Brody is a male lion who lives at Turpentine Creek, just outside of Eureka Springs. I was standing a few feet from Brody when one of his caretakers prepared to shove ten pounds of raw meat through head-high feeding hole in Brody’s pen. Anxious for the food, Brody swiped at the big hunk of meat with his huge paw as it started through the hole. He smacked it and it fell out on the wrong side of the pen. The raw meat landed a few inches from him but perfectly out of reach outside the cage. He roared, as it were, exactly like an angry lion.

They say you can hear a lion roar five miles away. I believe it. Brody was loud.

He was so angry and frustrated. He crashed against the steel mesh of his pen and glared wildly at me, roaring all the while as if it were my fault.

Brody’s mouth is huge, his legs are muscular, and he is quick. I told my wife later, if I’m ever in a jungle and a lion runs at me, he won’t kill me. I think I’ll die of fright before he gets to me. God made an awesome, fearful animal when he made the lion.

As he roared in anger and pawed and raged, shaking his huge mane in his fit, it struck me how quickly I and those around me who watched would die if he broke loose. A single swipe of his paw and claws and it would have been over.

But as Brody roared, instead of being slashed by his huge paw, what struck me was a simple thought. Lions are not personal.

As Brody roared, I imagined living in a village and knowing the stories of other villagers or family members who had been attacked or eaten by lions. I remembered watching “The Ghost and the Darkness”, a movie about the Tsavo man-eaters, two lions who killed about 135 workers who were building the railway from Uganda to Mombassa in the late 1890′s.

No one eaten by a lion is eaten because lions are personal. Lions eat meat. Lions kill because lions kill. Lions are not personal.

Like many people, I want there to be meaning in the events that happen around me and to me. Perhaps it’s too much ego, but I tend to expect things happen for a purpose, that there’s a message I should gather from events. And the more significant the event, surely, the more important the message must be.

22 years ago I sat in the aftermath of a knife attack by two men against three children. For 22 years, I’ve searched, I’ve longed to find some message, some purpose, some justification that seems just. And there is none. It does not exist.

And now, after experiencing a lion’s fitful, angry rage a few feet away, I know the only message is that lions are not personal. They kill because lions kill.

Some bad things are simply bad. No matter how much they hurt, they are not personal. They just are. So today I’m walking away from the cage.

In a charity race dubbed “Aero vs Auto” a team of five small planes will compete against a team of five Mini Coopers over a 370km course. Lim Hui Juan, co-founder of Quotient TravelPlanner, the company that put Aero vs Auto together, hopes the event will raise $50,000.

Why am I, in north Louisiana, writing about a fundraiser and children’s home in Singapore? For this reason: too often, we become provincial.

I remember reading a book in a pastoral ministries class in college titled, “The Seven Last Words of the Church: We’ve Never Done It That Way Before.” One temptation children’s home administrators face is to assume they’ve done it all and that it works as it should, or worse, that they’ve already discovered the best way to do their work.

Aero vs Auto is a unique fundraiser, but more importantly, if you’re interested in different perspectives on child welfare, look to what others are doing well in other countries. Seeing quality in other cultures can be a source of inspiration and new ideas for your own work.

Explore the Chen Su Lan Methodist Childrens Home web site, read their newsletters and financials. If, as a child care administrator, you only look for ideas in your own culture or professional associations, it may be an eye-opener for you.

I’ve used the phrase recently to describe a day to my Mom, “It’s been one of those ‘tears behind my eyes’ days.” I used it at work in a conversation with a colleague. “You’re having a ‘tears behind your eyes’ day, aren’t you?”, I asked.

As I think about it this evening, I realize I’m not talking about a bad thing. I’m not describing depression or even dysthymia. I use the phrase to describe a lot of things: a simple physiological response to persistent, low-grade grief; as a response to too much stress; and as a consequence of potential hope – not yet hope, just the potential for it. “Tears behind my eyes” isn’t negative. It’s healthy.

How often do you experience a moment when your emotions are scratched by the reality of your daily routine? The scratch isn’t enough for pain. Not enough for an emotional breakdown. But enough that you know you feel something deep. It’s a good thing. In fact, the article I wrote describes tears of hope. I want my wife healed!

The next time you find tears behind your eyes, don’t deny them. Let them give you pause. What put them there? Sadness or hope? Stress or relief? Joy? Should you turn them loose or hold them behind your eyes? You’ll answer that for yourself. What you need to remember is that they’re yours and they’re a gift to remind you of how emotionally real life can be.

Here’s what I think. We benefit when we learn to appreciate the tears behind our eyes. They’re there for good purpose.

What do you think about most?

Husbands, how often do you think about your wife?

(Wives, swap genders in the question and it will work for you. For you it becomes, “Do you think about your husband?” Because I’m a guy, I’m going to use ‘wife’ as I write, but of course, I mean one’s marriage partner, male or female.)

It’s such a simple question: How often do you think about your wife?

How often? How long? What do you think about her? Do you think of her between 8 and 5? Are your thoughts related to her physical features? Conversations you’ve had? Do you have positive thoughts or destructive thoughts? (And those really are the only two kinds.) Do you think of her in your future? Do you remember special moments you’ve shared in the past? What’s in your heart? What do you feel when you think about your wife? What do you believe about her?

Here’s another way to ask it: do you think more about your favorite team than about your wife?

One of the important keys to a happy marriage is that the partners give each other focused attention. Men, focus your attention on your wife. SO, if you think more about sports, hobbies or work than you do about your wife and your life related to her, shift your attention and begin focusing on your wife.

And, men, we understand attention. Attention is what ties us to a football game (even when we know none of the players), Nascar (even when we can’t call a driver a personal friend), or fishing (even when we can’t catch a fish. I would venture that attention to detail and focused memory drives much of what goes on in the male brain. Most guys know the stats about their favorite teams and players. They know the specs of the engine in their car or truck. If you’re an IT guy, your head is full of techno-details. If you’re an insurance salesman, you’ve got the sales data down pat.

Do you recall what your wife wore yesterday? (Start remembering …)

Attention and memory are what allow you to remember that the 1980 Pontiac Trans Am was the first Firebird to be turbocharged and that it was the Indy 500 Pace Car. You can see it in your mind’s eye can’t you? White with the toooo big decal on the hood. You remember it because it caught your attention.

And at some point along the way, it’s likely that your wife caught your attention.

So here’s a quick 2-question test:

1. What teams were in the Super Bowl this year?
2. What did you wife wear yesterday? (I warned you!)

Which question is the one with implications that really matter if you want to be happily married?

Forget your favorite team. You’re not married to the athletes.

Consider your wife! That implies an active effort to pay attention and notice her. Do it often. When you’re with her and when you’re away. Focus on all of her positive aspects, the way she has blessed your life, the gifts of herself she has given to you. Cherish her, honor her, think about her.

It will enhance your marriage!

Significance is often discovered in the small things. Fortunately, because taking care of the small stuff in a marriage often requires the least effort while offering the greatest return, it makes sense to do the easy stuff.

Remember the part about “sure repetition”, though. To do a small thing once may be incredibly significant … especially if you’ve never done it before … but the true value accumulates through faithful repetition.

Here’s a simple example. My wife and I hold hands during prayers. Always. At weddings. During church services. Before meals. At building dedications. Before ballgames. At family gatherings. We started doing it before we were married and because it feels good, we’ve continued.

Some may say, “Well, Rick, I don’t want to hold my wife’s hand during prayers. That sounds like a gimmick.” If that’s the case, then maybe it would be for you. I’m merely sharing an example of how the repetition of a simple, beneficial act works for me and my wife.

What I do know is this: if we didn’t both perceive that holding hands during prayers was of great value, the practice would have ended at some time during the last twenty years. The sure repetition of this small, beneficial act has created value for both of us.

So what do I get from the simple act of holding hands during prayers?

It’s all personal. I love holding my wife’s hand because it makes me feel good. I love being connected to her. I love the reminder that we stand together before God as a couple, as parents, as friends. I love the sense of tradition and the notion that “this is our thing, we do this because we enjoy it.” I love being reminded at the beginning of each prayer that this is a way we give attention to each other. (Maybe God smiles.) And here’s an odd one: over the years I’ve enjoyed an occasional peek around a room (sorry God) during prayers and I’ve noticed how few couples hold hands anymore. I enjoy being reminded that she still loves to hold my hand. It makes what we do feel special.

If you’ve not done it in a while, you might surprise your partner by taking her hand during a prayer. To avoid a startle (if it’s been a while), maybe slip your pinky finger around hers. I can’t suggest you’ll immediately get as much from it as we do because we’ve done it for twenty years. It’s part of our marriage DNA. I merely offer it as an example.

Whether you hold hands during prayers or not, I do think every couple can find small, beneficial acts of attention that are easy to do. And I know from my own experience, these acts will accumulate value for for the couple as they do them consistently over the years. When repeated over time, it’s these small, beneficial acts in a marriage that have huge potential to add great value to a marriage.

When we think wild thoughts about God we need tent pegs to keep our tents from flying off in a storm of confusion. Or maybe like in the Old Testament, we need piles of rocks we can use as reminders when we see them. The Hebrew nation crossed the Jordan river into the promised land and God told each tribe to gather a large stone and pile them together for a place of remembering so they could tell their children. We need stones for remembering.

No one can tell you what your own Theological stones look like. You have to drive down your own tent pegs. You have to discover your own rocks; you must work it out in fear and trembling; you’ve got to find the theological foundations – those stones of remembering – which you can hang onto and which give you the courage and security to think wildly about God and ask fearful questions.

Just a few thoughts … from RickWheat.com

Holy Sonnets: Batter my heart, three-person’d God

Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

John Donne (1572-1631)

Midlife coffee and tea drinking and the risk of late-life dementia

Midlife coffee drinking can decrease the risk of dementia/Alzheimer’s disease (AD) later in life. This conclusion is made in a Finnish Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) Study published in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (Volume 16:1).

Recently, Madoff made off with as much as $50 billion in investor funds placed in his trust. It was a Ponzi scheme that began years ago.

I wonder how small the first act of deceit was. Was it $10,000 or was it a million dollars? And is it more wrong to steal from a non-profit foundation than from an offshore hedge fund?

The NYT is reporting that the former chairwoman of the Sanlu Group, one of China’s largest dairy producers, pleaded guilty to selling fake milk powder. Ms. Tian Wenhua, a former Sanlu executive said she knew in May Sanlu was selling milk contaminated with melamine. She did not report this when she learned of it. The melamine scandal wasn’t made public until August.

According to the article, Wenhua’s delay helped lead to the deaths of 6 children and 300,000 illnesses. Who added the first tablespoon of melamine? Was it an amount that small or did someone dump gallons or even a ton as their first act of wrong?

Is it more wrong to steal a $1,000,000 than $10,000? Do the zeros add up in the math of morality as they do in financial math? Is the first stolen billion dollars not quite as bad as the third or 43 billion dollars?

Is it more wrong if too much melamine kills six children instead of merely causing severe illness? Is causing illness in 3 children as bad as causing illness in 300,000?

How really wrong is wrong? Is Madoff’s wrong less if an attorney convinces a jury that he should do no time or receive a reduced sentence?

One cannot watch the news without being overwhelmed by the lack of moral integrity at work in the world of business. For too many individuals, corporations and government agencies the end (the “almighty dollar”) seems to justify any means.

Can you imagine how thoroughly frustrated ancient Diogenes would be after a random walk down Wall Street?

But before we point our fingers too firmly, how moral is Main Street? Who fully trusts any local business? Not many of us. And it’s not because we don’t want to trust. We’ve learned after we’ve been burned.

Somewhere along the path of capitalism, it became “wrong” to pass up the chance to take advantage of another, even if it required being dishonest in a transaction. Many act as if they believe it’s more wrong to be moral than to miss a deal.

How really wrong is wrong? Wrong is wrong.

Here’s what I think …

Morality begins in the heart and in the home. Then it walks out into your neighborhood and morality interacts with your friends. From heart and home, morality goes to Main Street and then, perhaps, to Wall Street. Wherever you find it, morality starts in the heart.

Moral integrity dictates that stealing $1 is as wrong as stealing $50 billion. It stipulates that sickening one child is a wrong as harming 300,000. Wrong is wrong.

It’s a difficult standard, but wrong is wrong.

Just a few thoughts … from RickWheat.com

One of the smartest things you can do to protect your children from unwanted websites is to use OpenDNS. Smart because it’s good, easy and free.

You should use OpenDNS.com if you have children (or grandchildren) or teens in your home who use the Internet.

OpenDNS.com is the easiest way I’ve found to implement a content filtering system for my home network. And it’s absolutely free.

For years I’ve used OpenDNS for DNS services on my computer. Using the OpenDNS servers instead of the DNS servers offered by my ISP, I’ve not worried about phishing attacks.

Here’s the Good Stuff for Families:

By creating a user account on the OpenDNS.com website, I can choose among a set of internet filters to protect my children from accessing material I do not want them to see online. While I’m not too worried about intentional activity, it’s easy for a child to mistype a URL and wind up where you don’t want to be. Or, as I did a few years ago, I don’t want them typing the name of a potential pet and winding up at a porn site.

After creating a user account, OpenDNS provides simple instructions for configuring your home network’s router. Then OpenDNS.com walks you through setting up the filters you believe are appropriate for your family. It really is easy.

And it’s FREE!

Should you rely solely on OpenDNS? I’ve used it for years and I trust it. You may, too, but I don’t trust only OpenDNS because it’s always good to have a backup.

On the computer in our living room (and I believe no child should have unsupervised access to the Internet in a bedroom), in addition to OpenDNS on our wireless router, I have a license for CyberSitter.

Other Computer Security Recommendations

While I’m writing about computer security issues, I’ll also recommend Webroot Antivirus with AntiSpyware (it costs a little, but works well). And installing SUPERAntiSpyware with a lifetime subscription (ignore the name, it works) is a good thing, too (a free version is available). Of course, you shouldn’t have a hard drive that isn’t protected by TrueCrypt (free disk encryption). And turning loose Spybot Search & Destroy (free, but donations are accepted) on your hard drive is a smart thing to do. Even with all of this, you’ll want a solid firewall, too. I’ve used ZoneAlarm (the free and professional versions) for years.

Did you notice all the times I used “free”? It doesn’t cost a much at all to turn your computer into a secure, child-safe computer. If you haven’t done it yet for your children or grandchildren, it would make a great New Years Resolution.

Just a few thoughts … from RickWheat.com