daily life as life goes on . . .

Has your life changed in this tech savvy world?

My guess is . . .

Oh yeah, I’ve got to check Google on that one!  That’s where I can find a poll, or some research, or just an opinion that will give me the answer.

And while I’m at it, I’ll check out the pizza joint down the street.  They have a mobile app and I can just order that pizza I’ve been craving.

To say nothing of sitting down and reading a book tonight.  A quick flip over to Amazon and I can read the ebook or wait until tomorrow morning when overnight delivery pops it to my door.

And what about that electrical gadget I needed.  I read the service manual online and I’m sure I can fix it by myself.  They’ll have the part on the way this afternoon.

So, maybe Dominos isn’t so far off.  Delivery by drone, anyone?

So this morning, I was reading the credits for an author of a book.  His name is Warren Baker, the same as my brother.  He was an editor to the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Studies Bibles. 

My brother is an artist.  Not a writer or linguist.

I love to set up appointments with our local medical clinic.

Not because I like to be sick or need medical attention.  Rather, I love the expected response from the receptionist, who asks when I was born.

You see, I’m part of a cadre, a fellowship, a company of same-name human beings.

Just a few minutes down the road, in a community called Flaxcombe, another Ron Baker lives.  His medical charts are also at the same clinic as mine.

Imagine his surprise if he were to arrive one day at the clinic and find out he had both of his knee joints replaced.  And that he had GERD.  And that he was over 60.

Imagine my surprise if I were to arrive and find out I was him! 

When I applied for a website address for ronbaker.com, I found out there was another Ron Baker in the USA who is a car salesman – he owned the website. 

In my younger days we received a call from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police looking for Ron Baker:  a gadlfy, womanizer, cheater and generally no good person.

Ever wondered who you are? 

Do a search of your name on the internet and find out who you are not!!

Performing funerals gives me a fresh view on how families prepare for a final ceremony of remembrance once someone dies. 

I’ve noted that a number of the deceased “wing it.”  Their immediate family or friends fly around the house trying to find something to give them a sense of who this person was.  That includes looking frantically for directions on what they would liked included in a funeral service – and what they would like to be remembered for.

My uncle Glen passed away recently and had prepared a little something for his wife and the kids in a book called – “A Father’s Legacy.”  The reminiscences he had placed in this workbook became a part of a color scheme for the service (he liked magenta), a service theme around his love of work (he did lots of chores as a young person), and some personal remembrances (the type that the family may have known but would have forgotten).

I went home from the funeral and ordered a used copy (I don’t think they are still in print).

That began what has been a two month journey (and more months to go!).  I’ve been writing out things like impressions of my mother, sports I enjoyed, friends I’ve had, school memories and much more.

I’m amazed how much I have stuffed at the back of my brain.  Sometimes it takes a few well placed questions to bring them to the forefront.  This book was a prompter – a way to write my memoirs while I can still remember them.

I suppose starting earlier in my life would have been helpful.  I have a lot of this information scattered around but the real joy of this book is bringing the information to one place.  For the sake of family and friends.  And for my own sake as I have headed into retirement and look back over my life.

Our society still likes the idea of couples and citizens.  We are not always so happy with immigrants and singles.

Marriage laws abound, with varied types of regulation, but the overall principle is that one is the loneliest number, so more than one is an acceptable state in which to live – and the more the merrier – you can add to that family biologically or adoptively. 

Immigration is practiced with vigilance as citizens attempt to monitor who will join them in celebrating their nation.  Laws emphasize the deep gulf between who we like and who we don’t like.

A nation often needs to examine the realm of citizenship.  All societies are exclusive.  The problem is that additional exclusion clauses, added over the decades, sometimes violate the original intent.

About 700 years BCE, a Jewish prophet, Isaiah (Chapter 56 in his book), strongly criticizes the Jewish nation for abandoning an inclusive approach.  They were excluding, as true citizens, two classes of people.  A eunuch was someone who could not have children, a man who had been rendered unable to provide life-giving semen.  A foreigner was someone who was not a natural progeny of the nation’s fathers and mothers. 

The Jews of that era were not always the most accepting of “these people” – the foreigner and the eunuch.  Nor were “these people” expecting that they would be accepted, by the people or by God. 

Isaiah challenges this perspective. 

Parents might say their name was carried on through their children – that their legacy was guaranteed by blood.  As long as the bloodline lasted.  The eunuch was guaranteed a legacy because in God’s house a plaque of remembrance (a name plate that was constantly before God’s open eyes) was permanently attached to the wall.

Citizens might say their practices and rituals provided them with a window of access to God.  But their hearts, God’s conversation organ with the human, could be deaf to God.  Foreigners who committed to God and would follow in obedience, were guaranteed a place by God in God’s talking room.  The house of prayer (where divine discussion happened with mortals) was for all nations.

For us today, the most unlikely candidate for citizenship may be the poster child of the true heart of a nation.