Posted on

It’s We Thing, Not a Me Thing…

Hello World,

Well, ask and you shall receive…Last week, in my post “Let’s Stay Together?” I asked what could be so bad that would cause Arnold Schwarzenegger & Maria Shriver to separate after 25 years of marriage. A week later, I now know the answer to this question.  “The Adulterator” nee ” The Terminator” had admitted he “behaved badly sometimes” after being accused of “groping women” during his 2003 gubernatorial campaign, but what he admitted to yesterday is beyond behaving badly.  Schwarzenegger admitted that he fathered a child 14 years ago with a member of their household staff, and the woman just retired from working for the couple. The way he managed to keep an infidelity of such proportion from his wife and the public for this long is strictly gangsta! I feel sorry for Maria Shriver and their children as they deal with the fallout from this explosive revelation…

Yesterday, on my Facebook page, I pondered if there are certain men that are predisposed to be cheaters. I got many responses to my questions, but nothing that made me come to a conclusion. Maybe one day there will be a study on this topic, and maybe there has been but I haven’t bothered to research the topic. At any rate, after talking to a friend last night, it occurred to me that all of us are capable of grievous behavior. And conversely, we are also capable of greatly estimable acts. What makes us choose which way we will go?

I think accountability groups can help us become the person we could not become alone…For instance, every spring, I join the Jeff Galloway Training Program to get ready for the Peachtree Road Race, a 6.2-mile race that is held on July 4th each summer in Atlanta. Although I can train on my own, training with a group forces me to make my training a priority when it would be easier to not train and hope for the best on race day. Each week, I know that I must get in my weekly runs if I expect to be able to keep up my group each Saturday. And this year, I joined a faster group of runners so I defintely have to get my training in…

One of the benefits of getting older (not that I’m old) is knowing what works for you. Whenever I have wanted to learn a new skill or energize an area of my life, I have found that it is best to connect with another person or people for accountability…Since I am not married, I have not researched this, but I wonder if there are organized marriage accountability groups…Maybe there needs to be a marriage accountability group for rich, powerful men that would help them resist the temptations that men of that stature have to face…Maybe Schwarzenegger would have benefitted from such a group…

I have heard that accountability is one of the reasons that a witness must be present at a wedding. And when a couple chooses to get married in front of many witnesses, those chosen witnesses should help the couple remain true to the vows they made in front of them. There is something mysterious that happens when two or more people join together for a common cause…even the Word says so…

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20

Any thoughts?

P.S. This song seems to fit this morning….I love this song….Shout out to “Big Love”…”God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys…

Posted on

Apocalypse 2011…

Hello World,

I’ll admit it…I’m not ready for Jesus to come back yet…I mean I’m a Christian and everything, but in spite of all of its ills, I’m still enjoying my life for the most part on regular ole planet Earth…I’m pretty much the same person I was in the third grade. My Sunday School teacher at the time asked me if I was ready to become a Christian, I told her I would, but I wasn’t done being bad yet.  Yeah, I was a cheeky child…

Fast forward to 2011. I still feel like there are some things I want to accomplish and experience before it’s a global wrap…I would like to be an established author who has traveled the world in my literary pursuits. I would like to have a fabulous wedding and an even more fabulous marriage. I want to travel to South Africa and meet Nelson Mandela and see where Zora Neale Hurston was reportedly buried in Florida. I want to save six months of living expenses and make some really good investments.  I want to meet Oprah and go out with Common (Since Tupac is dead, Common comes in second.).  You get the idea. I got some things I want to do…

But according to Family Stations Inc., unless I somehow get this week off from work,  I won’t be able to accomplish any of this. (I figure in a week’s time, I can at least get to Florida to see Zora’s grave and tweet Common about my dream.) This group of Christians are predicting that Jesus will return Saturday, May 21. Below is an excerpt from an article in the AJC yesterday.

Tom Evans, media representative for Family Stations Inc., of which Camping is president and general manager, said, “All the signs that Jesus warned of in the Bible that would precede his return have taken place, and are evident in our world. For example, the re-establishment of the nation of Israel; the complete decay of the church; the dismal state of our world; and the moral breakdown of all of society.”

The belief holds that not only will the Rapture occur next Saturday, but the end of the world will occur on Oct. 21.

 Bishop Chandler Jones, however, won’t be holding his breath. Instead, the rector at St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Dunwoody will be performing a wedding May 21 “that will go on exactly as planned.”

“I think it’s very presumptuous to try to predict the time and hour of Jesus’ return because our Lord says in the Gospel that even the Son does not know the hour of his return,” he said.

Jones said he thinks some people may buy into that theory, though, because of the recent number of natural disasters around the world, including earthquakes, tsunamis and floods, and the “anxiety of our times,” including the economy, politics and society.

The Rev. Lynn Eynon, pastor of Woodstock Christian Church, plans to talk about the prediction during his sermon Sunday. Not that he thinks it will happen, however.

“I think the whole concept is foolishness,” said Eynon. “What they’re doing is contrary to Scripture. The Bible says that no man knows the day or hour of his coming. Those dates have come and gone over the years in church history. It’s going to happen eventually, but we’re not going to know the date. It makes Christianity look silly.”

According to an article on CNN’s website, last October, many people who are supporters of Family Stations Inc. quit their jobs to join the station’s “Project Caravan.”  This group has been traveling the country for several months to warn people that the end is near. Below is an excerpt from the CNN article.

They walked away from work, families and communities in places as far-flung as California, Kansas, Utah and New Jersey. Among them are an electrician, a TV satellite dish installer, a former chef, an international IT consultant and a man who had worked with the developmentally disabled.

They gave away cars, pets, music collections and more to relatives, friends and neighbors. Some items they kicked to the curb. In homes that weren’t emptied, clothes are still hanging in closets, and dishes, books and furniture — including one man’s antique collection — are gathering dust. Unless, of course, they’ve been claimed by others. If you believe it’s all going to be over soon, why would it matter if you close the front door, much less lock it, when you walk away?

It’s a mid-winter morning in Jacksonville, Florida, when CNN joins this faithful caravan. The “ambassadors,” as they call themselves, are easy to spot. They are the 10 people milling about in an RV park drawing stares, eye rolls, under-the-breath mutters and, at times, words of support.

They’re wearing sweatshirts and other clothing announcing the “Awesome News,” that Judgment Day is coming on May 21. On that day, people who will be saved will be raptured up to heaven. The rest will endure exactly 153 days of death and horror before the world ends on October 21. That message is splashed across their five sleek, vinyl-wrapped RVs, bearing this promise: “The Bible guarantees it!”

I don’t like to ridicule people (at least publicly,) but I wonder how these people explain this verse.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Matthew 24:36

But just in case they’re right, let me get on Twitter and tweet the only light-skinned man besides President Obama that has got my attention…Incidentally, why are folk trippin’ because Common got invited to the White House. I mean he is one of the most conscious hip hop artists out there…

So what would you do this week if you thought everything would be over on Saturday?

Any thoughts?

 

Posted on

Let’s Stay Together?

“Let’s, we oughta stay together,
Loving you whether, whether,
Times are good or bad, happy or sad.”

Al Green in “Let’s Stay Together”

Hello World!

I don’t know about you, but about two Fridays ago, I was up at 4 a.m. watching Kate Middleton, now Catherine, marrying Prince William. I thought the media focused too much on the event in the months leading up to the big day, but the romantic in me was lured to the wedding nonetheless. As I watched the royal pageantry unfold and reflected on one of my favorite stories as a child, “Cinderella,” I could not tear myself away from the television although I had to turn a big project to turn in that day.

Although I was happy for the royal couple, I also could not help but think of the last wedding that captured that much attention: the wedding of Princess Di and Prince Charles. And we know how that ended. I remember watching the wedding with my mother, and although I did not completely understand what was going on, I remember thinking it seemed like a fairy tale unfolding in front of my eyes. I remember being captivated by Princess Di’s wedding ring – the one that Princess Catherine now wears today. And yet their marriage ended horribly. I wish Princess Catherine and Prince William the best, but I do wonder if they will stay together.

Stateside, we have no royalty, but the family that seems to command the most attention other than the Obamas is the Kennedys. When it was announced yesterday that Maria Shriver, a member of the Kennedy family, and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are separated after 25 years of marriage, I began wondering what does it take for couples to really last till death do them part…I mean how bad could have it have been to separate after spending almost half of their lives together at this point? I read in an article that the recent deaths of Shriver’s uncle and father and rumors of affairs Schwarzenegger allegedy had with other women could could have contributed to the decision to separate.

As someone who has been a commitmentphobe, news like this and the divorce rate in this country makes me wonder what are the ingredients of a marital coupling that really has lifetime staying power…What do you think?

Any thoughts?