The Price of Leadership

The Bounty has been lost. . . again.  I first heard about the problems the Bounty was having early Monday morning as the initial reports came out and I followed the progress of her loss and the rescue of most of her crew with rapt fascination.  It’s an interesting quirk of human nature that I seemed to feel worse over the loss of her two crew members than I did for the dozens who died in the Caribbean as a result of the same hurricane, but that is a “Penn” for a different time.  Charitably I will say that was the result of my time at sea.

The interesting thing for me is the people who were on dry land, often behind a desk who have questioned the decisions of Captain Robin Walbridge.  The tragic loss of the vessel and at least one crewmember will probably be laid at the feet of Captain Walbridge. How often do we hear the term “Captain error” or “Pilot error”?  And that is the price of leadership. 

Sometimes leaders make the right decisions and sometimes they make the wrong decisions, but we have entrusted them to make those decisions and until we have stood in their shoes we are only guessing at how we would have reacted.  Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible. 

Shameful . . .

So, did you vote last week?  Probably not, since we were told that less than half those who were eligible to vote actually cast a ballot.  And if you fall in that category it is shameful and inexcusable.  People say “But Denn you don’t understand,  I didn’t know the issues or candidates.”  Well, whose fault is that?  Others say “I just didn’t have the time.”  Yet you had time for Facebook and television.  Still other’s maintain that it doesn’t make a difference. Well it most certainly does, just watch the news and see what happens when people can’t vote.  And in this election it was so easy to cast a ballot.  If you didn’t have a car, a candidate would have driven you, if you didn’t want to leave the house you could have voted online, if you didn’t have the interweb thingy, you could have voted by phone.  Shameful and inexcusable. 

But that is just my opinion.  The Bible never told us that we had to vote for those in power, but it did tell us to pray for those in power, regardless of whether you voted for them or not.  And if we don’t do that, not only is it shameful and inexcusable, it is disobedient.  Just saying.  Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible. 

Going Up?

Faster than the speed of sound!  This week, Austrian extreme athlete, Felix Baumgartner, became the first human to break the sound barrier.  Well, the first human to break the sound barrier without an airplane. 

“Fearless Felix” jumped from a capsule that more than 38 kilometers above the earth and before deploying his parachute he reached a speed of 1,342.8 km/h, which broke the sound barrier — 1,200 km/h.  Baumgartner’s jump broke the previous record that had been set in 1960 by US Air force Colonel Joe Kittinger.  Which was the year I was born. 

Very few if any of us will ever have the chance to break the sound barrier, at least not on the way down but maybe on the way up. The word of God tells us that someday the church, the bride of Christ, will disappear in the twinkling of an eye to be with Jesus. We don’t know if it will happen in our lifetime or not, but it might, and the question always has to be “Will you be ready to go?”  And going up will be even cooler than coming down, and so I leave you with this thought, “I trust that I’ll See you there or in the air.”      Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

Happy Thanksgiving

So, how was your Thanksgiving?  We had a full house this year. My folks were here from Saint John, our daughter and her family we up from Shelburne,  and we had some time with our son and his girlfriend in the Valley on Saturday.  We did the traditional feast on Monday and will eat leftovers for a good part of the week.  Thanksgiving was good, and we had a riot with the grandkids.  But it was a busy weekend, with a trip to the Valley on Saturday, three services on Sunday and the feast on Monday. I wonder how much time I really had for giving thanks.  And I have much to be thankful for, especially as I look around at the rest of the world, and I don’t just mean material blessings.  I love my wife and I love my life and there’s a lot to be said in that statement.   Often though I take those things  for granted, or worse, take them as my due.    

I’m not going to make promises about how next Thanksgiving weekend will be less rushed because  it won’t be.  But I am going to try really hard through the year to say “thank you” more to my family, my friends and my God. Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

It's Just a Matter of Time

The Toronto District School Board insists that it’s not endorsing polygamy.  In a recent promotion to help prevent “gender-based violence”, the school board’s website has a poster with the message “Love has no gender” in white capital letters surrounded by various hearts containing stick figure people.  In one of the hearts, there is an image of a man with two women; in another, two women with one man. 

Sounds like polygamy to me, but apparently not, at least not according to the school board.  “First, the board does not support polygamy,” said TDSB spokesman Ryan Bird. “The images in question were meant to support an individual's right to choose whom they love, regardless of gender. For example, the reason for depicting two women and one man was meant to show that a person can be attracted to more than one gender.”  That clarifies their stand, it would be wrong for a man to have a relationship with two women but all right for a woman to have a relationship with a man and a woman.  

It’s good to know that those who educate children would never endorse polygamy but have no problem endorsing bisexuality.  But really, polygamy is only a matter of time.    Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.