Anyway, this week let’s not forget to tell others not to forget…Who’s in charge and just how powerful he is.  To illustrate Read on.

In the Bible there is a man written about named Elijah.  He was used to demonstrate God’s power and call the people of Israel back to a life of worship.  Elijah witnessed the miraculous and unequaled power of God as he prayed during his confrontation with the 450 prophets of Baal; “The fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, … and also licked up the water in the trench” (1 Kings 18:38).

After this unquestioned answer to prayer, Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and prayed for rain – there had not been rain in the land for three years.  Once again, Elijah witnessed the miraculous hand of God; “The sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose and a heavy rain came” (1 Kings 18:45).  But within a few days of these great spiritual victories, Queen Jezebel vowed to have Elijah killed.  As soon as Elijah heard of the Queen’s threat, he became afraid and ran for his life into the desert.

1 Kings 19:4

“He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.  ‘I have had enough, Lord,’ he said. ‘Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’”

Elijah was a man who spoke directly with God and clearly witnessed His awesome power; yet, he fell into great despair when faced with this new adversity.

What caused Elijah to become so discouraged and fragile?  Had he already forgotten God’s power?  Had a few victories caused him to take his eyes off God and begin to rely on his own strength?  Or was he just worn out from being on the front line of ministry?  Whatever the cause, in his moment of greatest victory  Elijah became the most vulnerable to attack and failure; “I have had enough, Lord.”

When life is a struggle, we must pray and “trust in the Lord with all our heart” (Proverbs 3:5).  When life is running smooth, we must pray harder and trust even more.  But when we experience victory and dance on top of the mountain – when we begin to feel strong and “self” assured – we must pray as if our very life depended on it and lean on the Lord as never before.  Our moments of greatest vulnerability to enemy attack come when we begin to think we no longer require God’s help.

So my fellow passengers, as we start our week off let’s keep our eyes on Jesus and continue to renew our strength through prayer and the study of His Word.  We must always remember how He told His closest followers, “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).  The only way we accomplish anything is through the strength of Christ.  And as His promises are fulfilled in our lives, we must prepare for a sustained and constant walk of faith.  Let’s examine our need to daily walk in His presence and always guard against a fragile victory.  “All aboard…The LifeTrain!!!”

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To me living authentically means organizing ones life around  answers to three fundamental questions.  The first is, “What matters to you?” The second is, “Are your thoughts aligned with what matters to you?” The third is, “Are your behaviors aligned with what matters to you?” As my life enters into the final trimester as a baby boomer I often find myself looking into the mirror asking myself, ” Chuckie, has your life meant anything to mankind and do you accept and embrace the fact that you are the final arbiter of your life’s meaning.  I find with this approach to life, each day is a project requiring existential engineering skills as I bridge my way from one meaningful experience to the next.  I am trying to accept the realities of my life by asserting that I am the sole arbiter of the meaning of my life.  Therefore I am looking for some sure footing as I actively make meaning [of my life].  It’s one of the reasons I blog (write).  I am so afraid of dying without having said to the world, my life had meaning, depth of character and substance.  And most of all the spirit indwelling this body knew Jesus.

I am like most boomers as soon as I employ the interesting linguistic tactic of calling every unwanted aspect of my life abnormal, I’m on the road to pathologizing everyday life.  By making every unwanted experience a piece of pathology, it becomes possible to knit together disorders that have the look but not the reality of medical illness. This is what has happened in our “medicalize everything” culture. or, got a problem…pop a pill.

Part of this article, if you look deeply, is about depression.  The word depression has virtually replaced unhappiness in our internal vocabularies. We feel sad but we call ourselves depressed.  Having unconsciously made this linguistic switch, when we look for help we naturally turn to a “depression expert.” We look to a pill, a therapist, a social worker, or a pastoral counselor – even if we’re sad because we’re having trouble paying the bills, because our career is not taking off, or because our relationship is on the skids. That is, even if our sadness is rooted in our circumstances, social forces cause us to name that sadness “depression” and to look for “help with our depression.” People have been trained to call their sadness “depression” by the many forces acting upon them, from the mental health industry to mass culture to advertising.

I surmise that we boomers must learn to deal more effectively with the realities of human existence, including the realities of sadness, despair, and grief, we have take a giant step away from “medicalizing everything” and toward lives lived with renewed passion, power and purpose…even though that clock is tic…tic…ticking…

Admittedly, I might seem a bit abstract today.  It’s by design, again I admit.  But, I will also admit I wrote today’s article for my fellow baby boomers who might need a pep talk about renewed passion, power and purpose…  Join me!

All Aboard…The LifeTrain!

Page Flip-flap is a service that not only makes text-based materials flippable, but movies and photos, too.  Check it out:  http://www.pageflip-flap.com/

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And some additional Boomer thoughts from me:

Nothing sucks more now than that moment during an argument when I realize I’m wrong.  At least with age comes wisdom…so I slow my roll…sometimes.  Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional…

Hey!!!  Was learning cursive really necessary?  Think about it…

I’m getting cranky in my old age, for example:  As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

See ya tomorrow,

All Aboard!  The LifeTrain!!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sidenote, while listening to this I’m wishing I was a DJ, in a dark booth round mid-night.  I would use my best early morning, Barry White baritone voice and say something like “yea…baby…baby..can ya dig it?”  …”I knew that you would…”  ”This is DJ Chuck Dawg…with”  [pause]  ”the quiet storm”.

Anyway I digress.

I suspect tht most of the passengers who jump aboard the train are Baby (or pre) baby boomers.  As such we are facing a multitude of boomer issues.  Parental care, health issues, financial/retirment issues, social issues, …well the list goes on for us 40-50 plus folk.  For baby boomers in late middle age and entering older age, an ability to laugh keeps things on an even footing and helps to ‘ground’ emotions that might otherwise topple confidence and self esteem.  More and more I read about professionals in the physiology realm recommend laughter as a antidote against an early grave and evidence bears out that the ability to apply humor to even the most tragic of circumstances can lighten the spirit and help get life back on track again.

So, I have surmised for this week that we should learn to take a humorous and philosophical look at things sometimes to help balance out the sometimes harsh realities of aging.  So this week…let’s mellow out, keep a smile on, don a positive attitude and make each day this week, not just Monday…A Merry Day!

Here’s a few thoughts I’d like to share in Part one of this week’s topic, Living the “BOOMER Life”:

I find myself having more and more friends scheduled for some type of a body replacement.  And on that note, A “BIG” shout out to my friend Michael “NASTY MAN” Mayfield.  Michael is recuperating from hip replacement
surgery.   Ladies beware, his nasty-ness is on the mend.  Is limp pimp will now be back to just a pimp…and that’s OK with me as it means my friend is on the mend.

More and more I find myself in the lot of a Mall, Store or just walking down the street and realize that I’m going in the complete opposite direction of where I’m supposed to be going?  But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which I came, I (literally) have to first do something like check my watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to myself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks I’m crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

I’m wondering more and more if my best friend’s job should be to immediately clear my computer history when I die.  I wasn’t always saved…(and don’t front… neither were you…LOL) That one might hit you later…

I’m wondering now, how many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?  …and

Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using ‘as in’ examples, more and more I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot.  Today I had to spell my boss’s last name to an attorney and said “Yes that’s G as in…(10 second lapse)…ummm…Goonies”

And you know what?  To end Part one I say, “I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.”

P.S. Who Are the Baby Boomers?  The Baby Boomer Generation represents people born between the years 1946 and 1964 – now between the ages of 44 and 62.
Merry Monday, All Aboard…The LifeTrain!

 

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Or a pizza with pepperoni and extra Casu Marzu!

Martin Luther King, Jr., was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. and Alberta Williams King. Although Dr. King’s name was mistakenly recorded as “Michael King” on his birth certificate, this was not discovered until 1934, when his father applied for a passport. He had an older sister, Willie Christine (September 11, 1927) and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel (July 30, 1930 – July 1, 1969). King sang with his church choir at the 1939 Atlanta premiere of the movie Gone with the Wind. He entered Morehouse College at age fifteen, skipping his ninth and twelfth high school grades without formally graduating. In 1948, he graduated from Morehouse with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in sociology, and enrolled in Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, and graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity (B.D.) degree in 1951. In September 1951, King began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University and received his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) on June 5, 1955 (but see the Plagiarism section for controversy regarding this degree).

In 1953, at age 24, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to comply with the Jim Crow laws that required her to give up her seat to a white man. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, urged and planned by E. D. Nixon (head of the Montgomery NAACP chapter and a member of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters) and led by King, soon followed. (In March 1955, a 15 year old school girl, Claudette Colvin, suffered the same fate, but King did not become involved.) The boycott lasted for 381 days, the situation becoming so tense that King’s house was bombed. King was arrested during this campaign, which ended with a United States Supreme Court decision outlawing racial segregation on all public transport.

King was instrumental in the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, a group created to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches to conduct non-violent protests in the service of civil rights reform. King continued to dominate the organization. King was an adherent of the philosophies of nonviolent civil disobedience as described in Henry David Thoreau’s essay of the same name, and used successfully in India by Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi. King applied this philosophy to the protests organized by the SCLC. In 1959, he wrote The Measure of A Man, from which the piece What is Man?, an attempt to sketch the optimal political, social, and economic structure of society, is derived.

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s success with non-violent activism, he visited the Gandhi family in India in 1959, with assistance from the Quaker group the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The trip to India affected King in a profound way, deepening his understanding of nonviolent resistance and his commitment to America’s struggle for civil rights. In a radio address made during his final evening in India, King reflected, “Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity. In a real sense, Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation.”

The FBI began wiretapping King in 1961, fearing that Communists were trying to infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement, but when no such evidence emerged, the bureau used the incidental details caught on tape over six years in attempts to force King out of the preeminent leadership position.

King correctly recognized that organized, nonviolent protest against the system of southern segregation known as Jim Crow laws would lead to extensive media coverage of the struggle for black equality and voting rights. Journalistic accounts and televised footage of the daily deprivation and indignities suffered by southern blacks, and of segregationist violence and harassment of civil rights workers and marchers, produced a wave of sympathetic public opinion that made the Civil Rights Movement the single most important issue in American politics in the early 1960s.

King organized and led marches for blacks’ right to vote, desegregation, labor rights and other basic civil rights. Most of these rights were successfully enacted into United States law with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

King and the SCLC applied the principles of nonviolent protest with great success by strategically choosing the method of protest and the places in which protests were carried out in often dramatic stand-offs with segregationist authorities. Sometimes these confrontations turned violent. King and the SCLC were instrumental in the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, in 1961 and 1962, where divisions within the black community and the canny, low-key response by local government defeated efforts; in the Birmingham protests in the summer of 1963; and in the protest in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1964. King and the SCLC joined forces with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Selma, Alabama, in December 1964, where SNCC had been working on voter registration for several months.

King, representing SCLC, was among the leaders of the so-called “Big Six” civil rights organizations who were instrumental in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. The other leaders and organizations comprising the Big Six were: Roy Wilkins, NAACP; Whitney Young, Jr., Urban League; A. Philip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; John Lewis, SNCC; and James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The primary logistical and strategic organizer was King’s colleague Bayard Rustin. For King, this role was another which courted controversy, since he was one of the key figures who acceded to the wishes of President John F. Kennedy in changing the focus of the march. Kennedy initially opposed the march outright, because he was concerned it would negatively impact the drive for passage of civil rights legislation, but the organizers were firm that the march would proceed.

In late March 1968, King went to Memphis, Tennessee in support of the black sanitary public works employees, represented by AFSCME Local 1733, who had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment. (For example, African American workers, unlike white workers, were not paid when sent home because of inclement weather.)

On April 3, King returned to Memphis and addressed a rally, delivering his “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” address at Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ, Inc. – World Headquarters). King’s flight to Memphis had been delayed by a bomb threat against his plane. In the close of the last speech of his career, in reference to the bomb threat, King said the following:
“ And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. ”

King was booked in room 306 at the Lorraine Motel, owned by Walter Bailey, in Memphis. Reverend Ralph Abernathy, King’s close friend and colleague who was present at the assassination, swore under oath to the HSCA that King and his entourage stayed at room 306 at the Lorraine Motel so often it was known as the ‘King-Abernathy suite.’ While standing on the motel’s 2nd floor balcony, King was shot at 6:01 p.m. April 4, 1968. The bullet entered through his right cheek smashing his jaw and then traveling down his spinal cord before lodging in his shoulder. According to biographer Taylor Branch, King’s last words on the balcony were to musician Ben Branch (no relation to Taylor Branch) who was scheduled to perform that night at an event King was attending: “Ben, make sure you play Take My Hand, Precious Lord in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty.” Friends inside the motel room heard the shots and ran to the balcony to find King on the ground. Local Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles, whose house King was on his way to, remembers that upon seeing King go down he ran into a hotel room to call an ambulance. Nobody was on the switchboard, so Kyles ran back out and yelled to the police to get one on their radios. It was later revealed that the hotel switchboard operator, upon seeing King shot, had had a fatal heart attack and could not operate the phones. King was pronounced dead at St. Joseph’s Hospital at 7:05 p.m. The assassination led to a nationwide wave of riots in more than 60 cities.

Five days later, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a national day of mourning for the lost civil rights leader. A crowd of 300,000 attended his funeral that same day. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey attended on behalf of Lyndon B. Johnson, who was holding a meeting on the Vietnam War at Camp David. (There were fears that Johnson might be hit with protests and abuses over the war if he attended.) At his widow’s request, King eulogized himself: his last sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, a recording of his famous ‘Drum Major’ sermon, given on February 4, 1968, was played at the funeral. In that sermon he makes a request that at his funeral no mention of his awards and honors be made, but that it be said that he tried to “feed the hungry”, “clothe the naked”, “be right on the [Vietnam] war question”, and “love and serve humanity”. Per King’s request, his good friend Mahalia Jackson sang his favorite hymn, “Take My hand, Precious Lord” at his funeral.

God determines who walks into your life….it’s up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go.

Father, God bless all my friends here on the LifeTrain in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day! And may their life be full of your peace, prosperity and power as they seek to have a closer relationship with you. In Jesus Name…Amen.

By the way…This week…

Oh the places you will go:  CLICK

Note to self, I must say, she is good at getting one to open up…

CHUCKIE: What issues can cause one to struggle in the area of intimacy with the opposite sex?
Dr.Dee: Gosh Chuckie, there are so many issues that can cause problems with intimacy in general, as well as intimacy with the opposite sex, in particular. I think you did something on that issue a few months ago, and several people, including yourself, came up with some very good reasons why people struggle in this area. If you pop that in a search engine, you will find another hundred or so reasons. But the big ones seem to be related to inability to trust, mental health issues including active addictions, failure to cultivate intimacy (which can be an issue of priority), childhood issues, cultural influences (including gender roles and stereotypes) and negative past experiences.

CHUCKIE: Is it more prevalent in one sex?
Dr.Dee: I suspect its more recognizable in men than in women. Women generally are trained from babyhood, to talk, to share their emotions, to get close. Men, in general, are taught that the macho thing to do is swat someone on the butt, suck it up, and keep your business to yourself. And if they do share, its the bare minimum, whereas women want to go into all the gory details of whatever. The other issue is that men generally are more likely to feel vulnerable, which is what intimacy requires, by the way, and men just don’t care for that feeling of vulnerability.

CHUCKIE: What types of childhood issues could cause such barriers?
Dr.Dee: Well, how a person attached or failed to attach to a parent or caregiver can set one up for intimacy problems. If you grow up in a household where you could not trust the world (ie your caregiver) to meet your needs, it becomes very difficult to trust that people “out there” will meet your needs. Since the ability to trust is one of the necessary elements to intimacy, people who never learn to trust never learn to become intimate emotionally. Also, if a person grows up in an abusive household, or being abused by people they are supposed to be able to count on, intimacy becomes very risky. Its simply too dangerous to share too much of themselves, because often that information was used against the person to perpetuate the abuse. Low self-esteem can also pose a barrier to intimacy, and this is usually something that develops during childhood. If we never learn to love ourselves, its difficult to believe someone else will.

CHUCKIE: Have you found that divorce can lend greatly to this issue?
Dr Dee: That really depends on the person. Certainly, a divorce can cause problems with intimacy, but generally its safe to say that the problems that caused teh divorce are more likely responsible than the actual divorce itself. Some people are more resilient than others. They are able to understand within themselves that whatever happened in that marriage was something unique to that marriage, and it doesnt necessarily mean that the next partner will be the same. Others simply cannot bring themselves to separate the past from the present and future, and their damaged ability to trust will give them trouble with intimacy for years to come.

CHUCKIE: Should one seek help?
Dr Dee: Certainly one should seek help if they realize that they do in fact have trouble establishing intimate relationships. Problem is, many people who do have trouble, tend to believe its the other person! In fact, in many cases, people who have problems with intimacy, tend to be drawn to people who are emotionally unavailable. In other words, they tend to be drawn to people with whom they will NOT have to actually become intimate, while at the same time claiming to be seeking intimacy from that person. If the other person were to actually become emotionally available, then the seeker would probably turn around and find a reason why they cant be in that relationship. Its just becoming too close for comfort!

CHUCKIE: Doc, I came up with a Chuckism as I am so apt to do. I call it emotional impotency. For example, can a person be hurt by a spouse, lover, or church to the point of becoming emotionally impotent? One may want to love and be loved, or be active in the church, but due to catastrophic experiences, have trouble connecting?
Dr Dee: Absolutely. That really gets us into how people sometimes respond to traumatic events. If someone we trust hurts us deeply, damaging our ability to trust, sometimes, people are traumatized by that event. One of the behaviors associated with post trauma response is emotional numbing. We just don’t feel anymore. Another behavior associated with post trauma response is avoidance of anything that reminds us of the traumatic event…so we avoid relationships. We avoid connecting with others. We pretend to get involved, but we hold ourselves back emotionally. We become, as you say, emotionally impotent. Now another thing that can happen after deep hurt, is, you guessed it, depression and grief. If you remember, one of the symptoms of depression is lack of interest in things you used to enjoy…such as sex and close relationships…and also social withdrawal. You simply don’t want to be around folks. Or if you have no choice, or you are keeping up the front, you simply don’t get too close. You keep it all on the surface.

CHUCKIE: Well, we need to wrap this one up. Is there anything you want to add?
Dr Dee: Yes, emotional intimacy rests on emotional health. That means taking time to discover and address your own emotional needs, even if it means getting in to a therapist or pastor. Emotional intimacy also requires a good bit of courage and a positive attitude. It takes courage to allow yourself to become vulnerable to another human being, especially since we have all been hurt by someone at some time somewhere. And we do tend to draw the energy we send out. If we expect betrayal, we tend to draw people who give us what we are looking for. If we expect emotional distance, we tend to draw people who are emotionally unavailable.

CHUCKIE: Well Doc, Session three is in the can. Thanks for stopping by the Train. Is there anything you’d like to close with. Oh, let me remind the Passenger’s that your website is . A place where professional help can be found at a great price…FREE! Now, again…is there anything else you’d like to leave us with today?
Dr.Dee: Well, yes there is as a matter of fact. Given that my organization is founded in Christianity I’d like to leave our passengers with a few scriptures from the Bible:

…and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it…Gen.2:2-3
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy…But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord…Ex. 20:11
…the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Luke 6:5, Mark 2:28
And he (Paul) reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. Acts 18:4

With all that you have, with all that you are, “FALL IN LOVE WITH THEM AGAIN!”.

Having said that, kick off the song that I picked to set the mood for this post and read on.  Leave a comment or two if you have some thoughts or an opinion.

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As I reflect on my own experiences in this arena (this thing called love and relationships) I hope that I can begin to knit the following into the depth of my consciousness and effectively share it with my mate…

Note: I hope this helps you in the maze, so Let those who have ears hear.

Whenever we enter a relationship, we don’t often think or see beyond the physical being.  We are attracted to the body, face or personality.  We may like what the person does or how they do it and want to be a part of that.  We may even experience a pull from within that we can’t actually explain.  But how often do we stop to consider the true depth of the person we are attracted to?  There is a being before us who has a past, present, and future.  There are flesh and bones, hurts and scars, feelings thoughts and ideals.  When we enter the world of another being we must be willing to be a part of it all.  When someone entrusts their heart to you they are giving you a piece of their soul.  You cannot treat a soul casually.  You must protect, nurture and handle it with care. Our interactions with one another; go far beyond the face, the body, and the hair. One other thing we must consider when we enter someone’s heart, that there is a heart and soul inside of us of which they will play a part.

So, in a nutshell all I’m saying is respect the heart, mind and soul…