The Dream...

Last week for the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration last week, the high school had Rev. Billy Kyles come to partake in the school’s prayer services. Rev. Kyles invited MLK over to his house for dinner and spent the last hour in the Lorraine Motel with MLK. Afterwards on their way out to dinner, Rev. Kyles was on the balcony with MLK at the Lorraine Motel when he was shot.

Rev. Kyles did two talks at the school. It was a true honor to hear his story and inspiration the day after the country honored MLK. He spoke at a public prayer service on Tuesday night, and spoke for the school on Wednesday at a school prayer service. Tuesday evening, I had invited Charlie to come as well since he is also interested in Memphis history and we had once gone searching for the Lorraine Motel/National Civil Rights Museum our freshman year. Anyways the core of Rev. Kyles’ speech was the same both days: You can kill the Dreamer, but you can’t kill the Dream. Not only was he talking about the civil rights dream, but he was also talking about personal dreams as well.

Some Christmas pictures…

Matching Snuggies


Uncle David’s famous wrapping


I forget the joke or what happened, but it was a funny moment
(PS...Marty, Bubble Wrap turned 50 years old today, Monday.)


Dad’s Purses


More pictures to come…

And, yes, the Vikings lost in a game that was tough to watch. I went to Charlie’s to watch the game, he had about a dozen people to watch what should have been the Viking’s ticket to the Super Bowl.

Tidbit by Thomas: When does one know the The Dream has been achieved?

Live like we're dying

So one of the things I had to do while home at Christmas break was to bring home the obutsudan I had built for Great Grandma about three or four years ago. By the time Grandpa Kobata and I had built her obutsudan, we had experience building two small obustudans and three big obutsudans. So perhaps being the most experienced obutsudan building in Sacramento at the time, we put all our expertise into building Great Grandma's great obutsudan. It was the biggest and fanciest one we have ever built. Originally, I took it to her house in the old Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera we had. It barely fit through the door. Neither our current Tercel or Corolla has doors that big, so we had to put into dad's truck. That's how big it is. The next huge question, after getting it home was, where was it going to go in our house. I barely found room in my bedroom.

Yes, as you can see, it is bigger than my bedroom tv...about 3 times bigger! I've saved alittle money from my Christmas and graduation presents to buy the accessories, or butsugu, (candle holder, incense, the two other scrolls, etc) for it. And since the BCA Bookstore has a good user friendly online store, I'll probably be trying that out. (And speaking of that, I was checking out obutsudans on there, and from what I recall, it seems like they have gone up in price by a couple hundred dollars from when I originally started thing of buying/building one!)

Tidbit by Thomas: No, I'm not a die hard American Idol fan. In fact I could not even tell you who won the last few seasons. But I do love watching the first few weeks when they show the try outs. Mainly, I watch for a good laugh.

But apparently Kris Allen, according to Wikipedia, won last years competition. His song, "Live Like We're Dying," is a hit across the country. Not only does it have a great tune, but also a great message, that I have often ruminated on in blogs: appreciate and live each moment appropriately, for you don't get it back. If I didn't know any better, I would have called Kris Allen a Buddhist. Below are the music video and lyrics...

The music video

The lyrics:
Sometimes we fall down and can't get back up
we're hiding behind skin that's too tough
how come we don't say I love you enough
till it's to late, it's not too late

Our hearts are hungry for a food that won't come
we could make a feast from these crumbs
and we're all staring down the barrel of a gun
so if your life flashed before you
what would you wish you would've done

Yeah... gotta start
lookin at the hand of the time we've been given here
this is all we got and we gotta start pickin it
every second counts on a clock that's tickin'
gotta live like we're dying

We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
turn it all around or throw it all away
we gotta tell 'em that we love 'em
while we got the chance to say
gotta live like we're dying

And if your plane fell out of the skies
who would you call with your last goodbyes
should be so careful who we live out our lives
so when we long for absolution
there'll no one on the line

Yeah... gotta start
lookin at the hand of the time we've been given here
this is all we got and we gotta start pickin it
every second counts on a clock that's tickin'
gotta live like we're dying


We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
turn it all around or throw it all away
we gotta tell 'em that we love 'em
while we got the chance to say
gotta live like we're dying

Like we're dying oh-- like we're dying [x2]

We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
turn it all around or throw it all away
we gotta tell 'em that we love 'em
while we got the chance to say
gotta live -- like we're dying

We never know a good thing till it's gone
you never see a crash until it's head on
all those people right when we're dead wrong
you never know a good thing till it's gone

Yeah... gotta start
lookin at the hand of the time we've been given here
this is all we got and we gotta start livin it
every second counts on a clock that's tickin'
gotta live like we're dying

We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
turn it all around or throw it all away
we gotta tell 'em that we love 'em
while we got the chance to say
gotta live like we're dying

Like we're dying oh -- like we're dying [x2]

We only got
86 400 seconds in a day to
turn it all around or throw it all away
we gotta tell 'em that we love 'em
while we got the chance to say
gotta live like we're dying
live like we're dying

Welcome back!

So I came back to Minnesota on Monday. I had to be at the airport around 5:30 in the morning. On the way to the airport, the radio in Sacramento was saying the temperature was going to reach the low 50’s for the day. Well, during the flight, the pilot came on the intercom to say we were on our way to Minneapolis/St Paul where the current temperature as -9 (yes, NEGATIVE nine)! It’s always interesting to come back to snow on ground and ice on the streets!

And I know some of you have seen these, but for those who haven't, here are some of my graduation pictures:

This is Tom (on the left) and Manuk (on the right) and I after the baccalaureate Mass at the St Paul Cathedral Friday afternoon.

This is a picture we took with Dr. Snyder, who was our Church history professor. He taught a variety of courses dealing with historical elements in the Church. I had him for two classes, History of the Papacy and Patristics, and so since he knew my academics, he sat on my comps exam board. (L-R: Sarah, myself, Dr. Snyder, Manuk and Tom)


Six of us graduated with a Masters in Theology this time around. Five us were able to attend the ceremony (one was in DC working on her next degree to become a Canon Lawyer). (L-R: Tom, Sarah, Ry, Manuk and myself)


The Graduation Stage


My Cheering Section: Charlie's dad (Lou) and my mom


The day after graduation, we had a lunch party for graduates, some of our fellow classmates, and our relatives and friends. This was picture of those we took classes with (with the addition of Owen, Ry's son). The two you don't know are Corinne (left) and Chris (front).

So there's my walk through graduation pictures!

Tidbit by Thomas: Brain too cold to think of one right now...but dont worry i have one brewing for the next post.