Finally, a trade book!

I know that authors can be pretty obnoxious at times. I have a pastor friend who has written a book and he identifies himself now as author/pastor. He has my sympathies, as I see the attraction.

I have been wanting to publish a trade book--a book for public consumption as opposed to a text or academic book--for many years now. I have a full manuscript of a book on teaching the Bible, and hope to submit it again in a few months. I started this task probably almost 15 years ago. The game has changed just in the last 10 years. The advent of self-publishing and the popularity of the www has made it such that publishers, as a rule, will not even accept book proposals from writers without an agent.

I think the chief reason this proposal got an advance was that the principle author is Walt Larimore, MD, who has already published 32 books!  Publishers trust proven authors--and for good reason. We also have an excellent agent who helped us a great deal.

I have been surprised and thrilled at how easy the writing has come on this first draft. But every experienced author will tell you that it is the RE-writing that makes writing.  I don't necessarily look forward to editing, but we are pretty far ahead of schedule.

Harvest House Publishing is a Christian publisher, which was easily my first choice. I see no point in publishing a book to make this short mortal life better but which neglects the eternal. We clearly share the Gospel in the early chapters and have many Scriptural references.

The tentative title is, “60 Ways to be Fit and Healthy after 50: Keys to a Healthful, Abundant, Forever Life”. Be sure to be on the look out for it and buy a copy for all your friends, even those not yet 50! It also makes good birthday, Christmas, bar mitzvah, anniversary, and wedding presents, and will likely make a dandy doorstop, or platform for a coffee cup!

Now let's get this thing done and on those shelves for sale!!

W.O.R.S.T. Jet-lag Ever!

Brenda and I had a GREAT trip to Japan last month. I'll write more about it later.  But now, I gotta whine a bit. This is the worst case of jet-lag that I can recall--and I have changed time-zones quite a few times in the last 68 years.

Where David, Rie, Nene, and Juno live is 14 hours ahead of us, which means they are 10 hours different in time (since the date-line doesn't matter). This is the 9th day we have been back, and last night, I went to sleep easily, but awoke around mid-night thereafter until about 0700 this AM. I was optimistic that I had it whipped Friday night when I slept pretty well all night. But last night corrected my optimism.

The full couple of nights I slept out of sheer fatigue.  The first few days, I felt terrible. Now I feel pretty good during the day and only had to take ONE nap since we got back. This too shall pass...just not quickly enough!

We, or at least I, take good sleep too much for granted. Several of my friends have sleep issues, but fortunately, except for jet-lag the last 10-12 years, I have typically gone to sleep easily, and slept 8-9 hours without problem.  As I have mentioned, we take SOOOO much for granted--until it is lost!

So, if you are having trouble sleeping, you have new-found sympathy!  If you sleep well, thank the L^rd G^d, and enjoy it! 

Blessings, and sleep well.

Life Review: My Frustration with Evangelicalism

I am wholly dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus the Christ. My wife and I have dedicated our lives to the cause of the Christ. But, as I have mentioned, I have the "gift" of prophecy, so the Church's foibles are especially noteworthy to me.

I have recently asked three different groups of US Christians to describe the average person who would identify as a Christian. They all gave some variation of "Lukewarm", and all agreed that word to be an accurate description.

"Why is that?", you might ask, as I do.

I am unsure, but as a prophet, I am surely unhappy with my/our status quo. I am unsure, but I do know the logic of that old quote, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." (Anonymous, NOT Albert Einstein).

So, what do we do differently?  I DON'T know. Maybe it's our fixation on assembling on Sunday for some songs, take a collection, say a prayer, give a sermon, go home and ignore all that. I am SURE we need to assemble, I am just not so sure about what to do then. I am a firm believer in Sunday School, because, if done properly, engages people in thinking about Scripture and naturally gives opportunity to ask questions and challenge views. I am not sure how often it does this, versus merely being another sermon with a smaller audience.

So, what to do?  Any suggestions on how 21st Century Christianity ought to handle the weekly meeting or discipleship in general?  Thanks.

Life Review: Old Age

I am 68.25 years of age, and old age seems to have really hit me in the last few months... ever since I hit 68.0. I recall turning 40, and when I did, I lost my hair and felt the effects of age. In mid-May I noticed that my muscles weren't like they used to be. My ability to do push-ups seems to be waning, and it is not so much the fatigue as the discomfort in my shoulders. I have long since given up on going to full extension in pull-ups, and gave up shoulder presses maybe 20 years back.

I ran a little over 30 mins this AM. Summer is NOT a good time for running and for many years now I have not run much in the summer. I find that my muscles are not as excited about running 10 miles as they used to be.  Mostly now I top-out at about 5 miles. I don't see much point these days in over-doing it on the running or weightlifting.

My memory is declining a bit also. I find that I may be able to recall the name of a student from 10 years back, but may not recall a friend's name who I saw two weeks back. I find that I walk into my shop, and try to recall why I went out there. Often it comes to me... but sometimes not.

My hair is gray, my hearing is failing, and my eyesight isn't what it used to be. Fortunately, I have decent blood pressure, cholesterol, and bone density. I feel pretty good for a man my age. I don't know how I am supposed to feel at this age, having never been this age before.

There are some pleasantries thought, too. We are beginning to enjoy retirement. We also enjoy the successes and independence of our children. We have taken that for granted, until the recent case of the 30+ young man who had to be ordered out of his parent's home by a judge!

I guess I might as well focus on enjoying old age... it is a privilege denied to many!  Scripture tells us that gray hair is the crown of old age (Prov 16;31, 20:29).  Mine is shaped somewhat like a crown, so maybe that is fitting.

Thank you L^rd for old age!

Life Review: Grad School

It was a HUGE transition from the conservative, disciplined US Navy active duty to the liberal, loosy-goosey world of Higher Ed!  But, my 2.5 years at James Madison, while on active duty, and the 3.5 years of Doctoral studies were some good years.

I was totally LOST in doing my Masters at JMU. I always wanted to be a Biologist, but was frustrated (Thank you L^rd) and unable to do an MS in that field. I was running a lot, so I thought a Masters in Physical Ed. is better than NO Masters, so that is what I did, driving 60 miles each way to night school to earn the degree.  Sad to say, I don't think I learned much except in a couple of Higher Ed. classes taught by Dr. Jesse Liles.

The Ed.D. program at U GA was extremely useful, but still wasn't optimal. At UGA I met Future Dr. Jesse DeMello, and furture Dr. Susan Vickery who agreed to do a weekly Bible Study during our years together. I met a bunch more future Profs including Dr. Phil Sparling, Dr. Mindy Stafford, Dr. Chet Ray, Dr. Dave Hill of Quebec, and a bunch of other super people. My mentor was a famous Exercise Physiologist, Kirk Cureton, whose father was one of the founders of our field.

The time went by quickly and our son Daniel was born during our "destitute years" at UGA. I really don't recall it being especially stressful, even though I was only making $6k per year from my assistant-ship and about $400 per month from VA benefits.

The studies weren't too hard and though most folks found statistics daunting, having taken differential equations and Calc I, II, and III as an undergrad, made stats seem pretty easy. I worked hard at learning lab skills, and unfortunately our lab didn't do very much research during my 4-years total at UGA.

Though our program wasn't very strong during my time there, it got a lot stronger later. I used the weaknesses I perceived to help me contribute to a strong Ph.D. program at U of AL.

Those were some great years in Athens, learning a lot, making a BUNCH of great friends like Terry and Lowell, and Chuck, and my classmates.  Thanks be to G^d for His provision for me, my family and my education!

Life Review: USN Part IV

Forgive these several posts, but I did serve 12 years!

Assignment to VQ-4 in Pax River, was an educational experience. I ran a lot, visited a LOT of countries throughout the Atlantic Basin, met some super sailors, and gained a lot of useful life experience in only 3 years. We flew our mission every day, keeping an aircraft airborne 24/7/365. In 1976, I think it was, I was deployed for every holiday except groundhog day! We typically flew for about 2 weeks at a time, then were home for almost 3 weeks, repeated until the tour was up!

During our Pax River time, our daughter Kelly was born. What a shock! We had been warned about 9 months exactly before her birth--"don't get too excited if it takes you a long time to bear children, Brenda's ovaries aren't fully mature. We won't talk about fertility drugs until you have tried at least a year!"  Yeah--right!

I earned about 3500 flight hours in a mere 3 years, and trust me, that is a LOT of flight time. I was promoted during this time to Lieutenant, and was a Navigator, Communications Officer, and then a Mission Commander. When at Pax, I was one of the 3 Legal Officers, who dealt with legal problems and the sailors who committed the offenses. Rarely was a flight crewman in trouble, because all our flight crews had very high security clearances.

Finally, my tour wrapped up and I requested NROTC duty in New Mexico. When I got my orders to NROTC...Lexington, VA, I was sorely disappointed. And, to my chagrin, our 3 years in Lexington were some of the BEST in our lives. The town is beautiful, as was the weather, and even more special were the numerous friendships we formed there.  I loved teaching at VMI so much, that at the end of the tour, I wanted to go into Higher Education full time.

During our time in Lexington, I commuted to James Madison Univ. in Harrisonburg, VA where I earned an MSEd in Physical Education/Higher Education. I wanted to do a Masters in Biology, but G^d, fortunately, as I would learn later, blocked every avenue.

To get into Higher Ed. I attended an American Alliance for Health and Physical Education (Now SHAPE) in Nashville, TN looking for a job.  A Ph.D. student from U GA pulled me aside and told me that I didn't have the right degree to teach in Higher Ed. I needed a Ph.D.

But, with a wife and child, how could I go back to school? "UGA will give you and Assistantship!" my new friend replied.

Hmmm, I was now torn. A day or so later, I left Nashville with 6 inches of clean white spring snow covering the ground. I was driving back to Lexington, by myself, and deep in prayer about what to do next.  Should I go to Grad School, stay in the USN, or try to find a job with my MS degree?  As I prayed, the clouds parted and a shaft of sunlight lit up the pure white snow. Grad school at UGA would be the route G^d was directing.

"$6000 per year as a Grad Assistant, here I come!"

Life Review: USN Part III

I know this Navy stuff is running a bit long, but it did consume 12 years of my life! So our ship, DDG-11, the USS Sellers, left the Maldive Islands and entered the Persian Gulf, where we did maneuvers with the Shah's Iranian Navy. We made a port call in Bandar Abbas, Iran, then on to  Bahrain, and I think (it's been over 45 years) Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.

After a month or so around the Gulf, we headed east again, stopping in Karachi, Pakistan. There I bought a coffee table we used for over 30 years and still own. We visited Colombo, Sri Lanka and made a trip up to Kandy. I recall it being a pretty educational trip. From there, we sailed through the Straits of Malacca, and visited Singapore. From there we sailed through the South China seas, passing through the war zone of Vietnam, making our pay Federal Tax-free for that month.  Clever eh?

After about 7 months on the ship, I got off the ship in Honolulu, and arranged to meet Brenda in San Francisco.  Man, was I happy to see her. After a couple of tourism days, we went over to Van Ness Avenue, and bought a 1969 Toyota, which we then drove back across the USA to home in GA.

It was a neat trip with stops in the Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon. After a brief respite with our families, we promptly moved to Pensacola, FL for Naval Flight Officer School.

I was HIGHLY motivated for NFO school, because failure would likely mean a return to a surface ship-- NO way! I was blessed to finish #1 in my class, also motivated by a promise of my choice of duty stations. We truly loved Pensacola, so I requested to stay in Training Command.  Wellllllll, my choices were limited ONLY to the fleet. So from Pensacola we got orders to Naval Communications School in Newport, RI and before I finished there, got orders to Naval Justice School also in Newport. I would add that we enjoyed our brief stay in RI and our attendance at an American Baptist Church.  The pastor there, whose name escapes me, is memorable for his comment that most everything in the New Testament is present in the Old Testament, except in simpler form.

From there, it was to the Fleet, namely VQ-4 at Patuxent Naval Air Test Center.  And that will be next.