Water

I write this BLOG on February 25, 2021. The impetus for reflecting on the topic of water takes me to Texas. My relatives living there are struggling to have water to drink, to wash dishes or clothes. This is \ a result of the Texas Big Freeze of 2 weeks ago. Water pipes froze so there was no running water. Then the ice melted and the water came seeping from pipes all over the place, flooding walls, houses. etc. More than 10 days after the Big Freeze people still need to boil their drinking water.

All of this brings me back to the Walburg of the 1930”s when I was growing up as a young lad in Texas. Our water came from two wells. The one nearest to our house, just 12 feet from our back door, was shallow and the water was not considered very good for drinking. The well did serve as a kind of ice box before we got one of those. When the weather got really hot Mother would put our butter and milk into a bucket and lower it to just above the water level in the well. There it stayed at a reasonable temperature.

The well farther from our home supplied the water for our house, for chicken and cattle and for the parsonage, some 200 yards away. The water was pumped via windmill to an elevated large tank and then flowed via gravity to its ultimate destinations.

(As an aside to that windmill. I still marvel that when my Uncle Walter Jacob would come on occasion to repair the top part of that windmill. He did not hesitate to ask me ( at some 8 years of age) to climb up there with him to bring up and then hand him some of the tools he needed. I do remember that I was scared and did not dare to even give a hint of that!)

Water was central to our life when I took my first job in Tracy, California. The farmers were completely dependent upon water from the Sacramento River and all the various open canals which brought the water to their fields. The importance of this whole system was immediately apparent when I first arrived because on the day after I arrived we all went to a big celebration  noting the opening of a new dam, the California Central Valley Water Project

Nowhere was the critical importance of daily water made more apparent than in our years in Hong Kong. At that time Hong Kong’s dependence on water from China made it  very vulnerable to whims of decisions those Chinese authorities made regarding how much water might be allowed to flow from the mainland to Hong Kong. We never had water 24 hours a day. At its worst we had water for 3 hours every 4thth day. Under no circumstances were we to drink that water unboiled. I remember that when I was on home leave after 5 years in Hong Kong,  I just could not get myself to brush my teeth with tap water.

A recent development I would never have dreamed of earlier in my life is the current practice of many people buying their drinking water small botte by  small bottle.

Just two more reflections on water: I drink almost no water. Most days I may drink 4 ounces at most. This dismays my medical doctors . But it seems to have no bad effect on my health. My  last little water story relates to my cousin Elmo who accompanied me on a trip to China. I told my fellow-travelers that they were not to drink tap water. Boiled water was available for purchase in every hotel room. The second day Elmo came with an important discovery and he proudly announced “ Hey, folks, don’t buy that bottled water. I discovered that the bourbon for sale in our minibars is cheaper than the water. Brush your teeth with that!”

Bad Dreams

 

I dream every night. I regret to say that my dreams are seldom satisfying. In fact they are often bad dreams. The dominant theme in those bad dreams is golf. I calculate that I I have had more than 500 dreams about me playing golf-and 500 of them have been bad !  Examples: I am at the tee and the fairway is 325 years away, all over a water-filled hazard. Or I am trying to drive off the first tee while confined to the front seat of my car. I have lost my golf bag or clubs in my dreams many, many times. And now something is strange. About a   month ago I planned to write this BLOG about dreams. I have not had a single dream with a golf theme now for  that whole period.

 Night before last I had a dream about a former co-worker. She is Linda Adams, the widow of my former boss, Dr. Thomas Gordon. I dreamt that I went to her office here in Solana Beach, CA. In my dream she showed me that she had developed the open space behind the offices, had planted trees, a fine-looking young man had assisted her. His name was Brad and he encouraged me to  join him in some physical exercises. All in all, a pretty good dream. I told Linda about my surprising dream. Then I was really surprised to hear that, In fact, there were some new offices on the back part of her lot and one of the renters of that property is a gentleman named Brad! (and she has NO intentions of being married to him.).

In high school I learned that many psychologists believe that dreams are the expressions of unrealized or deep fears. If that is true for me those hopes and fears must remain very deeply embedded.

My daughter Elizabeth is a professional therapist. She broke her usual custom of never offering psychological advice to a family member and talked with me about my bad dreams. She urged me to write down my dreams each morning. She suggested that be very careful in what I read or watch on television just before I go to bed. She encouraged that just before I go to sleep I should image beautiful nature scenes in bright technicolor. The few times that I have actually followed  advice I  find that she is right, my dreams are more pleasant. 

So, I have already acted against my better instincts which tell me that no one is interested in another person’s dreams. I hastily close this BLOG with this hope for you: Sweet Dreams!

Where There Is No Vision

The old proverb “Where There Is No Vision The People Perish” hit it right on the head. One of the lessons about organizations that I learned early in my career is that no organization will ever rise above the vision of its principal leader. This first became apparent to me as I worked with Lutheran elementary schools. Whenever I visited one that made me feel proud to be a part of that system. I soon learned that the school had a principal who was clear in his or her vision. Tragically I also worked with teachers who became very frustrated in what their school looked like. In every situation I had to tell the classroom teachers to do the very best they could in their own classroom-and no matter how well they performed the overall culture and achievement would not rise above that of their principal.

What I first observed in schools became even more clear when I looked at Christian congregations. For better or worse, how a congregation performs and what its culture is, it is clearly dependent upon the vision of its senior pastor. This can lead to deep frustration when members are clear of what the preferred future looks like and their senior pastor does not share that perspective. On the other hand, when the pastor has a clear and inspiring vision, consistently lays that before the members and mobilizes them to move toward that vision the entire organization is energized and wants to get involved.

In recent years all management consultants who work with organizations (religious or secular ) take this reality very seriously. By now some of us are almost bored when working with these consultants because we know that we will all have to go through the process of identifying our vision, our mission, our core values. Boring it may be-but vital nonetheless.

What is true of school and churches is also very true at the national societal level. As anAmerican I look closely at what our presidents say about their vision of America. What is the vision of America’s role in the world? What is the vision of a more equitable American society?What is the vision of the role of the individual citizen, of the military, the police, Wall Street?

I am writing this BLOG the day before the inauguration of President Biden. So, my head and heart are very involved in wrestling with what the vision is for my country. I am pretty clear about what President Trump’s vision was and I pray that President Biden has a vision which will lead us to an era in which our highest values of freedom, mutual respect, equality and prosperity

for all the people of the world will be expressed-and then pursued and made real.

Old Dreams New Visions

For some reason or other I have been thinking a lot about dreams and visions lately. Some of the thoughts and memories are very good. I think about all the dreams I have had for my life that have come true.

Family visions are central. I have been so blessed Jane and I have been married for nearly 70 years (certainly longer than I dreamed of so many years ago). The relationship still feels so good and seems to deepen with the years. While our eldest son David entered eternal peace 6 years ago, the other 4 children have good marriages and are financially comfortable. Most importantly, they have values that I strongly affirm and they act on those values with integrity and faithfulness.

I had a very satisfying career and still find ways to make small differences. I recently published my BLOGS in paperback format and quite a few colleagues from years past have read them, contacted me and stirred afresh memories of past successful collaborations.

One of my early dreams had been to see the world and to eat different foods. That dream came true well beyond my expectations as I visited at least 36 countries. My food options have ranged from fried chicken in Texas to steamed frogs inChina.

My spiritual dream of having a relationship with God became realized as my life experiences and wide reading made me examine and reevaluate many concepts. I remain grateful for a faith that provides hope and purposes within an ever-changing system of religious insights and convictions based on the surety that God is good.

I have to actually stop for a while to recall visions that did not come true. Visions I had of making a difference in some organizations were not fulfilled. My dream of what the Christian church could look like and my role in that too often has not come true. My dream of a society free of racism and vast differences in the quality of day-to-day life is still too often a dream and not a reality.

So I think about what visions remain and I rest comfortable and grateful that so many of my visions have in the past and continue in the present to come true..