Visiting with the Dead

My sister, Jean, of blessed memory has been gone for a couple of years now and I wonder if she is trying to pay us visits!
by Charlie Leck

I’m not a believer in ghosts. Not at all! I’ve written about that here before and it got several comments out of readers who did (sort of) believe in them. My sister, dear Jean of blessed memory, believed in them. She became agitated when I told her the idea was impossible and defied the laws of science. She claimed that she had seen ghosts and knew that the spirits of the dead were always nearby – and that I was wrong, science or no science!

If some sort of earthly life after death were at all possible, I wouldn’t put it past my departed sister to try to prove it to me.

One of my daughters sent along a message a few days ago.

“Dad,
I should tell you about a great dream I had--so real.
I was at a family gathering, kind of a party. In an oversized chair sat Aunt Jean--a little younger with darker and more hair, a bit of make-up, and a bright, bold top. I was so surprised to see her. When I went to give her a hug, I actually crawled on her lap. I squeezed and hugged her as hard as I could. Then I woke up with the sense that someone was hugging me too. I was crying--real tears. Jim was on his side of the bed with his back to me, so I couldn't help but feel that Aunt Jean visited me. It was amazing.”

Well, all I can say is: “I wonder!”

I’ll try to be alert around this season of the year that she loved so very much. She came up from Texas and spent her last Christmas on earth with us here in our Minnesota home. She brought a teenage grandchild with her because she wanted the girl to experience a northern Christmas. She had hoped it would be a white, white Christmas; however, when her plane landed the earth laid uncovered and wintry brown.

However, on Christmas Eve, as we sat at the dining room table, the snow was falling heavily and all the land and the trees were covered with a lovely, white blanket. My dear sister couldn’t stop smiling. She believed God was giving her a special and very blessed holy day. She had been to an afternoon mass.

“I prayed for this at church today,” she told us as she looked out the windows at the wondrous, white world. She was beaming with pride. “I knew it would snow. I knew it!”

In my entire life, I have never seen such a glow of happiness and thankfulness.

She loved coming to Minnesota to visit us. For some reason, she liked coming during the winter so she could see the stark differentness from the Texas winters. It reminded her of winters at our home in New Jersey when we were young. The photo in the heading is from her 2003 visit. She was also here in 1991 when we were moving into our newly constructed home on Halloween Day. The moving vans came with all our furniture and it began to snow as the men began unloading. They hadn’t gotten half our things out when they realized how hard it was snowing and that they might have trouble maneuvering back down our long, zigzag, up and down driveway. They retreated and promised to return with the rest of our furniture another day. Dearest Jean stood in our kitchen, looking out the window and listening to the radio warnings about a very serious winter storm. Well, we broke all the records for such an early snow. More than 31 inches fell and we were to be isolated for two or three days before plows could get through to us and get our driveway opened up. Though she had been frightened at first, the old girl reveled in the absolute beauty and wonder of the whiteness that surrounded us. She had stories to tell to her friends, when she got back to Texas, that they were never going to believe. She urged me to take photograph after photograph for her.

Now, as this Christmas approaches, the land here is covered with a heavy blanket of clean, bright, white snow. I believe, if my sister was going to visit anywhere on earth at this time of year, it would be here, in Minnesota and in our home. I’ll try to stay open to the possibilities. I’ve never missed anyone as much as I miss her. I think of her nearly every day.

“Come on, dear Jean Madeline – come and see all the beautiful snow that God has spread upon the earth!”

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Sunlight… Wonderful Sunlight

Photo by Ibrahim Lujaz (from Wikimedia.org) and used with permission.

If you might want to give me a Christmas gift, here’s an idea for you!
by Charlie Leck

Okay, you haven’t really been burning up the wires, trying to figure out what it is I’d appreciate as a Christmas gift, but I’ll give you an idea anyway.

Give me a little sunlight… really!

I’m being really clever this morning. Don’t you think so? There's a really worthy organization called the Sunlight Foundation that would profit greatly if you would make a donation of even just a few bucks. Sunlight is coming down to the wire on a matching grant of $500,000 that requires they come up with 1,500 small, individual donors by the end of the year. They still have about 150 to go.

I’m unabashedly asking you to go to the Sunlight Foundation web site, click on the donation button and make even a very small donation to help the organization make its goal. I’ll consider it a Christmas gift if you do and I’ll really appreciate it.

Here’s what Sunlight does for us…

You want to make government more transparent?
Sunlight helps us see better – to better see into government and to understand exactly what it is government is doing that they might not like us to understand. Like, do you want to find out who is behind all the big money in politics? Sunlight lets you see! You wanna clear pic of how government is really spending our money? Okay, go to Clear Spending and Sunlight will allow you to look inside and get just that info! How about finding out who the really big lobbyists are in Washington? Throw a little Sunlight on it! I’ve only brushed the surface, friends – really! You’ll be able to see how extensive the Sunshine is, and how much light they shed on things, if you take a look at their web site.

Honest to god, this is an important foundation doing work that is important to both of us – to you and to me! I really want to see them get this very well deserved grant. You can help by giving them a little bit of dough – just a little even!

And you’ll make me a happy man and I’ll be all smiles on Christmas morning. Please, give to the Sunlight Foundation.

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An Easy Turn it is Not

How many criminals and ne’er-do-goods do we read about (or hear from) who have seen the light and turned to faith?
by Charlie Leck

I often wonder what it is they mean!
These folks who’ve wasted so much of their lives in selfish and even narcissistic living, who eventually run up against a wall of nothingness and hopelessness, and then turn to “faith” or “God” in their moment of crisis, kind of drive me crazy!

One can only sit back upon hearing from such a person, about their new found faith, and ask: Really? Oh, my!

Prisons are filled with such people! So are families! And so are nations!

I’ve heard from such a fellow recently. He’s not been kind and generous with love, friendship and helpfulness in his life. I guess if I wanted to define narcissism, I would tell you about him – a full personification of the word. Amour-propre, the French call it (an expression that translates as pride, but is much more abundant in its meaning than that – more a deep pride and self-love).

This fellow hasn’t had much time for other people in his life. It’s easy to see the symptoms of that when one is in his presence. He has difficulty in conversations and therefore simply chooses to dominate them. He can’t perform the simple act of sitting back, crossing his legs and listening thoughtfully and generously (and lovingly) to what someone else has to say. No one in a gathering with him can say much more than a sentence or two before he grabs the topic or idea and then runs with it as his own oratorical presentation that might last several minutes. Most times such orations are about himself or about his own experiences; and they, most times, include references to far-away, exotic and expensive places or occurrences. When he goes off on one of these unreserved tales, I can see the eyes of his listeners roll to the top of their heads and more than one person usually blushes with embarrassment (if not anger).

I wonder sometimes, as I listen to him, if he has a friend in the world. I don’t mean hangers-on, acquaintances and jerks who want to take advantage of him! I mean friends – others who care about him and cherish moments in his presence – and people who look to him for love and advice.

But the big question always becomes for me this: Who is this God they’ve suddenly turned to?
The fellow I have in mind hasn’t led a very meritorious life. Quite the contrary, he has been so consumed with interest in the materialistic life that he hasn’t had much time to think of grace, goodness, kindness and spiritualism. Such concepts, I imagine, are totally luminal to him even though, many years ago, he was surrounded by such kind and giving people in his life. In other words – words of harsh truth – he grew up to be a snob! Driven by such strong desires for wealth and an easy, consumptive life, he, of course, began to dabble in corruption and malfeasance.

Even after being caught, exposed and incarcerated, he still had notoriously fictional explanations for his unacceptable and inappropriate behavior. One would think that viewing one’s self in such a state would be a humbling and jarring experience.

Narcissism is, however, a disease of great depth, defined often in erotic terms of self-affection and admiration of one’s own physical and mental attributes. It is an infantile stage that virtually all human beings go through and out of which most pass. Those who get seriously stuck in such stages of self-centeredness and egocentrism are, indeed, psychologically ill.

Narcissus (from the Greek, Νάρκισσος) was a great hunter in Greek mythology who hailed from the region of Thespiae. He was famous for his great and glamorous beauty. The key that we may discover in looking at the myth of Narcissus is that he disdained all who loved and admired him. I vaguely remember, from a Greek mythology class, a description of the divine punishment that was levied upon Narcissus. He was to spend eternity gazing at his own reflection, so captured by it that he could not drag himself away from such beauty.

What a turn it must be from such self-involvement to a relationship with God!
Whatever one believes of God, one has to sense that the great IT must be the exact opposite of narcissism. No? I find it terribly difficult to define for people that which I believe God is. Yet, when I contemplate such self-involvement and self-love, it seems an easy stride to the opposite of it; and that is other-involvement and love of others; yet not to the abandonment of care and respect for one’s self. Somewhere here, in such thinking, we are moving close to a depiction of God that may be accurate.

I remember a remarkable professor I had in graduate school, drawing the defining triangle on the black board and I have always carried this chalked imagine in my mind.

God is not something distant and removed from us. Rather, God is in us or with us. When you understand that, you can truly experience God in a real, relevant and meaningful way. The trick is not to anthropomorphize God. “God is Love,” the epistles try to explain to us. And my diminutive professor drew arrows in all sorts of circling directions and appealed to us to understand that God was to be discovered in the act of loving others as much as we love ourselves and, in so doing, by loving God fully. One can not understand God without such love and respect for both our neighbors (the others in our life) and for our self as part of the great circle of love that leads to God.

Encountering God is earth-shaking! It is reformative and liberating.

One hears from plenty of people who have encountered God. For me, it is not difficult to measure or evaluate that claim. Some time spent with a person who makes such a claim will, to me, reveal the truth of it. How other-centered is the person? Does he have a healthy, rather than consuming, love for himself; and does he sincerely love other people? Such a test I can impose upon those rapscallions who claim to have finally encountered God and been saved by God.

No eternal punishment, it seems to be, would be more cruel and painful, as being condemned for eternity to contemplate only one’s self.

Please understand, I am not claiming here to have discovered
the nature of God. Read more between the lines than that.
I am certain I know what God is not. I am not so certain about
what God is. It helps me in such discourse never to use the
pronouns to refer to God – no “him” or “her,” you see.

_________________________

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Bachmann in the Senate is an Ugly Thought

It’s obscene really; that is, to imagine Michele Bachmann as a United States Senator. What’s the nation coming to?
by Charlie Leck

It is absolutely no fun to rise in the morning, spread out the newspaper and then read something over one’s first spoonful of Cheerios that completely turns ones stomach. Yuk!

Headline: State Republicans want Bachman v. Klobuchar in 2012
Oh my! Those of you who aren’t from Minnesota probably won’t get the same woozy feeling in your stomach that we’re getting up here. It’s bad enough having the crazy, floozy Michele Bachman in the House of Representative. Can you imagine her in the distinguished, deliberative body of the United States Senate?

Our current senior U.S. Senator will have to run for reelection in November 2012. She’s done a fantastic job and makes most of Minnesota proud. If she wants it, she’ll be the single and hands-down choice of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party up here. On first blush it would seem that she would be unbeatable.

Klobuchar has done a fantastic job. She understands the process and she knows how to negotiate and make progress with fellow Senators on both sides of the aisle. She's a reasonable and rational person. Though you'd certainly have to call her a progressive, she is by no means a wild-eyed leftist. She has an opportunity to establish herself as one of the really great U.S. Senators in America. She's so effective in debates and discussions of issues, that one would normally say there is no way Bachmann could dream of beating her.

Yet, we have to remind ourselves about the insane and obscene decision handed down by the United States Supreme Court back in January (in a 5-4 split decision) in the case of Citizens United v the Federal Election Commission. No longer is it just a matter of the people deciding elections. The conservative controlled court has opened the process up to corporations, too; but I’ve written about that enough here. Now, however, a decision that may have seemed very esoteric at first glance is showing its very ugly, real and applicable side in America’s democratic election process.

With American corporations throwing their heavyweight money around, anything could happen.

What I’m saying here is that the crazy politician from the 6^th Congressional District may now expand her power throughout the state thanks to the financial clout a number of corporations will wield here – including a giant like the Target Corporation – and they will likely fill her campaign coffers to over-flowing. She couldn’t spend all the money she raised in this past election for Congress. She has a two million dollar surplus with which to start a run for the Senate.

The Pandora’s Box that the Supreme Court opened is about to bite us all. Corporations will have more power in the 2012 Presidential election than will the people of the land. If you didn't get that, go back and read the sentence again. A lot of future elections will be decided by U.S. corporations.

And, if you think this is significant up here in my state of Minnesota, you all ought to start looking at your own states. If you’ve got the idea you might like to support a more progressive candidate, just bear in mind that the corporations in your area might be lining up against you and spending hundreds of millions on the campaign advertising of conservative opponents.

It’s a strange country we’re living in and the impossibilities of last year are now very much frightening possibilities thanks to our U.S. Supreme Court. After thinking about Michele Bachmann as our U.S. Senator, I feel like someone kicked me square in the testicles. Oh, my!

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Red Sky in the Morning

I’ve already posted my day’s blog. It went up while it was still very dark outside. Now the sky is bright and beautiful and I need to write about it.
by Charlie Leck

The sky this morning is lusciously colorful as the sun begins to rise. It’s bright blue with splashes of very pink, wispy clouds. “Red sky in the morning – a sailor’s warning!”

Another storm is out there, lurking, waiting!

We’re still recovering from the snow over the weekend. Thousands of tons of snow will have to be removed from the city streets in Minneapolis. It’s been plowed into mountainous piles on the sides of the streets and especially at street corners. It’s difficult for automobiles to park tight against the curb, so they are almost always protruding into the inside lane of traffic. That slows everything to a crawl at the rush hours.

Snow removal budgets will be used up quickly this year and the cities and bigger suburbs will need to appeal for more money. No one is in the mood to spend more money right now. Politicians are adamant about it. Our little town boasts of decreasing taxes by 9 percent this year. I’ll anxiously watch to see if services drop off by about 9 percent also.

Just as fast as I’ve written these few paragraphs, the pinkness is gone from the sky and so is the brightness. Now it’s a dull, grayish blue; but, we’ve had our warning. Our plows and snowblowers and shovels are at the ready.

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Talent and Ability in the Presidency

Wasn't Bill Clinton funny last week in the joint press conference with President Obama from the White House? He was back in his element and I enjoyed seeing him there. And, he enjoyed it immensely.
by Charlie Leck

That joint press conference with the President and former President last week was just wonderful. I laughed with great vigor when the President explained that he had to leave, because Michelle was waiting, but encouraged former President Clinton to remain and go on as long as he wanted. And, as long as the press had a question, old Bill was ready to entertain us all with long-winded answers.

There was something extraordinary about this man as President. And, part of it was the scandals and gossip. He was a colorful and exciting President -- never dull and always ready for a legislative fight with Congress. Clinton knew how to jaw bone.

I don't think it's possible that history will give him a bad rating as a president. After all, look at the remarkable job he did with the economy. And, he knew how to massage and squeeze his legislative requests through both the House and the Senate.

Bill Clinton's great strength was that he was the consumate politician. He was a politician about 95 percent of the time and a diplomat and negotiator the remaining 5 percent. He showed us the importance of intimately understanding political leverage in order to get things done in Washington.

Sadly, our current Chief Executive doesn't have that ability and I think history will write the story just that way. President Obama is a good and kind man with a remarkable sense of humor. He also has a great dream for the nation. He just doesn't understand implementation.

I find myself constantly wondering how Hillary would have been as President. I was a strong supporter of her at first and then Obama charmed me over to his side.

Though Bill Clinton was valiant in defending the President, I think Mr. Obama made a grave mistake in caving too far to the GOP. Indeed, the Republicans had him over a barrel, but I believe Mr. Obama will be long remembered for this concession and it has established his legacy as a weak politician and legislator.

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A Beautiful, Terrible Storm

I decorated the Christmas tree while the healthy crowd got to play outside in the snow, moving it away from the sidewalks around the house, the quarter-mile long driveway and the miles of roads down around the farm.
by Charlie Leck

This is but an update of yesterday's blog about the snownommi that came rolling into our part of Minnesota yesterday morning. It was a barn-burner of a storm -- the largest I've seen here in Minnesota in twenty years. We took a total of 20 inches at our home. Many places around this part of the state took more and some took less.

Fortunately, the winds were mild around here. Down in the very flat country of south and southwest Minnesota, they experienced severe blizzards and most of the highways and local roads were closed up tight.

My wife, and her crew of one, dug us out once yesterday, opening our long driveway and all the farm roads and paths out to the animals, but the snow just went on and on and everything needs to be redone today. Our farm worker was a trooper yesterday, giving up other plans to stay through the day to shovel and plow and blow away snow. He's going to do the same today.

The animals depend upon us, you know. They have shelters they can get into, but we've got to make sure the waterers are working and that there is a way to get feed out to them. It becomes the #1 job around a farm at times like this.

I took a photo yesterday of the deck on the west side of my study, to show you how much snow we were getting. Take a look at this morning's photo to see the difference. It wasn't our biggest storm in our nearly 50 years in Minnesota, but it was pretty significant.

I, with my bad hip, wasn't very helpful. I stayed in and finished decorating the Christmas tree. Santa is somewhat disabled this year and he's way behind on Christmas shopping (so I hear). I have a feeling there will be a lot of little gifts under the tree this year -- tiny packages about the size of cash cards for the children's favorite shopping emporiums. Quite frankly, I think that will make all of them happier anyway.

All the local shopping malls closed up yesterday, as did many restaurants and theaters. State and county snow plows were pulled off the road because of the dangers they created for any fools who were daring enough to go out on the roads. As well, the Salvation Army pulled their bell-ringers off the streets for what they said was the first time ever. Quite ironically, one of the events canceled was a 20th anniversary celebration of Will Steger's International Transantarctica Expedition.

The roof of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (aka Mall of America Field) failed under the heavy storm and collapsed. The Vikings and the New York Giants (NFL) were supposed to play a football game there today (now postponed until Monday night). You can read a story about that and about the other impacts of the storm on life up here -- and see some good photos -- by going to our local newspaper (The Sunday StarTrib). That paper's front-page story called it "a beautiful, terrible storm." And that it was, reminding us again of the power and glory of good, old Mother Nature.

"Across the Twin Cities, residents shoveled, ran snow blowers, got stuck, dug each other out, canceled Christmas shopping (even the Mall of America gave up and closed early) and gazed out exasperated but awestruck at the beautiful, terrible storm."

For those southerns among my readers, who've never seen anything like this, I point you to this little photo slideshow from our local newspaper, which you may find both fascinating and frightening.

Now, on the heels of the snow, comes the cold. Forecasters are calling for highs of 5 degrees today, with windchills down to 30 degrees below zero. Oh, my!

As we used to say all the time, with a giggle and some sense of pride, "Welcome to Minnesota!" At our age now, we don't say that with quite such glee anymore. This was, indeed a memorable storm and young people in Minnesota will be telling their grandchildren about it even as we old codgers always talk about the Halloween storm of '91.

At the very least, I think I can guaranty all Minnesotans a very white Christmas this year. Now, if Santa can only make his way through the snow, bad hip and all, and get gifts gathered up to put beneath our fully decorated and prepared Christmas Tree. Two weeks can make a big difference in Minnesota and I am predicting that Santa will make it and all the good little boys and girls of our family will be pleased as punch by the gifts he brings them even if they are in the form of little plastic cards. Mother will make a feast for us all again and we'll discover once more that the real joy of Christmas is not found in gifts but in the love we have for each other and in being together.

As for me, I'm about to turn to the internet to do a little shopping for my loved ones. It's a wondrous tool for a guy with a bad hip.

From beautiful, white and beaming Minnesota, we send out a wish to all of you scattered across the world: "God bless you, one and all!"

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