Memorable Holidays (14)

I enjoy most holidays, but probably my least favorite holiday would be Halloween. In 2004 I was in a city just outside of London on the 31^st of October. It was a chore trying to get to sleep that evening, as there were firecrackers and bottle rockets going off every five seconds. The doorbell sounded numerous times as hopeful hooligans roamed from house to house. That was not a fun night. Thankfully no rigged one up anything to my uncle’s new car and we departed several days later with an unharmed vehicle.

My most favorite holiday falls on the 21^st of March. Oh, wait — maybe that’s not an official holiday. Ok, I like New Year’s Eve. In the most recent years I have started staying up to experience the changing of one year into another through the progression of a single second.

2005 was almost over, and my sisters and I decided we would stay up until midnight, to witness the death of the old year and the birth of the new. About an hour from the time of new beginnings, we lapsed into a state of lethargy, punctuated by senseless laughing. The seconds slogged by until finally the last of the millions of seconds that had paraded past alongside the year 2005 exited the stage of time. My sisters and I watched breathlessly as the trembling hand in the clock lingered for a moment in the fleeing past. Then, as if with enthusiastic resolve, the needle leaped forward into the bold new future. 2006 had arrived.

Of course we don’t have one of those fancy atomic clocks. It probably had turned 2006 five minutes before. The three of us stumbled off to bed. What excitement!

Temperance - Good for the Man, Bad for the Can (13)

Drinking, a problem that dates back to Noah, continues to have a degrading effect on society. Unfortunately, teenagers like to experiment with alcohol and end up wasting their health and lives away. An issue that was brought up in the U.S. News & World Report October 8, 2007 edition showed the problems that are coming up because of underage drinking parties. Some states are producing legislation that will hold parents accountable for their teens’ drinking. Severe fines and time behind bars are some of the penalties for parents not being careful enough.

The so-called social host are aimed at reducing underage drinking. I’m inclined to agree with the lawmakers. Teens must have a tangible evidence of why drinking is bad. However, stricter rules may just push underage drinking underground. Parents should be held responsible for their children’s harmful habits because it is the parents’ responsible to raise their children correctly. However there should be a means of transferring the adverse consequences of that responsible onto the children (community service hours, etc.).

The long-term effects of parents allowing their children to drink at home will be slightly worse than the effects of teens drinking outside the home. Teens will be lacking a positive example from which to base their adult lives off of. There is only one real solution to the problem of underage drinking: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6.

The Magnitude of Greatness (11)

Potential energy is a good comparison of the potential greatness in everybody. An ball lying a hillside has potential energy; this potential energy would be translated into kinetic, or working energy if the ball was pushed and it started rolling down the hill. In a similar manner, human beings have the potential to be great. That potential is there, but something needs release it and translate it into working greatness.

Now I'm not arguing the inherent goodness of man. Man is evil, but when an outside force intervenes, man can fulfill the potential to become great. Now what is greatness? Greatness is seen in the man that glorifies his Creator. Greatness is achieved by improving every opportunity that the Creator gives. The hand reaches out and pushes the ball. The ball has a choice to continue rolling - or not to.

Tighten Your Seatbelts (12)

If it weren't for those unintelligent seatbelt designers, I wouldn't be stuck in this pickle. With the average girth of the population is increasing, guys like me who have 30" waists are having a hard time tightening our belts. Or seatbelts in this case.

Having just acquired my pilot's license, I decided to explored my expanding horizons in a different plane than the one I had trained in. Heading down to the the local flying club, I had an instructor give me a checkride to make sure I could fly the plane, and then I was off. After opening my flight plan I proceeded on course to an airport about 50 nm away (nice short hop for a new pilot).

I wasn't expecting much turbulence, and that's where the seatbelt problem came in. Apparently the turbulence was expecting me. Somehow I'd chosen to fly the Jungle-Plane Hippopotamus Edition (not the aircraft's real name) and I had naively disregarded the fact that I could fit four of myself in the seat after tightening the seatbelt as much as I could. Hey, a small circuit around the airport doesn't really have any bumps, unless you make terrible landings.

But now I find myself alone in the cockpit at 12,000 ft, being knocked around the cabin like a marble in a tin can. It's amazing that I'm still conscious after banging my head for 20 minutes. I remember a grey roll of sticky stuff I had left in my flight bag. Never thought it would have such use. And that's how I ended up duct-taped to my airplane seat.

Small People - Big Waves (10)

When Andrew Larochelle, an 17-year-old Ohio Eagle Scout, received the flag that he had requested to be flown over the White House, he discovered that the reference to God on the certificate had been removed. Larochelle was planning to give it to his grandfather, but that vital element was missing. Andrew wrote to his congressman and succeeded in influencing the Architect of the Capitol to reverse the ban on religious expressions on flag certificates; they concluded the personalized message belongs to the individual and is not a public matter. While only being a high school student, Andrew Larochelle stood up for something he believed in and took the matter right on up to Capitol Hill, even though he was just a kid like the rest of us at W.A. Seemingly insignificant people matter a whole lot. In the words of Dr. Seuss, "A person is a person, no matter how small."

References:
FoxNews
The Columbus Dispatch

When You Gotta Go. . . Don't At To McDonald's (9)

Necessity is sometimes the mother of embarrassment. I was on lunch break during a colporteuring blitz and I stopped by a McDonald's to visit the restroom. To my dismay, I discovered an "Out of Order" sign on the men's room. Beneath the bold words were the following lines: "You can use the ladies' room." Oh joy. I went and locked myself into the ladies' room. As I was washing my hands, the thing I was dreading happened.
Somebody started yanking on the locked door handle. Because the men's restroom was further down the hall, the people that would normally use the ladies' restroom would never see the "Out of Order" sign. What was this lady going to think when I unbarred the door and sauntered out? There was no escape. I flipped the latch and came out with a sheepish look on my face. Her relieved expression turned to one of mild horror.
"The men's room was out of order," I hurriedly explained.
The face once again showed relief. I quickly exited the building, trying to leave the annoying experience back with all the trans fat and other unhealthful things in McDonald's. So much for waiting for lunch break to go.