A More Interesting Grizzly Bear

Are you bearish or bullish on seeing Earth from a new perspective?  They are:

Angara launched into space

Depending on your view, you've got a decision to make.

You gonna launch from the hidden silo in your own backyard or use an approved spaceport in someone else's?

Too bad Whitman was so hung up on a personally purchased political appointment.  Imagine if she joined others and used her fortune to advance our species into space.

Some of us are.

Borrowed Words

A couple of stories I've saved until after the elections (maintaining my belief in separation of church and state, so to speak) - used kindly without permission, of course:

1. RABBIT HABIT

My barber, George Houser, was laughing the other day about how a student at Johnson Bible College put a stop to so much rabbit on the dormitory table.

Students had eaten rabbit after rabbit after rabbit most every meal until they were tired of it.  They had fried rabbit, boiled rabbit, baked rabbit.  The boys complained, but it didn't do any good.

Finally, one student said he would stop it.  He said just wait until he was called on to say grace at the table again.  Well, the chance came.  He bowed his head over his plate and began,

"Oh Lord, we've had rabbit hot and rabbit cold;
Rabbit young and rabbit old,
rabbit tender and rabbit tough;
I think, O Lord, we've had rabbit enough.
A-men!"

[from "The Best Stories of Bert Vincent, " (c) 1968]

= = = = = = = =

2. Subject: an update from Alison

Greetings from Nairobi, Kenya! 

This is my first newsletter to write and send from Kenya.  I’ll be returning to Tanzania later this week. 

You might enjoy seeing a few videos from the recent literacy workshops.  I’ve posted four on my Youtube site:

www.youtube.com/joyfulringer

1.        Simbiti praise song.  Even before Wycliffe began translating Scripture, Simbiti Christians began to sing to their Heavenly Father in their own language and style.  This is one such song dating back many years among the Simbiti believers.

2.       Cow song.  This is a traditional Kuria song that young men would sing as they returned to their village after rescuing their cows that had been stolen from them.  As this song was heard from a distance, women and children would run out to receive them and welcome them home.  

3.       Ugali and fish lunch.  Ugali is a staple food of Tanzania; fresh fish is a main source of protein here by Lake Victoria.  Both are eaten by hand.  This is a brief clip of our closing lunch at the first workshop.

4.       Egiruuta.  This is a traditional Kwaya song that was sung when receiving men back from war.  About 30 seconds into it, the group really gets into dancing!

So thankful for you all!

Alison

Alison Compton

Literacy Specialist

October 2010 Update, Text-Only Version

“Now I can understand the New Testament!”

 That one simple testimony alone was my highlight — it made all the recent illness and struggles worth it. I would gladly do it all over again!  The Kuria people number over half a million with a New Testament in their language, but very few know how to read it.  My purpose in this recent workshop was to teach the writing system of the Kuria language so the participants (who are pastors and evangelists) could read the Scriptures. And by the end, they could!  They left with a new understanding of the Scripture in their language and purchased several New Testaments to take back to their village areas.  Please pray for these men and women as they go back with new skills to read Kuria Scripture!

 From East Tennessee to East Africa

 I find that one of the hardest parts about being a missionary is that I don’t have a shared history (or a shared culture or language) with anyone — at least not as close as I did in my hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee where I lived and worked with people I knew even from childhood.  Yes, I do work with other missionaries who speak English — but as we are an international team, I’ve had to learn that jelly to my New Zealand friends is not what you spread on a sandwich, tea might really indicate a meal if I’m with my British friends, and what relief to realize a torch does not involve fire but just batteries! 

So it is a real treat to be in East Africa with Prince and Chipo Makaya.  They came to study as international students at Johnson Bible College, my alma mater, when I worked in Admissions.  When I see them here on the other side of the world, I find myself relaxing in their presence.  Ahhh, I’m with somebody who knows exactly where Kimberlin Heights actually is, who actually knew me in my “former life” before becoming a missionary.  We’ve walked the same beautiful campus and sat in the same classrooms; we have several friends in common; and there are many of you who give so sacrificially supporting BOTH myself and the Makaya family!

The Makayas live and minister in Nairobi, Kenya.  I’m a 10-hour bus ride away in Musoma, Tanzania.  I come to Nairobi from time to time for business meetings (the head office for Wycliffe in Africa is in Nairobi) or for medical care. 

I’m writing this newsletter from Nairobi just after visiting with the Makayas in their home, at the giraffe park with their kids, and in their places of ministry.  This is the first time I’ve been in Nairobi long enough to personally visit their ministries (Good News Productions where Prince is the Regional Director, and Huruma Library where Chipo ministers to kids in the slums).  Prince showed me around the production studio where I had fun posing behind the camera and on the set.  And Chipo invited me to Huruma Library to teach about the life of Joseph with the kids.  I enjoyed acting out the part where Joseph is put in charge of all of Egypt and is dressed up in a special robe, necklace, and ring.  Everywhere he goes, people bow down to show respect for him.  (If you would like to see photos, email and I’ll happily send them to you!)

So this born-and-raised East Tennessee girl is very thankful for the Kimberlin Heights connection with the Makayas all the way over on this side of the world!

Praise God for:

· Quality medical care in Nairobi. 

· A fun time connecting with the Makayas.

Please pray for:

· Sorting out logistics for shoulder surgery.  Turns out there is a tear in the rotator cuff and a defect in the shoulder joint.  All caused by the force of the ocean when I got caught in a wave in July!

· Bible Sunday, October 24: we will be promoting our work in local churches on this day.  Many people don’t know we’re translating the Bible into their language!

Field Address:

Alison Compton

Box 1235

Musoma

Tanzania

East Africa

www.alisoncompton.com

Wycliffe USA:

Wycliffe Bible Translators

PO Box 628200

Orlando, FL 32862-8200

1-800-WYCLIFFE

www.wycliffe.org

[from: Alison Compton via forwarded email, 20 Oct 2010]

You Call It Politics, We Call It Science Friction

Another word of the day - dietribe: bitter complaint about the specialty food you choose to eat.

The Committee of Seven-and-a-Half met late last night at an undisclosed location to verify that the election results aligned with what the committee wanted the American voters to make.

Have I told you about the committee?  I don't remember.

The Committee is composed of the seven people (and one young person, to get the fickle/inexperienced/idealistic view of youth) who report to the two people who know what's going on.

I have dreamed of being on the committee since I was too young to know better.

Far better to be the scribe who liaises between the 7.5 and the 2.

Of course you know why.

The scribe controls the conversation and thus...

Well, let's put that thought aside for a moment.  I'm a nobody, after all.  My name is common and not my own, created by my parental units, not by me.

Finished two books yesterday, the '72 campaign political junkie book by Dr. Thompson and the rocketeer book by Belfiore.

With those books running through my thoughts, I sat and recorded the general impressions that the committee gave last night (I let my electronic livescribe smartpen record the conversation but the committee is more interested in the impression they give than their actual words).

While drawing doodles, I noticed a series of musical notes emanating from the house place where we met.  Then it dawned on me that the owner of the place had installed special register vents that made the place sound as if we were listening to chants in an ancient cathedral, mosque or temple.  Every vent was tuned to "whistle" a different note.

You know, like a harmonica or an aeolian harp.

At the end of the meeting, the committee asked me to summarise my impression of their conversation which would become my report to the two-in-the-know.

I told the committee members that our species is maturing rapidly.  We are learning to separate lifestyle choices, genetic inheritances and bartering methodologies into smaller and smaller subcultural mixtures while recognizing bigger trends that flow through all of them.

As a species, we realise we have a limited set of resources to use on this planet and are gradually coalescing into a globally cooperative group in order to minimise waste and maximise efficiency.

This ultimately will lead us to more rapid changes for which we'll readily shed old trends to accommodate the species as a whole.

Selfishness will not disappear but instead become a major sin or taboo.  We will continue the process of training our youth to put species first, subculture second, and self last, redefining personal freedom as a public responsibility.  Everything we do, including taboo behaviour, goes online 24/7 for public praise and/or condemnation - no more privacy.  Groupthink is now the only way to live.  Crowdsourcing replaces the judicial system as instant judge-and-jury.

The committee was astonished that I got all that from their comparing results of search engines while looking for a good place to order delivery of a late-night snack in randomly selected towns found by throwing pieces of rice at a giant world map.

The two-in-the-know expect nothing less.

A Connection Between Adversity, Diversity and University - Versatility!

The other day, while Conan was letting a bunch of neighbours take his Veyron for a spin around the playground, I stopped snapping photos to consider what it's like to be a frugal millionaire.

Then, after watching Leno crash his electric Sparrow at the sight of his protege having more fun fans than he, I knew what it was that perplexed my complexion.

There are only two people on this planet who know what's really going on and I can't tell you their names.

Sitting on a secret is liking sitting on a flight from Yemen to the UK or the US - the seat cushion's hot for no apparent reason, except for that teeny-tiny lipo battery installed in your posteriour that keeps your pacemaker and you alive.

What if they accuse you of being a living version of a box of toner?

Even worse, what if you have no effect on the economic recovery of your favourite country?

For me, it's a dream come true.  I always wanted to be an unknown nobody and if I don't spend my uncounted millions, nobody'll know who I am 'cause I won't change the engine of growth we call the bartering society.

I leave it up to my colleagues and associates to decide how to conduct business like a symphony, causing mass movements for both fun and profit.  Seven billion people to have fun with, joke with and siphon off legal gains in public and other laundromat material out of the public eye.

I got an invitation to a museum opening.  The director wanted me to see the new works of art.  When I look in them galleries, all I can see are those transactions of my friends that have to be covered by purchasing overhyped splotches of paint on canvas or wire and sticks stuck together in so-called sculptures.  But, hey, if it keeps the creative types occupied, you know how I am - don't let the idle curiosity seekers poke into my business and I'll pay to have them dedicated to esoterica.

Besides, I've got friends with billions to spend on founding colonies off of this world.  It ain't art but it should make us a pretty penny, what with the adverts we'll sell along the way.  That, and the film tie-ins promoting trinkets all the kids'll want.  We'll make the Star Wars franchise look like a rank-and-file amateur production.

Where are your ideas?

Are you the kind of person who'd rather watch replays of the Lawrence Welk Show, seeing a young couple dance to the tune of "Capri" over and over again on PBS?

Or do you like retro punk and would rather form a mosh pit in the living room bashing heads to Dead Kennedys' "Halloween" on last.fm?

That's how two sides of the nonapathetic voting subcultures see the other.

So, like they say, exercise your right to feel like one in 317 million - get out and vote in the United States of America.  It's the least we can do to keep alive the dreams of Plato, Epictetus, St. Brigid, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, W.E.B. Dubois, Gandhi, MLKJ, Gloria Steinem and Andy Griffith.

And who knows, your single vote might make a difference.  Mine rarely has but I vote anyway.

I can dream, too, you know.  One day the Keep Politics Purely Political Party will win, if I live long enough.

Is there a new sheriff in town?

Somebody remind you/me/us what this guy is able to predict about the future that I'm supposed to care about:

Clueless in Manhattan

Otherwise, I'll read about the humour in other opinion columns that don't sound like an equal dose of sour grapes.

Credit the guy for his bravura.  Discredit him for his short-sightedness.

His wife is right - the people want to flog themselves.  Let the conservatives enjoy the whipping for a while, why dontcha?

LOL, ROFL, TTFN

Anything Radical About Social Constructivism?

Thought for this morning: decreased solar activity leads to warming words, which make us reconstruct, socially, our radical views of the world.

I'm too bored today to think more about these subjects.

Perhaps the Wayans brothers could write a movie script about the goofiness and infighting of the scientific world?

I look forward to seeing the people reap what they voted for.  Some say it's rats fighting over who gets to stand atop a sinking ship.  I say the tide is turning and we aren't sure if it's really rising or falling in relation to what we called historic changes.

C'est la vie, my little chickadees, c'est la vie.

Better mail your overseas holiday packages early this season.  Election year politics is putting a squeeze on shipping.  Are you going to be the one to foot the bill, covering the costs of terror prevention security measures...again?  How many billions in cost overruns will it take to detect the next version of a printer cartridge bomb?

Did we not claim that the space/defense race was a primary factor in defeating the communist political entity called the Soviet Union?  Would it be too far of a stretch to see others are trying to do the same to us by driving up our nonprofitable costs of living with cheap acts of terrorism?

My brain is not awake or I'm too bored today to think more about these subjects.

All I care about is the bottom line.  What is one life worth?  Will our species gain or lose by our actions?  How can we predict the future where more of our social/ecocological systems benefit than don't?

How does all of this fit into the untranslatable story of Earth I'm composing for an unknown readership?