This weekend my family and I got to spend the weekend at a lake in northern Wisconsin. It is the kind of family place with a small cabin, canoes, a dock, and a fire place at night. In short, it was pretty wonderful. That is an experience that nothing in Montana really prepared me well for. In Montana the constant with water is that their is not enough and rarely is there enough to recreate in atleast above the knees. I remember one very long afternoon trying to float the Clark's Fork outside of Deer Lodge that mainly consisted of five or six of us trying to push cheap rubber rafts along the bottom.
I was sad to read this morning that it looks like Pat Davison is having some trouble. The Billingsgazette.com had the story that I read. Not knowing what did or didn't happen I don't want to comment, but Pat was always pretty fair with me. Unfortunately it looks like the combination of money, politics, and friendship are proving once again that they just don't mix.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Memory Lane
In today's Missoulian they had two articles that caught my eye. The first is an interview with the football coach at Missoula Sentinel. I knew Pete many years ago and he has to be the most charismatic person that I have ever met. Pete could pack more into a weekend than was wise, but it was always an adventure. I'm glad to see that he is doing well in Missoula.
The other article was about the Missoula Children's Theater summer performing arts camp. I have a lot of great memories of the people there from the five years I was a part of the program as a camper and as staff but the detail that really brought back the memory was the fact that they duct tape pillows to the low hanging ceiling beams so that performers don't hit their heads. For some reason, that detail in the article absolutely triggered every detail of what it was like in that dining hall to rehearse for three straight hours (or more) while the lake sat outside calling our names. Sometimes the rain has the same effect on me, bringing back the MCT memories of one two week stint when it rained all the time.
My favorite MCT story is when I was the camp director and one of the counselors came to me and told me the story of two girls on the first night. One of them said, "I think you're my best friend." The other replied from the top bunk, "You're my best friend too." To which the first asked, "What's your name again?"
While I remember a lot of names from MCT, the truth is that I don't have contact with anybody (other than my brother) and I suppose that is part of age. At seventeen or twenty one the intensity of emotion is so great that you just can't imagine not knowing these people in the future, but I'm left to wonder how they are, and pray that they are doing well.
The other article was about the Missoula Children's Theater summer performing arts camp. I have a lot of great memories of the people there from the five years I was a part of the program as a camper and as staff but the detail that really brought back the memory was the fact that they duct tape pillows to the low hanging ceiling beams so that performers don't hit their heads. For some reason, that detail in the article absolutely triggered every detail of what it was like in that dining hall to rehearse for three straight hours (or more) while the lake sat outside calling our names. Sometimes the rain has the same effect on me, bringing back the MCT memories of one two week stint when it rained all the time.
My favorite MCT story is when I was the camp director and one of the counselors came to me and told me the story of two girls on the first night. One of them said, "I think you're my best friend." The other replied from the top bunk, "You're my best friend too." To which the first asked, "What's your name again?"
While I remember a lot of names from MCT, the truth is that I don't have contact with anybody (other than my brother) and I suppose that is part of age. At seventeen or twenty one the intensity of emotion is so great that you just can't imagine not knowing these people in the future, but I'm left to wonder how they are, and pray that they are doing well.
On MSNBC.com today they had an interview with Jon Tester. I think this story is a good example of how people outside of Montana don't really get the complexity of the state. This is set up as pretty much a good vs. evil story, and as a communications professional there are plenty of tricks up the sleeves of both campaigns. It is set up as a classic city mouse vs. country mouse story, but ignores the fact that Conrad Burns has been running as the quintessential cowboy outsider in D.C. for more than a decade.
I have visited Conrad at his office in D.C. and I have visited Max and Denny. None of them would know me by name, but I was part of a small delegation and got to see them in action. The bottom line is that Tester can talk about "necessary evils" in his interview but nothing is more necessary in the Senate than seniority and connections and Conrad has them. It would be foolish to tell people who to vote for, I've seen plenty of reasons that if I had the honor of voting in the great state of Montana I wouldn't vote for either of these guys, but if anyone thinks that voting out Conrad won't significantly affect the federal money that flows to the state of Montana they are absolutely kidding themselves. Right, wrong, or indifferent, Conrad has been incredibly effective at getting money for projects in the state, and the evidence would show that he is just now coming into his own. "What if the democrats control the Senate?" It won't matter, Burns will have the bargaining power of being in the minority and even from his minor party status he would be able to direct far more federal dollars than a freshman Senator from a state few people can name and even fewer care about.
Another interesting media question for me is how anxious will Newsweek be to talk with Tester a few weeks into his term. I have enough friends and I've seen enough to know that honeymoons in D.C. often end before they start.
I have visited Conrad at his office in D.C. and I have visited Max and Denny. None of them would know me by name, but I was part of a small delegation and got to see them in action. The bottom line is that Tester can talk about "necessary evils" in his interview but nothing is more necessary in the Senate than seniority and connections and Conrad has them. It would be foolish to tell people who to vote for, I've seen plenty of reasons that if I had the honor of voting in the great state of Montana I wouldn't vote for either of these guys, but if anyone thinks that voting out Conrad won't significantly affect the federal money that flows to the state of Montana they are absolutely kidding themselves. Right, wrong, or indifferent, Conrad has been incredibly effective at getting money for projects in the state, and the evidence would show that he is just now coming into his own. "What if the democrats control the Senate?" It won't matter, Burns will have the bargaining power of being in the minority and even from his minor party status he would be able to direct far more federal dollars than a freshman Senator from a state few people can name and even fewer care about.
Another interesting media question for me is how anxious will Newsweek be to talk with Tester a few weeks into his term. I have enough friends and I've seen enough to know that honeymoons in D.C. often end before they start.
Politics, Tester or Burns
On MAGNIFIES today they had an interview with Jon Tester. I think this story is a good example of how people outside of Montana don't really get the complexity of the state. This is set up as pretty much a good vs. evil story, and as a communications professional there are plenty of tricks up the sleeves of both campaigns. It is set up as a classic city mouse vs. country mouse story, but ignores the fact that Conrad Burns has been running as the quintessential cowboy outsider in D.C. for more than a decade.
I have visited Conrad at his office in D.C. and I have visited Max and Denny. None of them would know me by name, but I was part of a small delegation and got to see them in action. The bottom line is that Tester can talk about "necessary evils" in his interview but nothing is more necessary in the Senate than seniority and connections and Conrad has them. It would be foolish to tell people who to vote for, I've seen plenty of reasons that if I had the honor of voting in the great state of Montana I wouldn't vote for either of these guys, but if anyone thinks that voting out Conrad won't significantly affect the federal money that flows to the state of Montana they are absolutely kidding themselves. Right, wrong, or indifferent, Conrad has been incredibly effective at getting money for projects in the state, and the evidence would show that he is just now coming into his own. "What if the democrats control the Senate?" It won't matter, Burns will have the bargaining power of being in the minority and even from his minor party status he would be able to direct far more federal dollars than a freshman Senator from a state few people can name and even fewer care about.
Another interesting media question for me is how anxious will Newsweek be to talk with Tester a few weeks into his term. I have enough friends and I've seen enough to know that honeymoons in D.C. often end before they start.
I have visited Conrad at his office in D.C. and I have visited Max and Denny. None of them would know me by name, but I was part of a small delegation and got to see them in action. The bottom line is that Tester can talk about "necessary evils" in his interview but nothing is more necessary in the Senate than seniority and connections and Conrad has them. It would be foolish to tell people who to vote for, I've seen plenty of reasons that if I had the honor of voting in the great state of Montana I wouldn't vote for either of these guys, but if anyone thinks that voting out Conrad won't significantly affect the federal money that flows to the state of Montana they are absolutely kidding themselves. Right, wrong, or indifferent, Conrad has been incredibly effective at getting money for projects in the state, and the evidence would show that he is just now coming into his own. "What if the democrats control the Senate?" It won't matter, Burns will have the bargaining power of being in the minority and even from his minor party status he would be able to direct far more federal dollars than a freshman Senator from a state few people can name and even fewer care about.
Another interesting media question for me is how anxious will Newsweek be to talk with Tester a few weeks into his term. I have enough friends and I've seen enough to know that honeymoons in D.C. often end before they start.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Circumstances
This morning as I was doing some devotional reading I came across the idea that God sometimes doesn't want us to change our circumstances, he uses our circumstances to change us. That seemed to be a good thought for the morning and a good thought when so many of the circumstances of life are up in the air, or at least not what I had expected. In talking with a good friend the other day I said something about that fact that none of the changes I expected to happen in May last year have happened yet. Many of the situations I thought would resolve have not, and many other things have simply changed.
On an entirely different, but maybe related note, last night I caught my first bass and it was rather unexpected. I went down with my youngest daughter to a small fishing pond located at the end of our street and basically just threw the line in the water. The bass hit it hard and fought it up all the way to the dock. I don't think I really realized what had happened until I took it off the hook and released it back into the pond.
So the unexpected happens. More often than sometimes I think I would like, but the truth is that sometimes the unexpected is great.
On an entirely different, but maybe related note, last night I caught my first bass and it was rather unexpected. I went down with my youngest daughter to a small fishing pond located at the end of our street and basically just threw the line in the water. The bass hit it hard and fought it up all the way to the dock. I don't think I really realized what had happened until I took it off the hook and released it back into the pond.
So the unexpected happens. More often than sometimes I think I would like, but the truth is that sometimes the unexpected is great.
Monday, August 21, 2006
New School
Today, on campus the soccer players have been added to the football players and by the end of the week freshman will start moving into campus. There is something about working at a college that just seems better when the students are around. There is a vitality to the campus when people are here and one of the problems in higher education is that most of our campuses go so unused during the summer months.
The ebb and flow of the higher education life is one thing is a blessing and a curse. This weekend we helped a good friend and a great guy move his family to another college. It is our third day this summer spent as moving help. Unfortunately for faculty and staff at colleges moving is a pretty common occurence. Though we seem to have some kind of unfortunate record with 11 different moves in our (almost) 13 years of marriage, it is not uncommon, but this summer has been particularly hard. I can count between six and seven people that I really respected and cared about that won't be here this year, and it gets harder to muster up the energy to invest in new people.
It makes me wonder about that time when most people never traveled more than a 100 miles from where they were born. I haven't lived within 100 miles of where I was born in over 10 years, and realistically it is probably a lot more before I'm back. And if I could go back - what would I do?
I'm hoping to master pictures soon so I can spice up the blog.
The ebb and flow of the higher education life is one thing is a blessing and a curse. This weekend we helped a good friend and a great guy move his family to another college. It is our third day this summer spent as moving help. Unfortunately for faculty and staff at colleges moving is a pretty common occurence. Though we seem to have some kind of unfortunate record with 11 different moves in our (almost) 13 years of marriage, it is not uncommon, but this summer has been particularly hard. I can count between six and seven people that I really respected and cared about that won't be here this year, and it gets harder to muster up the energy to invest in new people.
It makes me wonder about that time when most people never traveled more than a 100 miles from where they were born. I haven't lived within 100 miles of where I was born in over 10 years, and realistically it is probably a lot more before I'm back. And if I could go back - what would I do?
I'm hoping to master pictures soon so I can spice up the blog.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Opening salvo
It is turning fall in the Midwest all of the sudden. After a long two weeks of vacation in Montana where the mountains were big we are back and the fall rain has started. I also know that fall is coming because as I log onto the billingsgazette.net I see fires raging throughout Montana, an annual rite of passage in my short time on this earth.
I'm starting this blog to explore the creation of culture and how a place gets into our hearts along with the people. For my family and I that place is Montana, but right now we are missionaries in Minnesota. Minnesotans don't think they need missionaries but then again I'm not sure there have ever been a people group who thought they needed missionaries.
So, in this blog I hope to explore a lot of things.
I'm hoping to gain a few readers along the way, because as someone said to my yesterday, if you don't have readers, you are really just talking to yourself.
I'm starting this blog to explore the creation of culture and how a place gets into our hearts along with the people. For my family and I that place is Montana, but right now we are missionaries in Minnesota. Minnesotans don't think they need missionaries but then again I'm not sure there have ever been a people group who thought they needed missionaries.
So, in this blog I hope to explore a lot of things.
I'm hoping to gain a few readers along the way, because as someone said to my yesterday, if you don't have readers, you are really just talking to yourself.
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