My brother-in-law, Kevin Land, sang this fantastic tune at my son’s baptism. It’s a song he wrote and I’m not even sure of the title of it, but the line that ties it all together is “Death is no more master over him.” The phrasing is excellent and I liked it so much that I played it from my camcorder and listened while I drove home from Mankato with Jen and Axel. For those who don’t know Jen and I have a new baby boy, Axel Christian Erickson, who was born on March 19, 2009…just over a month ago. We have piles of pictures on Facebook.
Here’s a shameless plug for my mother and father-in-law’s potato farm:
Roger and Markell Vogt are potato farmers near Palisade in Aitkin County, Minnesota. They grow red and russet potatoes that are out of this world!
So if you’re in that area come harvest, drop by their farm and pick up some potatoes. You won’t regret it.
My favorite is their red potatoes. When mashed, they are remarkably creamy. We rarely mash them, however, because boiled or steamed, these potatoes express down-home goodness with each and every bite.
Good news! Albert Lea was chosen by AARP / Blue Zones City Makeover to be the next “Blue Zone” community. There are several reasons why Albert Lea was chosen. Among them, our size, the average health of our population and the fact that we have ample numbers of folks who are considered to be in the “Blue Zone” age bracket.
Jen I and just ordered the book, which is a New York Times Bestseller: “Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest.” From what I’ve read about the book, it stresses stuff like eating right and building community. It makes perfect sense that the community surrounding a person would have tremendous impact on their health and well-being.
As I skim through the “Blue Zone” website, I see pages of fantastic articles which all get to the core of what makes people happy and healthy. The author of the book, Dan Buettner, is a Minnesotan with a very important vision about how to improve the quality of life, not just for older folks, but for people of all ages, and I’m confident that this “Blue Zone” effort in our community will be extremely well-received.
Here’s the article in the Albert Lea Tribune about Blue Zone folks choosing Albert Lea.
A few weeks ago Jen and I got a new (used) treadmill. We bought it on Ebay and had it shipped via freight to Albert Lea from somewhere in the Chicago area. It’s a Precor 9.2s treadmill circa 1996.
Jen uses it for walking, as she finds running rather difficult…being due in March and all. As for me, I’m on that thing nearly every day. And to guide me in my workouts, I’m reading “Daniels’ Running Formula,” a truly amazing guide for those who wish to get themselves in tip top racing shape.
In past years, when the snow started to fly in Minnesota, I’ve been hard-pressed to get in good workouts because running over ice and snow tends to mess up a person’s form a bit. Now with a treadmill I’m able to tackle my workouts and target paces with a higher degree of accuracy.
Furthermore, I can listen to music while I run.
And it isn’t just ordinary music, mind you. One section in “Daniels’ Running Formula” explains how a runner is most efficient right around 180 steps per minute. There aren’t very many 180 bpm songs, so I analyzed my collection, using a nifty piece of software called “Mix Meister” (you’ll find it in a quick Google search — Mix Meister is free, so no need to whip out the ‘ole credit card). All the songs I use for running on the treadmill are right around 90 bpm so as to train my brain to run 180 steps per minute.
Among my favorite treadmill running songs are “Numb” (U2), “Gravity” (Eddie form Ohio), “Yer So Bad” (Tom Petty), and “Stupid Memory” (Sondre Lerche). I’m sure I’ll find more, but those are a few that stick out in my mind. They’re all 90 bpm.
Unlike most people, I love monotonous running. Running on a track is heavenly, and so is running on a treadmill. I love to know exactly what my pace is and how far I’ve been running at that pace. Few things fascinate me more than the science of running. The more I read and research, the more I discover that running the fastest races doesn’t mean you train harder. It means you train harder, but not too hard, and that you use your brain and listen to your body when you plan your workouts.
In a future entry, I’ll write about Wharton Performance and their “Active- Isolated Stretching.” It’s a fantastic way of getting your body ready for workouts and races. I bought their “Stretch Book” and am learning more and more how to use their stretches in order to become a more efficient running.
Perhaps one of the most baffling considerations in religion and philosophy is the “Problem of Evil.” If there is one God who created everyone and everything, then is it possible that God created Satan? And if so, why? (Some of this is in response to my own previous blog entry about evil spirits, etc.)
In the Christian tradition, Satan is a fallen angel. God created Satan and then Satan became evil because God granted him the free-will do to so. Does evil come from Satan because Satan chose evil, or does evil come from God because God granted Satan the power to choose evil? Some argue that evil is the absence of God, which inadvertently suggests that there are places where God does not exist. How could there be places where God doesn’t exist if God is the Creator of everything?
These questions get me back to my own fascination with free-will. I’ve been thinking and writing about free-will for over a decade. Theoretically, all the ingredients that lead to our making one choice or another come from God. If all ingredients come from God, and if all the experiences we face come from God, how is it that we’re the one’s responsible for the outcome of our life’s recipe? Excuse the cooking metaphor, it’s just difficult to see clearly where the Creator stops and Creation starts. Where does the hand-off take place? Or does it take place at all? Who is actually at work in the world making us who we are?
Finally, if we acknowledge the existence of Satan, are we not saying that there are two gods? Are we not saying that there are two competing forces in the world? I’d argue that there is only one true force of power in the world: a God who created everything. But this doesn’t explain what many have described from experience as the apparent presence of evil.
I’m not prepared to rule out the possibility that Satan’s evil is a force in competition with God’s goodness. There is plenty of evidence in history to suggest that evil exists as its own force: the holocaust, ethnic cleansing, brutal wars and injustices; and millions of experiences and tragedies that are too horrible to describe.
What I see, however, is that people tend to worship that which they fear the most. If they fear Satan more than God, then this preoccupation with Satan takes over and they loose their emotional and spiritual footing — and often their sanity. If people consider God as the sole source of true power in the world, I speculate that they experience less fear in their day to day lives and, as a result, have more room in their hearts to love their neighbors.
The purpose of this latest blog entry is not to answer questions, but to ask them. My reflections on “The Problem of Evil” change from one month to the next. However, I am inclined to say that singleness of mind comes, not from trying to spot evil in the world, but from seeking God. Rather than asking, “How is Satan at work in the world?” it is far better to ask, “How is God at work in the world?”
Lately, as a result of recent conversations with Bob Ekblad, author of “Reading the Bible with the Damned” and “A New Christian Manifesto,” I’ve found myself contemplating the Holy Spirit in my life and in the lives of others.
Bob told me about a book written by Francis MacNutt, “Deliverance from Evil Spirits: A Practical Manual.” MacNutt says that folks encounter evil and can sometimes become disturbed by demons within. These people come to the church for help, but most churches are unable to help them because delivering folks from evil spirits simply isn’t in ministers’ job descriptions or training.
According to MacNutt, certain can people become conduits of the Holy Spirit, ministers of healing and deliverance from evil. For some, a catalyst toward entering this type of ministry comes from first being “baptized by the Holy Spirit.” Folks who are baptized by the Holy Spirit supposedly experience a radical infusion of the Holy Spirit. And many find they are then able to deliver people from evil spirits and free them from whatever emotional or physical distress they’re experiencing simply by calling upon the Holy Spirit to do this work for them.
So what it is this Holy Spirit? I’ve felt in the past that all this healing and deliverance stuff was just a bunch of hocus pocus. I’m not so sure any more.
If folks are interested in learning more about healing and deliverance, I suggest they visit Bob Ekblad’s website and look around a bit. He’s busily bridging gaps between conservatives, liberals, charismatics and evangelicals. And every time I talk to him I find my understandings of God’s power get challenged a little more.
This afternoon I ventured out into twenty degree weather to play disc golf at the newly installed 18-hole disc golf course at Bancroft Bay Park here in Albert Lea.
When I play by myself, as I did this afternoon, I sometimes spend as long as a half hour looking for discs I’ve accidentally thrown into the rough. Near the end of my search, a small measure of hopelessness starts to settle in and I tell myself that it will be okay if I don’t find the disc.
But then I summon up the resolve to not quit my search. I use innovative tactics like briefly walking away from the search area, and returning with with new eyes and renewed sense of what’s possible.
Somehow I almost always manage to find it. A smile spreads across my face as I walk over and pull it out of the snow.
One would think that after experiencing the ups and downs of losing a disc, finding it, losing it, and so on, that I would be more cautious about how I throw it, so that it doesn’t end up in the weeds, but I never learn. It just feels too good to watch a well thrown disc soar through the air toward it’s intended target. And the further I throw it, the better I feel. So who wouldn’t risk throwing a disc in the weeds? If I don’t take that chance, I may miss an opportunity to throw the week’s most memorable and beautiful drive?
Disc golf is a fantastic game that I’ve started playing quite a bit with my friend, Tim Engstrom. We’re both addicted. He’s the managing editor for the Albert Lea Tribune and has written several pieces about disc golf since we’ve started playing.
Disc golf inspires writing and introspection. The physics of a disc in motion are quite complex. In my spare time I google articles about the mechanics of throwing a disk or articles about the kaleidoscope-like nature of it’s spin. It’s amazing!
If you have a disc golf course in your area, give it a try. You won’t regret it.
Last night I finished writing a blog entry at the Albert Lea Tribune about McCain and Obama. I emphasized the importance of replacing personal attacks with policy insights. One really fun thing about writing a blog at the Tribune is that the comments people leave are so colorful.
I would say that about 50% or more of the comments people leave are insults. Not a lot of thought goes into them and folks don’t use their real name in order to remain anonymous. I just finished responding to a comment and attempted to take it at face value even though the tone of this person’s writing made them sound as though they were angry.
Even if a person leaves an angry comment or tries to rifle off a string of insults, I’m usually happy to know that they’ve read what I written. What I often find rather funny and sometimes frustrating is that I am simply a blogger at the Tribune, and am in no way part of the Tribune’s reporting staff. I’m not paid, just a member of the public who has a blog. Some people assume that because I have a blog, I’m a Tribune writer and, therefore, when I share my opinion, I am contributing to the Tribune’s liberal bias. It’s hard for people to understand that the blogosphere is all about sharing one’s opinions with the world. Occasionally bloggers do reporting, but most of their writing is done with a known and acknowledged bias.
I wrote a blog entry at the Albert Lea Tribune about my latest race in Austin, Minnesota. Check it out. And check out the website for my hometown newspaper while you’re at it!
Last Saturday I ran the Rochester Half Marathon.
Temperatures in the upper 50’s made for perfect running weather. Not unlike last year’s race which also benefited from similarly cool temperatures. My time this year: 1:28:54. My goal was to break 1:30:00. Wahoo! Goal accomplished.
My pace turned out to be 6:47 per mile, which is great considering I ran the first six miles around 7:00 pace. In fact, my first mile was 7:08. But that was my plan; to start slow and gradually run faster until I hit 10k race tempo around mile 6 or 7.
In fact, the last half of the race I ran at about 6:30 pace, which is my 10k pace…possibly even a 10k PR. Wow, that tells me that I probably should have gone out a little faster than I did. That kind of a negative split isn’t terribly efficient. Ideally, my first mile should have been a 6:50 rather than a 7:08.
I think nailing the correct pace is the single most effective way to run a successful race. At the beginning of a long race, however, it is remarkably hard for me to gauge how fast I’m going because I’m surrounded by people who are all running faster than they should. I’m looking at various runners and saying to myself, “There’s no way that person can stay at 7:00 pace for the rest of this race.” Turns out I’m usually right. Many a marathon or half marathon is ruined in the first three miles for that reason. Most racers start faster than they should.
I got 40th out of 327 males and 6th out of 24 in my age division. Last year I ran about a 1:33…starting even slower than I did this year. I figure I’ll start just a little faster next year and hit it just right.
Here’s a shameless plug for my mother and father-in-law’s potato farm:
Good news! Albert Lea was chosen by AARP / Blue Zones City Makeover to be the next “Blue Zone” community. There are several reasons why Albert Lea was chosen. Among them, our size, the average health of our population and the fact that we have ample numbers of folks who are considered to be in the “Blue Zone” age bracket.
A few weeks ago Jen and I got a new (used) treadmill. We bought it on Ebay and had it shipped via freight to Albert Lea from somewhere in the Chicago area. It’s a Precor 9.2s treadmill circa 1996.
Lately, as a result of recent conversations with Bob Ekblad, author of “Reading the Bible with the Damned” and “A New Christian Manifesto,” I’ve found myself contemplating the Holy Spirit in my life and in the lives of others.
Last Saturday I ran the Rochester Half Marathon.