Thoughts and Musings

Imagine when...

I was catching a cup of coffee after a presbytery meeting at my favorite coffee house in Winston-Salem, Krankies.  I had my computer with me and was going to work on a sermon, because that's what I'm always doing, and because I tend to do my best sermonizing when coffee is involved.  Anyway, I grabbed my cup of Kenyan and sat down at a table in the corner, and when I looked up at the wall next to me this is what I saw:

It's called an "Imagination Installation," a local movement of sorts in the area; and per its website it's about "harnessing the collective power of our community's dreams."  Which, in case you're wondering, is awesome.  So was this wall - dozens of small lime green signs tacked and taped all over the place, each with the simple title "Imagine When...."at the top,  and lots of space underneath for folks to write whatever.

So the sermon would have to wait awhile, because in truth I was looking at tons of little sermons on the wall of this coffee house, and it's always good when the preacher gets preached too. Here are a few that particularily spoke to me:

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...the word "can't" is lost from the spoken language

...people "make each other right"

...we decide to invest in happiness instead of war and hatred.

...nutritiuous local food is abundantly available everywhere and is preferred

...elected officials work for the good of the people, not for the power of the office

...human beings realize we are stewards of this earth, and no more important than any other living being

...we are not strangers

...there is a woman in the White House!

...we recognize that "the kingdom of God is here" (no waiting required)

..very child can squish mud between his or her toes in a creek

..we dream together to empower each other, rather than live in isolation

...we grow food rather than lawns, and share that food with our community

..we all Iive in the moments like our dogs, cats and horses do.

...our economic system rewards cooperation, collaboration and generosity over competition

...we all realize we are happier the more we give and love others, rather than how much we get and are loved.

...public art is on every corner in downtown Winston-Salem

...we know that life comes from death

...color is a hue that a painter uses to transform the canvas :-)

...the health care system is healed

..all pets have an owner that is loving and caring and a comfortable place to be

...corporations figure out that creativity and innovation comes from liberated, encouraged and respected employees

...children and adults go outside and play every day

...education rewards innovation and creativity more than compliance

...every child comes home at the end of school to a loving family member and a plate of cookies and milk

...each of us life our lives with respect and honor of all living beings

...we all remember that we're one big family

...people have the courage to be themselves

...we all let our authentic selves shine!

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Of course, I got in on the act. Here's the one I did.  If you know me, this should come as no surprise:


You know what I liked most about this excellent use of coffee house wall space? It's "Imagine When," not "Imagine If."  It's only a matter of time, folks.  Let's get busy.

Seriously, he's just a foster dog. Seriously.

Seriously.

Don't think I'm not aware of what's taking place on the other side of this computer screen. I sense your doubting thoughts; I see your mocking smile.  But trust me: he's just a foster dog.  And for the record, it's not like we go out looking for these animals. It's been like this for as long as I can remember.  Call it a Lindsley thing: we don't find stray animals.  They find us.  

Like Lady, who ran out in front of the family car on Halloween night 2008.  Or Rocky the boxer, who wandered into our front yard as my younger son and I were walking home from preschool.  Or Bandit the dog who we inherited from an animal rescue - in 1999.  Or Sydney our cat, who camped out one spring morning in a box in my front yard many years ago.  I thought I was breaking the cycle when I talked my then-girlfriend into taking the cat. Which she did.  And then I married that girlfriend. So I got the cat back. Darn thing found me twice.

And yes, I'm aware that still having these animals in our possession does not exactly support my "foster pet" claim. I'll grant you that.  But I'm telling you, it's different this time.  Thor - as the animal shelter in Virginia took to calling him - will seriously be a foster dog, no question about it. He will have a permanent happy home, but it won't be with us.

Seriously.

I will say, though, that Thor took this "finding a sucker" thing to a whole new level.  Apparently "running in front of the car" or "wandering into the front yard" is so five years ago. Who would've thought that a pup, mere weeks old, would be that social-media savvy.  That's where Thor found us - on Facebook.  Apparently he used his indelible puppy cuteness to wield control over a Facebook acquaintance of my wife's, compelling her to post his picture in her timeline with the explanation: At the Patrick County Animal Shelter. Needs a good home.

The pup's face bore a striking resemblance to a Golden Retriever my wife lost a few years ago; a beloved companion she acquired fresh out of law school.  My wife may not be practicing law anymore, but she still knows how to win an argument. Actually, she knows how to win an argument without actually having the argument, which is a brilliant skill.  The way she started talking with me about the whole thing, it was as if the decision had been agreed to in a previous conversation, and I'd just completely forgotten about it.  Maybe that was it.  Or maybe I just didn't care to put up a fight.

He bites like crazy, the animal shelter told her. That's why no one wants to adopt him.  Apparently both the shelter and potential owners had missed the memo about young pups biting things. But that's okay.  My wife hails from a long line of dog whisperers and would break Thor from his gnawing ways.  You know, so his next and permanent owner wouldn't have to deal with the bloody aftermath. Because Thor would be just a foster dog, mind you.

Seriously.

And so there I was, driving up to Stuart, VA to pick Thor up on Monday afternoon, so he'd be there when the rest of the family got home from school.  Was I excited?  Sure I was.  This would be the luckiest dog in the world, along with those other lucky foster pets of ours, Rocky and Bandit and Lady and Sydney.  The vet handed him to me with a bag full of medicine and a paper about his neutering surgery the week prior; I handed them the homemade chocolate chip cookies my wife made them.  On the car trip home I was pleased to learn first-hand that Thor's bodily functions worked properly, even if it meant driving the majority of the trip with the windows rolled down on a January day and a bottle of hand sanitizer within reach. 

Thor hit the North Carolina ground running, quite literally, thanks to two energetic boys who were totally excited to play with their new puppy they wouldn't be keeping permanently.  He did his biting thing, but he wasn't nearly the beast he'd been made out to be.  His presence was met with tremendous intrigue and more than a hint of jealousy from the other foster dogs permanently residing at the Lindsley Inn.  Especially Rocky, the "top dog" who is used to having the house interior all to himself.  We'll have to work on that.  Anyway, when Thor finally crawled into his crate for the night, he barely made it all the way inside before collapsing from exhaustion.  It was a good day for the little fella.  These pets know what they're doing when they pick us Lindsleys.

If you're interested in adopting Thor, get in line.  My wife already has a list of folks who've expressed interest, and she's going to be picky.  Which she should be, because Thor is an awesome dog.  If we didn't have three already, we'd probably keep him for ourselves.  But we won't be doing that, you understand.  He's a great dog, but he's just a foster dog. Seriously, that's all he is.

 Seriously.

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UPDATE 2.13.2013 - As of this afternoon, Thor is with his new adopted family.  They're from Winston-Salem - three kids ages 4-12, and a Golden Retriever named Jake.  You can read all about it HERE. Thanks to Regina Edwards and the fine folks at Surry Animal Rescue for connecting us with some great people. 

 

Mr. Rogers gets his autotune on

This video made the Facebook circuit last week. There's a whole generation of folks today who don't know Mister Rogers Neighborhood, and that's a shame.  They probably won't appreciate this video much. But for those of us who grew up with the cardigan zipper sweaters, sneaker changes and trolley trips to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, this will be fun little trip down memory lane - in a 21st-century kind of way.

Fun trivia fact: Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister. So he and I have at least that in common.

You may have noticed I'm not blogging as much...

...and some of you may welcome with this open arms.

It's true, I'm not blogging as frequently as when "Thoughts & Musings" came online a few years ago.  In the early days I typically dropped something two, even three times a week. Yep, I was the one filling up your email inbox or your RSS feed with...well, with thoughts and musings.

I guess it's been for eight or nine month now that I've blogged with much less frequency. Part of that has to do simply with time - unless it's a quick picture or video link, I like to mull over my text, running it through a mental and rhetorical sieve to make sure it says exactly what I want to say, the way I want to say it.  This whole internet thing is unforgiving: once something is put up here, it's there to stay, even if you think you deleted it. So writing a good blog post, or what I hope is a good one, is a bit of a time investment.

But something else has happened, something which has scared me a bit, even though bloggers with much more experience than me tell me it's nothing to worry about.  I've found that (horror of horrors) I don't have as much to say anymore.  Who knows the reason for this.  Maybe other social media outlets like Twitter and our church's blog and sermon blog are satisfying the sort of thing that I used to rely exclusively on this blog for.  Maybe there's a need for me to refine and re-tune this blog's focus - initially I thought leaving it wide open was a good move, but maybe not as much.  Or maybe, as that wonderful little verse in Ecclesiastes tells us, To everything there is a time and a season...  Maybe the day of 6-8 blog posts a month are a thing in the past.  And again, after talking to some long-time blogging friends of mine, this is not only unexpected but perfectly normal and acceptable.

In any case, this is not a "I'm never going to blog again" post.  I think I'll always have something to say for those who care to hear it.  But I've finally grown comfortable with the idea that I may not be doing that as much.

In the meantime, if you really must know what's on my mind and what mischief I'm up to:

• Follow me on Twitter. I use this much more frequently, and if you really want to keep up with my every move and thought for whatever reason, this is the place.
• Subscribe to my sermon blog. I recently started embedding audio so you can listen and/or read, or if you're the multitasking type, do both at the same time.
• Last month I succumbed after much cajoling to Tumblr. Still trying to figure out how to use this best, but check me out there too if you so desire.
• Facebook? Sure, but be advised - I tend not to accept friend requests from people I don't personally know or who are part of the vast encompassing vortex known as the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Most of all, when I do share my thoughts and musings here, know I'm eternally grateful for you checking them out. There's lots of stuff out there, and time is precious.  Thanks for sharing a tiny slice of yours with me.

My guest blog for Bruce Reyes-Chow: "Dear Church: 19 million views should tell us something..."

First things first - Sometime last night, you probably received a couple of posts from me about someone changing their Facebook password.  I have zero idea how that happened.  Sorry about that.

Second, I wanted to share with you a guest blog I did for my friend Bruce Reyes-Chow today.  Bruce, a past moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and an all-around great guy, is taking a self-imposed blogging sabbatical to focus on some book projects of his; and he graciously invited folks to submit guest blogs. I was tickled when Bruce decided to use mine.  You can read it by clicking HERE, or clicking on the picture below.

As you'll see, the blog is my response to the "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" YouTube video that was all the rage not too long ago.  I welcome your comments as always - either here or at Bruce's blog.  At the very least, click the Facebook "LIKE" button there, and do that nifty "MoodThingy" deal at blog's end. I think that's kind of cool, actually.

The hospital check-in that wasn't

The phone rang, as it does throughout the day in the offices of First Presbyterian Church.  Lynn, our office administrator, was on the other line in the office next to me, so I picked up the phone. First Presbyterian Church, this is Steve.

A pause, then a stumbling voice: Steve....uhh, are you okay?

Odd way to start a phone conversation.  I assured him I was.  It was a church member on the line, one who runs a local business in town.  For some reason he seemed genuinely concerned about my welfare this morning.

Yes, Bob, I'm fine, thanks! How are you?

I'm doing okay.  I was just worried - I read the email.

You may be asking the same question I did: What email?

He went on to tell me that an email was circulating around the community that morning about me - that I had fallen ill, that I was in the hospital recovering from some unknown illness, and that me, my family and my church needed to be kept in everyone's prayers.  This, of course, was news to me.

I've got the email right here, Bob said.  Want me to forward it?

While I was waiting for the email to make its way through, I shared with Lynn the weird developing story of my mysterious hospital visit.  Then the phone rang.  It was from someone else calling to the church to see what was wrong with me.  They had gotten the email too.  News - even incorrect - spreads fast.

I heard the "ping" of my email inbox and found Bob's forwarded message. The subject line read: "Informational Update on Rev. Steve Lindsley's health and wellness."  Oh boy. 

I understand that Steve Linsley, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, checked into Forsyth Hospital about 7:00 AM today.  When you talk with other staff members today, They may like to know this.  You may need to call FPC for update.  I got this off of Facebook today.

That was the initial email, which was then forwarded by its recipient to God-knows-how many people.  Now Bob's phone call and the one that followed made sense - as well as the third one that came in while I was reading the email.  What didn't make sense was where someone had gotten the idea that I was sick and had gone to the hospital.

I got this off of Facebook today.  Who in the world would post something on Facebook about me being in the hospital?  I mean, I had been there earlier that morning to visit a church member who had gone in the previous night, but....

Uh-oh.

Like a lot of Facebookers and smart-phone users, I use a little app called Foursquare to "check in" at various places.  It lets folks in the social media world know where I am.  Almost always I'll leave a comment explaining what I'm up to: Checking in on a church member.  Visiting an old friend.  But for some reason I didn't that morning when I opened Foursquare on my iphone. 

So this is what appeared in my Facebook news feed for all to see:

Lesson learned: in the social media world, always leave a comment explaining what you're doing when you "check in" at a hospital.  And be thankful for the kindness and concern of people who call to check on you if you don't.

 

 

"Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along..."

Much has been said about the death of Apple's former CEO Steve Jobs yesterday.  Even President Obama chimed in with a pretty cool - and probably accurate - insight: "There may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."

As much as Jobs was known for his innovative gadgets, he was equally known for his marketing prowess.  You can see both in this video clip below (HERE if you don't see it) of his keynote introducing the iPhone. Watch the first ten minutes of this, if nothing else.  It's fascinating to remember all that went into this first generation product. 

What's even more fascinating is realizing that this took place just four years ago.

R.I.P., Steve Jobs. Thanks for everything.

Why I'm using Twitter more and Facebook less

Yep, you heard right.  And to be honest, if it weren't for the fact that I help maintain an active church Facebook page as well as enjoy seeing pictures from my friends (one of the few things Facebook still does well), I'd seriously consider dropping Facebook altogether.

And here's why: social media, by its very nature, comes in waves.  Remember when MySpace was all the rage?  Five years ago I had a conversation with the daughter of our church secretary, who at the time was in eighth grade and a MySpace junkie.  "Facebook is going to be the next big thing," I told her.  She thought I was crazy.  Now she's plugged into Facebook like the rest of us and probably hasn't checked her MySpace page in years. Like the rest of us.

I'm not convinced that Google+ is the next evolution of social media - it's intriguing but still has shortcomings.  For my money, I'm placing bets on the old standard, Twitter.  In a minute I'll share why, but first some thoughts on why my Facebook may be jumping the proverbial shark.

Part of the allure of Facebook is the extent to which it's intertwined in the web. Nearly every website has the infamous "like" button, and just about every business, cause, musician/band or whatever you can conjure up has its own Facebook page.  It's easy to set up an RSS feed so a blog post or podcast shows up in your profile (this is what I do with my personal blog, as well as the church worship services and online newsletter).  In ways we don't fully comprehend, Facebook has saturated our online world.

The interesting thing, though, is that because of that saturation, people are actually going to the Facebook website less and less. I used to leave mine open in my web browser all day long, neurotically refreshing it to see "the latest."  Now I'll log on for a few minutes here and there, but that's about it. The aforementioned "LIKE" buttons all over the web enable you to interact with Facebook without actually going to the website itself - a kind of one-way communication.  Something else: these days I'm doing what most people are - checking Facebook through my iphone app.  It's a convenient but clumsy way to do Facebook (more on that later). Throw in that Facebook has a nasty way of changing privacy settings on a dime, along with the inevitable "Facebook fatigue," and it's only a matter of time.

And when all is said and done, I think Twitter will be left standing.  Here's why:

A simple interface: one stream, real-time.  You knew this was the way to go when Facebook did a major overhaul a few years ago to a similar format (which, I might add, was met initially with much weeping and gnashing of teeth by the Facebook community).  At the time I saw it for what it was: a blatant attempt by Facebook to be more like Twitter. And while I'll give props to Facebook for making it work for them, the fact is that Twitter still does it better.

140 characters rule: No pontificating, no rambling on and on. Sure, you occasionally have to use a bit of shorthand, but the character limit forces you to put some thought into your post.  In a social media world where it's all too easy to spew out a knee-jerk comment that can easily turn into a diatribe, forced brevity and pre-thought is not a bad thing.  The 140 character limit also makes for quick and easy consumption on the reader's part.  I don't know about you, but I'm less inclined to wade through a six or seven-line Facebook status update than I am a shorter, easier-to-digest offering on Twitter in a sentence or two.

Made for the Smartphone: We're using computers less and smartphones more, and that's not going to change.  And Twitter works great on the smartphone.  I click the Twitter icon on my iphone and boom, everything is there.  I can scroll up or down to see more recent or later posts.  Facebook, however, is multi-dimensional (news feed, pics, notes, inbox, events, pages, groups, chat) which is difficult to replicate in a smartphone format.  Lots of clicking and swiping and more clicking and swiping.... none of which is needed in the Twitterverse. 

Less of the silly stuff: You get the occasional weird "follow" that can be easily blocked. Still, it's nothing like Facebook, where clicking on some questionable video will result in all kinds of nastiness. Nor do you have to deal with individually "X"ing out annoying posts about your friend's games activities, advertisements, or the hated Farmville.  Less garbage in the Twitterverse.

Trending: Simply type a hashtag ("#") before a word or phrase and you'll see what other Twitterers are saying about the same thing.  This is great if you're trying to catch up on the latest news, like the #debtceiling debate a couple of weeks ago. Nothing like this in Facebook.

Twitter plays nice: Never once has Twitter changed my account settings or altered my privacy settings without asking me, period.  They've modified their interface once in the past four years.  I don't feel like I'm being jerked around in the Twitterverse.  I feel like I'm a valued patron rather than just another assimliated part of the Borg.

I could be wrong about Facebook's demise, of course.  Maybe it'll be around a little bit longer.  In the meantime, I'll continue updating my Facebook status through Twitter via  Selective Tweets and the #fb hashtag and only go to the actual site in when I'm inclined to - which is a lot less than a year ago.

So what do you think - is Facebook on the way out?  What will social media look like in five years, and who will be the main players?

 

Honestly, the Rapture would've been easier.

Well, May 21 came and went pretty much like any other day.  And it appears that the Rev. Harold Camping got it wrong (again).  No sightings of bodies floating in the air (unless people actually did fill blow-up dolls with helium balloons per the Facebook event). No piles of clothes laying on the floor or the living room recliner that weren't left their intentionally by their owner, thus assuring the wrath of another non-Raptured individual (known as "Mom.")  It's May 23, a gorgeous Sunday where I am; and today sermons were preached, newspapers were read, yards were mowed, and blogs were posted.  All of which is perfectly fine with me.

This is not the first time a Rapture prediction has come and gone.  It is arguably the first time it's happened in a social-media saturated world. Thus the Facebook and Twitter universes were all abuzz about this particular "end-of-days" hysteria leading up to and on Saturday.  I'd say every other post on my news feed had something to do with the Rapture.  Almost all making light of it, playing around with it.  Which is to be expected, I guess.  It's nice to be on the right side of the issue every now and then.

So we'll have a good laugh about today, maybe tomorrow.  It's good for at least one more Facebook post, one more chuckle among friends.  After which we'll return to the monotony of our normal everyday lives like school and jobs and family and life.

And that's kind of a shame, really. 

Because to be honest, the Rapture would've been the easy way out.  I mean, think about it: might the reason our culture became so "enraptured" (oh yes, I just did...) with this idea was because sometimes, to be quite blunt, the world feels like a place we want to get out of?  Violence. Injustice. A polluted planet. A collapsing economy. Partisan politics. Who in their right mind would want to stay in the midst of all that?

Let's be clear: Rapture theology is based on a single verse in Paul's letter to the church in Thessalonica that was later extrapolated upon by the 18th century evangelist John Nelson Darby.  Yep, one verse.  Somehow this got morphed into THIS.  Meanwhile, there are literally hundreds of verses from Genesis to Revelation that speak to a creation that is good and God's kingdom that is coming down to earth to be with God's people, whom God dearly loves.  We read of individuals being transformed, not transported; a world being renewed, not destroyed.

And maybe that's why Rapture is so darn attractive - because in the end (pun intended), it really doesn't require much from people other than simply waiting around.  And getting as many others as possible to wait around with you. That's a lot of people doing a lot of waiting.  And then when it all goes down, we get a free pass; whisked away from the chaos of the world - a chaos we helped to create.  At best our role in it is pretty pointless. At worst it's highly narcissistic, facilitating our laziness, our apathy.  It is the quintessential self-prophecy coming to fruition: if we wait around for the world to go to hell in a handbasket, sooner or later it will.

The harder work, though, doesn't involve waiting.  Or flying.  On the contrary we remain grounded, figuratively and literally, keeping busy - not with our agendas, but with God's.  It's the kind of work that has us staying put and getting the world ready for God's arrival in our midst.  We don't go away from here; God comes to us.  And that's more nerve-wracking, really. 

It's like having the extended family over for the holidays.  You know it's going to be a blast when everyone gets together; but man, it's sure a lot of work getting ready.  There's some cleaning that needs to be done, a home that needs to be tidyed up.  There are little tiffs that need to be worked out; everyone needs to start getting along better.  There are some habits we've got to lose because they won't serve in the best interest of our guest.  Because it's all about that guest who's coming. In fact, it's always about that guest who's coming.

And for me, that seems to be the more honest rendering of scripture. And the harder of the two. Because the God of Rapture thinking essentially tells us this:

I love you!  I created you and everything in this world. I gave it to you as a gift. But you took it and messed it up. So I'm going to let you off the hook and whisk you away while the mess you made of my world disintegrates and collapses on itself.

Meanwhile, the God of the Biblical narrative says this:

I love you! I created you and everything in this world. I gave it to you as a gift. But you took it and messed it up. So I'm going to come be with you, establish my kingdom right in your midst, and together we're going to fix up the mess.  Together we'll bring healing and wholeness to this world by ending poverty and racism, combating violence with love, replacing fear with hope.  And together we'll live forever in this wonderful world I created. For you. For us.

Which, again, is a shame. Because that whole Rapture thing really would've been a lot easier.

Time to get busy. You can start by picking up your clothes. Mom said to.

Speaking out for curbside recycling

This evening my family and I attended a public hearing held by our city commissioners.  The topic: curbside recycling.  Our wonderful little town of "Mayberry" doesn't have it, and after years of egging our community leaders on, they finally scheduled this forum.  Strange as it is to say, this has been a contentious issue in our community, as there are some who are vehemently opposed to the idea for a number of reasons.  Cost is one of them (and a reasonable one, I confess); but a significant group who view such an initiative as "government intrusion" and even those who see curbside recycling as a not-so-veiled form of socialism (as I highlighted in this previous blog post).

The forum lasted just under two hours.  Those who spoke were overwhelmingly in favor of curbside recycling.  I didn't keep track, but I would guess that for every one person opposed, four or five were in favor.  A lot of the vitriol that had surfaced over the past few weeks in the social media world over this topic was nonexistent.

Both my wife and 8-year old son spoke, as did I.  In my comments I approached things from both a pastoral/spiritual angle, as well as a city resident and taxpayer.  Below is what I said. 

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My friends – tonight I come in two capacities to express my support for curbside recycling – as a pastor and a resident of this wonderful town.  As pastor, I come not representing the church I serve, but representing many people of many faiths who understand that the call to take care of God’s earth comes first and foremost from this – the scriptures.  In the book of Genesis, which serves as the foundation for some 2.2 billion Christians and Jews worldwide, the scripture says this:

Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth, and over the earth itself.

Sadly, over the years that word “dominion” has been misconstrued to mean “do with the world as you wish.”  When in fact, the Hebrew here actually describes a scenario where a servant is entrusted with the care of their master’s possessions.  So the world does not belong to us – it belongs to God.  Like the Psalmist says in Psalm 24:1: The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.

People of faith all over the world understand God’s mandate to care for creation – including many here in our community, represented in these signed petitions, stating that curbside recycling is not only a civic calling but a spiritual one as well.  I submit these to you for public record on their behalf.

The second capacity in which I come tonight is as a citizen of this town – a citizen who recognizes that waste disposal comes at a cost to the taxpayer, no matter how we go about doing it.  We can either continue purchasing additional land for the landfill – land which will eventually fill up and cause us to purchase more land – or we can enact a curbside recycling program that, in the long run, will cost the taxpayer less.  If we are going to talk about cost in this discussion, as some people are so eager to do, then let us be open and honest about all costs involved.

It’s become apparent that, if curbside recycling is going to happen in Mount Airy, it’s going to require some "forward-thinking" on behalf of you, our city commissioners.  Which is why I’m grateful that this is something you all have demonstrated in the past.  Five or six years ago, you will recall, Reeves Community Center was in danger of shutting its doors.  It would've been easy for you, our elected officials, to have said, "We can't afford to get involved." Instead, you wisely recognized that you couldn't afford NOT to.  So you chose to take over Reeves and keep that vital community resource intact.

And, you know, it strikes me that the city didn’t have to hold a public forum back then to discuss this, even though it came at an additional cost to the taxpayer.  So why is this issue so much more contentious?  The real reason, I would submit, is not about money.  The real reason is about doing something new and different; something we’ve never had before.  It’s about change.  And as creatures of habit, we humans are not very fond of change.  But sometimes doing the right thing, doing the smart and sensible thing, doing the economically viable thing, requires that we do something we’ve never done before.

On a personal note: I’ve had the honor of getting to know each of you on a number of levels.  I’ve served with you in Rotary and in ministry.  I’ve shared the stage with you for shows you were running sound for.  I’ve coached your children in swimming, taught them at the college, officiated your daughter’s weddings.  I know you love this town and want very much to do the right thing.  My friends, this is the right thing!  And, contrary to our local newspaper’s editorial yesterday, this is also very much the right time.  I implore you, as a fellow citizen and colleague and friend, to once again engage in “forward-thinking” and bring curbside recycling to Mount Airy.   Thank you!

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I welcome all comments and thoughts, both those who agree with me and those who don't.  Here's the deal - this is my blog, so I reserve the right to delete comments that do one of two things: 1) engage in namecalling, belittling, excessive vitriol or other such nonsense, and/or 2) do not contribute to the dialogue in a meaningful way. If you don't feel you can abide by either of these stipulations, you probably don't need to comment (or just don't get all bent out of shape when I delete it).  If you can abide by it, please, comment away.