Dad

This is the eulogy I wrote for my Dad but I like to think of it as more of a tribute.

Dad

When I was in high school I read a really depressing play by Arthur Miller called "Death of a Salesman". It was a bout a guy named Willy Loman who worried a little too much about being well liked by his peers and others. I remember reading that he would have little fantasies about how many people would come to his funeral and exclaim their love for him,. Unfortunately for him it didn't end up like that, and what I took from it was that he couldn't be himself, those fantasies became destructive and he ultimately destroyed himself. I'm not here though to compare my Dad to Willy Loman though, my Dad was the anti Willy Loman. He was always his own person, as far I could tell he was never worried about any of the things Willy was and it enabled him to put God and his family first. He was more worried about being a good husband and provider for his family. He was more concerned with raising his children right and making God the focus of the family in a world where you couldn't put much stock in what other people say. In my opinion he succeeded in that.

My father had a natural compassion for just about everyone and it was evident through his easy going personality and the ministries he belonged to, like the prison out reach or the Open door ministries in Gloucester. Even though he cut a striking figure he always made sure that he opened himself up to the people he thought needed a friend. That quality made me as well as others see him as more of a gentle protector, a peaceful warrior, fighting by your side. That part of his personality too was evident through his smile, you could see the love that he had in his heart, and he smiled a lot.

My father was also a very deep man, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. He may have been seen as a quiet, shy man sometimes on the surface, but his mind was like intricate clock work, the gears were always turning.  Part of his depth was his love of laughter, he loved comedians like Richard Pryor and Robin Williams, and seeing him laugh at one of their jokes was an event all its own. He loved telling jokes, however he could almost never get through a joke because he would laugh so hard half way through it, but that's what made it so funny and his laugh was very contagious. My Dad knew about a lot of different things, on just about every subject you could think of, and if he didn't he would make an educated guess to where it sounded like he knew what he was talking about and usually I took his word for it. He got me interested into so many of the things I love to this day. Things like Science fiction and fantasy, comic book super heroes, Indiana Jones, writing, photography and martial arts via Chuck Norris. My dad loved Chuck Norris, one of the shows he liked was Walker Texas Ranger and I'm pretty sure he saw every episode like 8 times, but he always busted out laughing when a bad guy got unexpectedly kicked in the face by Chuck. But the most important thing he lead me to was to the Lord.

It was his knowledge of the Bible and the way God works that still leaves me dumbfounded to this day. It seemed he had an unshakable trust in God. My Dad was a beacon of God to all those around him, especially to those working with him in the various ministries he was involved with. He never once rubbed it in your face though, he was humble when it came to God, just as it should be. When he spoke about Bible stories  and the holy trinity he had authority in his words and I listened closely and carefully as well as others. As proof I remember a story someone once told me about my Dad. They were witnessing on the streets of Saint Paul and they came across a man who was angered by what they were doing so the guy started chasing after them. As they were running mad dad stopped and turned around and said "Jesus loves you" and them man stopped in his tracks with a puzzled look on his face like it was the first time someone told him that. My dad was also a powerful prayer warrior when it came to the very big and very small things. It's my father's own example I follow, especially now, having a family of my own.

It's funny now remembering my peers in high school and college asking me how did I know that there is a God or even a Heaven. I would try to sound as intellectual as possible and try to give a complicated answer, but now the answer is so easy. I know that there is a God because of my Dad, because he was in my life and because of the things he did for me and my family. And I know that there is a heaven because Heaven was made for people like him.

Etowah Indian Mounds

Today Anna and I visited the Etowah Indian Mounds "digsite" which next to the Etowah river. The sight was inhabited by some of the ancestors of the Creek and Cherokee nations from around 900a.d. to 1550a.d. In 1540 the conquistador De Soto visited this place with 1000 of his soldiers while he was looking for the lost city of gold Cibola. After that the village was almost wiped out by diseases from the Europeans who carried them. Way to go De Soto. The people that fled the village during this time joined with other tribes like the Creek and Cherokee. The re-construction of the home you see in the photo on the left was the typical dwelling within the village(called a wattle, or daub hut) of the native towns-person/family. It was believed to have a wood or rock frame then covered in packed red clay. These homes would have sat crowded on the perimeter of the courtyard/plaza which was below the mounds.

Here is a scale model to illustrate how the village was set up around the mounds. You can see the three main mounds. The tallest mound in the top right hand corner, which is equal to the height of a six story building, was where the temple was also housed the high priest and his family. The mound in the middle would have housed a lesser chief and possibly the council house was located there too. In the top left mound was the burial mound with about 350 graves, some excavated and some found with remote sensing equipment. Mostly all the graves now are found with remote sensing because the descendants hold the grave sites sacred and would be very displeased if they were disturbed. There is now a congressional act to protect that right too.

You can climb up to the top.

me in front of the mound at a distance.

Just to give you a sense of scale of how big the main mound is here are a few pictures above that try to demonstrate it's size.


Now if you're thinking that the village kind of looks like a Mayan one would than you're not the only one. There is a popular theory that some Mayans migrated from Mexico and settled in this area as well as along the Mississippi river valley where other mounds have been found. and if you compare the photos I have given with photos of a Mayan city than you could see a lot of resemblance. One example this theory may be correct is the fact that corn came from Mexico where it had been farmed for thousands of years. Also the inhabitants dug a large defensive ditch all the way around the village until it meet the river with palisades built on it to pick off enemies. Another theory though which still maintains settlers from Mexico, but an intermingling with other Indian Nations and that theory says hey, North American Indians were just as smart as the Mayans, as evidence with some of the art found at this site. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the artwork, but it's awesome! I tend to think the latter theory maybe the correct one just because of all of the evidence collected, you have Mayan style villages yet have examples of other cultures evident in the art work excavated from the graves. It's hard to tell for sure though because there is still a lot to find at this site and hopefully down the road they will better be able to tell who built the city.

Why I chose Christ

In my last post I talked a lot about magic, or a wizard that does magic. I don't believe in the type of magic that Harry Dresden does in the books nor in the kind that is in Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. I do however believe in other supernatural things. I believe there is a supernatural realm that we can't physically see and that there are things battling over our souls, but most importantly I believe in God and his son Jesus Christ as my savoir. This post will stating my decision to follow Christ and why I made it and everything that has shaped my faith into what it is today, I promise I will try not to be too preachy in the process.


The Early Years.
Let me start off by saying that I don't have some super dramatic conversion story, it all came about more subtle than that. My parents had already been going to church for a while before I was born, in fact that is where they first met, so I was pretty much brought up in the teachings of Christianity. When I was a child church to me was where I would meet up with my friends and sing, learn a little about God, but eventually run around and play. For the most part it was fun except for the fact that we had to go on Wednesday nights, that was the last place I wanted to be after going to school all day. Also I wasn't allowed believe in Santa Claus or watch some cartoon shows like  The Care Bear, The Smurfs, and He-man because they used magic. But that was the eighties church I guess and things were a lot more legalistic back then and looking back on it I don't think I missed out on much on those cartoons, except for maybe the care bears. When I was eight, I'm not sure if it was an Easter Sunday or what, but the pastor did an altar call for people to come up and get saved. I thought it was a good idea and I thought my parents might like it so me and some friends when up and got saved. At eight years old I pretty much knew the basics, if you get saved, you get into heaven where all your loved ones are. Also, Jesus died for our sins so we could get in to heaven.

When I was ten my family was a attending a different church that was a little more laid back. I could go out trick or treating finally and dress up, I could watch most cartoons an most importantly, power rangers. Ten was also the age when I got baptized and I remember it was a pretty good experience. I observed and studied the reasons for baptism and it all made sense to me, basically it meant washing your old life away and cleansing your spirit to live a new life for Christ.

Teenage Years...
Twelve and Thirteen were some pretty awkward years for me and I remember being a huge brat. My parents enrolled me into a private Lutheran school because they thought it would be better than a public school..... I made it through though and then in high school I ended up going to a public school anyway. I was never to concerned with God in the beginning of high school because I was more worried about trying to fit in. Eventually I found my niche with the theater crowd  towards my junior year I also started attending an early morning prayer group with a handful of other students in the high school, I started to understand the bible a little more and I was getting closer to God. My senior year trying to figure out my faith was interesting to say the least because I did stupid things to represent what I believed in and I stupidly dumped my girlfriend who did nothing but support me. There is this thing that I like to call "New believer Fever" where people who find their faith in God or rediscover their faith tend to start telling what their friends believe is evil....There is a right way to witness to people and there is a wrong way to witness to people, you're never going to win someone over with a threat, let's just put it that way. All of it pretty much flew out the window after high school though.

After High School and my early-ish 20's
The September after I graduated I had been back with my girlfriend for a few month and I was on the fence about school. My parents announced they would be moving to Massachusetts and I of course was not cool with that because I had established my life in Minnesota. My parents worked out a deal where if me and my brother paid the mortgage like rent than we could stay in the house, so that's what we did. It was going good for a while, my girlfriend and I were going to a church called Woodland Hills and it was awesome. It was probably the first time where I had a pastor that challenged us to believe that God actually wants us to think in Church. Challenged us not to just take someone's word on something but to really get down to the nitty gritty of how God works and works through us and all sorts of intellectual ideas.

The deal with the mortgage crashed though and my parents had to sell the house after 9 months of us trying to pay it. In June I moved to my friends house where his parents said I could stay until I found a place, well tow months passed with no luck and I was feeling the pressure to get out of there. I admitted defeat and moved out to Massachusetts to live with my parents. At that point I went into a depression and I was pretty mad at God for the way things had turned out and I again pretty much put him at the back of my mind again. Some times the discussion of faith was brought up and I would say yeah I'm a Christian, but I didn't live the life of one.

Living the life of a Christian? What does that actually mean?

There is the stereotype of the Christian person, someone life

Ned Flanders, or a Bible Thumping evangelical and don't get me wrong

those people exist, but I view it differently. To me when God calls us

to lead a different life he is asking us to leave things behind that

we already knew weren't very good for us in the first place and

other things that might be considered destructive to an individual.

I got a job and then I enrolled in a community college. I started hanging out with some people at work who I didn't fit in with very well but hey it was something to do, I also started drinking a lot. In college, or I should say in that college I made some pretty good friends but I also participated in some very questionable behavior and things got messed up for a little bit. Then I moved to Salem and I was going to try and do school and live with some roommates, but we just ended up partying and spending our money at the bars and doing other stupid stuff. It was a confusing time, very confusing time and God was pretty much no where to be seen. Then I met a girl who offered something different and I moved away from that kind of life especially when I found out I knocked her up. Having Ethan changed things, but even though I thanked God everyday for Ethan things for 3 years between his mother and I were not that great for a variety of reasons. There were times when I was just so angry with where I was in life that I would yell at God in my head. His mother and I split up and I moved back to MA and at this point I didn't know what to do, here I was 26 years old living at my parents place with a child that lives out of the state and no job to support him.

Something changed though, my sister who has always been a big Jesus freak had recommended a book by Brennan Manning called "Ruthless Trust" all about trusting God and how freaking hard it was to do so. It was about half way through where I realized that hey, maybe I should actually listen to God  and once I did that, one I made that decision, things went from night to day almost immediately. Sure things were still a little tough, but I had gotten a job and was able to support my son and I also met my wife during this time period. Eventually I moved down to Georgia to be with her and we built our relationship using God as a foundation and he's proven to be solid. I enrolled in school again and that is going exceptionally well because I have is support. Just because I follow Christ doesn't mean I'm always going to be happy, it doesn't mean I'm always going to be successful, in fact God says in the Bible that "In this life you will have trouble". Going from 8 to 28 my thoughts about heaven and hell and life and death have totally evolved and I'm sure they will continue to evolve. In the end I chose to Christ because he has always been there for me, no matter how far away I got he was always there to say hello again. I'm sure in the future there will be things I struggle with about God, but that's normal, as humans we are suppose to do that, it means we are learning to understand him better, the very name Israel means "To wrestle with God". He'll always be there though if you let him.

Harry Dresden: Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

Discovery.

Where to start when talking about one of my most favorite literary character's of "The Dresden Files"? From the beginning I suppose. I was first introduced to the wizard a little late in the game when several of the novels had been out already. The Syfy channel (then Sci-Fi, and good...) bought the rights to make it into a television series. The advertisements had peaked my interest because they showed this guy who happened to be a wizard in modern Chicago and I wasn't aware of the sub-genre of urban fantasy yet. Anyways, it looked like a promising program. My first clue that it was going to be a bad series should have been when I saw in the opening credits that Nicolas Cage was a producer, but I didn't know any better then yet. The acting wasn't bad though, they cast a British guy Paul Blackthorne to play Harry, and let's face it British actors are superior. However there was something missing in the show and it was in the writing. They didn't seem to treat the source material seriously and it reflected in the scripts. Also the made his wizard's staff a hockey stick which I thought was dumb even though I like hockey enough. Like any show with crappy writing the show only lasted one semi-season of 12 disappointing episodes. Needless to say the show left a bad taste in my mouth and I thought if the show was that bad than books might not be that great either, obviously I didn't know much about Hollywood then and their history of bastardizing works of literature.

Re-discovery.

I forgot about The Dresden Files for along time after that, I think for about 2 or 3 years actually until I hit the internet one night. I was reading some article on one of the Twilight films at one of the forums I frequent and I decided to let loose a reasonable argument of why Edward Cullen was not a true gentleman, and stupid, in the comments section. However I was beat to the punch by somebody else and she said a better example of a gentleman was Harry Dresden, a man who was so chivalrous that it often was what got him in serious trouble. I thought to myself that I should try to give the books another chance especially if someone was using them to bash Twilight. Twilight stinks. Again though I forgot about the books for a while and instead I read the Watchmen which I got as a gift. Then I read a pretty good Christian book called Ruthless Trust, but after those two I read the official sequel to Dracula which stunk to the high heavens. After that I was yearning for a good book and finally I picked up the first novel in the Dresden Files series called Storm Front and I could not put it down, thus started my obsession. I read all of the published 13 books in about nine months.

Harry.

What I like about Harry is that he doesn't compromise on his values. That quality also is what gets him in trouble though. Being a wizard private detective dealing with the supernatural sometimes you might need to find a gray area, but not in Harry's case. With his sense of integrity he has burned a lot of bridges between beings he could have had a reasonable relationship with, even if had meant looking the other way on things he didn't like, but he doesn't have a problem with those burnt bridges. His black and white viewpoints also have alienated the wizarding council he belongs to. The council prefers to keep a bureaucratic and sometimes blind eye approach to diplomacy, where as Harry would just rather do the right thing. He would rather do the right thing so much that one of his most powerful enemies, mocking him, made Harry a headstone that reads "Here lies Harry Dresden: He died doing the right thing". Harry's sense of integrity has also built up a lot of strong and loyal friendships like Karen Murphy, a Chicago police detective, and some truly unlikely allies in within the supernatural world of the books, like his own army of magical sprites who call him The "Za Lord" due to his payment of pizza's to them and the "Knights of the Cross" who are like holy warriors who brandish special swords supposedly sent from God.

Another thing about Harry is that he has absolutely no idea just how powerful he actually is. With every book he does things more and more powerful than the last, which is normal obviously for story progression reasons, but they all have so much substance and yet simplicity to them. I think a lot of the other wizards know how strong he is though, especially on the council and they dare not reveal it to him because I think they are scared of him or what he could do if he every realized it. He can cast huge spells yes, but that's not where all his power lies, he is also smart as a whip and a great improviser. With one of his most powerful spells he pretty much started a war with the vampires and with one of his most powerful ideas he ended the war. His steadfast loyalty to his friends also give him power and it gives them power in return he is constantly risking his life to saves the ones he loves.

I know what you're saying. "but it's a fantasy book". I realize that a lot of people these days might not take fantasy to seriously, but the author Jim Butcher really has built up a solid and strong character as well as a world within these books. Jim Butcher also spent a lot of time researching old fairy tales and myths of several cultures to incorporate into the books and uses them smartly. He is also geek friendly, he was inspired by a lot of the values JRR Tolkien wrote about in The Lord of the Rings, and he has a background playing D&D, but he doesn't really use that kind of writing style, that is to say he doesn't say things like "and then gorgoth summoned flimboz of the eternal flame to smite his enemies!". In fact he makes light of that kind of thing in one book which where he is confronting a billy goat gruff (yes that's what I said)

"Would thou likest Jelly upon they donut?"

"Nay, prithee sprinkles 'pon it, and frosting of white."

Anyways there are a lot of times when I find myself laughing out loud, or saying what the fudge, and even tearing up a little. If you have ever flirted with the idea of reading fantasy or urban fantasy than I strongly recommend you start with The Dresden Files.