Just wanted to weigh in on this news story that we saw on Fox 29 last night and has now apparently gotten national airplay.

This woman had been having a pretty rough year to begin with - both her mother and an uncle passed away and her father had been diagnosed with leukemia. All of these things caused her to use up all of her vacation time. Then her son goes into kidney failure and so the mom donates a kidney to him. But, in order to do so, she has to take a leave of absence from work. Since the company has under 50 employees, they don't have to abide by FMLA - so before she takes this leave the company has her sign a document saying that she understands that they may have to hire someone else to do her job.

Now here it is, 9 weeks later or whatever, and the woman is preparing to go back to work. But when she contacts her employer they inform her that they did, in fact, hire someone else for her position while she was out. This prompts the news story claiming, "Mother fired for donating kidney to her son." Point of fact - she was not fired. She LEFT her job in order to take the leave, knowing (and reading) full well that her job may not be there when she returned.

Does this situation stink for this woman? Sure. Is it unfair? Depends. I mean, in this economy, where so many are out of work, would it have been more noble for the company to fire the employee who's been filling this woman's position for the past several weeks? I'm sure he or she would find that pretty unfair. (Though I'm equally sure their story wouldn't have gotten national airtime.)

I mean, I don't mean to sound cold and callous. I'm glad this lady's son is doing well after his transplant. I'm glad this mother was able to give the gift of life to her son a second time. I'm sorry she is going to have to find a new job now. But come on, with wars and slavery and starvation going on around the world - let's be a little more cautious of how we assign the tag of "injustice" to news stories, people. Really.

The Miss Universe pageant is on NBC tonight. From the looks of things, though, all the contestants are humans... from earth. I'm sensing someone is rigging this competition.

Well, despite Irene's best attempts - we still made it to the Dispatch show at State College on Sunday night. I would say that the show wasn't quite as epic as the one at Red Bull Arena that we saw back in June, but it was still a really excellent concert nonetheless. Hopefully these guys make a habit out of doing some touring in the future. And I'm REALLY hopeful that Tara Endicott is able to book either Braddigan or Chadwick (or both) for a show at Burlap in the not too distant future! That would melt my brain off.

Here's a poorly shot video of one song from Sunday's show. My co-worker Kelly was supposed to come to the concert with us, but she and her loved ones got a little more hard hit by the hurricane so she had to stay home. So I figured the least I could do was record her favorite song from the new EP. The fellas miss a few notes here and there, but I guess that just helps to confirm that they're actually singing live. :)

Apparently there was an earthquake in Virginia that was felt in our area today. I was in the basement playing guitar and didn't even notice, really. I thought I was, perhaps, just getting into it too much when the vase on top of the TV fell off and hit me in the head. Suppose that might've been more related to the quaking earth, though.

But anyway, we continue to feel aftershocks all afternoon.... oh wait, that's just the jackass kid next door listening to terrible hip hop music with the bass knob cranked up all the way. I bet he didn't feel the quake either. When does school start up again?

Our cable modem died sometime on Tuesday evening. Once RCN came out and confirmed that it was indeed the hardware and not a problem on their end, I headed out to secure a replacement modem. My internal compass originally pointed to Best Buy, but then I detoured to Walmart in Glenolden because it was a lot easier to get to. (I know, Walmart is horrible, non-union, sells stuff from China, blah blah blah.)

When I got to the store, they had exactly one kind of cable modem in stock - a Motorola Surfboard. This made the decision of which one to buy really easy, thankfully. And I'd actually researched this modem when I bought the first one 5 years ago, so we were good to go. I took it up to the cash register and that's when the story got funny/interesting for me.

So the lady at the checkout starts ringing me up and as she scans the modem, she looks at it with a puzzled look on her face. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but what do you use this for?" she asks. I hesitated a moment, fearing this was perhaps a trick question. "I'm uh... using it for my internet connection with RCN...," I said. Another puzzled look. Seeing my chance to enlighten the masses, I said, "You can buy your own modem to use with their service and then you don't have to pay the modem rental fee every month." "Oh," she replies, "I was gonna say, don't they give one to you? I didn't know you had to pay for it." Yes, dear, you're not the only one who doesn't look at your bill when it comes in. But, nay, I won't go there. I'm trying to be helpful. "Yeah, they charge you $5 a month to rent their modem. So if I buy this one for $60, in a year it will have paid for itself. And my last one lasted for 5 years, so you figure I saved $240 during that time." This information is met by a look of dawning comprehension. "I guess that does make sense. But $5 a month isn't too bad, though." And I quit.

I guess logic only works if it finds a willing host.

So I watched this movie called "Paper Man" tonight on Netflix. Jeff Daniels, Lisa Kudrow, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds... with a cast like that, you'd probably anticipate a comedy. I did. But it wasn't, really. It turned out to be one of those sort of slow paced indie films that makes you think about life. It actually reminded me a little bit of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", to tell you the truth. And not just because they both take place (at times) in Montauk - even though they do. But I suppose that's neither here nor there. Anyway, here's my thoughts:

1) It's a shame that independent films don't get more recognition. Emma Stone was excellent in this picture. The sort of excellent that probably would have (or should have) warranted an Oscar nod, had someone at a big studio simply decided to produce this film instead of Sundance. And that's not to take anything away from Jeff Daniels, who was also outstanding.

2) What is it about Montauk? Is it really a magical place, or is it just that people are so enamored with New York city and this is just happens to be a pretty, nearby diversion from the hustle and bustle of city life? I bet it's probably one of those places that was really nice back in the day, when it was actually just a fishing village and not a quaint convenience for the city dwellers. I don't know if I'd like to go there in the summer time. Probably crawling with tourists. Maybe I'll have to take a trip in the winter and experience it when Joel and Richard both did.

3) I still want to get better at having actual friends. That's one of the strands of the plot in "Paper Man" - how these two characters interact with many people, but have real friendship with almost none of them. I can relate to that a lot of times. Maybe not to the extent that Richard and Abby do, but still.

4) I'm jealous of people who hug when they greet each other. To a certain extent, my height makes that difficult for me. (A lot of people don't know how to hug someone tall. You don't put your arm around their waist. That's just awkward.) But also there's just this standoffish side of me that I truthfully don't know the origins of. It's not like my parents never hugged me. Just kind of developed along the way in my teenaged years at some point. But yeah, I'd like to get better at hugging too, I suppose.

So there you have it. More deep thoughts spurred on by my friend Netflix. I haven't been missing cable much at all. Indie films are cool and I have much more exposure to them via Netflix than I ever did with television. That and BBC. Doctor Who and Torchwood? Oh man. That's another post for another day.

Oh yeah, hello blog. I've forgotten all about you for the past month, it would seem.

The news of the day is that after months of threatening to do so, I finally pulled the trigger on cancelling our cable television today. This was due to several factors, not the least of which was the diminishing level of options accompanied by a rising cost on a nearly yearly basis.

So now we've got a good old fashioned antenna on the roof, Netflix streaming through the BluRay player for those times when network television doesn't have anything to offer and I'm currently working on hooking Melissa's old Mac Mini up to the TV downstairs so we can perhaps stream some of our favorite television programs from MTV & Bravo.

The best news about today's trigger pulling was that it wasn't nearly as messy as I'd anticipated. In the past, calls to RCN usually followed the same pattern:

1) Have my call answered by an outsourced calltaker somewhere in India.
2) Reach the point where one of us becomes really frustrated and get transferred to someone who's first language is English.
3) Reach the point where one of us becomes really frustrated and get transferred to someone who can actually affect any sort of account changes.
4) Threaten to switch to another ISP several times before finally getting the rate that's advertised on their website for "new customers only". (But is clearly something they're willing to accept for their services, so why should it only be for new customers and not for morons who've had their service for 8 years already.)

But today, the woman who answered the phone spoke English and actually knew where Philadelphia was - so we were already ahead of the game. She asked why I wanted to discontinue my cable TV and I told her that we just don't watch it enough to pay $50 a month for it and that we'd be using a rooftop antenna and Netflix in the future. The was no argument. Shocking. She asked if I'd looked into the pricing for internet service alone and I said I had - $39.99 for the first year, according to the RCN website. She said, "Yes, that's for new customers..." Oh great. Here is comes. But after a few (thousand) key strokes, she said, "Okay, it looks like in your area it's $39.99 a month for the accelerated internet service." Whaaa.... what?! That's it? Yup. She told me the address of a store where I could return my cable box to and that was that. No kidding.

So anyway, just wanted to give a big up to Charlotte for helping me to not have to be a jerk today. And here's to $50 more in the bank account each month that we can hopefully use to change the world instead of just rot our brains a little bit more.

One thing I love about Netflix is how is causes me to watch something other than the usual mindless cinema that's generally forced down the throats of the American public. I watched this documentary yesterday called "Marwencol". It was definitely strange and left me feeling a little depressed in the end, but was it fantastic.

In the words of KPBS film critic Beth Accomando, "Recently we've had a spate of faux documentaries and films so wrapped up in their own cleverness that it's refreshing to have an old school documentary in which the filmmaker is more interested in his subject than in himself. Malmberg respects his subject and intrudes just enough to give us an amazing window to Hogancamp's world."

Check it out.

I realize that the below post may be unnecessary, given that at least 50% of the people who read this blog with any regularity share the surname Pierce. But hey, maybe more people read my ramblings than I know of. And those people deserve to listen to some awesome music too.

Been thinking about trying to write a worship song again. Inspired by the talk from our Encounter brainstorming sessions about "the rocks cry out". The idea that if we don't show up to praise, it doesn't mean God's going to go without. What I've got so far is a chorus, I think. It reads like this:


If I rise to praise You
If I fall down on my knees
It will not change who You are
No, Your worship's not dependent on me


These words were bouncing around in my head as I drove to church a couple weekends ago, so I wrote them down and stashed them away. Still not sure where I want to go from here, though. I'm thinking it would make sense if the other part of the song was all about God and didn't involve the words "me" or "I" at all. We could use more songs like that, I feel.

Anyway. That's what I was thinking about tonight. How about you?

This topic has come up a couple times in the past few days. So I now present you with a little essay that I will title:

The Elimination of the Middle Class.

It used to be that there were distinct working classes in this country.

As always, you had your poor. Either poor because they aren't working at all - perhaps due to some sort of medical concern, perhaps due to laziness, perhaps due to some other unnamed variable. Or maybe they are working and just not making enough money to support the life or family they've got. The poor have always existed and will always exist as long as we live in a broken world. I'm pretty sure it's an inevitability.

Moving on from there, you had the middle class. These were the people who finished high school and maybe either went directly into the military or took up a trade or settled on some kind of boring, workaday factory job. Not illustrious by any stretch of the imagination, but functional. They had a car to drive, food on the table and a decent little house in the suburbs where they lived with their wife, 2.5 children and the family dog.

Then you had the upper class. The white collars. People who either by hard work (and higher education) or by the good grace of being born into a wealthy family lived very comfortably. They drove cars that were shinier, newer and bigger. They lived in houses that were more expansive, more nicely appointed. They were doctors, lawyers, politicians, professors. You know, things like that.

Our country maintained homeostasis. There were people to do all the jobs that needed doing and, for the most part, people were accepting (if not appreciative) of their place in the food chain.

Fast forward until present times, though, and you see a different picture. Now we tell our kids that if they don't go to college, they're never going to be worth anything. You need a degree to be a secretary or fix a car engine. Service jobs are the kinds of things that only the stupid people or illegal immigrants are good for.

Is it any wonder that so many companies outsource their factory work to other countries now? Sure, the labor is cheaper there, but they also have to deal with a country full of Americans who believe that they're too good to do menial tasks.

Am I against higher education? Not at all. Am I against higher education for the sake of higher education? Absolutely. If you have a goal in mind - maybe you want to be a doctor, or a chemist, or a professor - then by all means, learn away. Rack up a considerable amount of debt, but then get a job where you can pay that debt off. But this whole deal where kids go to college to figure out what they want to do with their lives? Rubbish. Either you know or you don't. So maybe you get a job pushing a broom for a year or two and in that time you have an epiphany and realize you were meant to be a dentist. Then you go to school with a goal in mind and some money in your pocket. Or maybe, just maybe, you discover that you're okay with pushing a broom. Maybe you find that you make enough money to live comfortably within your means and when you leave work for the day - you LEAVE work for the day. That doesn't make you stupid. That doesn't make you an underachiever. It makes you the same kind of average Joe that our country used to be filled with before we started becoming so full of our own virtue.

Sleeping in two hour increments is dissatisfying. That is to say, those two hours are generally very good, deep sleep - but they often just leave me feeling a little fuzzy and in want of more.

I've one more night of work, then a somewhat busy weekend. But at least I can look forward to four nights in a row of sleeping in my own bed - with relatively little opportunity for the disruption of my circadian rhythm.

To sleep, perchance to dream....

There is nothing new under the sun.

Isn't it funny how the old becomes new again? Several years ago, blogging was all the rage. Then, with the advent of Faceb**k, everyone seemed to transition to that venue. But now it seems the blog is making a resurgence. And I'm glad for it. Sure, it's still feeding into our disconnected world where we read about each other instead of actually sharing in each other's lives. But at least it's made up of well composed thoughts - not meaningless drivel like, "I think I'm going to have a sandwich for lunch today."

Blog on, friends. Use more words instead of less. Let me know what's going on in your head, not just what's on your agenda for the afternoon. And maybe, just maybe, sharing our thoughts in type will lead to sharing of our thoughts in words. Maybe instead of simply viewing peoples lives, we'll start becoming a functional part of them.

People talked to each other, once upon a time. Who knows - maybe it'll make a comeback?

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. - John Donne


Images that outrage.














Somalia, 1993 - locals drag the body of the pilot of a downed Blackhawk helicopter through the streets of their town as others jump up an down on the rotor blades of same helicopter.






















Multiple Middle Eastern Nations, 2001 - Following the September 11th attacks on the U.S., images are repeatedly broadcast of large groups of people celebrating the loss of American lives while burning our flag.


I'm sure one could go on for hours recalling such vivid memories - but these are two that stand out most readily in my mind at this point in time. Events that surely made the blood of countless many boil and sickened the stomachs of countless more. And yet, as I sat watching the news at work last night, there were the images of a large crowd gathered outside of the White House. "USA! USA!" they chanted while holding signs boasting such clever slogans as, "Ding Dong - Bin Laden's Dead." And while they watched, I'm sure there was little sense of outrage in the hearts of most Americans. Why? Because "our team" won this time.
















Was Bin Laden's killing justified? Even necessary? I'm sure it's not a hard argument to make. But if we, who are so sickened by the celebration of death on foreign shores, are reduced to the same jubilation at the death of a man... are we any different than the ones who outrage us? It doesn't seem so in my mind.


Somewhere east of here people are watching that same news footage that I watched last night; and they are furious. They are no doubt making plans for how they can get vengeance for this outrageous behaviour. And so the circle will continue. Death for death. Righteous indignation for righteous indignation. One side will win, one side will lose. And in the end, we all will be the lesser for it.


The bell tolls for us all.

Very well, actually.
Thank you for asking.

Hi. My name's Tim. And I watch Survivor.

People at work are shocked when I want to watch it. I don't know if it's because of me or because of the show. Or both. Anyway.

This season of Survivor has suprised me. Not due to the scripted "suprises" in the show, mind you. Sure, the redemption island thing is new this year. And there have been some twists and turns involving that story line. But you kind of expect there to be curve balls after so many seasons. They have to do something to try to keep things fresh, I suppose.

No, the thing that's suprised me most this season is a redemption of a different kind. And I'll admit, at first it made me cringe. Not more than a couple episodes in, this guy Matty started to talk about Jesus. Now, that's not what made me cringe. I mean, I know lots of people who talk about Jesus. But I'm well familiar with the portayal of Christians in pop culture. From as far back as Jon Brennan on the Real World, most Christians in reality TV are basically caricatures who seem to alient people just by looking at them. So I expected the worst when Matty started talking about God's purpose for him in the game of Survivor every episode.

But while the dialogue has seemed a bit awkward at times, it also has seemed genuine. And while there have been a few people who've made fun of him on the show, there have also been a good number of people who've taken him seriously. Most recently, the lady eliminated from redemption island on tonight's episode said (before she left) that talking to Matty had made her realize how important faith is. She went on to say that she was looking forward to getting home and finding a church. Really.

Like I said, there are still moments when Matty says things that make me furrow my brow or shake my head. And there are still moments when the people on the show take little pokes at him. But for the most part, Survivor has done something that I haven't seen on television... maybe ever. They've given a prime time platform to a guy who, presumably, is trying to live his life the way God tells him to. Not preaching at every drop of the hat, just living.

I am impressed. I am humbled. I am inspired.

Go Matty.

Being understood is highly taken for granted, in my humble opinion. I don't mean the simple act of getting what someone is saying, logically speaking. I'm talking about that deeper level of understanding not only the statement made but also feeling the heart where it comes from. In our lifetime, we will all meet countless people who understand the words we say. But how many people will we truly connect with? How many people will know the words we're thinking - good, bad or indifferent - before they are even formed in our minds? Precious few.

Not to totally digress here, but this is one of my main issues with the whole "social network" culture we live in today. People have hundreds of "friends" who feel like they know them just because they can read a 2 sentence brain fart posted for all the world to see. But in reading someone's fleeting thoughts, in "liking" those thoughts or even in leaving a witty comment for all the world to see - we're not even scratching the surface.

Give me a real community any day. Keep the hundreds who will observe me from afar and give me 6 people to sit around a table and talk about nothing and everything over a meal together. Keep the many who will applaud me for taking a risk and give me the few who will step off the edge with me.

What goes on for more than half of the year, spans the hottest and most uncomfortable months and is generally something I would go without if I had the option?

a) Baseball Season
b) Lawn Mowing Season
c) Twice nightly Mr. Softee rounds in my neighborhood
d) All of the above

Hint: The answer is "D". Happy spring.

I can't even recall exactly how many years it's been now, can it be 10 or more? At any rate, today is the day my Grandpop Cosgrove died. We always thought it was just his style to go out on April fool's day. He was a joker like me.

Actually, the more stories I hear about him, the more I think that he and "grown-up" me would've gotten along really well. Not that we didn't get on when I was young, mind you. But I didn't really start drinking beer until I was in my late 20's, so I never got to have a drink with him. And he and my grandmom moved to Rehobeth sometime in my teenaged years, so I only saw him every couple months back then anyways. But I like to think that if he was still around today, and they still lived on Shallcross Avenue in Folcroft, we'd be the kind of guys who would meet up at Cheech-O's lounge and have a beer on my day off. Maybe we'd play a game of poker in my basement, or throw some darts.

I got my middle name, James, from my grandfather. But as I get older, I realize just how much more I got from him. I hope to see him again someday. We'll be the guys sitting on that distant shore in the sweet by and by... knocking back a cold one and fishing.

If you ever wondered where those plastic soda bottles and water bottles that you buy at Wawa end up, just take a walk down at the John Heinze Regfuge after there's been a decent rainfall. The banks of the Darby Creek and the adjacent marshlands are littered with hundreds of empty bottles, amongst the other trash. It's pretty gross, to tell you the truth.

I wish I could write songs. I seem to be able to write a few lyrics here or there, perhaps a decent chorus occasionally. But they never come together into a full song, really. And music... don't even get me started on music. That might be half the problem right there. I can carry someone else's tune just fine. But when I try to put my own together - it comes out either sounding exactly like a song that already exists (because it probably is) or like a jingle that a commercial might use to sell kitty litter.

In my conversation with Ryan Delmore last fall in Asheville, though, I was actually presented with a perspective that was very foreign language from what I'd been hearing the whole week, "Not everyone is a songwriter..." I know, right? Being a part of a movement - like the Vineyard - that has deep roots in music, this was a somewhat shocking thing to hear. You mean everyone that can strum a guitar isn't going to write an awesome song that will end up on "WOW! Worship" in a year or two? But what was even more important to me was the thought that followed, "...but that's not something you should necessarily sit around feeling bad about."

It reminds me of the passage in 1 Corinthians about spiritual gifts. If the foot feels bad that it's not a hand, it doesn't make it any less a part of the body. It's just meant for a different role. And every part of the body functions in an important manner.

So I'll probably still try writing a song every now and again. And I'll more than likely either not finish it or be dissatisfied with the results if I do. But that doesn't mean the music will stop. I can keep playing it and singing it, even if it's written by someone else.

And I will.

I'm not sure how a multiple page text will translate into a single blog post. So this is a kind of experiment to see how it'll look if I post from work.

I was thinking about this whole "Pray for a new congregation" thing on my ride to work tonight. It's one of our common requests during our 40 day "Leap of Faith" at BRV.

My personal request is that this new congregation, be it a site church attached to BRV or a church plant, finds it's home in my town - Folcroft. I am pretty much convinced that I'll be part of the new group whether it's in my town or not, but man, it would be really cool to live and worship in the same place. I feel like it would make outreach so much easier. I could say, "Yeah, we meet up next to the Post Office," instead of, "We're in Media - down the street from the courthouse." Just seems a little more accessible.

Anyway, it should be an exciting summer either way. Lots of talking and planning to do with other pioneers. This is the reason I liked the idea of a church planting movement when I first came to BRV some 6 odd years ago. I like the idea of new beginnings. I like being part of the team. I like being the church instead of just going to it.

Well, hopefully this text thing works and I didn't just waste the past 10 minutes. Guess I'll find out in the morning!

Cheers.

And in the 21st century, we can even blog via text message! Technology.

Dear Blogger,

I've decided to give you another try. Since I've been fasting from Facebook, and actually intend to not go back, I decided this might be a good way for people (who don't actually want to talk to me) to get their Tim fix.

Judging from past attempts, I project that this will last... 5 months? Tops. But hey, you never know until you try. So let's enjoy it while it lasts.

Your Friend,
Tim