Humility

Christian humility is not thinking less of yourself;

it is thinking of yourself less,

as C.S. Lewis so memorably said.

It is to be no longer always noticing yourself

and how you are doing and how you are being treated.

It is "blessed self-forgetfulness."

Tim Keller, pastor

Redeemer Presbyterian Church

Manhattan

Mama's OCPF

There have been a few times when we've received money that we didn't expect -- $30 in the pocket of a pair of pants we'd purchased at a thrift store, a refund from an overpayment, a birthday check. We've had considerably more change in our wallets since the library dropped its fee for overdue books. One quarter in college I went in to pay my tuition, only to find that someone else already had! I never did find out who. From time to time I check the Washington State Department of Revenue website to see if anyone I know has any unclaimed funds. Today I found my brother, but, alas, not myself.

As a mother of five little kids, my mom didn't have a lot of discretionary funds. But she did have a savings plan. She called it her OCPF (Old Coat Pocket Fund). Whenever she'd end up with a little bit of money -- maybe a few dollars left over after paying for two full carts of groceries, or an honorarium from speaking at a women's luncheon, or a little babysitting money -- she'd take it to her bedroom and stuff it in the pocket of an old coat hanging in her closet. Then she'd forget about it. As far as I know, she didn't keep track of how much was in that pocket and would, for months at a time, even forget she had such a system.

Then one day an extraordinary need would arise. Maybe two or three kids all needed shoes at the same time, or there was an opportunity for one of us to go on a school trip. We'd bring the need to our parents and suddenly Mom's face would light up. She'd disappear and when she'd return she'd have a few dollars in her hand, usually just the amount that was needed. Her OCPF paid for lots of short family trips, like our Why-Not days (that's for another blog) or a night in a motel at Mt Rainier. Her Old Coat Pocket Fund got us through emergencies and bought us a lot of family fun.

I've checked the pockets of my old coats. What a shame -- all they have is holes.

Tonight, In Concert!

Tommy has his first official show tonight. He makes a lot of music and has played it at Open Mic nights at the local coffee shop and at a friend's party, but this is his first chance to play before paying guests. He and three or four other guys who make electronic music are playing tonight at Zippy's in Everett. Tommy will play the groove box.

A groove box is "a self-contained instrument for the production of live, loop-based electronic music, with a high degree of user control facilitating improvisation," according to Wikipedia. Although the music is recorded onto the groove box before the show, he turns dials and flips switches while it is playing to enhance its sound. Some of the music sounds like what you might hear in a video game.

It's been fun to see Tommy's interest in music take off. He was in 9th grade before he picked up any instrument and, with just a couple of semesters of guitar and no other training, he's become a proficient musician. We're really proud of him.

So if you're in Everett tonight and want to stop by at 9:00 you'll hear a fun show and discover a whole new world of music you've likely never before experienced.

If you can't go, you can listen here.

It is Well With My Soul

The Hymn of the Month for February is Horatio Spafford's hymn, It is Well With My Soul. The video tells the story and shares the song. It is produced by the Berean Baptist Church of Lilburn, Georgia, with Pastor Rob Finch narrating and the choir singing.

Whatever your lot today, I pray that it is well with your soul.

A Nearly-Forgotten Technology

Having just had our wire recording transferred to CD (see yesterday's blog), I became interested in the history and process of wire recording. The video below is a great introduction to this extinct technology.

The concept of recording on wire came into being in 1878. It was a costly endeavor and slow. In 1898 the Telegraphone was developed, with the intent of recording telephone messages when the called party was unavailable -- the first message machine! By the 1930s wire recorders were being used as dictating machines and, during WW II the BBC used them to get messages to the French Underground. United States military also used them during the war, and for several years after the war they were popular items in American homes. With the advent of magnetic tape recording in the early 50s, wire recordings lost their popularity.

Here are a couple of websites that you can explore if you want to know more about wire recording: click here or here.

We used Precision Audio Restoration in Shoreline, WA, for our project.

Voices From the Past

I couldn't pronounce my r's when I was little. I called myself "Gin-juh" and my baby sister "Glowia." I must have been about four and my brother Tommy five when he decided I needed a little coaching. I'm told the conversation went something like this:

"Ginger, say car."

"Kaa."

"No, say car."

"Kaa."

"Ginger, say ca-rrrr."

"Ka-uhhh."

"No, honey, say ca-urh."

At this point I started jumping up and down shouting, "He called me honey! He called me honey!"

When I was digging through the boxes of childhood treasures in our garage in December, I came across a small canister. Thinking it strange that someone had saved an old can of shoe polish, I pulled it out and discovered a small yellowed note taped to the top which read, "Us at home, Nov 23, 1954." It was a wire recording! We found a man in Seattle to transfer the recording to CD and just last night were able to give my parents their belated Christmas present.

On the recording, Dad played the part of Art Linkletter and told us we were on his "Houseparty" radio program. He asked us questions about ourselves -- names (Tommy and Gin-juh), ages (five and fo-uh), what our parents did (Daddy was a nol'um layer [linoleum layer] and Mama didn't work but she liked to read), who was the boss at our house (of course the answer was our Daddy!). Tommy said George Washington was the smartest man in the world, and his wife was the smartest woman. I said the prettiest woman in the world was Mrs O'Brien! No one at the table had any idea who Mrs O'Brien was, but she must have been gorgeous. Already I had two boyfriends -- Chuck and Leroy. Tommy thought it would be fun to be a zraff (giraffe) so that he could watch the fireballs, and for no reason I could come up with, I wanted to be an ow-uu (owl). In an attempt to get five-month-old Gloria to talk, we made her cry instead.

We each sang a song, exuberant me with words I can't quite make out, and my brother singing sweetly and clearly, "Whisper a prayer in the morning, whisper a prayer at noon, whisper a prayer in the evening, so keep your heart in tune."

Tommy and I did a lively rendition of "I Love to Go to Sunday School," then Dad and I sang "Whisper a Prayer" with Tommy, this time Tommy singing the harmony to Dad's and my melody. Tommy was undisturbed by my attempt to find the right note or even by the melody that Dad was singing as he harmonized high above us. I'd forgotten how naturally music came to him.

Our family didn't own a recorder or camera during our early days, so this find is especially precious to us. Tom and I were glad to get it back from being transferred while my brother Ted, who was passing through on his way back to Juneau, and Peach (that is, Glowia) were both available to hear it too. Tim, check the mail. Your copy will be there in a couple of days.

Now where did we put that cassette of our boys when they were preschoolers?

Reality Check

This past weekend was Tom's 40th college reunion. He talked to a friend who shared a recent work experience with him. The friend works for a company that requires ID badge photos to be updated quite often. After being handed his latest ID photo, he sat in silence studying it. Concerned, the photographer said, "Is everything OK? Is there something wrong with the picture?" More silence. Finally he said, "You performed a miracle! Somehow you got my grandfather's picture on this badge!"