And wearing her tuxedo no less!

Today is, of course, Thanksgiving.  But how much thanks do you think will actually be given?  I'm guessing that when you come right down to it, not much.  Here are a few thoughts on what we might do about that.

1.  Don't complain about anything today.  Nothing.  Not one single thing.  Not  our country, people who hold different views about anything, family members, the weather, food, our jobs, the economy...   Look for the good stuff in life today, and resolutely refuse to go negative.

2.  Speaking of the good stuff, take some time to reflect on your life and remember how much we have to be grateful for.  This, by the way, makes an excellent topic of discussion around the Thanksgiving table. 

I love the verse in the Bible that says, Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

And did I mention how thankful I am for my family, who--as you can so clearly see above--share in my affliction towards being a bit...crazy?!

3.  Serve someone.  I love how so many people are coming to see helping others as a way of expressing thanks for all that they have.  Whether it is inviting someone to your family meal who might otherwise eat alone, serving at a Soup Kitchen, or going on a mission trip (one of my very best Thanksgiving memories is the year we did just that, going to Long Beach, Mississippi right after Katrina), there is no better way to acknowledge our abundance and give back.

And if you live in our area, you are welcome to join us at the church today beginning at noon where we will serve a meal for the poor in our area as well as for anyone else who might be looking for a "family" to eat with.

4. Remember who we are thankful to.  Who is ultimately responsible for all the good that is in our lives?  Is it all of our own doing? 

I know the "new atheism" is very much in vogue right now, and I do appreciate some of the reasons why.  But I think this above all else may be the reason why I don't think I could ever be one.  I just can't bring myself to say that  my great intelligence, ingenuity, excellent choices, hard work, social skills, schooling, and so on, are the sole reason I am so ...  blessed.

The sense of being "blessed" leads me to the One who is so freely and generously doing the blessing.  And for me, at least, Thanksgiving would not be Thanksgiving without taking time to pray, and  say, "Thank you, Lord, for thinking about me, I'm alive, and doing fine!" 

Here is a new video game that provides a way for people to go to worship via the virtual world.   A cyber church for the whole family, if you will.

Check  out the trailer for this bold new experience here:  The Mass We Pray.

The reality is, this appears to be a hoax.  That's too bad, because I thought it might a great way to train our thurifers.  

You do know what a thurifer is, don't you?   Hmmm.  Maybe we do need this game after all!  ;-)

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

One of the points Greg Epstein makes early on  in his book Good Without God is that it really doesn't matter  whether a person says they believe in God.  That's because when you come right down to it, he says, the God they say they believe in has nothing to do with their lives.  What does matter, then, is what they believe about God. 

Epstein, as you probably have surmised, is an atheist.  And though he is respectful of people who have faith in a Supernatural Being, his deep hope that the world will move beyond such faith cannot be missed. 

His point, then, in writing that what really matters is what people believe about God is that for all practical purposes, they are atheists.  They might as well admit that and get on with life accordingly.  To do so would be far more honest and have far more integrity.

I think Epstein hits the nail right on the head.    For instance, a lot of people believe in God but don't go to church (or any other worship service).  They say they can worship God in nature or on a golf course or wherever.  But if you press them on that a bit more, they truth is they aren't worshiping at all.  They are thinking about golf or fishing or the beauty around them, but that is a very different thing than taking time to praise a Supernatural being for his magnificence and glory.  And if we are not talking about a Supernatural Being, but the glory of nature itself, why bring God into it?  We are talking about what a great material world we live in--which is Epstein's point exactly.

Even those who do take the time to go to church (or other worship services) don't always believe in a God that has much of anything to do with their actual lives.  Oh, they say they do.  But the reality is that their is very little connection between that one hour on Sunday morning and the rest of their lives, where they just do what they want.  There is no real intentional sense of looking at a day and with great diligence and effort and sacrifice, offering it to God to be used strictly for his purpose and pleasure.   In what meaningful sense is their life any different from the good person who does not believe in God?

Please do not read this as being judgmental or condemning.  That is not my purpose here.  I am not in this post saying the above  is good or bad.  I am simply saying that I think Epstein is dead on, and that I think his point in this matter is something well worth considering. 

"We humanists take one look at a world in which the lives of thousands of innocent children are ripped away every year by hurricanes, earthquakes, and other 'acts of God,' not to mention the thousand other fundamental injustices of life, and we conclude that if the universe we live in does not have competent moral management, then so be it:  we must become the superintendents of our own lives."  --from the introduction of Good Without God, page xiii, by Greg M. Epstein (the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University).

I'm looking forward to reading this book.   I have a feeling that it is going to do a very good job of capturing what more and more Americans really do believe--and not just those outside of our churches, but within them as well.

The other day I was talking with some friends about what our 3 favorite albums are.  Talk about a hard question!

As I thought more about it, it occurred to me that one of the albums that I’ve continued to think about over the years is a little know album called “Under a Raging Moon.”   It was a tribute by the lead singer of The Who, Roger Daltrey, to their deceased drummer Keith Moon.

To those of us who grew up in the age of classic rock, and particularly those of us who play drums,  Moon was a legend.   There are lives that we cannot live for any number of reasons, but that doesn’t keep us from sometimes secretly wishing we could.  Keith Moon’s life, wild and out of control and bound for death though it was, was (and maybe even still is) such a life for me.

Below are the lyrics to the album’s title song.  I find them even more haunting now than I did when I first heard them years ago.  Caught up in the passion of knowing what one was born for, seeing “Zion”, having a golden age in our lives with people so important to us that somehow now we’ve lost, remembering it all, just knowing what it is to “lay the thunder down”… and then, of course, those final lines:  Why are the young so blind?

Such great stuff…

Under a Raging Moon

by Roger Daltrey

In the searchlights
You could see us as we circled around
Down below us
You were screamin' I
could hear the sound
I could see your arms
Reaching up to me

Like a demon
Feel the madness running thru the crowd
We were freedom
From the moment that we hit the ground
And the wild man
He laid the thunder down

Do you remember me?
Like I remember you
In a sea of hands
You came shining thru
In the mist of time
I can see it now

All my life I will remember this
Under a raging moon
For this moment I was born for this
Under a raging moon
Under a raging moon, We
were flying there
Under a raging moon, We saw Zion there
It ended all too soon,
Under a raging moon

We were out there
When they handed us the rebel's crown

All the headlines
All they tried to do was tear us down
But the wild man
He didn't fool around

Do you remember me?
Cuz I remember you
Yeah you won my love
When the dream came true
When my blood ran high
I can hear it now

All my life I will remember this
Under a raging moon
For this moment I was born for this
Under a raging moon
Under a raging moon, We were flying boy
Under a raging moon,
It's worth dying for
It ended all too soon,
Under a raging moon

Taking me back to better times
We never read the danger signs
Why are the young... Why are
the young so blind?

My wife and sister-in-law at our parish retreat last weekend to Shrine Mont.  Are my brother and I lucky guys or what?!  :)

Though it runs counter to my inner hippie, which somehow still persists live and well after all these years, I decided that part of what it means to come back from my trip is to be a responsible middle aged adult once again.  And though it pains me to do so, that means leaving NSN (No Shave November) to the young bucks in college.  So I did set the electric razor on 1, and applied it not just to my head but to my face as well...