Huang Family Newsletter, December 2010

December 2010 was quite a blur. Jada had her first parent/teacher conference and we were pleased to learn she enjoys reading and writing. She loves her friends, too: December brought an ice skating birthday party and a Scooby Doo birthday party. We hit downtown three weekends in a row to see the shows, shop, and eat, and Amy took them to her parents' church for a Christmas musical. On Christmas morning, the kids helped out at a breakfast for the homeless at our church, and then we took them to their grandparents' house out in the 'burbs where they tried out their new scooters. Speaking of the 'burbs, we also had a really nice end-of-year get-together with our church small group, the kids reveling in indoor and outdoor play time and the adults enjoying uninterrupted grown-up conversation.

Social Network

I was a late adopter to IM and then promptly fell off the wagon a few years later. But there was a time I was a relatively frequent user, mostly to communicate to co-workers but every once in a while to chat with a long lost friend. When we first started to grasp IM's potential in the office, my work partner and I thought it potentially quite useful to be able to toss a question or comment out there into the sea of friends and colleagues on our buddy lists and get answers back, in some cases almost instantaneously. We imagined how productive - and fun - our lives would be if we could have instant and virtual access to everyone we knew, whether for professional or personal purposes.

Fast forward to the present, and that's kind of like what Facebook is like. Even for someone like me who isn't "on" Facebook all the time - I check in at discrete moments rather than following the stream in real-time - it is neat to have people from different eras of my life chime in on my stuff, and to have a peek into what's going on with them. Just to give one small example, after my post on being confused about Christmas got posted to my Facebook page, four people chimed in - two of my fellow board members at The Enterprise Center, a fellow congregant from Woodland, and an old friend from my South Bay Taiwanese Youth days in San Jose - while two others "liked" the post, a friend from my undergrad days and a friend from my grad days. The wisdom and kindness I took in from these "touches" was made all the more poignant by the diversity of perspectives represented.

In a status-leveling world in which ordinary people can seem like celebs (thanks to reality TV and Twitter) and celebs can seem like ordinary people (again, thanks to reality TV and Twitter), social networks such as Facebook can be fantastically delicious levelers of status. Not to say we don't transfer our cliquiness to social media. But when a whole range of people from different walks of life and different reference points in your world can comment on your musings, your photos of your kids, your latest gourmet food conquest, or your take on the latest hoo-haw in Washington, I think there's something quite egalitarian about that.

Not to say we all share the same likes or opinions; far from it. But I'm not sure how readily we'd poke in on each others' life stream in the flesh, or even consider different people we know "friends" or "connections," and yet through the magic of sites like Facebook and LinkedIn we not only make a link with one another but have the walls significantly lowered and the ice significantly broken in terms of being able to share a kind word, lament about some political travesty, or exult together over a heart-stopping sports triumph.

If everyone I knew was in one big room, I'm not sure we would circulate or share so easily. And I never got the sense that IM was that way, either. And yet I find almost weekly that I am encouraged by some nifty little exchange with a distant friend, often via Facebook. It makes the world, daunting and scattered as it is, seem a little cozier.

Lazy Linking, 33rd in an Occasional Series

What I liked lately on the Internets:

* Philly beats New York again, this time in percentage of neighborhoods that are more walkable than the norm. [Hat tip: Creative Class.]

* Even the ruthless capitalists have gone green. The renovation of Joe's Cafe in Wharton's Steinberg-Dietrich Hall qualified for LEED Gold status. [Hat tip: U City Off the Grid.]

* Giving new meaning to the phrase, "talking sh*t." I'd make more jokes, but this is a deadly serious topic and deserves straight talk, since someone in the world dies every 18 seconds as a result of bad sanitation, mostly children under five, and what is needed is frank discussions about how to prevent these largely preventable tragedies. (As a bonus, the report contains a glossary so you know how to say it in dozens of languages.)

* What if your New Year's resolution wasn't about yourself but rather about what you can do for others? That's the premise behind Chaz Howard's inspired idea.

A Second Chance at Christmas, and Christmas at Second Chance

Not long after the kids got to plow through their pile of gifts, I was hauling them out the door to church, where we were to help serve at Second Chance Mission's annual Christmas breakfast for the homeless and hungry. The experience was flush with teaching moments:

* It was good to break up the steady stream of getting and then playing with new toys with something that was a little more outward focused.

* Jada didn't recognize any of the men lined up outside as we approached the church. It expanded her mind a little to see that they are welcome, too.

* There were only two other kids there and the place was pretty crowded, so it wasn't looking like the kids were going to have much fun. But I found a young couple handing out plates at the front of the line and stationed Aaron and Jada with them, and soon enough, they were in the mix, helping distribute utensils and napkins.

* The breakfast included many worship elements, to the point that it was less a breakfast with stuff going on up front as it was a service that happened to be serving food. I was asked to give a word and chose Isaiah 61, closing the chapter simply by saying, "I'm no theologian, but from reading that I can tell you that God is a God of second chances." One man came up to me and gravely told me that, though he wasn't religious, that word really touched him.

Soon enough, the kids and I were off and heading home. I think they had fun, but more importantly, I think they got to see a more well-rounded picture of our church, of what it means to serve, and of what Christmas is all about.

Confused about Christmas

Not sure where this thought is going, so bear with me. Here we are, on the morning of Christmas, and I still have no idea what to make of this whole holiday thing. Everyone around me has their traditions, some religious and some secular, and I'm still trying to figure out how this works. You would think this would be easier, given that I'm a Bible-believing Christian, and in this country the overwhelming majority of people celebrate the Christian holiday of Christmas. I frown when we Christians complain about how life hard has become for us in these more ecumenical, sensitive, and thoughtful times; it comes off sounding like the sour grapes of someone who is used to getting his way and now has to share with others and acts grumpy and entitled about it.

And yet, what has Christmas in this country become, but a secularized, frenzied, materialistic testament to anything but the baby whose birth the date is supposed to celebrate? Someone asked me earlier this month how things were going so far, and I didn't quite get what she was saying, so she elaborated: "You're a Christian, right? So you're going to do Santa and a tree and gifts, right? So how's all that going?" This thoughtful person was trying to be sensitive about holiday customs, presuming without wanting to be presumptuous about what my particular customs were. But I felt so much dissonance in that moment, for what do Santa and a tree and gifts have to do with being a Christian? We did Santa and a tree and gifts in my childhood, and I did not grow up a Christian. So those things, while they may be part of the typical Christian tradition in this country, do not connote for me what this month is about.

Ever seeking fun and free things to do with the kids, the holiday season has been a bonanza of to-do's, with light shows downtown, special store displays, and what not. But, and maybe again this is the frugal side of me, the gift part of Christmas often leaves me feeling conflicted. Here my kids can't even take care of the toys they have, as evidenced by them leaving them strewn all over the floor instead of in one of the dozens of bins we have provided for them, and now we will be pouring countless more toys upon their heads? Getting a new toy, my kids fawn all over it; two, and they are delirious with happiness. But getting ten just makes them spoiled and ungrateful and cluttered.

Bah humbug, I hear you thinking. Maybe I shouldn't muse so much, and just enjoy what's around me to enjoy, which I understand is a lot. But I guess I am just expressing not a little dissonance in the head this holiday season, and perhaps you are feeling some too. The holidays are hard for many, and I guess this is part of how they're hard for me: I rejoice in the baby whose birth was the ultimate game-changer in this epic battle for souls, but I struggle to see how that event and my acknowledgment of it fits into this thing we call December.

I believe in a faith that is meant to be shared. But it's tricky to know how to share it in an atmosphere in which it is simultaneously the majority opinion on one level, completely co-opted and sanitized and morphed into nothingness on another level, and frowned upon as antithetical to being able to have and respect separate and different beliefs at still another level. Later this morning, our church is sponsoring a service project that I plan to bring my kids to; who knows what date Jesus was born on, and what Christians are to make of December 25th in the United States circa 2010, but hanging out with and helping others in our neighborhood may well be a good habit to build.

The Year in Photos

I'm not much of a contributor to the billions of photos uploaded on Facebook every month. But I do have an album for every year I've been a member. Notice the trend in the number of photos in each album:

2005 - 22
2006 - 39
2007 - 91
2008 - 46
2009 - 124
2010 - 190

Big blip up when we got Aaron, and a huge blip the past two years. We've only been smartphone owners since July, so it can't just be ease of snapping and posting.

I think it's that we've just had a ton of fun lately. This calendar year brought West Coast cousins to the East Coast for three consecutive weekends of fun, plus our usual Ocean City jaunt, two trips to California, and countless excursions downtown. As I filled up this year's album yesterday, I couldn't help but be thankful for all we did, that it would take 190 photos to tell the whole story.

I guess a big piece of this is also that our kids are just so gosh darn cute, too!

On the Folly of Rewarding A While Hoping for B

Out of all the reading I did in my undergraduate classes, there’s one piece that stands out: Steven Kerr’s “On the Folly of Rewarding A While Hoping for B.” Written in 1975, its plain articulation of the mismatches between what we want versus what we reward – whether CEO’s who we hope will do long-term good with their companies but who are held accountable for quarterly results, or athletes who we hope take one for the team but who are compensated according to individual stats – shattered the innocence of my idealistic teenage self. Where is the hope, then, of getting what we really want out of others if our entire incentive structure is wrong?

The article continues to flavor my outlook as an urban Christian. Do politicians want to do best by their jurisdictions and residents, or do they want to maximize their chances of getting reelected, even if it means torching those jurisdictions and immobilizing those residents? Do non-profit leaders really desire to work their way out of a job (i.e. by eliminating once and for all the problem their organization is built to address) or do they seek instead to entrench that problem so as to guarantee the viability of their entity? And, shining the light back onto myself and my co-workers, do we consultants seek to add maximum value to our clients, or do we create dependency relationships such that we guarantee repeat work from them?

It is easy to tsk-tsk such behavior, except that we ourselves do it all the time, and not only do we not feel guilty, but we feel good about it. We make choices to move to better school districts so that our kids will get a good education, instead of sticking around to take part in the positive change that our current districts need for the benefit of all young families, most of all those who don’t have the upward mobility to be able to move around. Or we change churches in search of better programming, instead of banding together to be part of a potential solution at our current location. Or we start driving more again once gas prices sag or the new highway interchange gets built, opting for economy and convenience and forgetting all we’ve heard about the unpaid costliness to the environment of each additional car trip. These are all rational, even intelligent or noble choices. And yet we all would hope for B from others even as we choose A for ourselves.

What will it take to effect true change? Are some people just so incredibly altruistic that they will suffer personal hardship to do the right thing, and to call others to the same? Does it take trading short-term conveniences for long-term glory? Do we use big government to regulate our way to the right behavior? If these are the only approaches, I am left decidedly pessimistic and fearful.

But what if there were a critical mass of people who were not living for this world? Who had a value system that was all about being emptied out for others, about seeking justice and loving mercy and walking humbly with their God? Who were able to forego both immediate gratification for self and artificial praise from others, because they believed that their deeds were helping them store up treasure in the life to come?

Are not people who are wired this way those that can truly be businesspeople who run their operations for maximum community benefit and not just financial profit? Politicians who seek the good of their jurisdictions and their residents, and are not just looking out for the next election? Non-profit leaders whose greatest triumph isn’t institutionalizing the status quo that justifies the existence of their organization and their salary, but fundamentally fixing the broken parts of that status quo?

The Bible states that if we have believed in the resurrection for this life alone, we are of most men to be pitied, so there is a sense in which being a true believer means doing things that aren’t always appreciated or understood. And yet the Bible also states the importance of a good name, and celebrates and does not denigrate being a person with a good reputation. I think gets at a little of that apparent contradiction. This isn’t our final destination, there are no final treasures here, this isn’t even the body we’re stuck with. We’re free, then, not to not care about the very real issues and hurts and injustices and complications of this world, but to care about them in ways that others cannot. It should make us peculiar, even to the point of being thought of as a little loony; but it should also make us a little bit admirable, for being able to really give ourselves, in ways that are more authentic and vigorous and pure than if we didn’t have this particular worldview.

Alas, I can speak for myself that I am far less committed, far less genuine, and far less selfless than many others I know, who do not share what I claim as my belief system and yet who run circles around me in terms of their service and devotion and care and sacrifice. It is no wonder more do not believe in the Christian narrative that there is a life to come, for they do not see those who have bought into that narrative living as if it were true. Lord, work in us that we might trade in our shallow and worldly desires for grander and loftier ones; it is folly to hope for A while rewarding B, but it is no folly to believe in future glory and to order our present lives in response.

Virtuous Cycle

This is comforting: data from Portland that suggests that more bicyclists on the road means safer roads, and not only for bicyclists. Slower, more mindful drivers means fewer high-speed collisions, which is a good thing.

Here in Philadelphia, we're trying to be bike-friendly, but a lot of bikers are jerks, which predisposes pedestrians and drivers to be against us. And, in this kind of cold, you're just not expecting the bike lane to be used by a bicyclist, because what crazy dude would think about hauling their little boy on the back of his bike, no matter how comfy and cozy are the ski masks they're wearing? Hence, I have just decided to assume that everybody around me - pedestrians and drivers - is not going to expect me to be there, and I proceed with caution accordingly.

Sure enough, I can't begin to tell you how many pedestrians have stepped off the sidewalk right into my path, or how many drivers have swerved into my lane, only to see me at the very last second, having anticipated their move, waving them through with a resigned look on my face that says, "I thought you would do that, so I stopped . . . but next time, please take the time to look first."

Here's hoping more of us will brave the elements and the roads and get around on two wheels. After all, if Portland (or Copenhagen or Amsterdam or Munich) offers any insight, it's that more bicyclists means more safety for everyone out there.

Things That Make Me Happy, the "Philadelphia is Awesome, and New York Stinks" Version

What an embarrassment of deliciously good news for Philly sports fans this month, especially to the extent that it comes at the hand of that other city to our north.

* In Sports Illustrated, Michael Rosenberg says it's a great time to be a Philly sports fan.

* In the Wall Street Journal, Joe Queenan says Philly's had New York's number for 250 years. In the Daily Beast, Buzz Bissinger agrees.

* That punt return was video-game-esque. So of course, someone recreated it on TecmoBowl. [Hat tip: Zoo with Roy.]

* You'll not likely see a steeper change in Win Probability than that game.

* Fun to read Philly sportswriters gleefully recounting other beatdowns of New York, including the Eagles' only championship and Wilt's 100-point game.

* Non-Philadelphia bonus: my Raiders beat up on the hated Broncos. Though they cling to slim playoff hopes, it's not likely to happen . . . but going 2-0 vs. Denver just makes my season.

Suburban Bliss

Just a lovely end-of-calendar-year gathering with our small group of young couples we do Bible study with this past weekend. Our hosts live in the inner burbs, so the kids reveled in the many adventures associated with having a yard, ending up spending an inordinate amount of time using shovels and wagons to move pieces of ice from the corner of the yard to the middle of the lawn. This, plus copious amounts of basement romper room time and a steady stream of desserts, kept the little ones happy and occupied, affording pleasant adult conversation for hours on end. I can’t begin to tell you how warm and relaxing that was, as was the delicious food I ate far too much of but with no regret at all.

To further give you a sense of what nice company I keep, the dramatic end of the Eagles game was watched with giddy excitement by all but me, my thoughtful wife shooing me into the next room so as not to spoil the suspense for me, since I would not be watching the game until the next morning. I always appreciate when people don’t blow the surprise for me, but always feel I am cheating them of being able to fully express themselves in the moment, which is of course the real satisfaction of being able to watch an exciting event. But, again, everyone couldn’t have been more thoughtful to me, and stifled their enthusiasm with nary a peep of negativity.

All in all, just a great time together, for which Amy and I are so thankful. We had thought about catching the tail end of our church’s caroling through the neighborhood on our way home, but decided to just make a beeline home for baths, pajamas, stories, and bed. The kids were in bed before 7, I before 8, and Amy not far behind me: that’s how happily tired we all were. Plus, I knew I had an exciting football game to watch the next morning!

Where Does Your Money Go

A hat tip to DJ Chuang for tweeting about this recent survey of church giving in the US. Love the book’s subtitle: “Kudos to Wycliffe Bible Translators and World Vision for Global At-Scale Goals, But Will Denominations Resist Jesus Christ and Not Spend $1 to $26 Per Member to Reach the Unreached When Jesus Says, ‘You Feed Them?’” Don’t love that the authors conclude the downward trend in giving is due to churches opting to pamper their members in order to woo them, rather than impelling them outwards to help fulfill the true role of the church, which is to serve and engage with those outside the walls.

Of course, there doesn’t have to be an “inside/outside” dichotomy: strong ties within a congregation are what make healthy outreach possible, so there’s no need to pit inward investments against outward efforts. Still, it is telling to think about how much churches spend – in money, time, and headaches – on various parts of their operations.

Having recently met as a congregation to discuss the 2011 budget, we all now know what those proportions are, at least on paper: about 2/3 on staff, and the remainder split between building, programs, and missions giving. Not in our budget but a very significant chunk of our influence in our community is the use of our building, both for one-off events like music concerts and special presentations, as well as by regular users (a middle school uses all the classrooms during the week, and we’ve had a handful of ethnic congregations meeting regularly at various times in our building for Sunday worship). We usually charge way under market if at all for such rentals, and I would have to say that, conservatively, the in-kind contribution to such events and organizations is into the tens of thousands of dollars, if not into six figures, which would mean that our cash and in-kind missions giving is something on the order of a quarter to a third of our overall budget.

Your church is probably different – it’s not often you find uber-eclectic congregations using a 100+ year old building in a neighborhood that boasts Ivy League professors and impoverished families. But it may be a fun exercise for you to see how your budget proportions out.

Lazy Linking, 32nd in an Occasional Series

What I liked lately on the Internets:

* Proof that urban bicycling has hit a tipping point - 1) sexy women are turning riding into a fashion statement, and 2) the New York Times is covering it. [Hat tip: Governing.]

* Here's how bad it's going in NYC - visceral opposition against Walmart has softened. This is called "thinking outside the box by thinking about the big box."

* Fun stat of the day is courtesy of this slide show presentation that is the education reform version of "An Inconvenient Truth" - 40 years ago, 52 percent of college-educated working women were teachers, and today it's 15 percent.

* So we're fat AND dumb - a recent study shows we're more likely to order the combo meal than individual items because we think it's a better deal . . . even when it's not. [Hat tip: the Consumerist.]

* If we've become more price sensitive in our transportation choices, as this paper suggests, then policies to more accurately price driving will be more effective, and policies to force higher fuel efficiency will be less effective and may even lead to more driving. [Warning: large pdf.]

* Another positive for pricing as opposed to fuel efficiency standards - the former influences all fuel consumption, the latter only that of new cars.

* To me, this year's "World's Best Presentations" don't hold a candle to 2007's winner, "Shift Happens." (Although the gooing and gawing over MySpace reminds you that this was made so many moons ago.) [Hat tip: Marginal Revolution.]

* NYC's having trouble dealing with the latest star to snub them.

* What's cooler than used books? How about bookstores that used to be something else? [Hat tip: Abebooks.com.]

* Yale University is a great school. So why is its art school's website so shoddy? [Hat tip: 2leep.com.]

* My in-laws call California "the land of the fruits and the nuts," and while I am trying to convince them otherwise, the state produces a harried mom who is suing McDonald's for having the audacity to offer cheap plastic toys with their Happy Meals, which cause her daughter to whine for it and her to have to buy it in response. Hoo boy. [Hat tip: Megan McArdle.

* The 2000's - not as bad a decade as you might have thought. [Hat tip: New York Times.]

* Careful, social scientists, about grand theories based too much on only the behavior of W.E.I.R.D. people instead of all people. [Hat tip: Freakonomics.]

Random Sports Musings

* Say what you want about he screwed Cleveland, butchered his announcement, and lost his playful on-court demeanor. As for me, I kind of like this version of LeBron: cold, edgy, even villainous.

* In a season in which he held the Vikings franchise in suspense about being able to return as starting quarterback, played like horsecrap all season, and sent inappropriate texts and photos to an Internet starlet who looks strikingly like a younger version of his own wife, I yet think the lowest point for Brett Favre was hawking autographed footballs commemorating the end of his consecutive games started streak on his website for $499. You stay classy, Four.

* Any Philly fan who, 12 months ago, predicted Cliff Lee in red pinstripes, Werth as the Nats' first $100 million man, Iverson in Turkey, McNabb benched in DC, Kolb as a back-up, and Vick for MVP . . . well, I'd like to ask you which stocks to invest in in 2011.

* Speaking of Cliff Lee, love how quickly the good people at the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation got the latest "With Love" billboard up. Meanwhile, while New York City licks its wounds, Buzz Bissinger pours salt into them.

Regional Economic Development Musings

A friend of mine asked me to react to this post over at citiwire.net, so here are my off-the-top-of-my-head musings, in response to what’s in the post as well as themes it hits that I’ve been mulling over for a minute:

1) Bruce Katz keeps on banging on the importance of metros, and rightly so, given the increasing importance of density in our knowledge-based economy. Remember when we thought the Internet would render place irrelevant? Turns out we’re seeing the opposite trend play out: brains want to be near other brains, cities where the vast majority of uber-clusters of brains are (think universities, research parks, and medical centers), and even environmental realities have impelled us to reconsider the sustainability of living and working in ever far-flung places.

2) That said, let’s not go overboard here. I once presented to a group of people representing 12 counties in northcentral Pennsylvania and pointed out to them that their counties represented almost a quarter of the state’s land mass but only 4 percent of its population, 2 percent of its income, and barely 0.2 percent of the state’s contribution to GDP. They correctly pointed out that that’s not all life is scored on, since quality of life and wide open recreational spaces and access to breath-taking sights don’t get properly quantified in such metrics. I learned from that group that while Bruce Katz’s statements are correct – metros are where the economic activity is – those statements need to be expressed in ways that don’t come off like the big city slicker talking smack about rural places as if there was no good reason anyone would want to choose to live there.

3) The whole “think regionally” mantra is another correct but loaded concept. Yes, watersheds and tourism strategies and quality of life initiatives are no respecters of jurisdictional boundaries. But the political process by which decisions are made are very much bound by those artificial lines. It irks me a little when people talk as if it was better for power to be centralized, because then things can get unilaterally done, whether you’re talking about Richard Daley in Chicago or the Communist Party in China. All well and good, but let’s not forget the beauty and effectiveness of the democratic process, no matter how messy and sometimes dirty it might get. So citizens and officials alike have to put their immediate allegiances aside and figure out how to work together; but they do so within a political structure that, however maddening and oftentimes corrupt, is the best the world has ever seen.

That’s all I got this morning. I welcome additional contributions to this conversation.

Extra-Curriculars

I had a pang of regret earlier this month. We were coming home from our church’s talent show, and all the other boys and girls Jada’s age performed something, and Jada had nothing to perform. Partly because I was unprepared, and partly because we don’t have her in anything: while other kids played songs from their piano lessons or showcased moves from dance class, we haven’t signed up Jada (or Aaron) for anything like that. No swimming or soccer, either. And, in that moment of dragging a crying little girl home, I wondered. What if she has hidden talents and we aren’t letting her find them? Aren’t these activities the very things that will help her with her confidence and her communications issues? Is she now old enough to realize all that she’s missing out on that everyone else she knows does on a regular basis?

Maybe we’ll start looking for something for Jada to do, like Chinese class or ice skating. But I kind of like that we haven’t overscheduled her. Her life and Aaron’s are pretty crazy as it is – up by 6, out by 8, home by 6, down by 7, and then their crazy dad drags them all over the place on the weekend. If anything, I kind of want to downsize their lives, and give them long pockets of time when they aren’t doing anything structured or scheduled. As a friend of mine once pointed out, kids these days don’t know how to be bored, and that’s a bad thing, because it was when we were bored as kids that we figured out fun stuff to do.

This recent article in the Wall Street Journal seems to support that observation, as it opines on today’s kids and how we can help them to be more creative. Type A parents that we all are, even this can be taken and run with in a typical manner: let’s throw flash cards and tutors and camps at our kids to juice up their creativity. For goodness’ sake, they’re not even in grade school and we’re already trying to build up their resumes.

It may not be that our kids can have the childhoods we had, when our parents told us during the summer to leave the house and don’t come home until dinner, and we used our bikes and our imaginations to go everywhere and do everything with the other kids in the neighborhood. But I hope that for my kids, we can find a balance between some early exposure to structured stuff on the one hand, and on the other hand lots of time to explore and even be bored. Aaron and Jada will eventually join the rat race; but they don’t need to be racing rats just yet, do they?

Things That Make Me Happy, Fifth in a Series

* Cliff Lee’s signing has made Phillies fans immensely happy, but what I’m happiest about is how Philadelphia (the city, not the ballclub) has come out looking. Check out some of the quotes in these two stories (by Jerry Crasnick from ESPN and by Phil Sheridan from the Philadelphia Inquirer) and tell me we didn’t just get ourselves tens of millions of dollars of good press. We are a far cry from the Philadelphia I moved to in 1991 as a 18-year-old college freshman from sunny suburban California. When the wife of a multi-millionaire stud pitcher lauds Philadelphia for being a place where it’s easy to get around and where she loves taking her kids around to the museums and parks, well let’s just say I assume more people are going to see and be impressed with that than me yelling it from my blog. (PS I found the image on zoowithroy.com.)

* Took time from shopping for others to bargain-hunt for myself. The result at Kohls.com: two suits, two button-down shirts, two pairs of cargo pants, and a new pair of really warm ski gloves, all for about two hundred bucks. (Nothing matches or fits me, but I blame my fashion sense and my body, not Kohl’s.)

* My wife mercifully took the kids to her parents’ church earlier this month to see their Christmas musical. I was left with several hours all to myself, in which I luxuriated in a good book and steady doses of Mozart and Bach. I can't begin to tell you how happy it makes me to be able to do those things in a relaxed, uninterrupted, and quiet setting.

* Meaningful Raiders games in December!

* Last night coming home was uncomfortably and deceptively slippery, thanks to a light but slick coat of snow. Happy that I survived on bike, as did Amy in car. Let's be careful out there.

Knowledge is Power

Here's a fun little piece of time-series data, which I found for a speaking engagement earlier this week, that tells an interesting story:

* Employment by sector in 1800 - agriculture 50% manufacturing 25% services 25%

* In 1900 - agriculture 30% manufacturing 35% services 35%

* In 2000 - agriculture 3% manufacturing 23% services 74%

Incredibly, we've become so efficient in feeding ourselves and in making things that we can devote less and less bodies to those tasks. Not only so, but we have access to far better and more food and made goods.

It is incorrect to call this job loss or to blame outsourcing, since the vast majority of the efficiency and improvement has come from mechanization and not Mexico or China. And unless you like doing back-breaking and dangerous manual labor 12 hours a day for six days a week, the fact that we use machines instead of people is a good thing.

How this long-term trend should stir you is by reinforcing the grave importance of making sure our schools dispense good quality education in an effective and equitable manner. For if brainpower is what we need to hold down today's and tomorrow's jobs, we need to make sure every kid has a chance to obtain it.

Teaching inner city kids about agriculture to help them understand how food is grown and to foster in them a nutritious lifestyle is great. And making sure inner city kids are exposed to careers in construction and manufacturing is great, so that those who want to go that route are not impaired in knowing how to succeed there. But let’s not stop there, lest the job paths we encourage and resource represent the very ones that are disappearing. Rather, let’s all the more figure out how to make sure our inner city classrooms are producing knowledge workers. Because that’s what our kids need, and that’s what our country needs, to stay competitive.

Who Were Those Masked Men

The ski masks I ordered for Aaron and me arrived just in the nick of time. Last week, with cold weather looming, I found ski masks for five dollars at Kmart, with store pickup at the downtown location. I grabbed them while we were downtown this past weekend, and it's a good thing, for this week has brought nothing but punishingly cold temps.

Aaron's been a trooper in the rear seat. The ski mask is so warm and snug that he practically falls asleep back there. I was afraid he would balk at wearing it, but it's been so cold that when he barks back at me that he doesn't want to put it on, I simply have to take him outside for a few seconds before reason sets in. And, they look pretty bad-ass, so there's a cool factor in that little boy's mind.

So the Huang boys keep riding on. Let's hope, though, that the temperatures ease up, and that we have a minimum of sleety, slippery commutes.

Four of a Kind

A year after stud pitcher Roy Halladay turned down more money to come to Philadelphia and play for a winner, stud pitcher Cliff Lee does the same. Was it just three or four calendar years ago that the Phillies franchise was being celebrated for being the first to 10,000 losses? And now we are the premier destination for mercenary guns for hire. Young talented people in other professions besides throwing a ball 90 miles an hour: please consider following the example of Messrs. Halladay and Lee.

PS I christen the Phils' starting rotation "the Four Tops" until I hear a better nickname. Barring injury, is a long losing streak now possible?

What are Gifts For

What is gift-giving for? If you believe Madison Avenue circa 2010, your list might go something like this:

1. Gifts are for making the recipient feel bad - you were more thoughtful than they, they now owe you, you can now extract a favor back from them (or just lord the debt over them for a good long time)

2. Gifts are for one-upping others - you got Mom a cooler gift than any of her other kids

3. Gifts are for showing others how on top of things you are - you were able to efficiently navigate the holiday madness and get the perfect item for everyone on your holiday list

4. Gifts are for passing the very hard test imposed upon you by your significant other (almost always portrayed as the girlfriend) - you proved you listened to her and that you value the relationship exactly as much (no more, no less) as she does, as evidenced by the price and difficulty associated with the gift

If this is your gift-giving M.O., I don't blame you for being stressed this time of year. For if every relationship and every purchase is fraught with this kind of calculus, it will make your head spin and your heart sink.

But what if we thought of gift-giving differently? What if we bought into a different set of rules, and to heck with the alternative value system others might want to impose on us? What if these were our reasons for giving gifts:

1. To reward a job well done. Tipping can seem a strange and complex practice, but it you think of it at its core, it is the grateful acknowledgment of services well rendered. It's a lot funner expending effort and money when you are doing it out of gratitude than out of some fuzzy sense of obligation. Take the time not only to buy the gift but to consider how thankful you are for the recipient.

2. To give someone something you think they'll enjoy. Being a huge reader, I somewhat self-centeredly think others will like reading, too, which I admit is not always the case. But still, it's really fun to find a title that is perfect for someone, to give them that title, and then to be right. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's pleasurable when it does, that you've enriched someone with something they wouldn't have found on their own but were able to experience because of your thoughtfulness.

3. To express value for a relationship. This is a loaded one (see #4 above). But it doesn't have to be. If by "value" you are measuring in dollars, then the math can be complicated. But if by "value" you are measuring in thoughtfulness and appreciation and respect, and not in "keeping score," then it can be really meaningful. It's why I've learned that when I receive a gift unexpectedly, I don't say "oh, you shouldn't have" or "but I didn't get anything for you," because that robs the giver of the act of gift-giving for the sake of gift-giving. It's a gift, after all, not a transaction.

4. To exercise an important "love language." Gary Chapman has a book called "The Five Love Languages" that I am sure is required reading for young Christian couples, at least in the minds of the pastors who counsel them. In addition to "gift-giving," there is "physical touch," "acts of service," "words of affirmation," and "quality time." "Gift-giving" is one of my wife's major love language, and the one I'm the worst at, which is more unfortunate for her than for me. But I am learning. Specifically, I am learning that gifts can be a form of love - given out of love, an expression of love, and an act of intimacy and extravagance and meaning between two lovers. I miss far more often than I hit, but it's always fun to try.

Maybe I'm not as sophisticated as Madison Avenue. But maybe it's Madison Avenue that's gone astray. All I know is that gift-giving can be stressful, especially this time of the year. And that's sad, because it doesn't have to be: we're the ones who weigh it down with hidden meaning and strings attached and transactional complexity, when what it's really supposed to be is free and light and joyous. I hope there will be a lot of giving and a lot of receiving around here, and that it will be given and taken in good ways and not bad.

God in Our Image vs. God Among Us

Just started reading through the gospel according to Mark in “The Message,” Eugene Peterson’s contemporary English version translation of the New Testament. Here the immediate conflict between Jesus and the established religious leaders of the day is all the more vivid. At one point, Jesus uses the metaphor of new wine bursting old wineskins, and it is an apt one, for here is the itinerant preacher man oozing with vitality and dynamism, butting up against an increasingly indignant and outraged old guard, even as those outcasted from society and from respect are increasingly and irresistibly drawn to him.

I could not help but think of these stories when I read Andrew Sullivan’s rebuke of Bill O’Reilly’s recent piece, “Keep Christ in Unemployment.” Many in the religious right would seem to make God into their image, clothing their self-righteousness with false beliefs about how God only helps those who can help themselves. It would irk them, as it did the religious leaders in Jesus’ day, to know that much of the Bible teaches a far more expansive posture towards charity than they would like to admit. I say “it would irk them” because I’m not entirely sure they’ve read those parts of the Bible or take them at face value.

Ah, but we ourselves are far closer to old wineskins than we are to new wine. So as much as I’d like to bash the bashers, I have to confess that Jesus and his teachings and example are equally discomforting to me. I am far from readily generous, let alone to those who have fallen, and even less to those who do not express any gratitude or perspective. Ever the schemer, I cannot bring myself to give unless there is something in it for me, whether the self-congratulations due the fulfillment of a societal obligation or the smugness of having been charitable to someone who really needed the help.

In this season in which many of us take extra time to consider the birth of our Savior, thoughts of the death of our Savior ought not be too far. The Bible is right when it says that it is one thing to die for a righteous person, but God demonstrated remarkable love in that He died for us while we were unrighteous and unappreciative and ignorant and obstinate. He loved and gave; we scorned and shunned.

Before us this season lay many who could use a living expression of God’s generosity and mercy, and instead we scorn and shun them as well. Shame on us for being so cold, so different from the One we purport to follow, so indifferent to those He associated with when he walked on earth. Shame on us even more for making Him into our image just so that we can deny our callousness and call it righteousness instead.

Lazy Linking, 31st in an Occasional Series

What I liked lately on the Internets:

* This link could be entitled "See, casinos CAN be good for Philadelphia" or "Good news for New Year's Eve fireworks fans who go to bed well before midnight."

* Did you ever wonder why Pac-Man ghosts move the way they do? Yeah, me too. [Hat tip: Marginal Revolution.]

* Freakonomics strikes again: just like their research that car seats don't improve child safety was summarily denounced by Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, their research on the implicit biases of NBA refs was summarily denounced by NBA Commissioner David Stern. But, as Rasheed Wallace might say: "Data don't lie."

* So wait: Sarah Palin will run for President because she has nothing else to do next year and will otherwise be bored? Please, make it stop. [Hat tip: Daily Dish.]

* Getting your bank statements emailed instead of mailed to you seems obviously greener, right? Not so fast, according to the educational campaign "Print Grows Trees," which notes that paper is renewable and reusable, while e-statements require energy-hogging data centers full of equipment that isn't very easily recycled or discarded. [Hat tip: Deliver Magazine.]

* Ta-Nehisi Coates with yet more thoughtful commentary on how interpreting history (in this case, the Civil War) from the perspective of the day, rather than on from the comfort of today, leads to a richer and humbler appreciation of what was going on back then. There's a lesson here for those of us lovers of history and of the Bible.

* A new econ blog to follow: Spousenomics. It is exactly as its name suggests, and it is delightful. Incidentally, did you know that the origin of the term "economics" is that of managing a household?

And Now For Something Completely Different

We own Saturday mornings. By lunch, you'll often see a trail of places visited, tweeting all the way. It's been our M.O. every weekend since Thanksgiving.

But yesterday we decided to switch it up. We laid low in the morning - Amy went grocery shopping, I took a nap and read a book, and the kids alternated between TV and drawing - and headed out after lunch instead of before. Here's what transpired:

12:30p - For once, the kids have their jackets, hats, gloves, scarves, and shoes on before I do. I think they enjoyed bumming around the house in the morning for once, but I think they're ready to go.

1:00p - We walk a block to the bus stop and the bus arrives within seconds. Unlike the morning, when cars slice through downtown, we get caught in bumper-to-bumper. We're all thrown off by this. Little do we know it'll be ten times worse heading home.

1:30p - We finally get off at Broad Street, walk two blocks south, and enter the Kimmel Center for the second time in two weeks. It's a free tuba concert, and the acoustics are so good we decide to roam around the place instead of staying still. We make a beeline for the rooftop garden, which affords spectacular views all around and puts us right on top of the instruments. That was a ton of fun.

2:00p - We have to make a pit stop in Borders at Broad and Chestnut because Aaron needs to pee. It's a quick pit stop, because a homeless guy is splayed out on the sinks, so we forgo washing hands and I give the kids a squirt of hand sanitizer instead. We arrive at Macy's just as the holiday light show is starting. It's the third time in three weeks they've seen this, but it never seems to get old for them.

2:30p - I've been hearing grumblings about hunger since the Kimmel Center, so we head to Reading Terminal Market and I get them soft pretzels to munch on while they look at the model train set display. The place is noticeably more crowded mid-afternoon than early in the morning when we are usually there.

3:00p - It's not far from there to Chinatown, where we first hit a grocery store and then a pastry shop. Both are, again, more crowded than we're used to, but that doesn't deter us from getting what we usually get: hot dog bun for Amy, cream bun for Jada, and greasy sesame bun for Aaron. I've spent a grand total of three dollars and forty cents on our outing.

3:30p - One last stop: Kmart in the Gallery Mall. I had ordered ski masks for Aaron and me and they are now ready for pick-up. There's a line ten deep at multiple registers, but all we have to do is walk up to the service desk and our order is waiting for us in a little baggie, all ready to go. Good thing, too: Aaron's starting to get rammy.

4:00p - We walk two blocks to the bus stop, just missing one bus as we arrive. The next one takes awhile to appear in the distance, and then takes even longer to go the last block or so to our stop. This is not a good sign.

4:30p - The three miles home takes over a half-hour, due to heavy traffic. Aaron falls into a happy sleep, and Jada is energized when she spies a classmate of hers sitting two rows in front of us. When we disbark, I am left to contemplate which is heavier: my bulging shopping bag or the sack of potatoes that an asleep Aaron has become in my arms.

The moral of the story is that the change of pace was fun, but I could do without all the crowds and traffic that come with going out later in the day. Kids, I think we had it right all along: go out in the morning, and lay low in the afternoon. Still, doing it different yesterday wasn't so bad.

The 2007 Absentee Ballot Controversy

I got David Oh's permission to post a recent message of his to his campaign followers. As much as I wish David wins in 2011, I wish even more for an honest election. I know that's what David wants, as well, and let's hope we get that.

***

Many people wonder about the 2007 absentee ballot controversy.

In 2007, I won on Election Day by 7 votes out of 122,000 votes cast. It was to everyone's knowledge the closest election in the history of Philadelphia. But more shocking was that a grassroots candidate could beat such overwhelming political power with less than half the funds and a volunteer operation.

Under the Pennsylvania election laws, voters who will be away or unable to physically go to their polling place may vote by an absentee ballot.

An absentee ballot is a paper ballot in which the voter checks a box for each candidate for which the voter wishes to cast a vote. The ballot itself does not identify the voter. The ballot is placed in an envelope that has the voters address, ward and division.

Because absentee ballots may easily be abused, the law has strict rules as to how they may be obtained and used. First, the voter must have a valid reason to request an absentee ballot such as being in the military, travel outside Philadelphia or a medical reason. Second, the voter must make a request and the absentee ballot is them mailed to the voter's registered address. The voter mails back the absentee ballot to the Election Commission. There the absentee ballots are separated by polling place, locked in a box and carried by police to the polling place. At the end of the election, the envelopes are inspected and then opened. If there are any discrepancies (e.g., that person died two years ago), the election officials may hold the questioned envelope or a candidate's representative may challenge the absentee ballot. In addition, because of past fraud with absentee ballots in Philadelphia, a federal court issued stricter rules concerning absentee ballots.

After I won on Election Day, I was told that none of the absentee ballots had been distributed to the polling places and none of them had been counted. Many of the envelopes were already opened without any security there. It was not long before we found evidence of fraud. Certain people were given blank absentee ballots and were later able to hand them in, thereby circumventing the safeguards against voter fraud. My volunteers had a short time to work because the results would be certified soon and then we had a short time to file a case to challenge the fraud in state court. We found over 50 cases of voter fraud (e.g., people in nursing homes who did not or could not vote). That is when we learned that the law in Pennsylvania is that unless we could overturn the results of the election, my case would be dismissed before I could do discovery to get the evidence. I would have to post a large bond (e.g., $50,000.00) and if my case was dismissed, I would have to pay the other side's legal bill. Although this was a political campaign matter, City Council authorized $70,000 of taxpayer money be used to pay for the incumbent's private lawyers. For those reasons, I was unable to file a state case. I filed a federal case. The court dismissed the case without ever looking at the evidence because the City Council race was not a federal election. In 2008, it was revealed that the incumbent’s office had been the subject of an FBI investigation. The incumbent wore a wire and recorded conversations with his Chief-of-Staff, Campaign Manager and two top contributors. Three of them were later convicted and sentenced.

Honest government is worth fighting for. I have the will to fight. Without it, we will not see better schools, safer neighborhoods, growing businesses, good jobs, lower taxes and the many others things our city needs. This fight has never really ended for me. My support has grown since 2007. Most people know that I plan to run in 2011. It’s about that time and I’m thankful for your support.

Party, Party in the City

What better way to ease into no longer having a cold than to shuttle Jada to not one but two Friday afternoon parties. Here's the blow-by-blow account:

3:40p - Got all my work done. Not always a sure proposition, especially on a Friday, especially when I'm leaving a good two hours before I usually do. I bundle up, mount my steed, and zip over to Jada's after-school program, birthday gift and drinks jammed into my tiny messenger bag.

3:50p - We will be returning here later this afternoon, and mercifully Jada's teachers take the drinks and her backpack, so my load is lightened considerably. Which is more than compensated for by now having to lug Jada in the back seat. How is it possible that my route is uphill both ways?

4:00p - We arrive at the ice skating rink on the Penn campus. Jada immediately spots one of her best friends heading in at the same time. They both rev up as if they were wind-up toys, bopping all over the place and giggling incessantly. Girls.

4:10p - Within minutes, we have traded in our shoes for skates, and Jada excitedly thrusts herself onto the ice. Though she is wobbling everyone, she seems to be having fun, alternating between holding on to a safety cone and my hand.

4:20p - Ugh. In an instant, Jada has gone from carefree to terror-stricken. She needs to go pee, and, without delay, she pees herself. A yellow puddle forms in the middle of the rink, and she crumbles to the ground in tears. I alert a worker and they cordon off the area.

4:30p - Birthday girl's dad is so nice to us. Even though he's got a growing number of guests to welcome, he makes sure we're OK. I insist to Jada that we have to go home, which causes her to howl even harder. I decide to leave Jada at the party and race home to get a change of clothes. Since we only live about a mile and a half away, it takes about as long to exchange my skates for shoes and get all my winter clothes back on as it does to bike home.

4:40p - Waiting for me at home are two packages and a pile of mail. I throw them and my bike inside, dash upstairs, grab a change of clothes and a plastic bag, and just like that I'm off again into the cool late afternoon air.

5:00p - Back in the rink and into the bathroom, I insist to Jada that she go pee before we step back onto the ice. Soon enough, we are back in skates and flailing around. By now, all who we were on the ice with have long come in, and a slew of people who weren't even on the premises when I left are now here.

5:20p - Skates off, we head upstairs for pizza and crafts. I am happily reunited with some old familiar faces - a friend of mine who I used to go to church with, who has brought four of her five kids, and a friend of Jada's from three schools ago, whose mom I hadn't seen in years. There must be 50 people crammed into a tiny little room, pizza and cupcakes and crafts and jackets everywhere. Now this is a birthday party.

5:40p - We must dash off. I give birthday girl's dad an extra handshake of thanks for his empathy and understanding, and happily accept birthday girl's mom's goodie bag. We bundle up and head back to Jada's after-school program, Jada singing lazily to herself and me pumping madly in the thin winter air, thighs burning.

6:00p - Since many of the birthday party attendees are in Jada's after-school program, this party isn't as well-attended, but it's still fun to see familiar faces and chow down. Jada alternates between picking at her food and working on some crafts, while I hunker down in front of a plate of dinner and finally breathe a sigh of relief. It feels good to sit, to be in a warm room, and to have a little moment to myself, even in a room full of kids running rampant.

6:20p - It's time to call it a day. We depart, cycle quietly home, and soon enough, after baths and stories, the kids are down, and I am left to pick through an afternoon's worth of crap in my messenger bag - remnants of crafts, a now torn-up goodie bag, and other miscellany. I make a note to myself - tomorrow, we crack down on the kids and get them to clean everything up.

Documenting Diversity

At a time in which we increasingly sort ourselves by class in this country, there is no starker example of this than the make-up of our children’s classrooms. Otherwise open-minded and justice-seeking people of all persuasions all of a sudden get downright neurotic when it comes to finding a suitable environment for their precious juniors, even if it means shelling out big bucks, moving, or working every possible political connection.

Race is an unmistakable and yet seldom spoken component of this sorting. We cannot easily delve into the annual incomes, work ethics, and moral characters of our fellow parents, so instead we use skin color as a proxy, and have become learned in our use of race-blurring code words like “density” to excuse ourselves from situations in which our kids will mingle with other kids who might bring them down.

My wife and I have been incredibly fortunate, first as kids ourselves to have received good to great educations in our childhood public schools, and then to luck into schooling environments for our kids that have proven to be wonderfully beneficial in light of their respective delays and challenges. God has been good and it is no effort at all to give Him the credit here.

What I pray and hope and strive for as it relates to our kids’ education is that they are exposed to lots of subjects in lots of different ways, for who knows what will capture them and by what learning style. Diversity, in other words, is inherently a good thing from a pedagogical standpoint, for it maximizes the chance that a student will be inspired. And, it broadens their ability to process information in a multitude of ways.

Diversity as it relates to who they learn with and from, therefore, would also seem to be an important component to a strong childhood education. Say what you want about how curricula have changed since I was a kid – and to be sure I have my own complaints to register – but one nice improvement, in my opinion, has been the intentional exposure to a range of life perspectives.

To give but two examples, my son’s “Raising a Reader” book bag from last week included, out of three stories, one from an African-American viewpoint and one from a Native American viewpoint. Meanwhile, my daughter’s take-home book was in Spanish! She insisted I read it word for word, even though I had no idea what I was saying. (Nor would have any Spanish speaker who had heard me, given that I was likely mangling every other word.)

One of the ways I feel fortunate about our kids’ schooling so far is that it has been really good, for the most part, and they have been exposed to a fairly diverse mix of teachers and fellow students. I realize that in some parts of the country, there aren’t many avenues that are relatively high in quality and high in diversity. So other parents may have to make tougher choices than we have. But I would hope that diversity would rank higher as a criteria, given its fundamental usefulness in a good childhood education.

For what it’s worth, here’s a breakdown of the racial composition of my kids’ teachers and classmates. For teachers, I simply offer a count, and for classmates, I offer very rough percentages (not including my kids themselves). All numbers are Asian/black/white, with teachers first and then classmates.

Jada:
Age 1 – 0/1/1, 10%/40%/50%
Age 2 – 0/2/0, 10%/80%/10%
Age 3 – 0/2/0, 0%/95%/5%
Age 4 – 0/3/0, 20%/40%/40%
Age 5 – 0/0/2, 30%/20%/50%

Aaron:
Age 1 – 0/2/0, 10%/80%/10%
Age 2 – 0/2/0, 0%/95%/5%
Age 3 – 1/2/0, 10%/40%/50%

Jada and Her Pals

Even though she's only been going to her new school and after-school program for less than three months, Jada's already made some bosom buddies. There's four of them - all girls - who she talks about all the time and draws pictures for and writes notes to. It's really kind of sweet to see them interact with each other, like little teeny-boppers, hugging and laughing and spinning and dancing.

I can tell I'm already losing my little girl a little bit. Friends become incredibly important as we go through childhood, and you can see how Jada is starting to pick this up. I mean, as much as she loves her brother, she competes with him; and as much as she loves Amy and me, we have to lay down the hammer sometimes for her own good. But friends, in her mind, are all fun all the time.

Since I am so future-oriented, I cannot help but think that, someday, she will find someone who she really thinks is the neatest thing. And they're going to get married and leave the flock and start their own little family. And I will always be really important to her, but my connection to her will become just one of many really important connections that make up the fullness of her life.

I pray for these other connections, because I love my little girl, and I want her to be happy, and I want her to be all she can be, and I want her to find friends and find a spouse who will help complete her. And I look forward to her being made happy in all of these ways. Although I have to think there will be a little bit of sadness too.

And as for Aaron? Oh Lord, please would somebody have mercy and take him. :)

Lazy Linking, 30th in an Occasional Series

What I liked lately on the Internets:

* Public Enemy and creative pricing strategies. [Hat tip: Marginal Revolution.]

* Bicycle commuting as an allegory of Adrian Fenty losing his re-election bid in DC. [Hat tip: Daily Dish.]

* A survey of 30 US cities on receptivity to education reform gives Philadelphia and San Jose solid "D's." Ouch. (Criteria: access to brains, access to money, charter environment, quality control, district receptivity, and municipal receptivity.)

* I don't know this for sure, but I assume that how people are stoned in Iran today is how they were stoned back in Biblical times. [Hat tip: Chart Porn.]

* This study confirms my strategy in college that, instead of cramming the night before a big test, I would go to bed early.

An Even Grander "Hallelujah"

So apparently I was the very last person in the Philadelphia region to watch the "Flash Opera" that took place at Macy's downtown. If you haven't added to the 6 million views on YouTube, this "random act of culture" involved Opera Company of Philadelphia quietly intermingling among the shoppers and then bursting forth into song once Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus was played on the organ. Who knows from the footage who's a professional soloist and who just joined in once everyone around them was singing, and who really cares: what resulted was a spectacularly grand moment of song and culture and spontaneity and unity. No matter what your religious persuasion, it seemed you could not help but belt out your own "hallelujah's" and get more than a few goosebumps at how exultant was the resulting cacophony of voices in this great and quintessentially Philadelphian location.

After finally watching the video, I could not help but think of what it presages, which is a grander and more spectacular spontaneous bursting forth of song. For as marvelous was the "Flash Opera" at Macy's, and as regal a setting, they pale in comparison to countless angels raining down worship in the presence of God Almighty, seated on His throne.

We who profess to be born-again believers, especially those of us who are well-educated and solidly middle-class, can tend to think of our God in fairly buttoned-up terms: we are in relationship with Him, He walks with us, He instructs us, He comforts us, He guides us, and as needed He chastises us. All well and good.

But I guarantee to you that when we come face to face with the Almighty, we will have but one response, and it will be instinctual and emotional and all-encompassing, and it will be worship; that is, the ascribing of worth to something so much greater and grander than we have ever seen or known. And it will be nothing but joyous and natural to join in with the multitude of angels that have been doing the same for a very long time.

A note about those angels. While it may be incorrect to focus our adoration on the incredible magnitude of their collective worship rather than on that which they are worshipping, neither ought we downplay just how great is that scene. For, while we are on this side of glory and can only begin to imagine how great our God will be when we see Him face to face, we can probably imagine more easily the spectacle of countless angels rendering glorious sounds that reverberate through a grand hall, which can help size for us just how great is the cause of all of that praise.

Here in Philadelphia, they may not have been angels, but the members of the Opera Company, and those unprepared other shoppers who join with them, were very much angelic, in their singing and in their joy. I appreciate this glimpse of something of what is to come, and can only begin to fathom in my finite head and heart that if the "Flash Opera" moved me and gave me goose bumps, how much more will I be overcome when I am on the other side of glory.