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<!--StartFragment-->
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Mysterious Birthday<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Dick Alton<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:14.0pt">I have been astonished by a series of events in my
life that have made me wonder, had me catching my breath.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> Yesterday
I had breakfast at Ruby’s Restaurant on the corner of Kadzie and Madison in 5<sup>th</sup>
City. I was there to have breakfast with <i>Rev.</i>
<i>Michael Stinson</i> who is a long time
community organizer and lives near the 5<sup>th</sup> City pre-school. He says
his favorite way to start his day is to go over to the pre-school and listen to
the kids sing the Iron Man song.. really gets his day started right. During one of these song visits he heard that
the teachers were going to the ICA to be trained in the Technology of
Participation (ToP) and he asked if might also come. So my visit was to visit
probably the first ever 5<sup>th</sup> City ToP pastor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> Right
before Michael arrived in Ruby’s I looked up and who should walk in but <i>Verdell Trice</i>.. the 5th City movie Trice
who talks about he would never had done that shopping Mall if we had not had a
team. One of my film heroes.. need a team. The Mystery is everwhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> The
morning was like a scene out of the new<i>
Interstellar</i> movie. Earth has been trashed and people are looking for a new
planet to live on. Basically there seems to be a benevolent force that is
helping. There is a 5<sup>th</sup>
dimension to life almost like those who have gone before, a mysterious force
that is leaving hints about the future. More than hints, like bread crumbs that you need to follow into
the future. I mean like after I finished my visit with Rev. Stinson I went out
to my car and the battery was dead.
Something wanted me to stay. I went back into Ruby’s Restaurant and
Michael was still there, and his son-in-law just drove up then and we jump
started the car. It was a miracle<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> I am
into the mystery… and then there is the late <i>Ed Schinn’s</i> 3 minute video put out by <i>Interior Mythos Journeys</i>. Ed has an amazing sense of the religious.
I watched that clip 5 times. He points out that the key to contemplation is
encountering the mystery, but what we do is de-mystify every day existence by
ordinary-izing our lives. Having the mystery is such a powerful dimension of
our lives and two-thirds of the world knows that better than the West.. need a
spirit encyclopedia to make the transition from this World to the Other.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> I have
sitting on my desk a 1988 Kenya post card that <i>Terry Bergdall</i> sent out trying to capture our spirit lives. On the
front of the post card it starts “I trust in the final mystery of all things” and
ends with “and in the enduring sustenance of the Mystery in both life and
death”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> I do
believe that the New Social Vehicle will ride the back of a new religious mode
and I do experience we are seeing signs of this new religious mode not only in
my congregation and my family but also in talking with neighbors. One just
borrowed the Dark Night of the Soul … sees this as a helpful motif for the pain
and suffering we are presently going through in preparation for new life. I
love the Matrix movie and Leo’s struggles with will he take a blue or red
pill..to stay drugged to a false world or to decide to live before the struggle
of something new. Just to know one has the opportunity is awesome.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> As a sign
of the mystery and the bread crumbs and deciding to take the pill below is my
first published letter to the editor that came out today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:36.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Helvetica Neue Light"">Pulling the plug was penny-wise, climate foolish<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:25.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue";mso-bidi-font-family:"Helvetica Neue"">Opinion:</span></i><i><span style="font-size:25.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Helvetica Neue Light""> Letters To The Editor<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Helvetica Neue Light"">Tuesday, December 9th, 2014 12:08 PM<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Helvetica Neue Light""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Helvetica Neue Light"">Why has the Oak Park Village Board "pulled the
plug" on the sustainability manager position within village government?
The accomplishments of the manager seemed to be working quite well. An example
is the electric aggregation program,<span style="color:#434343"> researched and
initiated by the manager, which saved village residents $4 million over two
years and helped boost demand for Illinois' clean energy industry. And the
effort to bring a smart grid test to Oak Park through a South Korean company,
though still unconsummated, is an important step toward adopting 21</span></span><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Helvetica Neue Light";color:#434343">st</span><span style="font-size:20.0pt;
font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";
color:#434343">-century technology. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Helvetica Neue Light";color:#434343">Installing solar panels on the village
parking lot, along with boosting availability of electric-vehicle-charging
stations are other examples of important modernization. It seems that the
board, in order to save a few dollars in the 2015 budget, is giving up on an
effective governmental model that is used by major cities all over the country
to help mitigate the ever-more-threatening consequences of climate
change. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue";mso-bidi-font-family:"Helvetica Neue";
color:#434343">Richard Alton </span><span style="font-size:20.0pt;
font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";
color:#434343"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Helvetica Neue Light";color:#434343">Euclid Ave. United Methodist Church </span></i><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Helvetica Neue Light";color:#434343"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Helvetica Neue Light";color:#434343">Interfaith Green Network</span></i><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Helvetica Neue Light";color:#434343"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica Neue Light";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Helvetica Neue Light";color:#434343"> </span></p>
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<!--EndFragment--><br>Richard H.T. Alton 166 N. Humphrey Ave, Apt, 1N
Oak Park, IL 60302
T:1.773.344.7172
richard.alton@gmail.com
Don't let the fear of striking out hold you back
Babe Ruth </div></body>
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