Passing of a Manic Mechanic...

Due to the passing of Robert Sprole, my Father-in-Law, I have not posted for awhile.

The absence of our live-in Grandpa figure has caused a few rearrangements in our domestic scene.

The experience of grief, all too commonly human, occurred. Dad Sprole called us into his room two days before he died, telling us that this was it and he wanted us to know that he loved us all. Each of the kids spoke to him and assured him of their love as did Lillian and myself. The next days were days of vigil for Lillian and I. I had the privilege of sitting with Dad as he left behind the tent of his spirit. One moment he was asking for help to sit up, which I helped him with and then when he settled back down, he took some deep breaths and then was very quiet. Still is a much better word for that was all. I called the Hospice service and they came out and confirmed
it.

The local cremation society took the body and did what Dad Sprole wished and had set up beforehand. Later on, we will take Dad and Mom Sprole's Urns up North and inter them.

We called him the "Manic Mechanic". He always had to be doing a project at the hottest time of the year here in Florida, the summer! He couldn't figure out why no one wanted to help him work in the garden when the weather was in the 90 to 100 degree range. During the cooler months of the year he just settled for more quiet pursuits. It wasn't just gardening either that he was into. I noticed a trend with him. He would try to invent projects where there was no need, just to be engaged in what he liked best to do-tinkering.

Two summers ago, in Orlando area, we were able to get him to a private aircraft hanger where a club of collectors maintained 5 or 6 mustangs of the type Dad used to fix at Bodley, UK air base in WWII. He was ecstatic. The club owners were great. How animated they became when I told them that I had an actual mechanic who worked on their planes when they were new and in original condition! They welcomed us into their private domain and man did that hanger floor shine! Any oil spills were immediately phasered away or whatever magic they used to keep the museum quality of that hall of preserved flight. Then we saw a couple of the planes fly by.

Last Autumn, Lillian took her Dad up North and then down to DC to see relatives, a last jaunt as it were. We offered him a trip out West but he chose family!

Our family's lives were enriched by this mechanical gentlemen, our live-in Grandpa, Robert Sprole. His years were 93 and full. He experienced the Model T right up through the Space Age. He outlived all his generational siblings. He often wondered why he had been spared and we always told him, he was spared for us! We have been and always will be blessed.

Time and again, I have heard it said that I am "a nice guy". So who do we blame for our temperament? Those of you who are new to the whole Christian scene may or may not know that one's Temperament is a very popular way of psychoanalyzing one within Evangelical Christianity. This idea developed during the middle ages from earlier Pagan Concepts visible amongst Greek philosophy and culture and brewed along by the Islamic Moorish conquest as well as early Church Father's admiration of the rationalizations of Greek P. and C. The Catholic Medieval establishment basically baptized the whole Greek cosmology and and etc. and so you get a human anatomy divided up into 4 parts like the Greek Cosmos was divided up into Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. We no longer accept this view point as accurate, yet Evangelical Christians have bought hook, line and sinker that we have Black Bile, Green Bile, Phlegm, and and these four liquids rule and define our nature. The most popular names who use these labels would be Tim La Haye and his wife Beverly La Haye (who often lectures ladies on this topic) and even Dr. James Dobson, renowned Child Psychologist.

It seems that some people feel that a modernist, scientific basis for analyzing our strengths and weaknesses in character would contradict scripture, so let's settle for something which has no basis in medical science. We do not advocate cures as Christians based on draining excess or Bile or Phlegm so why do we buy La Hayes' Christian Pop-Psychoanalysis as Biblical or even laudable? We no longer use offensive terms once popular in society to describe certain groups of individuals even though long cultural use seemed to lend us the right to do so. Why then would we still label someone as Choleric or Sanguine when we know good and well, there are plenty of Good English words which are not based on the science of people who accepted a flat earth.

Well, now you have heard me rant! Still think I am a "nice guy"?

Steve Cornell

Celebrating Life's Meaning...

We celebrated Easter (or Resurrection Sunday as some want to call it) with our 2 house church groups meeting at our neighborhood park down by Sarasota Bay. There were about 18 of us representing both the Sunday evening group and the Wednesday evening group. There were Three families and the rest were singles. We talked and talked around the picnic tables and camp chairs and there was even a reporter from the local paper. She was investigating House/Simple church for her paper's coverage of the issue of alternative forms of doing church/faith/Christianity. Already the past week she had interviewed me as I am, in a way, internet spokesperson for our groups. She was able to speak to the leader of the Sunday group, John, and to a missionary who is supported by our group who was there with us.

Flash! Guess how much more money the churches could give away if they didn't have buildings to support and/or clergy to pay salaries to?

Anyway, we ate together, celebrated communion together, and prayed for each other all down by the bay! And I promise you, we kept it simple and people got blessed!

Hope your time was Blessed as well!
Steve Cornell

Come July, I will have been married for 30 years. I like to say this in large and even small groups, just for effect. I realize that I am in the minority.
Also, we have managed to accumulate a family plus a live-in Grandpa.
The illustration drawn by my daughter Kristy shows what happens when Mom and Dad are away from home!

The truth is, I think they do just fine! My son and I just got back from an overnight camping in nearby Myakka State Park where there are 8 Alligators for every camper. (That was a very rough guesstimate.)

After my unemployment, my wife, Lillian, and I came to a decision. Whoever could snag a decent job would work and the other person would stay home and be house parent and domestic engineer as well as helpful person for our "living treasure", my Father-in-Law.

After months of nothing, both of us snagged interviews with situations which were reasonable at first glance. There we were competing with each other, whether we wanted it or not. But it turned out that the benefits for Lil's situation would be better than mine and so, if I can snag a part time situation 3 to 4 nights a week, together, we can make a living without doing too much damage to the domestice ship of state, Deo Volente. Now I just have to let down the people who were nice enough to interview me.

Our decision on who would (in Lil's case after a 20 year hiatus) go back to work, was fairly harmonious and complimentarian after much prayer. It seems neither of us likes the casting of the die, the making of decisions, and rather than melt down, prayer seems like more than just a shot in the dark. In fact, experientially, over the years, it has paid off handsomely in results.
It usually begins with the 2 of us huddled together, hand-in-hand, admitting to God that we have done all our homework and we're stuck. Unitedly casting our anxieties at God, we await the events of our small history to prove, once again, that there is someone out there. We get solutions.

What do you do when you run out of solutions? Options exist. Do they help or harm your relationship? I know, it's a blog-you didn't order a quiz! But, given the collapse of many relationships in our present world, any light in the darkness may be helpful.

May it shine on you tonight!
Steve Cornell

Well, seeing how my one and only critic of choice, Lillian, has made clear her belief that I am just way too out there and vague and "the big picture" for the reading public, I am now going to try to do exactly what my English Professors used to tell us to do in writing and "Be Specific". Otherwise, we faced the prospect of having BS all over our papers in red ink! I am increasingly of the opinion that nobody is actually reading my blogs!
I know, I know, this hits all bloggers like me after a few weeks of sticking our electrons out there in hyperspace and wondering why noone writes back and responds and etc. and so forth.

So I need to get down to data and let you know that back in the 1970s a strange eclectic group was being mixed up. These folk were the results of the Baby Boom and the "Hip/Beat" generation, as well as being surrounded by the Vietnam War experience. We were chased by gurus and Jesus freaks and fundamentalists and Liberals. I remember visiting Toronto and being pamphleted by doyens of a group called the Church of the Processeans. They claimed that since Jesus stated "Love your enemies", and Satan was Jesus' enemy that at the Cross the two reconciled and now were coming together in these "last days" to preach Love and Reconciliation!

No, I didn't escape from my High School tour group and buy a black robe complete with hood and big cross on necklace and go burn incense with them. My personal spiritual journey did not change from what I learned within my community of faith as far as the message I came to accept as from God. What did change was my willingness to accept the "wrappings" of the message.
I still affirm the relationship of mentoring my Pastor began with me which filled in not just informational blanks but he led me to spirituality within which I could see the desires and directions that God was asking me to live in. I could also see "it" in the lives of my parents when they were stretched and stressed and the "real life" came spilling out. In times of family crisis we turned to prayer. What I did leave behind were the buildings, the titles, the organizational bureacracy that turns relationship with God into a institution.

This journey took awhile. But the man I am today was still there as a teenager, spiritually, at 14, 15, 16. I called people my fellow religionists who were Baptists, Assembly of God, Presbyterians, Nazarenes, Methodists, Holiness, and other smaller non-descript or now defunct organizations.

I was advising my homeroom teacher on the dangers of Astral Travel when others were wowed by his yogic ways. I spoke concerned from my heart to him and said, "there are spirits and Spirits, you know". I said this, not because I had experienced Eckankar or Scientology or any of the other great Divine smorgasbord we Americans pride ourselves or sue each other over. I said it because he was using "new age" religion the way some folks take or booze.

He assured me he was "okay". But he never accused me of arrogance and there seemed to be a mutual respect although he felt I was a bit naive and could get my feelings hurt.

I actually believe that Jesus and his sent Apostles have words which communicate the work of God to be accomplished by specific people on the planet not just in the first century but now and always. I read what was said then and find that if I listen today I hear things which are never contradictory with what He spoke in the past.

I am committed to doing the most simplistic of faith expression today available. To that end tonight, 2 groups got together for Pot luck and fellowship. We do this once a month and have smaller groups which meet, one on Wednesday nights, and one on Sunday nights.

No denomination, no titles, no salaries, no overhead. Imagine the good that could be done if nobody has to worry about a building to maintain or a bureacracy to feed! And you could start this in your home! And I don't even have to know about it. (But I'd love to, if you want to tell about it). We enjoy praying for other groups. Since it's bigger than us, it's not all about us!

Ah, Blessed relief!
and Blessings on you and yours,
Steve C.

Methinks they doth protest too much...

Scientists Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan have something in common. It seems from their presentations in both the mass media and in their writings that civilization as we know it is in desperate
need of salvation from religion. These fellows are sure that people of faith have checked the grey matter at the door and entered all areas of life ill equipped.

Having rediscovered an old High School chum recently who works as a biologist for the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Service, one who is a living ecologist (her practice matches her profession), I was reassured by her that she is a person of faith and believes in a designer, a creator, a mind behind the seeming randomness (not that it seems random to me IMHO).

I am slow to blow her cover because while her child attends a private school of a Christian persuasion, both her and her husband (he is also employed in a similar profession) are not in the favorite flavor of the day amongst "Creationists." That is, they accept evolution as a mechanism of the Creator and an old date derived from Scientific method for planet origin. If you are reading this and want to get out the ropes the stakes and the matches for my friends, include me in, also. I am an "old earther". But I also know one thing that neither Dawson nor Sagan seem ready to admit. Billions of years is not too long for 6 interuptive acts of "terraforming" our environment so that Homo Sapiens would be able to thrive! (That is how I read Genesis chapter one!) But Darwin's scheme of Macroevolution by without causation outside the process, would take Trillions of years. We know this know thanks to the Science of Microbiology According to Dr. Hugh Ross' book, Creation and Time.

Do Ross' writings aid my argument and float my desired biases? Sure, I am willing to state that publicly. Do Dawkins and Sagan get emotional and wax all philosophical in their anti-religious crusade? Seems that way to me! But Let's not rush to judgement. I think it was that dangerous religious zealot, Jesus of Nazareth, who forbade his followers from condemning others hastily and instead posited a God who would judge with equity and true justice. So I suppose the best thing for this teapot tempest would be to "give it up" to the ultimate arbiter of the universe and I don't mean chance.

Peace on the planet
and Good Will towards all Sincere Scientia,

Steve Cornell

Part of a Revolution...

First of, let me give credit where it's due! This installation's decoration is due entirely to the artistic talent of my Daughter Kristy. You can view her best efforts at the website Deviant Art.com. She would prefer it if you would view it there as she goes through a painstaking process (ah, how artists suffer for their art) which winds up with her posting her final products on that site. Why they have to be Deviant about it, well, it just
shows that I am no longer 15 but 50 + at last.

Well, to view the art you would have to know her site name "Tlan". Search for that and her art site will show up! Remember if you see something at other sites that shock you she is only responsible for her art and not for others.

She also did the Cabin in the woods item I previously posted but she considers it primitive and not worthy of her present state of artisitic expressions. I, ignorant parent, though I am, believe that anything she does is just wonderful. Therefore I no longer count in the serious critic category and have no artistic sense what so ever!

Next time, I will go all spiritual on you as you have no doubt expected me to do sooner or later so Be Warned! Next time: Spooky Steve strikes again!

Last week the neighbor across the street approached Lillian asking for advice. His wife suffered with dementia and was not taking meals that he had prepared for her. She was not even moving out of her easychair. Lillian took a couple of those nutritional shake-drinks we had for her Father who is 93 and still mentally very bright. She was able to give her one and make an appointment with the neighbor to take the disabled lady to the emergency room the next morning.

However that night the gentleman got worried, called his son who told him to call 911. She left our neighborhood in an ambulance and did not come back. It turned out that she had Pneumonia and it was in such state that she died in Hospital.

So, this weekend, son, daughter, cousins, kids, grandkids, several neighbors descended on the house across the street on Saturday for a memorial in their backyard. My wife and I attended and the clergyperson who spoke was a neighbor who no longer lives here but knew the family.
The topic was the love exhibited through the life of the woman who was Mother, Grandmother,
Aunt, Sister, and neighbor. Scripture was cited 3 times, skillfully blended into the life story. Then, after a recitation of the Lord's Prayer and a benediction, folks were welcomed into the house for meal.

A couple observations:
As part of a movement throughout Christianity at this time in history known as "house church", "Simple Church", or "Organic Church" (and if you "Google" any of those three descriptives you will get enough to fill you in), a memorial service in someone's home is not unexpected to me or my family.

The Clergy person spoke with me afterwards and confessed that she doesn't do this "religious" stuff anymore regularly (though she was going to perform a niece's baptism later on that day) and asked me what "tradition" my clergy affiliations were. I am guessing this will produce enough grist for at least two more blogs!

A Wiccan shaman once told me that if I tried to do House Church, I should watch out. When he tried to do the same for his Coven, someone turned him in for zoning violations. Well, that did not happen and the future, and everything else, including you, my friend is

In God's Hands,
Steve Cornell

Part of the problem with a place named paradise by those who only visit or who never do, is that those who inhabit same for awhile discover the pitfalls hidden around the palm trees.

And no, I don't refer to gators. But if you do come here and have a pet whose total dimensions are less than those of a horse, do not, I repeat, do not let them roam free. Gators love to snack on creatures smaller than they are. This is well documented by columnists in newspapers who love to make fun of their home state.

My problem with paradise is that it frequently gets pegged by the weather prognosticators as "hurricane bait". That is, if you stick your nose out too far, it might get hit. Last time I looked at a map, Florida looks like a cartoon version of Jimmy Durante and the schnozz is poking right out into a tropical body of water. So we have been labeled in the minds of those who make money on predicting stuff (including insurance actuarials), as the area most likely to. After the Katrina year we knew it would be coming. Hurricanes and Florida never were any big deal, but now that we can actually say hurricanes may hit anywhere along the Gulf/Atlantic coast because they actually have, Insurance companies can justify (somehow) doubling our home insurance and that is the state pool, because the original company followed every other Tom, Dick, and Harry Ins. Co. to the exit out of Florida. They dropped us quicker than the Physicist's jaw dropped who first discovered that sometimes a particle acts like a wave and sometimes like a, well, particle.
(Sorry for the extreme metaphor-just got finished watching what the Bleep happened!)

And the Bleep did happen to our insurance! Now for those of you thinking, "yeah, well you did move to Florida, didn't you!", I can only say this: paying the insurance beats getting your roof hauled off by a hurricane, or blown off by a volcano, or living too close to the Yellowstone super caldera, or a dozen other natural disasters that might happen in this great land of ours. May none of them happen to you or anyone close to you or to a wide enough group of citizens in the same class of people so that your insurance company never gets any bright ideas about how to make its stockholders happy! May you live in dull and boring localities.

Love to all,
Steve C.

Sorry I'm Late!...

Well, I know, it has been a while and time has occurred within space. Since the last time I thought on paper, I was laid off at work. This means I am now amongst the great throngs of "unemployed".

Nevermind that I worked "there" for a decade. Within the great American workplace, the bottom line rules and if you take on risks and go "out there" for the Corporation, expect your rewards to be few.

That aside it was not a bad place to work for 10 years. Airconditioned in Florida and you played with computers (well within determined parameters-get caught surfing and lose your job!).

Ah, the things I learned, the applications I used and the people I spoke to around the world!
"Are you sure you're a supervisor?" Yes, I was one of those people you speak with when you call an 800 number and say, "I want to speak to your Supervisor!" And that's putting it mildly.
What is it about Americans that they think that phone ownership grants them the right to be foulmouthed with anyone they care to? But I could talk them in from the edges and down from the ledges. And I was good at it! And before I was laid off I was selling GS cookies for my daughter so I went back to my former scene of the crime and everyone was happy to see me and I got hugs and handshakes-even from my former boss with wellwishes and handshakes, etc.

Relationships were the real profits I garnered from that job. Not a whole lot else matters! Don't you agree?