Saying see you later to my Grandpa

To some of you he was Charles or Charlie or Mr. Neece or dad but to me he was grandpa.  I liked to think that since I was the first grandchild and the only grandson for 20 some years, that he was especially fond of me, and that was more true then you might think because he was especially fond of all of us grand kids and great grand kids and as I grew older I bore witness to that fact as I watched him with you younger grandchildren and great grandchildren.

My mom has been haranguing me a few days now about how long I will speak, I will try to be brief.  I know that grandpa didn’t like church to be long, well he didn’t like it to go past 11:45 the stated time I think in the by-laws.  We never got out at 11:45 we always got out at noon I once asked why he didn’t just plan for noon and he said, “We’re supposed to get out at 11:45.” And I thought why don’t we just vote to change the time but then I think he was fearful the pastor would keep us till 12:15.

One of the greatest gifts that my grandfather gave me, gave his family and anyone that was willing to accept it was himself.  If you knew my grandpa you might think he growled a lot and talked loud, which he did, but if that’s all you thought then you never knew him. 

When I think back through my life one of the most common memories I have is worshiping with my grandfather at church every Sunday.  Then later out to eat with them and then a visit at grandpa and grandma’s house pretty much every Sunday.  That alone I am thankful for but another enjoyable memory was our summer vacations. Almost every family vacation that I can recall grandpa was there with the boat.  Loaded with skis and inner tubes and fishing gear and we got to fish and ski as much as we wanted.  There were bigger boats and fancier ski equipment but none of them had my grandpa driving.  I never realized how hot and tiring it must have been for him until I had kids of my own and he gave me the treat of taking them out in the boat alone.

It was rare that grandpa skied himself, most of the time he just drove and was content to drive around in circles until some of us were so tired we puked, I won’t mention any names but it’s the aunt who lives out of state.  And even though it was vacation he would get up at the crack of dawn to take my mom and sometimes I would tag along and we would go skiing at first light when the lake was as smooth as glass.  There was something spiritual about the boat gliding over the water and the skis cutting through the glass surface of the lake.  And when we were done he was ready and willing to take the next batch out again.  And he would let us kids use his fishing polls as long as they were the closed reels, and clean all those blue gills that we would catch, I never once cleaned a fish I caught.  I remember a certain uncle asking once while they were cleaning the fish, “Why doesn’t he clean them?” and in a typical grandpa growl he asked, “you want to teach him?”  Like I said I never cleaned a fish.

I’ve had the opportunity to ski behind other drivers but they all pale in comparison to grandpa.  First, I have yet to experience anyone who could and would bring the rope right to you so you didn’t have to struggle and swim to it.  And I’ve never experienced anyone who good run the boat just so to get you lined up, help you keep your position and ease you up out of the water.

These are wonderful memories that I cherish but they are more then that.  They speak to my grandpa’s character and tell what kind of a man that he was.  My grandpa was a generous servant.  Now some might be chuckling thinking that grandpa was more of a penny pincher and miser then a generous man.  But the truth is the two are not mutually exclusive.  He was an extremely generous with his time and his money.  He just never wasted it and always sought the best bargain that he could get.  That doesn’t make you stingy it just makes your frugal and smart.

If you had an opportunity to look at some of the pictures online of my grandpa there are two pictures of him with mop in hand in the church basement.  And if your car or A/C or refrigerator ever needed Freon he was the man to see only charging for the Freon, for family at least, and he was meticulous about it always weighing the cylinder before and after never charging you for more then you got.  I remember all the work he did around the church too, fixing the A/C and the furnace, running the sound system, changing light bulbs and putting other odds and ends.  He fixed washers and dryers for us and even put a set of used tires on some rims for me once and helped with putting new a/c hoses on our van once.

He served the church and others with the gifts that he had been given.  Pastor Paul writes in Ephesians 4:11-12 ‘It was he (Jesus) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up .”  We might be tempted to think that Paul’s list is an all inclusive and complete list but it’s not really for some he gave to be fixers of the A/C and handy men, and boat drivers and all manner of servants.

My grandpa wasn’t an evangelist or pastor or teacher, he never sang in the choir, he never sang at all, but he was always ready and willing to serve the Lord and others with the gifts and talents that the Lord had blessed him with.  And the life he lived out was a picture of servant hood.

I weep and mourn this morning because I loved my grandpa and I miss him.  But I don’t weep as one who has no hope because I know that grandpa had a relationship with Jesus Christ and so I know that today He stands at the side of the risen one Jesus Christ.  I know that because I too have a relationship with Jesus Christ that this separation is only temporary that one day I too will see Jesus face to face and my grandpa again and so I weep for joy for him, and longing for me.  So I won’t say goodbye I’ll say see you soon.

Girl's engineering toy

I read an interesting article today about a new toy designed to get girls interested in engineering.  Now before you begin reading any farther if you are feminist, if you get easily offended, please don’t read this, because you will probably get offended, and then you will be all mad and the truth is I don’t care so please save us both trouble and find something else to read.  If however you have an open mind are really interested in hearing other people’s opinions then please keep reading.

As I was reading this I was reminded of what my son said the day he came home from his first introduction to engineering class.  “our instructor said that he was going to grade the girls easier so as to encourage them to continue in engineering.”  Now first I’m not against girls in engineering or math or science or whatever they want to do, except soldiering, police officering and firefighting, so yes I’m a sexist pig if you want to think that.  For the record I don’t think men should be bearing children either, and I don’t think we are too far off from the tech that might allow that but that is for another blog.

You see I believe that men and woman are different, and I think this is a good thing.  Now I’m not opposed to a toy that is designed for girls that deals with engineering, whatever to make a buck is fine with me.  But what if these efforts don’t lead to more girls in science and engineering and mathematics classes and programs?  Then do we adopt some Title 9 program designed to make sure that there is an equitable number of women in these fields?

I read an article awhile back on Title 9 sports requirements in colleges.  This article claimed that the female participation rate in co-ed colleges was about 25% of the women who attended any particular college.  I forget what the male participation rate was but it was much higher.  Apparently though there has to be some equitable balance between woman and men’s sports and so in some places men’s sports programs were being canceled because there wasn’t enough female participation to get the right balance.  The article then went on to look at all girls colleges.  It stated the participation rate in athletics among women at all female schools was about 25%.  Now I’m sure there will be some that will say that’s because men discourage woman from playing sports and discourage them from exploring science yada, yada, yada.

But maybe the real truth is that men and woman are different, and instead of trying to do away with that difference we should celebrate and learn to value it.  Or maybe we should start making the m4 and bazookas and stuff in pastel colors to encourage more girls to play army.  For the record I take my daughter paint balling when she wants to go and some of her girl friends come to.  But a lot of them just don’t like being hit because it hurts and leaves bruises.  Maybe we should start shooting them with paint balls at a younger age.

Oh and here's the link to the article http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/can-a-kids-toy-bring-more-women-into-engineering/262373/

Let's tax stupid people

According to Merriam-Webster the definition of stupid is: a: slow of mind Obtuse; b: given to unintelligent decisions or acts; acting in an unintelligent or careless manner, c: lacking intelligence or reason.

Some people may be offended by this blog, to which I will apologize that you are offended.  But I just couldn’t help it after reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about how Zynga made $600 million dollars last year selling virtual fish, cows, chickens, pigs and other livestock and assorted items. Now first if you don’t understand, virtual means that it exists only on the internet or in the imagination, like the tooth fairy.  It is not something that you can touch, taste, smell.  It is not a physical thing. 

People are paying $4.00 for virtual chickens and $3. to $4 for virtual translucent fish.  And it is estimated that the sell of virtual items will net some $2.2 billion in revenue for the companies who get stupid people to buy these pretend products next year.

So here is an easy way for the government to raise $220 million in revenue that I’m sure anyone with the common sense God gave lettuce won’t object too.  Let’s charge a 10% real tax on these virtual things.  After all if they will buy an imaginary chicken for $4.00 surely they won’t mind helping reduce the national debt by paying an extra 40 cents.  We can call it the virtual reality tax or taxing stupid people or practicing the theory of evolution.  In the games they can call it a livestock tax.

Now $220 million is nothing compared to the deficit but it’s still $220 million and it’s a tax that smart people can avoid.  After all we charge much higher taxes on things like cigarettes and alcohol and gasoline which the majority of hard working Americans have to have for their cars since the government made a deal with GM many years ago to kill mass transit and put a car in every garage.

President Obama says that everyone needs to pay their fair share and I agree lets start making stupid people pay their fair share too, before we raise taxes on the job creators.

Plainfield Days Ecumenical Service Sermon from 7-10-11

Ecumenical Service Plainfield Days 7-10-11 Matthew 13:1-17 Bad Soil

For the first 13 years of my life I lived in Kansas City, Kansas in a house with a yard barely big enough to contain the driveway and my dad’s ’71 VW Beatle because my mom’s car was parked in the one car garage that was part of the basement. 

My father never liked living in the city.  As a child he spent his summers on his uncle’s farm in Bethany Missouri, and his childhood home had a large yard where his mother had a large garden.  My father liked to think of himself as a farmer trapped in the city.  He disliked everything about the city the small yard we had, the lights, the traffic…and so when I was 13 we moved to a suburb of Kansas City, KS onto a ¾ acre lot.  It was big enough for my dad to have a 1600 square foot garden which he proudly worked on for years.

The only problem we had is that the soil was terrible and when I say terrible that is an understatement.  It was nothing but rocks and clay.  Everyday one of the choirs my sister and I had was to clear a 5 gallon bucket of rocks before we could do anything.  In the beginning this was fairly easy as the rocks were large but as time went on the rocks got smaller and it took longer to fill the bucket.

The first year the garden didn’t do very well.  But my dad kept at it, he was big into organic gardening so he got some horse manure, and made me bag the grass with a push mower and all organic food leftovers went into the compost pile.  As my dad worked the soil year after year it eventually got better and we got some good harvests of tomatoes, green-beans, leaf lettuce, carrots, potatoes, cucumbers and zucchini.  The two things that never did well no matter what my father did were sweet corn and strawberries.  Although the strawberries did better then the corn.  We would get a couple of quarts of decent strawberries but the corn was never any bigger then my thumb.

In Matthew 13 Jesus uses a farmer and soil as the background for a parable He tells about how lives are affected by those who hear the Good News.  In the parable there are four types of soil, the path, the rocky ground, the thorny ground and the good ground.  Now with the first three soil types we often think there is no hope.  The seed falls on the path and the birds eat it all, it falls in on the rocky soil and the sun scorches it and in the thorny soil the thorns choke it out.  And I think we hear that and think that’s it, those poor people have no chance at all.

But I’ve seen that bad soil can be turned around.  I watched my dad labor with it for years in that back yard of my teen years.  That first year as I said was terrible but little by little with my dad’s earnest care the soil improved.  As I said it never was able to support sweet corn but I think another 10 years or so of my dad working on it and I think it would have been able to begin producing a decent sweet corn crop.  Now there is no doubt that my dad had to work really hard at the soil to get the garden to produce, there is no doubt that if had soil like I have over at the parsonage he could have grown a good garden with relative ease.  But the thing my dad’s work on that garden soil year after year that I learned was that bad soil can become good soil.

Now we may look at this parable and think about those 3 bad soils and wonder how could they ever become good soil.  The path for instance, we might think of that as the side walk or a paved road what can grow there.  But we all have seen that green stuff can work it’s way through even concrete, it can crack it and take root and eventually break up the concrete.  If grass and weeds can do that to concrete how much more so can the Good News do that with someone’s life if they are exposed to it enough.  Or if we help work on them, work on busting up that hard surface so that Word can get into their lives and start to take root.

What about the rocky soil?  Well it’s main problem was lack of water.  If you travel down to Kansas you will see lots of corn were there used to be nothing but wheat.  Kansas’ climate isn’t exactly conducive to corn takes a lot of water for corn to grow.  If you look close every corn field is irrigated.  So the irrigation makes it possible to grow corn where it previously didn’t grow very well.  So the Word of God sown in a person’s life with rocky soil can grow if it can be watered and nurtured.  Again we can help nurture that seed of the Word.

And what about the thorny soil?  Well the easiest thing to do with that soil would be to remove the weeds, clean it out I imagine it’s probably not bad soil once you get all the weeds out.  The same is true for the person who has a lot of clutter and worry in their lives if we can help to clear that out then the Word of God that is sown will have a fighting chance.

But what about the good soil?  You might be thinking what about it?  It’s good soil we don’t need to worry about it, it takes care of itself.  But does it?  How easy is it for good soil to become thorny or weedy soil?  How many of you farmers never have to pull rocks out of some of your fields at least?  What happens if you drive a lot of heavy equipment over the fields or try to plow in them when it is too wet? 

The house that Yolanda and I had in Kansas City had a large yard with lots of flower gardens, at least that was what they were supposed to be.  We bought it from elderly widow who had been unable to tend to the gardens for many years.  It took a lot of work for Yolanda and I to clean up those gardens so that they would once again be nice flower gardens.  You can’t just depend on good soil to continue to produce a good crop it takes work.

As I said we had to pull rocks out of the garden every day until my dad planted in the spring and then after the harvest until it got to cold.  So it was work to keep the garden rock free.  And weeds?  As I said my dad was into organic gardening.  That 1600 square feet never saw any herbicide.  Now fortunately my dad had a fancy tiller with all kinds of attachments and he cultivated and planted the rows far enough apart to get the tiller down to till up the weeds between the rows so we only had to weed in the rows themselves.  But we still had to weed to keep them from overgrowing everything and choking out the plants.

We never had any trouble with compaction but I know that you farmers have to take care of that because if the soil becomes too compacted it will be like the path and the crop won’t grow.

I think too often we hear this parable and think that it’s kind of a one time deal.  You hear the word and if your heart is hardened or you have lots of rocks and no spiritual death, or too many things choke out the joy you have at hearing the word then all hope is lost.  Or we think that we have received the word and we have allowed it to sprout in our lives and it has produced a good crop but we don’t need to do anything else.

True Jesus didn’t elaborate the way I did when He told his parable but the people who heard this parable first were farmers.  They understood the work that even good soil required to maintain a good crop year after year.  I imagine they too could even improve the conditions of soil whether it be a path, rocky soil or thorny overgrown with weeds soil.

One of the things that we need to remember today is that spreading the word, and following the word takes work.  We can’t just spread the word once and think that’s it, we can’t hear the word and let it take root in our life and think that’s it either.  We need to cultivate that word in our own lives and in the lives of others, we need to cultivate the soil of those we encounter, praying for them, tilling up the soil of those with hardened hearts, helping to remove the rocks of those with rocky soil and weeding the worries and concerns out of other’s lives.  Jesus told a parable about different soil types, and sowing to farmers, knowing that farmers would see and understand the deeper implications of what He said as they recalled the story.

Let us not neglect to continue to cultivate the word in our lives so that it may continue to bear fruit and may we also cultivate others lives to prepare them to hear the word and for it to take root.

gym Etiquette

I’m at the gym this morning, a little later then I wanted to be mainly because I like to use the steam room after my workout but also to avoid this older gentleman who is always wanting to talk to me.

Now the gym is my time.  I go to exercise and I don’t really like to exercise so I treat myself to a book for pure fun.  I only allow myself to read it while I’m working out and while occasionally they do have good stories that I sometimes work into sermons but for the most part it is just pure indulgence, cotton candy reading.  I’m not looking to make friends or carry on any deep conversations which is one of the reasons that even when I don’t need to go so early I still do to avoid the older crowd that is there to socialize.

So as usual I’m on the recumbent bike and I’m reading my latest book and I’m pretty into it because it’s just a fun read.  When the guy I started coming earlier because of walks in and plops down on the recumbent bike next to me, and asks, “What are you reading now?”  I pretend not to hear him like I’m deeply absorbed in the book because like I said it’s my time, I didn’t come there to talk.  But as usual he doesn’t take the hint and asks again, “What book are you reading now?”  Fortunately my current book doesn’t have any religious overtones or double meaning like the last book I was reading and he tried to strike up a conversation.

Now, first I want to say the guy is okay, nothing against him he’s just an older pastor.  I know this because I’ve overheard him talking about it in the locker room.  So I know he’s just trying to be friendly and maybe possibly witness to me but I’m on limited time here and he’s cutting into my prime book reading for fun time.

So I tell him the title, which is “King Dork” last time it was “Adam” by Ted Dekker.  Of course he had never heard of Ted Dekker and was telling me he knew of an “Adam” the first man and blah, blah, blah and was asking if it was about that and so on and so forth and the whole time I’m thinking man I just want to exercise and read my book in peace.

Well this time he didn’t have anything to relate to it and asked if was a novel or something and I said yes just a novel pure enjoyment.  Fortunately he let me finish my exercising in peace.  But as soon as I was finished and got the cleaning stuff he’s asking what it’s about.

And the whole time I’m thinking isn’t there some etiquette for the gym?  Like if you’re reading or have head phones on it means, “I didn’t come here to make new friends please don’t talk to me.”  I mean I’m sure that the co-eds that come don’t really want the creepy older guys hitting on them.  I mean if I was one of them I wouldn’t.  I say hello, good morning if I pass them walking by on the way to the locker rooms or where ever like I do to everyone but that is the extent of my conversation.

And then there is the other guys that like to carry on a conversation while their butt naked in the locker room.  What’s up with that?  I don’t really want to be talking to naked guys just something wrong with that.  Don’t they cover that in gym class?  Maybe it should be in the orientation when you join the gym.

So I’ll be getting up earlier and make sure I’m done before the ones who want to talk get there.

The importance of voting

Dear Editor,

A wise man once told me, “People who don’t vote deserve bad government.”  So I will start off by saying shame on us for not voting.  I will also say that people who do not vote have no reason or right to complain about the decisions of our government.  Those who will not participate and contribute to their self government at the most basic of involvement by voting should expect to be disappointed by our government.

However I believe the greater shame should be upon our elected school board directors with their decision to follow the Chickasaw County Auditor’s recommendation to consolidate our polling station and have only one poling station at the welcome center in Nashua.

Now while voter turn out in the last school district election was dismal, in both districts, 25% of the total voter turnout came from the now closed District 1 (Plainfield) polling center.  District 1 voter turnout was 1/3 of the District 2 (Nashua) polling center.  Statistically those are not terrible numbers and should be interpreted, by any reasonable person who wants to encourage voter turn out, as justification to keep both polling centers open.

I’m willing to give our directors the benefit of the doubt and choose to believe that they made this decision solely based on the Chickasaw County Auditor’s desire to save money.  However, it does appear as though the school board is trying to discourage voter turnout from District 1.  And given that the school board is planning on putting our school district millions of dollars in debt to expand facilities in Nashua while at the same time underutilizing existing facilities in Plainfield, as well as reducing staffing to cut the budget one could surmise that the board is penny wise and pound foolish.

Most likely this letter will anger some and they will resort to calling me names and insinuating things about me again.  But the facts speak for themselves.  Our elected officials are running the school system how they see fit with little regard to the will of the people.  And why should they care what the people want if we cannot even make the effort to vote or inform them of our opinions.

I encourage all eligible voters to vote in the up coming purpose statement vote.  I also encourage us to use this vote as a referendum on the recent decision the school board made to consolidate grades 7 through 12 at the high school and to place the district millions of dollars in debt.

Sincerely

Shawn Geer

Plainfield, Iowa.

How many votes are too few to count?

In the last school election only 23 people voted from the Plainfield district.  Based on that number the Chickasaw County Auditor recommended moving to one voting precinct.  That 23 sounds like a small number and standing all by itself it sounds reasonable to justify their decision.  However the total number of people voting was an astronomical 92. Which means that 25% of the vote came from the Plainfield district.  So I guess supplying 25% of voter turnout doesn't qualify you to have a polling place.  Now I will agree that 23 is a dismal number but so is 69 from the other district, so shame on all of us for not voting better.  But it would be helpful if the school did a better job of letting the community know what is going on.  And publishing it on the website or the 700 circulation Nashua Reporter is not doing a good job of informing the community.