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DECEMBER 1999
So, people always say the two subjects one should never bring up at a party are politics and religion. December being the month of parties, and my being the fellow who simply cannot stop himself from doing what one should not do, I hereby give you a dose of both politics and religion in the opening few paragraphs. Where to begin my fox paws? Perhaps with this: in political terms, I'm a Libertarian. I was, in fact, a card-carrying member of the party for many years. I stopped carrying "the card" when signing "the pledge" became mandatory. (If you'd like an explanation of all that technical talk, drop me an e-mail sometime.) I even went so far as to help hand the election to the Democrats in 1992 by voting for a third-party candidate, rather than cave and vote for a mere republican.
Then I went to Peru. Then I went to India. Then I had to reconcile a conundrum: 1) I have seen the city that Hemmingway called "the saddest place on earth." 2) My political views tell me to avoid stepping in to relieve suffering based upon the theory that I will only get involved in places where good government prevails.
Obviously, something had to break.
Michael's description of his trip to Indonesia in last month's newsletter provoked some surprising responses. Many folks wrote and told how their trust in the work of Compassion International had been bolstered and/or restored. However, a few on my own political side of the fence wrote to say how upset they are that Michael and I have been duped by Compassion International into responding to emotions and sad stories rather than obeying our rational intellectual good-government theorists.
Quite frankly, this kind of lawn-chair, safe-distance attack just "paints my back door." Until one has walked well-fed among starving people, until one has talked real politics with oppressed people, until one has been repelled by the offal and tasted the food of true poverty, government theory is just theory—as valuable and applicable as the creeds of the Flat-Earth Society. It's one more way of putting the sacred angel What's Right ahead of the truly sacred being called Humans. God has redeemed humanity through the work of Jesus Christ. This is Good News, and must be told to all nations. Only then can the captives be freed and the poor be fed. Jesus suffers with those in developing nations in the midst of their suffering. For the rest of us, well, a needle's eye is particularly tiny at times isn't it? Perhaps if I use that food processor I got last month . . . .
Now that I've chased from the gala any fickle folks, on with the day-to-day of LOST AND FOUND. December was an exciting month—we tried something radically different called a "Christmas Tour." Some people loved it. Some folks claimed that prior to this tour they were "huge fans" of our music—however now these same folks will "tell people how bad you are!" You're winsome, you lose some. But before we go into all that, I must walk you to the door of a little month I like to call December . . .
| We began the month by ending November. Our first great time was had at the Region 1 Gathering in Portland, Oregon. Michael's first task was to build a birdhouse of his own. Michael also took advantage of one more opportunity to "set-in" on the drums as he is wont to do. While at the Region 1 event, we met a dude with huge feet, and we were amazed! When that event was over, we zipped over for a visit with our old pal Bob Fossum (whom we owe for the shipping of those CD's—remind us to send you a check Bob). Where was I? Oh yes, Portland. So, we got there and there were huge signs saying that we had sold out. We just want to tell everybody that we have not sold out. LOST AND FOUND remains free of PAC's and influence peddling. Anyway, the concert was great, and Bob's going to get his money as soon as I can get a hold of him and send him the check. |
I'll put this in your soul
Dance the night away!
"That your largest size?"
Did not!
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Bleach, who rock.
Ol' Blue Eyes.
Royalty!
Patients pays off
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Next on our plate was an event down south called TCTC (which sounds like Teensy Weensy over the phone, or if you say it quickly in a southern draw). We got to see the band Bleach, who rock. At some point, when I ran across this sign at the Convention Center, it occurred to me that it would make a really good name for a band. Michael also got to try on some new glasses and headgear. The hotel where we were staying displayed one of the funnier signs we've ever seen. Take a look at this photo and see if you can find any grammatical errors. Oh, I know, they're not easy to spot, but take your time. |
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All right, and from there we headed to Saint Louis, Missouri in order to begin the first of eleven nights on the First-Ever, Lost-And-Found Christmas Tour. Ironically, or maybe not so, this was the concert that generated the e-mail where the writer explained that he would now be telling everyone how bad we are, and how unicycles didn't belong "on the altar." As you can imagine, it didn't exactly set us up for a good feeling about the risky new venture we were about to step into. Before the show, I had the chance to try on a piece of one of Justin's costumes. The concert went well from the band's point of view. The Fitz Family rocked on, as is their wont. And Justin Vetrano turned in a stellar series of performances. So even though one person thought the show was sacrilegious and horrible, and sent us e-mails to prove it, the other 496 people—along with the performers—thought it was great. |
Rock on!
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ANY DAY, PAL!
Juggle on, dude!
Rock on, little people!
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And in rapid succession, here come the towns on the First-Ever, Lost-And-Found Christmas Tour. After St. Louis, it was on to Peoria, where the second concert went just fine. Along the way, Michael posed by the sign pointing the way to his favorite museum of all time! Then it was Minneapolis where we loved the venue and had a large fun crowd. (By that I mean the number of people was great, not that they were necessarily overweight. Hey! That rhymes!) Next up was Des Moines, where Justin got in a little ladder-juggling experience just to warm up for playing the part of the innkeeper. After leaving Des Moines, we drove to Lombard, Illinois where we experienced a little of what I like to call the "Mosh-Pit of Tykes!" Every time we played a fast song, somewhere between 10 and 20 little people would run up to the front and begin sliding into second base. It really was hilarious and it made for quite the boisterous event! |
| From there it was onward to Hartland, Wisconsin, where we witnessed my favorite episode of "Stump the Juggler." I cannot remember if Jenica was successful at this one, but I remember she was more than a little surprised when her father handed it in. Also that night, our friend Jason was able to get a photo of our nightly We-Are-the-World-type moment. |
Stumped?
"There's a choice we're making . . ."
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"Baroque on, girl!" |
After Hartland was Troy, Michigan—one seriously beautiful room for a First-Ever, Lost-And-Found Christmas Tour. This night saw over 800 folks in attendance, the biggest crowd of the whole tour. After the show, we were treated to a little violin recital by our long-time friend Kristi. From Troy it was a short jaunt over to the first Cleveland show in Mentor, Ohio. The next night was especially exciting for me, since we played at my home congregation here in Maumee. |
| Another short drive found us in Miamisburg, Ohio, where we brought the First-Ever, Lost-And-Found Christmas Tour to the most natural stop of all: St Jacob's Lutheran, where Rev. Mike Hout, holder of the world record for juggling while jumping hurdles, is pastor. This evening was particularly fun for Michael and Justin as they began to learn the fine art of falling forward in an intentional-looking fashion (read: riding unicycles). Also at Miamisburg, we witnessed another bizarre attempt to Stump the Juggler. |
Wow!
Easy, there, fellas!
Careful, there, fella!
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"Now who's playing Joseph?"
It's a regular production!
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And then there remained just one night on the First-Ever, Lost-And-Found Christmas Tour: North Royalton, Ohio. This is the very town (and church!) where in about 1980, Michael D. Bridges had to play a concert by himself because George R. Baum was grounded for a bad report card. Now THAT'S trivia! Anyway, by this point pandemonium had set in on the tour, and no one could remember precisely which part they were supposed to play in the show. And with that particularly fine show, we ended the First-Ever, Lost-And-Found Christmas Tour. We had a complete blast and cannot wait to set the whole thing up again next year. It looks like we're going to work on something called "percussion juggling" which should be great fun indeed. We'll be sure to let you know where the tour's headed. And by the way, if any of the folks I saw with video cameras could make a copy of their tape and send it on to us, we'd be forever in your debt. It would help us plan for next year, and would just be fun to watch. If you've got some footage, e-mail us at hengh@aol.com. |
What else? Oh yes . . . I couldn't decide whether to include the last event of the year in this newsletter or not, because it was such a momentous time that I thought it might deserve a fresh start in 2000. However, I cannot wait, so settle in for a little more babbling by Baum.
| One of our favorite youth gatherings in the whole country happens between Christmas and New Year's Eve every year in Lansing, Michigan. It's such a part of the participants' lives that it always takes the definite article and is simply called The Gathering. Never "a gathering," never "one gathering," not even "our gathering," always THE Gathering. This year we were honored to be invited back and had a smashing time. Among the fun asides were dinner with the Ponderosa group, and pizza with the little people. Another fun event at The Gathering was visiting The Young-Adult Gathering across the street. (Though I don't know for sure, I'm guessing that this event takes the definite article as well.) This much smaller group provided us with no end of amusement and the quote of the day. In the room where they gathered was the most curious door. Was it an exit? Was it a bathroom? What's with the peephole and locks, anyway? |
Nice hat!
Great buffet.
Great pizza.
So true!
You make the call!
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Work time!
Viva Me!
Armageddon Mailbox
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Okay, the The Gathering theme this year was Shalom, as in Peace. Which brings me to the most amazing thing of all: what our longtime friend Reed was up to. Not surprisingly, he was the only fellow who thought to bring along to The Gathering an assault weapon. Our friend Bob Lenz took the opportunity to hoist it up. Anyway, Reed took this gun and created what he called the Armageddon Mailbox. He mounted it in a box made of G-2 steel and welded it airtight on all sides. Then he attached the Hebrew letters for Shalom on the front (at least, he hopes that's what it says), and made two slits in the front where the young people might drop in pieces of paper. |
His idea was this: participants at The Gathering could write notes to their fellow young people of the future, which will be read a few hundred years down the road. They were encouraged to say something like, here on the eve of the millennium, I'm a young person and these are the thoughts I'm thinking, and these are my fears, and here's what makes me laugh, and here's what I love about life, and so forth. That's what people did. And now Reed's going to seal this box airtight with two more pieces of steel and they're going to mount it on some wall at a camp in Michigan, to be opened in several hundred years.
Where can I possibly go from there? Only to this: people matter. If it weren't for folks coming to see LOST AND FOUND, there'd be no music. If it weren't for people like the Fitz Family, there'd be no sharing of unique gifts. If it weren't for people like our friend Reed, there'd be no art that tries to make a difference. If it weren't for Compassion International, children I've met and played games with would not be alive today. People matter.
| If you'd like to see some people to whom we're indebted, click on the Photo Phrenzy. For those who've been waiting for the results of last month's trivia, wait some more. Until next month, rock on, and rock out. |
Happy New Year! |
george
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