Once Upon a Time in the 80's...

... I had a mullet.

Pieces Parts

In a fit of insanity two weekends ago I purchased a Rubiks Cube 5x5x5 puzzle. As of Saturday morning, two weeks later, this is where I had gotten to.

It's funny, you know? They say there are like 10 million possible combinations on this puzzle. And out of 10 million combinations, I had brought the puzzle down to a place where, literally, only two pieces needed to be reversed and it would be done. So the puzzle was, let's say, 99.99998% complete.

Not good enough.

I guess this morning I saw that cube as symbolic of my life of late. I've really got it very, very good. A terrific wife, awesome kids, I'm well-fed and well-sheltered. I've got my health and a dog to roughhouse with. I've got a huge collection of Yodas. I'm employed. I've got friends and a brother that call me Sunday night just to see how I'm doing.

And yet... there seem to be pieces out of place right now. And it makes the puzzle of my life maddening, tantalizingly just this side of incorrect.

Maddening I say.

For the record - I solved the cube this afternoon. In yo face.

I Dream of Fish

I had a dream last night that my mother and I were standing on a wooden dock. It was dusk and the canal below the dock was a little swampy, and full of fish.

I wished that we had something to feed the fish. Then I thought, hey, if they just think that I have something to feed them I bet they'll come over. So I tapped my foot on the water, and almost right away dozens of fish were gathering around the dock, swishing their tails. I was pleased and impressed with how many fish were there, and all their different colors.

Some even appeared to be jumping out of the water over each other, which I pointed out with delight to my mother. Then I realized the truth - they weren't fish jumping, but rather small alligators, rushing quickly to the surface to gobble up the fish. But the fish remained oblivious, and continued waiting expectantly for a few bread crumbs to be thrown, even as they were being eaten by the baby gators.

One of the fish lept out of the water and I caught it in my hands, but I had no place to put it, other than to throw it back in the water to fend for itself. I even managed to grab one of the gators by the snout to keep it from devouring more fish, but there were so many more gators that I could not control while my hands were full. And there was no advice my mother could give me that could fix the situation.

I suppose that, when people look up to you as their leader, there is a promise implied that you will take care of them. And if you break that promise, they will continue looking to you for help, even as the problems of the world arise to bring them down. And if, as a leader, you've allowed it to get to that point, you're going to have quite a job on your hands fixing things.

God's Provision

I lost my job a few weeks back.

Well, I didn't lose my job. I know exactly where it is.

But every time I go there, someone else is doing it.

Anyway, the recent loss of employment was largely the reason for the suspension of my "presidential campaign" and the reduction in posts. It was very sudden and unexpected - coupled with the fact it was a very new job was very shocking for my family and me. A victem of the times, and I thought I was invulnerable.

I haven't taken two weeks off back to back since I was, oh, 17 years old. For the first time in my life I didn't know what I was going to do on Monday. And for a 55+hour a week workaholic, this was a living nightmare.

And then God showed up.

Of course He was there the whole time. But it was through this traumatic experience that my eyes were reopened to His great provision. I was reminded, as in Ps23, that he provides all we need, and penny for penny that was true. I was taught that I had developed quite an arrogance about me regarding my God-given abilities that I was no longer giving Him credit for. There's nothing quite so humbling as having a prestigious job title one week, and standing in line for unemployment the next.

My wife has stood by me like a rock. The kids never blinked regarding their faith in God and their dad. My mom kept me well-fed and in good company. And the outpouring of support from our church, family and friends has been stunning to us. Someone even anoymously paid for me to attend a retreat at church.

I am actually grateful now that this all occured - it has made me (I hope) a better human being, because I've become so much more reliant on God the provider. It opened our eyes to our wants versus our needs - and how we'd gotten to a place of spending unnecessarily simply because we could. It also opened our eyes to the needs of others, something we'd become far too smug about. God replaced fear with faith, doubt with promise, stress with comfort, and pride with humility.

I have now been blessed with a new position, far more suitable to my abilities and interests, and only five minutes from home. I can't WAIT to get started!!!

So I'm sitting here now, stunned with how cool God is, to replace something good with something better, and for allowing me to travel the desert for just a little while. It has changed me for sure.

And that's how cool God is.

Energy Crisis

The question of energy is one of the trickiest ones to tackle because it also overlaps with three other touchy subjects: the economy, the world market, and the environment.

Oil is the main culprit affecting all three. So the further we can get from oil dependence overall, the better. If we need less oil, we'll buy less from countries that hate America to begin with and begin to close the trade gap. It would wreak havoc with THEIR economy of course- but maybe it will teach them to play nice with others. It's for this reason also that we need to drill offshore and in Alaska.

I know people get all offended about what oil towers will do to the Alaska landscape - but seriously, show of hands here, how many of you have been there? Or will ever go? How much do you care really? Hey, I love bears too. But we bought Alaska for its resources. I think we can find the balance somehow.

More importantly, oil is in finite supply. We do keep finding patches of it here and there, off shore and in Alaska, but once it's gone, it's gone for good. The longer we can stetch the current supply the better.

In that oil is in finite supply, and is so expensive, and creates damaging effects to the environment, AND is chiefly in the hands of nations at odds with democracy, we need a solution that is renewable, cheaper and safer. Corn is an obvious one, as is wind power and solar. I'm finding it VERY hard to believe that we can't harness solar power more cost effectively. If I go to the beach I get burned to a crisp within a couple hours. Why can't we get that into buildings and cars?

Simple. Money. Solar is renweable and eternal. It puts oil companies out of business. But for the sake of the earth and our pocketbooks, we need to use solar.

One proposal my wife and I came up with was to shut down NASA for two years and put all their scientists on an energy quest. When they can figure out how to harness solar energy for the regular guy they can go back to figuring out how to get us to Mars. Believe me, I'm a huge space exploration fan, so the choice doesn't come easy, but at the end of the day the fruit will be there.

And since money talks, provide tax incentives and grants to companies puring R&D into alternative energy, and to businesses and homes applying these alternatives (installing solar panels, etc). Hiking up incentives for alternatives drives up demands, which drives up competition, which drives down costs and creates jobs.

And with that I am suspending my campaign, lest I pull any votes from the one guy that deserves to win... so sayest the Manx.

Joe for President

Who'd have thought that this whole thing could actually take off?

Check this out!

See you at the polls in Novemeber - remember, vote early, vote often!

Mecha Manga in the Papers

Great article today in the Record, one of North Jersey's largest newspapers. We had a great time doing the interview at IHOP. It was one of those great opportunities to share our faith without sounding like kooks. Special thanks to Virginia Rohan for going the extra mile with this article. The picture above is Paul Castiglia (left) and me looking at MMBH and the printouts of Colossians. That's John-Marc, our publisher, in profile on the right.

http://www.northjersey.com/entertainment/books/31243844.html