Is it me, or does the lack of license plates (front and back) and any registration or inspection stickers on a vehicle a cause for concern?

There has been a white Range Rover (late model, fairly spankin’ new) parked in our visitors parking area for the last 1.5 weeks. It comes in very late at night (probably past 11 or 12 at night because I generally don’t see it earlier than that time) and leaves fairly early in the mornings (by 7:30 or so). I know because it’s not there any time I’ve looked out the window at nights, but is there early in the mornings when I wake up.

The vehicle has no front license plate and has no registration or inspection stickers on the windshield. Even brand new cars (with a temporary paper license stuck to the rear windshield) has the dealer inspection sticker on the front windshield.

In the “heightened” nature of our post-9/11 era, I would have thought that my local P.D. would be interested in such a vehicle. But when I called, they seemed to be more interested in a “ticketable offsense,” meaning if there is no violation to be ticketed, they will not come out to look at it and/or investigate. In the officer’s words: “since it’s on private property [the condo parking lot], there must be someone who will want to sign a ticket against [the vehicle], and then we’ll come out to take a look at it.”

Are you kidding me? Doesn’t this vehicle remotely sound suspicious?!?!?! Even just a little?

Am I being paranoid?

Photo: Kevin Law

An extremely trying week when—amidst the frustrations of not having enough time to even put through my expenses from a June UK business trip—my boss seemed to intimate that I shouldn’t be taking my planned vacation coming up. This, after seemingly encouraging me to take some time off when I first scheduled the vacation time; after all, I had not taken a vacation since October 2007. 2007!

After another working summer Friday “off” which was more frustrating than productive, ferocious thunderstorms crackled through my mind filled with dark, evil clouds and strong malicious flashes of lightning followed by even angrier thunder. And, in no small ways, I think I let all who were in contact with me that day know just how pissed-off I was.

There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, But the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Proverbs 12:18

What happened, though, when I rounded out my week with the next reading in my One Year Bible reading? Proverbs 12:18. I could not have needed that reminder at a better time. Now, the hard part is, trying for the new me.

PS: I found the above photo by searching “frustrations” on Flickr. It reminds me of Eddie.

A Story: Sharing—Akiva and Yehuda

We were at the local park Memorial Day morning. Isabelle had just gone to the top of the massive playground set, and she was beginning to play with the match-this puzzle (one of the many discovery installations on the set). A boy and his father had been making their way through the set a few “stations” behind us. When they caught up, the boy did not hesitate and immediately started playing the match-this puzzle. Though he didn’t touch her—and with both Simone just inches away and I a few feet away—Isabelle was startled and pulled away, haltingly.

The father of this boy immediately corrected him, saying, “Akiva, share!” When he did not move away, his father repeated, “Akiva! Remember, share! Let her finish playing first before you play.” When he still did not move, Yehuda, the father, began to pull the boy back a little, but we protested, saying, “it’s okay, they can both play together.” Together, we continued to encourage both Isabelle and Akiva to share the match-this puzzle. As both children continued to hesitate, we resorted to the tried-and-true form of initiating communication: the high-five. It worked!

And eventually, they learned that they had to share this common space, that the playground was a place where you played with others and continued to learn the meaning of sharing. Even if they’ve not learned it wholly, repeated instruction such as this reinforces the notion, the behavior—but most importantly, the principle.

A Parental Exhortation

Simone and I have been teaching Isabelle to share whenever she is in a social context: sharing what she is playing with. But, when it comes to reacting to either children who are the opposite and/or parents to don’t discipline or teach their children (see “Possessed”), we’re woefully unprepared. Just as we’ve encountered children and parents such as Akiva and Yehuda, we’ve equally encountered children who just ramble past and through everything in front of them without stopping to say “sorry” or sharing their space and parents who—seemingly, without instruction otherwise—either approve or are either completely oblivious to the behavior or do not understand how to instruct their children or don’t even think of instruction.

     • Shouldn’t we be instructing our children, even as they are young (especially)?
     • What happens when you encounter these moments?
     • How actively is a parent supposed to “protect” their children in these moments?
     • Do you pro-actively teach your children to be kind, to share, to help others?
     • If you don’t, why not?

[EDIT: the questions above aren’t rhetorical. Feel free to answer in your comments: no Xanga log-in required.]

In our present day and age—America, in particular—it is common to believe that it’s no one else’s business how we instruct or not instruct/teach our children. I’ll give you that if you are an atheist or agnostic, you won’t have God-driven principles or directives. But you still have your own morals or convictions to live—and teach—by.

But if you are a Christian, then it is God’s command that you teach your young not only from the Bible, but that you instruct him/her through your own actions, living out the Bible to them. It is my prayer that as Christian parents, we shed the world’s view that each of us can parent in our own way as we see fit. While legally that is true—our freedom of almost everything, in fact, guarantees that—how quickly we have forgotten God’s commands just as we became parents and have subsequently become apparently inundated with “all that is parenthood.” It is as if we feel these burdens and “busyness” allow us to shirk not only our responsibilities as Christian brothers and sisters, but often forget what it means to be Christian. It is my prayer that we can encourage and exhort each other to follow in His commands, to honor and obey Him.