“Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.
It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness,
nourishment of mind by His truth,
purifying of imagination by His beauty,
opening of the heart to His love,
and submission of will to His purpose.
And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable.”
No, not MLK… c’mon, have some respect.
Here’s the (http://kpmartin.www62.a2hosting.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/IHaveADream.mp3), given on August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Now that I’ve started to become more familiar with Lincoln, the speech strikes me as very like Lincoln’s work. Not too long. Elegant language. Rich analogy.
> Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
>
> 
But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
>
> In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men – yes, black men as well as white men – would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Give it a listen. Communication of this caliber is rare. It will be sixteen minutes well spent.
Helen and I laughed and laughed over *You Bet Your Life* announcer George Fenneman’s expression delivering the above line to Groucho Marx in this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YH6CrMR1eg).
[This one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ9J4M5xN3k) is good, too. “Nola Contendere… I knew her well…”
Dozens of free *You Bet Your Life* radio programs are available [here](http://www.archive.org/details/YouBetYourLifeKIBM). It’s really pretty fun stuff. The kids love it, believe it or not.
More Anna Chatter. We were driving to church last Sunday and she was discussing the many inventions she’s working on. One was a domestic robot, I think. She described the many ambitious things it would do, and then asked if I thought she could make it. I told her maybe, but she’d have to learn about things like math, electronics, computers…
“Puh-leeze!” she said with a sour look, “I’ll hire people for that.”
[1]: http://www.digitalcyclone.com
[2]: http://www.my-cast.com/
[3]: http://www.startribune.com/535/story/919086.html
[4]: http://digitalcyclone.com/news.and.pr/garmin.php
I worked with [Digital Cyclone][1] from 2000 to 2002 as Internet Programmer. We built [My-Cast.com][2], a popular website providing free, very localized weather forecasts. The business model relied heavily on web advertising revenues. As the dot-com bust drew near, we had a number of layoffs until, finally, they had to pare the company down from dozens to only four employees, and so finally it was time for me to move on. It was gratifying to have been useful for so long, but sad to have to go. I learned *so* much being there. They’d pulled together an amazing team, and it was heart-wrenching each time a layoff came through.
I continued to work with them off and on after leaving, doing occasional freelance work on their web site as they refocussed the company on mobile technology – weather on mobile phones.
Their move worked. Brilliantly. They got past that really rough period and built up a very compelling set of mobile products. And last week they were [bought out by Garmin for $45 million][3]! (Press release [here][4].)
It’s a fantastic success story, and the people who pulled it off are really top notch folks. It’s inspiring to have had my small glimpse into how they did it.
Congratulations Paul, Craig, Peter, Ray, Jan, David, Tony and Adam! I hope I didn’t miss anyone. :)
We had strep sweep through the family a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t get it. So far, I’m crediting gargling. 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, about a half cup warm water. A few times a day.
I’m going out on a limb, since it looks like another round of something is going to pass through the household. We’ll see if soaking my throat’s lintel and doorposts will allow these bugs to pass over.
I’ve always liked using the comma before the “and” in a list in a sentence. Turns out my rebellion against the AP Stylebook isn’t entirely unwarranted. According to [this fellow](http://wordwise.typepad.com/blog/2006/12/comma_comma_com.html), anyway.
Now that’s original, isn’t it?
Well, December brought an end to a whirlwind of projects at work. All were successfully finished up, and then came some welcome time off. Convalescence. Ahhh, wonderful.
We had a really nice Christmas enjoying family, friends and church. The rest brought recovery from illness; everyone but Kenny and I had come down with something in the days leading up to Christmas. We made many modest gains on projects around the house; cleaning, improving, and organizing.
We saw a few movies: *The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe* with the older kids, and today a BBC version of *The Silver Chair* (production quality was a bit of a let down for the kids after the aforementioned… we’re so spoiled). Helen and I saw *A Lady in the Water,* which was pretty good, but the idea that the penultimate authority rested in beings of pure evil took away something for us. We all saw *Elf*, which was pretty good, enjoyable, formulaic tripe. The snowball fight scene was fun. We also rented but have not yet watched *The Gospel of John* which was done a couple of years ago, starring the guy who plays Desmond on *Lost*.
Seems like a lot when I type it out, but it was spread out over a few days. We actually didn’t watch much TV. Well, we did watch *The Incredibles* about 47 times, too.
I’m almost done with Doris Kearns Goodwin’s *A Team of Rivals* (the book about Lincoln I’ve mentioned before). It’s fantastic. It’s wrecking my life because I can’t put it down. Lincoln was a stunning man.
Looking forward… well, I’ll resume my Greek classes; I teach the first month of our church’s adult Bible study, a 52-week class on fundamental theology; some organization; some financial improvements; I don’t know what else…
And I did, on Christmas Eve night, [light a “Strike-Anywhere” match with just my thumbnail.](http://www.kpmartin.com/2006/12/18/i-wont-rest/)
Anything special happening in 2007 for you? Any resolutions?