Free-for-All Friday

Road Trip + Squirrelly News + Poopy Mountain + Why You Should Go to Church

Yesterday I made reservations for the Grand Boat Tour on Rainy Lake in Voyageurs National Park. Lois & I are traveling to International Falls, MN, next to the National Park, following Sister Bash 2018. It's a 2.5 hour drive north from Little Island Lake & David & Carmen's Chalet. We didn't make it into Canada when we were in Northeast MN last Sunday, since we didn't have our passports yet. Now that we have them, this will be Lois' chance to travel into a foreign country other than Mexico.

Whatever WED . . . FRI Edition

From Lincoln Journal Star (4/15):  "Study reveals the truth about squirrels. As the squirrel rotates a nut between its front paws, its brain is considering a variety of factors to reach the answer to a critical question:  Do I eat this nut now, or do I store it for later? That's one of the conclusions of the most comprehensive study of squirrels' decision-making process--research that revealed that their behaviors are far more intricate than the casual observer realizes."  

COMMENT:  Whatever. For sure they are devious animals. I've had a fair amount of antipathy toward these vermin ever since they chewed their way through the lowered ceiling of our bathroom in the first house we owned. It was in Havelock, a neighborhood in northeast Lincoln, & a mother squirrel had chewed her way through the facia board of our roof, then established a nest in the lowered ceiling. She & her brood gnawed their way through that lowered ceiling, which necessitated a costly remodeling job & hastened the replacement of our facia boards & roof. And there's nothing like sitting down to "rest" & noticing 4 pairs of beady eyes staring down at you from the hole directly over the toilet.

          Sammy goes berserk when he sees squirrels in or near our backyard. He barks fiercely until we let him loose, then tears after them at supersonic speed. Sadly, he has yet to catch one. The best he can do is engage in a hostile conversation with the offending critter. [Although I wouldn't begrudge him the honor of extinguishing the life of one of these miscreants, I have mixed feelings over how he would treat the carcass.]

THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE . . . Alaska

From Norfolk Daily News (3/28):  "Popular Alaska peak weighs new rules for climbers' poop. Climbers on N.A.'s tallest mountain (Mt. McKinley or Denali) may have to start picking out more of their poop after a researcher determined a glacier in which much of it has been dumped over the past decade probably is not decomposing the human waste." COMMENT:  Whatever happened to 'Take only pictures. Leave only footprints.' And what else? Poop? 

L.O.L. Educator *

From NDN (2/6):  "Many benefits of going to church . . . The benefits of regular church attendance (or any other kind of religious observance), both societal & personal, are virtually impossible to dispute. That's the conclusion from research done by John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview & many others.

• "For starters, it can literally add years to your life--2 to 3, to be exact . . . 
• "Another of the characteristics of regular churchgoing is that it increases social ties & strengthens already existing ones. In other words, attending worship creates communities that become the means by which people take care of one another.
• "Then there is the effect of churchgoing on children. 'Compared to their unchurched peers, youth who are involved in a religious organization take tougher courses, get higher grades & test scores, & are less likely to drop out of high school . . . '
• "The 'value of the services provided by religious organizations & the impact religion has on a number of important American businesses' totals $1.2 trillion.
• "Thus, regular church attendance & religious observance are good both for individual & for society as a whole.
• "Unfortunately, this suggests that the opposite is also true:  Fewer people going to church is not good news, either for individuals or for their communities. And that's what this nation & others have been experiencing.

COMMENT:  Another benefit of regular church attendance:  Growing in our love for & knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord & Savior.

* Loony Old Lutheran Educator

THOUGHT FOR TODAY + REMEMBERING WHO WE ARE

“See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”  Acts 8:36

“Every remembrance of our baptism is a remembrance of what God has promised, a remembrance of who we are.”  At the Crossroads: Devotions for Lent, by David Kehret, Creative Communications for the Parish, 2016.