Gunfighter: A Modern Warrior's Life

Reformation Sunday

Today is Reformation Sunday, and unless you are adherent to the church of Rome (or aren't a Christian of any sort), that should mean something to you…. even if you didn't really know it.  Reformation Day is the day that we Lutherans, and those in some other faith traditions, celebrate the beginning of the movement that changed the face of the earthly church forever.

This is the day that we celebrate the act of a radical German monk, named Martin Luther.  Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk, scholar, and Doctor of The Church who believed that the church had strayed from the path because of certain practices, and for the sake of this post, I won't enumerate them, let's just say that it was more than Luther could stand.  So he made a stand of his own.

Putting the church on public notice about his rebellion, Luther made himself an outlaw and a leader at the same time.  His bold stand changed the world.

Martin Luther contended that the word of God should be preached in the language of the people hearing it.  He preached that the Bible should also be printed in the common language so that the people could read scripture on their own.  He preached that the celibacy of the clergy had nothing to do with being able to proclaim the good news of Christ. Most importantly, Luther believed in the concept of the "Priesthood of all believers", which means that no person needs the intercession of a priest to commune with God.

Luther's bold stand didn't only change the church, it also changed the political map of Europe, because as varying Kingdoms, Dukedoms, Principalities & Free Cities either sided with Luther and his followers, or sided with the Pope, nations went to war.  The Reformation Wars had begun.

Take a look at a map of Europe today, and you will clearly see the effects of those wars.  Northern Europe is nearly* all Protestant (mostly Lutheran), with southern Europe being nearly all Roman Catholic, with the majority of Eastern Europe still largely Orthodox Christian... all or mostly all, the result of the Reformation Wars (and the last battles of the Crusades, but that is another matter entirely).

Pretty heavy stuff for a 16th century monk, eh?

Martin Luther, and what he started when he nailed his 95 theses to the church door, almost 500 years ago, is still one of the most important acts ever taken by one man in order to do what he believed was right.

Did you enjoy your lesson?

Good.

OK, enough lecturing from me for today. Soon, we will be heading out for church (where we will belt out "A Mighty Fortress is Our God"), and then lunch, and then off to the National Cathedral for the big doings up there.

 

See you tomorrow,

 

Aloha

* With the notable exception of Poland which remains staunchly Catholic to this day.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (3)







I know that I told told you that I was going to talk about our departure from Georgia and our drive to Orlando for the next leg of our vacation, but I’m not going to do that today.  Sorry.  The reason that I am not going to do it is that we had another stop to make before got to the land of Mickey Mouse and happy-happy, joy-joy!

 

Once we left St. Simons Island, we were on I-95 south in no time at all, and shortly after that, we crossed out of Georgia, into The Sunshine State! Please note that the sun was shining just as much in Florida as it was in Georgia.  Anyway, we were in Florida, mighty glad we were, because we were about to do something really cool… we were going to St. Augustine!

 

Crickets.

 

Oh, I know what you are thinking.  You are probably thinking: “What’s so cool about St. Augustine?”  Well, I’ll tell you, this:  It ain’t the beach.  Okay, St. Augustine isn’t a bad place, but it isn’t the place that makes people jump up and down either.  So why do I say that it was cool?  Because St. Augustine houses a few treasures that not enough people know about.  The first is the Castillo De San Marco.  The Castillo (pronounced cas-tee-yo) might be a place that you aren’t familiar with, because of the crappy history that is taught to our young people.  Most of the history of exploration and colonization of North America is taught from and Anglo-centric view, which frequently downplays and sometimes outright ignores not only the role of France, but also that of Spain to an even greater degree.

 

The town of St. Augustine was born in September of 1565, when Don Pedro Aviles claimed the place in the name of the Spanish King, Phillip II.  Anyway, after driving out some French settlers on the St. John River, he fortified that town.  It should remembered that the Spanish that Spain established the first permanent settlement in North America more than forty years before the English established Jamestown, and more than 50 years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth.  The town flourished and after a number of raids by English pirates the Spanish crown, in 1702, authorized the building of a stone fort.  The fort protected the town, and despite sieges and attacks, it was never conquered.

 

Okay… history lesson over… for now.  So the Castillo is still there and it is really a great place to see.  Not only does it have a covered walkway (a place where troops could serve artillery, or where infantry could move from place to place without being exposed to enemy fire), it has troop berthing spaces, a church to see to the spiritual needs of the soldiers, and an impressive deck for the placement of the great 32 and 42 pounder cannon that were the Castillo’s main armament.  It should be remembered that this town and it's fort represent the geographical high-water mark of Spanish colonialism in North America

 

Isn't it a beauty?

 

 

 

 

 

OK, so… we didn't spent too much time at the Castillo on this trip, as we had other fish to fry (do you love fried fish? I certainly do… as a matter of fact, I think that I am going to cook panko crusted Tilapia this Friday evening. Mmmm!)  So, we crossed the street from the Castillo and proceeded to George street, where there is a sort of funky, bohemian shopping area. Naturally, we skipped the funky, bohemian stuff because that really isn't our gig, and proceed to a small, unassuming, unremarkable building, which bears a sign for the Saint Photios (pronounced Fo-shus) National Greek Orthodox Shrine.

 

Now, if you aren't an adherent to the Orthodox church you might not think that this means much of anything, but you would be wrong, and oh-so-shallow! The St. Photios shrine is a wonderful, living example of the narrative of the first significant Greek presence in the United States. You see, in 1768, a man named Andrew Turnbull decided that he was going to settle in the area that later became New Smyrna, and that he was going to need labor for his plantations… well who better than Greeks and other Mediterraneans who might not be disinclined to work in the Florida heat. This same gentleman took a heck of a lot longer to get things going than he planned and once he did, he failed miserably. The Greek population of his platations moved in large part to the St. Augustine area, which by this time was in British hands (the British having traded Havana, Cuba to the Spanish Crown for possession of St. Augustine). The Avero house, where the shrine now stands became the focal point for Greek society, culture, and faith in the region.

The shrine is as beautiful inside as it is outside, and is something that you should see, whether you are Orthodox or not. There are splendid icons, vaulted ceilings, a place for prayer, and a new exhibit of the history of the Greeks in Florida. There is also a great gift shop that I am certain that you would enjoy. The shrine is run by Polexeni (Polly) Maouris-Hillier, and if you ever get there, please take a few minutes to chat with her about the place. She is a treasure.

 

 

 

After leaving the shrine, we went back to the car and headed down the fabled A1A through St. Augustine Beach to the even lesser known bit of St. Augustine's history, the U.S. National Park Service Fort Matanzas site. Fort Matanzas, shown below, was built around the same time as the Castillo de San Marco, it's purpose was to defend the Castillo or at least give warning in case the British decided to launch a riverine sneak attack up the Saint Johns river.

 

I know that Matanzas doesn't look like much, but believe me when I tell you that it is the stuff that anyone interested in the American colonial period can't help but love. Consider: St. Augustine is the northernmost Spanish town in the Americas, but it has farms, walls, a church, a monastic community, and a big honkin' fort! Matanzas? Well… not so much. It must have been lonely there, nearly three hundred years ago. Can you imagine that? The sole aim of the soldiers there was to watch out for British marauders… who never actually went that way. It isn't believed that the fort's artillery EVER fired a shot in anger.

As you can see from the photos below, Matanzas is still a rather lonely place, accessible only by water (dig the hat on park ranger Olivia, who is the first mate on the boat).

 

 

 

I love this place. I do… it is an amazing piece of history, and I hope that if you are ever in the St. Augustine area, you go and see these things, you will truly be glad that you did.

OK, have you had enough of a history lesson? I am sure that you have, so I will end the lesson here, as it is not time to get back on the road (and hey, it is only noon-ish… how's that for packing the time just right?!).

Back on the road, we made our way back to I-95, heading for I-4, which takes us from east to west, and to Orlando.

I'll pick-up more of the story then, because now I need to go to make lasagna before I got to choir rehearsal.

How I spent My Summer Vacation (2)

So, after a full night of sleep, we rose at a normal hour and put ourselves together for departure. We were on the road by 9-ish, and headed south. Which is when we hit our first snag: We had the wrong power cord for Soccer Girl's DVD player. Fortunately, we were only three quarters of a mile away from home. Good dad that I try to be, I didn't get mad… I didn't lose my cool. I just turned around, went back home, and got the cord that I thought was right. We headed back out, got on the highway, and were on our way!

   

Mrs. GF and Soccer Girl had planned to play the license plate game to see how many states we could count on our trip, and by the time we left our subdivision, we already had Virginia Tennessee, and New York. By the time we passed the Marine Corps base at Quantico (4 miles from our house) we had counted New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and one or two others.

   

 We were cruising along and after a short time, SG decided she was ready to watch a movie, so she fired up her DVD player… or tried to. Apparently the cord that I went back to the house for, wasn't the right one either. Ah, well… she was just going to have to do without, and enjoy her multiple books and her MP3 player instead.

   

In practically no time, we made it through Richmond and Petersburg and crossed into North Carolina. We stopped for a quick lunch, and then nipped into Wal-Mart (this was in Roanoke Rapids, in case geography is your thing) to get a power cord. Instead of buying a power cord, we ended up getting a new DVD player, as buying a power cord would have cost as much money. Now, at this point you are probably thinking that this was a really indulgent thing to do, and you might be right, but from our perspective it was a relatively small price to pay to keep a certain eleven year old from getting bored on the long drive ahead of us.

   

OK, so… food and power issues resolved, we got back on the road on a beautiful (hot) sunny August day and did what we always do when we drive together. We talked. We talked about all sorts of stuff… my oddball brother, Mrs. GF's oddball mother, and all sorts of things.

   

The rest of the ride was full of the usual… looking at license plates, getting gas, looking at some the same billboards that we always see, taking note of the sometimes strange people that you always see on the road, and noticing that the corn in North Carolina was burning up in our hot, dry, summer.

By 6 PM, we were tired, but had almost arrived at our destination, and were getting off of I-95 at Brunswick, Georgia. We stopped at Zaxby's for a quick dinner...

   

   

...before driving over the F.J. Torras causeway to Saint Simons Island. We were staying at the same condominium that we used last year, and as soon as we grabbed the keys at the office, we quickly settled into our unit and went into immediate relaxation mode.

   

I hope you don't mind but I am going to throw a plug here, because I belive in supporting businesses that treat me well and give me good value for my money. If you ever decide to visit St. Simons Island, do yourself a favor and make your accommodations through Hodnett Cooper. They have lots of nice properties on the island and are responsive to their customers. We stayed at the Salt Air villas and loved the place. The unit (a one bedroom) was large, airy, and well-appointed. This was our second time staying there and we will be there again if I have anything to say about it (and I do).

   

   

So, what do you do on a coastal island in the summer, when the sun is shining and you are on vacation? I'll tell you what you do, you go to the beach! So that is what we did. I'll tell you something… St. Simons Island isn't what I would call a national beach vacation destination, and I think that this is a realllly good thing; because the beaches are wide, flat and at the time we usually take our vacations, nearly empty.

   

(Chillin', despite the heat)

   

We spent a few hours in the water and being warmed by the sun before going back to the condo to shower and change, before we went about the rest our day.

   

While we were on St. Simons, we stuck, pretty much to our routing of going to the beach in the morning, and then out and about doing the togetherness thing. One of the places that we never miss while we are there is the G.J. Ford book shop

   

   

This is a real, privately owned, book shop. It has an eclectic collection of titles, and despite its size, I challenge you to be unable to find something of interest. Fortunately, I married a woman who is always looking for the main prize in a bookstore, and on out trip to this shop, I left with a pearl of great price, a cookbook called: Glorious Grits.

   

   

One of our evenings we had the opportunity to spend an evening with some friends of ours who used to live in our area and moved to St. Simons several years ago. We met them for dinner, and then went to their house for desert. It was great to see them, and we try to spend a few hours with them every time we are on the island.

   

I won't tell you the sad tale of the breaking of my Blackberry… suffice it to say that I got it fixed.

   

All too soon, our visit to St. Simons Island was over. We had spent four days/nights, enjoying each other's company, eating fun food, hanging out on the beach, and reading much-anticipated vacation books. We had fun, and while we were sad to be leaving St. Simons, we were excited about the fact that the next morning (after a last walk on the beach) we were headed to The Happiest Place on Earth.

How I spent My Summer Vacation (1)

…and we got home in almost thirteen hours, which is not bad when you consider the unexplained mechanical problem with the van, in  Lumberton, North Carolina!

 

Wow, what a blast!  An awesome, restful, fun, exciting, and totally Gunfighter family vacation, and now you know all about it.

 

Oh… I didn’t write that stuff yet, did I?  Well, I guess I had better be about it, then, eh?

 

OK, here is the deal:  Like most of the people that are going to read this, my family life is rather busy.  Between my daughter being in school, and being involved in Girl Scouts, year-round soccer, and church activities, she has a lot going on, which, by extension, means that Mrs. GF and I have a lot going on… well, Mrs. GF has her text book adoption committee, and church website committee, and all sorts of stuff, so she is busy, too.  Me?  I drive and cook.  Anyway, we all spend a lot of time just running around and getting things done.  Even our weekends are busy.  Yeah, yeah, I know… cry me a river, right?  Well, not so much.  My whole point in saying this is to point out that, like you, we are busy, and by the time the end of summer rolls around, we all need a break.

 

Enter the Gunfighter family vacation!

 

If you have known me for a while, you already know that our summer vacations have a certain level of sameness from year to year, in terms of where we go… but you know something? No two vacations are ever alike.

 

This year got started just like any other trip… there was the pre-vacation period that begins in early January, when I make our reservations… and there is the long, eight month period of preparation.  “Wait a minute, dude?  Are you telling me that you spend the next eight months GETTING READY TO GO ON VACATION?”  Well, yeah… duh!? Preparation is part of the fun, so why not draw it out as long as you can?

 

Anyway, we spent the time saving our money, loading our two boxes of “must have” items, particularly things for my “traveling kitchen” (don’t look at me like that… I cook when I travel).  We also spend a fair amount of time talking about where we are going, and what we are planning to do when we get there (we seldom stick to plans, but they are fun to make), and playing vacation related games as in: “I am thinking of a fast food restaurant, a kind that we don’t have in Virginia, but we get to eat there in August” and things like that.  (Oh, the answer to that question is:  Zaxby’s)

 

Before too long, the weather turns warm, we enter spring soccer, and look forward to the end of the school year.  Once school gets out, we are in the immediate pre-vacation zone and the next thing you know, after summer camp and reluctant visits to see the in-laws (well, actually, only Mrs. Gunfighter and Soccer Girl have to go, which means I totally WIN), it is time to pack up and GO!

 

I won’t bore you with packing details, but I will tell you that in my family, travelling to our destination is as much a part of the vacation as the rest of it, so on the evening before we depart, Soccer Girl and I like to make our mode of transportation a bit festive.

 

 
 
 
 

So, we were all ready and it was almost time to go.  The dog was at the kennel, the newspaper had been stopped, the sprinkler on the deck had the timer installed so Mrs. GF's plants wouldn't die, after a final meal and a good night of sleep, it was time to go.

 

 

Tomorrow:  Bring On The Beach!

Gunfighter: On Military Spending

So... here is the thing.  As I was driving home from church today, I saw another Tea Party-Don't-Tread-On-Me-bottom-feeding Republican with the usual run of stickers on her car.  The stickers accused the President of being a socialist; being a muslim; and seeking to weaken the United States by destroying the military.  Oh, and one of the stickers on the car identified her (or whomever the owner of the car is) as a commissioned officer in the armed forces of the United States. 

Can we say dangerous?

It sickens me to think that not only are some of our military people this bloody stupid, but that this is an officer.  A leader.  A commander.  A commissioned officer that thinks that this kind of rhetoric is productive, useful, or patriotic.  Personally, I think that the officer to whom that car belongs should be cashiered immediately.  Oh, and spare me the usual crap about "she has the right to voice his own opinon" because if you know anything about the military, you know that this is not true.

It is time the military  esptablishment in this country gets put back on it's leash and understands that the armed forces aren't special.  The members of the armed forces of the United States  aren't any better than the society they serve, simply by having decided to wear the uniform.  Members and veterans of the armed forces aren't any more or less patriotic than the general run of Americans.  All of these things are true... and they also apply to those who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

One of the things that I am getting tired of hearing about is the "fact" that President Obama is somehow "destroying" the armed forces.  How can this be possible?  I suppose it is because the President has supported legislation that would ensure that working Americans, many of whom make less money, and have fewer entitlements than members of the armed forces, are able to receive some modicum of decent, affordable healthcare.  Have some military people never stopped to think that if it weren't for wearing a uniform and putting on airs, they would be in the same economic group as those in the ranks of the uninsured?

So... the right-wing crackpot machine thinks that the military is being "destroyed".  Maybe they believe that because the President had the courage to actually put the costs of the wars on the books.  You know... actually putting the costs into the budget, instead of pretending the costs were going to be paid out of some magic bag of money... or a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  You did realize that this where the bulk of the "runaway spending" that the GOP complains about comes from, didn't you?  Good, I am glad that I could help clear that up for you.

Could it be that the right-wingers are mostly worried that the President is actually doing something that other Presidents didn't have the courage to try?  Could it be that they are afraid that if if gay men and women have the opportunity to serve openly in the armed forces, that the sttraight men and women would somehow be diminished if their homosexual fellow citizens were able to serve their country, too?  Hmm.

Personally, I don't see whatever it is that they think that they see.  I happen to see a world that holds no military threat that could possibly be poised to strike the United States in such a way that would cripple or destroy us.  There are no two nations that even if they were to combine forces that could actually threaten the United States outside of a nuclear attack, and in this I include Russia and China.

The truth of military spending is that this country could freeze military spendin at it's current levels for the next ten years, and our nearest rival/threat couldn't hope to gain any meaningful advantage over us.  So why the hue and cry?

I dunno... maybe my perspective is poor.  Maybe I just don't get it.  Or, maybe... just maybe, I'm right.  Maybe we could quit wasting time, lives, and money in Iraq and Afghanistan and start rebuilding the parts of our forces that have been broken since 2003.  Maybe we could use that money to replace worn out helicopter engines, and destroyed humvees, and rifles and machineguns that have passed their peacetime shelf-lives ten years early.  Maybe we can replace the destroyed vehicles, worn out tanks and all of the other equipment that our armed forces need.

I am proud of my own service to my country, and I honor my fellow veterans, including my father, father-in-law, brother, friends, neighbors and colleagues who have served their country... especially those who went on to fully-integrated, productive civillian lives as family members and taxpayers who pay for the entitlements of those still serving.  Because we shouldn't forget, my friends, that no group in America, not even the mythological "welfare queens" or even our seniors, is more entitled and receives more monetary support when weighed against their rate of taxation than those serving in the active armed forces.  N0body likes to hear it, but it is true.

When I am King, our aremed forces will be largely conscripted, effectively eliminating the largest part of the entitled military class.

Glee: The Britney Spears Episode

I have always been secure enough to admit to anyone, when the subject of television arises, that I have been a fan of Glee since the early days. I enjoyed the first half of the first season immensely, and when that show went on its Olympics-induced hiatus, I couldn't wait to see the second half, and even purchased the first half of the season on DVD. Yes, I know, it's a little much when you examine my personality, but there you go, I am a man of many parts.

One of the things I enjoyed about the show was the music. The youthful, energetic, well-arranged covers of such perennial favorites like "Don't Stop Believin'", "Somebody to Love", and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" were enough to make sure that an old guy like me could enjoy a show about hormonal teenaged misfits. Making the show even better was the fact that they weren't afraid to venture into music that isn't necessarily the province of white-bread suburbia. Singing songs like "Gold Digger", "Give up the Funk", and "Tell Me Something Good" indicated that the show's producers weren't afraid of doing something different. I enjoyed the music so much, that I can easily confess to having nearly thirty of the shows selection on my IPod (I am listening to "Rehab" as I type this).

By now you should have gotten the idea that I enjoy the music… but I also enjoy the cast. The show is well-written, and not terribly overwrought. The cast is good (almost great), and who doesn't enjoy Jane Lynch's character, Coach Sue Sylvester?

Like millions of other Americans (and people in other countries as well, I am sure), I eagerly waited for the beginning of the new season, and when the first episode arrived I was happy. I enjoyed the season opener, not because it was the best the cast or the producers have ever done, but because of the return of characters and plotlines that I enjoyed. I was also pleased about the introduction of new cast members and the prospects of interesting plots that were projected for the season. Here is where it falls apart.

Glee has become so popular, darn near every A-list (and B & C list) musical performer has been trying to get on the show. Sometimes those guests have been great additions, sometimes not-so-much. Josh Groban made for good laughs, and Neil Patrick Harris was alright, but I have to tell you, "The Madonna Episode" left me cold, as did "The lady Gaga episode". Now in the second week of the second season, I have to say oops, they did it again, with the "Britney Spears Episode". I suppose the fact that I really don't enjoy those particular artists has a lot to do with it, but really, they were lame.

Madonna, I can blow off, because I see her as someone who is a total fame whore who would sell her children into slavery if she thought it would get her name in the papers, and I see Lady Gaga as just a Madonna clone… the only real difference being that Gaga is younger and doesn't have any children yet. Now, the Britney episode… look I know that Spears is (was?) popular, but really, to make her out as a cultural icon is a bit much, isn't it? Maybe the writers were trying to be ironic, but I have to tell you that I thought the music in this episode was awful. Maybe it is my age. Maybe I am just being grumpy. Maybe I'm plain ol' wrong… but I doubt it. The only shining spot in this particular episode was the emergence of Glee Club member Brittany, who had more speaking lines in this episode than she had in the entire first season. I hope that the trend continues.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the show, and I will continue to watch, but here is good ol' Gunfighter keepin' it real, telling the producers that this episode really stunk up the room.