The View From Here

Well it's been a while since I've posted here.  Since my last post my Grandpa died and I had to run home for the funeral.  While it was a sad occasion, it gave me some perspective on what is important in life and how we leave our own legacy behind.  I was asked to give a eulogy for Grandpa, speaking at his funeral was perhaps one of the greatest honors that has been bestowed to me. 

My Grandpa was an easygoing guy.  I never really saw him get too worked up.  He ran the local garage in our town and I remember getting mad at him when he wouldn't force people to pay him for work.  I didn't like people taking advantage of him and Grandma.  However, I didn't realize then that Grandpa just knew what was important in life. 

I work for one of the cheapest, sleaziest, and probably most miserable people I've ever run across.  He refuses to pay people a decent wage and the working conditions for many are a joke.  Treating anyone with respect or honor is completely foreign to him.  He is rich and, by worldly conditions, successful.  However I doubt you'll hear anyone weeping at the announcement of his death..........it will be hard to hear through the cheering.

Grandpa's funeral was a big one.  Bigger than most our town has seen.  He touched the lives of more people than I ever realized.  For such a quiet guy his life shouted his Christian values and personal ethics.  I will see Grandpa again someday, and then I'll tell him what I saw at his funeral and the last lesson he taught me. 

Here is what I wrote for his funeral:

On Nov 10, 2007 my Grandfather, Delbert Savage died.  With him passed a wealth of knowledge, experience, and more interesting stories than I will ever be able to remember.

I was privileged to grow up only a few miles from both sets of Grandparents.  Today I'm here to honor Grandma and Grandpa Savage.  Not only is this a command in the Bible, it is an expression of my appreciation for all they have done for me.  Their influence on my life both, physical and spiritual is second only to my parents.  Without their instruction and example I would not be the person or the Christian I am today.

As with my own father, Grandpa taught me the meaning of hard work.  His work ethic and ingenuity were bred from a life of backbreaking work.  He worked on the ferries, was a sheepherder, logger, construction worker, soldier, mechanic and probably more than this.  He faced the depression, served with honor in WWII, built his own house, and raised a family.  All of these are but a few of his accomplishments.

Every person in this room no doubt has an interesting or funny memory of Grandpa.  His capacity for telling stories was well known to all of us.  He was a son of the pioneers and the last generation to see a way of life that no longer exists.  He knew the people and lived the history that now makes up the history of everyone from Bickleton.  His stories ranged from his experiences during the war to strange dogs that lived on many of the farms around here.  Once as a child I listened with horror as he recounted all of the rattlesnakes he had encountered.  Of course the snakes didn't bother him a bit.  "Don't bother them and they won't bother you."

My Grandpa knew how to do a lot of things.  One of which was to make a slingshot.  When I was deemed old enough he took me down to the creek and showed me how to cut a forked stick, let it dry, fit it with straps made of old inner tubes (anyone who saw the tire pile behind the Garage knew he had plenty), and finally make a pouch of an old boot tongue.  That slingshot served me well for many years..........no doubt the despair of my Mom!

Everyone from Bickleton knew my Grandpa as the best mechanic in the area.  His list of repairs included cars, trucks, tractors, combines, lawn tractors/mowers, cooking stoves, oil stoves, and just about everything else that could break (including glasses and false teeth).  Not only was this aptitude based on knowledge but also ingenuity.  I could only wish for the ability to solve mechanical problems like Grandpa.

The last thing I would like to recall about Grandpa was his faith in God.   While he was not a Christian for his entire life, Grandpa’s faith was one framed by his life experiences.  It was the faith of someone who had seen difficult times and who now recognized God’s divine hand in all of them.  It was a faith that God sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for our sins, that he rose from the dead on the third day, and that there is salvation for all who accept his gift of life.

It is impossible for me to compose an epitaph fitting for Grandpa.  It is hard to summarize such an eventful life.  But there are a few things that I will take with me wherever I go.

Grandpa:

Never shrank from hard work.
He dealt honestly with the people he worked for and with.
Served with honor when his country called him to service.
He loved God, his family, his country, and meat and potatoes.
I was privileged to know him, proud to be his Grandson, and I will miss him dearly.
But I know he is with Jesus now and I will see him and laugh at his stories again soon.

   

Indoor Toilets.  A recent contrivance in our history.  They have changed they way we do our business..........you know what I mean.  We have moved away from a time when people used to worry constantly about making a dark and cold walk to a frozen outhouse in the middle of the night. 

But with this new technology, a new problem has arisen.  Clogged toilets.  To a germaphobe (like me) this is a problem.  A clogged toilet at home is bad, on the road it's worse.  As an airline pilot I spend most of my life in hotels and I have to say that one of my many embarrassing moments is the call for a plunger.  You can almost  hear the maid on the other end stifling a laugh.

Speaking of plungers, I have a problem with these as well.  First, I don't like them.  Why would I like something that is essentially a poop water mixing stick.  Unfortunately we need them.  Some people have tried to make the plunger user friendly or more pleasing to the eye.  Usually this simply means that it doesn't work.  All you can do with this kind of plunger is stir the water.  I don't know about you but stirring satan's cauldron is not my idea of a good time.  Trust me, get the old rubber and wood standby!

The places you plug up a toilet can matter almost as much as how bad it's plugged.  At home it's simply an irritation, at a friends house it's a four alarm emergency!  There is nothing worse than destroying the air quality of a friends bathroom only to discover that the material evidence of your actions will be remaining in the toilet for all to see.  These friends are usually the type of people who are embarrassed to have plungers on display in their bathrooms and thus they are not easily accessible.  This often leads to a frantic search of every nook and cranny in the room as the water rises dangerously to the point at which your ego will be completely annihilated.   Often these bathrooms are situated in close proximity to the other people in the house.  Thus once you find the plunger, you must use it with stealth.  Shouts of despair combined with the unmistakable "whoosh" of a plunger will only add to your shame.

As you may have gathered I have been involved in several toilet emergencies.  They are usually short but intense, and have a long lasting effect on my social confidence.  So if you ever encounter this situation remember there are really only two types of people in life, those who have taken "the plunge" and those who will.  Good luck!

I once heard a theory that, before the fall of man, the universe was in complete balance.  There was no chaos/entropy in the universe.  However, after the fall of man this element was introduced into God's creation and has been slowly winding down to the end ever since.  Some say this can be measured scientifically as the speed of light (once thought to be a constant) has lately been measured at a slower rate than it was a few decades ago.  Others point to our global ecosystem as an indicator that the entropy clock is about to wind down.  True?  Do your own research.

Regardless of any scientific observations, I believe that one has only to look at our society in order to confirm any such theories.  I have recently been rereading the Federalist, one of the great early American works of literature.  This book was written by men of great learning............great learning with no formal education.  While introducing the (then revolutionary) idea of a national constitution and a centralized federal government, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison make some very interesting observations regarding men, the nature of man, and the corruption of man.  People don't speak anymore as they do.  We live in a society that uses the word "like" far too often.  We live in a society where people do not know about the world around them nor do they care to know.  While introducing the idea of the consitution to the people of New York State, Hamilton, Jay, and Madison make the following statements.

"This idea will add the inducements of philanthropy to those of patriotism, to heighten the solicitude which all considerate and good men must feel for the event.  Happy will it be if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true inerests, unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not connected with the public good."

When is the last time we heard anyone speak like this?  If we did, we probably wouldn't understand them.  We probably wouldn't care.  After all, we've got to get to the mall for that sale at the GAP.  Run on entropy!

What a generation we live in huh?  The current child growing up in America faces some really tough things.  Like I mean like what if like your cell phone breaks?  Or like your parents don't give you like enough money to buy like designer jeans?  Or like what if Paris Hilton looses her dog again. Wow!  It's a miracle that we were even able to survive.

Boy I'm sure glad our grandparents didn't have to grow up in our modern times.  All they had to do was survive the depression.  Fight and win against two enemies in WWII.  Help rebuild our nation after the war and face the terror of the cold war.  Hmmmmm man they sure had it easy.  (Insert sarcasm here)

Ok, things for the teenager today are not easy.  Drugs, sex, violence, and peer pressure are all things you face on a daily basis.  However, I'm sick of the disrespect that America's "Greatest Generation" is shown.  Today at the airport I saw a Veteran of WWII this African American gentlemen served aboard the USS Hornet.  As we talked, he was pleased that someone even wanted to hear about his experiences.  These people have a lot to tell us, they have a lot to teach us.  I'm afraid I have not always been a good student.  Sure they probably won't be the best at Halo 3, but they deserve our respect and they deserve our thanks. 

What ticks you off?  What are your pet peeves?  What about your family and friends really gripes you?  Now is your chance to sound off.  Here are a few of mine in no particular order.

• Hard to open chip bags.
1. These darn things take the strength of Conan the Hyborean to open.  When they do open, they explode, leaving you standing on your new carpet in a little snow shower of chip fragments.
• Poor customer service.
1. I will drive long distances to avoid shopping at businesses where customer service is NOT a priority.  I also tend to be pretty picky with just who is trying to sell me something.  If you don't know what you're talking about get out of my face and get another job.
• Late night phone calls.
1. Why is the best time to ask for directions always after 12:00am?  Why do you mistakenly call me instead of your other drunk friends at 0300?  Lastly, why do people on the West coast not understand that the Eastern time zone is three hours ahead of them? 
   
• Over-dramatic people.
1. Whether the corns on your feet hurt or your firstborn child is dying we can't tell.  Everything is a Broadway drama to you.  Where there is no drama, there is sure to be soon when you enter the room.  You're always stressed, sick, sad, angry, the list goes on and on.  We did care once upon a time, but now, you've just lost our atttention.
• Bad coffee.
1. As an airline pilot, I consume gallons of this brown nectar of life.  Thus I have a pretty high tolerance for bad coffee.  But on occasion I come accross a cup that was brewed in the bowels of hell.  It may taste like an old shoe or perhaps like satan's bath water.  It might be so strong that hair starts growing out of my ears (a good many years before it's supposed to).  Or last but most irritating, it looks like coffee but it's just rusty looking water.  This always seems to occur on days where I have had the minimum ammount of sleep  allowable by FAA regulations.
• Hippies (Not the 60's variety, but the modern yuppy/hippy mix, a lot of talk and that's about it)
  
1. Go ahead there buddy, take your latte and your NY Times and go solve the worlds problems.  While you're having conversations with your friends about how bad our country is or how much you hate certain world leaders, the rest of us will go get the job done.  You might think of yourself as an activist, but really, you're just in the way.
• Over-emotional people (easily confused with the over-dramatic type, on occasion the same person)
  
1. We are all emotional people.  But some of you live on every feeling, you make big decisions based on how you feel at that moment.  Now that's just stupid. Cry once I'll feel bad, cry twice now that's just sad.
• Fake-bakers
1. For crying out loud it is -44 in Grand Forks North Dakota and you look like a football!  You might think it makes you look good, but the rest of us are laughing at you.  This is particularly true if you're a guy.  I've seen many of these orange abominations walking through our nation's airports.......just so you know, you don't want to win the  Ms./Mr. Mellanoma competition.
   

Well, that's about it for now.  I'll probably add many more to the list over time.  If I have offended anyone by what I have said............tough.  Now you can add me to your list of pet peeves.  I'm already on several and it won't bother me a bit. ;-)

Why is it people don't eat the heel of a loaf of bread?  After all, it's bread just like every other piece, nothing about it has been altered.  And yet I see many people turning up their noses to this runt of the bread sack.  I have returned from work many times to find a both ends of the loaf sitting on the counter waiting to be put out of their misery.  I was happy to accommodate them.

What does this say about our society?  Maybe nothing, maybe a lot.  I grew upon in a home where being picky was simply not tolerated.  While it is normal to have likes and dislikes regarding food, it is not normal to live in a country where we can indulge those preferences.  We in the US have grown both fat and finicky when it comes to our meals.  Any trip to a restaurant will most often reveal a ragged parent trying to get their picky kids to eat.......anything.  For kids it seems that eating has become boring.  There has never been a shortage of food, most have never been required to eat anything they didn't like.  Thus the only interesting thing to do is refuse to eat.  All the while begging and pleading parents attempt to cajole their children into taking a few bites of their food.  I don't know, but that looks like expensive entertainment to me.

While talking with my Grandparents, I learned how families dealt with food 80 years ago.  Back then families of 8-15 had to get by on far less food than families of 3-4 do today.  Kids learned to eat what they could get when they could get it.  This generation grew up knowing the pang of hunger and the value of plenty. 

I must confess that I myself have turned up my nose to perfectly good food simply because I didn't like it.  But it is something I think about more often as I hear people congratulate themselves for being vegetarians, vegans, or pure carnivores.  Is this something we would have heard a hundred years ago?  Probably not, so the next time you see that heel alone in the bread sack, don't throw it away.............make your kids eat it! ;-)

Today I sat at Starbucks drinking a cup of overpriced coffee.  Starbucks seems to be a gathering place for different people.  Among the many groups of caffeine addicts that tend to congregate at Starbucks are those who seek to be "original."  As I watched some of these individuals today I had several questions.  What is it about copious tattoos, strange piercings, shredded clothes, black eyeshadow, etc. that makes you different?  I once spoke with a person who told me that he did not want to conform to a society's expectations and that he was his own person and his deathlike appearance was a reflection of who he was.  Perhaps he was right.  However, I noticed that he looked like just about every other person I had ever seen who was attempting to stand out in this way.  Instead of standing out completely, he simply had aligned himself with another group of people.  Today at Starbucks I saw several "original" individuals who don't seem to be comfortable in their own skin.  They turn to strange clothes, hair, makeup, and iron bars through their faces to try to find their identity.  There is nothing original in this, this is the struggle most of us have had since Adam and Eve.  If you ask me, the only people are truly original are the ones who accept who they are and what God has made them to be.  People like that are a rare site at Starbucks......or anywhere else for that matter.