'Tis the Season

I am not sure whether it is being married or what....but I am enjoying Christmas more this year than I ever have before. There are things about the season that I do not enjoy. I hate to see people in a constant rush, buying things they do not like, for people they do not care about, only because they feel obligated. There is more stress during the Christmas season than any other time of year, which is very unfortunate.
But I am learning to appreciate more of the positive aspects of Christmas. Spending time with family, the small parties, catching up with friends, enjoying movies that would be less than appealing under any other circumstances, lights, cheesy music, great music, our little tree, spiked punch, etc.
I would write more...but it is time to watch "Holiday Inn" with Laura!

Three movies worth seeing

Amazing Grace, Gone Baby Gone, and Bella are 3 movies that I have seen (relatively) recently and would highly recommend. They are similar, yet very distinct. Each movie presents different moral dilemmas faced by the characters and shows how decisions made will have a very real and lasting effect on their lives as well as the lives of others. My favorite quote from another great movie, The Princess Bride, is "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." All three of these movies scream this reality and go on to show that there is much more to life than avoiding pain. There are moral absolutes, and often the right decision leads down a very costly and difficult path. In a time when many movies attempt to force an upside down, pleasure centered, worldview on the audience...these movies do a great job of putting individual decisions into larger perspectives.

Amazing Grace

This movie is a snapshot into the life of William Wilberforce and his struggle to end the slave trade, and ultimately slavery in Great Britain. Great acting. Historically accurate, for the most part.
There are a few "historical blunders" in the movie, mainly regarding Charles Stuart Fox, the tune to Amazing Grace and my personal favorite, there is a seen where servants are shown pouring from the distinctive bottle of Dom Perignon champagne... Dom Perignon was not introduced until 1936.
Of the three, I do not think that this is the best movie, But it has, without a doubt, the best story behind it.
Check out Kevin Belmonte's biography, William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity. I am of the opinion that Wilberforce is one of the greatest figures in recorded history and it is a shame that more people are not familiar with him.
It is impossible to truly appreciate the struggles and accomplishments of Wilberforce just by watching the movie. Few people in history have suffered so greatly and accomplished so much in a lifetime.

Gone baby Gone

Ben Affleck hits a home run in his directing debut.
"Everyone wants the truth, until they find it."
Go see this movie! Trust me, it is worth $8.

Bella

This is a fantastic film. Life is difficult. Plans change. Hopes fail. Dreams die. There is redemption in the despair.
Along with the story, the acting and cinematography is excellent.
Again, this movie is worth $8. Go see it!

Lead poisoning and criminal activity

Imagine that a neurotoxin had been introduced into the brain of a significant portion of the population that resulted in a lower IQ, impulsive behavior and aggression. Does that sound like a recipe for crime? Well there is some very Strong data that suggest this is precisely what has resulted from lead poisoning.

Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham University School of Law, conducted an extremely detailed study in which she followed 1000 children from birth to age 22 and looked at 3000 different factors in an attempt to find what the best predictor in children is for aggressive behavior in school, juvenile delinquency and eventual criminal activity. Denno's research found that the best predictor (when children are 7 years old) for theses activities is the degree of lead poisoning.

Dr. Herbert L. Needleman, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, was the first to discover the cognitive effects in children who had been exposed to lead poisoning. His findings started the national efforts to remove lead from paint, gasoline and water pipes throughout the U.S. in the 1970s. Dr. Needleman has continued to study the effects of lead poisoning and has said, "
"When environmental lead finds its way into the developing brain, it disturbs neural mechanisms responsible for regulation of impulse. That can lead to antisocial and criminal behavior"

Perhaps the most thorough studies on lead poisoning have come from Rick Nevin. Nevin was hired by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to do a cost benefit analysis of removing lead paint from public housing. Nevin did not set out with any link to crime in mind, but later stated that he was stunned to discover a strong relationship between the use of leaded gasoline and violent crime. He conducted a ten year study on the effects of lead poisoning. Nevin concluded that much of the crime trends in the U.S. over the last 100+ years can be explained by lead poisoning.

He suggested that a spike in lead poisoning would lead to a spike in criminal activity approximately 20 years later while a decline in lead poisoning would lead to a decline in criminal activity approximately 20 years later. For instance, there was a spike in lead in NY city after WWII that lasted through the early '70s. Then, in the early '70s NYC took an unusually aggressive approach to ridding their city of lead. The city had managed to drastically decrease the amount of lead in paint, gasoline and water pipes by around 1973-1974. If Levin's theory is true then violent crime in NYC would increase during the late '60s, 70s, '80s and early '90s, peaking around 93 or 94, and then began to decrease. In 1990, 31 out of 100,000 New Yorkers were murdered. In 2004 that rate had declined to 7 per 1000. From 1994 to 2001 homicides fell by 67% and overall crime decreased by 57%.

Nevin pointed out that the U.S. has had two spikes of lead poisoning. The first around the turn of the 20th century, linked to household paint, and the second after WWII, linked to gasoline. Both times the national violent crime rates increased, peaked at around 20 years, and then decreased.
Just a coincidence? Perhaps. But this is only the tip of the iceberg, Nevin's predictions seem to hold true in other countries as well as in more local communities.

A few examples;
Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes were built over the Dan Ryan Expressway in 1962. Approximately 150,000 cars drove by these homes each day, cars pumping out lead filled exhaust. A study of children who grew up in these homes during the 60's and 70's found that they were 22 times more likely to be murderers than people living elsewhere in Chicago.
In 2001 Sociologist Paul B. Stretesky and Ciminologist Michael Lynch published a study in which they had looked at different U.S. counties with high and low lead levels. They found that the counties with high lead levels had four times the murder rate of counties with low lead levels.
In 2006, Dr. Needleman compared the lead levels of 194 adolescents who had been arrested in Pittsburgh with lead levels of 146 high school adolescents who had not been in trouble. The arrested youth had lead levels that were four times higher.

After examining some of these studies as well as others, the Arizona School Boards Association published an article in 2002 in which they said, “These studies show that lead poisoning may ultimately be behind much of the plague of drug abuse and alcoholism in public schools that parent and non-parents specifically identified in polls as one of the biggest problems facing public schools.”


One thing that is important to note in this discussion is that the general public has a misconception regarding the increase of crime. People see stories of crime on their local news and have no doubt that there is more crime committed today than ever before. This is simply not true, in actuality there has been a a sharp decline in criminal activity. According to the D.O.J. Bureau of Justice Statistic's 2003 criminal victimization report, violent crimes decreased by 55% between 1993 and 2003 and property crimes declined 49% during that time. Despite what your parents may tell you, things are not much worse now than they use to be "back in the good ole days."

Remembering the Reformation

It was on this day, October 31st, in 1517 that Martin Luther walked up to the doors of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany, and nailed The Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, commonly known as the 95 theses, to the door. While the Reformation had actually started in the 14th century with John Wickliffe and John Hus, Luther’s bold step in 1517 is the most well known single act of the Reformation, and for good reason.

What was the Reformation?

In part, the reformation was a revolt against the ecclesiastical abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, but Luther himself saw the Reformation as something far more important than a revolt against ecclesiastical abuses. Luther believed that the reformation was a fight for the gospel. Luther even stated that he would have happily yielded every point of dispute to the Pope, if only the Pope had affirmed the gospel.And at the heart of the gospel, in Luther's estimation, was the doctrine of justification by faith—the teaching that Christ's own righteousness is imputed to those who believe, and on that ground alone, they are accepted by God.That doctrine, often called the Material Principle of the Reformation, is what the apostle Paul taught as well: "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5).

What is a Reformer?

Reformers are Men who desire to look back to the foundations of the Word of God and the true Gospel of Jesus Christ in light of human traditions and ecclesiastical corruption. To “reform” something is to “make right that which is wronged” or to “amend, rectify, or remedy” something. The reformers desired to “rectify or amend” the corrupt traditions of the Roman Catholic church and turn it back to the Bible’s authority alone. Reformers were not needed merely for this single time in history, the term can be used throughout church history, including today. The church is not perfect, and will never be perfect. It should continue to be reformed and amended before God in all its ways. The term Semper Reformanda “always reforming” should be true of the church throughout history.

The content of this victorious reaffirmation of biblical doctrine can be summed up in the five slogan terms of the Reformation, the five Solas:

Sola Sciptura: Scripture alone is the standard
Soli Deo Gloria: For the Glory of God alone
Sola Christo: By the work of Christ alone are we saved
Sola Gratia: Salvation is by grace alone
Sola fide: Justification is by Faith Alone

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Romans 3:28

Rockie Mountain High

Laura is a bit of a Red Sox fan and I have always been a Yankees fan.... so we decided that we should find a team that both of us can cheer for. We needed an underdog team, one that is likeable, and from a city that both of us have an interest in.

They were about 3 games behind in the Wild Card race with not many games left in the season...but they had a slim chance and they were certainly an underdog team, the exact opposite of my Yankees (26 World Series titles vs 1 playoff game victory). They also had one player from Wake Forest and one from Ole Miss. So the obvious choice for our new team was the Colorado Rockies, it was unlikely that they would make the playoffs, but we could cheer for them as they tried... and hopefully their future would be brighter than their past.

Well, here we are a few weeks later and the Rockies are...

the fifth team in the last 70 years to go 21-1 in any stretch of any season.

the first team to do that in the middle of one of these mad charges to, and through, October.

the second team in history (along with just the 1976 Big Red Machine) to sweep its first two postseason series in any given October.

the fifth team of all time to make it from last place one year to the World Series the next.

the sixth team in history to fall nine games under .500 and still climb out of that canyon to make it to the World Series.

the first team ever to find itself two games out of a playoff spot with two games to play and somehow survive to scramble into the World Series.

And that former Ole Miss player, Seth Smith, joined the immortal Blake Doyle (1978) as the only players in history to drive in the first runs of their careers in a postseason game.

This is why I love sports!!!

GO ROCKIES

Wine, Family & Football

What state had the most vineyards prior to prohibition? What state currently has the most visited winery in the United States? What state has had fifty vineyards started in the last ten years? North Carolina, yep that's right, the Tarheel state was once the leading producer of wine in the U.S., then prohibition hit and the state shifted its focus to tobacco. Now North Carolina is the leading producer of tobacco, but with dropping tobacco prices vineyards are making a resurgence.

Wine making is apparently a booming business here in North Carolina. This weekend Laura's parents came to visit and we spent Saturday afternoon at Childress Vineyard. Childress is about 25 minutes from our apartment and is a very nice vineyard owned by Richard Childress. It has significant meaning to Laura and I because I took her there on the day I proposed (prior to the proposal). The vineyard is only 3 or 4 years old but is doing very well. Example: they said that when they opened they hoped to bring in $2,000 a month from their gift shop...they have never had a $2,000 month, but they have had plenty of $24,000 days!

Our time at the vineyard included a tour, dinner on the patio overlooking the vineyards with a band playing in the background, and a wine tasting. It is a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon and I would highly recommend it to anyone! The afternoon at Childress makes me look forward to the day Laura and I can tour the vineyards in Napa Valley!

Laura and I thoroughly enjoyed our time with her parents this weekend! We were a little low on sleep Friday, but it was well worth it. We were up late Thursday night because we went to watch Wake play Florida State. It turned out to be a great game and a very impressive win by Wake Forest. Go Deacs!!! Her parents arrived in town around 6:30 Friday evening, we all enjoyed a dinner outside at the 4th Street Filling Station and then returned to our apartment for some card playing. We had not seen her parents since school started, so it was really nice to be able to spend some time with them...and the weather could not have been any better!

3 months of marriage!

Laura and I have been married three months as of today! Seems like an appropriate time to reflect back on our journey so far. Lets see... our wedding was at four O'clock in the afternoon on Saturday June 16th at Wait Chapel on the campus of Wake Forest University. The chapel was a particularly special place for us because it is where we met for the first time! Following the reception we headed off to Charlotte where we spent a day before flying to St. Lucia for our honeymoon.

St. Lucia was amazing! We spent five nights at a Sandals resort and did not want to leave when our time was up. The week was full of great memories, some of which included snorkeling, kayaking, ocean tricycling, hiking in a rain forest, and enjoying the swim up bar! We returned to Winston on Saturday June 23rd, the honeymoon was over but we had much of the summer still ahead of us.

I returned to work the next week while Laura spent most of her time doing volunteer work with Hispanic women and coaching tennis. We spent almost every weekend, for the remainder of the summer, out of town...most of them at weddings. We spent the week of July 4th at my grandparents cabin in Brevard, NC. We ran in a 5K through downtown the morning of the 4th, joined some friends on the mountain for a cookout(unfortunately my grandparents were not there), and then returned downtown to partake of the afternoon festivities. The rest of the week provided us with some great hike and relaxation time!

The summer provided so many great memories that would take up more space than I should occupy with this post. We truly enjoyed getting settled into our new apartment in Winston Salem and all of the weekend road trips! We were able to visit my family in Mississippi for my sister's wedding on July 21st. We stayed for five days and really enjoyed the time with my family. The wedding was a ton of fun and it was great to be at a reception where we knew so many people but were not the center of attention...so we had more time to stop and talk with people.

Our summer concluded with a great beach trip. We spent four nights with Laura's family at their old beach house on Emerald Isle. I say "old" not because of its age but because they had once owned it and have many many memories there. The time there was very relaxing and memorable. It was my first trip to a NC beach and I must say, I think I am hooked! This state has beautiful beaches! After our time with her family Laura and I headed to Wilmington, NC, were we spent a few days. Wilmington is a very cool city and we really enjoyed our time there! The last day of our trip was Laura's Birthday which worked out perfectly. We started the day with a sunrise on the Beach, then after a great breakfast went kayaking, then spent some time on the beach and concluded our time there with a lunch at a nice beachfront restaurant. We stopped to see her family in Raleigh on the way home. They took us to dinner at a great Italian restaurant in Durham. This turned out to be an ideal ending to her birthday, our trip, and our summer!

Wow, this entry is getting long, and still so much has happened since the summer. Laura has started teaching, she is an elementary Spanish teacher...and a very good one! She has really enjoyed it, but it has not been without its challenges. I have started school and we have both gotten into a pretty good work/school routine. In some ways it is hard to believe that three months have passed since the wonderful day...but in so many ways it seems like we have lived much more than three months worth of life since then!

1st post, Davis Cup

Well, here it is! my first ever blog post. Contemplated for fleeting moments in the past, but never attempted. Why keep a blog? It is not as if a large mass of humanity sits perched on the edge of it's seat eagerly awaiting the arrival of my thoughts in the form of words on a monitor.
Lets hope that this turns out better than past attempts at journaling, perhaps herein lies the reason I have been attracted to the world of blogging. Why is it that I think blogging will turn out to be more fruitful for me than journaling? There are the more obvious reasons, like typing the info into a computer as opposed to writing, not having to keep up with a little leather bound book, and having access to the blog wherever there is an Internet connection; but more than these, if I am honest I think that the reason blogging will work better for me is the idea that by posting this information on a blog I am making myself accountable to the entire world. Please do not try to understand this logic, just accept it for what it is (which is open to your interpretation!) So anyway, it is time to move on beyond the topic of me writing this post!

Laura and I were able to attend Davis Cup matches last weekend here in Winston Salem. The US team (Andy Roddick, James Blake and the Bryan brothers) was taking on the Spanish team. During the past week I came across some interesting thoughts about the matches in articles conversations. Fans are much more passionate at these matches that bring in the element of patriotism than they are at normal matches. There was even a noticeable (albeit small) Spanish contingency that was decked out in bright red and yellow garb. In short, most of the ideas referred to above involved the passion of the fans, the fact that these Spanish fans were HERE in Winston Salem with this unmistakable love for their country, and the fact that in Davis Cup matches fans often cheer for the mistakes of the opposing team. Does human nature make it easier for us to hate what we are not than to love what we are?