This past winter was the most unusual winter in my years
of living in Seattle. It was cold, but we had really no extremely cold days.
And there was sunshine, more sunshine during the winter than gray days, and
definitely less rain. We are told we are in a drought and have an energy
crisis. The spring has been more typical, actually the weather has been worse
than most of the winter.
Last week I reported to you about the apparent deficit of
$50,000 per year in revenues to make the Little Dalles ministry work. Well on
Friday and Saturday, it came to me what we could do to potentially solve the
problems. On Sunday, a particularly blistery and rainy day, I realized that my
anxieties about this were really not my fault at all, I was really sick. I had
been suffering from Puget Paradox Disease. The ailment of diminished horizons.
Now during our winters, many doctors prescribe sitting in
front of a bright light for a number of hours to cure mild depression brought
on by the grayness of our winter days. The medical community calls this
condition ÒSeasonal Affected Disorder,Ó or SAD, which may effect 20 percent of local residents. While
doing some research a number of years ago, I ran across some letters and
related correspondence, dating from 1876, now a hundred and twenty five years
old. These letters describe a much more persistent ailment in a military
garrison, near the site of Edmonds, a community north of Seattle.
Now many of you know that Seattle invented the term Òskid
rowÓ or Òskid roadÓ which describes Yessler street in Pioneer Square. The
street where logs were skidded from the surrounding hills during the
development of early Seattle. When you get to skid road, your life has reached
the point of desperation. Few people realize however, that another term of
similar connotation has its roots in this area. That term is malaise, a term
meaning: an indefinite feeling of debility (weakness, infirmity) or lack of
health often indicative of or accompanying the onset of illness. That term was
named after General I. M. Malaise commander of that Edmonds contingent. Here is
the brief report I prepared summarizing the condition General Malaise described
in his journals and letters:
During the winter of 1876, General I. M. Malaise, one
of the first visitors to our Puget Sound region, penned the name Puget Paradox
Disease when writing to his wife Abigail. This particular winter, General
MalaiseÕs third in the region, was noted by its almost daily drizzle, mild
temperatures, and limited visibility. Encamped near the site of what would
eventually become the city of Edmonds, it became an Edmonds kind of a year (A
sic Edmonds kind of thought once promoted by EdmondÕs leadership.) In this
letter, General Malaise described symptoms among his men that seemed to defy
logic. (Hence the name ÒparadoxÓ.)
ÒAll the men seem to be afraid that the weather will clear and we can
once again gaze upon the magnificent mountains.Ó
In his journal, Malaise explained that until that
winter he had actually wanted to be transferred back to the other Washington
(D.C.) and earn a couple more generalÕs stars before retiring from the
military, but that all that didn't seem too important any more. Later, he
remarked that he too was showing symptoms of the disease.
Sad as SAD may seem, even its name suggests the more
widespread symptoms described by General Malaise. Evidence from many management
and marketing studies suggest that the Puget Sound area trails similar markets
as much as 50% in the sales of certain products and services. People are
unwilling to make rapid decisions and they seem to get anxious quite easily.
Yet, the region leads the nation in per-capita sales of sunglasses. Pretty
strong evidence that all Puget Sound area residents are affected by this
chronic disease of decreased horizons.
Can anything be done to overcome the problem of Puget
Paradox Disease? Seasonal Affected Disorder is treated, under the care of a
physician, by using artificial lighting techniques. Puget Paradox Disease is
also treated by lighting techniques, but not the visible type. Illumination
with humor, training, and treatment with light that touches the spirit of
mankind is the prescribed remedy! For you see, the preceding narrative is only
fiction.
My problem was I was trying to see what we would need to
do to make a program work through sunglasses, or with perception that could not
see to the horizon, little lone clear across the state. I viewed that potential
deficit as I would has a Seattle resident, but I should have viewed the deficit
as a means to an asset, or opportunity. Viewing the Little Dalles situation
from that perspective and looking toward Seattle, you see a even bigger deficit
in Seattle, namely property values, and an incredible reliance on fossil fuels
to do everything.
The land values of the whole situation at the Little
Dalles, is just about the same as a comparable house on a 5000 square foot lot
here in Seattle. To put it another way, if you rented the same office space of
the size of one of the buildings over at the Little Dalles, over there you get
the house thrown in for free, and build equity. The only thing you have to do
is to make sure that, within reason you are connected to the world through the
internet and are able to provide some of the same information services that you
would in Seattle. But in the Little Dalles you are able to package information
in a truly unique way, instead of just buying in with money, as many venture
capitalists have tried to do over the past few years and failed.
That continued emphasis on developing what I now call the
fruit of information, or infofruit, will be a product we will be able to
produce at the Little Dalles right along with cherries, pears and apples. Next
week we will look in more depth at infofruit and see how that perspective can
help us, rural or urban dweller, move beyond ceffap.
As I have continued to think about Puget Paradox Disease,
I have also come to realize that it is really not just a seasonal disorder that
effects the residents of Puget Sound, but it really is the chronic disease that
effects virtually all the church today. The grayness of our lives in this world
have made us forget the amazing vistas that are available to those who are the
children of the living God. All too often this is manifest with symptoms that
seek stuff rather than substance. We church people must treat the disease with
humor also, because we take our importance much too seriously. Because of that,
the work that God has ordained to do through each and every believer in Jesus
Christ is stifled or quenched by are need to feel secure within comfortable
horizons. We live without the blessings of adoption that have been allocated to
us through the finished work of Christ.
Just as I ran out of money from those few weeks of work
that ended a while ago, I received a call about some more work. I do not at
this time know how long it will last, but prayerfully it will be enough to be able to go over and
take a final look at the place and construct an offer that with GodÕs provision
will be able to be accepted. Then we can proceed to secure the necessary
revenues to make the whole enterprise adventure a go, that will bring glory to
God. I am beginning to see now almost on a daily basis GodÕs provision not only
in supply but also in restraint. Grace provides stuff, but also the restraint
to keep from running ahead, in my own power and having me foul up the whole
thing. Sonshine is a welcome addition, but it is something that should be
treated with reverence, for it cost our Lord so much. Please continue to
intercede for these provisions of GodÕs grace.