Silly Old Bear

[PART 11 OF 12]

As Solomon chronicles his quest for meaning and purpose in his life, he makes an interesting observation regarding sorrow and joy.

“It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools. Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless.”
(Ecclesiastes 7:2-6)

Huh? Sorrow is better than laughter? That doesn’t make sense! A sad face is good for the heart? Doesn’t that contradict Proverbs 17:22?

“A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”
(Proverbs 17:22, which, by the way, was also written by Solomon)

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I do not have an iPod.

My son Justin has a really nice iPod that we bought for him as a Christmas gift a few years back. But I don’t have an iPod.

(He also has a better car than me, a better cell phone than me, etc., etc., etc. The things we do for our kids!)

However, in spite of this complete lack of equity in the quality of my few paltry possessions compared to his, there is one area in which the inequity leans completely in my favor.

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Tolerance has become the Great Religion of America.

Webster defines tolerance as:

“sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own; the act of allowing something” [1].

In other words, if you don’t agree with me or don’t believe the same thing I believe, I will indulge or allow that difference and still accept you as being “OK”. I am not required to change my belief system in order to be tolerant. I simply allow for the fact that your belief system isn’t the same as mine.

I think that is a good definition of tolerance, and constitutes a healthy and realistic approach to life … most of the time. I also believe, however, that there is an appropriate time for intolerance. Let me give you a couple of examples in an attempt to help you understand what I mean.

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One night, a year ago or so, I was talking to my brother Mark on the phone. Mark and I both love music, and the conversation that evening turned to music. Mark told me about a group that he had discovered recently, a group with a beautifully unique sound and a simple name, “Hem”.

Even if you have never heard of the group, you have probably heard at least one of their songs without even realizing it. In 2006, Liberty Mutual insurance company aired a commercial that created a lot of buzz. Here’s how the company describes it on their website.

“It all began with a single commercial that gave voice to an entire movement. It prompted thousands of people to start thinking and talking about responsibility, to celebrate the positive things in their lives and the world around them. And it captured the essence of Liberty Mutual’s core belief that responsibility matters, and doing the right thing is everything.”
(http://www.whatsyourpolicy.com/videos/index/9)

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[PART 10 OF 12]

Solomon continues his quest for meaning, and in doing so uncovers some more frustrations.

“And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment — wickedness was there, in the place of justice — wickedness was there.” (Ecclesiastes 3:16)

“Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed — and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors — and they have no comforter.” (Ecclesiastes 4:1)

Solomon is frustrated, as many of us are, at the injustice and oppression that he sees around him.

It was Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

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Susan and I were sitting and eating supper together tonight, and she was telling me about her day. She works at our School District’s 8th grade campus as a Paraprofessional (Teacher’s Aide) in Content Mastery. The teacher with whom she works is a young lady in her mid-20′s named Amber.

Susan and Amber were running a couple of errands together after school, which took them outside the city limits. They passed a field with cows, which naturally provoked a conversation about farm animals. Susan raised pigs when she was in high school, and both of our children raised pigs for 4H and FFA from about 4th or 5th grade on. So Susan knows a lot about pigs. You never know when that might come in handy — like today, for instance.

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From time to time I will post information about software that I use and find useful. Today’s post features a program that does one thing, and does it remarkably well. Piston Software’s “Direct MIDI to MP3 Converter” allows you to convert a MIDI file to an audio file in any of the following formats: MP3 , WAV , WMA , or OGG Vorbis .

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[PART 2 OF 3]

OK, this post is primarily for the benefit of my brothers, but someone else might find it useful as well. In response to my previous “Danny Boy” post, my brothers and I are making plans to record a 4-part harmony version of “Danny Boy” when we are all together at Thanksgiving. This post is designed to facilitate the preparations for the Thanksgiving recording session.

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[PART 1 OF 3]

Fascinating History

“Danny Boy” is a classic song, known and loved by many through the years. The melody is actually the old Irish tune “Londonderry Air”. There is a fascinating story of how that tune came into prominence back in the 19th century, and became “Danny Boy” in the early 20th century.

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[PART 9 OF 12]

The Byrds had a chart-topping song in October 1965 entitled, “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)“. The song was written and composed by Pete Seeger in the 1950′s, who released the song on his album “The Bitter and The Sweet” on Columbia Records in 1962. The lyrics were taken almost verbatim from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, King James version. [Source: "Turn! Turn! Turn!", from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia]

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

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