Meanderings, 27 May 2023
Good morning!
Photo by Mandy Henry on Unsplash
A thriving urban forest can plant the seed of wellness in the minds and hearts of people navigating the dense brush of mental illness.
In 2022, a CNN poll found that 90% of Americans believed the U.S. was experiencing a mental health crisis. Unfortunately, the data backs it up. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in five U.S. adults experience mental illness. It’s a troubling trend that affects people of all backgrounds.
During Mental Health Awareness Month, it’s important to give voice to the silent struggle so many people face and consider how we might improve the state of mental health in America.
Experts say one way we can get there is by increasing the investment in green infrastructure.
Research shows that access to trees reduces rates of depression, lowers levels of the brain’s main stress hormone, cortisol, and improves cognitive function. This is especially true in cities and urban areas, where residents are significantly more likely to battle depression and anxiety. By breaking up concrete jungles with urban forests, we can help make people happier and healthier.
The positive impact of trees is well-documented in a growing body of scientific studies in the U.S. and around the world. For example, a study in Germany concluded that just living within 100 meters of a tree has the ability to reduce the need for antidepressant drugs. In Denmark, researchers found that children living at the lowest levels of green space had a significantly higher risk of developing psychiatric disorders later in life as compared to children living near strong green space. Some doctors are even looking to trees as a form of medicine, prescribing struggling patients with a walk in the woods to fully immerse themselves in nature (a practice known as forest bathing).
Despite the overwhelming amount of research available, there’s seemingly little awareness among U.S. adults about how trees can positively affect our day-to-day well-being.
The Brady Bunch home: FOR SALE!
(KTLA) – The famous home of Mike, Carol, Marcia, Jan, Cindy, Greg, Peter, Bobby, Alice the housekeeper, and Tiger the dog is headed to market. Yes, the original home from the “Brady Bunch” can be yours, and it will look just like you remember it.
The home, which is located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Studio City, was originally just used for exterior shots in the original 1970s classic television series. But in 2019, HGTV, the popular real estate and home improvement reality channel, began renovating the property to revamp the interior to be series-accurate.
The project was chronicled in HGTV’s “A Very Brady Renovation,” hosted by Drew and Jonathan Scott, aka the Property Brothers, who worked on the renovations alongside the actors who portrayed the six Brady kids in the original series.
HGTV purchased the home back in 2018 to the tune of $3.5 million, beating out offers from other Hollywood heavy hitters, including singer Lance Bass. The network then invested $1.9 million into the property, including adding a full second story and increasing its size by 2,000 square feet.
“Standout features in the completed home include the iconic floating staircase, the burnt orange-and-avocado green kitchen, the kids’ Jack-n-Jill bathroom and a backyard with a swing set, teeter totter and Tiger’s dog house,” HGTV said in a release.
The Church of Scotland is not doing well:
The Church of Scotland has lost more than half of its members since the year 2000, with the average age of worship attendees being 62, according to a recently released report.
The Assembly Trustees report, created in advance of the Church’s General Assembly, which is scheduled to go from May 20-25 in Edinburgh, analyzed the statistical information about the denomination.
According to the report, the membership of the Church in 2021 was 283,600, which represented a 4.6% decline compared to 2020, and well below the 1.3 million reported in the 1950s.
The report explained that the 2021 membership numbers represented 46.6% of what was reported in 2000, while the number of ministers reported last year was 60% of what it was in 2000.
Pentecost, the birth of the church, a momentous moment in Christian history. Diverse backgrounds assembled and a transcendent unity was made immanent by the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. Unity came through diversity, and that diversity testified to the validity of their unity.
American society currently views distinction and division as synonymous. Those who are not like “us” get placed in the ambiguous category of “them”. Diversity is a threat rather than a path to unity. They only become us when we realize that there is a lot of them in the experiences thought only to belong to us.
Such transitional moments are the pentecostal (using this term in a different way) experiences that we so desperately need in our world today. They are the kairos moments whereby another kingdom enters our vocabulary, posture, and lives. We realize that our calling is not determined by the power dynamics of this world. Faith is as much how as it is what.
Pentecost is the reversal of Babel (Gen. 11:1-8). At Babel, uniformity of language produced an unfaithfulness of will that created a disunity with God. Pentecost is a diversity of languages, a faithfulness of will, that produces a unity-in-diversity moment for the church and world.
Babel reveals how worldly power works—moving inward, centralized, and coalescing at the top. Pentecost reveals the power of the kingdom—moving outward, dispersed, and measured by its faithfulness to those at the margins. Babel is human production and progress alone. Pentecost is a divine power encounter that reminds the world that our efforts alone will never satisfy the deep longings placed in us by a loving God, longings for community, friendship, peace, and good will.
Amid turmoil in Washington over debt ceilings, divisive identity politics aplenty, and fractures around diversity, may Pentecost remind us that our unity comes from the Spirit. Pentecost is as much a part of our redemption story as the cross and resurrection. Without Pentecost, transformation is impossible.
Bird goes Kuyper on cyberspace:
I remember when I worked in military intelligence back in the 1990s that the whole concept of information warfare, cyber-warfare, and command, control, and computing as weapons of warfare was in its infancy. Now, cyber, in both defense and offense, is one of the main theatres of modern warfare as the recent conflict in Ukraine has shown. Cyber is now just as much a theatre of conflict as land, sea, air, and space. I think the same holds true for church ministry.
Digital is now one of the spaces where the church must operate. Our people are in the digital world and so it is to the digital world that we must go. Facebook and twitter are the new agoras, Google is the new Areopagus, your chat group is the new lecture hall of Tyrannus. Whether it is connecting with people digitally, making the best use of the resources that are out there, or making your own resources available to others, that is the place we need to be if we are to bear testimony, make disciples, shepherd the church, and engage life together.
The digital revolution is like nuclear fission, it is a potentially destructive force, but, if rightly handled, it is a near-infinite resource to be utilized in Christian ministry and for service in the kingdom of God.
There is no stopping the digital revolution, but maybe, just maybe, we can ride it, use it, sanctify it, and take it captive to Christ.
Theft in Little Egypt, sounds like a mystery novel:
A southern Illinois man has been charged with theft for allegedly stealing a backhoe to drive about 10 miles to an airport to catch a flight, authorities said.
Security camera footage shows a Carbondale man arriving at Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois atop a backhoe and leaving it in the airport parking lot Thursday, the Williamson County Sheriffs Office said.
"Upon arrival deputies were informed that a backhoe was parked in the airport parking lot which was suspicious in nature," the sheriffs office wrote on Facebook.
Footage captured the man walking across the street from the lot to the airport lobby, carrying a guitar case, the sheriff's office said.
The owner of the backhoe arrived at the airport a short time later and identified the equipment as belonging to his company, the sheriff's office said. The owner said the machine, typically used to move large debris, had been parked at a job site.
The Carbondale man was charged with theft in excess of $10,000, which is a felony, police said.
Always appreciate your meanderings . The first one was spot on about mental health and trees 🌳 🌲
I had no idea about the sharp and fast decline in the church in Scotland.
As to the information on nature, I have learned much from Richard Louv who has also emphasized this in his books "Last Child In The Woods" and "Vitamin N." I had the opportunity to attend a training with a Harvard Researcher on the benefits of being in a state of awe, which for many occurs in nature. It strengthened my worship of God as Creator. It lowers our heart rate and blood pressure, improves our immune system, and much more. (Benefits you identified in Meanderings). Especially enjoyed this today. Thank you.