M@IL for Mikey – An Odd Sort of Recovery Memoir

December 15, 2008 redhatrob Leave a comment

This is a brand new memoir from Orson Bean – published in September of 2008. Bean is best known as a Broadway and television actor. His career spans six decades. He had a seven-year-run on To Tell the Truth, and was Johnny Carson’s favorite guest host (and guest – he appeared over 200 times). In his own words: “Having pursued sex, drugs, and the demon rum to their traditional excess, he subsequently proceeded to (as the saying goes) find God.”

And love. He has been married to actress Alley Mills since 1993.

He’s also a gifted writer, with a wry, blunt wit.

The premise of M@IL for Mikey: An older, recovered alcoholic agrees to sponsor the son of one of his friends. The book consists of the letters/messages he sends over the course of two years as the young man struggles to stay clean and sober. We get only Mr. Bean’s messages – but can pretty easily discern the kinds of things the younger man is writing and asking about. This is a wonderful literary device, used effectively by C.S. Lewis in Letters to Malcolm and, more comically, in The Screwtape Letters.

Synopsis: Bean reveals the details of his own personal struggle as he offers sage and blunt advice to Mikey. He counsels Mikey on how to handle his new job and his relationships and never fails to offer encouragement and a closing admonition to “keep going to meetings.”

Along the way, we are allowed to read over the shoulder as Bean recounts his personal odyssey. Bean is matter-of-fact and brutally honest as he attempts to repair a strained relationship with his adult daughter, deal with the lingering effects of his own childhood (his mother drank, his dad was cruel and abusive). And the reader is drawn, irresistibly into Bean’s life as he acquires a stray dog, muses about quantum physics and the big bang theory, and befriends a never-married teacher at a local farmer’s market. This leads to a pivotal event, when, for the first time since his baptism as an infant, he is persuaded (with much kicking and screaming) into going to church with her.

In the book’s ‘M@IL messages’ Bean starts out by asserting his clear belief in God – but with a great deal of skepticism about religion in general and genuine puzzlement at the story of Jesus. As he discusses his childhood, his marriages, his children, and his own problems, Bean shows us his inner life and turmoil. He frankly discusses his battle with his own ego:

“Your ego doesn’t want you turning your life over to a higher power. He wants to keep on running things even if it kills you. He’s clever, Mikey, like the snake with the apple. He’ll make you forget to go to a meeting. He’ll convince you the dames will think you’re a wuss if you order a 7-UP.

He’s the damn devil, Mike, your ego. He hates God because when you turn your life over to him, he’s screwed. He loses his job.”

Parts of the book are laugh-out-loud funny. Parts will leave you misty-eyed.

Bean describes his motivation in writing the book this way:

“Not long ago, I was guesting on a TV show. Between takes, I sat in my canvas chair, reading a copy of C.S. Lewis’ great book, Mere Christianity. I can’t tell you how many people, crew and actors alike, came over to ask me about it. There seems to be a hunger out there, even in the television business.”

“I didn’t want a Christian house to publish my little book. What I’ve written is aimed at folks who are interested, but suspicious. They keep sniffing around, but are terrified of becoming Ned Flanders.”

Ned Flanders, for the culturally cloistered, is the too-nice-to-be-true Christian neighbor to Homer, Marge, & Bart on the Simpsons.

Some will find the language and some of the stories rough. Some may even be offended. Bean didn’t write the book for them.

To quote the author, M@IL for MIKEY was written for “the many who rarely set foot in a church but have a feeling deep down that Something created and loves them. MIKEY was written for those millions.

This will make a wonderful gift, and perhaps a way to start a significant conversation with someone you love, and want to share the good news with.

But be warned, it is “an odd sort of recovery memoir. . .”

M@IL for MIKEY
is a hardback, 176 pages and sells for $18.95. You can order it directly from Greenleaf Press by clicking on the book cover or any of the title links in this message.

10% discount offer – use the coupon code MIKEY at check out and 10% will be automatically deducted from your order.
Discount coupon can only be used once per customer and applies only to the title M@IL for MIKEY.

– Rob Shearer, Publisher

Greenleaf Press

PS: Bean describes in some detail his impressions of that first ever visit to church as an adult. He like the contemporary music and the upbeat songs, and then says:

. . . the last one is my favorite: “I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about you, it’s all about you, Jesus. I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it, when it’s all about you, it’s all about you, Jesus.”

PPS: A very fervent hat-tip to the gentle bloggers at Powerline, where a posting by Scott Johnson entitled How Orson Bean found God first brought this excellent book to my attention. I thought so much of the lengthy piece by Orson Bean quoted there that I printed it out and used it as the conclusion to the sermon I preached week before last.

PPPS: I’m an elder at my local church, and about twice a year, I preach the message, when our pastor is out of town. We have a gifted webmaster, and he’s uploaded the sermon I preached on Dec 7 (Our Identify as Slaves of Christ) to www.sermoncloud.com– where you can download it or listen to it online.

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The Emma Center of Nashville and Emma Goldman

December 8, 2008 redhatrob Leave a comment

Kay Brooks has turned over the rock that is the Nashville Peace & Justice Center and found all sorts of interesting things.

One of the member organizations that caught my eye was “The Emma Center” which describes itself as “dedicated to the memory of Emma Goldman, 20th century feminist.”

Let us not mince words. Emma Goldman was not just a feminist, she was an anarchist. And she was not just a feminist-anarchist, she was a terrorist.

Yes, she was the founder of Mother Earth magazine but her life was not dedicated to the search for a better recipe for granola.

In 1892, she and her lover, Alexander Berkman, plotted to assassinate Henry Clay Frick, whose company at one point controlled 80% of the coal mines in Pennsylvania. Berkman attacked Frick in his office and but for poor marksmanship, would have murdered him. He wound up sentenced to 22 years for attempted murder. She was not charged, only because they had been careful to leave no evidence linking her to the crime and Berkman was the only one who could have testified to her involvement. But her complicity is undisputed.

In 1901, when President McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist, authorities quickly discovered that the assasin had ties to Emma Goldman. He had approached her for advice and books. She was arrested, but later released. She then publicly defended McKinley assasin (Czolgosz) in a published article in which she compared Czolgosz to Marcus Junius Brutus, the killer of Julius Caesar, and called McKinley the “president of the money kings and trust magnates.

Charming lady.

A young Justice Department employee, 24-year-old J. Edgar Hoover wrote in 1919 that “Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman are, beyond doubt, two of the most dangerous anarchists in this country and [a] return to the community will result in undue harm.” The government then invoked the 1918 Anarchist Exclusion Act and deported both Goldman and Berkman to Russia, along with over two hundred others.

Nashville Center for Peace and Justice indeed!

By tieing themselves to Emma Goldman, they are throwing in their lot with the founders of political terrorism and assasination.

– Rob Shearer

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Thou shalt not steal

December 8, 2008 redhatrob Leave a comment

The Bible (and thus, Christianity) has a great deal to say about wealth and posessions.

We need to remind ourselves of these things as the US and World economy shudder under repeated shocks and blows. Many are tempted th blame the greed of the rich for the economic crisis. Others point at class structure and inequality. Still others, peeking out from under their tinfoil caps, blame the international bankers, the Bilderburgers, the tri-lateral commission, the neo-cons, and even the venerable elders of Zion!

The Bible, it has often been noted, does not condemn wealth or money. Money is NOT the root of all evil. The “love of money” is the root of all evil.

Wealth is a pitfall. It is the great co-dependant facilitator. Wealth helps to mask loneliness, unhappiness, and even guilt. If you dull your senses often enough, and long enough then the conscience can be reduced to a minor, mostly manageable annoyance.

It is quite easy to mis-use wealth – as a it is any of God’s gifts. The greed and corruption of the wealthy are fearlessly condemned by the prophets God sent to Israel and Judah. Read Amos. Read Hosea.

But make no mistake, no amount of greed, corruption, indifference, or self-indulgence on the part of the wealthy EVER justifies theft.

The wealthy should be more charitable. It does not follow that the rest of us may steal their wealth. And if it is a great moral evil for an individual to steal (a sin against the eighth commandment, to be precise), then it is no more justified for the government to steal in our name or on our behalf.

I am increasingly troubled that the political discourse on economic issues is turning to the expedient of taxing the rich and giving money to the poor.

The rich should give generously to the poor. But neither the poor nor the government are justified in stealing from the rich.

– Rob Shearer

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Stopping Government’s Year-end Spending Spree

December 8, 2008 redhatrob Leave a comment

Ben Cunningham’s blog (TaxingTennessee) excerpted and linked to an interesting item this morning on Pajama’s Media titled, “There’s no such thing as government money.” One sentence jumped out it me. It neatly summarized the tendency of government employees to spend every penny appropriated and always seek increased budgets. In particular government employees and agencies tend to go on a spending spree during the last month of the fiscal year to insure that every dollar was spent. This is a deeply entrenched habit of government fiscal behavior – but it can be broken.

In my six years as City Manager in Mt. Juliet, I was most proud that my team of department heads managed to turn unspent money back in to the city’s general fund every year for six straight years. The amount averaged about 6%. We were able to do this because of a conscious decision on the part of the senior staff that this was the right thing to do, and my pledge to them that they would not be penalized when the next year’s budget was being formulated. To back that up, we froze purchase orders about 5 days into the last month of the fiscal year. The finance department had orders NOT to issue ANY purchase orders. Emergencies and exceptions had to be negotiated with the City Manager. It worked. We saved the City about $2.5 million over six years.

There is another innovative practice I have heard about, but never got a chance to implement. In Oregon, City Manager Scott Lazenby has led his city in adopting a two-year budget. Department heads are ecouraged to economize wherever possible. Any operating funds NOT spent during the first fiscal year are kept in the department budget and can be used for capital projects (subject to approval by the City Manager and City Council). It appears to work well.

My $.02 is that if leaders (both elected and appointed) pay attention, lay out the ground rules clearly, and lead by example that the budget excesses can be avoided.

– Rob Shearer

Tennessee politics

Tennessee ACT Scores – State DOE still claiming credit for the scores of non-public school students

December 5, 2008 redhatrob Leave a comment

The Public Schools’ average ACT score is a full point-and-a-half LESS than the Non-Public Schools. But the Department of Education won’t report that. In fact, the Tennessee Department of Education takes advantage of the higher ACT scores by Non-Public School students by falsely reporting the average score for ALL Tennessee students’ as if it were the average score for Public School Students.

On the 2008 TDOE Report Card, the Department reports both the 2007 and 2008 average composite ACT score as 20.7. But that’s NOT the average for Public School students in Tennessee. That’s the average for all 50,225 students who took the ACT test in 2008 (48,113 in 2007). And it overstates the average ACT score of Public School students by about a half a point.

The data reported by the ACT Corp. for Tennessee can be found here: http://www.act.org/news/data/08/pdf/states/Tennessee.pdf. Here’s an excerpt from the tables on page 9 of that report:

Here’s the misrepresentation by the Department:

In 2007, 35,715 Public School students took the ACT, with an average score of 20.3. In addition to those Public School students, 12,398 NON-Public School students also took the test, with an average score of 21.85. When you combine them with the public school students, it raises the state average from 20.3 to 20.7.

In 2008, 36,764 Public School students took the ACT, with an average score of 20.3. In addition to those Public School students, 13,461 NON-Public School students also took the test, with an average score of 21.79. When you combine them with the Public School students, it raises the overall state from 20.3 to 20.7.

The numbers and average scores for the Public School students are compiled from the Department’s own TVAAS system which gives results by school and by school system.

I have a full report (TN ACT Scores 2008.pdf) which pulls the data together and shows the average composite ACT score for all 119 school systems in Tennessee with high schools. Here’s a portion of the final page:

The report is an update to research I did last spring, during the furor over the Tennessee Department of Education’s arbitrary decision to reject homeschool diplomas for state regulated jobs in law enforcement and daycare. I was hoping to discover the average ACT score for Tennessee homeschool students so that I could compare it to the average ACT score for Tennessee public school students. Sadly, the ACT Corp. doesn’t report the homeschool scores separately for individual states.

The irony and outrage here is that the state Department of Education has the audacity to reject the high school diplomas issued by homeschools and church-related schools while at the same time using the higher ACT scores from those students to boost their own average.

The Tennessee legislature needs to take steps in 2009 to clearly adopt a policy that recognizes homeschool and church school diplomas and overturn the arrogant attacks by the Department of Education.

Rob Shearer, Vice President
Tennessee Association of Church-Related Schools (TACRS)

book reviews

H.A. Rey’s Find the Constellations – return of a classic

December 4, 2008 redhatrob Leave a comment

H.A. Rey (and his wife, Margaret Rey) are best known as the authors of the Curious George series. Less well known is their personal history, emigrating from Hamburg, Germany during the 1930’s, first to Rio de Janeiro, and then to Paris, followed by a harrowing escape across France by bicycle in 1940 when the Germans invaded, making their way eventually to the United States. There’s a great book out that recounts that story – The Journey That Saved Curious George.

Find the Constellations is a classic book, that many of us will remember from our childhood – without ever having necessarily connected it the Curious George books. H.A. Rey originally published this book in 1954 – and it was hailed at the time as a classic introduction to the night sky, with some of the clearest star charts and constellation outlines ever produced.

This is a 72 page, 9in. x 10in. book, and goes far beyond just teaching the outlines of the constellations. Rey provides an introduction to the history of the constellations, the concept of star magnitude or brightness, the individual names of some of the brightest and most famous stars, and how to find and identify the planets. He also discusses the precession of the stars across the night sky day by day. The difference from one day to the next in a star reaching the same spot in the sky is 4 minutes. In one week it is 28 minutes. In a month, about 2 hours. In 12 months, 24 hours, and the stars are back to the positions at the same time as one year ago. This is a very practical way of introducing the connections between the motions of the earth and the stars and the seasons. And that is but one example of the topics artfully introduced.

Rey was a true renaissance man. German by birth, he studied philosophy, natural sciences, and languages at the universities of Munich and Hamburg. He spoke four languages fluently and read half a dozen more.

It’s great to see a classic children’s book like this revived and re-issued by the publisher – this edition brought out by Houghton Mifflin just last month.

Find the Constellations is 72 pages, and available in hardback ($20) or paperback ($9.99) and can be ordered directly from Greenleaf Press by clicking on any of the links in this review.

10% discount offer with this email – use the coupon code REY at check out and 10% will be automatically deducted from your order.
Discount coupon can only be used once per customer and applies only to the title Find the Constellations (either hardback or paperback).

– Rob Shearer, Publisher
Greenleaf Press

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Is Christmas a pagan holiday?

December 4, 2008 redhatrob 2 Comments

There’s an excellent article by William Tighe of Touchstone Magazine that answers that question. The answer is “no,” by the way.

Turns out the pagan “festival of the Sun” proclaimed by the Emperor Aurelian in 286 AD wasn’t appropriated by Christians. In the fact, the reverse is more likely to be true. It is likely Aurelian was trying to promote an obscure religious cult (his family had connections to the cult of the sun-god) by appropriating a day already in use by the Christian community who were already quite numerous in Rome.

– Rob Shearer

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Marco Polo and Galileo

December 2, 2008 redhatrob Leave a comment

Several years ago, National Geographic began publishing a series of World History Biographies targeted at young readers aged 8-12. Each is 64 pages, and (as you might expect from National Geographic) includes lots of illustrations, photographs, and maps. Each title has both an author and an academic/scholar consultant – an expert in the history/culture of the subject – who has worked with the author to insure the accuracy of the text.

The results are impressive. Each of the biographies includes some fascinating details – items that provide insight into character and background. Older readers with an interest in any of these figures will find them an interesting, though quick, read.

Two titles have just become available in paperback: Marco Polo: The Boy Who Traveled the Medieval World and Galileo: The Genius Who Faced the Inquisition.

There are 16 titles so far in the series and eight of them have been released in very affordable ($6.95) paperback editions:

The other eight titles are currently published only as hardback versions (at $17.95 each) on the following figures: Alexander, Julius Caesar, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Saladin, Joan of Arc, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Mozart, Anne Frank, and Mao Zedong. As each of these is released in paperback, we’ll add them to the Greenleaf store.

Each of the eight titles linked above is a paperback, 64 pages and sells for $6.95. You can order any of them directly from Greenleaf Press by clicking on the link in this post.

– Rob Shearer, Publisher
Greenleaf Press

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When You Gonna Wake Up?

December 1, 2008 redhatrob 1 Comment

[Thought for the Day]

Lyrics by Bob Dylan (from Slow Train Coming, 1979)

God don’t make no promises that He don’t keep.
You got some big dreams, baby, but in order to dream you gotta still be asleep.