MORGAN'S
MOMENT...
Another foot
    and he would be called
    a genius.

Just a football game
    metaphor of life
    about risk.

One play could do it
    guarantee the score
    and the win.

So it was fourth and one…
    punt or take a risk
    win or lose.

He chose to take the risk
    as football coaches
    rarely do.

A pass and a catch
    but they marked the ball
    one foot short.

The other team had two minutes
    to score and win…
    which they did.

Sometimes the difference
    between loser and genius
    is one foot.

Is never taking a risk
    the only way to win
             in life?

— Art Morgan 

BOOK CORNER
Yellowstone Autumn – A Season of Discovery in a Wondrous Land” by W.D. Wetherell
The author goes fly-fishing all over Yellowstone Park. The “discovery” is not as much about the park as it is about the author’s attempt to discover who he is at age 55. Interesting.

MOMENT MINISTRIES
– November 20, 2009 –
    A MOMENT MINISTRIES production – Art Morgan
a-morgan@peak.org

THANKSGIVING GIVING
We like the season for its chance of bringing us together with some of our family. With mostly independent grandchildren (not to mention children) it’s rare for all to gather in one place at one time. It didn’t happen this year during our annual pre-Thanksgiving event. We had ten, but came up five short. We have the right idea, though. Maybe we’ll do better at Christmas.
The other thing that always happens around Thanksgiving is the arrival of appeal letters by the score. Doesn’t everyone get them? If we give to something there is a good chance our name and address will be sold to a similar charity. So we get the call for a repeat gift from our charity of choice plus appeals from charities we didn’t choose.
Jean usually gathers all the envelopes to take to our Thanksgiving time at the cabin. We enjoy the cabin fire and cooking on the wood stove and time to walk and read and talk and discuss how much to give to which charity. You realize, of course, that all this is possible because the sailboat is stored on its trailer for the winter.
One thing we’ll add to our routine is choosing between gifts to Church World Service that we will credit to each of our grandchildren. I’m not sure how they will like hearing that we gave a goat, or some chickens, or a pig or something else in lieu of a package. We’ll see. Maybe they’ll trade gifts!
Studies show that acts of generosity are good for one’s health. So, here’s to your health…Happy Thanksgiving.

TIME FOR LIGHTS!
Our house Christmas lights go on after Thanksgiving. We also have TWO of our most famous MOMENT MINISTRIES EVENTS in December....

 
PRE-CHRISTMAS SUNDAY BRUNCH

SUNDAY DECEMBER 6 AT 10 A.M.

At their historic home of
Barbara Ross and Joe Omelchuck
460 SW Jefferson in Downtown Corvallis

CHRISTMAS EVE AT THE OLD WORLD DELI AND PUB
A 30-minute family event of carols and candles
With an unrehearsed Christmas story
6:30 – 7:00
pm

 
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STRETCHING LIKE A MUSLIM

    You should see me doing my stretching exercises at the gym. As I was seated on the mat with ankles crossed as in a yoga position, my arms extended with palms on the floor, a rogue thought flashed through my mind: “I hope nobody thinks I’m a Muslim.”
    Of course, probably nobody notices or thinks anything of it. If anything, people might ask, “I wonder whether that old guy is going to be able to get back up again.”
    I was thinking about the chill that went through my body when I heard the news of the slain troops on that Texas military base. The chill intensified as word was spread that the killer was an Army psychiatrist…a Muslim.”
    You don’t need much imagination to know where that news was going to take us. Was he another religious terrorist? The talk shows pretty much agreed that the act was driven by religion.
    You could see blame directed at Muslims and resentment building toward anyone associated with that religion. And fear. Who is next?
    So what if I was a Muslim, doing my obligatory morning prayer and someone saw me? Would they know what I believed? Would they know that there are as many Muslim sects as Christian? Would they know whether I accepted the Koran as a rule book to be followed literally in all ways as some do? Would they know that a Muslim thinks more highly of Jesus than do many Christians?
    Come to think about it, I hesitate to let people know of my clergy identity for the same reasons. People think they know all about what I believe. They put you on one shelf or another, and there you’re stuck. When I see the guys who come to Starbucks for a morning Bible talk, or whatever they do, I also judge and presume a religious perspective a bit different from my own. I think I have an idea about what they think and believe, but don’t really know.
    I do know that in much of the world “Christian” has come to mean military force and power. It has been associated with torture and killing. Some Christians support that kind of behavior. I think most do not.
    And I think most Muslims are not radical fundamentalists. In Iran, for instance, the Imams seem quite worried about the moderates who go into the streets to protest Islamic rule. The moderates would easily win any fair election.
    There is some discussion about whether the Army psychiatrist was mentally ill. Some colleagues suspected psychotic behavior. His apparently random shooting of people sounds psychotic. Would religion have been mentioned had he been a Christian?
    There’s a book I’ve marked and kept on my shelf for many years called “Religion May be Hazardous to Your Health,” by Eli Chesen, MD. .” He asks whether “people get sick from their style of religious participation or do sick people gravitate toward certain religions?”  He concludes that many participants in ultra-fundamentalist religious groups have ongoing emotional difficulties. He adds, in words I underlined many years ago, “There is no doubt in my mind that many ultra-fundamentalist preachers are themselves suffering from a schizophrenic psychosis.” (p. 46)
    I would like to see a couple of things happen. First, I would like our country to take mental health as a serious issue. I think maybe the Veteran’s Administration has felt this way for some time, but has not had the support it needs. Second, I would like our country to grow up with respect to its understanding of religions. The problems in the Middle East, especially between Arabs and Jews…and Christians…will not be solved as long as religious fundamentalists are allowed to lead.
    In the meantime I’m telling people at the gym, I’m not a Muslim praying, but if I were I hope you would still like me.
Art Morgan, November 13, 2009