Pelicans and Me

Pelicans and me -- we go back a long way. Suffice it to say: I love pelicans.

 

Let me tell you a true story. When I was about 6 in the 1950s, we lived for a summer along the beach in a place we in Louisiana called the Rigolets (pronounce it Rig-o-lees... a pass of open water connecting the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Pontchartrain). That summer I would walk along the beach almost every day to see the blue claw crabs or sea shells or fish or otters -- whatever happened along.

 

One particular morning a dead pelican washed up on the beach. I remember being very upset at this discovery as I ran to tell my mom what I'd found. I can still see it in my mind's eye even today. It hadn't been shot and wasn't chopped up by boat propellers. It was just dead.

 

Years later, I remember when I was a bit older and still living in Louisiana (late 1950s and 1960s), our resident population of brown pelicans disappeared. Investigation showed the culprit was DDT and other pesticides impacting the food chain and their egg shell's viability. They simply died out.

 

Then I remember how excited people/environmentalists were when new laws did away with DDT and all, and a program of re-introducing young brown pelicans (from Florida) to the coastal areas of my state was begun. When they released the first group of birds it was like a celebration - remember, brown pelicans are the state bird of Louisiana. That they began breeding and prospering again in Louisiana was a joy beyond all dreams.

Then one day, a few years after we moved out of state (mid-1980s), we were driving home across Lake Pontchartrain on the five mile I-10 bridge (near the Rigolets), when I looked up from the steering wheel of my car and saw a pelican gliding gracefully through the air alongside the bridge!!! I had not seen a brown pelican in Louisiana for years untold, since childhood days. My heart soared  with the sight of this bird, and the circle was complete. I felt my home state had gotten things together and all would be well.

 

Katrina came and took a toll, but even this had not diminished the pelican's new foothold on their old Louisiana turf.

 

But now again human carelessness, greed, stupidity, I don't know what to call it, is presenting our beautiful pelicans with a challenge they may not be equipped to meet successfully. I fear not only for Louisiana's brown pelican population but also for those of coastal Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Florida. This calamity has the potential to wipe them all from the face of the earth. And I know in my heart that egrets, herons, osprey, gulls, terns, pipers, rails, sea otters, manatees, dolphins, shellfish, and all other kinds of fish are not safe.

 

Thus I have few words to describe my thoughts on BP and what they have done. My heart is breaking at the futility of it all. May God do what we have not or cannot.

For the Pelicans

The Gulf of Mexico is under seige by a million gallon a day oil leak which BP oil is totally responsible for causing. Louisiana's wetland bird rookeries are being coated by toxic oil. Pelicans and others nesting there are dying. It is too horrible to consider the implications this will have on all wildlife in the Gulf ecosystem.

People's greed and laziness are culprits here. Greedy to maximize profits and reduce "unnecessary" spending, BP did not have a real plan for any kind of worst-case scenario. The worst case came. Thus when the explosion happened, they were totally unprepared.

Greedy for their product, the rest of us bought what BP had to offer so that we could drive our cars.

I believe the Bible has a word for us, from Hosea 4:1-3, ESV. Read it and consider...

Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,
for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,
and no knowledge of God in the land;there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Therefore the land mourns,
and all who dwell in it languish,
and also the beasts of the field
and the birds of the heavens,
and even the fish of the sea are taken away.

Spiritual Maturity

This beautiful butterfly (Gulf frittilary) is a mature form of its species. Starts as a ground-hugging kind of creepy looking caterpillar that eats for a living, it then transforms into its pupal stage which we call a chrysalis. That's when it just hangs around, transformed and being transformed. At just the right moment, it breaks out of that mode and emerges as a fresh, moist-winged creature that in just a blink of an eye will be ready to fly from flower to flower with more grace and beauty than it ever dreamed of when not so long before, it was just crawling across the ground.

Often seen by people of the Christian persuasion as a living metaphor for resurrection, butterflies can also be thought of as models for emerging spiritual maturity. In most simplistic terms, what is the immature butterfly doing while it's still locked up in what looks like that dormant, lifeless chrysalis stage?

"It is a sign of spiritual maturity when we can give up our illusory self-control and stretch out our hands to God. But it would be just another illusion to believe that reaching out to God will free us from pain and suffering. Often, indeed it will take us where we would rather not go." (Henri Nouwen)

I'd say that if anybody asked the pre-chrysalis caterpillar if it ever wanted to be something different, if it was willing to go dormant to become something entirely new, it might not be real enthusiastic about the changes.

It must hurt to have wings pop out where none were before, or to have legs form in different configurations, and body mass change in rather sudden and unexpected ways. I imagine if a caterpillar knew all this was going to happen to it, it might well just decline and live its life munching leaves contentedly... just never reaching the level of sublime maturity which its Creator intended.

Spiritual maturity for people may be not too different. Which is probably why a lot of us opt to remain spiritually immature. Too bad for us.

To revisit an earlier question - "What is the immature butterfly doing while it's still locked up in what looks like that dormant, lifeless chrysalis stage?" I'd say perhaps in butterfly terms, that pre-emergent, maturing one is simply praying.

Cry for the Gulf of Mexico

Once Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness..." That's all about getting our earthly and eternal priorities straight.

And from the earliest days of creation right up to this very moment, God had long since given over to human beings this thing called "dominion" or "stewardship" of the earth. In other words, God entrusted the care of all the wonderful living and non-living things he had made over to people. God expected us to keep our priorities in line with kingdom priorities. Even in terms of caring for the earth and all that is in it. Boy, have we ever botched it!

Our latest human fiasco has been in the news a lot lately. A massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is hovering in the offshore waters like a dark and evil spirit. This blotch of death has begun to touch pristine coastlines off Louisiana with its black, tarry kiss. And wherever it goes, any living thing it contacts is left to wallow in pollution and slow, lingering death. That goes for birds, turtles, fish, shellfish, marine mammals -- whatever life form as may be kissed, if not rescued and cleaned, will surely die.

Who is responsible? Well it's easy to say BP, the petroleum giant, whose drilling for oil was rudely interrupted by that untimely rig explosion, is to blame. Why didn't they have a Plan B, in worst-case scenarios, waiting to be implemented in a heartbeat?

It's also easy to blame the Federal Govt. for being their usual slow, bureaucratic, ineffective selves. I mean first they say they are on top of things, then it becomes clear they haven't been there at all, and then it looks like they are trying to make BP look less liable, then it sounds like they will fine BP into the stone age. But with any amount of paying attention, it is soon clear the Feds have no idea what they are going to do. Surprised? Hardly.

Are the American people also responsible? Our insatiable appetite for petroleum products - gasoline, plastics, oil, natural gas and more drives this guaranteed to pollute the earth industry to seek out more and more sources of the black stuff (aka, Black Gold). For fun and profit, of course.

Truth is, we're all in this together. We all have our share of the blame. BP, the Feds, and We the People. And the reality is, because of us the Gulf of Mexico may never be the same. So the question is, what will we all do about it?

In a different context Jesus also said, "Blessed are those who mourn..." Me, I cry for the Gulf of Mexico.

Board

Haha! Sounds like "bored" to the ear. Oh, that is the biggest complaint of so many people - that they are "bored" with things. So we adopt and adapt to an entertainment culture that demands we never have a moment of silence or contemplation of things other than the most superficial or thrilling. Well, sometimes the discipline of silence is good. Sometimes quieting down the noise of news and music and television and idle chatter is a very good way of re-connecting with spiritual things and talking with God. Which, by the way is enriched immensely by our also listening.

And God knows we could all use more of that.

Figurative Ashes

Today is Ash Wednesday. While I don't have literal ashes on my forehead, I do realize that it's time for me to begin living a more penitential life as Lent starts to unfold. It's time to plant and nurture what has been planted...

These incredibly big trees were once relatively tiny seeds. They somehow got themselves placed into a spot where conditions were favorable for something amazing to begin. Life. Growth. And time moved on. First a sprout. Then a seedling. Then a sapling. Then day by day they turned into these gigantic trees.

For years I've sensed the need to be in a spiritual "spot" where conditions are favorable for something amazing (spiritually) to begin in me. But years and years of career and work and distraction and self-focused choices and life have all been things I've pursued ahead of the kinds of conditions that would help my becoming more than I am. And now at this stage of my life, I see how ill-served I have been, and by my own doing.

Somehow, a very gracious and patient God has let me remain a little seed, or perhaps a sprout or seedling - at best a puny sapling spiritually. It's as if God knows that eventually I might come around and hasn't given up on this possibility. In fact, it may be that God is deliberately permitting conditions to be such that I can no longer ignore or set aside the inner spark of life that wants to grow in me so very badly.

For whatever reason, the last verse from Judges 21 has become embedded in my mind.

In those days, Israel had no king;
everyone did as he saw fit.

At first it seemed like God was speaking to the conditions of the "other people" out there, the pathetic ones who simply do their own thing, have it their own way; the "no rules, just right" crowd. How I could look at "them" with self-righteous contempt. But today it struck me that I'm part of that same crowd. And I'm no different. I do whatever I see fit. And it usually takes me on a life course that is in few ways consistent with being a serious disciple of Jesus Christ or growing in grace and spiritual depth.

Now one more illusion is gone and I have a clearer view of my own shortcomings in this one area. Now I must come to grips with God's continuing patience with me and my own stubborn refusal to enter into the good "conditions" which would allow those amazing things God envisions for me to take root and grow.

Spiritually, I want to want to become like a gigantic tree - rooted deeply and strong. God help me take a step in that direction, today and every day.

Blue Monday

Nothing in particular other than these windows with aqua blue awnings. Shot taken somewhere in Tampa.

On the Lighter Side

Are you reading this and snowed or iced in? Some are looking for all 50 states to get snow, somewhere. Heh. And the NYT and their fellow travellers are braying that this deep freeze is caused by global warming. Some people never quit, do they... Al Gore? I like your recent image, carved in ice in Alaska this winter. Unfortunately it won't last when summer comes -- unless maybe we drop it onto the Arctic somewhere.

Wouldn't be the first time we used the Arctic to dispose of unwanted trouble-makers. Remember the old original version of that great b-shocker, The Blob? Got rid of it by parachuting that frozen mess onto an Arctic ice field. I can see it now -- them air-dropping Al Gore's frozen statue onto a stretch of frozen Arctic tundra.

Then we could all take bets as to when his ice sculpture might melt.

Meanwhile, Back in Reality

Am still celebrating the New Orleans Saints' Super Bowl victory over the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning. To this long-suffering fan base (including me), this still feels like a dream. Surreal, exciting, Daliesque lines which flow and bend and blend into an image of a startling new reality. We're the big boys now, the kings of the hill (at least for this season). It's a great experience after so many disappointing and unfulfilled years.

Meanwhile, back in reality the world rocks on. I was reading a piece by one Larry Kelley, entitled "We're All Infidels Now." Kelley is taking on the prophetic mantel once worn by the ever unpopular Jeremiah of Old Testament fame. Jeremiah was once called the "weeping prophet" because of his calling to preach doom and destruction to the people of Judah (the Southern Kingdom). In short, his message to them was: "You've blown it people. Babylon's coming! And with it comes all the baddest stuff you can think of. God says." One time they threw him alive into a working cistern. Kind of like being thrown under a stinky port-a-pottie in our own day and time. Nope, Jeremiah was no popular dude.

Anyway, Kelley is taking a hard look at Iran and Obama's way with them since taking office. And he's not seeing something that would instill confidence or much hope for the future. In his own words...

In the spring of 1945, when a liberated survivor of a World War II Nazi death camp was asked what he had learned from his ordeal, he replied, “When someone says he wants to kill you, believe him.”

Kelley next draws a connecting line between that one dark dot in history and the dots that are today located in Washington, D.C. and also the fair city of Tehran. 

Shortly after his inauguration, President Obama sent an unpublicized letter to the Iranian government. The letter was exposed when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly wrote back, “We say to you that you are in a position of weakness. Your hands are empty. You can no longer promote your interests from a position of strength.” Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the U.N., commented, “What the administration saw as a magnanimous gesture was seen as total weakness by the regime in Tehran.”

What concerns Kelley is the forgotten lesson of "don't try to appease the aggressor," the one that should have been forever etched into the human brain since the days of Hitler and Munich, and Prime Minister Chamberlain's impotent and untrue "Peace for our time!" mantra. It appears once again the lesson has been either totally unlearned, or else deliberately is being obscured under mountains of nonsensical protest and politically correct verbage being slung all over the world stage by the radical Left of many nations, for their own dark reasons.

Meanwhile, back in Tehran (reality)...

The Mullahs running the regime in Tehran are apocalyptic Shiites. They are fervent believers in the cult of the Twelfth Imam who disappeared down a well in the Iranian city of Qom in 874. They believe that, although invisible, he is not absent from this world; that the Hidden Imam will return; that all infidels will be vanquished, including the Sunni Muslims; and that Shiite Islam will impose its dominion over the earth in the aftermath of a great apocalypse.

Ahmadinejad’s chief spiritual advisor, the Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, is considered to be Shiite Islam’s premier authority on the Twelfth Imam and has proclaimed that Ahmadinejad is the “chosen” of the Hidden Imam, the person “designated for his return.” Ahmadinejad, himself, has said he is in communication with the Twelfth Imam.

Pre-eminent Middle Eastern Scholar Bernard Lewis has stated that the concept of “mutually assured destruction” may not be a deterrent but rather an incentive for the Iranian regime. Given that the heads of this regime believe they can accelerate the coming of their messianic figure through a great conflagration, they may choose war over peace. According to its rhetoric, we are attempting to negotiate with a regime that claims to seek Armageddon.

 Kelley goes on to point out the ties between Iran's current regime, the terror movement embedded within radical Islamic extremes worldwide, the religious leadership of Iran, the interests of China, Russia, and North Korea in pushing the U.S. off the world center stage and into a decline the likes of which we have not seen in our nation's history. A nuclear Iran could well become the harbinger of armageddon. And it could happen sooner than anyone thinks. In fact, Kelley thinks some within Tehran are counting on it.

...a single EMP [electro-magnetic pulse] weapon has the potential to destroy the United States. Iran, which has repeatedly stated that “it is both desirable and achievable to bring about a world without America,” has been testing EMP delivery systems and missiles from platforms on the Caspian Sea...

Take the time to read and digest all of this. But [disclaimer] it might scare the bejeebers out of you and change how you think and vote for all time.

Ominous Update (2/11/10): Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that they can now make a nuclear bomb. Not a positive development in the hands of that regime.