So Grateful

This story in USA Today highlights the vagaries of the human experience.

Evidently, US Airways has offered the survivors of the miraculous landing on the Hudson $5,000 for their ordeal. According to the story, "After the crash, US Airways sent passengers a letter of apology, a $5,000 check to assist "with immediate needs" and reimbursement for the ticket." Nice gesture.

But that is not enough for some of the passengers.

Joe Hart, a salesman from Charlotte who suffered a bloody nose and bruises, says he "would like to be made whole for the incident."

Excuse me? First of all, Joe, you LIVED! You had about a 5% chance of surviving that landing, and you walked away with a bloody nose and some bruises. No doubt the psyche was a bit bruised as well. But how in God's name can money make you "whole" for the incident? Sorry, Joe, the salesman, I am not buying it.

It's too soon after the accident to determine what emotional distress he has suffered, he says.

Well, I'd say for the folks who want more money, the emotional distress they suffered is a definite lack of proportion. They lived through this.

Now, I am aware that people lost personal items in the crash, and the emotional toll that this took. But you know, where is the gratitude?

I am sure that many of the passengers were immediately grateful to walk away from the plane, even if they got wet in the icy Hudson. But gratitude is not just a fleeting emotion, it is a long-term perspective on life.

Not all is lost, however.

Dave Sanderson, a father of four, says he's thankful he could celebrate his 48th birthday on Friday and has no reason to talk to an attorney.

"US Air has been doing the right thing," he says. "Everyone is acting in a responsible way."

Fred Berretta, who suffered a small cut on his head during the crash landing, says US Airways representatives have called frequently and treated him very well. He says that a few personal mementos from his father were left behind but that the money sent by US Airways covers the value of his belongings.

Berretta, who works for a financial services company, was flown home to Charlotte after the crash on his company's jet.

"I'm a private pilot, and I'm sure I'll be flying again," he says. "But it might be a little while before I fly for pleasure again."

Amber Wells of Charlotte says she's so thankful to have survived and to be with her 9-month-old daughter, Rayley, that she hasn't had time to think about her belongings.

She says she lost $2,000 of nursing equipment and a laptop computer, as well as a checked bag and a carry-on bag.

"Everything that's gone can be replaced," says Wells, 34, a senior manager for NASCAR. "My life cannot be replaced."

I think Dave, and Fred, and Amber have it right. Life is more precious than "stuff", and no amount of "stuff" can pay for whatever happened. But a grateful heart can make a glad life.

Mac vs. PC

Well, this story about upgrading problems for the new Apple OS hits very close to home with many PC users.

Apple has acknowledged an issue encountered by some Leopard users trying to install the company's latest update released Monday.

In a support document posted to its site, Apple described an issue in which a Mac would hang on a "Configuring installation" window when trying to install Mac OS X 10.5.6. That was apparently the result of an incomplete update getting seeded into the Software Update process, and Mac OS X will freak out if it tries to install a partially downloaded update.

Apple recommends that if you encounter this problem, or have already, that you force Software Update to quit, remove the partial update from your library, and re-download the update. If you chose to download the standalone update from Apple's site rather than the combo update, you might also have had this problem; when in doubt, choose the combo update option.

If you've had a separate problem in trying to install the update, check out our sister site MacFixIt for tips and troubleshooting guidelines.

I just love technology, how about you?

Global Warming? Heh!

Yup, the world keeps getting warmer and warmer, doesn't it? Global warming? Yeah.

Growing up in the frigid regions of the upper Midwest, I recall that in the 1970's, there were mass predictions of a global ice age. Whatever.

Snow in SoCal this week. Temperatures into the 20's at night. Temperatures in the Midwest were mostly at zero degrees this morning.

The top picture shows snow at Pinon Hills in the high desert area north and east of Los Angeles.

The picture at the left shows snow in Palmdale today.







The picture to the left shows snow in the mountains outside Palmdale this morning.






This is SoCal we are talking about here, land of orange groves, 365 sunshine, and perpetual 72 degrees. This is not supposed to be SoCold.

Still, we know this will pass soon. Not so with Minot, North Dakota, whose HIGHT temperature was -4 degrees, and whose low temperature was -11 degrees. You know it is cold when the thermometer does not break past zero!

We're Not in Kansas Anymore

Since my teenage years were spent in the San Francisco Bay Area, I became a reluctant fan of the San Francisco Chronicle. I loved the Sporting Green, the sports section which was always colored, well, green!

I must admit that I still go to the Chronicle website daily to check up on the teams I root for, and for whom no disappointment is too great.

So tonight I am trolling through an article on my Cal Golden Bears, who are perched to break my heart in the post-season again. And my eye caught an article by Bob Thomas of the AP. The AP is the most virulently anti-Christian new agency out there, in my not so humble opinion, and this article does nothing to dissuade me.

It is an article about Betty Page, a "cultural icon" who was a centerfold in Playboy on 1955, and who seemed to do nothing more than pose in scant clothing as a young woman. This line caught my eye:

Page mysteriously disappeared from the public eye for decades, during which time she battled mental illness and became a born-again Christian.

Hmm, battling mental illness leads one to become a born-again Christian. No media bias there! Can you imagine the outcry if the phrase was, "she battled mental illness and became a Muslim"?

Or how about, "she battled mental illness and came out as a lesbian"?

Well, those seem to be protected groups these days, so let's go after the Christians.

She seems to have lived a profligate life in her younger years, with multiple husbands. Later came "home", joined a church, went to Bible school, worked for Billy Graham, wanted to do mission work. Her father molested Betty and her two sisters when they were growing up, and he eventually went to prison. Not the sort of home life one would want, but it makes sense that she would flaunt her sexuality as a young adult.

Interesting juxtaposition, though. She is a cultural icon of the sexual revolution, and the victim of molestation at home. And yet, the "cause" for her mental illness is being a born-again Christian? Puh-lease! Maybe, just maybe, her Christian faith helped her cope with her past, and her future.

May she rest in peace.

Remembering India

A nice interview by Hugh Hewitt of Christopher Hitchens entitled, "Christopher Hitchens warns Americans and American media not to forget our ally in India"

The horrifying events of the last week cast renewed light on the dangers of global jihadism. From the interview:

HH: Let me ask you, you bring up Kashmir, I have asked Kaplan and I have asked Frantz, what do you think is the solution in Kashmir?

CH: Well, I would, I would quite strongly suggest to people reading Salman Rushdie on this subject, especially his most recent novel. He is of Kashmiri origin, and like a lot of Kashmiris, wishes that there could be an autonomous Kashmir, whose neither necessarily part of India or Pakistan. It’s a victim of the terrible partition of India in 1947-48. One of the worst decisions ever made by any government, in this case, the British, was to allow India to be partitioned on confessional lines. They thought it would stop the fighting, instead of which it’s led to three subsequent wars, another partition of Pakistan into Pakistan and Bangladesh, genocidal partition, the acquisition of nuclear weapons by a rogue state, and many other woes, and still no peace in Kashmir. Kashmir for the Kashmiris is one solution. The only solution that cannot be allowed is the forcible removal from the Indian federation of Kashmir by Pakistan subversion and of others. If that happened, there’d be bloodshed in the sub-Continent that would make Rwanda look completely negligible.

HH: Wow.

CH: And this is what the Islamists are trying to bring about. That is their dream, and they showed us their dream nightmare in just a dress rehearsal for it in Bombay this week.

HH: I quote from your Slate piece of two days ago. “The Jewish disciples of Rabbi Schneerson may be relatively recent arrivals, but there have been Baghdad Jews in Bombay since records were kept, and Jews in India since before Christ, and not until this week has a Jewish place in India been attacked for its own sake, so to speak.” That’s really quite remarkable, and it also tells us about the nature of the enemy.

CH: It’s a terrible, terrible thing. There’s a very moving story in the New York Times this morning about the Bombay Jewish community that most people didn’t know, I think, until this happened, existed. It’s a very antique, very noble community that’s contributed a huge amount to the life of the city, and it is a remarkable fact about India that despite Hindu-Muslim strife, and all kinds of other sectarian horror shows, there has never been a pogrom in Indian history against its Jewish minority. Not once, not ever. We could say that with safety. And of course it can still be said no Indian spontaneously, no Indian or Bombay citizen has ever done such a dastardly thing. But the jihadists won’t rest until they can import that idea into India, too. And if you wanted to summarize the whole thing in one sentence, I suppose that would show how the word evil is the only one one can decently use.

Wow!

And this column a few days ago from Dennis Prager on the attack in India of a Jewish Chabad House. If the issue is freedom for Cashmere, why attack Jews in India? What do they have to do with anything?

With all the Pakistani Islamists hatred of Hindus, they did not attack one Hindu temple in Indias major city.

With all their hatred of Christian infidels, the terrorists did not seek out one of the 700,000 Christians in Mumbai.

To reinforce my point, imagine a Basque separatist terrorist organization attacking Madrid. Would the terrorists take time out to murder all those in the Madrid Chabad House? The idea is ludicrous. But no one seems to find it odd that that Pakistani Muslim terrorists who hate India and want it to give up control of Indian Kashmir would send two of its 10 terrorists to kill perhaps the only rabbi in Mumbai. As Newsweek reported during the siege, Given that Orthodox Jews were being held at gunpoint by mujahideen (sic), it seemed unlikely there would be survivors. Newsweek, like just about everyone else, simply assumes Islamists will murder Jews whenever and wherever possible.

As president-elect Obama prepares to take office in January, I will pray that he have wisdom and strength to assist India, and try to help bringing peace to this growing part of the globe. May he, and we, understand what we are up against.

Fire!

The dominating news in SoCal this past weekend has been fire. Fires have raged in Montecito, near Santa Barbara, in Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley, and in Yorba Linda in Orange County. The skies have been brownish, and the smell of grass fire hangs in the air. The moonrise has been orangish, but the sunsets have been spectacularly brilliant with a bright reddish-orange sun againts the backdrop of dark clouds of smoke. It feels like the end of the world.

The prophet Joel said, "The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD." (Joel 2:31)

And I am sure it feels like the end of the world to those who have been caught in the fire zones. To watch one's home burn, and one's neighborhood burn, and to see the sky filled with fire and smoke, well, who cannot help but think of the end of all things?

The Los Angeles Times has some spectacular pictures of the conflagrations going on around us. Orange County Pictures. Montecito Pictures. This picture to the right shows several palm trees igniting, and it looks eerily like fireworks, with showers of sparks raining down on the ground below them.

Several of our members, as well as Pastor Conner, attended Westmont College, and so our interest in what happened at Westmont is high. Also our former receptionist, Tabitha, is living right near Westmont. Westmont's web site is down, but a local photographer has posted some of the devastating pictures from the campus, here.

It is quite sad to see some of these gorgeous homes going up in flames. Homes that people have worked years to build and buy and furnish. And yet, in a matter of moments, all that work can be lost. I think of all the family pictures, the souvenirs from trips, the childhood memories and scrapbooks that are still in that house, burning up with the rest. Pieces of life. Gone.

I do not want to minimize the suffering and the shock, but Jesus did say,

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

I am reminded of a story from my college years. My friend, Sue, went home for Thanksgiving. With all the children grown and gone, her parents bought a new home, and had furnished it with all the nicer things they had always wanted. When Sue got "home", she encountered all sorts of new rules. "Don't touch that!" "Don't put your feet there?" "What are you doing? That couch isn't for sitting on!?"

As she drove away from her parents' home after a thoroughly miserable weekend, Sue got to thinking and praying. She felt that her normally stable and down-to-earth parents had been abducted by aliens! She prayed that God would show them the error of their ways, and restore some sort of sanity to her parents.

When she got back to her apartment, many hours away (in the days before cell phones), Sue had a message on her answering machine. It was her parents. She called them back at the number they had left, and heard that the new house, and all that was in it, had burned to the ground when Sue left. Evidently some faulty electrical wiring. Her parents were quite shaken and upset, but mostly apologetic for becoming so focused on the stuff, that they had lost sight of what was really important. Sue hung up the phone, and vowed never to pray again!

This one final picture just breaks my heart but also gives me hope. It is a young boy and his dog. I am assuming that he is sitting on the remnants of his former home. The boy looks sad, and the dog looks puzzled. The boy is hugging the dog, perhaps to comfort his dog, or perhaps to be comforted by his dog. Perhaps both.

Amidst the human wreckage of life, we should be there to comfort others in their losses, just as God is always there to comfort us in our losses.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

Please pray with us, for those who have been affected by the fires, and for those brave men and women who are fighting these fires.

Why We Play

A terrific article in today's LA Times by Bill Plaschke, on APU's soccer playoff game against Westmont yesterday. APU could have claimed the game by forfeit, but allowed Westmont an extra day or two to prepare, due to the fires. Westmont went on to win 2-0, but in the end, the support by the APU fans and players is something I am really proud of. Here's a taste:

Just as the emotion fueled Westmont, it drained Azusa Pacific, the classy hosts overcome by their own generosity.

"There was so much going for them, the fans, the momentum, the situation, it was too much for us to overcome," said junior midfield Eric Winblad. "We almost felt like the bad guys out there."

That's sad, because rarely in Southern California sports has there been a better show of sportsmanship than this, Azusa Pacific sacrificing its chance at a title defense to give Westmont a fair shot at taking it.

As impressive as the resilience of the conquerors was the kindness of the conquered.

Goodness, the school didn't even charge admission to the game and offered the Westmont fans a free lunch of pizza and salad.

"I've lost a lot, but right now, I can't think of one thing I need," said Westmont's Dave Wolf. "The people of Azusa Pacific have given us everything."

Monday's game ended, and the Westmont fans streamed onto the field, surrounding their heroes, singing, chanting, then coming together for a most amazing final embrace.

They tunneled. That's right, just like parents in a youth soccer game, they lined up across from each other, stretched out their arms, clasped hands, and formed a tunnel through which the players ran. Darn thing stretched about 50 yards, from Azusa toward Montecito, from despair to hope.

Wolf will soon begin a daunting search for a home for himself, his wife and their five children. But for a few minutes Monday, anything was possible, the sixth-place Warriors advancing to the national tournament, scheduled to host a first-round match next weekend even though they don't know if they still have a field.

"I know it's not a very sophisticated answer, but when you ask how I'm feeling about today, I can say only one thing to everyone," said Dave Wolf, staring red-eyed into a collection of kids dancing, laughing, rising from those ashes. "Thank you."

I am so impressed by APU's stance on this. I am proud to work there, and support these wonderful students.

Veterans Day

This well-known poem was written by a Canadian physician, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, in 1915 during the Battle of Ypres.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

This poem has been set to music, and paired with pictures on this video from YouTube.



Lest we forget.

Oh, and it is my baby brother's birthday today. Happy 51st birthday, Dave!