I must say that this weekend's regional coalescence at the Brownhouse imparts one more main nugget of import: it is God who validates our "one-anothering." Subsequent to that realization are the life-pregnant moments across the spectrum of the mingling, the befriending and the re-grounding of friendships.

I simply mean to say that there were moments when I was literally aware of an infusion of the incipient joy of God just being there and having others around me. This was intensely so in the levity and laughter, in the shared seriousness of conversation and in knowing people meant it when they asked me how I or how something with which I am connected "was." Such an awareness has not been a foreign thing there in the context of these people and I continue to learn much. This foretaste is not so much a sole possession any single faith community, but is a "gracing" (if you will) of what's to come for any one or community seeking, willing and available.

On that usual drive on I-74, I-275 and Hwy, 27 north to Oxford, I tend to wax thankful for my own community who have chosen to stick it out with me on this journey. Severely acute is the awareness of how far it is that I have yet to go, as long as God allows. I also ache a tidbit because I wish more of us could experience together the expansiveness of what God is doing outside of 1361 Dana, Oxford and beyond.

It is a downpayment of a fulfilled belongingness emanating from the place of God in which one day we will abide forever. Our experiential knowledge of it here is protracted by our extreme neediness, from things within and without our control. God sees fit and pleased to manifest his providence for such things through the fascinating contingencies of our human interrelatedness and this was evident. We share loads, undergird burdens and perform "dirty-foot works" for one another but it is not for us alone. I imagine it is practice for those we do not yet know and who are not yet part of God's kingdom. I imagine that is why we exist where we do and why we'll always have a people to "go" to regardless of where we are.

How you know we are in November......

This is the Real Time Severe Weather graphical display for USAmerica as of 12:41am, November 15th. Red boxes are tornado watches, green-filled counties are flood-related, yellow-filled counties are severe thunderstorm warnings, blue-filled counties are high-wind advisories, white-filled counties are winter weather advisories.

U might say this is a big ol' frikkin' storm. U be right.

Wanna see some more color? Check this out sometime on Tuesday, November 15th somewhere betwixt 9am and midnite. You can do that here.

Remember this?

Veritasian men of God maintaining the discipline of fun at- yes, church.

Beth Price has to be one of the most talented young ladies to come through the Veritas community. So it was quite the hard thing to do to "let" her move on to that fantastic city, Boston, to continue her education back in '04.

There are indeed times in my current existence when I am bombarded with thoughts of "what the heck is this all about? have we made a difference beyond what I can see? just what is God doing?" There are dark nights in my cumbersome soul that not many know, and a lot of this flows around worth, efficacy and similar identity issues. There are pastor-types out there intimately acquainted with what I am talking about.

And, so, we celebrated three years together as a house church here at Dana (and previously Hester) and we reminisced, recollected and told stories that just attached more meaning to one another and why we do what we do.

And, we read Beth's Letter To Veritas all the way from Brighton, Mass, where we flew in April 2000 to scout out for a potential church plant. God spoke to us very clearly in Boston....that we were to be in Oxford, for Beth (unknown to us then), so she could thrive in Boston, and one day- almost five years later on a birthday celebration on Dana Drive in Oxford- speak a sustaining, healing verbal salve to my soul. All this right in the very place God turned our hearts to Oxford.

God is a master craftsman......weaving the delicate intricacies of our lives into what is going to be a tapestry of colossal beauty....the likes of which are being threaded now into a work of beauty we'll have never known.

One thing I might miss about the traditional church: Pastor Appreciation Day

If there is anything on this green/blue orb hurtling through our present cosmos that stirs me up, it is when the little technical things that are supposed to make our lives easier tear up. Things like cars......water softeners.......plumbing behind the walls....computers that won't load up a game for your diversion from the previous three things. And when you know just enough to garner a bit of confidence in tackling the faltering things, it turns out it is only knowledge enough to make you dangerous enough to compound said problems.

....the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.

Disraeli, Conningsby

Well, what a doozy of a willy-willy season it's been (that's what they call hurricanes in western Australia and I think I'm gonna revert to it from now on).

What can be next? But still yet, why have we had what we've had, in human terms? And when we extrapolate to the whole human experience and history.....just what does the providence of God mean in these (and other calamitous) times? What is the mode of God's providential activity? Why deliverance for some and demise for others? What of limitation, contingency factors and human freewill? And above all, what is possible in each given situation?

Any takers?

And so, we begin again. At 897 MB, Hurricane Rita became the third most intense hurricane in Atlantic basin history, in terms of central pressure- even more so than Katrina. But this present monster I think will only be a shadow of itself by the time it makes landfall at probably a strong cat 3. It will be devastating nonetheless.

Going to see the one and only Mission Man at the Balcony from 8-10pm tonight, who, by the way, has been a regular haunt at the Johnson household.

I really do get by with a lil' help from my friends

Oh, sometimes I long to accelerate out of my oft-infirmed listlessness with the speed of an X-Class solar flare. And there in the nether reaches of the voids of space-time I could float- lofty and unencumbered- ignorable as I would be in my familiar vacuum of melancholic ostentatiousness.

Just a perfunctory, medullar mind poot. Move along.

Wanna BET There's Something Wrong With This Picture?

Despite the plight of these thousands of poor and recently homeless in the Gulf Coast, Black Entertainment Television has revealed its self, albeit in the shadiness of its late-night lineup.

Actually for BET, it's business as usual on Sunday, late nights. With the talk of some around the nation beginning to center upon the cries of racism dictating the relief efforts, BET is apparently unfazed, maintaining and parading a clownish triumvitrate with these, their huckster-brand of health, wealth and prosperity vultures:

Robert "Diane-Sawyer-Is-The-Devil" Tilton

Don "Lemme-Sell-You-A-33-Dollar-Prosperity-Bracelet" Stewart

Peter "Got-Caught-With-An-Earpiece-In-My-Ear" Popoff

How are these shameless money-shafting minions still given the airwaves, in light of the times? How is BET serving their audience with this chicanery? Tilton was exposed by "Primetime Live" in the early nineties and described by then Texas attorney general Dan Morales as "raping the most vulnerable segments of our society -- the poor, the infirm, the ignorant ... who believe his garbage." On his BET time block, he frequently herds in black gospel singers to legitimize his presence. Don Stewart's miracle bracelet is yours free for a love gift of at least 33 USDollars. Peter Popoff may actually be shown here with the earpiece that his wife used to funnel "divine revelations" about his audience in his ear. (For more on Petey, see here).

Even BET's director of corporate communications, Rob Santwer, said (of Tilton's program) in the Salon.com piece referenced here that it was the kind of thing you'd turn the channel as soon as you'd see it. Then why pump it out?

This surely can't be on par with BET's credo toward black empowerment, can it? With these predatory poor-man's money reavers still on the loose, they aren't doing anything but holding all of us down, black, white or otherwise.

I know the need is nerually numbing and my sensibilities can't even hug this disaster, but I don't know if I'm ready yet for these superstar-studded benefits with promos and egos almost as big as the Katrina's eyewall itself. I know it's not impossible that celebrity can help and that some may genuinely care. If it does some good, very well then. What about writing checks in secret and not affording onesself the imposed good press that comes with headlining such a spectacle grotesquely overshadowed by this specter of suffering? Why can't potential ticket buyers just go ahead and give that money to pre-existing organizations? It's still not really selfless giving, because we're getting something irretractably and absurdly mundane.....a concert. Yeah, I should lighten up and go to bed.

There have been 275 hurricanes that have made US landfall since 1845. Only four have been like Katrina.

Here in Oxford, the 2.72 inches of rain courtesy of the same meteorological phenomena responsible for incomprehensible devastation a few states southward provides no reference frame whereby I can fathom what has/is unfolding.

There hasn't been a natural disaster in US history that measures up to this. Insured losses- which are next to impossible to estimate- nevertheless have been estimated upwards of 25 billion dollars. Typically about 40% of people do not have insurance so expect total losses to be double that of stated insured losses.

And now the cascade effect is beginning. 9 refineries have shut down and 60% of oil rig platforms have been evacuated. Gas jumped this morning .40 to.50 cents per gallon to an average here in the Tri-State of 3.09. It is now going to cost us 50.00 to fill up the Element. However if my fool butt had a Suburban, for instance, I could shell out close to 100.00 to fill up. There is talk that some places and stations could run out of fuel by the end of this Labor Day holiday weekend. Surely gas prices will ease after the holiday.

A coworker of mine took his grandson to school in Batesville this morning and was told by a fuel station manager that the station was not going to get a tanker in after they run out. This quick of an impact on the fuel industry in the US is unprecedented. I joked before Katrina that gas would be 3.00 a gallon by Christmas. I would not be surprised if it could get to 5.00. We shall soon see.

My last post showed the Richelieu Apartment destruction and the tragedy that unfolded there. Indeed, sometimes the incapacity of the human mind to contemplate impending peril is again demonstrated in the picture below. I do not know what happened to the wedding party after this pic was taken the Saturday before the hurricane- hopefully they got out. Despite warnings and evacuations, the wedding went on in downtown New Orleans. Note the boarded windows in the background.

FREEKIN' MUNKEBITES HURRICANE ALERT MODE!!!!!
Can you tell where the hurricane is?

I guess I'd put Munkebites into alert mode since everybody and their brother is.

But this is an historical thing in the making.....Katrina already has become the fourth largest/strongest in the recorded history of Atlantic basin hurricane records. Earlier Sunday, its central pressure dipped to 904 milibars and had sustained winds of 175 mph with gusts of 215 mph. By comparison, Andrew ranks 8th on that list. This is even stronger than Camille in July 1969. If it keeps this current path and strength (some fluctuations are likely), there could be a storm surge in the New Orleans area of about 20-30 feet. That would be devastating.

There is already unprecedented wording coming out of Louisiana local NWS offices. I've never seen them use words such as "devastating" in relation to a storm in my lifetime, while describing the potential for the storm to: "destroy most/all gabled roofs" in the direct damage swath; "cause high rise buildings to sway, with some collapsing possible."

There are even inland tropical storm watches for the southern central Tennessee counties below Nashville. You just don't see that often. The Ohio Valley (central and eastern mainly) could receive 2-5 inches of rain, sustained winds of around 20mph with gusts to 35mph, some sporadic power outages and localized flooding. Expect the Ohio River to rise to perhaps 35 feet in Cincy before this is all said and done. But, that is if the current models are tracking this thing right. They are not all in agreement this far out however.

I think the storm will weaken to a strong Category 4 hurricane before landing just east of New Orleans and the 12:35a.m., August 29th radar returns indicate dry air entraining into the west side of the storm, which will continue the weakening process until landfall. HOWEVER, this is still going to be an historic impact.

Already, there are rumors in Northern Kentucky with the attending runs on gas stations that gas prices are going to shoot to $4.00 per gallon. Although 20% of our useable fuel goes through the Louisiana processing areas, I don't think we'll see that big of a spike. Depending on the total aftermath, expect to see a widespread trickle-down impact across the economic structure of the country. Suffice it to say, I would not want to be building a house in the next few months, if you don't have your lumber ordered yet.

Pray for those who could not get out and pray for the sensibilities of those who, like those who chose to ride out Camille and have a hurricane party in this picture below, might perish because of their foolishness.

Cinebites

Since I like movies and writing about them, here's my site with my reviews of both current releases and DVD's. I've always been a critic of sorts and I've done some reviews over the years on Munkebites and I just wanted to be a lil' more up front with it since some folks have shown at least miniscule interest.

It's kind of hokey I know and very rudimentary, but I am gonna be working with it over time and you can let me know what you think, what I can add to it, and for you tekkie-types, you can tell me HOW to do it. Or you can sit back and laugh. But you can't stop me. The only hope you'll ever have on this planet is that I'll be contained.

Getting Back At It

So, after a summer where I dipped my shoulder and right wrist into mountain bike hades as well as crunch up Veritas' summer intern's car on I-75 in Kentucky, I am ready for some excitement. How about pumping up Oxford's population to the tune of 15-16,000 people in some 3-4 days? Or...how about sitting in a bus when it's all happening? Dang- do I need another vacation already?

Got the community room decked with window treatments as well as a work station, so the major furnishings are in place and that edges up the excitment meter on my part.

Tomorrow, we help new frosh move in and Saturday we give away free hemp necklaces made by Veritasians at A Taste of Oxford. I don't know if they'll make it there.

The necklaces I mean.

And it all comes crashing down.....summer break that is.

So, the annual arrival of the driver's meeting this Thursday signals the new year. I have to say that Oxford is the most seasonal place in which I've ever lived. The academic calendar seems to govern all of our lives. It ain't no complaint.....just an obzervayshun. Got my D.O.T. fizzkull and I'm ready to alight in the saddle again.