High Vantage Point

Here’s a note from the National Ambassador for this year’s March of Dimes – March for Babies.

When Katelyn was born at just 25 weeks, she measured the length of a ballpoint pen and weighed less than a pound.

My husband, Michael, and I call her our million-dollar miracle, because that’s what her hospital bill was up to when we finally took her home. Now, it’s our goal in March for Babies. We plan to raise 1 million dollars to give back to the March of Dimes. Team Katelyn first walked in 2005, we’ve already hit $140,000!

Every year on March for Babies day, we celebrate how far Katelyn has come. Seeing her walk by herself for the first time was a moment we’ll never forget. This is a girl whose doctors once said would never walk!

Families who have directly benefited from the work of the March of Dimes certainly understand the value of the organization and are willing to put forth substantial efforts to support its cause. Aren’t you glad that they are there if you, or someone close to you ever need the services of this organization?

If you want to know how you can help the cause, I’ve listed some simple things you can do that will greatly help.

Follow Katelyn’s Blog

Keep up with her travels as our National Ambassador, and don’t forget to watch her video.

I found some html code and decided to put it here just to see what it would look like. See, the code I put in my blog made this cool country drop-down box.

Is that cool, or what? You can select your country from the drop-down box.

Of course, once you’ve done that, nothing else happens. I just thought it would be cool to have a drop-down box on my site.

February 28th marked the first day of practice for us this season. It was a little cold, but dry.

I haven’t raced since 2002 and Austin last raced only a limited schedule about 2 years ago. It was fun to get back out on the track. Now that Austin is older and can take care of his own kart, I can start racing again without having to spend all of my time caring for two karts.

Much of our time was spent tuning and setting up the karts.

We managed to get in about 30 to 40 laps, though. It was valuable time and allowed us to shake down two karts we hadn’t driven before.

It also gave me plenty of time to work out some muscles I didn’t know I had. Man, am I sore. I had forgotten how much work it is to drive one of those things. I’ve got a new respect for the professional race drivers who go like that for 500 miles….wow!

Some friends at the track took some photos of us while we were driving around the track. I’ll post them as soon as I receive them.

I’ve yet to find a wine that tasted good to me. Of course, I haven’t looked that hard, either. I’ll just stick with my Dr. Pepper and iced Mochas.

I don’t know that wine connoisseurs drink all that much wine, either. Every time I’ve observed a wine tasting, I see people smelling the wine, looking at it, talking about it, but only occasionally tasting a it.

Wine connoisseurs have their own language. Wines are described as flowery, woody, elegant, velvety, rounded, yeasty, smoky, and the list goes on.

While walking past a tasting booth in a grocery store, one day, I overheard the taste master say, “This one will give a big, fruity nose.”

I’ve seen people with big fruity noses. Now I know how they got them. I started trying to imagine what I might look like with a nose like that. No thanks. I’ll stay away from the wine that gives you a big, fruity nose.

I don’t have many faults, but there is one glaring fault I really need to overcome. When I’m driving, I have a shorter fuse with other people than at any other time.

As an admitted resistentialist, I know that whenever I’m in a hurry, everyone else on the roads have all day. And, I’m certain that the city roads department has programmed all the traffic lights to turn red on my approach.

Even my hero, Dilbert, encounters issues on the road.

Fortunately, I’m able to stop my reactions short of causing bodily harm or property damage to another driver. I’ve witnessed, first hand, that their are other drivers on the road who can’t profess such self-control.

According to eHow.com, there is a 5 step process for overcoming road rage.

1. Slow down and quit tailgating.
2. Quit screaming at the people in the other car.
3. Take a deep breath and let it out slowly.
4. Think of the other driver as a real person.
5. Follow the “Golden Rule”.

C’mon, now! There’s no way I can do that stuff. As long as I’m driving, I’ll encounter idiots on the road that will set me off. The only way to ensure that I can control my road rage is to stay out of the car. It’s alot like birth control. The only way to prevent pregancy with 100% certainty is abstinence.

In the end, road rage just won’t benefit you.

My pleasure from reading doesn’t come from the act of reading, itself. It comes from the excitement of the story. That’s what draws me in, pins me down, and won’t let me up until I’m done. A little masochistic, wouldn’t you say?

Speaking of masochism, I do a fair amount of reading for the purpose of research or learning. That type of reading is not “fun” for me, but necessary, none the less. My satisfaction from this type of reading results from the expansion of knowledge.

I’ve got some mixed feelings about “The Shack”. The first 20% of the book tells an interesting story of a broken man who is experiencing a deep sadness following the kidnapping and violent death of his beloved little daughter.

The remainder of the book is a dialogue between this man and the authors unusual portrayal of God. In this dialogue, “God” guides the character to work through his feelings and to overcome his deep sadness as he wades through his understanding of God.

The story is set in nearby Oregon. Though the main character lives in Portland, most of the story occurs in the northeastern part of the state in the Wallowa Lake area. There is even some reference to the Multnomah Falls throughout the book.

Controversy of “The Shack”

I’m certainly no theologian, but I can usually recognize when a person’s religious views have come from a source other than the Word of God. In the case of “The Shack”, there are to many strange twists to be completely scriptural. Much of the ideas that the author represents seem to come from his inner thoughts and deductive reasoning, rather than from the truth of the Word.

Pastor Michael Sandberg gives a thorough analysis at Summit Christian Fellowship. There, he identifies many of my personal sentiments in a very detailed manner.

Berit Kjos of Kjos Ministries is much more critical in his attack of the book.

Tim Challies put together a review of “The Shack” that is about as clear an organized as any that I’ve seen.

Conclusion

If I took anything positive from the reading of the book, I would have to say that it may have helped me to think of Jesus Christ on a more personal level.

I would only recommend this book be read by mature Christian readers who have already established their understanding of God through the reading of the bible.

This came through my email awhile back. I thought it funny enough to drop it into my blog. I wish I could give credit, but I don’t know where it originated.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Humorous definitions.

BEAUTY PARLOR:
A place where women curl up and dye.

CANNIBAL:
Someone who is fed up with people.

CHICKENS:
The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead.

COMMITTEE:
A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.

DUST:
Mud with the juice squeezed out.

EGOTIST:
Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.

GOSSIP:
Never tell a lie if the truth will do more damage.

KLEENEX:
Cold Storage.

INFLATION:
Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.

MOSQUITO:
An insect that makes you like flies better.

RAISIN:
Grape with a sunburn.

SECRET:
Something you tell to one person at a time.

SKELETON:
A bunch of bones with the person scraped off.

TOOTHACHE:
The pain that drives you to extraction.

TOMORROW:
One of the greatest labor saving devices of today.

YAWN:
An honest opinion openly expressed.

WRINKLES:
Something other people have. I have character lines.

I was coming home from a bible quizzing competition in Portland, several days ago, with one of the students from our team. When we were approaching Multnomah falls, I asked him if he had ever stopped at the visitor center to see the falls up close. He hadn’t, but wanted to, so we stopped.

For some unknown reason, I suggested that we make the 1 mile hike up the steep path to the top, so we could look down into the gorge from high above. I didn’t remember that hike being so intensely strenuous.

We eventually made it to the top. All delays in getting there were on me. I had to stop for rest several times. After reaching the top, we looked over the edge from the view point, took a few pictures, and headed back down the path. Boy, was I happy that the return trip was all downhill. That made for much easier travel.

Before we left the visitor center, I stopped in the gift shop to browse. I decided to purchase a coffee mug to add to my collection. This particular mug had the legend of the Multnomah Princess inscribed into it.

Summary version of the Multnomah Princess Legend

There was a terrible sickness that threatened lives of the Multnomah people. An old medicine man revealed that the sickness had been foretold but that it would pass if a maiden descendant of a tribal chief would throw herself from a high cliff above the big river and onto the rocks below. The chief was not willing to sacrifice any of the princesses, so he elected to allow the sickness to run it’s course.

When the Chief’s daughter saw that the sickness had affected her lover, she went up to the top of the cliff and threw herself to the rocks below. Upon her death, the sickness immediately began to leave the affected people.

Now, when the breeze blows through the water, a silvery stream separates from the upper falls. The misty stream fashions a form of the maiden, a token of the “Great Spirit’s” acceptance of her sacrifice.

Here is a more detailed version of the Multnomah Princess Legend.

When you are traveling along I-84 through the gorge between Portland and Hood River, I highly recommend that you stop by the falls to enjoy its magnificence
.

Here’s something your children can make that they will enjoy. Maybe the parents would enjoy it as much as the children. I might make one for myself.

Unbelievable! Paper Toy Transformer … – video powered by Metacafe

Every day, there are children born with a variety of health challenges that are the result of premature birth. March of Dimes has helped the health community in their research to reduce the frequency of premature births that cause many of the health challenges.

On April 25, 2009, I will join the thousands of people across the USA who are walking to raise funds for the March of Dimes in the March for Babies.

Many of the people who are walking to raise funds for March of Dimes are doing so because they have children or grandchildren who have been born with challenges that resulted from premature birth. I am so thankful that my three amazing children were born perfectly healthy. I don’t have any first hand experience in dealing with the issues that other families have had to overcome. I can’t imagine the difficulties and the emotional stress that other families have had to work through. I hope that I never find out, but if I am ever faced with it through someone near and dear to my heart, it is comforting to know that I can turn to an organization like March of Dimes for help.

You Can Help

Yes, of course I am soliciting donations. If you are able and would like to contribute to March of Dimes and sponsor me in this walk, please do so. Clicking on on the link in this paragraph or the banner at the end of this post will take you to a page where you can donate either by credit card or with PayPal.

Whether or not you are able or even care to contribute financially, there are other ways that you can help. I am attempting to create sort of a “viral” campaign on the internet. You can help in the cause by taking a few minutes to promote this efforts to your sphere of influence.

Did you arrive here as the result of an email message? Take a look at the list of recipients of the message you received. If you have people in your address book that didn’t get the message, forward the message to them. If you prefer, draft your own message with a link to this post and send it to your contact list.

Do you have a Facebook profile? Copy the following line and past it into the “What are you doing now” box on your profile.

supporting the March for Babies. http://highvantagepoint.com/around-the-neighborhood/bad-news

Do you Twitter? If you don’t know what Twitter is, don’t worry about it. If you are a Twit, like me, please send out the following tweet.

RT I’m helping @ohohdon and March of Dimes fight for baby’s lives. http://budurl.com/yhtw

Use your other Social Networking tools. Stumble this post, Digg it, add it to your del.icio.us favorites, or any other social media that you use.

Do you have a blog? Please write a short blog post that links to this post.

Performing any of these suggested activities will take only a few minutes of your time, but will expand the reach of this message many times greater than I can do on my own and provide many thousands of people the opportunity to support a great cause. Don’t do it for me – do it for the babies and the families that pour out their heart and soul to love and care for their child who was born with problems that resulted from premature birth.