Halfway through Summer

This past week and half felt as if it didn't even happen. Time flew by so quickly. We are nearly midway through the summer. Events that loomed so large - like the Chicago Telegu Festival with its vibrant music and dance - have come and gone.

I am sad about missing the ICVM Conference in Denver last week. The filmmakers, actors, producers, writers, musicians and tech people who attend are always amazing. They come from all corners of the earth and their energy, joy, prayer, worship and fellowship feeds the soul. The speakers this year, as always, were exceptional. Next summer, the conference will take place in St. Louis, MO. I hope that its being closer to Chicago will make my attendance more feasible.

But, this summer still holds promise and adventure. My writers' group is planning a little getaway weekend. My sister from Florida will be visiting. At the family reunion in August, the family will get to meet my cousin's legendary twin baby girls. And, who knows what unplanned exploits and escapades lie in store?

I am looking forward to the second half and I know this will be a summer that leaves a sweet smell of remembrance.

The Chicago Telegu Association Festival

The Harvest Waits for No One

For the last two days, I have picked raspberries in my backyard - lots of them! The plants have been in the ground here for four years, but this is the first really good harvest. For several years, we have been trimming tree branches, which has gradually allowed more sunlight for the raspberry plants. Last year I had to battle Japanese beetles, which nearly destroyed the plants. Early this spring, I dug around the plants to give them more ground to expand to. With the abundant rains, they grew like crazy. Four weeks ago when they bloomed, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were so many blossoms!

In the last week, I had been watching and waiting, and picking a few unripe ones because I couldn’t wait. But now, the berries are ripening. And they will wait for no one. If I don’t pick them, now, they will fall to the ground. And, I’ll have to check and pick every day for the next week until the first harvest is complete. I’m not the only one who has noticed, I have to fight with the squirrels and birds to get there first.

Most garden fruits and vegetables are that way. You have to harvest them at exactly the right time. And, when that time comes, you have to act because delay means loss.

The Bible uses agricultural analogies frequently. Modern-day farmers (I mean real farmers–not the corporation farm owners) and gardeners understand those analogies and teachings in a way that no one else can. If you have never dug in the dirt or sand with your hands, you’ve missed out on the tangible experience that God had in creating man. If you have never fought with weeds, weather, insects, deer, raccoons or birds for your crops, then you may not understand the parable of the sower quite as viscerally.

If you have never watched and waited for your trees’ fruit or your garden produce to ripen, then you have missed out on the full impact of God’s teaching about seedtime and harvest – especially the great end-time soul harvest. The cool thing about my raspberries is that they are called ever-bearing. That means there is an early harvest in June, but there is also an even better late harvest in September when the berries are even bigger and juicier because of the cooler temperatures.

Luke 10:2 Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Spy Stories and Summer Silliness

All right, I confess! I love spy stories. As a kid, I adored Honey West and Harriet the Spy and Mission Impossible. When I wasn’t pretending to be a nun or a princess-knight in King Arthur’s court or a prairie girl, I wore my trench coat and carried my brother’s cap gun. My friends and I would range throughout their farms or the water tower hill in town running from the Germans or the Communists. I even made hiding spots in our house to escape from the secret police, or my brother, when he was looking for his cap gun.

I still love spy stories, only now they are called thrillers – even if I do have to shut my eyes for the most violent parts. My favorite spy story recipe includes: international travel (use foreigners in the U.S. as a substitute), hiding or chasing intrinsic to the plot, snooping on a government or other large corporation, and a daring rescue or escape. And for a nice high-stakes blend, some espionage or theft of top-secret documents that will save the world adds great flavor.

There are very few thrillers due out this summer. But there is a genuine “spy” movie coming out: G Force (about some high tech spy guinea pigs). I look forward to comparing it against my favorite recipe. Who knows? Maybe I’ll have to add a few more ingredients.

G-Force coming July 24.

Book Review: Between Wyomings

Between Wyomings: My God and an iPod on the Open Road should be required reading as a cautionary tale for anyone who may be set upon the pedestal of popular success. Through his leadership in the music industry, Mansfield fundamentally shaped, influenced and reflected the world of the Baby Boomers and beyond. Although born again in the 1980’s, he doesn’t fully recognize or let go of the showbiz world’s illusions until he makes the road trip described in Between Wyomings.

Every generation of successful artists will be faced with the same choices as Mansfield – even Christian artists. Jesus said in three of the four gospels, “…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” He also said in Luke and Matthew, “You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Maybe it is a function of my age, but I enjoyed the non-linear progression of the book. The poetry and lyrics were a natural accompaniment to the story. I loved the disorderliness of Mansfield’s thoughts and crowding memories being set right by reflection and journey and relationship. This book may not be for everyone, but musicians, actors, filmmakers, writers and artists could all benefit from the insights that Ken Mansfield offers from his viewpoint on the "open road."

This book is published by Thomas Nelson and is available from Amazon.com

Halfway Between Wyomings

Half-way through… Isn’t that a strange place to be? I am reading Between Wyomings by Ken Mansfield as part of Thomas Nelson’s book reviewer bloggers program. The only reason I chose it was because there was no fiction on their list of available reads and this looked to be the most interesting. Intrigued by the title, I saw that it was about the music business. I thought even if I didn’t enjoy it, my husband – a musician himself – might like it. Now halfway through it, I am absolutely engrossed.

Ken Mansfield tells the story his life’s journey in the framework of a God-inspired road trip with no specified destination. As he and his wife Connie drive in their van (named Moses) they take off from their home in Northern California and wind their way down to Los Angeles and beyond. In the process, Ken talks with God, revisits sites of his tragedies and triumphs, and recalls history, relationships and experiences in the music industry. And, it is this mix of recollections, King David-like arguments with God, present-time reality and scripture that make for such fascinating reading. This man lived and worked and breathed at the pinnacle of the Hollywood pop scene in the 60’s and 70’s, and then went on to work as producer with legendary country performers Waylon Jennings, Willy Nelson and Jessi Colter. He also suffered from the same high profile maladies as his many of high profile peers: drug addiction, financial ruin and a sojourn in New Age religion. But, because of the prayers and choices of his fourth wife, Connie, he found salvation in Jesus Christ in the 1980’s.

I like that this book meanders and winds its way through time and space with a poet’s taste for words. Although I’m tempted to say the book was really written for us baby-boomers, I am sure that anyone who has embarked on a spiritual journey with Jesus Christ will find rewards in reading Between Wyomings.

On Friday, I should have wrapped up my reading and will complete my review.

The Stoning of Soraya M. – Part Two

“At its heart, this movie is a human drama filled with tension, peril and hope – but it is also a true story that I felt strongly had to be told, a story the whole world needs to know.”– Director Cyrus Nowrasteh

There could be no better time than this Friday for this film’s release. At this moment, the women of Iran are at the forefront of the revolt against Iran’s unjust elections. And The Stoning of Soraya M. illustrates clearly what the people of Iran have been terrorized with and how powerful is the bravery of just one person telling the truth.

According to the film’s producers, the film’s subject “is incendiary: the thousands of women who are hounded, conspired against and murdered in cold blood around the world for so-called and often trumped-up ’crimes of dishonor,’ such as adultery or premarital sex. But the film’s treatment is universal, wrapped in a classic, gripping drama of one woman’s danger-fraught quest to bring the conniving evildoers in her remote village, who think they are acting with impunity, to global disgrace.”

The production notes continue: “From the beginning, Cyrus and Betsy made the decision to focus the tale’s suspense around Zahra, the savvy, outraged village woman who attempts to protect Soraya and ultimately tells her story in the hopes of saving others. Her quest for truth and justice amidst lies, betrayal and fraud became the driving force of the story. Meanwhile, Soraya and her accusers were etched as the two opposite poles of innocence and corruption between which each of the villagers must make a choice.”

To me, this message transcends the situation in Iran and other Islamic countries and should cause all of us to be vigilant about justice in our own backyards. As director Cyrus Nowrasteh said, “At its core this is a story that is very relatable, because it is about a conflict between a man and a woman and you connect to the characters in an emotional way as husband and wife.” Like the Apostle John, we need to examine ourselves and continue to look for the truth. We have huge problems with marital strife and abuse and injustice in our country. 1 John 1:8 (NKJV) “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” If we look at injustice in Iran and judge it without scrutinizing ourselves, we are hypocrites.