My Ocean Springs photography project continues to introduce me to interesting folks. No rendering of Ocean Springs would be complete without including our local Elks Lodge’s efforts to celebrate Mardi Gras, so tonight, since I knew their Ball was being held at the Civic Center, I took a chance and showed up early to see if I could snap a couple of pictures.

When I introduced myself, I met Jocelyn, a very nice lady who recognized me from a speaking engagement I once fulfilled, and we had a short but wonderful conversation. She told me a bit about what would happen at the Ball tonight: the royalty would march in just after 7pm (King Donnie is pictured above, with his wife, Marge, on their way to the Ball), followed by a skit put on by members of the Krewe, followed by a band and general merriment for the rest of the evening.

Jocelyn attends the Lutheran church in Ocean Springs, and we talked about Pastor Gordy, who moved away a few years back (and who is one of the most interesting and engaging people I’ve ever met). At one point, Jocelyn turned serious and asked me if I was “alright with” Mardi Gras. She’s been accosted on occasion it seems due to the religious heritage of the celebration, to which she doesn’t subscribe, so she wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to blast her for her choice to enjoy its cultural aspects.

I’ve been around here long enough to know that people have lots of different approaches to the local holiday, ranging from those who condemn it in every shape and form to those who use it to engage in all sorts of debauchery. In between are a whole lot of folks, so it has been my general practice (extended to all areas of life) not to judge someone without even knowing them.

That approach, all by itself, made it possible for me to meet someone new tonight.

Today was a very nice “day off” (two Fridays in a row now!).

I had the chance to go with my friend, John Dobbs, to visit our mutual friend, Les Ferguson, at his new house in Gulfport. We’re all three preachers, but today John & I got to play the part of the pastoral visitors while Les, with his broken ankle, got to be the visit-ee (a little putting the Christmas decorations back in the attic accident). Since we are all friends, John & I didn’t have to be nice, so we were well-prepared to make fun of him. But instead, we just had a really nice visit, talking about a little bit of everything under the sun.

Afterwards, John & I ate lunch at Cracker Barrell, which is ALWAYS a good thing in my estimation. I had the chicken ‘n dumplings, with fried okra & fried apples. Are you hungry yet?

I’ll admit that when I moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, venturing into the world of life as a preacher, I suspected someone like me wouldn’t hit it off with “preachers” in general. I don’t know if John and Les will take this as a compliment or not, but I instantly felt a connection with both of these great guys, and I’m proud to count them as my friends.

(I received this terrific forwarded email from my friend, Brenda – whom we affectionately called Mrs. G – and I thought it was very well said!)

I must send my thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet towel with every envelope that needs sealing. Also, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason. I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time. I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa’s novena has granted my every wish. I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers. I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day. Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes. Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains. I no longer can buy gasoline without taking a man along to watch the car so a serial killer won’t crawl in my back seat when I’m pumping gas. I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr. Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put “Under God” on their cans. I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer. And thanks for letting me know I can’t boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face…disfiguring me for life. I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me. I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise. I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don’t support our American troops or the Salvation Army. I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore , and Uzbekistan . I no longer have any sneakers — but that will change once I receive my free replacement pair from Nike. I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe. Thanks to you, I can’t use anyone’s toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt. Thank you too for all the endless advice Andy Rooney has given us. I can live a better life now because he’s told us how to fix everything. And thanks to your great advice, I can’t ever pick up $5.00 I dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

Oh, and don’t forget this one either! I can no longer drive my car because I can’t buy gas from certain gas companies! If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump.

I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s beautician…

Have a wonderful day….

With Ocean Springs Mayor Connie Moran today…

It must have been two or three days after Hurricane Katrina, when life was still off-the-chart NUTS. No electricity. Tanks driving up and down the street. Choppers constantly overhead. Although we had seen amazing things, the concerted relief efforts all over the country were still being organized. It was a very, very weird time.

I decided to drop by State Farm agent Phil Harvey’s office that day to let him know that, though we were in no relative hurry, the church building had withstood lots of damage and that we would be filing a claim. Mr. Harvey was sitting in his office, sweating, without air conditioning of course, in a Mississippi August with lots of clients stopping in to see him.

On the way over, I felt silly that I had not remembered that my car had satellite radio! With a real interest, I turned it to CNN Radio to hear what the nation was saying about our little bout with history. I was humbled to hear that much of the talk revolved around a “missing persons” hotline CNN had set up where people could call in and try to locate their loved ones displaced by Katrina.

Was I ever surprised when one of the callers said that her daughter was the mayor of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and that she hadn’t heard from her after the storm! She provided a picture for the national audience in case anyone knew anything; she just wanted to hear that the mayor was alright.

I laughed, not at the situation, but at the realization that the little town I was driving my car in was so isolated from the rest of the world that CNN couldn’t locate our mayor. Which was a weird feeling I must say.

So I drove to City Hall…

I walked in the front door with my baseball cap on backwards and several days of a developing beard, and walked directly into Mayor Connie Moran’s office where she was talking on one of the few working telephones in town. Mayor Moran had just been elected in June (before Katrina’s August), so I had not had the pleasure of meeting her yet. I realized that my appearance probably didn’t make the best first impression, but she seemed unfazed. When she hung up the telephone, I introduced myself and told her I just wanted to drop by and tell her that she was just on CNN.

This piqued her interest!

After I explained to her what I had heard, she smiled and simply said, “I hope she used a good picture.”

I’ve had a chance to do several things today: prepare my class for Sunday morning, teach an introductory ladies’ class on Hebrews, prepare for a meeting tonight, spend some time visiting a family from our congregation, and read chapter four from The Divine Conspiracy.

But early this morning, before I normally know life exists, my Ocean Springs photography project afforded me the neat opportunity to go behind-the-scenes at the legendary TatoNut Shop in downtown Ocean Springs.

All you Krispy Kreme fans will just have to face the facts: there is no better donut in the world than a TatoNut. Can I get a witness? I’m not sure what the secret is (and no, my behind-the-scenes opportunity today didn’t let me in on any secrets), but somehow from its potato flour beginning to its glorious glazed finish, the TatoNut is the perfect pastry.

My oldest daughter had the chance to work at The TatoNut Shop this past summer, and she was honored to be asked to work when she was home from college, too. With my 2007 Ocean Springs photography project underway, I asked her before she left to check with the Mohler family and see if they cared if I came by to take a picture or two. They told her that today would be best (the day after a holiday is usually slow they said), between 5am and 6am. So I arrived at 5:15am and had the neat chance to go back where the donuts are prepared and snap a couple of pictures. (Go to my Ocean Springs photo-blog and see the picture of the owners together.)

I’m off to a bit of a slow start, but my 2007 photo project is something I’m glad I’m doing. I have an appointment lined up tomorrow – I’m sure I’ll be keeping you updated along the way!

alsturgeon

I grew up in a city so white we had to put sunblock on the population sign, yet this lack of racial diversity had curious effects.

On the one hand, I was very familiar with lots of sayings that utilized the “n-word” in a variety of creative ways. That horribly racist word preceded “toes” to describe a tasty, chocolate snack. It preceded “rig” to describe a primitive way to make something work. It was whom you would “catch by the toe” in the deciding song, Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Mo. And these, I’m ashamed to say, are the nice, complimentary ways in which I regularly heard the term.

But on the other hand, the complete dominance of the Caucasian race in my hometown meant that the subject of race relations didn’t come up very much at all. So, in an odd twist of fate, in spite of the vocabulary with which I was quite familiar, I really wasn’t raised with feelings one way or the other toward race relations.

Which worked out good in the end, especially considering how things could have gone.

I was not alive when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lived his life, so I speak only in retrospect. I am well aware of his moral failings exposed after his death, but I am not shy in proclaiming that he has become a personal hero of mine. His life amazes me.

I have toured the Civil Rights Museum built at the Lorraine Motel where he was assassinated (pictured above) in Memphis, and I was moved by the experience. I have traveled to Montgomery to see the church he pastored when the movement began and to examine the Civil Rights Memorial built close by, and I was moved by that experience as well. I own and have read every word in A Call to Conscience, a book full of the landmark speeches delivered by Dr. King.

I am, undoubtedly, a fan.

I am amazed by his eloquence and the moral & intellectual depth of his speeches, but I am most impressed by his commitment to the way of Jesus at a time in history when there were other options to pursue. I am amazed that, as a young pastor, he was willing and able to be the voice of nonviolence in a world turned so violently against his race. I am amazed by the positive results from his leadership, as well as his willingness to put his life on the line – and in so doing, give it up – for the cause he believed in so deeply.

I remember, here in the South, lots of scoffing at naming a federal holiday after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but I’m here to tell you that I can’t think of a more appropriate reason to have a holiday.

May you have a wonderful Martin Luther King Day, and may remembering him continue to change the world we live in for the better.

The Superdome a Few Months After Katrina (my 1st trip to N’awlins after…)

Well, the Saints are through with the Superdome this year, but they aren’t finished playing football. After our friends, Tracy & Shanna, treated us to a wonderful lunch today, I enjoyed watching the exciting overtime game between the Bears and the Seahawks with them. In the end, it was Da Bears! that clinched a spot in next week’s NFC Championship Game against the Saints. The game last night was exciting, too! I have to admit that I got a little worried at halftime when the Saints didn’t pull off the Hail Mary pass to close the second quarter. I mean when the “Saints” in a predominantly Catholic area can’t connect on a Hail Mary, well who can? But they overcame that particular unanswered prayer to continue a miraculous season anyway, and next week they will face the top team in the NFC – the Chicago Bears – to see if they can do the unthinkable and make it to Miami to compete in Super Bowl #41. All things are possible, right?

(P.S. Did anyone see the hit on Reggie Bush last night? When he came back into the game, I became convinced that he really is Superman. But it was an old Mississippi boy named Deuce that carried that team to victory!)

I found this picture while surfing the Internet, and it communicates a little bit about what tonight’s NFL playoff game means around these parts. I’m a latecomer to being a Saints fan, but for many Gulf South citizens, years of football misery simply add to the drama of the post-Katrina revival of the New Orleans Saints.

I smile imagining a Super Bowl trip for the perpetual losers from a town devastated like no other. What a story that would be!

I’m going to my friend, Herman’s, tonight to watch the game.

GO SAINTS!!!

On Front Beach in Ocean Springs Today

After years of ignorance to the contemporary value of sabbath, I began approaching my Fridays as an intentional break from regular life. Sundays, for most preachers, are anything but a sabbath, so Friday became my day.

And it was good.

Then came Hurricane Katrina, and my personal sabbath day changed. Oddly enough, after several weeks of non-stop action, Sunday emerged as my sabbath after all! Yet as our lives in the Gulf South region have slowly recovered our past routines, Sunday has slowly become another work day for me. And as that happened, I forgot about the contemporay value of sabbath.

And that was bad.

But today, I resumed my attempt at making Friday my sabbath again.

I took my camera along for my day to stop being productive and just taste life. I spent a little time by the Biloxi Lighthouse, then I traipsed around the woods behind my house. I stopped to watch the ducks at the entrance to my subdivision, then I went down to Front Beach and wandered around Ocean Springs Harbor.

And it was good – again.

Just a quickie tonight. It’s been a long day, but a good one. I spent 4 hours in the office this morning, 4 hours with my good friend, Bruno, this afternoon, then 4 hours with my good friends, Dave and Gene, in an elders’ meeting tonight. Somehow 3 X 4 adds up to about 14 hours… Huh?

Anyway, the important missing element in all the good today was my family, but that’s a situation I plan to rectify over the next three days.

Good night everyone.