Meet America at a B&B

My wife and I stayed overnight at a local bed and breakfast over the weekend to celebrate her birthday. In addition to being a romantic getaway, B&Bs are a good place to get out of one’s comfort zone and meet people who have a different worldview.

Sitting at the breakfast table Saturday morning was no exception. We met Drew McManus (http://www.adaptistration.com/?page_id=1783) a music consultant from Chicago visiting Springfield to do some marketing research for the Springfield Symphony. Our conversation centered on some recent work Drew did to help the Arabian Peninsula nation of Qatar establish its first symphony orchestra. The conversation proved to be a fascinating learning experience.

We also talked to Chris Hill, a bicyclist from Arizona who had stopped for a night’s stay en route to Virginia from Oregon on a planned 4,262-mile trip, which he blogs about from his iPhone (http://zomgforeelz.wordpress.com/). He usually stays in a tent — part of the 50 pounds worth of gear he hauls — but he had to detour to Springfield to get his dérailleur fixed. Where else could we sit down and chat with a self-professed atheist on a three-month cross-country bike ride?

As Chris left Springfield on the city’s hottest day of the year, my wife and I packed up for home in our air-conditioned car, enriched that we had chatted with some folks we normally wouldn’t be able to encounter.

Tolerating Distractions

Sometimes I get distracted at our church, which began as a Christian coffeehouse. With such origins, there is a counter at the rear of the room stocked with carafes of coffee. Although there is a designated time in the middle of the service for people to fill their cups, some folks tend to do so during worship or even during the sermon.

I find it distracting, even though the pastor doesn’t seem to mind people getting up from their seats and wandering to the caffeine supply. Perhaps I’m just too old school in believing that church is a formal affair that demands silence most of the time.

As a baby, my dad once started crying in the sanctuary. The minister stopped the service and ordered my grandmother to remove the squawking child from his presence. There wasn’t a lot of tolerance for children expressing themselves in the 1910s.

My dad went on to be a preacher himself for 65 years. Whenever a baby started to fuss and the mother would get up to leave the service, my dad would encourage her to stay in the sanctuary. “I can talk louder than the baby,” he would say. Such informality is a good lesson for me.

The Miracle of Birth

Saturday my wife and I spent 16 hours at a hospital where our daughter-in-law Bethany was in labor, and – after an emergency C-section – gave birth to our first grandchild, Lael Olivia.

Much has changed since my wife Patty gave birth in the 1980s. The birthing rooms are more suitable to making the mother comfortable rather than being convenient for the doctor. Advanced pharmaceuticals can ease much of the pain of difficult labor. My son Josh posted updates on Facebook as the labor progressed. And Lael even had her own Facebook account a few hours after emerging into this world.

Yet over the centuries little has changed in the prelude to being born. We can’t determine when exactly the little person will come out, even if the mother is induced. We can’t hurry the process of dilating the cervix, which can take hours after labor begins. And we can’t foresee the need for an emergency Caesarian section when the baby is too large to come the conventional way.

What a miracle for a 9 pound, 4 ounce baby that has been living in a mother’s womb to suddenly spring to life on her own. Despite medical technology, so many things could go wrong for both mother and child.

When things don’t go according to plan and we are overwhelmed with fear, what a comfort it is to know that ultimately all life comes from God.

I Miss Jay Leno

I didn’t watch him much as host of The Tonight Show the past 17 years, maybe once a month. But I always found him to be topical, amusing and less crude than most late-night comedians. He has a way of poking fun at America and Americans in a way that simultaneously shows what a great and goofy place this is.

I don’t get much of Conan O’Brien’s leisurely paced humor. Much of the time he seems to be saying, “Look at me; I’m really funny.” The first half hour of his debut featured 30 minutes of video sketches and monologue featuring — just him.

Leno, who has been married for 29 years, will be back in September five nights a week at 9 p.m., when I might actually be awake to see him.

Knee-Jerk Reactions

The moment I heard that third-trimester abortionist George Tiller had been killed last week, I knew what would happen afterwards. And, predictably, it has all come to pass.

First, of course, came the accusations from pro-abortion organizations, and then much of the mainstream media, that this could be some sort of right-wing conspiracy to bump off abortion “providers” even though no abortionist has been murdered in this millennia. Pro-life groups quickly condemned the killing, as they should have, and distanced themselves from the lone demented shooter. Rhetoric urging abortionists to be killed has been limited to a handful of discredited fringe individuals.

Nevertheless, the federal government sprang into action, offering to dispatch federal marshals to abortion facilities around the country to ensure that women still have the “right to choose.” On Friday, the Justice Department launched an investigation to see whether the shooter had accomplices.

The media have portrayed Tiller as a heroic figure, bravely doing abortions despite the threat of being hurt or killed. Some reports had women who had abortions at his facility heaping praises upon him. The adulation continued at his funeral Saturday. Somehow they believed that killing a deformed or retarded baby in the womb is merciful.

Certainly Tiller was a rare breed. But it seems silly to portray him as a great humanitarian, when he earned $6,000 for a procedure tthat involves puncturing the baby's skull with scissors then sucking brains out with a suction tube. There are so few people like Tiller around because even most abortionists see something terrible unethical with discarding a viable child into a trashcan.

Snares of Fame

The foibles of living before a television camera have been apparent recently with the disintegration of the marriage of Jon and Kate Gosselin as well as the life of Susan Boyle.

The Gosselins of course made a choice in 2007 to give up any sense of normality when they became the willing subjects of a reality show. Watching preschool sextuplets run around made for great TV, and my 91-year-old mom watches the more than 90 episodes for hours on end. Christian publishers found the Gosselins wholesome and have published two books on the churchgoing family.

However, fame and funds has resulted in a complete lack of privacy. When Jon went out for an ill-advised beer with a younger woman the whole world soon knew about it. A decade into their marriage, the union is on the brink of collapse. Every argument is magnified for the public to consume. While ratings are through the roof, the Gosselins are in a real catch-22. They don’t have income outside their life before the cameras but that reality is causing their marriage to crumble.

The real tragedy is that the children will have video documentation of the demise of their parents’ marriage. Once the cameras finally go away, how will any of these children adjust to life without performing?

Susan Boyle came crashing down much quicker from the harsh glare of television lights. The obscure 48-year-old church volunteer became an overnight Internet sensation after she auditioned on Britain’s Got Talent. Once she advanced in the competition, she transformed her frumpy appearance into a more acceptable look for a TV singer. As the paparazzi hounded her, she let loose with expletives last week and broke down from emotional exhaustion this week. The competition is over and so is the burst of her fame, but not without a heavy price.

Why I Now Like Facebook

In the not so distant past (http://jkennedy.agblogger.org/2009/01/12/facing-up-to-facebook-john-w-kennedy/) I’ve ranted about why I didn’t see the value of Facebook. I’ve changed my mind.

While some of those concerns still hold true (e.g., it causes me to spend too much time on the computer instead of living), since I joined Facebook last month I’ve been pleasantly surprised.

I’ve caught up with old friends, connected with people at church and been able to find out what my sons are doing with their lives. In short, it’s been fulfilling, amusing and interesting. But I’m still not going to bore you with what I ate for breakfast.