White Tree

White Tree
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

McMonkey

a bit of silliness...

Got a monkey on my back

his name is Ronald

A fast food monkey

and he just McTumbles me

Grumbles me

Every day he

humbles me

Going to his

happy shiny doors.

I'm a junk food whore.

Keeps me coming back for

"Special" sauce, wilted lettuce

"We're the Master, don't upset us!

We will continue to have it our way."

And, of course, I obey

There is no other way.

Must do as commercials say.

I obey.

Got a monkey on my back.

Got a monkey on my back.

Got a monkey on my back.

Got a monkey

ad nausea...

Dan Cycling the Loveland Trail

Dan Cycling the Loveland Trail
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

Our church youth group took a trip to Cincinnati, OH which is the southernmost point of a Rails to Trails bike/ped path that stretches from Cincy to Dayton.

Beautiful day, beautiful trail.

Redtail Soaring

Redtail Soaring
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

Steeple Rising

Steeple Rising
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

The Branch Hill Methodist Church, just off the Loveland Bike Trail (and across from a dee-licious ice creamery).

My Bike

My Bike
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

Bike Month's A-coming!

May is national Bicycle Month and in honor of that (and just for fun) our church youth group is taking a Bike Trip tonight to the Loveland Trail, famed in story and song.

The Loveland Trail runs alonog the Little Miami River in Ohio, sort of from Cincinnati to Dayton, I believe. It is a Rails-to-Trails route, created along an old railroad track, and is reported to be quite scenic. Hopefully, I'll have some photos to post when I get back tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are some good bicycle quotes - get yours out and ready to enjoy this spring! (Get your bike out, that is, not your bike quotes...)

======

As a social revolutionizer, the bicycle has never had an equal. It has put the human race on wheels, and thus changed completely many of the most ordinary processes and methods of social life. It is the great leveler, for not till all Americans got on bicycles was the great American principle that every man is just as good as any other man fully realized. All are on equal terms, all are happier than ever before.

New York Evening Post, June 2, 1896

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.

Ernest Hemingway

Whoever invented the bicycle deserves the thanks of humanity.

Lord Charles Beresford

The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community.

Ann Strong

Ever bike? Now that's something that makes life worth living! I take exercise every afternoon that way. Oh, to just grip your handlebars and lay down to it, and go ripping and tearing through streets and road, over railroad tracks and bridges, threading crowds, avoiding collisions, at twenty miles or more an hour, and wondering all the time when you're going to smash up. Well now, that's something!

Jack London

Wheel, kindly light, along life's cycle path, Wheel Thou on me! The road is rough, I have discerned Thy Wrath, But wheel me on!

Christian Hymn

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.

JFK

I'm gonna show you a hill that would choke a mule.

President G.W. Bush on his MTB moments before losing his front-wheel traction and flying over his bars down a steep dropoff

Easter at Jeff Street

Easter Collage
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

We have unique traditions at my church - probably none more less-than-standard than our Easter Day Service.

See more photos at the
Jeff Street blog.

City Sunset

City Sunset
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

An Easter Reflection

"Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.

But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them..." -Jesus

Cunning and wisdom without innocence and purity
Can leave us with

Profit-taking without re-investment
Industry without responsibility
Income without sustenance
Exploitation
Pollution
Devastation
Destitution
And a mighty poor world where
Might makes right, but not righteous
And "The Ends justify the Means" is a moral certainty

Where The powerful, cruel and ruthless inherit a broken world
Until such time as they’re overthrown by those
More powerful, cruel and ruthless.
A race to the very bottom.
Hell on earth.

On the other hand, innocence and purity without cunning and wisdom
Can leave us with…

Pretty much the same results,
As the cruel and cunning will make the rules and
Set the standards and
Stomp the innocent in the mud as they do so.

But Jesus told us to be
Wise and cunning as serpents and pure and innocent as doves,
Which can leave us with

Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done
On earth -
On earth!
As it is in heaven

Cherry Blossom

Cherry Blossom
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

A Timely Message from my friend, Michael...

"...If you lessen your anger at the structures of power, you lower your love for the victims of power." William Sloan Coffin

I agree with this so very much. There are those Christian peacemakers who believe that nonviolence entails never getting angry. I think that’s a load of *&^%#@! and always have.

Jesus clearly got angry on several occasions. Paul tells us “in your anger, sin not.” And before anyone quotes Matt 5:21-26 at me, I remind you that Greek verb tense is a continual action so that a better translation would be, “[I]f you hold on to anger with your brother [or sister], you will be liable to judgment.” Nursing anger and resentment can lead to sin. That was God’s message to Cain—not that his anger was already sinful, but that it was an opportunity for sin, crouching like a lion, to have him. Cain failed to listen and murdered his brother, Abel. The sad story of the world continues on from there. The purpose of Matt. 5:21-26 is not to present a legalistic standard to which none can attain, refraining from all anger, but to present us with a working mechanism to keep this from becoming an opportunity for our own crouching lions—we go to the brother or sister and we talk—even interrupting worship to do so...

See Michael Westmoreland-White's full essay at the Jeff Street blog.

Ghost Girl

Ghost Girl
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

Time to support our president!

Stepping out of character, I’d like to pause for a moment of support for our president. Back in 2003, he was in denial about the possibility of someone in his Whitehouse leaking information about Valerie Plame. If it did happen, he’d be outraged, he indicated, and there would be consequences – implying that people would be fired and possibly indicted.

I fully support our president in following through on that pledge. Here, courtesy of CNN, is a timeline of events:

January 28, 2003

With a U.S. invasion of Iraq looming, President Bush tells the nation in his State of the Union speech that, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

July 6

Nearly three months after the fall of Baghdad, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson writes in The New York Times that he investigated the Niger uranium report for the CIA in 2002 and found it "highly doubtful" such a transaction could have occurred.

July 8

Bush approved the release of the information about Joseph Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, 10 days before the White House said the information was declassified.

July 14

Syndicated columnist and CNN "Crossfire" co-host Robert Novak writes that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA operative and suggested sending him to Niger. Novak cites "two senior administration officials" for the report.

July 18

McClellan told reporters "this information was just, as of today, officially declassified."

September 26

At the CIA's request, the Justice Department launches a criminal probe into the leak of Plame's identity. A 1982 law makes knowingly disclosing the identity of a covert agent a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

September 30

Bush says he welcomes the investigation and is outraged that someone would leak information. Bush tells reporters, "I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take appropriate action."

October 28, 2005

Fitzgerald announces that he has indicted Libby on five counts: One of obstruction of justice, and two each of perjury and making false statements. Libby immediately resigns.

April 6, 2006

Documents released this week by prosecutors in a CIA leak case contained an assertion by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's former chief of staff, that Bush approved the release of information from a classified national intelligence estimate in 2003.

Mr. Bush, by all means, hold those guilty accountable. Fire them. Send them to jail. Live up to your word.

Everyone behind me in supporting the president in this matter of national security?

Humanitree

Mosaic Tree
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

Not the poem you might think it is...

One night I had a wondrous dream,
One set of footprints there was seen,
The footprints of my precious Lord,
But mine were not along the shore.

But then some strange prints appeared,
And I asked the Lord, "What have we here?"
Those prints are large and round and neat,
"But Lord, they are too big for feet."

"My child," He said in somber tones,
"For miles I carried you along.
I challenged you to walk in faith,
But you refused and made me wait."

"You disobeyed, you would not grow,
The walk of faith, you would not know,
So I got tired, I got fed up,
And there I dropped you on your butt."

"Because in life, there comes a time,
When one must fight, and one must climb,
When one must rise and take a stand,
Or leave their butt prints in the sand."

-- author unknown

Blue Flower

Blue Flower
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

Help me out, you botanists, out there. What do we have here (beyond, "a blue flower")?

One Down, 500-ish To Go

Rep. Tom DeLay, the former House Republican leader whose tactics earned him the nickname "The Hammer," said Tuesday he will resign from Congress and drop out of his re-election race to protect his congressional seat from a Democratic victory.

"I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative personal campaign," says DeLay." [Oh really! He's quitting because of liberals and not for his own crimes and misdemeanors?!]

======

Well, it's good to hear that he's owning up to his own crimes and shortcomings. Still, he's leaving and that's a fine thing.

I'm figuring with the current number of Representatives currently fixed at 435, add 100 Senators to that and a certain executive branch - I figure if we can just get another 500 or so (I'll allow that there are a handful of good representatives out there - Go Kooch!) to step down, be removed or plain voted out, we'll be sitting pretty.

Let the wave begin!

Happy Sunday!

Walnut Gargoyles
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

The Gargoyles atop Louisville's Walnut Street Baptist stand ready to welcome you to their meeting house.