The Lives and Times of My Ancestors - 1

On my return trip home from a business trip to Western New York State to inspect a dam and meet with a project team, I stopped in the sleepy Hamlet of Rushford, NY in Allegany County.  My mother's side of the family, both father and mother, had numerous relatives that hailed from Allegany County, but my mother's mother's family lived around Rushford.  I wandered through this small cemetary, no larger than the 1/3 acre residential lot that I live on, looking for gravestones with the names "Metcalf" and "Persons", the family names I recalled.  My brother, Bob, is the geneology expert of our family and I credit him with adding valuable family history content to this blog. 

I found the gravestone of my mother's grandmother, Ellen "Nellie" Persons (1861 - 1926), and grandfather, Charles Metcalf (1855-1935).  My mother's mother (my grandmother) told us the story her grandmother told her - that she, as a 4 year old, remembered the day that her father, returned from service in the Civil War.  Who knows how old she was when her father had to leave home to serve in the Union Army?  Who can imagine how joyful that moment must have been?

In the prior generation, Levi Metcalf (1815 - 1892) married Cornelia English (1829-1921) who's parents were born in Ireland and came to America during the potatoe famine.  Cornelia was the first American-born English, which happens to be an Irish surname.

That experience left me with several impressions:

1. Cemetaries themselves, though filled with monuments, are monuments to the Christian faith held by our forefathers, and are a testiment to their belief in the resurrection.  Jesus' words from John 11:25-26, come to mind: "I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me, will live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?" 

2.  Although I never met these people, my life has in some ways been effected by their lives.

3.  The story my grandmother told me, that was relayed from her grandmother connects me backwards into history through my relatives.  Thought of in this way, the Civil War does not seem far away in time, but rather much closer.  Time becomes compressed.  

4.  My forefathers were effected significantly by the events of history.  Civil War, famine, World War I, the industrial revolution and more.  They suffered hardships, and overcame hardships. 

5.  We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1-3) who have walked by faith ahead of us.  Some of these faithful are family members who we never met but yet they are a part of an eternal cheering section.   

Lessons from Mountain Hikes 2 - Making the Best Decisions We Can Make

 

There are often many decisions to make when mountain hiking and when in the wild we often have fewer resources available to help us, meaning that there are often no easy ways out, and usually less information to work with.  And even when we have information, at some point we still have to make a decision with less information than we would prefer to have.

On a recent mountain hiking trip to the Adirondack High Peaks, a group of four of us had three major decisions to make, with limited information.  The first of these was whether to abandon our first day's hike.  The second of these was which mountain on the second day to climb first.  The third was a decision of whether, on Day 3, to go ahead with our attempt to retry the first day's hike. 

Day 1 began at the Upper Works parking lot, about the time a fast moving hurricane was lashing Upstate New York and the Adirondacks with steady rain and winds.  Our first goal was to get to base camp, a 5.8 mile trek, then climb Mt. Marshall a 4.0 mile round trip from base camp.  Although the hike to base camp was grueling, we were blessed to find a lean-to at the trail junction that leads to Mt. Marshall.  So we unloaded our heavy gear and grabbed our day packs.  The problem was that the trail to Marshall's summit crossed a steep mountain stream at least a half dozen times.  When we were about a mile in, we noticed that fhe stream velocity was becoming faster and more treacherous every time we crossed it.  At one point I recall placing my hiking pole it the swiftly flowing water, and learning first hand the hydraulic principle of flow induced vibration, as the water flow noticeably vibrated the hiking pole.  As the rain continued, it finally dawned on us that we'd have to descend, and cross the stream the same number of times on the way down too. At that point we stopped, discussed the situation and decided that the best decision was to get everyone back to base camp in one piece, cook a hot meal and get rest for the Day 2 hike.

The objective on Day 2 was to climb Cliff and Redfield.  Soon after crossing over the Colden Dam we came to the trail junction where the trail to Cliff went one way and the trail to Redfield the other.  So which do we decide to take first?  Although we were not certain, we figured the trail to Redfield would be more traveled with fewer stream crossings than we were presented with climbing Marshall.  So the four of us scaled Redfield successfully and returned to the trail junction where we made our first decision.  So far so good.  The next decision we had to make was do we try and hike Cliff too?  We had a late start on Day 2 it was getting late, and Jim and I (the two 60 year olds) were pretty gassed from the hike to Redfield. So we agreed that Tim and Bunny (the two 30 year olds) would hike Cliff and that Jim and I would return to base camp.  That also turned out to be a good decision because we found out later that Tim and Bunny found Cliff to be brutally muddy and dangerous hike.  They struggled to climb it and get back before dark to our base camp.  Meanwhile, Jim and I, who definitly should not have attempted that climb, were able to get our base camp better organized and ready for dinner and for Day 3.  

We decided that we must hit the trail to Marshall (take two) by 8 AM the next day.  We did so, and got up and down the mountain by 1:30 PM.  The climb to Marshall was much easier on Day 3.  The sun was shining brightly and streamflow was greatly diminished.  Views from the top were beautiful.  So by waiting for a better day we had a much more enjoyable and successful hike.  The hike out, with 30 lb. backpacks was tiring for sure, but we had enough success hiking and enjoying God's creation on our trip to feel filled even though we were exhausted. 

I've come to believe that hiking expeditions have helped me to become a better decision maker in business and in other life matters.  When I'm not out hiking and I have all sorts of backup systems in place I can tend to be a sloppier thinker.  When I am out on the trail, however, I can much less afford to make a poor decision.  The principles I've possibly learned are:

• Assess the conditions with the information you have.
• Decide with others on a plan, then test it mentally before implementing it.
• Keep assessing conditions and checking in with the team as you carry it out.
• Follow through once you've made the decision.
• Accept the reality that sometimes the best and safest decision is to abandon the effort and accept that there may be a better day and time to follow through on your original plan.
• Learn from all your decisions, good and poor, by reviewing the steps you took and why they did or didn't work out.

The Many Crimes of Acquiescence

Although I have gained much from my father throughout his life, during the last year I've been helping him write his recollections of a brief two year period of military service that began in June 1944. He explained to me that shortly after the war ended, his unit came to the small Village of Ludwigslust, where the German SS had nearby established the Wobbelin concentration camp earlier that year. One day the soldiers in his unit were asked if they wanted to visit the recently emancipated camp, and of course, he volunteered. The camp had been liberated by the 8th Infantry and 82nd Airborne Divisions on May 2, 1945.  He was told that prisoners there were ill-fed and were literally worked to death.  When my dad visited the camp, he saw several human corpses and several emaciated former prisoners.  The Army was feeding the survivors, and transferring them to army barracks, where conditions were much better.  The Army officer in charge was directing the captured German soldiers and village residents to exhume the bodies, load them onto horse drawn wagons, and to bury them in the village square. 

Wikipedia provided an entry on Wobbelin that included the photo above and the eulogy spoken by the US Army chaplain.

The crimes here committed in the name of the German people and by their acquiescence were minor compared to those to be found in concentration camps elswhere in Germany.  Here there were no gas chambers, no crematoria; these men of Holland, Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia and France were simply allowed to starve to death.  Within four miles of your comfortable homes 4,000 men were forced to live liek animals, deprived even of the food you would give to your dogs.  In three weeks 1,000 of these men were starved to death; 800 of them wre buried in pits in the nearby woods.  These 200 who lie before us in these graves were found piled four and five feet high in one building and lying with the sick and dying in other buildings.

The citizens of Ludquislit got their wake up call from the chaplain far too late to undo the many crimes that their acquiescence had contributed to.  

What crimes are being committed in our community? Do we choose to be aware of them, and do what's in our power to turn back the many evils that result in crimes?  I feel that too many of us slumber in acquiescence, choosing to be amused by a host of things that don't weigh much on the scales of eternity.  What would it take for us to awake from our slumber?  What if, each week citizens of our county were marched through the county morgue to view the bodies of those who had perished on our streets from violence of one sort or another?  What if each week the fetal human remains from abortions were prominently displayed in glass jars for all to view?  Or what if at the end of each school year a parade were to be held who's participants included the students who had failed to reach minimum proficiency standards, along with the parents, teachers and administrators who had failed them?  I am not suggesting that we conduct any of these activities but it does not change the fact that these and other crimes are occurring in part from our own acquiescence.  Will we face the crimes of acquiescence, or like the villagers of Ludquislit, will we participate in the crimes. 

Jesus who called us to himself and put us back into a right relationship with God, also calls us to live out the gospel.  I have hope that as Christians and churches live out the gospel in our community that the crimes of acquiescence will diminish as the truth and love of the gospel is lived out.  But it has to begin with me. 

Lessons From Mountain Hikes 1 - The Mountains Inside Us

Mountain hiking presents many opportunities to overcome challenges.  On this steep, rock faced section of the ascent to Big Slide Mountain in the Adirondacks, a ladder has been bolted into the mountain.  In other locations one must scale a rock face or get over a high ledge.  Ledges and scary looking descents are also to be found.  Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first man to lead a successful expedition to the top of Mount Everest, said "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." His words are a truthful reminder that the greatest obstacles we face are the many obstacles inside ourselves, that hold us back from facing the challenges before us.  These obstacles are often in tension with each other.  We can be too full of doubt or fear but we can also be the opposite of that - overconfident, both of which are dangerous to our well-being and to meeting our goals.  

At one point on the climb to Mt. Marshall, I realized that my mind was filled with a number of worries that didn't have anything to do with successfully getting to the top of Mt. Marshall.  I was thinking about the descent, the hike out to the trailhead and the long drive home.  None of those thoughts were doing me any good during the climb.  On top of that, we had wisely abandoned our effort to scale Mt. Marshall two days earlier due to increasingly hazardous flowing water conditions on the stream that the trail crossed six or more times, so I also had the previous thoughts of failure to overcome.  I had to decide at one point that I would have but one thought in my mind - hiking to the top of Mt. Marshall.

We together succeeded this time in our climb and were rewarded with beautiful views of Iroquois and other mountains and our own happy faces.

In life, as in mountain hiking, its healthy and helpful for us to identify the mountains inside us that do as much or more to obstruct and hold us back than the mountains we regularly face.      

Life on the Golf Course and The Shot Before Us

Phil Mickelson at Oak Hill East Course, 11th Hole, during 2013 PGA Practice Round

The game of golf can be a useful life teacher.  My son-in-law and I attended a practice round of the 2013 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club's East Course.  On the par 3 11th hole we watched as Phil Mickelson gave the other golfers in his practice round foursome (his students) a lesson in hitting out of the thick rough that surrounds this expansive green and engulfed the ball which is not visible in this view.  I remember him explaining in great detail, then demonstrating the need for the golfer to sweep the club through the thick grass to loft the ball onto the green.  Technique is essential for success in the game of golf.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, the combination of reduced business related travel, including the daily one hour round trip to the office, has opened up more time to enjoy friends, the outdoors, and the challenges of golf.  As all golfers know, it is a game where being able to consistently execute the proper technique is the key to a more enjoyable round.  The reality of golf, for me, is quite different.  Other than the tee box, where all golfers begin a hole with equal opportunity, our second, third and so on shots are often made from many degrees of challenging locations on the course.  But the shot we have from those locations is the shot before us, the shot that we need a strategy for and the shot we need to execute.

Golf is a mentally challenging game, where I find myself constantly needing to forget about the last shot and the last hole to focus on the shot before me.  In yesterday's golf round I found myself in many locations on the course that I didn't want to be, but my ball was in the field of play and if I was going to follow the rules of the game I needed to hit my next shot from that spot.  I couldn't change the tee shot that drifted left on a dogleg par 4 hole, so I took the suggestion of one of my golf partners and played down the left side.  Playing the hole in that manner required that I hit my second shot over some trees, so I played my second shot with the 5 wood, instead of the 3 wood, to gain loft at the expense of distance.  On a couple of other holes I needed to hit a low shot to avoid tree branches, so I played a long iron, addressed the ball with my front foot behind the ball, and did not follow through with a full swing, all to keep the ball low.  In another spot where there was too much trouble around to do too much of anything, I hit a wedge to position me for a makeable approach shot to the green.

Navigating life with the choices we now have in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is a little bit different for each one of us, but greatly different than it was prior to the pandemic.  Just like life on the golf course, it does no good to live in the "what might have been" but rather in the "what can be".  So dispite not having the choices before us in life that we would prefer to have, with sincere prayer and with the Holy Spirit's guiding, believers can still have a path forward for whatever shot we have before us.

Where Was George Floyd's Good Samaritan?

This painting, Le Bon Samaritain, by Aime Morot touched me in a deep way when we saw it in a Paris, France art gallery in 2018.  I've written about it here: https://restorationprofiles.blogspot.com/2019/11/lord-who-is-my-neighbor.html .  This passage, from Luke 10:25-37, is a story Jesus told to teach the principle "Who is my neighbor?" 

Those familiar with George Floyd's work in Houston's Third Ward, would say that he lived the gospel, and that he was a Good Samaritan in his neighborhood.  Christianity Today has written a touching article describing his work here:  https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/may/george-floyd-ministry-houston-third-ward-church.html 

Sadly, when George Floyd needed a Good Samaritan there was none for him.  There was a policeman-murderer, three policeman-murderer-enablers, somebody there to video tape his murder, and someone there who cried out to the police to stop.  But nobody rescued George Floyd.  Nobody disadvantaged themselves or risked their own well being to help him.  We hoped that the Minneapolis Police Department, if they suspected that he was using a counterfeit $20 bill and possibly on drugs, would at least have taken him into custody in a gentle manner that would have spared his life.  We have a right to expect more of the policemen who murdered him.   

Since no one can now be a neighbor to George Floyd, who is the neighbor who I can help and will I have the heart and eyes to see them?  Will that opportunity to be a neighbor to someone in need come overtly with only a moment's notice?  Will that opportunity be simmering under my nose and will I wake up and do something about it?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

In the Grip of Corona Virus: Choosing Fear or Faith

(I welcome guest blogger, a dear friend and brother in the faith, Mike Mazzochetti who shares the following blog post.)

We are all mindful of the Coronavirus pandemic.

As I probe my mind I wonder what is happening. What fills our minds?

Information from many sources bombards us... Internet, news, TV, radio, articles, constant talk. How do we manage it?  What filters do we employ, if any?

We seek some level of normalcy by a modified adaptation of our jobs, online schooling, reading, home projects, hobbies, prayer, and devotions. As social beings how do we interact even in limited ways? Are Zoom sessions enough?

How are we coping? We can fill our minds, right? But with what and how? 

It is our experience that negativity creeps and seeps in, almost by osmosis, potentially flooding our minds.

What is it about bad news? Not only a tragedy, but a negative review at a restaurant is also disturbing! Marketing studies have traditionally shown that a poor grade travels faster and farther with more frequency than a good report, actually quite skewed. Why is that? Because it feeds our insecurities, renders our doubts, and instills deep fear. We become so preoccupied and overwhelmed!

A strategy of positives that outweigh the negatives can be beneficial. However, a positive position requires a proactive approach to counter the passive intrusion of negativity.

Find what can bolster us. Exercise, rest, and eating right are obvious, of course. A walk in the neighborhood, a hike in the woods, or a bike ride during warmer weather can alleviate our stress.

That is a start but not enough though to rejuvenate! Left unchecked fear grips us, so we have to keep our guard up and push forward. Our minds need positive thoughts as an antidote to gain optimism over our fears.

We are intelligent beings and can be properly informed. We can prepare and be safe by protecting ourselves. But as social beings we also need to protect others too. We can help others by simply being present to them. Attending to others takes our mind off ourselves. Doubt and fear then dissipate when we are with others, freeing us from these torments.

Prayer is best! Why? Because it submits ourselves to a higher being, our God, who is in control. We begin by telling God our concerns and fears. As we ease into resting in the arms of our Lord, we know in whom we can trust.  We can then believe with a faith that transcends all else - our fears included!

In reality we have to live this out. We are in the midst of a pandemic with sickness and death, job loss and earnings gone. We suffer in mind, body, and livelihood. What can we do then that enlivens us?

• Be smart when seeing others, shopping, or working - employing social distancing, wearing suitable masks, and washing your hands before entering new places or returning home.
  

•  If elderly or of compromised health do your best to avoid physical presence with others, especially as you arrange for those who can help you. Stay-at-home  orders are especially stifling for these most vulnerable as being home bound is boring and depressing, but despite this, be cheerful.
  

• Turn off the TV and hear the news every other day. Especially keep from dwelling on isolated sensational news reports that steal your attention.
  

• Put information in perspective - yes, people get sick and die. Not all news is grim if projections are as expected across many categories of living and dying.
  

• Change the headlines in your minds to positive outlooks: '94% of all people survive Covid-19, most with little or no symptoms". Anyone hear that one on a broadcast?!
  

• We are all trying to figure this out. We are in uncharted waters. Let leadership ideas unfold as we resist early judgement and criticism.
  

Political, economic, and medical leaders differ in approach: some are optimistic about the outcomes trying to encourage; others restrict movement and warn of caution. Either way they are interpreting most of the same facts, so both have merit and balance each other. 

• Pray for those who suffer physically and financially; calm and encourage those who worry.
  

• Always praise God for he is worthy and thank him in all things.

• Have Faith, not fear. Hope in the God who promises to protect us and the Son of God who died to redeem us.
  

• Most importantly, Love God and others as yourself. Scripture says: "Perfect love casts out all fear!"
  

There is a hopeful message we see around us: "We will get through this together!" Let us believe that. And as Christians, we ask God for the grace to respond to others with help for their physical and material needs while promoting peace for their souls.

One more thing to help us: God blesses us with the friendship of the Holy Spirit that binds us together.

by Michael Mazzochetti