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Thirty signed up for our pot-luck, plus the three of us (the elder teen didn't travel cross-country to join us for the 4-day weekend -- go figure). Some canceled; I think we had about 25. Friends loaned folding chairs and long tables, and we rented flatware and more folding chairs from an outfit downtown.
Who came? Immigrants from Japan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Korea, China, and the UK at least. Some Americans came, too. "Red and yellow, black and white...."
People brought fabulous food, and good times were had by all. The lovely Carol had asked me to say a few words about thanksgiving (the practice and the American holiday), since we weren't sure everyone knew the story. So I mentioned the foolishness of some early colonists, who ate all their seed grain, and God's provision in spite of their silliness -- the idea being that even when we do dumb things, God is willing and able to help us out.
Then I talked about the idea of giving thanks as a spiritual practice: if you're feeling depressed, it's hard to stay that way after writing down a dozen items I'm thankful for. At least it's hard for me. It's actually not that hard to write a dozen items -- do you have two arms and two legs? Do you know how to read?
I related a conversation I had with a friend at church last Sunday. By making it a habit to give thanks, I said, we can take a step in the direction of more love, joy, and peace. My friend also mentioned his friend's 94-year-old aunt. Her diabetes had reached an advanced stage, and both her legs had been amputated. But when her nephew walked through the door, she turned toward him, her face like the sun. "Johnny! How nice to see you!" He asked how she was doing -- "I'm doing great!"
Now do you suppose that she was grouchy most of her life, then decided at age 90 to become joyful instead? I don't think so! I don't know a lot about this woman, but I think it's a safe bet that thankfulness was a long-standing habit.
One of the attendees added that those who know Jesus have this additional reason to be thankful: that God showed his love toward us in the person of Jesus Christ. He mentioned the passage in 1 Thessalonians 5 that talks about giving thanks in all circumstances -- not necessarily for everything that happens, but whatever happens, we can give thanks to God.
So here is my list for tonight: - I can read. (I'll let you decide whether you think I can write.)
- I have access to the internet
- great food, in especially great abundance the past few days
- a corner market that stocks King's kim chee (or "kimchi")
- appliances that work
- the knowledge that I'm already forgiven, and the promise that one day I'll be made perfect
- ten functioning fingers (or as we'd say in junior-high, eight fingers and two thumbs)
- a fascinating, beautiful, sexy wife
- enough turkey gravy for once (1½ quarts)
- a keyboard setup that more or less works for the lovely Carol
- leftovers
- blue sky today
- orange clouds at sunset
- the younger teen's whistling
- Ender in Exile (Card)
- Return of the King (the novel and the film)
This has been an unusual week; we watched movies for four hours, Friday and Saturday nights (about two hours each), and another hour or so on Wednesday. So if you feel so inclined, take a guess about which film we were watching when I stood up and left... - Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert;
- V for Vendetta, with Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving; or
- Woody Allen's Match Point
Let's see, #1 was corny, #2 was full of blood and gore, #3 had Scarlett Johansson, who in her younger days looked like Janet, who we know from church.
Well, it was #3, but not because I disapprove of Scarlett Johansson (I thought she was terrific in Lost in Translation). Rather, I didn't want to watch the tennis pro character, Chris, manipulate the people around him, particularly his girlfriend (and ticket to the executive suite) Chloe. After reading wikipedia's plot summary, I was especially glad I didn't watch it 'til the end.
V for Vendetta was scary in a completely different way. No-warrant wiretaps by the Bush administration, and the military's (historical) deliberate release of viral agents provided some of the fodder I suppose for this dystopian thriller.
OK, this is absolutely not the view of my employer, my employer is not contemplating layoffs, but let's be realistic, nobody knows what the future holds, right?
So if things get so bad that a company is considering layoffs, here is an alternative I heard several years ago from an old boss. You've heard of the graduated income tax? This is the graduated income cut. The idea is that some people in the company make a ton of money (as one CEO said, "They pay me more than I know what to do with") and others make a lot less. The CEO-class of annual income could tolerate quite a large pay cut with a little inconvenience, whereas for the latter, even a 5% cut could be quite painful.
So, instead of doing a 10% pay cut across the board (as was sometimes done at HP), what if we said - At $250,000 or more annual income, you can tolerate a 20% pay cut without any real "pain."
- At $50,000 or less, we probably don't want to cut your pay at all.
- For ranges in between, we'll cut your pay by an amount that varies linearly with your annual income in excess of $50,000
Let me give some examples: - $50,000 and below: 0% pay cut
- $51,000: 0.1% pay cut
- $52,000: 0.2% pay cut
...and so on... - $60,000: 1% pay cut
- $70,000: 2% pay cut
- $80,000: 3% pay cut
...and so on... - $100,000: 5% pay cut
... - $150,000: 10% pay cut
- $200,000: 15% pay cut
- $240,000: 19% pay cut
- $249,000: 19.9% pay cut
- $250,000 and up: 20% pay cut
Call me a socialist, but I think the 5% lost by the $100,000 guy will hurt him or her more than the 20% lost by the $250,000 guy.
Now if you're in an industry or a part of the country where $50,000 is a ton of money, well, you can slide the figures around to where they make sense. But this is just a Dumb Idea™ anyway with no traction I've ever heard of -- except at one, ah, exceptional company.
The algebra for the above is like this. Let
A = current annual income
N = proposed new annual income under this graduated pay cut scheme.
Then: - N=A if A≤$50,000
- N=0.8A if A≥$250,000
- N=A(1 - (A-50000)/1000000) otherwise.
There's probably a generalized formula if one wants to have a linear increase in the pay-cut from 0 at annual income A0 to Pmax at annual income A1, but it's now time for me to drill holes in the walls so we can hang aprons up on them.
After the ordeal we endured for our kitchen countertops, I had brief (5-10 minute) phone conversations with some attorneys, who advised me to file a complaint against Eco Design Resources (old website). It would be useless, they told me, to file a lawsuit for this amount of money.
I finally got around to requesting a copy of the canceled check, then assembling a package (the quote from Eco Design, a letter acknowledging receipt, credit card receipts, etc., and sending the whole kit and caboodle off to the DA's office -- consumer and real estate fraud unit.
Yesterday I got a call from a Mr. Finney, who had some interesting information for me.
First, Eco Design Resources is, according to a fictitious business name notice, owned by the same Michael Schaeffer who owns the Green Building Exchange, which you can read about in this September article and this announcement. Mr. Schaeffer apparently has an office there, at 1 Chestnut Avenue South San Francisco, 650-588-1113.
Mr. Finney also said that he talked to Ernestine Jensen at Scan-Top, who apparently are owed some $36,000.
He seemed quite concerned because this sure looks sleazy -- Schaeffer apparently has not filed for bankruptcy, contrary to the signs that my wife found at the old building in Redwood City. It might be a police matter, but we don't yet have enough information to know whether that's the case or not.
The Green Building Exchange is re-opening today in South San Francisco. I plan to head on up there soon, with copies of the quote from EDR, the canceled check, and the complaint filed with the DA's office. I will show these to Mr. Schaeffer and ask for my money back.
I'll also have several more copies to hand to any reporters who happen to be there, in case he doesn't come through.
So if you hear I've been shot, or my body was found in some random alley or in the bottom of the bay, it won't be an accident or some random violent act. But hey, my life insurance (not with AIG) is paid up, and I know where I'm going, so what's the worst that could happen? (H'm, I suddenly remember that film A River Runs Through It). Update: what happened
Well, I asked a couple of people if Michael was around; they seemed to think he was wandering around somewhere, but I never did find him. I talked with one young fellow who was working there ("I'm out $5,000 myself," he said), essentially volunteering, because he believed in the idea of green construction practices, building materials, etc.
Here's what I think: I think he's working for a very persuasive fellow. He's volunteering right now essentially -- reading between the lines, it looks like he just hasn't been paid. The hope, he says, is that business will pick up and Schaeffer will be able to pay people what they're owed. I don't know how much business he'll have to do to pay his bills, but it looks like right now he's just not paying people.
I told this young innocent (who said that Michael "did what he had to do to keep the business afloat") that you can't take one person's money and use it for something else.
I did wander around a bit, looking at some displays and chatting with one or two of the vendors. Whole Foods had donated some food -- I enjoyed a tasty apple.
I could have tried harder to find Michael, but confrontations like this are not my idea of a good time.
So our church is working with the "Samaritan's Purse" people to provide gifts for disadvantaged children. The idea is that you stuff a shoebox, or similar-sized container, with goodies -- they provide good/bad lists (chocolate is on the "bad" list, probably because of tropical temperatures in transit), add some cash for shipping, and they take it from there. I saw no spare shoe-boxen lying around, so with encouragement from the younger teen, opted for the container.
Last night I went to Target (pronounced tahr-JAY by some of us pseudo-sophisticates) and roamed around before asking (hey, I'm a guy) about shoebox-sized containers. The helpful staff led me right to them -- less than $2 for a Made-in-USA plastic box of just the right size.
Then I found stuff to go into it: toothbrush and toothpaste, a hairbrush and comb set, a box of 24 real wood pencils, a sharpener, and 3-pack of Pink Pearl® erasers. A box of eight Crayola® crayons (which claim to be "preferred by teachers", maybe because of the low price). A notebook. A pack of Post-It™s. Multi-colored paper clips of two kinds (the binder-clip kind and the kind French people call "trombones"). An Etch-A-Sketch™ (that brought back some memories for me). As I placed each item into the box (I wanted to make sure they'd all fit), I imagined the recipient discovering it. Oh, I could use this for... (or My friends and I could...). The whole thing put me in a good mood.
And for my last purchase: a T-shirt. By the way I wandered around (hey, I'm a guy) any semi-observant person could have told I never buy girls’ clothing there. Eventually, though, I found the T-shirts, excuse me, the tops. There were some plain ones, and some with fancy designs on the front -- pictures of way too much jewelry, but cute. Yeah, I spent the extra $2 for the fancier one.
The whole thing cost me less than $50 -- less than $40 actually, since the younger teen had donated $10. I think I've enough cash in my wallet for shipping the box. I can't recall the last time I had so much fun in a public place. (Actually I can, but I won't tell you about it here. It was in Hokkaido, and what happens in Hokkaido stays in Hokkaido.)
Epilogue
But when I got home, I completely forgot about a 7:30pm phone appointment with someone in Bangalore -- until 90 minutes after the fact. Imagine my embarrassment! So I'm wearing my Alzheimer's Association T-shirt today.
He graciously allowed me to reschedule it for 6:30 this morning, though, and we had a great conversation.
The conflicts around California's Prop 8 have got me worried about the erosion of a civil right in this state. I'm not talking about the right to get married, but the right to express an opinion.
Lawn signs have been stolen -- in the newspaper I've read only that "Yes on 8" signs have been stolen (apparently thousands of them), but I've heard that in some neighborhoods, "No on 8" signs have also disappeared.
Threats have been made, and people have gotten into fistfights -- we're talking about expressing an opinion here!
What ever happened to "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"?
Unlike many other countries, laws are supposed to mean something in this country. Here we're supposed to play by a set of rules, and I'm afraid we haven't had a lot of shining examples of that lately. Bush's no-warrant domestic wiretaps, Mayor Newsom's unauthorized "issue same-sex marriage licenses," and so on.
So when I see a sign I dislike, well, why not steal it when my neighbor isn't home? Or put an opposing sign right in front of it?
If someone's marching in a demonstration, and I don't like what they're saying, why not punch them out?
If some business donated money to a cause I don't like, why not vandalize their building?
Two reasons why not: - Because it's wrong and unfair; or if you don't believe in right and wrong...
- Because this is America, for goodness's sake, not Zimbabwe.
Violence and lawlessness is not just "the final refuge of the incompetent" but it will bring about the downfall of civil society. If we don't play by the rules, we will become Zimbabwe.
Now, is it OK to call for a boycott on some business because I don't like their policies? Sure, that's your right.
Is it OK to march peacefully outside? Of course it is!
Is it OK to barge into a church and disrupt their meeting? Only if it's also OK to barge into an abortion clinic and disrupt legal activities therein. In other words, no!
I would like leaders on both sides to repudiate violence and lawlessness. Is that a vain hope?
When it comes to freedom of speech in California -- Oooh, do I worry....
Update November 19
Well, the San Jose Mercury News makes my point in this editorial: Had supporters of gay marriage shown as much fervor for their cause before the Nov. 4 election as they have since, they probably would have defeated Proposition 8. But they will surely fail in their campaign to repeal the ban if threats and coercion continue to be among their tactics.
We may disagree on the merits of prop. 8 (or lack thereof), but they have it exactly right that vandalism and coercion are counterproductive and should be out of bounds.
Herhold goes even further in this piece: You can understand why the advocates of the right to gay marriage are furious.
...
But the grass-roots plan for a boycott of the people and businesses who contributed to Proposition 8, from Leatherby's Ice Cream in Sacramento to the Cupertino dentist who gave $1,000, is the wrong tactic, a blunt club when a scalpel is called for. It will backfire.
Same deal here -- we disagree on prop. 8, but agree that civil discourse is important in a civil society.
"How can I pray for you today?" the lovely Carol asked me this morning. That I could be a good listener, I said. I was having lunch with "Jane," a mother with small children who works not far from my office.
I headed downstairs at the appointed hour and found Jane in the lobby. After some talk about the economy and such, we got onto spiritual topics. Jane bemoaned her lack of focus.
What would it look like to be more focused? I wondered.
"Just finding 10 or 15 minutes to open the Bible and do a meditation or something -- doesn't seem... I mean, it's not happening." She wasn't wailing or anything, but clearly carried a burden of needless guilt.
I was glad Carol had prayed for me, because somehow this came to mind
Suppose Jesus were right here right now. What do you suppose he'd want to say to you? "Jane, you should have done a meditation this morning"?
So I gave it a shot. This got a smile, because Jane knew (but needed a reminder) that our Lord Jesus is not that kind of person. Paul tells us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1), and John tells us God is love, and there is no fear in love (1 John 4).
Jane went on to say that there are times when she didn't actually feel like being with her kids, and she felt bad about that -- also about not doing crafts with them. Fortunately, the lovely Carol had recently attended a mothers' group at our church, where the speaker debunked the myth of the "perfect mother." So this concept was fresh in my mind, and I mentioned to Jane that we have this myth, especially in the church.
I guess it was my day for doing the priestly thing, because Jane told me she wished she had the energy to keep her house looking picture-perfect as well -- the "Martha Stewart" image. I mentioned that given a choice between the teachings of Martha Stewart and the teachings of the Lord Jesus, let's go with the Lord Jesus -- who said this:
Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about many things. But only a few things are important, really only one. Mary has chosen the good part, and it shall not be taken from her.
Luke 10:41-42
Do you know what? I learned something today. How many times have I sung "All hail the power of Jesus' Name"? Today I saw the power of the name of Jesus in action. Not like "In the name of Jesus, be healed!" And not like "What would Jesus do?" (so now you or I have to do the same -- yeah right, feed five thousand, raise someone from the dead.)
But "What is Jesus saying to you here and now?" He doesn't reproach or accuse. Each time I brought his name into the discussion, it seemed to me that a weight came off Jane's shoulders. Because the Lord Jesus is true to his word:
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:29-30
All hail the power of Jesus' name!
