Monday, February 29, 2016
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Friday, February 26, 2016
48 Hours in Denver
with my most seasonally creative friend,
Karla!
"Magic in the Moonlight"
"45 Years"
"Martian"
Marcus
Donald
Bernie
Loooong walks & loooong talks!
Altering books...
and always finding food!
~All good~
Monday, February 22, 2016
Dying from Living
Near the end of Willa Cather's novel,
"Death Comes for the Archbishop,"
"Death Comes for the Archbishop,"
one of the missionaries has grown old and frail.
He catches a chill, which will take his life.
But the old missionary has a broader perspective
than this most recent illness.
In Cather's words:
"The old man smiled. 'I shall not die of a cold . . .
"The old man smiled. 'I shall not die of a cold . . .
I shall die of having lived.'"
Sunday, February 21, 2016
The Big Short
Here’s what happened, without the jargon or the bubble bath. As you see at the beginning of the movie, Lewis Ranieri, now one of the wealthiest people in the world, came up with the idea of essentially crowd-funding mortgages. He took lots and lots of mortgages, bundled them into bonds, and let big institutional investors, like pension funds, buy them.
It was a great investment for them because pension funds need a safe and secure source of income to pay retirees and these were safe and secure — much more than stocks — because people almost never defaulted on their mortgages and because so many mortgages were bundled up together that even if some did default it would have almost no impact.
These bundles of mortgages were so popular that the banks ran out of safe and secure mortgages to put into bonds. And so, they started pushing mortgage brokers to issue more mortgages, and that meant giving mortgages to people who would not otherwise have qualified. (Some people will tell you that the government was at fault for pushing home ownership on people who could not afford it. They are wrong. Most of the pressure was coming from people who wanted to buy mortgages, not people who wanted to buy houses.)
So, the formerly safe and secure bonds started filling up with less and less safe and secure mortgages. And the people responsible for differentiating the risk of the bonds, including the rating agencies, decided to just keep rating and selling the new, less secure securities as though they were exactly the same as the earlier ones. All of the “formulas” (sometimes called “algorithms” or “models”) used to justify this were bunk.
Imagine it this way: there’s a vineyard that makes superior wine that everyone wants to buy and there are strong legal and economic incentives to buy it. But you only have so many grapes, so you start watering it down, still selling it at the same price, and getting the people who rate wine to continue to give it the same rating. Then you run out of water so you start blending it with turpentine, and all of your projections show that it is just as good and will still sell just as well so you price it that way and assume there is no risk.
Here’s the important part: everyone at every part of this conveyer belt of increasingly risky securities all being treated as though they were not risky was being paid based on the number of transactions, not the quality of the transactions, a sort of very big, very expensive game of tag, where there was never any “it” until finally “it” was everyone.
Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/moviemom/2015/12/the-big-short.html#ixzz40pSB3SdG
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/moviemom/2015/12/the-big-short.html#xoFEDYXxSxMff9hB.99
It was a great investment for them because pension funds need a safe and secure source of income to pay retirees and these were safe and secure — much more than stocks — because people almost never defaulted on their mortgages and because so many mortgages were bundled up together that even if some did default it would have almost no impact.
These bundles of mortgages were so popular that the banks ran out of safe and secure mortgages to put into bonds. And so, they started pushing mortgage brokers to issue more mortgages, and that meant giving mortgages to people who would not otherwise have qualified. (Some people will tell you that the government was at fault for pushing home ownership on people who could not afford it. They are wrong. Most of the pressure was coming from people who wanted to buy mortgages, not people who wanted to buy houses.)
So, the formerly safe and secure bonds started filling up with less and less safe and secure mortgages. And the people responsible for differentiating the risk of the bonds, including the rating agencies, decided to just keep rating and selling the new, less secure securities as though they were exactly the same as the earlier ones. All of the “formulas” (sometimes called “algorithms” or “models”) used to justify this were bunk.
Imagine it this way: there’s a vineyard that makes superior wine that everyone wants to buy and there are strong legal and economic incentives to buy it. But you only have so many grapes, so you start watering it down, still selling it at the same price, and getting the people who rate wine to continue to give it the same rating. Then you run out of water so you start blending it with turpentine, and all of your projections show that it is just as good and will still sell just as well so you price it that way and assume there is no risk.
Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/moviemom/2015/12/the-big-short.html#ixzz40pSB3SdG
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/moviemom/2015/12/the-big-short.html#xoFEDYXxSxMff9hB.99
Thursday, February 18, 2016
43 Hours in LV
View from our "High Rollers" room at Harrah's...
Delightful show!!
Pre-Magic Show...
Hilariously Amazing!!
POOF!
Post-Magic Show
Wow! He's good!!
We just were...
Making friends...
along the way.
E.O.E. - Nice!
Roman sky at Caesar's Palace...aaaaah!
Chinese New Year
Year of the Monkey...see 'em?
Our "Spanked" Ice Cream
YUMMY!
Oh, and then we saw the GRAND CANYON!!
Monday, February 15, 2016
The Need to Know
I am beginning to think that it is not an attachment to
"being right"
that I am giving up for Lent.
Age, experience, loss and reality have taught me
oh so well
how rarely if ever I am really "right",
whatever "right" is.
In fact, it is becoming more of a relief to be reminded of that.
No, my attachment
(could that be "sin" as Fr. Rohr suggests?)
is more related to having knowledge than necessarily being right.
It is an attachment to
"knowing"
(i.e. figuring out, understanding, answering why, making sense
...all of which somehow seems to make me feel
more secure and in control--
Knowledge Is Power, "they" say)
that I allow to get between me and
LIFE
just as it is
(i.e. contentment/MYSTERY).
Hmmm...I'm going to let that thought just float on out there...
no need to know for sure.
Stay tuned.
Well, that didn't take long!!
Look what appeared when I started reading Jim Powell's book,
THE CORNER ROOM:
"Regardless of how long I live, I will only have limited understanding of many of my experiences. The children at the hospital are validations that understanding life is not always possible. They modeled the importance of living through challenging events with integrity--living fully in the present and focusing on relationships. If any understanding is possible, it may come through the hard efforts of reflection. Otherwise, I learn to live with partial knowledge and ambiguity."
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Retirement Living
The Land of Retirement is a foreign land in so many ways for me.
So I've decided to treat it like a foreign land,
and I am the adventurous traveler.
Now when I travel, I prefer not to have everything nailed down.
I much prefer to just let things unfold and follow my nose.
I am truly blessed to have several travel buddies who enjoy this
same no-set-itinerary-mindset and rhythm.
So, here's what showed up as I traveled Retirement Living
the past couple of days.
And all I had to do was show up!
The sweetest time with my little family last night, watching HOME.
This TWEET Valentine from Coco...
to go with the flowers I bought for myself last week...
Beautiful words of HOPE at 2nd B this morning...
and then THIS surprise from my screen saver waiting for me
when I got home from church!
Valentine's Day Boy Blur
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Suzy
Suzy in the 80's-90's
Suzy now...
When I saw that Suzy Bogguss was going to be at the CACTUS
on February 12th,
I knew I wanted to be there.
Rob was in love with her back in the day.
And her sweet voice rang out from many a compilation he created
throughout the 80's and 90's.
My EZ-friend, Rita was my date for the evening,
and Suzy definitely did not disappoint.
It was not a packed house,
which tells you something about how long it's been since she's toured.
(Lots of gray hair in the audience!)
But she and her band treated us to the best night ever.
She was easy and real throughout.
Her voice amazing!
She's still got it.
Friday, February 12, 2016
Prayer
Daily Lesson for February 12, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from John 17 verse 9:
"I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me . . ."
There is a saying about the dinner table which is proverbially about a lot more than just dinner: "I have more than I can say grace over."
We are called to pray at all times, but we cannot pray over everything. We are to bear each others' burdens, but we can't bear everyone's burdens all the time. To try leaves us overly worried and emotionally exhausted. Compassion fatigue is a real thing; it's the human being's natural defense against spiritual and emotional overload.
We don't have to pray for all the world, nor take on all its problems. Nor should we! We are to pray for and tend to only what has been given us -- in other words, what we can hold in our hands, at any one time.
Anything more than what we can say grace over really is more than we ought to have before us anyways.
"I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me . . ."
There is a saying about the dinner table which is proverbially about a lot more than just dinner: "I have more than I can say grace over."
We are called to pray at all times, but we cannot pray over everything. We are to bear each others' burdens, but we can't bear everyone's burdens all the time. To try leaves us overly worried and emotionally exhausted. Compassion fatigue is a real thing; it's the human being's natural defense against spiritual and emotional overload.
We don't have to pray for all the world, nor take on all its problems. Nor should we! We are to pray for and tend to only what has been given us -- in other words, what we can hold in our hands, at any one time.
Anything more than what we can say grace over really is more than we ought to have before us anyways.
by Ryon Price, 2nd Thoughts
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Ash Wednesday
I experienced my first ashes at St. Mark's Episcopal Church
in the late 1980's.
It was also my introduction to the Lenten Season.
I grew up hearing about folks "giving up" something for Lent.
Usually it was chocolate.
(For me it would have been popcorn.)
So naturally, I got the impression that this was all about giving up something
you craved so you could learn to live without it,
at least for six weeks.
I'm thinking that it probably just made the person crave it all the more
and have a major chocolate binge when Easter finally arrived.
All those chocolate eggs and bunnies, for goodness sake!
But, I should not presume...I should not judge.
It was, and is, what it is for each individual to identify an attachment
and practice just saying no, if only temporarily.
As I learned more about the season and practice of Lent,
it became a lot more complicated than chocolate.
It became a matter of choosing to give up a thought process, a belief,
a reaction, an action--anything that might be getting in the way
of my ability to love other people.
Well, that's getting way too personal, isn't it?
I mean it's fun to talk about what you've given up when it's
a food you crave, addictive TV shows, or a favorite pastime.
It actually makes for pretty good chit-chat as you talk
about your common go-to's and the ways you've found
to get around the new restriction.
What gets between you and me is usually not as easily confessed.
In fact, I don't even like to have to look at it
because it has served me so well.
This year I am giving up my attachment to
being right.
Ouch!
When I'm honest with myself, I realize how that attachment
does get in the way of me fully experiencing my world.
In fact, it's a great "stopper".
So, here I go.
I'm not sure how this will look.
I am sure that before the Easter sun rises
(and it always does)
I will wish
(at least 3 times)
that I had chosen popcorn!
Still singing...
2nd Thoughts
Daily Lesson for February 11, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Habakkuk chapter 3 verses 17 and 18:
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Now here is one of the most challenging and inspiring words in all of Scripture. I have attempted to re-write it for today:
Though things didn't turn out like we hoped,
And the venture failed,
Everything went south,
And we just couldn't make anything grow,
The flock wandered away and didn't come back,
And the herd was lost amidst the storm,
Yet, I can still be joyful in the LORD;
I can still sing a hymn to God on Sunday.
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Now here is one of the most challenging and inspiring words in all of Scripture. I have attempted to re-write it for today:
Though things didn't turn out like we hoped,
And the venture failed,
Everything went south,
And we just couldn't make anything grow,
The flock wandered away and didn't come back,
And the herd was lost amidst the storm,
Yet, I can still be joyful in the LORD;
I can still sing a hymn to God on Sunday.
Ryon Price
That pretty much sums it up!
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Shan's Boys!
I take a lot of photos...but Shan takes the best ones.
Such precision!
She should be a doctor. ; )
I am so blessed to have her in my life...
and "her boys"!
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Monday, February 8, 2016
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