresh in her system. She hasn't slept in 36 hours and she won't for another 24. It is a familiar blur of coke, pot, pills and alcohol. She has agreed to meet us, to listen and to let us pray. We ask Renee to come with us, to leave this broken night. She says she'll go to rehab tomorrow, but she isn't ready now. It is too great a change. We pray and say goodbye and it is hard to leave without her.
She has known such great pain; haunted dreams as a child, the near-constant presence of evil ever since. She has felt the touch of awful naked men, battled depression and addiction, and attempted suicide. Her arms remember razor blades, fifty scars that speak of self-inflicted wounds. Six hours after I meet her, she is feeling trapped, two groups of "friends" offering opposite ideas. Everyone is asleep. The sun is rising. She drinks long from a bottle of liquor, takes a razor blade from the table and locks herself in the bathroom. She cuts herself, using the blade to write "FUCK UP" large across her left forearm.
The nurse at the treatment center finds the wound several hours later. The center has no detox, names her too great a risk, and does not accept her. For the next five days, she is ours to love. We become her hospital and the possibility of healing fills our living room with life. It is unspoken and there are only a few of us, but we will be her c hurch, the body of Christ coming alive to meet her needs, to write love on her arms.
She is full of contrast, more alive and closer to death than anyone I've known, like a Johnny Cash song or some theatre star. She owns attitude and humor beyond her 19 years, and when she tells me her story, she is humble and quiet and kind, shaped by the pain of a hundred lifetimes. I sit privileged but breaking as she shares. Her life has been so dark yet there is some soft hope in her words, and on consecutive evenings, I watch the prettiest girls in the room tell her that she's beautiful. I think it's God reminding her.
I've never walked this road, but I decide that if we're going to run a five-day rehab, it is going to be the coolest in the country. It is going to be rock and roll. We start with the basics; lots of fun, too much Starbucks and way too many cigarettes
The singer Pink had her own version of "Dear Mr. President." While I enjoy the melody, I hardly agree with it's declaration. This is the Dear Mr. President I prefer:Dear Mr. President,
I am writing to thank you. Thank you for your courage. Only months into your first term, the unthinkable happened and our world would never be the same again. On the night of September 11, 2001, as we were reeling, you were resolute.
These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people have been moved to defend a great nation.
[...]
This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace.
[...]
Thank you. Good night and God bless America.
One week later, a man would stand behind a pulpit and exhort God to damn America. He is the spiritual mentor to the man Americans just elected to be your successor. “The hearts of all his people shall revolt from him and kiss the lips of unacquainted change.” Shakespeare was right. But I digress.
We were moved to defend a nation we loved. We put flags above freeways. We were unified in both horror and outrage. Eager for vengeance, we urged you to retaliate immediately; wisely you waited but promised patient justice. With the AUMF and a coalition of nations, you led the battle to our enemies so they couldn’t bring the battle to us. You said you would not forget, yield, rest, or relent. You kept your word. Even when the going got tough, you kept your word and we are safer because of it. Along the way, there have been stumbles and setbacks for which, as our leader, you must rightfully be held responsible. But there have also been successes for which, as our leader, you should rightfully be given credit. Apparently, though, it’s a one-way street and that is patently unjust. Incidentally, I wish more people knew that your success in promoting democracy is not limited to Iraq.
Thank you for your decency. Eight years ago, your predecessor embarrassed our nation. He broke his marital vows and lied under oath. We wanted a decent man who loved his wife and family. We wanted a man of his word. Thank you for being that man. And thank you for Laura. She is the epitome of grace and class, a First Lady we love and respect.
Thank you for practicing your faith. You have been a friend to the poor, including those beyond our borders. You have recognized the value of faith-based charity at home. You have steadfastly stood for ethical scientific progress resulting in major breakthroughs. You have been a good steward of the environment. You have cared for children left behind by our public education system; we have a long ways to go but the results are encouraging.
Thank you for your appointments to the courts. While we can only fully appreciate your impact in this arena decades from now, already we see the difference, a difference between life and death.
Thank you for your prescience regarding government-sponsored enterprise. Though it has been totally ignored by virtually everyone of any political stripe, not only are you not responsible for the financial meltdown, you warned against it years ago, for years on end.
Mr. President, I owe you an apology. I have remained silent too often in the company of your many critics. Legitimate criticism of some decisions is one thing; baseless vitriol is a different matter altogether. In the face of a relentless torrent of antipathy, I grew increasingly silent and for that I am ashamed.
America owes you an apology, as well. At some point over the last eight years, we forgot how to respect our nation’s highest leader. We have blamed–or have allowed others to blame–you for all the problems and challenges over the last eight years, but we give you no credit whatsoever for the many successes. That is both absurd and cruel.
I know that you need neither praise nor apology, because your sense of self-worth is not derived from others’ acclaim or criticism. But I needed to set the record straight. Thank you for being my president. May God bless you and your family.
It is interesting to me how much hate flairs when one says the name Bush. When speaking to a person of my generation, it seems that there is more hate associated with Bush than with Hitler. And I truly wonder why that is.
When I read comments like that left by John - short and without defense, pure emotion - I wonder what policies Bush implemented that were so dreadful to cause him such angst. Now, for the record, I am no naive Christian who looks at the world through Pollyanna’s eyes. I have seen poverty, comforted souls whose lives and families have been shattered by war, and been deeply grieved by the state of the world today. But that does not lead me to respond with irrationality.
Do I agree with all Bush has done. Surely no. But then again, I do not agree with all my parents have done or even with all I have done. On a daily basis I am sure that everyone of us has made countless mistakes - driving recklessly and nearly missing another car, spoken too quickly and allowed hurtful words to penetrate the heart of another, the list goes on and on. Yet we expect - oftentimes demand - to be thanked for our good works even when those good works are overshadowed by our bad deeds.
However, we have no grace for a man who holds the power to determine whether men and women die, who must work off of incomplete evidence and information in order to make critical, time-constrained decisions, and who must lead a nation ever more divided as to what is right and what is truth. He definitely deserves our thanks because no decent man should want that position - he deserves our thanks for not turning into a complete and utter tyrant or for not completely abdicating from responsibility.
Is our economy faltering, yes. But why is that? Is it because some man in a big white house didn’t do enough or is it because we as people have hearts that lust for things we cannot afford and seek greed and instant gratification instead of diligent saving and hard work? Would our schools and families be experiencing so much heart-ache if we were intentional about raising our children, staying married, and building relationships even when it caused pain and suffering? Americans love to believe they are the rulers of their own destiny, for that is the American dream, yet it seems that when speaking of Bush these same Americans have no control over the state of their lives. All of a sudden their failed marriages, drunk and pregnant children, bankrupt businesses, and social status is the fault of one man.
Yes he lied. Then again, maybe he had a bit more information than has been released as of yet. I know my dad, who worked a stint with the CIA, often remarks at how little is actually reported or at least reported accurately. But let’s for argument sake, say he did lie and got us into a war we should never have been in. Well, he is human; he is driven by the same emotions and rationalities that we all are driven by - fear, anxiety, etc. Since when are we so unforgiving that we cannot allow a man who has had to venture into unchartered territory and lead a divided nation a few mistakes. Yes they are costly mistakes, but he is not God. And contrary to current public opinion a savior, my Saviour, will never sit as America’s president. He sits on a higher throne.
I realize that this post leaves a lot of logical gaps unexplained, but I am running out of time; I am hoping though that this post will not result in gut reactions, but will provide some fodder for real introspection and discussion that will lead not to further division but to a unity - a unity under the Blood and Forgiveness and Grace of Jesus Christ.
