Tuesdays with Morris

For the remainder of the week, I will be at Purdue University attending the North Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church Annual Conference. Yes, you can start laughing now and saying things like, “Sucker!”

I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Yet, at the same time, I’m not going to hold my breath.

For a lot of diehard Methodist folks, Annual Conference is a highlight for each year. For others who simply view themselves as followers of Christ serving in the United Methodist Church, this is seen as an obligation.

I’ll have to be on my best behavior and make sure I’m seen by the “right” people due to being a newly appointed pastor. So, this rule-breaker is going to have to play by the rules at Annual Conference for a few years.

I’ll be blogging from Conference. Hopefully my posts will be filled with exciting updates about what is happening. More than likely, my posts will be telling you how I wish I could be doing something else.

However, I will get to spend some time with some good friends. I’ll just have to make the most of it.

On this day, 29 years ago, my wife was born! Today is a celebration of her life! I guess I have her parents to thank since they did all the work!

I’m so blessed to have such an incredible, beautiful, and amazing woman in my life! She’s the best. Happy Birthday, Emily!

Today our nation honors Memorial Day. It’s a time to remember those who lost their lives while serving in our nations military services. I believe on this day, we should also remember those who are currently making a sacrifice while serving our nation. I greatly appreciate all that our veterans (living and deceased) have done and currently are doing to provide the freedom that this country enjoys. As a pacifist, I’m against war and wish that our nations could find ways to peace and unity with out military conflict. But, that’s just not the case. So, today we should honor and remember those who have made a sacrifice to make this “free” nation a reality

Last night, I watched an interview on Charlie Rose with Lee Iacocca. My prior knowledge of Iacocca was simply as the big wig at Chrysler. And, I knew that many people regard him as one of the top minds in the area of business leadership.

As I watched the interview, I found myself thinking, “Wow! I like Lee Iacocca.”

He talked about his dislike of the current administration. This is after he had supported the “W” the first time around. He talked about the war and other issues that concern him with this administration.

He also talked about global warming. He spoke of the need for the USA to sign on the dotted-line somewhere to show the rest of the world that we actually do care about our environment. He said that Al Gore sort of made him a believer…and while he may be late in the game, he’s at least in the game.

He talked about unions and healthcare. He said the reason we’re losing so many auto jobs is due to the rising costs of healthcare. He gave a figure of $1300-1500 of a new car purchase goes to off-set the costs of employee healthcare. He said that the workers are going to have to make some concessions…either they work for less money or they pay a larger portion of their healthcare. He said we just can’t pay people $60 an hour to make cars. He mentioned that this is a big reason why Toyota is passing the US automakers…they have healthcare figured out and they are making smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles.

He also gave the option of the government figuring out a healthcare plan and helping out. That would be the best option if you ask me. But, he seems optimistic about the creation of a national healthcare plan.

He didn’t seem impressed with Hillary Clinton. He feels Obama doesn’t have enough experience. He believes that Bill Richardson is the best candidate….I’m going to have to check this guy out. I’m afraid he probably doesn’t have a chance because no one is talking about him…it’s all Clinton, Obama, and Edwards.

Anyway, I’m too lazy to look up the link to PBS so you can attempt to view the interview. If you’re interested, you’ll do the leg-work

To be honest, the world we live in can be pretty depressing. When you look around and see all the pain and suffering that many endure each day, one may find him/herself asking “What is the point of all of this?” Reading about wars, rumors of new wars, poverty, hunger, AIDS, cancer, pollution, and the like can really weigh one down.

But, then, there are moments in which we realize that there is some hope for this world after all. Last night, I was reminded that within the breakdown of the world, there is still some beauty.

Emily, Samantha, and I decided to eat our dinner outside last night. As I felt the breeze, heard the birds chirping, watched my Guinness settle, and lovingly gazed at my wife and daughter, I realized that life is beautiful. After dinner, we hopped in the pool for a quick swim and I found myself thinking, “Dang, this is pretty sweet.”

The beauty of this life is that there is the hope of something better. This isn’t what was originally intended for human kind. We can take steps to make this life better today. And, holding onto the hope that there is something better gives me this odd, comforting peace.

For me, the foundation of something better is love. If people just took the time to love, I believe this world would look a lot different.