With the traditional Thanksgiving Holiday coming up here in America I’ll ask a traditional question. 

What events happened to you in 2009 that you are thankful for?

This will be my last post for the week.  I hope everyone has a healthy and happy holiday.

1) Blog buddies Papa and Mama paid me a visit in October.  We had a great lunch, and walk along Long Island Sound.

2) One of the former regulars at the shelter I work at, 4 hours a week, got a job, an apartment, and has straighten his life out.

3) I have lunch twice a month with retired friends.  It is nice to have one group of friends where I am the youngster.   Three are cancer survivors, and we have all had health issues at one time of the other.  We are thankful ever time we all make it to lunch healthy.

4) I began a Bible Study series on my blog.  All the great dialogue has helped me understand better the gudiance that has shaped society for 2,000 years.

5) I had an unexpected plumbing bill.  I was able to find a job, in this terrible recession, and payoff my bill.

I am thinkful I have had no major crisis in 2009 and will be thrilled if 2010 goes as well.

This Wednesday I noticed a record number of “hits” on my blog, over 500.  It was because people had used a google image search to view a post I put up last August, , about one of the more popular blogs in blogdom, Cakewrecks .  I revisited that site and found some more interesting, and bizarre, pictures of cakes, which I have posted below.

What is your favorite cake?  If you aren’t that fond of cake, what is your favortie pie.  If you don’t like either cake or pie you must have some outer space alien DNA in your taste buds. 

In my heading I have put up a Cakewrecks gallery.  Which is your favorite cake picture in the Gallery?

Some recent cakes on the Cakewreck site:

Jill Bolte is a neuroanatomist, who specializes in the postmortem investigation of the human brain.

On December 10, 1996, she woke up to discover that she was experiencing a rare form of stroke, an arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Three weeks late she underwent major brain surgery to remove a golf ball-sized clot that was placing pressure on the language centers in the left hemisphere of her brain.

In the talk below, at the February 2008 TED Conference, Jill discusses her memory of the stroke.  Her amazing recovery can be a inspiration to us all.

Which authors, scholars, leaders, outside your family or someone you personally knew, have inspired you the most?

Jill Bolt Taylor’s bio on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Bolte_Taylor

Her web site:

http://drjilltaylor.com

My favorite science lecturer is Neil deGrasse Tyson. He is an American astrophysicist, and the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium, at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan.

His Bio on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_degrasse_tyson

I was listening to an interview of his where he comments on how little we actually know about the Universe, and how it works.

We have defined many different types of matter, atoms, protons, quarks,etc.  This makes up about 5% of all the matter in the Universe, as far as we can tell.  Which means we are clueless about the other 95%.  Scientist call this unknown matter “Dark Matter” so it can seem like they have some grasp of what it is, which of course they don’t.

If you could get the answer to any three questions, about anything, what would your questions be?

On this YouTube video he gives this amusing lecture as a counter point to the idea of the Intelligent Design of the Universe.

Stupid Design

Last week we talked about a man who committed grievous sin, Judas, was remorseful, but not repentant.  This week we will look at another man who also committed great sin, David, but in this case he did repent.

As always this is my interpretation of what I have read.  I look forward to the thoughts of my CF friends, or anyone else, who has studied the Bible more than I have.

I think we can see the difference between how these two men dealt with their sin in the 4th verses of  Psalm 51, King James Version,  where David says:

⁴Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

David came to understand that repentance can only come by turning to God.  That he needed the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to transform his life away from sin, and to God’s guidance.

In verse 10 he says:

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

It is the goal of the CF to listen to the right spirit (Holy Spirit) within them, and let it guide them in their walk in life.

Psalm 51 – King James Version  (When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.)

 ¹Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

 ²Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

 ³For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

 ⁴Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

 ⁵Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

 ⁶Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

 ⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

 ⁸Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

 ⁹Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

 ¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

 ¹¹Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

 ¹²Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

 ¹³Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

 ¹⁴Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

 ¹⁵O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

 ¹⁶For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

 ¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

 ¹⁸Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

 ¹⁹Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Thank You Soldiers – Sung by the Tussing Elementary 3rd grade class

Where Have All The Flowers Gone by Pete Seeger

I read two recent articles on the same theme, women in sports.  In one, which has been all over the news, a female soccer player, acted just like many of her male counter parts, tried to injure another player.  In the other, which I have not seen in the headlines, the person who holds the longest ski jump at the facility being used for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver, won’t be completing, because there is no women’s ski jumping event.

Is there any athletic event that women should not be allowed to compete in?

In my opinion no, including boxing.  Certainly every Olympic event should have both a man’s and women’s completion.

Is there any reason you would expect women athletics to act any way differently when competing than men?

I can’t think of any.

From the article in the Christian Science Monitor, by Christa Case Byrant, about Lindsey Van – who set the record on the 90-meter jump when the Olympic venue opened in Vancouver, British Columbia, last year and is the reigning women’s world champion.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1109/p17s03-ussc.html

Lake Placid, N.Y.; and Boston – Unless a Canadian court decides otherwise, the ski jumper with the longest flight on record at Vancouver’s Olympic facility will not attend the winter Games in February.

She is not allowed to compete.

Olympic ski jumping is a men’s-only domain. Since the first winter Games in 1924, men have been swooping down snowy ramps at 55 m.p.h. and springing into flight – human rockets hurtling chin-first, hands thrown behind, and skis angled forward. With nothing but speed and their skis to aid them, they fly the length of a football field or farther – a feat of technical genius disguised in balletic grace.

But women can do it, too – the best often flying as far as men.

With women now included in such formerly all-male Olympic events as boxing, wrestling, bobsleigh, and luge, the last Olympic door closed to women is ski jumping.

But American ski jumper Lindsey Van – who set the record on the 90-meter jump when the Olympic venue opened in Vancouver, British Columbia, last year and is the reigning world champion – hasn’t given up on prying that door open. It’s a logical step for the 24-year-old, who, since age 7, has been soaring over Earth’s mundane limits on what is possible.

She and more than a dozen other women jumpers from Slovenia to Norway hope to legally force the addition of women’s jumping before the Games open Feb. 12. Their lawsuit against the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) contends that not allowing women to jump for gold is a form of discrimination under Canadian laws that prohibit gender discrimination in government activities.

A Canadian judge, last summer, agreed: It is discrimination.

But her ruling concluded that while VANOC is subject to those antidiscrimination laws, it can’t control the events – that’s the domain of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC voted in 2006 against including women’s ski jumping in 2010 because it deemed there weren’t enough high-level women to create competition worthy of the Olympics. Because the IOC isn’t bound by Canadian law, the judge ruled, Canada is powerless to change the program.

So the jumpers’ appeal asks Canada to refuse to hold the men’s event unless both genders can compete.

When the appeal is heard Nov. 12 and 13, it will highlight not just women’s battle to wipe out the last vestige of an old-boys-club Olympic culture, but also competing demands on the Olympic ideal:

•Allowing athletes to pursue success on the most visible world stage.

•Broadening the appeal of the Games among Gen-Xers interested in more extreme sports while keeping costs manageable.

•Satisfying TV, a key sponsor.

“IT’S A TEXTBOOK CASE OF DISCRIMINATION,” says Anita DeFrantz, chair of the IOC’s Women and Sports Commission. “This group of athletes is being told that they’re not good enough, that there aren’t enough women in the top level…. That’s never been an issue before.”

The IOC defends its position as preservation of the Olympic standard, saying the top women jumpers don’t deserve the same gold that is awarded to figure skaters and alpine skiers who have risen to the top of far larger fields.

But the IOC’s recent record of admitting both women’s events (see chart) and disciplines with weak fields – such as bobsleigh and ski cross – suggests the issue is not as clear-cut as either side asserts.

A couple of food related articles I read recently.

1) Gleaning is a new word to me.  It’s a tradition that goes back to biblical times.

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleaning

Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. Some ancient cultures promoted gleaning as an early form of a welfare system. For example, ancient Jewish communities required that farmers not reap all the way to the edges of a field so as to leave some for the poor and for strangers.(Lev. 19:9–10., Lev. 23:22, Deut. 14:28-29, Peah).

While I must admit I have a spare bedroom full of stuff I will likely never use again, like old exercise equipment, I will give something away, old computer equipment, books, clothes,etc, before I will throw it away.  I can’t remember the last thing I did throw way.

What was the last item you gave away to charity?

A young women in Vermont, Corinne Almquist is reviving this tradtion to help feeding hungry familes in the area.

From a Christian Science Monitor article:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1102/p07s01-lign.html

Cornwall, VT. – Clusters of plump, wine-red Empire apples hang from sagging boughs, yearning to be picked. A small group of volunteers is obliging, quickly filling a truck bed with wooden boxes of fruit.

They’re led by a smiling, energetic young woman, her red hair pulled back and practical rubber boots on her feet, ready for tromping in an orchard on a day that threatens rain.

Later that afternoon Corinne Almquist will deliver some 20 bushels of apples, about 1,000 lbs., to a food shelf for free distribution to hungry local residents. Sunrise Orchards in Cornwall, Vt., where Ms. Almquist and her helpers have been gleaning, can’t sell the apples: Most have cosmetic blemishes caused by being pelted in a late summer hailstorm. Though grocery chains won’t buy them, they’re still tasty and nutritious.

2) The best desert receipe I have seen recently.  Maple Pear Upside-Down Cake.

What is your favorite desert? -

From the NYT

Maple Pear Upside-Down Cake

11 tablespoons butter

I her blog last week Gchyayles did a post about Judas Iscariot.  I looked up his life in Wikipedia, and found there was some controversy about what the Bible says about his death.  In Mathew 27:3-5 it says he hung himself.  In Acts 1:16-19 it says he fell and “brust asunder”, which sound more like an accident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_Iscariot

What is your view on these two apparently different version?

If Judas did die in a fall then couldn’t he have repented his sins before his death and been saved?

Acts 1:16-19

¹⁶Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.

 ¹⁷For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.

 ¹⁸Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.

 ¹⁹And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.

Mathew 27:3-5

³Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

 ⁴Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.

 ⁵And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.