Author: penningink

Professor. Author.

10 Things to Remember on Memorial Day

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Memorial Day, like many holidays, is one that seems to lose its distinction after a while. People tend to focus on the traditions of celebration rather than the reason for them. The Fourth of July is obvious—the national birthday. But Memorial Day to many can mean the start of summer, a long weekend, a picnic, a parade, a day at the beach, a cookout.

A field adorned with numerous American flags, celebrating Memorial Day, with a sunset in the background and 'MEMORIAL DAY' text overlayed.

Those are all nice, but there of course is a more. Memorial Day started in the Civil War, and became official in 1971, as a day to remember the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. According to history.com, it was originally called Decoration Day to reflect the practice of placing flowers and other decorations on gravesites. 

With another Memorial Day weekend upon us, I was reflecting on this holiday. And I was thinking there are a number of specific things we could remember on Memorial Day, especially as this year coincides with the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation. So here is my list of 10 things to remember on Memorial Day.

1. The sacrifices of soldiers.

This is the original point of Memorial Day, and it needs to be stressed. My wife and I had the opportunity to visit the American Cemetery in Normandy, France while I was teaching in the country. That and other sites really drove home the reality that these soldiers, often only in their teens, got out of boats onto a beach and climbed a hill while being shot at. They prevailed as a force, but many died. To this day the resident of Normandy are grateful. We should be as well, for soldiers who maintained freedom in this and other wars.

2. The uniqueness of our independence. 

I have recently enjoyed watching some films and documentaries about George Washington, the signing of Declaration Of Independence, and other national history from the revolutionary era. Other nations have established themselves, but the American experience was unique for what it established. Not just a national independence, but one in which individuals were free of the tyranny of a monarch. Bold souls listed their grievances against a king and invoked God to establish what we have today. On Memorial Day we remember soldiers who died defending it. We should also remember what it is that has been worth the sacrifice of lives. I’d suggest reading a transcript of the Declaration of Independence this Memorial Day.

3. That we are a federal republic.

One of the classes I teach is about law, and I have to remind students of the unique form of government we have. Not a simple democracy, the United States is a federal republic, a federation of independent states. This is the result of founders who wanted a strong government but were also wary of a government with too much power. The colonies that became states had different personalities, histories, and interests. To get them to join the new union required preservation of some of their autonomy. This created out country and its system of state and federal laws. It is worth remembering that and what it means today. Here is more information about a federal republic from the Bill of Rights Institute. 

4. The five freedoms of the first amendment. 

If you ask most people about the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, they will say it guarantees free speech. That is not wrong, but it is incomplete. I one time asked a class what are the five freedoms in the First Amendment. Two could answer. I told them to thank their high school government teachers. For the record, the freedoms in order listed are religion, speech, press, assembly and petition the government. Note that “press” does not mean journalism exclusively but anyone with the means to distribute information. Also, “separation of church and state” is NOT in the First Amendment or anywhere in the constitution. Read it for yourself. It is especially important to remember this Memorial Day as even democratic governments around the world are censoring free speech. 

5. The meaning, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship.

Citizenship, and becoming one, has not been an issue in most of our national history. People who immigrated to the United States would often go through the process to become citizens, and appropriately celebrate when they had done so. To be a citizen grants privileges, to be sure. But citizenship also implies a responsibility and a loyalty to the national values and culture. In recent years, we have seen a number of people advocating for open borders, violating law and diminishing citizenship. The growing problem of “anchor babies,” an abuse of the intent of the 14th Amendment, also demonstrates a desire to enjoy the privileges of citizenship without the responsibility. There is an industry of “birth tourism” to enable this. In some cases, this practice has not been about enjoying citizenship benefits but an insidious plot  to subvert the United States. To be a citizen should be to assimilate and embrace our founding values. 

There is another set of things to remember on Memorial Day that go beyond our nation. These are more about personal reflection.

6. Your childhood.

As a man of a certain age, whose parents are in advanced years, I sometimes have been thinking way back to my childhood. It is good to do this from time to time. For one thing, it brings up memories of a simpler time that shows we can be informed and entertained without cell phones and the internet. Conversations are best in real time in person. I also think about my uncertainty about the future and can reflect that things worked out ok for me. I am glad that in my childhood I developed a joy of reading and being outside, two things that are passions of mine to this day.

7. What you love about your spouse.

It is unfortunate that the rate if divorce in this country is at or higher than 50 percent. I don’t blame people, but I do hurt for them. Often I hear people explain a divorce by saying thy drifted apart. I can see how that happens. But after three decades of marriage, I find myself thinking about what first attracted me to my wife (and wonder what the heck it was that attracted her to me!). We all change and live through a variety of circumstances. We are not perfect and have disagreements. But the things that first attracted me to her are still there and worth remembering, especially if I may be momentarily annoyed by something else.

8. Those you love who have passed away. 

As I wrote about my spouse above, I am very mindful of the many friends who have had to endure their spouse passing away. On Memorial Day, we remember fallen soldiers. Many of the spouses of my friends were fighters too—fighting disease if not war. Memorial Day is a good day—as if this doesn’t happen every day—to remember in a special way those who have died and are missed. I would suggest not thinking about their absence and their death, but remember with gratitude and comfort when they were here and how they loved their lives as a blessing in the lives of others.

9. Your career path.

My college students are just starting out on this path, but even they can reflect on Memorial Day about how they chose their field, or a specific role within it. As we age, we have a much longer view. Periodically I think it is health to consider how one’s passion, ability, and calling intersect and led to a career or aspiration. Memorial Day for many is a day off from work. But it is also a good day to re-calibrate and think about why you work. Hopefully it is for more than a paycheck and health benefits. 

10. Where you were when God laid the foundations of the world.

This one is a play on multiple passages of the Bible in which God responds to someone complaining about a life circumstance, even a severely difficult one, bye asking “where were you when I laid the foundations of the world?” It is a rhetorical and theological question, not one seeking an answer. The point is, God is bigger than anyone or anything, He created all, and He has a plan. I have reminded myself of this often when going through deep valleys in my own life. Memorial Day is another day (as is every day) to remember the majesty of God. 

Wood and Stone

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A poem, psalm, for Easter

A wooden cross standing beside a rocky entrance to a cave, with a large stone rolled to the side and a warm glow emanating from inside the cave during sunset.
You came in the flesh
A spirit become man

To the world you created
That rejected you

The world worshipped gods
Made of wood and stone

You came to show your infinite might
A power of patient love

You could have remained God
But you became man

They spilled your blood
And broke your bone

They tried to kill you on a cross of wood
To hide you in a tomb of stone

On Good Friday you defeated the wood
On Easter you conquered the stone

Your victory is ours
Our souls are free

Our lives will worship you
In spirit and in truth

Knowing you became blood and bone
To defeat the wood and stone

Less technology can mean more sophistication

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Steve Jobs, the founder and long-time leader of Apple, is credited with saying that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” He was talking about the intuitive design of the phones, tablets and computers the company makes.

An open book resting on a wooden surface, showing pages fanned out, against an orange background.

But I have been embracing the concept of simplification in my own life recently, ironically due to a bad experience with Apple.

Sophistication is a misunderstood word. It is positively associated with complexity, elegance and being cultured or important. The word comes from the Greek “sophists,” a group of people who were itinerant teachers for pay, experts in rhetoric and philosophy, known for their ability to persuade. It’s how we get the notion of a “sophisticated” argument. In the fourth and fifth centuries, a sophist was a term of contempt for someone who engaged in fallacious arguments intended to mislead.

Whatever the meaning of the term, in modern usage related to technology, sophistication has come to mean having multiple devices and apps and programs. But, as I noted, I was moved by a tech company to make some significant reductions in technology in order to be more simple, or the ultimate sophistication.

The issue I had with Apple was the sudden closure of my Apple account. I don’t know what I did wrong and customer service would not tell me. I suspect I forgot to monitor my cloud storage and went over the limit. As I result, I had to start a new Apple account and rebuild much of my digital life.

Fortunately, I was able to recover some vital documents and other parts of my digital life. But in the process I made some significant, dare I say sophisticated (ie simple) changes:

  • I eliminated many apps that I was no longer using;
  • I purged my contacts, including hundreds of people who I no longer had a professional or personal relationship with. A surprising number of contacts are now deceased.
  • I no longer back anything up to the cloud, since that was the source of my problem and exposed the fact that someone else controlled a lot of my stuff. I have several high capacity thumb drives and a large external hard drive and back up to those so I am not dependent on an impersonal company to retain access to my personal documents if anything happens to my equipment.
  • I separated my work and personal lives by no longer syncing anything but calendar. Its a sophisticated, technological work-life balance.
  • I have started to favor reading hard copy books from the library over electronic anything. I still have e-books and news online. But for a pleasant diversion I am enjoying free access, no power requirement, and no interruptions by ads, emails etc. 

I thought I was doing something unique, emerging as “Tim Penning, unplugged.” But as I have spoken to people about this, I find a broader cultural movement with eliminating or reducing technology in our lives. Around the world, including various US states, there is a move to ban or limit cell phones for kids in schools and to monitor social media access. Many adults are voluntarily using technology less. I read an article that old basic flip phones are popular among young professionals. And of course there are all sorts of cautionary objections to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in our culture. 

This view of technology may remind some of the Luddites, a group of British craftsmen in the 18th century who objected to automated machinery for fear of losing their lives. The term Luddite is unfairly used to indicate people just against all technology. But they were merely responding to a practical concern about their livelihood.

I am responding to a practical concern for my life.

Since going not no-tech but less tech, I have found I have greater energy and less stress. I savor times when I am walking in nature or reading a book on paper. I often set my phone in another room, shut down the computer, and do what comes naturally as opposed to waiting to respond to the next device “bing” like one of Pavlov’s dogs. 

I feel sophisticated.  

Nonprofit mailings need more quality, less quantity

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The United States Post Office has a nice service called “informed delivery.” People who sign up for it get an email each morning that shows them an image of each mail piece or package set to be delivered that day. It’s a nice heads-up feature for anyone looking for some important mail. As one who uses the service, I find myself often looking at the email and saying “again?!”

A stack of various envelopes, including a white envelope labeled 'BILL ENCLOSED' and several colored envelopes in the background.

It makes sense that an organization will send a thank-you and acknowledgment of a recent gift. It also is to be expected they would ask past donors to consider another contribution. But the frequency of these mailings from individual organizations often exceeds what is reasonable. As a result, the mailings defeat their purpose to generate another response. The likely response to being flooded is to toss or shred the mailing unread in an inevitable “cry wolf” effect.

The frequency of mailings from each organization is made worse by the number of mailings from multiple organizations. I contribute to a number of nonprofit organizations. Of course this places me on their mailing list. But because organizations sell or share mailing lists, or addresses appear in the database of professional mailing houses that serve nonprofit organizations, my name gets added to the mailing lists of organizations I have never given to or even heard of.

This all adds up to a pile of mail, and my conclusion that nonprofit mailings need less quantity and more quality.. Part of my past career doing public relations work for nonprofit organizations included direct mail fundraising letters. So I offer some suggestions as a consumer as well as a professional in this arena.

  • Segment by recency, frequency, and quantity. It is conventional advice that organizations should segment their publics and avoid the folly of thinking there is a “general public”. In nonprofit fundraising, this means having a database and using it strategically. Sending mail, and writing corresponding content, that considers how recently someone gave, how often they historically give, and how much they typically give is just common sense. Asking someone to give when their last contribution has not even appeared on their bank statement or credit card bill is annoying. Taking them off the list for a period is respectful and likely will have more response. A targeted letter to lapsed donors, those who have missed a pattern of regular giving, can also be effective if written well to acknowledge the appreciation of past giving and asking if there is a reason the contributions have stopped. Related to recency is frequency. Some people give monthly, while others prefer to give quarterly or annually. Once organization I support smartly recognizes that I give each July and they send me a reminder appeal shortly before then. Finally, appeals should be written differently to groups of donors according to they amount they have given or have potential to give. A letter to a wealthy individual with check boxes for $10 or $100 is a missed opportunity. Asking for a large gift from someone of modest means will cause offense or distress.
  • Match donor intent and cause. When I worked for an NGO, we allowed donors to support specific staff, projects or a country where we worked. This gave donors more agency and the opportunity to feel more engaged with the organization. It also matched their preferences and considered why the donor gives and not just what the organization needs. If a donor gave to a project that was fully funded, we let them know and offered to return the gift or redirect it to something else of the donor’s choosing.
  • Be a relational vs transactional nonprofit. Corporations that make and sell products or services talk about what type of brand they are. Transactional brands merely offer a product or service in exchange for payment. That’s fine in some product categories and industries. Others seek to be a relational brand, where there are repeat customers who engage with the company in ways beyond a purchase and actually have relationship with company representatives. Some of the nonprofits I support achieve this relational status well. I receive correspondence not from some nameless organization, or even a development director, but directly from a person in the field doing what the nonprofit mission is. Often it was that person and my association with them that encouraged me to give in the first place. But the ongoing relationship also keeps me on the list of engaged supporters.
  • Manage the report to request ratio. I wrote above about the instinct to shred or trash mail from nonprofits who flood my mailbox too frequently. One way to encourage me–and others–to open mail is to ensure that some mailings do not request more contributions at all, or do so subtly. Instead, they report on what the organization has done with the support, in what specific ways have they been accomplishing their mission. There may be some people who give to nonprofits to feel good about themselves and say they support an organization. However, most want to know that their contribution housed the homeless, fed the hungry, established a church, rescued animals or in any other way demonstrate impact. The best way to do this is with storytelling–personal stories where the beneficiaries of the organization’s mission are front and center demonstrating positive change in their lives as a result of the organization doing what it says it does. Direct mail letters can include these stories in a letter, or in a newsletter or annual report. A giving envelope can be included without fanfare so donors can choose to give. But the purpose of such communications on a regular basis should be accountability.

In addition to this advice for organizations, I have advice for people like me who want to support nonprofits but get annoyed by the flood of direct mail funding appeals. People can go to DirectMail.com and fill out a form to be taken off mailing lists. But I would rather have people become strategic donors and reward organizations who do the above.

Essentially, I would encourage people to select a set number of organizations they want to support. Even do what I do and develop a spread sheet. Then indicate the annual amount (or monthly or what makes sense for you) to give to each organization. The total would be your annual charitable giving, which may equal the “tithe” percentage of income that Christians are encouraged to consider when giving. This helps to plan, stay committed to giving, report on taxes if you itemize, and mostly allows you to sort mail and discard organizations you have not pre-determined to support.

Criteria for giving are up to individuals but I suggest the following:

  • Obviously, select thoughtfully the types of causes you want to support. Religious, arts, environmental, political or anything else that means the most to you.
  • Investigate if the organization is responsible. One metric is the percentage of funding that goes to mission vs operations. A good standard is 80-20. Sometimes a donor can feel like they are merely paying for the next package to come in the mail to ask them for more. Guidestar is a good online resource of third-party data to vet nonprofits before committing to giving to them.
  • Do you actually know someone who works for the organization? This is not necessary, but it can help ensure you are entering into more of a relationship than a transaction.
  • Does the organization match what is recommended above in terms of the frequency and contents of direct mail communications?

If all of the above are practiced, I suggest it would lead to less frustrated donors and more effective nonprofits.

There are two spirits in the world

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There are two spirits in the world

The world is in chaos. More than normal. That is obvious.

But it is not complicated. 

The chaos will continue. But there can be clarity in the chaos if you look at the world with the right perspective, through a spiritual lens.

There are two spirits in the world. Only two. It’s not complicated. 

Some would say this is an over-simplification. They would argue that such a “binary”—seeing things as one or the other—is not a complete conception of reality. 

However, these same people would likely agree with the many pundits and others who describe our current culture as polarized. There are strong opinions that seem irreconcilable. 

But this is not not about ideology, it’s about theology. It is not about political parties, it’s about spiritual forces.

There are two spirits in the world.

There is the spirit of evil, and the spirit of good. There is the spirit of darkness, and the spirit of light. There is the spirit of this temporal world, and the spirit of eternity.

These contrasts are obvious in our culture, from politics to media to entertainment to social conversations.

On the one hand there is overt pride and self interest. On the other there is humility and service.

The response to the death of George Floyd was violence and destruction and threats. The response to death of Charlie Kirk is peace, worship, singing, and forgiveness. 

The one spirit encourages screaming, chanting and ranting. The other spirit moves to calm, rational, and civil dialog.

One spirit places identity in personal achievement, sexual preference, possessions and the things one can create. The other spirit gives people an identity in the One who created all things. 

One spirit encourages an allegiance to human traditions that vary with time. The other spirit favors divine authority that is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

One spirit claims that everyone should speak their own truth. The other spirit is the absolute truth.

One spirit enables and defends lawlessness. The other spirit respects law, order and justice.  

One spirit worked to allow and now celebrates ending the life of humans in the womb, The other spirit stands for the fact that life is sacred.

One spirit seeks to disrupt peaceful worship to make themselves heard by other people. The other spirit moves in the hearts of people to peacefully worship and to be heard by that spirit.

It all looks chaotic and hard to explain. You could conclude and fret that society is breaking down. Or you could see evidence of the larger truth.

There are two spirits in the world. 

This is not new. From the time when humans first fell to temptation by the devil, God announced there would be enmity between these two spirits. Since then this concept of two spiritual forces is frequently mentioned in the Bible, most famously in the Apostle Paul’s letter to an early church in Ephesus:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12).

So once you can see clearly, and understand the chaos, what do you do?

You choose.

This also has biblical precedent. The prophet Joshua advised:

“choose this day whom you will serve…as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).

Jesus also called people to choose: “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30). 

And, after you choose, have hope and stay confident.

As the disciple John wrote of the two spirits: “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

The world is in chaos. But you can view it simply. And you don’t have to fear. You just have to choose. 

There are two spirits in the world.