America's Pastime (or more aptly named "boring you with baseball")

My first Opening Day at Nats Park was amazing.

 

I come by my love of baseball naturally.  My gram would take score while listening to St. Louis games on the radio in her kitchen.  How great is that?  My dad dresses in full-on Cardinal gear while watching games on television.  Mike's love is real, folks.  Also Dad's game time sound effects are entertaining.  He screams like Marv from Home Alone after Kevin McAllister shows him what's up.

Since I was a girl my family played "pick a player" when we go to the stadium.  Rules:  Every McKown selects one player.  If your player hits a home run, everyone owes you $1.  Likewise you pay $1 when someone else's player hits a home run.  (We haven't adjusted for inflation.)

My first "pick a player" player was Jack Clark and he played for the Cardinals from 1985 to 1987.  My allowance was $1 a week so it was a risky endeavor for a kindergartener.  Mike and Pat = unafraid of accepting dollar bills from children since the early 80s.  I love that. 

My family will be here later in April for a game.  Dad's "pick a player" will undoubtedly be someone NOT on the Nats.  I will look at him with disdain but he will not care.

I lately added "visit every baseball park" to my bucket list.  This summer I will visit my eleventh  team park (the Milwaukee Brewers) at my family reunion.  I like visiting ballparks as much as I like visiting national parks...so basically...I am very cool.  (Jokes!)  I have memories of each one:

• St. Louis Cardinals
• Learned to love the game at Busch Stadium 
• Ozzie Smith backflips
• Classy fans
• Chicago Cubs
• Ivy on the outfield walls!
• Oakland A's
• The stadium is gargantuan 
• I've never been that cold at a game in my life
• Boston Red Sox
• The Green Monster!
• These people are for real about the game
• New York Mets
• I saw the Nats play and WIN at CitiField! 
• Was told to "sit down" by Mets fan when I throttled out of my seat in merriment and glee.  IT WAS AMAZING.  I felt like a true fan.  (Okay: so it was awkward and I was a bit distraught, but completely worth it in retrospect.)
• First time I had sushi at a ball game
• New York Yankees
• These people are also for real about the game
• Excellent snacks
• Saw Ichiro play his first game for the Yankees
• Cincinnati Reds
• First time I sat on level one
• Atlanta Braves
• The Braves are the nemesis of my teams (Cardinals, Nats) but I liked Turner Field
• Baltimore Orioles
• First time I rode an escalator at a game
• Washington Nationals
• I don't have pleasant memories of RFK, although that's where I started to love the Nats.  They were down and out then and needed fans so I signed up.  At one game it felt like 90% of the fans were for the other team.  Their boos overpowered our cheering.  So depressing--but then things got better!
• We've entered the promised land! (biblical metaphor--can't help it)
• Nats Park combines my love of politics, history and baseball.  Can't beat it.
• Nats Park is so DC.
• Our mascots are presidents of the US.  HISTORY!  Our newest addition is President Taft who we call 'Bill' which feels too personal (how about William?) but I'll get used to it
• I always hear the John Adams soundtrack blaring, which tickles me to no end
• We sing "God Bless America" in addition to "Take me out to the Ball Game"
• We salute soldiers who are recuperating at Walter Reed.  They sit in a special section and we give them a standing ovation every game
• There is more...but I'll leave that for another post.

Please please please do yourself a favor and enjoy America's pastime this summer!

Go Nats!  Our first of many curly Ws.

Dear SBC: I appreciate you too.

This section from the Daily Progress was pinned to my office door when I returned from clergy group this morning: 

What an encouragement.  Thank you.  Your many kindnesses to me are a gift.  I am grateful. 

I appreciate and love you too.

Happy Birthday Mom

When I was a girl I wanted to sign my name as elegantly as my mom. There's something special about her cursive P.  Mom's John Hancock was Pat D. McKown.  I asked what the "D" stood for and she straight up told me "Dinosaur." This tall tail tale was served with a fabricated side story.  I guess I knew she was teasing, but I loved her imagination too much to doubt it.  This makes me smile:  I think I like adventures because of her.

Pat McKown is a force.  She worked her way through college and earned a Master's Degree from Kent State University.  Pre-retirement Mom was an audiologist and health department administrator.  I liked going to her office because she had a huge sound booth (say "hot dog") and interesting toys.  Mom had a Barbie in a wheelchair which was thoughtful since she had little ones with wheels of their own.

Mom can make curtains or quilts behind her back, but she's also a sports enthusiast.  She loves the St. Louis Cardinals and has her own bowling bag and shoes.  Pat McKown can fix things too.  I missed out on that gene.  

Mom grew up Catholic and is Baptist now, but she still likes to watch Mass on Christmas Eve and see the pope bless God's littlest ones. One of my favorite road trips with Mom was to the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky (Thomas Merton lived there).  Even though we both got motion sick on the special train ride it was a fun day.

Mom has a great sense of humor too.  Two of my favorite examples:  1. She once put Ashley Gill's mom, Christy in a headlock 2. When looking at houses in Arlington she said:  "Sorry we don't have three million dollars.  We spent all our money on Propels...that stuff ain't cheap."

Mom is a wonderful listener and she has a tender heart for the plight of others.  She is conscientious and wants to do the right thing.  Mom is extravagant in her love and gives grace to all.  I am a blessed daughter.  

Happy Birthday Mom!

One of my favorite pictures of my mom

Forgiveness and Flipping Canoes

I'm working on a list of "Things out of my comfort zone I WILL accomplish in 2013."  Here's a start:

1. Post a list of "Things out of my comfort zone I WILL accomplish in 2013" on my blog
2. Ride a tandem bike (SCARY)
3. Canoe and/or float (SCARY)
4. Refinish my dining room table (not so much scary as seemingly impossible)
5. Plant a vegetable and/or herb garden (no green thumbs and presence of snakes)

I've been thinking about #3 because folks are itching for spring so they can canoe on the mighty James River.  Tubing and canoeing are THE thing to do in Scottsville.  Though I would much rather read a book on the bank and live vicariously through free spirits, I WILL canoe and/or float at least once this summer.

Long, long ago...when big hair was semi-popular...I went canoeing.  I was competing in a relay race and the final leg was trip across the lake.  You might not know this about me, but I do enjoy the winning.  It was neck and neck so I went all out: To gain extra speed I leaned to the side and paddled the waters with my arms.  Sweet move KM.  You see where this ship is sailing (pun!) right?  I flipped the canoe...in the dead of winter...to win a relay race.  Not only did we lose; I soaked Daniel Ingram and myself to the bone.  In the words of onlookers I looked "like a drowned rat."  Canoeing is scary. 

It's easy breezy doing things that are second-nature, but retrying things at which we've failed?  Not so much.  If I have failed at something BIG TIME it's hard for me to try again.  Canoe-flipping is funny, but most of my failures aren't actually comical.  Failing at forgiveness and mercy are not quite as fun.

Retrying something at which we have failed is difficult.  There is fear of hardship.  There is fear of displeasing others.  There is fear of seeming like we don't have it all together. Fear, fear, fear. 

Sometimes we focus on shooing fear away, when really what we need to do is be the boss of it.  In my second Mark Twain reference of the week:  "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."  So grab fear by the horns and try forgiveness again.  Step into the canoe with a crazy smile on your face. 

I'm hoping by saying this list out loud I can get out of my boring ol' comfort zone and be one with rapids and vegetables and biking.    

What about you?  What scary things will YOU accomplish in 2013?

When the Saints

Several folks are absent from social media today to call attention to 27 million women, men and children caught in modern day slavery.  The End it Movement helps us understand the where of slavery:  "In brothels.  In factories.  In quarries.  Working as slaves.  In 161 countries.  Including our own."  Because modern day slavery feels far away the weight of it can be difficult to grasp.  It is not actually so far away though.  It is here.  It is there.  It's everywhere.  

One of my favorite Christian recording artists is Sara Groves.  Her lyrics express great hope in Christ while also shining a light on injustice.  This balance is needed.  Sometimes Christians speak of injustice without remembering the hope of Christ.  Sometimes Christians speak of the hope of Christ but forget the plight of others.  Sara Groves' songs are raw and real, but in the end the hope of Christ prevails.  Her lyrics and music are needed. 

The first Sara Groves song I heard was "When the Saints." She sings of Paul and Silas, Jesus, Mother Teresa, Jim and Elisabeth Elliot and young girls huddled on brothel floors.  I knew of prostitution, but I naively imagined brothels as a thing of the past--something only in Les Miserables and other novels.  This is not the case.  When I saw Sara in concert a few years ago she gave testimony of young women rescued from brothels by the International Justice Mission.  All I could do was weep.

We began singing "When the Saints" at Memorial Baptist.  It is amazing the bugs God puts in our ears through the songs we sing.  Yikes.  It is easier not knowing about such horrors; yet hiding from injustice doesn't make it disappear.

Since this language was part of worship I spoke to our teenagers about it.  It was difficult talking with them about such atrocities.  You wonder if you're exposing them to too much too soon.  Such things are a matter of prayer and discernment. 

After our discussions we attended a conference where IJM set up a mock brothel based on the brothels they had seen with their own eyes.  There were menus to make ordering and buying people easier.  The only word I can think to describe the experience is harrowing. 

27 million people are caught in modern day slavery.  Join me in praying for these beloved children of God.
    

 



Olan Mills to the Rescue!

Olan Mills went kerplunk (I think) but "LifeTouch to the Rescue!" doesn't have the same panache. 

If you're a cradle roll member you've sat for at least 472 Olan Mills sessions in your lifetime.  During my last photo shoot I was asked to rest my hands under my chin and sort of relax on a mirror.  Since I'm not a senior in high school I said "No thanks" but the photographer wouldn't relent.  So I rolled back to 1999 and let my hair down (figuratively speaking).  YOLO... right kids? (first and last time I will type YOLO) 

I laughed the entire time.  The photographer didn't love that.  Anyway, I wish you could have seen them trying to sell me an 8 x 10 of that situation. 


A pre-Sam pastel-inspired photo of the McKown family circa 1985/6.

I love looking at old church directories.  Not only is it a stroll down memory lane--it's a chance to smile at the great cloud of witnesses who molded and shaped me.  When I'm in Kentucky I look at directories from the 80s and 90s.  I see GA leaders, Sunday School teachers, friends and characters (!).  I close the book feeling grateful. 

Sometimes though it is hard to make a new church directory because it's an acknowledgement of change.  In the old directory, the Rains family beamed.  In the new directory, Mrs. Rains is widowed.  Pastors have changed, people have moved to new cities, tragedies have occurred.  Life has happened.  A new church directory is an acknowledgement of change.

The happy side of a new church directory is also acknowledgement of change!  Babies are born, new families and individuals move to town and there are marriages to celebrate. Pastors have changed, people have changed, celebrations have occurred. Life has happened.  A new church directory is an acknowledgement of change.

At Scottsville Baptist we're gearing up for a new photo directory.  Perhaps it sounds small to focus on something as simple as a directory, but I think it can be significant.  Those who have effectively joined "First Baptist Bedside" can see photo directories as a time of recommitment--because at the end of the day you have to decide whether or not you'll be included in the pages.  You've got to suit up/dress up/man up/woman up and consider if being a church of one is really working for you.  And you have to decide whether or not you'll be part of forming the next generation. 

For those of us who are part of the church every Sunday a directory is a gentle reminder that our photos might comprise a great cloud for someone else 20, 30, 40, 50 years down the road.  When the next generation flips through the pages, what kind of church will we have left them?  Don't you want to be part of what God is doing now--and by extension--in the future?  I hope so.

It's just a photo directory?  I don't think so.

Say cheese!  Be part of the church directory and most importantly:  Be part of the church.

A Passport to your National Parks

Last weekend I told my college pals central Virginia is the loveliest place I've lived.  This is practically anathema when you come from the gorgeous state of Kentucky, but I can't get over these mountains.  And when the mountains and the sunset join forces it's over for me.  The oranges were brilliant and the purples...oh the purples.  It was as if God dipped a brush in Lent and painted the sky.  

Since it's Presidents' Day I decided to do something historical.  On Saturday friends suggested we meet for lunch and Fredericksburg was chosen as the destination. I was thrilled because in addition to seeing friends I could visit a Civil War Battlefield!  I love history AND I get a stamp in my National Parks Passport!  As a lady who enjoys crossing things off lists, imagine what excitement a stamp delivers.  

After speaking with helpful park rangers, I hiked through the hallowed grounds.  It sounds cliche but any time I have the privilege of being amongst such history I'm in awe.  I am a tactile learner so touching the trees and walking alongside the trenches makes the story alive again. So many thoughts come to mind: War and peace, death and life, freedom and cost.  There is much to ponder.  I learned about Stonewall Jackson and stood where he was fatally wounded.  I thought about Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee and US Grant.

On the way home I trudged through Tale of Two Cities (I'm trying pals of Charles Dickens) and then talked with my niece on FaceTime.  I am grateful for a day of beauty, friendship, family and history.  I'm grateful for a day full of life.  Thanks Presidents' Day for being awesome.