WILL DIGITAL T.V. SWITCHOVER BE DELAYED? (extra entry)

"...let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation." (From James 5:12)

Most of us have had our fill of all the television spots and various other public service announcements warning of the end of all analog television broadcasting on February 17, 2009. In fact, one of my earliest postings on this blog (in its early AOL Journal days in 2006) was a piece about this issue, warning that "television ends" in February 2009.

My son Jon has (in his unique style and fashion) strongly and emphatically stated for months that "It WON'T happen!" or "It's NOT going to happen!" Even so, he DOES have a digital converter for his bedroom T.V. as I do for my bedroom set, as well. (We have cable in the living room. I know, I know, that's a lot of T.V. sets, but what can I say?)

The bottom line is, Jon may be right about it "not going to happen" on February 17. I was stunned to read a small piece about this in the Saturday, January 10, 2009 MetroWest Daily News. The small piece stated that the incoming Barack Obama administration wants to DELAY the switchover as does Vermont's Independent socialist Senator Bernie Sanders.

You can read about this on Sanders' website at:

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=306438

Can you imagine if AFTER ALL THAT HYPE the switchover does not happen on February 17?!
IF it doesn't happen on February 17, how many people will ever take seriously any communications from the Federal government?

Well, the government is not ALL wrong about it. Boston area viewers know that Boston's FOX channel 25 has stopped all analog broadcasting already. Will others follow after February 17? Is Jon Baril right about "It WON'T happen!" I guess we will all have to "stay tuned" won't we?

TALKING THE TALK

“And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee.” (Matthew 26:73)

That verse is from “King James English” of hundreds of years ago; the last part would best be understood as, “your speech betrays you”, or “the way you talk betrays where you are from”.

When I was in Bible College, my father had sent me a “letter” on cassette tape. My friend Ed Duddy, upon hearing the tape burst out laughing and said, “HE talks FUNNY!!” In the Missouri Ozarks, my father’s harsh Boston accent DID sound funny!

For some reason, I’m thinking of many of the unusual speech patterns and pronunciations that some people have. I heard a nice, well educated guy speaking this week, who was using the word, “vulnerable”, but he kept pronouncing it, “vunnerable”. I hear that a lot: “vunnerable”. Maybe people are thinking of the word “venerable”, but there’s no such word as “vunnerable”. Indeed, when they use the word “vunnerable” they put themselves in a VULNERABLE position!

Some people can’t say “specific”. I knew a woman many years ago who always pronounced “specific” as “pacific”. She’d say, “I have a pacific proposal to make.” “Pacific” means “peaceful”. I think it was Balboa who named the Pacific ocean, and boy did HE choose the wrong name! (That’s kind of like the guy who named a huge ice island, “Greenland”!)

My mother could NOT say the word ,“breakfast”. She always pronounced it, “Brikefust”, with the emphasis on BRIKE. She’d ask, “What do you want for your BRIKE-fust?” Her Dad was a French Canadian and her Mom was a Scottish Canadian. I wonder if one of THEM mispronounced “breakfast” and so it just stuck with her. My father could not say the word “film”. He always pronounced it as “fill - um”. Dad also could not pronounce “theater”. He always said, “thee-ETTA”. “Who wants to go to a thee-ETTA and see a fill - um?” he’d ask. Each of his parents spoke French as their first language, and I also wonder if they mispronounced “film” and “theater” and he just picked the habit up.

I know a guy who often speaks against what he calls, “homo sex YO ality”. He also uses the word “judge-a-mental.”
“I don’t mean to be judge-a-mental, but I’m against homo sex YO ality!” he will boldly proclaim.
My son and I can’t stand when people mispronounce the word “coupon”. Many people say “Q - pon” instead of “KOO - pon”. If we had our way, you’d need a special coupon to use the word “Q - pon”!

There ARE some word combinations which are just plain difficult for some of us to pronounce. For instance, I have difficulty saying the phrase, “special message”. In preaching, sometimes I’ve stood up in the pulpit and attempted to announce, “I have a special message to give today,” except it comes out something like, “I have a SCHPESSSHHHUULLLMEHSHSCHHUGE to deliver” and I really sound like I have some kind of mental deficiency. I actually now AVOID the phrase “special message” because I seem to have such a tough time pronouncing it! Similarly, this week, a friend was telling me about a new “Bed & Breakfast” which he kept calling a “Bread and Breakfast”. Even though he kept knowing he was saying “Bread and Breakfast”, he’d still keep correcting it and he’d say “Bread and Breakfast”! It came out something like, “Did you know (so-in-so) is opening up a new Bread and Breakfast?....I mean a Bread and Breakfast...and it’s a great opportunity to spend a couple of days at a Bread and Breakfast...”

I know Pat Robertson is a controversial televangelist and most people either love him or hate him, but whichever it is, something that cracked me up about 25 years ago is when he had a whole pile of prayer requests on a table during his 700 Club broadcast. Along with co-host Ben Kinchloe, Pat earnestly began praying aloud for the prayer requests. I am sure Pat INTENDED to say, “Father, we know nothing is impossible for you...”
Instead, Pat began, “Father, we know NOTHING is possible for you!”
He continued on praying, not realizing what he’d said!

Here in New England we find it strange the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, pronounces Massachusetts as “Mass -a - TOO - sets”. It’s not unique to him. Most people in the southeastern United States say, “Mass -a - TOO - sets”. But we drive people in the Pacific Northwest crazy when we say, “Ore-a-GONE”. Ore-a-GONE? Where did it go? They say, “OreGUN”.

We say “MissourEEE”; some below the Mason-Dixon line say, “Missour-AH”.
Of course, it actually ends with the letter “i”.

My friend Martin from Kentucky says I “talk Yankee”. I say he “talks Hillbilly”.

I guess writing this has made me very “vunerable”!

THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK

“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” (Mark 13:32)

There are some job situations in which “YOU CAN’T WIN!” One of the classics is being a Superintendent of Schools and having to make the “call” on a questionable weather day. If you make the correct call, you are treated like Steve Gostowski kicking a field goal to win a tied game. If you make an incorrect call, you are treated, well, like a total fool.

The weather forecast for eastern and central Massachusetts on Tuesday was calling for pretty bad weather for Wednesday morning. Initially, it was calling for quite a bit of snow, followed by sleet, followed by freezing rain, and then followed by lots of “regular” rain. When I woke up around 5 a.m. on Wednesday, we’d had about a half inch of snow and it was sleeting like crazy. Had I been the Superintendent of Schools for Framingham, I’d have “called” a two hour delay.
In fact, many school systems in this area had one hour and two hour delays (including Ashland and Natick) and many school systems closed school entirely (including Wellesley, Marlboro, and Southboro). My wife works for Marian (Catholic) High School in Framingham. I was really happy that she got a phone call saying there would be NO SCHOOL for Marian High for Wednesday. (I really didn’t want to have to get out scraping down the driveway at 5:30. My wife is the school’s Administrative Assistant and she leaves for work at ten minutes before 6!) I was also astounded that Framingham HAD SCHOOL ON WEDNESDAY ON THE REGULAR SCHEDULE!

Even though the Marian decision was convenient for me and made Mary Ann ecstatically happy, I can now as a Thursday morning Quarterback proclaim that both Marian and Framingham made the wrong decisions. The correct decision was that both SHOULD have proclaimed two hour delays for Wednesday. Driving was HORRIBLE before 9:30 a.m., but after that on most main roads, it really wasn’t bad at all. Everybody needed at least an extra hour to clean off their driveways, clean off their cars (if kept outside), and allow extra time for the drive to school.

I sort of felt like a baby, but I called off church for Wednesday night. For you non-evangelicals out there, Wednesday night is BIG in most evangelical churches. Most “Bible believing churches” have either a service or a prayer meeting or SOME sort of activities on Wednesday night. (We have a prayer meeting.) I noticed as I watched the channel 5 news in the early evening that a LOT of Assemblies of God, Baptist, and Nazarene churches had called off church for Wednesday night, so I no longer felt like such a baby!

That gets me to when I feel almost exactly like a Superintendent of Schools- when a major snowstorm is forecast for Saturday night and Sunday morning. Well, guess what? At this time, a major snowstorm is forecast for Saturday night and Sunday morning! If you HAVE church, 70% of the people don’t show up and people are angry that you had church. If you DON’T have church, there are always a few people (well 30% !!) who think you’re a wimp and are disappointed. So, this Sunday we’ll see how the Thursday morning quarterback does!!

JERRY SHERMAN'S LETTER (extra entry)

“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.” (Romans 5:7)

God bless Jerry Sherman! I don’t know him. I don’t think I have ever met him. But he wrote a Letter to the Editor to the MetroWest Daily News (Tuesday, January 6, 2009) about the DANGEROUS pedestrian crossing at Routes 126 and 135 in downtown Framingham.

Before you yawn and turn your computer off: This is a big deal to me. I’m on foot crossing that intersection probably at least ten times per week...sometimes more than that. It’s VERY dangerous. At night, it is terrifying!

The intersection HAD pedestrian lights which would stop traffic in all directions. A couple of months ago, the pedestrian crossings were reconfigured so you can ONLY shut down the cars going straight ahead at the crosswalk you’re in. Cars are still rapidly moving through the intersection, turning, etc. Many of us have nearly been hit several times.

In my opinion, there WILL be a pedestrian death at that intersection unless something is done about it. The death will probably be within the next year; maybe sooner. I’ve actually e-mailed someone I know in the Framingham Planning Dept. asking them to please read Sherman’s letter and pass it on to whoever is most responsible for that intersection.

Please check out-

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinion/letters/x1703187349/Sherman-Signal-woes-in-Framingham

EPIPHANY

“When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.” (Matthew 2:9)

Today is January 6. That may not mean anything to you, but January 6 is an important day on the liturgical calendar. For “liturgical churches” (those who follow a formally prescribed church calendar of readings, practices, traditions, and rituals) January 6 is the “Feast of the Epiphany”. The Epiphany is the day that the Magi (often called “The Three Wise Men”) arrived to see the young child Jesus and to worship him as the Son of God. It is also called, “Little Christmas”. For many Hispanics, Epiphany is a bigger holiday than Christmas Day, itself. It is the day presents are opened, and the Christmas tree and other Christmas trappings are not disposed of or put away until after January 6. Christmas wreaths, ribbons, etc. always remain on display in Roman Catholic churches, for instance, until after January 6. (January 6 is the Twelfth Day of Christmas from the famous song.)

The Assemblies of God, like the Baptists, Congregationalists, and other “low church” Protestant groups is NOT particularly liturgical and usually DOESN’T celebrate Epiphany. Nevertheless, I thought I’d call attention to it today. I looked up “Epiphany” in the dictionary. It means “a divine manifestation”. In fact, the Online Etymology Dictionary says this: “.1310, ‘festival of the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles’ (celebrated Jan. 6; usually with a capital -E-), from O.Fr. epiphanie, from L.L. epiphania, neut. pl. (taken as fem. sing.), from Gk. epiphaneia ‘manifestation, striking appearance’ (in N.T., advent or manifestation of Christ), from epiphanes ‘manifest, conspicuous,’ from epiphainein ‘to manifest, display,’ from epi- ‘on, to’ + phainein ‘to show.’ Of divine beings other than Christ, first recorded c.1667; general literary sense appeared 1840, first in De Quincey.”

I realize that is probably more than you cared to know about “Epiphany”! Even so, the word IS sometimes used to describe some great life changing event such as, “After the asthma attack, Harry had an epiphany that he must give up cigarettes, and he never smoked again.” or “Upon learning of the fate of the Tsunami victims, wealthy Mrs. Jones experienced an epiphany and donated a million dollars to the Red Cross.”

I’m Pentecostal. We believe in dramatic, divine manifestations, healings, miracles, etc. One unfortunate fact about we Pentecostals is that sometimes we place SO much emphasis on the mystical and miraculous that we forget to look for God in the ORDINARY things of life. If you DO look for God in the ordinary things of life, you’ll be amazed and what He will reveal to you. Many years ago when I was in my late teens and early twenties, I used to work in a textile mill during the summers. During the summer of 1975, I was the janitor. Well, actually, I was the fill-in janitor. The real janitor had a heart attack and was out of work for almost three months. I would walk through the entire mill in the course of my days. Every day I’d see a woman of around 45 doing hard and repetitive factory work in one of the departments. She was foreign born. She was German. She had experienced World War 2 in Germany and had married an American G.I. One day the Lord strongly impressed me to bring a helpful little booklet in for that woman. I just KNEW I was to do that. Upon coming to her department that day, I stopped and handed it to her. She filled up with tears and asked, “How did you know that I was so unhappy?” I didn’t. But God did. I don’t know exactly how that booklet touched that woman’s life, BUT IT DID. That summer there was also a guy from the mill around the age that I am now who had a heart attack. I sent him a card and wrote him a little note. When the guy returned to the mill, he sat and talked to me for awhile in the cafeteria. He was truly moved by my card.

We’re all in such a hurry. I toned that down. I’m going to write what I originally intended to write: We’re all in such a stupid hurry. It amazes me how TENSE people are. I’ve noticed lately in driving that I can be doing 5 miles over the speed limit, but cars are still right on my bumper! As soon as they can, they’ll zoom past me like I’m standing still, then, predictably, they’ll drive right through a red light, and practically attach their car to ANOTHER motorist’s rear bumper! Yeah, such a stupid hurry!

How much do people even THINK about God and eternity? Honestly, I think most people are like Michael Dukakis. Back in 1988 when he was running for President, he was once asked if he thinks about dying. He replied, “No, I never think about it.” That amazed me, but I guess it shouldn’t have. I’ve come to realize that MANY people never think about God and eternity.

I guess I’m wandering off the subject. Back to Epiphany: Here’s a challenge for you- regardless of where you stand with God and the things of God, PRAY - step out and ask God to use you today to make a difference in the life of someone He will bring across your path today... to be used to bring some sort of an epiphany to that person. I’m honestly going to do that today. I think it will be great to have some epiphanies on Epiphany! Let’s see what God will do today...

THE PINE NEEDLE STATE?

“...and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.” (I Kings 6:10)

Boy does cedar smell nice! My mother had a cedar chest. In the cedar chest she kept quilts and afghans and sweaters, and even some of our baby clothes. I have some small cedar blocks that I have placed in my own dresser, in the drawers where I store clothing. Many evergreen trees have a nice scent. Balsam fir has that classic New England Christmas tree smell!

There is one month in which I particularly think about PINE, pine needles and a pine tree smell. You’re probably thinking, “It’s DECEMBER, right?!” Actually, it’s not December - it’s January! In a number of postings I’ve mentioned that while I like some aspects of Christmas, there are some aspects of it that I don’t particularly like. When I was a kid, I LOVED the decorating! I was usually the person to climb up into the crawl space and bring down all the boxes marked “XMAS”. When I was in elementary school, we got real trees. Somewhere around 8th Grade, my Dad bought a fake tree. It was green - not one of those silver/aluminum ones, but it was kind of weird in that it was placed in a stand that rotated and played music. I loved all the decorating. It didn’t matter how long it took. It was a blast. I do remember that one year when we had a real tree, my brother Eddie knocked the tree over! After that incident, my very cautious and practical father always secured the real trees with twine tacked to the wall!

I remember my mother in her late 40s and early 50s complaining that Christmas was SO much work and responsibility and really didn’t seem worth the effort. I thought she was NUTS! Then I got into my own late 40s and early 50s, and, I kind of see her point. Don’t get me wrong. If you’ve followed the blog over the past month or so, you know this was actually the best Christmas I’ve had in over ten years! I’m often kind of melancholy at Christmas time. This year, I really enjoyed myself and was glad for the holiday. But even this year, there IS that one bummer which even those who fanatically LOVE Christmas happen to dislike...having to take everything down, including the tree.

If I were passing out the rewards at the judgment seat of Christ (and boy is THAT a crazy fantasy??!!) there’d be a special reward for those who work hard in putting away the Christmas things. It’s one thing to do all the decorating. The cleanup and putting everything away which happens just 3 or 4 or MAYBE 5 weeks later can be a real letdown. Loads of people want to DECORATE for Christmas on December 2. Not too many are on hand for the cleanup on January 2 or 7 or whenever you clean the stuff up. I’m grateful that my son Jon took all the ornaments and lights off the tree. Every first week of January, I pick up the tree that I purchased just a month or so earlier, and I carry it out to the street. (Honestly, I’m ready for a fake tree, but my young adult “kids” still want a real one!) Every year I go through something that most Jewish people don’t have to worry about: all that mess of pine needles EVERYWHERE. Last year and this year have been the WORST years for pine needles all over the place! Some years, I’m still finding and cleaning up pine needles around the floor and heating grates and baseboard as late as April. In extreme years, I’m still finding pine needles around the house in July. I can tell this is going to be a pine needles in July year!

Maybe some of you Christmas tree experts can tell me how to get the Christmas tree to DRINK. I know a “fresh cut” is the key thing. We used to get the tree, then I’d saw a few inches off the bottom when we got home. When Rachel got old enough, SHE’D saw it, and she did a better job than I did. THOSE trees DRANK. I’d be filling up the stand with water constantly. The past few years and especially the past two, the trees did not drink at all. Now, the Higgins Family Christmas Tree place in Ashland gives the tree a “fresh cut” when you buy it, but I wonder if the twenty minutes or so from the time they cut the bottom to the time I get it into the stand at home is too long. Does some sap coating form and seal the bottom? I had a whole stand full of water to dump tonight. I’d like to avoid all this next year. (I know, I know, buy the fake tree!)

About fourteen years ago when my kids were in elementary school we took them on vacation one summer to Maine. Rachel and Amy’s friend Erika came along with us. One day driving through York County, Maine, we were talking and playing games, and I asked the kids a multiple choice question. It was this: Maine is known as: a) the pine tree state b) the lobster state c) the junk car state

Immediately Erika piped up with “c) the junk car state”! I guess she’d seen enough ‘59 Chevy Bel-Airs and ‘64 Dodge Polaras up on blocks at the sides of the road to come to that conclusion! Of course I announced that the answer was “a) the pine tree state”!

Well, right now I’m in “the pine needle state” and it’s in my home in Framingham!

THE CHANGING OF THE YEAR

“Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man’s days,” (Job 10:5)

To some people a year is just a four digit number on a piece of paper and nothing more than that. I’ve always been one of those mystical types who somehow deep down in my soul really FEELS something about the turning of the calendar from one year to another. When I “hit” January 1 of a new year (as well as when I have my birthday every September 19) there’s that sense that, “Wow, I can’t believe I made it to this point!” It doesn’t seem possible that we’ve made it to 2009! It also doesn’t seem possible that 2008 is over!

Frank Sinatra sang that famous song with the refrain, “It Was a Very Good Year”. Conversely, at the end of the year 1992, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom dramatically pronouced that 1992 had been an, “Annus Horribulous”, that is, a horrible year. (That year one of the royal family’s castles had burned down, and they’d experienced an unusual number of difficulties and tragedies.) My mother was the type who almost superstitiously believed in “good years” and “bad years”. If she was in a “bad year” she couldn’t wait for it to end, and if she was having (what was very rare for her) a “good year”, she feared its ending.

My life experience is that all years contain both good and bad events. I think there are very few years of my life that I could honestly label as particularly “good” or “bad”. In July of 1983, my brother Eddie (unexpectedly) DIED. He was only 27, and it was a terrible time for my family. Also, in July of 1983, my son Jon was born. That was a very joyous occasion! Was 1983 a good year or a bad year? It all depends on how you look at it.

I will say that a lot of (somewhat) extreme things happened in my life in 2008. My daughter Amy was married in March in Springfield, Missouri. There was a wedding and a small reception there, and a week later a big (by Bob Baril standards) reception here in Massachusetts. Amy was born on Mothers’ Day of 1985. I can still see her as an infant and as a toddler. The reality that she’s married and a nurse makes me feel very old! The weekend of Amy’s Massachusetts reception was also Easter weekend. That felt so WEIRD. Easter of 2008 was the EARLIEST it had been in something like 100 years, and in fact it won’t take place THAT early in a year again for over 100 more years!

I get unusually sentimental about the cars I drive and own, and some of you remember that I was kind of emotional junking “Whitey”, the 1993 Oldsmobile our family owned for over ten years. It was fun, though, to replace “Whitey” with a 2000 Saturn sedan which is mainly used by my daughter Rachel. I also get very sentimental about two events every year, the Boston Marathon in April, and the Natick Fourth of July parade every Summer. Many of you will remember my posting from July about the homeowner who was rude to my daughter and me and who somewhat “rained on our parade” this past July.

My wife turned 50 in September, so 2008 was a milestone year for her. It’s a little difficult to write this next part because it makes me both sad and angry, but of all the people who were invited to her very special 50th birthday event, MANY did not attend AND did not “R.S.V.P.”! As nice as her 50th birthday was, THAT really put a damper on it. We all get so busy- but these social graces....responding to invitations, communicating, etc., which were SO common 25 or more years ago are rapidly “going by the boards”. I hope that in 2009 you will be sensitive to invitations of people’s special events; and I guess that’s all I’m going to say about that one!

I really have to be careful about this and I can’t say too much about it, but I had a member of my extended family become incredibly angry with me this year, and now that person will not speak to me or communicate with me in any way. It’s deeply painful to me. (Yes, I’ve tried and tried to reach out to this person, and right now I don’t think there is anything else I can do.) One mutual friend of ours even said to me, “I don’t understand this because I DON’T COME FROM A FAMILY LIKE THIS. WE ALL GET ALONG.” I know that person was trying to make me feel better. Instead they made me feel like my family was The Munsters, only 100 times worse. There were also a number of other problems in various personal relationships. I suspect those people with whom I did have problems would appreciate me just leaving that stuff alone and not going into any details; and I’ve decided that in the spirit of forgiveness and “moving on” I’m NOT going to say any more about those relational issues! They’re past- let’s leave ‘em there!

Many of you know that the church I pastor is very small and is struggling in a number of ways. Several people left our church in 2008 and that was painful for me. Several others joined the church in 2008 and that was joyful for me. Our Sunday attendance is down compared to a year ago. Our midweek attendance (and general morale in the church) is a bit “up” compared to a year ago.

So, was ‘08 a good year for me or was it a bad year? It was both, and I think you can understand in reading this why I say it was a year of “a lot of extreme things happening in my life”.

Well, those are my reflections about 2008 ending. Whether 2009 is going to be a “good” year or a “bad” year, or more likely just a regular old year like most of them, I’m looking forward to the year ahead, and I hope you are, too!