We're men! We're men in tights...

We're men, we're men in tights.
We roam around the forest looking for fights.
We're men, we're men in tights.
We rob from the rich and give to the poor, that's right!
We may look like sissies, but watch what you say or else we'll put out your lights!
We're men, we're men in tights,
Always on guard defending the people's rights…

Hopefully you've seen the movie, “Robin Hood, Men in Tights”, with Cary Ewes. If not, then the above song lyrics will have no meaning for you at all. If you have seen it, then I apologize because now that tune is going to be stuck in your head all day.

I wanted to start with this because this scene in the movie was a humorous attempt to make Robin Hood’s band of Merry men seem tougher, since they wore tights all through the movie. It was a parody, of course, and only added jest to their already unmanly attire as they pranced around in a dance routine.

Dana Carvey as the Church Lady

But the scene does paint an interesting picture and raises a common question within the church today.  What is a manly man, specifically, a Christian manly man?

When I was probably ten years old my Grandma took me to a small Pentecostal church. That was quite an experience for a first timer at church. I realized real quick I didn't want any part of that. I didn't go back. I wasn't interested in what the “Church Lady” had to offer.

Later, during my high school years, a local church (the one right across from our high school) hired a youth pastor that was in his mid-twenties. I had never heard of anything like this. A young man of position in a church. My curiosity was piqued. I met the new pastor after one night when me and several friends were not being very good boys. We did some donuts in the front lawn of the school. The new youth pastor happened to be in his office at the time and saw it all. (We were probably in my truck).

He caught up to us a few days later and made a deal with us. Come to the “Christian Rock Band” concert next week at the auditorium and he’d keep our little secret from the authorities. We went. It was good. I began to see Christianity in a new light that contrasted the Pentecostal church by leaps and bounds.

It also just so happened that this girl I had a crush on went to his church. So I decided to go. Once there I was captivated by the ideals of this Savior they spoke about. I eventually got saved and was baptized. But, the men I saw in this church still puzzled me. None really looked like they wanted to be there. They all looked uncomfortable as if they had been dressed up by their wives and drug there against their will. That may not have been what was in their minds, but it looked it like to me. Even though I had been saved, it didn't stick very well, I didn't want to be one of those guys “drug” to church. I guess you could say I was the seed sown on rocky ground (Matthew 13:20-21). I drifted on the fringe for a time after that.

It wasn't until many years later that I experienced what I now define as real Christian men. I was in the military and one of my co-workers invited me to his church. It was the “big church” in town. I went, hesitantly I’ll admit. They actually got me there by inviting my oldest son as friend of their child’s. It was a good ploy, I’m glad they did it.

I met many men there. They were the most genuine and loving men I’d ever encountered. It was weird to me (no offense meant by this next remark, but it’s what I felt…). They were like women. Caring, understanding, and sincere-very foreign to me at the time. They really cared about me and as near as I could tell, they loved me in a brotherly way and I had just met them! Problem was, this scared me a little too. They didn't seem like manly men. I wasn't sure I wanted to be this kind of guy either.

Over time I got to know them. They hunted and fished. Rode motorcycles and worked on race cars. There were cops, football coaches and even a fighter pilot. There were military men of all sorts. Softball players and weight lifters. The leader of this group was a former Major League Baseball pitcher. These were manly men! I was dumbfounded.

That was where I learned the most important lesson of my spiritual life. Being a Christian man doesn't take away any of your manly qualities, it only adds more to them.

Manly Man

I think a lot of those stereotypes I had early on have slowly waned over the years. People like Mike Singletary, Reggie White, and this guy on the right have shown you can be both manly and Christian.  That message is getting to the youth of today much easier and clearer than it did to my generation.

But there are problems still out there. Many Christian men still struggle with this balance. Many non-Christian men still see it as losing something rather than gaining something.  The balance of being tough and no-nonsense, lean-mean-fighting-machines and displaying the love Christ commands to us to display is on an intricate scale.

But know that balance can be accomplished. Jesus was the perfect example of this. He was the most loving man ever to walk the earth, but also the mostly manly man as well.

A future post will provide more insight into this Christian manliness, but for now I leave you with this.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14:
Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Do everything in love.

God Bless,
Rob
www.starvt.com

Kristen Stewart said what??? I can't believe it... and you shouldn't either.

Bear with me.  Read all of this...

First,
1) I am a military veteran.
2) My family is full of military veterans.
3) I have a son currently serving in the Marines.
4) I love the military.

Next,
A) I'm not a Kristen Stewart fan.
B) I don't think she is a very good actress.
C) I disagree with her having an affair.
D) I only liked the fight scenes in Twilight.

Now that we have that established my baseline for this article, let's get to the crux of this post.  There is a Facebook article circulating with a headline reading this. "IDIOT: Kristen Stewart Trashes the Military And Defends 9/11 Terrorists."

This article is an example of many like it you will see floating around the Interweb - especially Facebook.  I caution everyone before they share these articles, comment on them, or "like" them and here is why.

90% of these types of articles are complete crap.  Their only intention is to rile your emotions and get you to share or comment on the article so it can drum up "visits" to their blog or website.    The hacks that call themselves journalists have no regard for proper journalistic etiquette or publishing the truth.  They only want site visits to drive revenue for the ads.  And unfortunately I see these types of articles bleeding over into what once was more prestigious news sources.  Their second most absurd tactic is that they know most people won't read their article (much less the original) and will only respond based on the title.

Case in point on this article.  If you dig deep enough into the trash being thrown, you'll find that the original quoted source is an interview done of Kristen (The full interview can be found at the Daily Beast.) about her new movie, Camp X-Ray (which I haven't seen and know only what I've read).  The movie is about a girl who joins the Army and is a guard at Guantanamo Bay.

Here is my problem with what is being done with these 'hate' articles (as I call them).  Kristen is describing her character when she says, "she's not very smart..."  She is not describing the military in general.  Her character is looking for an identity and thinks she'll find it in the Army.  She goes on further to describe the characters plight with what she is confronted with at the detention center - she can't handle it and begins to have doubts about what she is doing.  Again, this is the CHARACTER in the movie.

One of the things Kristen does state as her own opinion is quoted below from the original article- first the question and then her response (please forgive the language).

Q: Right. The mistake we make is not viewing these detainees down there as people, too. We’re all people. 

A: That is essentially so f***ing evil, it’s crazy. It’s a ridiculous idea for you to think that you know anything for sure in life—other than to take care of your fellow people. Where the f**k do you get off thinking otherwise? These two people couldn't be from more different worlds and perspectives, and probably disagree fundamentally on most things, but there’s a through-line for all of us—and that’s what people forget, and that’s what makes people capable of doing terrible things to each other. What makes you different from any other person that walks the earth?

Go back to items 1) and A) above.  I love the military and I'm not a Kristen Stewart fan.  But what she says there is pretty darned profound.  I'll admit that I want to see every terrorist punished to the ends of the earth.  I've also felt hate in my heart towards them.  But what she is saying here is that underneath all that hate her character has for the terrorist and below all the hate that the terrorist character has for her character - it is just two people.

She is not bashing the military or sympathizing with terrorist.  She is simply describing what her character goes through in a movie - and draws a parallel to a lesson we should all remember.  And probably without her even knowing, it is a lesson Jesus taught us.

Mark 12:31- Love your neighbor as yourself.
Luke 6:27- Love your enemies

As a matter of fact, the interviewer tries to get her to expand on current topics and she artfully declines.

Q: This is a pretty ripped-from-the-headlines film. What issues are you passionate about in the news? 

A: I don’t want to talk about that s**t at all. Trust me, I’m only asking for it. When it comes time to stand up and affect change, I’m not the type of person to shout from the rooftops. Just because you’re an actor and in the public eye, people think that’s how you must be. But there are other ways to do that. That’s not me.

So before you go bashing her on Facebook or sharing any of those hate producing articles - go a step further and do your own research.  Get to the truth.  And if the truth is something that fires you up - then by all means sound off.  But do it according to how we were commanded - don't contribute to the hate.

God Bless
Rob
www.starvt.com

Slow down there Baba Looey...

We've heard it said that "patience is a virtue".  What an un-virtuous society we must be then...  We want everything and we want it now.  We want to do everything as well.  This mentality consumes both our home and work life.  We have so much on our plate, it seems nothing ever gets done and it is quite overwhelming at times.  I blame all this on multitasking.

There is much myth and confusion about “multitasking” in the human realm.  So first, let me define multitasking so we can establish a baseline.

Doing more than one task at a time. Simple enough, right?

Lt. Aldo Raine

BTW - not only does the quote from the movie above fit today's blog, but it seems Kevin Bacon in last weeks post drove up readership, so I thought I'd see how Brad Pitt does...  Pop-quiz: does anyone know the rest of the quote?

Computers multitask, (sort of).  That is one of the great selling points of most operating systems.  They let us do multiple tasks at once, such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.  However, what computers really do is switch from one task to the other at such an alarming speed, it seems that they are doing both at the same time. They even perform background tasks while you whittle away on the keyboard.  Until of course you get to many things going at once and your system freezes up.  

Humans multitask in the same manner; your brain rapidly switches from one task to the other.  You are reading this and breathing (I hope you are breathing).  You may even be drinking a cup of coffee and listening to the radio (and reading this). Some of you can walk and chew gum (some of you can’t).  The key component in multitasking is the difficulty of the task.  As the tasks become more difficult, the harder it is for you to multitask (or not to be able to multitask).

Studies have shown that as you switch from one task to the other, your brain has to “change gears” for each of the different … (Sorry, I was sending an email, um, where was I, oh, yes…) For instance, if you are listening to a telephone call and reading emails – those two functions require different brain abilities and therefore as you switch back and forth, the other task loses processing power.  How many times have you heard someone on a business call state, “I’m sorry, can you repeat that, I was multitasking?”  Well let me tell you, they were NOT multitasking. They were single-tasking, since obviously their brain had completely shut off the part that was listening to the call.

We all multitask to some degree and there are acceptable levels.  But then there are unacceptable levels as well.

We multitask when we drive.  We are looking, listening, handling the steering wheel, and working the gas pedal.  A lot of hand-eye coordinating efforts.  The reason texting and driving is so dangerous is that both requires the same portions of the brain and body to compete for the most critical resources – your eyes and your brain functions usually succumb to the text, and your driving suffers.  

DON’T TEXT AND DRIVE.  You are not good at it !!!!

It is also important to point out the myth that multitasking is more productive.  People think doing two things at once saves half the time – Wrong.  Every time your brain changes gears, there is additional time added to the task to spool your brain back up on the task at hand.  The more difficult the task, the longer the spool up will be.  Let’s say you have to do two things.  One; write a blog to all your loyal readers.  Two; call your insurance agent to figure out how they messed up your last billing cycle.  Now on the surface it seems if you did those two things together and it took an hour to finish, it probably would have taken almost two hours if you did them separately, right?  What studies have shown is that if you focused directly on one task at a time, it would have actually taken less time.  In this scenario if you focused directly on the blog, you may have completed it in about 30 minutes.  Then if you focused directly on the phone call, you could complete it in about 15 minutes (hypothetically).  Not only would you have completed the two tasks faster by doing them separately, but the quality of each task would have been better.

This is not a new concept, in the 1700’s Lord Chesterfield was quoted as saying,

 “There is enough time for everything in the course of a day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not enough time in the year, if you do two things at a time.”

So, by now you are asking, “What’s the point?” (or at least you were thinking that unless you have wandered away and are answering emails or checking your Facebook already).  It is imperative that you give each task your direct attention.  You would be surprised how often you have to repeat things (making them longer) or having to answer the same questions later via email (redundancy of work).  It reminds me of an adage I heard long ago, “it takes less time to do it right the first time.” Additionally, whatever it is that is taking your attention away from the current task, the quality of that product suffer as well.

It also helps your sanity.  Let's say for example you have a few things to do today; write a blog, send agent queries, help you child with homework, cook dinner, mow the lawn, attend you child's school event, prepare the PTO flyer, do the laundry and balance the checkbook.  Plus there are things you'd like to do; watch Fallon, read a book, exercise, and play a game of Scrabble.  There may not be enough time in the evening for all those activities and your brain will feel overwhelmed and want to shut down.  You'll probably end up just watching Fallon and whatever else happens to be on TV and get nothing done.  But it is not hopeless.  Prioritize those items (both the need to do and the want to do - the wants can be just important for your mental health sometimes).  Once the priority list is established, do them one at a time.  It is an amazing feeling to look back and see all the completed tasks as opposed to looking back at all the half-completed tasks that usually come with multitasking.

This is a critical lesson that we must learn in this time of media overload.  Our children are already immersed in the social media blitz and it’s only going to get worse as they get older.    Our children may not even know what prioritize an focus means by the time they reach working age – imagine the stress they’ll put on their selves.

Take this week to practice.  Try focusing on only one thing at a time.  If reading, then read.  If writing, then write.  If listening, then listen.  You get the idea.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3 we are told: "There is a time for everything,  and a season for every activity under the heavens:"  It goes on to list several items as examples.  In today's world those examples could easily be "a time to blog", "a time to do laundry", "a time to watch TV"

You may be saying, "Easy for you to say.  You don't have my deadlines, and you don't know what all I have to do tomorrow, and you don't..."  And your right, I don't know what all "you have to do", but don't think we are so different you and I.

Matthew 6:34 - Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I leave you with this today.  The one thing I haven't pointed out in all of the examples above is your need for "a time with God."  We get so consumed in the here and now, we sometimes put Him aside because He is not banging on our door or sending us emails, or demanding our attention.  It's easy to lose sight of that.  So make time for God today too - and when you do... don't make Him share your time with some other activity.

God Bless,

Rob

www.starvt.com

New title, new focus...

Hello loyal blog followers (yes, both of you...),

As I embarked to kindle up this little blog about life, my first posts were basically about whatever was on my mind at the time - which was fine with me, but I thought the site needed a little direction.

I didn't want to pound on political pundits.  I can barely keep myself healthy much less tell anyone else too much about it (that is what my son's blog is for, EndunamoomeChristoo).  So what should be the niche of this blog - meaning what is the area of focus?

I reviewed past posts (links to them are to your right if interested in some back stories), and I noticed somewhat of a recurring theme.  It seems little life hacks and advice for sustaining sanity in this crazy, jacked-up world which we all live was a recurring theme.

And then I thought, "Rob, wouldn't that make a good theme.  Stuff I've learned that can help people amongst all the chaos?  Life hacks of some sort?"  (I often converse with myself in third person.  It helps when you need to talk and no one is around - or no one wants to listen.  Hey, maybe I'll blog about that one day...)

Thus, I have changed the title of the blog to "I've always been crazy, but it's kept me from going insane."  (some of you may recognize that as lyrics to a Waylon Jennings song.  Basically my theme song of life. You can check out the video on YouTube here.)

I'm going to feature various things that you may encounter and some of my own tips and tricks for not letting them make you completely bonkers.  To give you an idea, here are some areas I may focus (I may narrow this a bit as time goes on...);

Attacking daily problems from a Christian slant (seeing what the Bible says about issues we all face)

Becoming a Christian Manly Man (Loving Jesus, but remaining a lean, mean, fighting machine.)

Living in our small part of this crazy world (what to do when the headlines are so depressing)

How stupid can people be? (highlight current events with the premise of pointing out how stupid people can be.  That seems a little harsh, but I'll try to make sure there is content there to keep you and me from making the same stupid mistakes.)

Life Hacks for the common man (physical things you can do to make life easier or better.  DIY type of stuff.)

Leadership and Management tips and help for common problems at the workplace (I have over 20 years of leadership experience in the Federal Government - no jokes about that being an oxymoron please - well, I guess if you want to, go ahead I won't mind.)

The point of all this is that it doesn't matter what problems we face, the way we approach them mentally can make all the difference in the world.

I hope you find this shift in focus useful.  If you do, I'd appreciate any comments you might have in the comments section below, share the blog with your friends or anything else you can do to promote it.  Also, feel free to leave any requests, suggestions, or other comments you'd like.



Thanks,
God Bless,
Rob
www.starvt.com

Burn those books! Or iPads... or Kindles...

Not really, do not burn any books, your iPad, laptop, or eReader (at least not until you finish reading this…). 

Although there have been times when I wanted to burn my laptop (such as when I got the blue screen of death after a month's worth of writing and no backup!), I've never wanted to burn it because of what it displayed or what I chose to have on it.  Where am I going with this?  Stick with me for minute…

I was thinking about social media again this week and the impacts it has and could have on society.  In my meanderings I thought about the printing press. (I’m not a historian – so don’t dissect my facts here.)  The printing press was invented in the mid 1400’s.  One of the key early inventors was Johannes Gutenberg (Gutenberg Bible).  His techniques revolutionized the printing industry and soon books were being made in mass quantities and spreading all over Europe.  It is considered one of the greatest inventions in man’s history, and its impact on society was enormous.  It allowed knowledge and learning to be mass produced and made available to the common man.  No longer was it only the rich or well off that had access to information.  No longer were the commoners at a disadvantage based on what information they had direct access to.  And very importantly, it allowed for God’s word to be mass produced so that it could reach millions, and not just to those who had access to people, who had access to people, who had access to people, who had access to people, who knew what the Bible said.

Let's Dance!

Skip forward several hundred years.  Not only were good books still being printed, but obviously this technology was also being used by those who wanted to do harm by spreading bad and evil thoughts through the use of books.  So people decided to put a stop to all that by burning the books they felt contradicted their thinking (this is actually called libricide, no kidding).  Most notably in our history were the Nazi book burning during WWII. Second most notably was outside the library in the movie Footloose when the townsfolk started losing their control over those wild teens (that is a joke, I just wanted a reason to use this picture.)

Now, book burning did not arrive after the printing press, they burned books long before that.  But I wanted to tie the two together to make a point.  Book burning were attempts (both physically and symbolically) to show unhappiness with the material.  However, you never hear anyone state that the printing press was the root of all this evil!  Even the book burners (who were idiots) knew it was the material and the ones who thought of the material they didn't like!

So this brings us full circle to where we are today.  The internet (and other social media outlets) is our printing press.  It allows us an opportunity to share information and knowledge at rate and in areas never before imagined.  And yes, there are people out there that take advantage of this and flood the Interweb with garbage.  

But we can’t become book burners – or hate all social media because of the bad seeds.  We have to work harder to get the good words out and not be overrun by the bad words.  We have to be diligent to let our children and brethren know what the garbage is and where to find good information.  We have to ensure that we support what is good (share, like, retweet, etc.).  And we have a responsibility to inject good words and inspirations of God into these social networks so that they don’t become completely overrun with trash.

So write something good today and put it out there (and if you don't have anything to say, then re-share one of my blogs!)

God Bless,
Rob
www.starvt.com

Book Review, Scions of the Aegean C: Descent into the Wilds

My Book Review, Scions of the Aegean C: Descent into the Wilds, by Terry L. Craig

Overall I thought the story was very good.  The beginning was a little difficult to traverse, but after a while (about chapter 4) the characters became familiar enough to keep straight and I grew to like them (or dislike them as the case may be).  I thought the author did a nice job of introducing information about them and the new culture in a way that flowed very nicely throughout the rest of the book.

I found the premise of this world very exciting; a society of the future forced to survive on a strange planet and their quest to establish a new civilization.  I enjoyed the hints of the society’s previous culture (passed down through the generations) and trying to parallel those to my modern day knowledge and see the similarities of ancient rituals and customs reborn again.  Seeing things in our society that popped up again in one started from scratch, shows the human nature that we just might not be able to escape.  I feel the author did an excellent job of creating this new society and all the rules and customs that come with it.  The references to God make me think that He’ll play a larger role in future books, which has me intrigued to how that will all play out.

The book is the first in a series, thus the title is slightly confusing in that the series name has more prominence than the book title.  I must also confess, I had to look up “Scions”, which now makes perfect sense.

Having said all that, the author has me hooked.  I will read the second in the series as I now must know what happens to Shaye and if Ty will do the right thing.

I received this book from the publisher through BookCrash. I am not being compensated for my review. If you are interested in purchasing this book you can do so at http://www.amazon.com/Scions-Aegean-Descent-into-Wilds-ebook/dp/B00L1VRUQY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top.

God Bless,

Rob

www.starvt.com