Local Businesses Doing Good

Harrah's Reno is hosting a free dinner for the homeless tonight.

I like pointing out the good things that are done in the community by others, too.

"Harrah’s Reno works in cooperation with several churches around the Reno-Sparks area to make sure no one goes hungry during the cold, winter months. Please attend if you can!"

The Colorado Rockies

In a great and barely-mentioned story, the Colorado Rockies players voted to give a full share of their bonus for making it to the World Series to the widow (pregnant, with 2 sons already) of a minor league coach who was struck in the head by a foul ball and killed in July. It's only (?) $200,000, but for one of the lowest-payroll teams in baseball to be generous with the money anyway is a great example.

Legacy

Who are you? How do you want to be remembered? I would imagine we all want to be known as good people, but if people could remember just a couple things about you, what would you want them to be?

What one thing would you want people to remember you saying?
What one thing would you want them to remember you doing?
If your children could think just one thing about you, what would you want it to be?

It's questions like this that can give us a vision, a mission statement in life. But to be useful, it also needs to be practical. I'd love to be remembered as a perfect, selfless, holy ambassador of love to all the world. But to the extent that I can't achieve that, I'll put it off as something I will do when I have more money, time, power, etc.

So we need, perhaps, some more focused questions.

What's one thing you've done today that you want to be remembered for?
What's something you could do (but haven't) today that you want to be remembered for?

These aren't as broad, but they're two excellent quetions because they both encourage us in the thigns we are doing right, and challenge us to act in a way today that is in line with how we aspire to be.

Today my answers would be:

1) I prayed for a friend in need.
2) I want to spend less on myself in order to give generously to others.

Hollow Political Statements

"Deeply Troubled"

It just needs to be retired. It's a way of expressing concern without necessarily being for or against anything. It's a way of soundnig on top of a situation, without really saying anything about it.

If we want to truly be deeply troubled, the modern issues of slavery, poverty, starvation and genocide should be more than enough. Child abuse, murder, war, hatred, violence, and thousands of other things are of more note than something like this.

Taking down a Christmas Tree? Honestly, it hardly troubles me at all.

NFL Network

Evidently the NFL is whining because they are demanding (1) that cable companies put the NFL Network on basic cable, and (2) that the NFL can charge a high permium to the cable companies to do it - comparable to a channel like CNN.

Why is this even an issue? The NFL decided to try and create more demand for their 5-year-old network by scheduling late-season games with the potential to be high-demand games on their own channel, to get consumers complaining about it.

This is one consumer who DOES NOT WANT the NFL Network on basic cable. It's a niche channel. Sure, it has 8 football games a year... but there are 32 teams playing 16 games - 256 matchups each year in the regular season. And the NFL itself makes it hard for many people to watch the games they want - substantially more than 8 - with their broadcast restrictions and exclusive agreement with DirecTV for NFL Sunday Ticket. To watch any game you want, you ahve to have the Sunday Ticket package... and you have to have DirecTV... which means you have to live in a place where you can GET DirecTV.

That the NFL would say one word about restricting access to 8 games (by not placing the NFL Network on BASIC Cable, as it is accessible through a seperate sports tier with most providers), while continuing the Sunday Ticket monopoly is hypocritical beyond belief. Through Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, and an average of 3 games per day on CBS and FOX, I have access to 85 games total during the regular season. That means that there are som 170 games I cannot watch without DirecTV. Over 20 times as many games as the non-basic-cable dsitribution of the NFL Network "blocks."

The NFL Network is a seasonal thing, not suited to basic cable. I don't care to watch it in February-August, and I CERTAINLY don't want to pay for it. NFL, feel free to get bent. Your argument should be laughed from the room whenever, and wherever you make it.

Christmas

As it's that time of year, I've started listening to some Christmas music. My current favorite is Mercy Me's Christmas album, with their rendition of "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" leading my list. You can get a listen at Amazon.com but my favorite part of the song are the lyrics. I just love the conclusion, and find it rather encouraging.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Thier old familiar carols play
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought as now this day had come
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rung so long unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, goodwill to men."

Shameful Behavior

Have you heard of this? I can't think of what to call it except legalized theft. It's absolutely jaw-dropping.

The Lesson of Thanksgiving...

...is that communal living leads to starvation, while private ownership leads to bounty. That's the premise of this article. The moral of an interesting look (and a story worth reading) at the Plymouth Pilgrims:

"When action is divorced from consequences, no one is happy with the ultimate outcome. If individuals can take from a common pot regardless of how much they put in it, each person has an incentive to be a free rider, to do as little as possible and take as much as possible because what one fails to take will be taken by someone else. Soon, the pot is empty and will not be refilled -- a bad situation even for the earlier takers."

'Tis the Season

Thanksgiving has gone. The Christmas season is, in my book, officially here. The other day, I was reading commentary on why the Christmas season seems to begin earlier each year. Obviously, it's a heavy shopping season, and stores want to open up consumers' wallets as soon as possible. But why do we buy into it? The author's conclusion was that Christmas, obviously enough, makes us happy. It reminds us of happy memories from our childhoods, and awakes in us a sense of happiness about the state of the world. We really do want peace on earth and good will towards men, carriage rides to grandmother's house in the snow, joy, happiness, and an attitude of giving and sharing. So when the season comes, we're excited by the ideals it encompasses.

And I suspect we want to agree with the song in the Muppet Christmas Carol, that:

It's in the singing of a street corner choir
It's going home and getting warm by the fire
In all the places you find love, it feels like Christmas...

It is a season of the heart
A special time of caring
The ways of love made clear
It is a season of the spirit
The message if we hear it
Is "Make it last all year."

And yet, we don't. As a rule, we don't make it last all year. Come December 26, we are settling back into our routines, by January 2 we're out of the holiday mindset, and by January 26 all we can think about is the debt we accrued over the holidays. It's as though we binge on giving during Christmas, and starve ourself of that attitude the rest of the year. If we did that with food, it would be called an eating disorder. Is it any less true to say that we have a giving disorder?

This disorder is serious, because it reflects the fact that, without a special occasion to remind us otherwise, we live for ourselves. For our own benefit, our own sustenance, our own ends. To assuage our guilt, we overcompensate at Christmas and go on a spree that leaves us hungover come December 26.

If we want to be giving people, servants of all, who regard others as better than ourselves, there's a couple of tests we have to pass:
1) It has to be true of our whole lives, not one month out of the year.
2) It has to extend beyond our friends and acquaintances.

Jesus told us "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men."

This season, do you have enemies, or people that hate you? People that are just plain disagreeable? Do good to them. Love them. Give to them. Even if they are ungrateful. Because that's what God's like - so doing this is one way to be like God.

From watching The Simpsons at Lunch:

I love musical parody. And having seen it at l unch, this is now stuck in my head. At least it's funny. Sung to the tune of "In the Jungle" as Principal Seymour Skinner is trying to win back the affections of Edna Krabappel with the help of three students, who sing the chorus:

Chorus:

Oh Edna K, oh Edna K
Oh Edna K, oh Edna K
Oh Edna K, oh Edna K
Oh Edna K, oh Edna K

Skinner:

Mrs. Krabappel, a sad principal
Is desperate and needy
If you come home, I won't die alone
And that's what I'd prefer

Bart:

Oh pleeeeeeeease settle for Seymour
Oh pleeeeeeeease come back to this dor-k ("k" tacked on at end so as not to disrupt the rhyme)