Monday Morning Reflections

"Awakening"

It was a beautiful weekend in Fort Worth with temperatures in the 70's, but we are paying for it this morning with the of the day already here at 41 degrees. This does not dampen my mood as this means more coffee, donuts and hot fresh food out the door in sales for today, woo hoo! A and I were evaluating our progress on Saturday afternoon finding that we were both well pleased with our progress. We have the key elements in place for the most part and the rest is training and polishing the rough spots. Our new hires have bought into the program 100% as expected, performing at or exceeding the standards we have set. The store is running well day and night with a tremendously positive response from our public. As we hone our skills in this store we are already in the planning stages for our second location. I would say within six months we will have a second location ready to open. To see your words on paper in action coming to fruition is truly a marvelous thing to behold. It reaffirms my decision to leave a good thing in Arkansas to build a better thing here in my home town.

In President-elect Obama's weekly address he focuses on the housing crunch with his announcement of his choice for the HUD cabinet position:



This is the Soulforce video response to the prop 8 / Gay Marriage battle:



I got a couple of Christmas cards over the weekend when I finally found time to check my snail mail box. One was from my buddy Ryan over at Boys Are Ugly which I was expecting and the other was from a totally unexpected source. The card came from my youngest niece, my older brother's daughter. She is somewhat challenged in life but a sweet girl none the less who works as a teacher's aide in the Irving school district near her home with her mother. She said she loved me and missed me. This is the first contact from anyone in my blood kin this year and the card came directly to this address so maybe there is hope on the family front. After all is Christmas not the Season of Hope?

With such a great weekend behind me, and a busy week ahead at the store, I guess I could not be more happy with where I am at right now. This is a good place to be, even if it is Monday. Speaking of which, Monday's Model Men are coming right up to jump start your week. Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Sexy Santa of the Day

Poetry, "Prophets" and Politics

Surfing At Teahupoo, Tahiti

We are certainly feeling more inspired this morning as compared to yesterday. I had a good day shopping around for upgrades for my computer and surfing around to various places on the net. I should be able to triple my operating speed for a couple hundred dollars which is totally within the budget for this check. This will enable me to be more productive during the hours I spend at the keyboard which means it will be quicker and more enjoyable to bring exciting content to you here. In the process of surfing the net I stopped by my MySpace page and found a bulletin from one of my friends there, DJIce. He had posted his latest poem which I thought was beautiful. I contacted him for permission to post it for you guys and he graciously assented.


Rainbow Bridge
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.



When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.


There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.


There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.



All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.


The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.



They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.



You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.



Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together......

I posted earlier about the SoulForce American Family Outing which is going on as we speak. The SoulForce crew made a stop in my old stomping grounds where they met with the folks at T D Jake's The Potter's House one of the larger mega churches around set on a serene hill next to Dallas Baptist University (no association other than location) in Southeastern Dallas County. The following is a report of their experience there and at another mega church whose pastor is Harry Jackson, Jr where the reception was quite different.

A Spirit of Integrity and a Gospel of Deception: The Starkly Different Theologies of Bishops T.D. Jakes and Harry Jackson, Jr.

Both Bishop T.D. Jakes and Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. are vibrant African American pastors with large multicultural congregations and enormous influence over portions of America's faith community. Yet their behavior toward the families of the American Family Outing has been very different.

Bishop Jakes and Bishop Jackson received similar letters from Soulforce and our partnering organizations in December, 2007, and March, 2008. Both letters asked the bishops to participate in a time of fellowship -- to break bread and have conversation with same-gender families. (Links to letters below.)

Bishop T.D. Jakes and his staff responded to our letters with honesty and integrity. During our visit, we felt true Christian hospitality and a willingness to engage those with whom they differ with respect and dignity. Bishop Jakes personally telephoned Jeff Lutes to thank him for the positive manner in which Soulforce had approached him for dialogue and he agreed that further conversation was important. The welcome offered to our visiting group was consistent with Bishop Jakes' CNN.com commentary (April 14, 2008) in which he wrote:

"It has always been my goal and purpose to be a bridge builder and to not build walls. It is in that spirit that I would plead with the church to seek common ground rather than to focus on irrelevant and often erroneous information that seeks to divide."

The experience with Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. was markedly different. Bishop Jackson called Jeff Lutes on May 2, 2008, and agreed to our written request for dinner, conversation, and worship with members of his church. In a charming and friendly tone, he asked that we simply call his staff with the total number of people in our party so they could prepare the appropriate amount of food. Then, on May 21, 2008, three days before the meeting, Jackson's High Impact Leadership Coalition issued a press release falsely claiming that Soulforce was planning a protest and demonstration outside his church and that he had invited us to dinner and a "debate." On Friday night, May 23, twenty-four hours before the dinner, Soulforce received an email from Hope Christian outlining a specific debate-style format in which each group would ask eight questions to the other. Nonetheless, our courageous and beautiful LGBT families proceeded in the spirit of love and nonviolence.

Bishop Jackson concluded the meeting with the following remarks:

"I want to thank you tonight for coming. Again, if you had not invited us originally, if you had not insisted on the dialogue, it never would have happened. And I am thankful for the spirit in which you have said you were going to operate and in which you have operated thus far. Again, we did not know whether you were coming in peace or whether you were coming with a sword. We had no way of knowing that, we really didn't. And so we are very thankful for this opportunity to dialogue with you, and I believe that we have learned quite a bit from this time together."

In contrast to the conciliatory tone of these remarks, Bishop Jackson then granted a Tuesday, May 27 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, called our families "irrational," and falsely characterized the spirit of our meeting.

When we reach out to mega-church congregations in a spirit of nonviolence, we commit to interacting with authenticity and openness. At times, when our interlocutors are in the grip of misinformation so profound that they do not treat us with respect and integrity, it is tempting to close up, to withdraw, to become defensive -- and yet we persist. Why? Not because we are naïve, but because we believe that, ultimately, no misinformation or slander can obscure the goodness and authenticity of our families and our quest for justice.

Video of Bishop Harry Jackson with our Families and CBN Interview Afterwards

Letter to T.D. Jakes</strong>, Letter to Harry Jackson, Second Letter to Hope Christian

Another surf on the net brought me to my You Tube page where I checked my subscriptions and found the following video of Barack Obama speaking in Montana about the war in Iraq. I like listening to this man. He seems to be saying all the right things and looking more and more presidential all the time while the other candidates are self immolating or sticking their foot in their mouth so far they are chewing on their knee caps. After the video you will find today's selections in the eye candy section. Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Barack On Iraq