Tag / Recommendations

by Greg

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

Jesus+Nothing=EverythingA good friend of ours read a book a while ago and thought that I might enjoy it, too. She was right.

What I most enjoyed about this book was it’s emphatic emphasis (is that a thing?) on the singular fullness of Jesus. (Which, I’m sure you already gleaned from the title.)

The concept is, nothing we can add to who Jesus is, and what he has already done, will in anyway add to or enhance our lives, our existence. And, in a slight bending of the commutative property of addition, he asserts that removing Jesus from everything, leaves us with nothing. (That was for my kids, who do not hold much love for math…)

Here’s a quote from early in the book:

God seemed bigger to me than ever, when I’d never been so small.

When you actually feel like you have nothing, Jesus becomes more to you than you ever could have hoped or imagined.

Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

The gospel became for me more than a theological passion more than a cognitive catch-phrase it became my functional lifeline.

Rediscovering the gospel enabled me to see that:

Because Jesus was strong for me, I was free to be weak.
Because Jesus won for me, I was free to lose.
Because Jesus was someone, I was free to be no one.
Because Jesus was extraordinary, I was free to be ordinary.
Because Jesus succeeded for me, I was free to fail.

At a very difficult time in his life, the emphasis of the author’s real, tangible life became completely focused on who Jesus is, what Jesus does for him… and the reality of its completion and accessibility to him. And to us.

The gospel erases us, in [a] sense, which is why we avoid it. But that erasing of self is the key to our freedom.

The gospel doesn’t take you deeper into yourself; the gospel takes you away from yourself. That’s why Paul reminds the Colossians (and us), “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (3:3) The gospel frees us to realize that, while we matter, we’re not the point.“

Jesus is the point.

We who call ourselves Christians certainly already realize this. But it is not often realized in our lives. The days we live. The hopes we have, challenges we face, thoughts we think. We do not live in the fullness and reality of the gospel: that God so loved [all of us] that he took on skin and defeated sin and death, that we might know eternal life. In Him. And then the “Christian life” flows from knowing, accepting, and living that.

At one point the author proclaims a “hatred” for ‘accountability groups’ because of their incorrect focus. Christianity tends to focus on behavior, and inward attempts to change. But the change only comes from Jesus’ work in us. Once on the cross, and ongoing as we walk with him.

He says this about how we can encourage one another as we live our lives in step with the Spirit:

So, instead of trying to fix on another, why don’t we “stir one another up to love and good deeds” by daily reminding one another, in humble love, of the riches we already possess in Christ? ….

Our greatest need is to look at Christ more than we look at ourselves, because the gospel is not our work for Jesus, but Jesus’s work for us.

The truth that this book presents is that we have everything we need in Jesus. Period. The end. Nothing more is needed. Anything else just gets in the way, and takes our focus off of the Life source: Jesus. (Hebrews 12:2 comes to mind.)

Today, if you are weary, or burdened, or feel as though you are missing something… please look to Jesus. He is already there, with you, waiting for you to cease your struggle and simply follow him. Trust him.

If those are just words, please ask Him to show you how to experience them. There is no life without him. Everything minus Jesus is nothing.

But, as Tchividjian says (I just wanted to get his name in here! It’s pretty crazy!):

Jesus, plus nothing, equals everything.

And in that, we are free.

by Greg

The Church Book: Revisited

htc-smallI came across a copy of my “Church book”, There’s The Steeple… Here’s The Church!, just today, and on a whim I picked it up and flipped through it. For some reason, the epilogue, titled “Concluding Remarks”, caught my eye this time.

If you think the book is anti-church, these words should dispel that notion. The words are the written expression of many weeks, months, and years of deep, soul-searching, truth-seeking efforts for the church, the Bride of Christ.

Happening across these words again today was interesting, coupled with a conversation we had this past week with an old friend. The subject of “the church” was central to a portion of our discussion. We both spent much time crafting emotional, spirit-filled, Jesus-centered programs. Everything was meant to point the hearer/seer to Jesus. And it was wonderful. We commented that we definitely miss those moments. And still, we also recall the not-just-physical exhaustion of energy possibly slightly misdirected: building up an organization and event, rather than one another.

If you haven’t purchased (or downloaded for free) and read a copy of this book yet, I wonder if what I wrote at the end of the book might encourage you to do so? I had forgotten about this part, but I think eight years later, this is all still true. (Even while some of the other things I’ve read might have been slightly modified by the passage of time.)

Here, today, is the short epilogue, in its entirety.

As I finished putting this book together, I couldn’t help but think that I had missed something. I tried to go back over each chapter in my head, wondering if I had said all that I hoped to communicate through a few thousand feeble words. I want so much to convey the astounding freedom that we have in the quite undeserved love of our Father. I want to communicate that we as the church could be so much more! I don’t want to attack, or belittle the things that so many brothers and sisters cherish (as did I in the not too distant past). I only want to offer what I believe we Christians already know and teach, but perhaps are just not living out.

A phrase from Scripture comes to mind quite often when I ponder the current forms of the Church. “A form of godliness, but denying its power.” To me it seems that could define the church, and the lives of many believers today. We have created a facade that would pretend to offer us life with Jesus, when in fact it is only a set of ethics to which we must adhere. It’s only a meeting to attend. A job to be done.

The kingdom of heaven is so much more. It’s here, now. Jesus has made it possible for us to know him and the Father by his Holy Spirit right inside us. He is always with us. Through good, and bad. This is the nature of the church. In reality, it’s not something we have created to propagate truths passed down through generations. We have turned it into that. But the church is the living, breathing, body and bride of Christ. It’s much more real than we have allowed it to be.

I don’t know if the words on these pages have stirred you or not. If they have, it was not the words that stirred. It was your Father. He loves you, just like he loves me. He has communicated that to me through many means, and I am hopeful that you heard his voice through this book. It is not my intention to tear down anything with this book, only to liberate and help open our eyes to the greatness of what we have, and perhaps what we’re missing.

Live today in the freedom of God’s love and grace. Know he loves you, and longs to be with you. His love is perfect, and compels us to love as we’ve been loved. May you know the greatness of living life as the church with others similarly loved.

Grace and Peace to you, The Church.
Greg Campbell

htc-small
There’s The Steeple… Here’s The Church by Greg Campbell, is available through Amazon.com. If you’d like to purchase the book, please click the book title in the previous sentence. If you’d like a free PDF version, it is available here. Also have some of the audio version available at church.gregshead.net. Thanks for reading, sharing, and feel free to add to the discussion in the comments below, or wherever else you can reach me.
by Greg

[ThisDay] Both Sides of the Story

I had an intriguing idea today.

“I wonder what I was thinking and writing on this day through the ten plus years I’ve been publishing stuff here? I wonder if it’s the same stuff I’m thinking in January of 2014?”

Seemed like an interesting enough activity to share it here with you. (Hello, you!)

For the remainder of this month, I plan to post here my favorite post from that date in GregsHead history, as well as links to the other posts from that day, should you wish to do more reading than just the one that I select.

It should prove to be an interesting study in the cyclical nature of life—or at least… of my own mind? 🙂

Today’s post is really very interesting, primarily because while it was its own post, its initial/primary purpose was to highlight another previous post! (Wow!) Please read as much as time (or interest) allows.

Without further ado, This Day In (GH) History…

Both Sides of the Story

January 20th, 2012

I’ve mentioned here many times that I am learning how crucial it is to see life from multiple angles. Getting not only information from people with opposing viewpoints, but really trying to step into their shoes; see from their perspective. It’s just so crucial to communication, to cooperation, interaction… to society in general.

And so often, we—being human, flawed, self-absorbed—we aren’t even aware that there are other legitimate perspectives!

Our son Ian has been very interested in the World War II time period of history. He’s been learning every bit he can not just about the battles, but the people—the leaders in particular—involved in the story. Winston Churchill and FDR, as well as Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin. He’s previously read about Woodrow Wilson and WWI… definitely has a serious passion for history and biographies!

So much so that Mom (Jen) has even recently taken up a book about Roosevelt titled, “FDR’s Splendid Deception”, about the fact that President Roosevelt was never seen public in his wheelchair, so as to not appear weak. From all accounts, it’s a fascinating story.

Somehow all of this brought to mind a movie I had seen some time back. I posted a mini-review on that movie, Letters from Iwo Jima, and it’s counterpart, Flags of our Fathers, here on this site in 2007. Please go ahead and click the link and read that story. (That’s actually the main reason for this post: that you’d re-read that older post!)

The fascinating thing was, Flags was released first, and then Iwo Jima. They depicted the exact same story from history, but from opposite sides of the battle.

How much better off we’d be if we could do that with nearly every conflict or disagreement!

For a long time now, Jen and I and I have been reading through a modern translation of the Federalist Papers called The Original Argument. In Federalist #1, Alexander Hamilton addresses this subject (in an atmosphere where there were passionate arguments for and against the proposed Constitution):

Since the motives behind each of the opinions are so strong, it is certain that wise and good people will be found on both sides of the issues. This fact should remind us all to remain modest in our opinion—no matter how right we think we are.

I think that is still my favorite quote from all the papers we’ve examined so far. And again, how different would our political climate be today if that were the way everyone approached every issue, whether controversial or relatively benign?

Forget politics. What if we all treated each other that way? What if we presumed that we were not smarter, better, right-er than everyone else around us.

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”

That’s where it starts. You can’t really even care about the perpective of your adversary or opponent—or anyone—if you know you are in some way (or all ways) superior.

I’d really encourage you to read that post about Letters from Iwo Jima, and as I recommended now almost five years ago, if you haven’t seen it… do.

The more we can see things from other view points, other perspectives, the more we can live at peace with others around us. (Which is what Paul says we need to do in the verse just before what I quoted above.)

So I encourage you to take a walk in someone else’s shoes today. You might be surprised what you see.

Scripture quote is Philippians 2:3-4, from the New Living Translation

OTHER POSTS from JANUARY 20th

  1. I recommend this as a close second for best post on January 20th. Bonus: It’s shorter. 🙂 ↩
by Greg

Rhythms

The Screwtape Letters: With Screwtape Proposes a ToastThere is a definite cyclical rhythm to life. At least, there is in mine.

I am a creator. I enjoy creating things. I work with words, images, colors and designs, even code and systems. I also create with food, and a few other physical mediums. And I love to create with imagination. (Bedtimes with my kids are usually quite entertaining!)

And I love to create here. Words flesh out thoughts, which often interact with each other creating further thoughts, which beget further words about thoughts. It’s a rewarding and interesting cycle all to itself.

Then there is the longer part of the cycle. This part occurs at a slower pace, gradually, over longer cycles; months, even years.

As a creative sort, I often find that one season will be full of creating, whilst another will seem devoid of new work—but that is because I am on the other side of that cycle: intake.

I’ve written about it here before. (Numerous times besides that post, I’m sure.)

And today’s post will highlight the same.

I actually finished up yesterday a bunch of books I’ve been reading over the past weeks and months. With a serious increase in daily output here since June of this current calendar year, I’ve been in output mode, churning out words more than taking in.

But the intake has not ceased. (See here.) And in fact, I am detecting that it’s now on the increase.

I’ve been feeling what could almost be described as a need for more reading time, again. My library account has been active. I’ve purchased a book or two. (Gotta love library book sales! Am I right??) And there are plenty of free options (public domain, etc.) via electronic book distributors.

Have a look at this list of books on my “currently reading” list (available here)

currently reading

Yes. I am currently, whenever I sit down to read, cracking open each of those books at whatever point I am into them. Really!

(Yes. You are also correct that… I’m a bit whacko.)

We’ve also been enjoying reading chunks of the Bible together as a family. We’re slowly working through Acts together, and last week we took an evening to read through the book of Philippians in one sitting. (Highly recommend you giving that a try, too. Such an encouraging text!)

It’s good to enjoy each cycle. To intake when that is needed, and churn out when in the output cycle.

Output may slow here a bit in this cycle, but the rhythm will flow back to output soon enough.

Last thing for today: the word rhythms was used so beautifully in Eugene Peterson’s translation of Matthew 11:28-30. Enjoy, and remember to keep in rhythm with your (our) father.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

by Greg

The Year of Jubilee

Police badgeI had a run-in with the law this week.

Well, it was not specifically I who did, and, it was more of a “walk-in” as opposed to a “run-in”.

But that statement was generally true.

If you are a regular reader of this website, you are aware that our oldest son is running a lemonade stand this week in our town in order to raise funds for his hockey season and additionally to raise funds for a friend of his whose family gives their time to help people in Tanzania. It’s really makes my heart smile to see him make this happen. Good on ya, Ian!

Apparently, it does not make every heart smile.

The Palmyra police department received a complaint (through which channels I am not completely certain) in regards to a presumably unlicensed vendor selling bottled water on the streets of Palmyra. A direct accusation was aimed at our son’s lemonade stand for perpetrating this offense. (Although he is neither selling bottled water, nor is he selling on the streets of Palmyra, if one were to be technical.) A police officer then followed up on this with Ian directly, politely (according to Ian) informing him that he must obtain a “peddler’s permit” immediately, or he would have to be shut down.

And this is where the fun began.

The Story Unfolds

Now stick with me. This obviously could be a very long and involved diatribe rant post, I have a very specific thought I’d like to present today. I do need to present a bit of background here, though.

When I was informed of this requirement that the office communicated to Ian, my first response was to double-check the regulations of the Village of Palmyra, just to be sure what was required of a temporary vendor, such as Ian.

I browsed section (§) 139, and found that Ian didn’t fit this “Peddler’s Permit” license requirement at all. That was odd, but I kept reading just to be sure. (AND, as I read, I discovered that there are very strict requirements on anyone seeking one of these “Peddler’s Permits”, including submitting to finger printing and criminal background checks. For a 14-year-old’s lemonade stand??? I thought, This can’t be true!! Thankfully, it was not.)

As I continued to read, I discovered that indeed there was a section (§139.17, Article II) pertaining to Ian’s lemonade stand, and his usage of the “sidewalk”, that portion of land between the curb and the sidewalk.

Ian and I reviewed the code, we discussed options—including fighting what we deemed a silly twenty-five dollar license fee—and figured with likely a vast majority of public support in his favor, we could probably bring attention to a pretty obvious case of over-regulation.

But, without much thought given to a “fight”, we decided the next thing to do was for me to go discuss what I had learned with the officer who had approached Ian about obtaining the license.

A brief stroll across the street (at the crosswalk, of course…) to our police station, and I was speaking with the same officer that had spoken with Ian. He was very gracious, understanding, and even fairly knowledgeable of the codes which I had just looked up and studied (impressive!). We spoke a bit about the complaint, the code/regulations, and both decided that it would be best to get a license, especially because, since Ian is raising money for a charity, there would be less cost involved.

OK, thanks for sticking with me this far. Now we’re to the point I really wanted to make.

Big fat book!I walked next door to the Village Clerk’s office, which was then being manned (womanned?) by a friend of ours. She had heard of the alleged infraction, and knew of the license requirement, but like the officer and myself, shook her head at the enforcement of it in the case of a teenager’s lemonade stand.

I showed her the papers in my hand: seven pages of §139 of the Village of Palmyra, NY codes, and we both laughed. But not a fun, that’s-so-funny-it-makes-me-happy kind of laugh. She later showed me the full book of the Village codes, laws, and regulations.

It was a large book. For a tiny town.

It’s really sad! And our little village is not alone. The laws in our towns, states, and our country are way, way beyond out of control.

A Year of Julbilee

And so, I propose something like you find in the book of Leviticus. Chapters twenty-five through twenty-seven.

God introduced to the Israelite people the idea of a Sabbath Year of Rest every seventh year. No planting or harvesting of crops, and some other cyclical downtimes for his people and their land.

In conjunction with this, after seven cycles of this six years on, six years off, the people would celebrate a Year of Jubilee. Every fiftieth year would be a reset. It meant the return of property to owners who had to sell it, freeing people from debts of servitude, and generally canceling any preexisting debt amongst the Israelite people—resetting to zero.

Fascinating, huh?

Thomas Jefferson Was a Smart Man

Thomas JeffersonIf this worked for the Israelites (and it was God’s idea in the first place) then why wouldn’t it work for us, too?

Thomas Jefferson thought we should do something like this regularly, revisit our laws and constitutions. He really thought it. You can find quotes pertaining to this “reset” in many of his correspondences with different people.

For instance:

Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of nineteen years.1

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security.2

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.3

There are more. Many more. Jefferson firmly believed that laws should not continue past one generation, which he determined to be nineteen years. He likened each generation of people to a sovereign nation. One nation can not impose its laws and government on another, neither should one generation bind another with laws which are not their own. (Please see the links at the end of this post.)

Bottom line: Sometimes you need to clear the books!

Think about crazy stuff like Michigan representative, John Conyers wondering aloud why he should have to read a thousand-page bill before passing it into law. (That bill was the now-passed Affordable Care Act.) Are we really OK with passing 1,000 more pages of regulations and codes and laws WITHOUT reading them? (Recall, too, that Senator Nancy Pelosi said that we’d have to pass the bill so that we could find out what was in it. Yikers!)

Could This Work Now?

My Palmyra neighbor, who is in a position of some authority here, cordially scoffed at the codes currently in place—primarily at the volume of codes in place. I think most of our other neighbors would agree.

Generally, I think most Americans could agree that our government is far too big and invasive. There are some who think the government should be providing many services to all Americans, paid for by monies collected through taxes, but even those people know that the red tape bureaucracy is out of control. No one can figure out how to pay their taxes, or can possibly know in advance all of the laws, codes, regulations, etc that are on our local, state, and federal “books”.

Maybe it’s time for a Year of Jubilee?

It’s way past time.

What Jefferson was referencing in his “tree of liberty” comment was a defense of a rebellion in the United States as an understandable occurrence. (Note: he was not calling for people to overthrow their own governments here.) Those rebelling were uninformed (or under-informed) and the government in place had taken too much authority over its people. Jefferson saw this as a natural course of events, necessary to preserving liberty—from both sides: the people and the government. Had the people not rebelled, it would have revealed a lethargy in the people (both to seek out information, and then to act upon it) which would signify the death of liberty among them.4

The biggest obstacle to this is what Jefferson also stated in our own Declaration:

“…all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

We are reticent to make change. And those in power are often actively hindering it, usually for their own benefit, not that of the general population.

So it may be very out of the ordinary—it might even be next to impossible—but Jefferson nearly insisted that it must be done.

And I wholeheartedly agree.

Resources for further study: (Please do!)

  1. From a letter to James Madison, sent September 6th, 1789. ↩
  2. The Declaration of Independence. ↩
  3. Thomas Jefferson, letter to William S. Smith Paris, November 13th, 1787. ↩
  4. Please read more of this letter. The whole thing in fact. It’s here. ↩
by Greg

Lemonade Stand, 2013

The cookies have been made. The stand has been repainted. The signs are all freshly drawn…

The Lemonade Stand is back!

If you haven’t read the story yet of the beginnings of this particular entrepreneurial endeavor headed up by our oldest son, it’s one of my favorite posts. (Even just for the photos, actually, but also the story is really great!)

Go ahead. I’ll wait.

The Lemonade Stand

Pretty great, huh? It’s so fun seeing a project like that take shape, and even more fun when it’s becomes a reality. And let me tell you, it was a huge success last year, too! The kids all made plenty of money and had a great, great time doing it.

(You wouldn’t necessarily think a lemonade stand could be “lucrative”, but due to many factors—cuteness of these Tinies definitely near the top of that list—the Lemonade Stand will probably be a regular, annual ordeal here at the Campbell home.)

There are a few changes this year. Many of them are intentional, some of them are just the way life goes—it changes! All of them are good learning experiences for our fourteen-year-old Big Thinker.

Charity

First among the differences (that matter) is Ian’s desire to leverage this high yield income opportunity to not only his own advantage—paying for his hockey this year, and some equipment—he also wanted to be generous with his Lemonade bounty.

After reading the book Do Hard Things, Ian decided he wanted to purchase one thousand custom rubber bracelets and sell them for a dollar, giving half of the sales to a charity. He considered a few options (among them Mercury One, a charity group that assists in disaster relief, begun by Glenn Beck, whom is at least a partial inspiration to Ian for this Lemonade Stand business) and eventually landed on supporting a family he knows who does mission work with people in Africa.

I just love watching Ian formulate these ideas and carry them out. Yes, he’ll hopefully gain more money that he can use towards things he wants to do, but at the same time, he’s using his creativity, energy and time (and money) to help other people, too. That is great!

When originally researching to whom he’d donate the charitable funds, Ian first was honing in on water projects in Africa, specifically Uganda. This gave him the idea to create a little lemonade-related slogan for his yellow bracelets:

Lemonade < Water | Water = Life

If you know Ian well, first you know he’s creative, and so it makes sense he’d come up with something cleverly creative, but, you’d also know that he is not a fan of math. So the fact that his bracelets sport a mathematically-themed “equation” … well, you see the humor there, I’m sure. 🙂

Lemonade < Water, Water = Life Bracelets for Charity

Location

The other big difference (that doesn’t matter, too much?) is the location.

One of Ian's cute helpers!Last year the Stand was located right on the corner of Temple Road and Route 21. It’s the place where anyone in town for the Hill Cumorah Pageant would turn to visit the other Mormon historical sites in our town. So plenty of traffic, slowing to turn, saw cute kids peddling lemonade (on very hot, sunny days!) and would stop at the corner—where there was ample parking space, too—and purchase a little (or a lot of) lemonade. And cookies. And brownies. 🙂

This year the Lemonade Stand will be right on Main Street, just east of Route 21. The “Four Churches Corner”, as it is sometimes called here1.

There is still plenty of traffic on Main Street, so it shouldn’t “hurt business” all that much, but it will be interesting to see the difference it might make.

In an effort to compensate, Ian made, printed, and posted flyers and posters (and large signs, too) at various business and key locations around Palmyra.

Business Planning

thats-a-lotta-dough
The other neat piece of this whole thing is watching Ian learn about running a business. He’s been working for a few months on calculating his costs, and projecting sales and profits. Factors include not only the Cost of Goods Sold (ingredients, the bracelets, etc) but also paying his “workers” (also known as siblings…) and even advertising costs, being mostly those posters and flyers.

He’s got it down to a science. Or, more accurately, a business.

I really feel like this is one of the strengths of home schooling: real-world, experiential learning.

Now, it’s summer time, and it’s not necessary that one be home schooled in order to plan and execute such an endeavor. But, the general enviornment that home educating fosters is one of practical, real-world learning, used in real-life applications. Again, not exclusively, but it sure does flow naturally (methinks) from the daily thought processes around these parts.

Hours of Operation

three-kids-signsLast year Ian and Company split the days with friends of ours, each taking four-hour shifts. This year, those friends are participating in the Pageant, and so will not be participating in the Lemonade Stand.

Thinking about what hours worked best last year, and probably not wanting to do full eight-hour days in the sun, Ian has chosen to run his Lemonade Stand from 10:00am to 6:00pm every remaining day this week, including Saturday.

So if you’d like to support a young entrepreneur, as well as a family who does mission work in Tanzania—through the purchase of a bracelet, or several—come on out this week to Palmyra. The cookies are delicious, the lemonade will quench your thirst on these very hot days of summer…

And you’ll smile at the good going on all around.

When life gives you lemons, just enjoy the lemonade!

  1. According to a Palmyra, NY Website: “The four corner churches include the First Methodist Church on the northeast corner, the First Baptist Church on the southwest corner, the Palmyra Zion Episcopal Church on the southeast corner, and the Western Presbyterian Church on the northwestern corner.

    The four corner churches are located on the corners of Main Street and Canandaigua Road right in the center of Palmyra, New York.” Note: It’s not Canandaigua Road, it’s Canandaigua Street… for what it’s worth. ↩

by Greg

A Visit to Young’s Jersey Dairy

Young's Jersey Dairy, Yellow Springs, OHJuly is National Ice Cream Month, so it only makes sense that part of the Campbell family July would include a visit to Young’s Jersey Dairy near Springfield, Ohio—our homeland for many generations back.

I remember visits to Young’s when I was a wee lad. It was much smaller then (as was I!) and it was mainly just an ice cream place. Now it’s a sprawling, multi-million dollar business!

There is a batting cage and miniature golf course, a full service restaurant, as well as the quick fried foods available with at the ice cream “stand”. (A very large “stand”… hard to still call it that!)

youngs-dairy-on-cows

They have a kids’ fun zone, with trailer rides, miniature tractors to ride, and all sorts of fun things. There is a gift shop with all kinds of goodies, Young’s-related and otherwise. Really, it’s quite amazing what this place has grown into!

But my favorite part is that they still have the place where you can visit the animals. They certainly have remained “small” while growing so large.

youngs-dairy-yummm

There are goats, and pigs, and sheep, as well as the cows of course. Only about thirty Jersey cows in total produce all of the Young’s Dairy products! (Ice cream and cheese and… milk? Not sure of the latter…)

youngs-dairy-inside

We visited on Monday and Tuesday of this week and were surprised by the number of people there with us. On a July Monday mid-afternoon, the place was packed! Tuesday was a bit better as it was raining all afternoon, but still quite busy—long lines for ice cream.

I, of course, had a scoop of one of my favorite flavors: White Chocolate Raspberry Swirl! (They have so many to choose from, but I always make sure to get some of that!)

And, as if all of this weren’t enough, somewhere in the last couple years, Young’s has begun selling Schuler’s donuts! Folks, it seriously doesn’t get better than that! And, likely anyone from Springfield can confirm that!

youngs-dairy-girls

It’s fun to visit the places of your childhood. In fact, while we were visiting my childhood ice cream place, we also drove past the house where I grew up. It was neat to show my kids the actual buildings and locations while telling them the earliest stories I can recall.

Do you enjoy going back to your childhood favorites? How often are you able to revisit those places from your past?

For me, we get to Young’s at least once every year. (And Schuler’s Bakery of course, too!)

It’s fun to stay connected to your childhood. Keeps you feeling … Young?

youngs-dairy-boys

by Greg

Regarding Liberty

Edward Snowden - NSA WhistleblowerWe’re being monitored. At least, we’re being recorded. Straight out of the storyline in George Orwell’s novel 1984, technology has gotten to the point that anyone who wants to, and has the resources to—like, the US Federal Government—can monitor and store all electronic communications.

That really is astounding.

This past week, Edwards Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) employee revealed many things about the clandestine agency’s daily operations, apparently because his conscience would not allow him to remain silent regarding the obvious overreaching. (Read more.)

Reactions to his revelations vary, but one certain result of his actions is that we as a nation (and perhaps the entire globe) are considering what is just, and necessary, and maybe even ethical, in regards to security versus liberty.

That reminds me of the words of Benjamin Franklin:

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

It’s pretty amazing that we have the capacity to collect and store every email, phone conversation, video or audio chat, web browser session, and so on. And with indexing and cataloging software, as well as analytical algorithms, it’s incredibly easy to discover critical facts and piece them together to thwart nefarious plots. Truly remarkable how our technology has come.

But at what point is it too much? Do we really need to collect—and store—all of this information… especially when there is no evidence or even suspicion of wrongdoing? What about “innocent until proven guilty”? What about the right to liberty, established in our founding document, the Declaration of Independence?

With all of these thoughts fresh in our minds, I thought it might be a good time to revisit a draft post I started and saved shortly after finishing a book by Ron Paul titled, Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom.

I asked Jen if she would type out the last couple pages of Ron Paul’s book, because I thought it was just an excellent summary of his book, his thoughts on liberty, and the current culture of our country. (AND, because she really does love doing things like that! Anyone need a secretary?) 🙂

I’m not sure of the copyright usage permissions here, but if Mr. Paul or his people contact me and request I remove this post, I will.

Until then, please read his words, and consider what Liberty means to you. (And what you can do about that.)

Please comment below, too, if you’d like to do so. This is not a “no comment” subject, to be sure.

Also, if you have the time, click the Related Posts links at the end of this post, too. They are all worthwhile reads regarding liberty.

Excerpt from Liberty Defined by Ron Paul


Many people are deeply discouraged at the state of affairs in America. They look at goings-on in Washington and see graft, power grabs, senseless regulation and spending, and a government completely out of control, having grown far beyond the size and scope that a free people should ever permit. They are confused about ongoing wars around the world. They are puzzled by the dampening of economic opportunity. People are worried about the future.

These people are right. Some are active in politics and trying to make a change. Others are discouraged to the point of utter cynicism. There is a third path here that I highly recommend, and that is the path of winning hearts and minds through education, first of the individual, and then of others through every way possible.

We must recapture what it means to be free. By this I do not mean that we should all become policy wonks or waste our time studying the details of this or that political initiative or sector of life. I mean that we need to form a new approach to thinking about society and government, one that imagines that we can get along without such central management. We need to become more tolerant of the imperfections that come with freedom, and we need to give up the illusion that somehow putting government in charge of anything is going to improve its workings, much less bring utopia.

To embrace the idea of liberty is not a natural condition of mankind. In fact, we are disposed to tolerate far more impositions on liberty than we should. To love liberty requires an act of the intellect, I believe. It involves coming to understand how all the things we love in this world were given to us under conditions of liberty.

We need to come to see government as it is, not as we wish it to be and not as the civics books describe it. And we need to surrender our attachments to government in every aspect of life. This goes for the right and the left. We need to give up our dependencies on the state, materially and spiritually. We should not look to the state to provide for us financially or psychologically.

Let us give up our longing for welfare, our love of war, and our desire to see the government control and shape our fellow citizens. Let us understand that it is far better to live in an imperfect world than it is to live in a despotic world ruled by people who lord it over us through force and intimidation. We need a new understanding of what it means to be a great nation; it should mean, as George Washington said, that our nation is a beacon unto the world, not that we conquer the world militarily, impose our will on everyone, or even remain number one in the GDP rankings. Our sense of what it means to be great must be defined first by morality.

We must come to imagine liberty again, and believe that it can be a reality. In order to do this, we do not need songs, slogans, rallies, programs, or even a political party. All we need is access to good ideas, some degree of idealism, and the courage to embrace the liberty that so many great people of the past have embraced.

Liberty built civilization. It can rebuild civilization. And when the tides turn and the culture again celebrates what it means to be free, our battle will be won. It could happen in our time. It might happen after we are gone from this earth. But it will happen. Our job in this generation is to prepare the way.

(Emphases mine)

by Greg

Wordality

tolkienThere is no word to describe what I’m attempting to put into words. The concept of capturing extant reality in written words when no words are used—nor in the true reality, are they necessary—in order to communicate by text or mere oration (and auditory-only experience of that oratory) the experience in its entirety. It’s so difficult, and yet so masterfully accomplished by J. R. R. Tolkien in his stories of Middle-earth.

My two oldest boys and I have been making the journey through Tolkien’s adventures, starting with the Hobbit and subsequently through the Lord of the Rings trilogy for probably the past two years. (We’re taking them at a Sunday Driver’s pace…) The worlds that this man must have seen in his mind’s eye, and the incredible attention to detail that he conveys through description and dialogue are truly, utterly astounding. At times it even feels like too much; there are moments when after a few pages of reading poetry in Elven tongues you begin to wonder, “What is the deal with this guy?”

But then there are moments where you almost feel you are not simply present with the characters, in the magical places—rather you feel as though you are one of them.

Of course this is the goal of anyone who puts pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), but how many can so well achieve this as has Mr. Tolkien? When you have a society in your name, you’ve probably made a name for yourself.

We’ve nearly reached the end of the third book in the LoTR series, and tonight’s chapter was just such an enjoyable read. Tolkien is bringing together several long, arduous journeys for so many characters through whom he has helped us live this adventure; their joys are ours, all that they are experiencing can be felt by the reader.

When I read the following paragraph, I stopped and commented to my son Ian, the aspiring author, observing that what Tolkien is able to do is to put into words things which have no words. He assembles (even creates) just the right words to allow the reader to enter the entirety of the moment. Not only does he elaborately describe a lush environment in all its fullness, but he also so perfectly captures the emotions and even the reasons for the emotions without “spelling it out” … rather he brings it to life.

‘A great Shadow has departed’, said Gandalf, and then he laughed, and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count. It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known. But he himself burst into tears. Then, as a sweet rain will pass down a wind of spring and the sun will shine out the clearer, his tears ceased, and his laughter welled up, and laughing he sprang from his bed.

If Artists did not exist who could master the words to somehow so beautifully capture the fullness of that moment, it might have gone something like this:

‘A great Shadow has departed’, said Gandalf, with a laugh, a sound which Sam had not heard for a long time, as their journey had been so full of sadness, toil, and hardship. The sound made him glad, but Sam began to cry. After a while, his tears ceased and he too began to laugh. Then he got out of bed.

One of these things is not like the other …

I remain awe-struck at the way Tolkien not only paints a vivid picture using words, he really creates a wordality. (A reality brought to life—as near as possible—with only words.) The way the emotions of the moment are described in that paragraph, to think to describe the depth of the joy as laughter “[falling] upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known”, is much more engaging and colorful and real than, “The sound made him glad”.

(It’s quite obvious that I am no J. R. R. Tolkien!)

While words can never capture the fullness of experience, there truly is power in words, and I am becoming a firm believer that J. R. R. was one of the finest word craftsmen/artists/story-tellers ever to have breathed our air.

I shall greatly miss Middle-earth when we finally complete our reading of The Return of The King. I may have to delve into one of the sundry other works of Tolkien that rest quietly on my shelves, anticipating their turn to share the worlds which they contain.

The wordalities I myself endeavor to create may not be as complete and vivid as Tolkien’s, but I will nonetheless continue with ardent fealty my quest to capture with words the thoughts that are stirred in my heart and mind, ruminate in my soul, crescendoing within the depths of my being from the simplest melodies to the most elaborate symphonies; becoming then all the more enjoyable when shared with a fellow Word Enthusiast and Lover of Locution, like you.

by Greg

It’s All Fun And Games Until Somebody Loses… the iPad?

donkey-kongMondays are video game day at the Campbell Household. We, the parents, try to limit the hours (and days) of video game entertainment here. (This is a learned behavior; after seeing that much less stringent limitations on video game time producing mean-spirited, selfish children, if not mindless automatons.)

As it so happens, today whilst I was cleaning up some virtual directories here at Ye Olde GregsHead (dot net) I came across a few video games I’ve shared throughout the years of this blog’s existence. I thought perhaps it might be fun—in that it is Video Game Day—to share them again (in one place) with you!

There’s the Penguin Game (which is quite surprisingly addictive…) and a funny little Christmas-themed game, as well as a Hulk Smash game (a favorite of our good friend, Chi).

In addition to those, there are a few other games that I have come across online, not to mention this entire site which seems to have every Nintendo NES game every sold ready and available for play through your favorite web browser.

Plus I found this Risk-like game a couple years ago that has been fun a time or two.

Do you recommend any online games? Do you play games on your computer? (The boys’ game of choice is Madden ’08, as that is the only one made for Mac. It has been known to catch my fancy a time or two, as well.)

Of course, my favorite games are word games! I have always been a big fan of Boggle in the real world. I also have fond memories of playing Scrabble with my Grandma when I was a young lad. Nowadays I can frequently being found playing either of those games against a distant opponent via a web browser, or more likely an iOS device. (Oh yeah, it’s your turn, Mom…) 🙂

Well, if you are looking for a brief distraction here on Video Game Monday… consider yourself well-supplied!