Sunday, September 15, 2019

The One the Darkness Got

So I went to a funeral last week for a guy I hadn’t met.

Which isn’t important, that I didn’t know him. I decided a long time ago that funerals are important. I don’t just randomly show up to to funerals, but if there is one happening and I have some degree of connection with them, I will go. That is what I decided I would do in this case.

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Objecting Conscientiously ,or, How Many People Can I Get Under the Constitution?

Mostly like Band of Brothers
So if the truth is going to be told, dear readers, I have always thought about entering the armed forces. For a long time, that just meant that I liked the idea of being in the military. Never thought much about what the job would actually require. And I may or may not have thought that I would be doing something similar to what I had seen in the World War II movies. Which is of course far removed from what military service is now.

I can’t be the only one who had those kinds of misconceptions.

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Hospital Visitation, Or, People are Weird

I feel like I'm always starting my blogs by apologizing for one thing or another; either it's been too long since my last post, or I'm posting late in a church season and I neglected to write anything earlier in the season (that got me on Lent and Easter this year). So therefore I'm not apologizing today for the gap since my last blog post. I will only articulate my regret is that it's getting harder for me to figure out what to write about.

Being in new career fields, one that requires me to protect patient privacy and the other that requires me to keep operational information secure, makes it hard sometimes to figure out what I can write and share.
I borrowed this from Savage Paramedics on Facebook

Anyway, the upshot is that I started a new ministry at church recently: I'm now helping out the group that takes communion to the hospital. I haven't been doing this long, but already I'm realizing that there's something meme-worthy about bringing a spiritual thing into a place of modern healing.

Before I get too far into this (because I feel like some of you might balk and clutch your pearls at what I'm about to share), I offer a disclaimer: I believe in the value of taking things that have spiritual realities to people who could not otherwise access them. And in true fashion, I will share a little of that insight later on... after I share the clutch-your-pearls happenings.

Monday, February 18, 2019

In the Wake of #PolarVortex2019

The Polar Vortex came and went (again; and may come again) in Minnesota! Right on the heels of the government shutdown, school districts across the state and the region were cancelling, in lieu of stupid cold temperatures (that's a scientific measurement, by the way). It's always strange to me that the state itself won't go ahead and call off school when it's colder here than on parts of the surface of Mars, but obviously there are smarter people than me making those decisions...

This from the National Weather Service. And this wasn't
even as cold as it got...
All of the advice from media and the authorities was that we should avoid going out as much as possible. In temperatures like what we had, hypothermia can start in less than five minutes. And I'm not scoffing at that; I've had enough training and done enough winter adventuring to know that you need to prepare to go out, or all kinds of suffering and gnashing of teeth will ensue. But that being said, I know people who do scoff, saying things about when I was your age and mocking those who feel more than chilled at stupid cold temperatures (again, scientific assessment).

I'm of two minds when it gets so cold; I want to stay inside, stay warm. And I want everyone else to do the same. Meanwhile, I also see all the snow and think of how much fun it could be. Though there wasn't much snow during  the Polar Vortex, most of that came afterward. But in regard to wanting people to stay inside, I react with something resembling anger when I see people out walking from place to place when the air can literally freeze your bodily tissues solid. Seems stupid to me. But on the other hand, I feel like there's this you are your brother's keeper thing stirring in me; I have a warm house. How many people don't have that?