Infected Chimps?

I just read an article my friend Chad had posted about how the AIDS virus entered the US/turned to an epidemic. The last paragraph is what was most interesting to me... chimpanzees?

Here's another interesting article about Europe and Mozambique. I'm not sure what to think about it.

Training Wheels

On my way home from work today I saw a girl riding her bike with training wheels. I thought sometimes I wish my bike still had training wheels. There was very little risk involved in going out to ride her bike. There was very little mental energy involved beyond staying on the sidewalk and not going too far. Of course with that same eases comes a limit to her speed on both the straightaway or on the turn. It also means she's not growing up. "Big girls," don't ride bikes with training wheels....well the reality of it is that sometimes I don't want to be a big girl. Sometimes I want to be 5 again. But then I remember when I learned how to ride my bike without training wheels and even though it was scary and frustrating and I fell a few times, it was really fun. Actually, it's one of my favorite memories with my dad. I think we'd started learning on Saturday but didn't get there all the way. So we stayed home from church and while my mom and sister were off getting holy, dad and I were home learning how to ride a bike. I still remember the anticipation and intensity leading up to mom getting home. I was so worried that I wouldn't have it down by the time she got home and I desperately wanted to wow her....dang, some things don't change. But regardless, that was the last day of training wheels.

Learning how to ride my bike without training wheels was obviously the right choice and I obviously wouldn't go back to riding without them, especially since you couldn't go down hills at 29 mph on a bike with training wheels which is really fun! I guess the point is just the reminder of having to give up something to get what's better. We ultimately have to give up something like security or comfort or the way we used to think about something/someone(and I'm sure there are many other more eloquent synonyms to connotate what I'm trying to but I'm finished with eloquent for today and actually prefer run on sentences right now..back to the point) to move on to what is better or more fun or mature or however you want to think of it. And in addition to that is the deeper rooting of giving up to be found in Christ (Matthew 10:39)...

Not revolutionary, I know, but a good truth to sit in for a bit as I live in the millions of ways to frame risk and roots and community and coming into and being sent out or being antsy or too content...you know, those tensions of life and just simply life.

Secrets

I've been feeling skiddish of blogging the details of what God and I have been discussing. That's not like me, but I'm pretty confident God's doing something very good and frankly, I don't want to have to share it with you. Go find your own secrets with God... he's there waiting to tell you secret funny things in your ear just for you and him to enjoy together. I won't lie...some things aren't that funny and won't make you laugh, but those parts are probably roots growing and digging around in the soil of your heart...it's OK if some tilling has to be done for there to be room for deeper roots. It's OK, flowers will come.

But even if there are some secrets I don't include you in, you faithful blog readers you, there's still Matthew 5:1-11 in The Message where you can sit up on the hill as a climbing companion and hear about how you're blessed.

I knew Chick-Fil-A really was from heaven

I came across this today when I was reading a "Special Report" from Wellness Council of America. This is from Dr. Steven Aldana author the The Culprit and the Cure.

I thought you might need to know...

The Good Guys
• Au Bon Pain, a 220-location café chain based in Boston, has eliminated trans fat from all of its cookies, bagels, and muffins, and is now using a nonhydrogenated margarine.
• Jason’s Deli, a 137-outlet sandwich and salad chain, has stopped using partially hydrogenated oils in all of its products.
• Panera Bread, a 773-outlet café chain that was formerly part of Au Bon Pain, is in the process of replacing all partially hydrogenated oils and plans to be trans fat–free by year’s end.
• California Pizza Kitchen has removed trans fat from deep-fried foods and is working on eliminating it from all other foods.
• In 2005 Ruby Tuesday, with some 700 table-service restaurants around the country,began deep-frying in heart-healthy canola oil.
• Chick-Fil-A fries in peanut oil in its outlets.


The Bad Guys
• Starbucks, ice-cream chain Friendly, and fried-chicken chain Popeyes indicated they had no plans to remove or reduce trans fat in their foods.

Meals at other restaurants also are loaded with trans fat. KFC’s chicken pot pie contains 14 grams of trans, and Taco Bell’s Nachos BellGrande has 7 grams.

In case this isn't registering... the goal is 0 trans fats per day. Trans fats are in most processed foods. Any food label that has partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is trans fats. A product can have 0.5g trans fats per serving and still claim 0 trans fats on a food label so you have to look at the ingredient list not just the grams of trans fats on the food label. They are worse for us than saturated fat.

"If Americans would reduce the amount of trans fats they are currently eating,it is estimated that 30,000 to 100,000 heart disease deaths would be prevented every year. That would provide a bigger improvement in public health than just about any other medical breakthrough in the
past 100 years!"- Steven Aldana

Not So Magical Kingdom

So I had to go to Orlando for work this week. The last afternoon we finally had a chance to get out of hotel where we'd been working for 3 days. The logical thing of course was to go to Disney World. So 4 of the 6 hop on the shuttle at 4pm for the reduced rate to Magic Kingdom. I'm expecting a few hours of rides, dinner somewhere nice about 8 and bed by 10 since we had to leave the next morning at 5AM. I am wrong. Apparently I totally misjudged the level of intensity that was about to ensue! Here's how it went down:

4:30pm: Space Mountain- everyone's favorite, mine too.
5:30: power-walking and dodging strollers. Leading the pack? in her 50's having been to Disney over 20 times. I'm thinking I could've left after Space Mountain.
5:35: watching 2 families with 6 kids... 4 having total meltdowns and 2 passed out in strollers. Parents still in line for rides begging kids to stop crying.
6pm: rethinking the decision not to relax at the pool...considering bailing after being mauled by the 100th stroller but feeling the need to make it work my $50.00 while remembering my lesson in economics my freshman year about sunk cost...I've paid the money whether I stay or not. Decide not to be lame...stay.
6:30: HUNGRY! A couple rides I can't remember because I'm still re-thinking the decision not to relax at the pool.
7:30: finally dinner- plain chicken sandwich and water for $10
8:00: parade starting....but of course we're not stopping...stroller hitting my ankles... kids still crying...still power walking to keep up wondering what happened to the seemingly calm laid back people I'd worked with all week.
8:00-9:30: Haunted house, Pirates of the Carribean, Jungle Rides. I'm trying to stay awake, literally....kids still crying and passed out everywhere.
9:55: Fast pass for Splash Mountain (laughing at 5 year olds talking about fast passes) Instant gratification at it's finest.
10:20: Cold and wet running through the park knocking over sleeping children and their grandparents left and right (the one in her 50's still eading the pack with her pedometer counting our 16000th step)
10:32: Miss the 10:30 shuttle
10:35: try to convince one of the other bus drivers that it really is the right thing to do to take us back to our hotel...commended on my perseverance but denied.
11:40: get on the last shuttle...finally...no more crying kids because they're all asleep in the arms of parents who now look like they want to cry.

Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE kids and I am most definitely going to go through the parental right of passage of taking my kids to Disney World. I will absolutely love it. But I will willingly admit, that I am quite content to wait until then to go again.

My favorite part of the Orlando trip? Reading this on the plane by Annie Dillard:
"A high school stage play is more polished than this service we have been rehearsing since the year one. In two thousand years, we have not worked out the kinks. We positively glorify them. Week after week we witness the same miracle: that God is so mighty he can stifle his own laughter. Week after week we witness the same miracle: that God for reasons unfathomable, refrains from blowing our dancing bear act to smithereens. Week after week Christ washes the disciples dirty feet, handles their very toes and repeats, it's all right- believe it or not- to be people. Who can believe it?"