Dan Fogelberg Tribute Show at Custer Road

Connections Band has another show coming up and I wanted to be sure you knew about it. We're going to do our great Tribute to Dan Fogelberg Show again. Here are the details:

A Tribute to the Music of Dan Fogelberg
Friday, May 4, 2007 7 pm
Custer Road UMC
601 Custer Road,
Plano, TX, 75023

Get directions here.

As always, admission is free, but a love offering is taken to benefit the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Unless we really bomb out attendance-wise, this show will be seminal because we'll pass the $10 K mark in terms of the money we've raised for this great cause.

It's kind of hard to believe we've been that successful, really.

Connections, as you may remember, is an almost 20-piece band that does "cover shows" of our favorite artists. To date, we've done a Fogelberg Show, and an Eagles/Chicago Show. A "James Taylor/ Carole King" Show is planned for this Fall.

We started with our Dan Fogelberg covers. It actually started with Rusty King, our band leader, and me figuring out how many Fogelberg songs we already knew. Over the years, we started jamming with friends, and it just exploded from there. And I think everybody in the band still has a great fondness for Fogelberg's music...not only because it's great, but because it was our first show.

I will play guitar (the new Santa Cruz) and sing on almost everything. I'll sing lead on:
Same Old Lang Sine
Old Tennessee
The Last Nail
There's a Place in the World for a Gambler
To the Morning

People tell us all the time now that they love the shows, love the music, and can't believe how good it sounds.

I'm personally pleased that we'll be honoring Dan Fogelberg again, because I continue to hear that he may be in declining health, due to his battle with prostate cancer.

These are great songs that deserve to be hear, sung for a good cause. So I hope you'll plan to be there.

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When There Are No Answers

Sometimes, when a horrible tragedy happens, there are simply no good answers. Or, if there are, it takes weeks --if not months-- for them to emerge.

This morning, I am thinking, of course, of the shocking events at Virginia Tech yesterday. And it strikes me that the one thing we know is that we don't know very much.

But despite all we don't know, as usual, there has been an immediate rush-to-judgment; especially by the media.

When things like this happen, there is a natural human reaction to want to regain control, and to regain it immediately. Each one of us has our own natural responses that help us feel as if we have regained control again. Each of us has a natural desire to do something to be helpful.

But the truth is that, right now, most of us can't offer much help beyond offering up our prayers, our moments of silence, our mouths covered in horror. And while that might not feel like much this morning, in a sense it's a beautiful thing to offer because it's so human and so honest.
And the problem is that we now live in a culture where we expect answers --fully formed, investigated, and justified-- within minutes of a tragedy like this. We don't like just offering prayers and keeping silence. We're all lemmings in this 24-hour media culture. We want action, and we want it now. Our sitcoms last thirty minutes...why can't they wrap up these tragedies that quickly too?


In a way that sickens my stomach, the critics and pundits are already "spinning" these events.

There has already been a great deal of second guessing of the local police and university officials. There has been an anti-gun group weigh-in about Virginia's apparently lax gun laws. There has been a pro-gun group who claims the whole thing could have been avoided by less restrictive laws.

And there are dozens, if not hundreds, of media-types, descending on this sleepy town and university, in the desperate hunt for the "breaking story" and the "hear it here first" scoop...hoping against hope to do what they were trained to do, and to feed our hunger for information NOW.

Enough, already.

Let us honor and mourn the dead. Let us leave the questions about fault, responsibility, and procedure to another day. Maybe even another week. Let us, first and foremost, allow ourselves to feel our grief and shock. Let us PRAY, or meditate, or observer a time of silence. Whatever we're comfortable with.

And stop the blame game. At least for now. Because we don't know everything, and we probably won't for some time.

One thing I know from previous situations like this: much of what gets thrown into the public debate early on is often later disproved and debunked. Remember how everyone believed that the OKC bomber "must" have been an "arab terrorist?" I remember that.

As of now, we're not even sure that there was only one gunman.

Last night, even on a news show I respect immensely --Countdown with Keith Olbermann-- I saw a lot of finger pointing and premature questioning.

I saw Olbermann and the MSNBC staff questioning the actions of the university staff.

They keep asking: Why didn't they shut down the campus right away?

This question really bugs me, at least right now. Maybe I will change my mind later and be as angry and accusatory as they seem to be now. But I also used to be an "RA," and I was a Hall Director too. I did that work for five straight years of my graduate and undergraduate life.

And one thing I know is this: college campuses are not like high school campuses.

You can lock down a high school campus in a couple of minutes. But even if you wanted to, it could take hours to lock down a college campus. And even then, it's doubtful you could ever "lock" it down completely. Most high school campuses consist of a single building. Locking down a college campus would be like locking down 40 or 50 of them, simultaneously.

It seems to me totally reasonable that authorities would assume the first shooting was an isolated incident, and that the shooter might have left the campus. It seems to me totally reasonable that it would take some time for them to ascertain precisely what had occurred and get the word out. A delay of at least an hour, perhaps two, getting any kind of word to the rest of the campus, seems understandable, even in a post-911 world.

As a Hall Director, I can remember working with the campus police to figure out what had happened when sometime as simple as a fire alarm got pulled. In fact, fire alarms used to get pulled pretty regularly in the dorms. Every single time, we'd evacuate that dorm and do a search. That takes time. Dorms are big places. (The one in question at VTA housed over 800 students...)

One night in my dorm, we also dealt with a bomb threat. It took a dozen or so folks, student staff and campus police, more than an hour to do a search of just that ONE building. In that time, nobody ever thought to search another building, or shut it down too. Imagine how long it would take to search every building of a campus, or lock them all down!

And let's say that the university did immediately decide to shut down the campus. What's the best thing to do? Do you ask students to walk back across campus to their dorms? Is that safe? Do you ask them to go back to the dorms, where the only shooting you know about has just taken place? Why would the authorities assume that was safe? Couldn't it be safer to remain inside a classroom, and to try not to panic everyone? Hard to know, really.

My point is, the answers aren't easy. You're dealing with student staff --RAs and Hall Directors-- who are compensated in room, board, and tuition, and whose main goal is to be a student, not a cop. You're dealing with campus police, whose are much more adept at towing cars and tucking in drunk students, not practicing paramilitary SWAT drills.

I've also already heard the police criticized for not yet confirming the identity of the shooter. But, as for me? I'd rather them do a thorough investigation than rush to put out information that turns out to be faulty.

Given the bitter questioning that's already taking place, I am not surprised that they are using the ubiquitous "abundance of caution" in what they say now. The more the damning-questions get asked, the more these scared authorities will want to be sure all their ducks are in a row before they say another word.

All I'm asking is this: give them a break. At least for now. They're grieving too. They're second-guessing themselves as much or more as anyone. It'll all come out eventually. Just not today.

Maybe I'll change my mind about this. Maybe we all will. Maybe we'll find out there was gross negligence on the part of the university and staff. But my hunch is that, like 911, we'll find out that it was just a chaotic scene where everybody was doing the best they knew how.

We all want answers. And in our light-speed-paced, media driven culture, we want answers yesterday. Reporters, like everybody else, don't know what to do, don't know what to say, and don't know how to respond either. So, in these cases, reporters do what they do best. They start to ask questions, and begin to assign blame.

Some folks bring bundt cakes over to your house when someone dies. Reporters bring questions.

I understand why. I just wish that, in the first days of a tragedy like this, we could simply all admit that we're not going to get any complete answers. In those first hours, we're not even going to get any good factual answers. And in the days and weeks to come, we may never get good moral ones. That's tremendously unsettling. And in response, we feel like we need to DO something...do more...

But this morning, thousands of VTA students and faculty are in still reeling. Hundreds of people directly involved are still trying to find their feet underneath them. And fifty families, and their close friends, are just now beginning to feel a deep personal shock, that will soon be followed by waves of grief, and finally an abiding anger and confusion.

But all that is yet to come.

For now, let us simply lift our prayers, offer our meditations and deepest sympathies. And let us learn to keep silence, for just a while, in the face of questions we may never know the answers to.

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Kathleen Baskin-Ball

Kathleen Baskin-Ball has cancer. She's been fighting cancer for several months, and I have a good idea she's going to beat it.

There is a benefit concert for her coming up on April 22, and I wanted you all to know about it.

"The Power of a Song: An Evening with Nashville Songwriters"
benefitting Rev. Kathleen Baskin-Ball

Sunday, April 22, 2007 from 5 PM until 7:30 PM
Doors will open at 4:30 PM.

First United Methodist Church, sanctuary
503 North Central Expressway | Richardson, Texas 75080

The show will feature Nashville songwriters Nicole Witt, Don Poythress, Celia Whitler, and Billy Montana. You can learn more about these songwriters at Celia's website here.

Here's some of the public information that's been posted about Kathleen's cancer:

4

Kathleen recently learned that she has neuroendrocrine carcinoma. She had a mass of cancer about the size of a baseball in her chest cavity near her heart and lungs and extensive cancer throughout her liver. They are not sure where the cancer originated in her body. The cancer was growing very rapidly. Kathleen started her first round of chemotherapy in early January. She plans to continue having 3 days of chemotherapy treatment every 21 days until she completes 6 rounds of chemotherapy. We have a lot of hope that she can win this battle with cancer. At the end of January, she received some encouraging test results indicating that the cancer was responding to chemotherapy. She continues to preach most Sundays and to work in the church office. She reduces her office hours as needed.

Celia has been a friend of mine for many years, and I'm really pleased to hear that she's putting on this show for our mutual friend, Kathleen. The artists featured that night are both country and inspirational. And , knowing Celia, they will all be top-notch.

There is no question that Kathleen is one of my own personal-living-saints and "balcony people." Kathleen has been a good friend and colleague of mine for years. Almost every time somebody gets cancer, their friends say "why them?" And sometimes, our selfish sides say "why not someone else?"

Lots of folks are saying that about Kathleen. She is such a beacon of light and hope for so many people, and her own life has been a story of overcoming obstacles, and rising from challenging times to new life and hope.

Kathleen and I are ministry colleagues, but we are also good friends. For many years, we were in a once-a-month study group together, where we not only read books, but also shared what was going on in our lives and in our hearts. The "Listening for God" group is still an important part of who I am. And even though we don't all see each other as much now, they are still some of my closest friends.

Kathleen's been through many ups and downs. Early in her ministry, she was appointed to West Dallas, and served a small church there. She not only served that church well, but also lived among the people there in West Dallas. Bilingual and filled with a heart for service, she worked long hours to bring hope to that challenging part of the city. There are very likely young people alive today because of her ministry.

She moved from there to Greenland Hills UMC, where even in a more suburban setting, she continued to push the envelope and challenge her congregation to reach out and include those who are traditionally marginalized by the church.

She struggled through a difficult marriage, and a painful divorce during that period. Sometimes, you can love and admire both halves of couple, care for them both, and still see how they just can't make it work, you know? It was like that.

And so it was that, single again, Kathleen began a period of hoping for her own future. Which, believe it or not, would take a dramatic turn at my CD release party in early 2001.

Kathleen, good friend that she is, decided to come to Poor David's Pub that night. Lots of the single adults that I worked with at HPUMC were also there. Among them, a thirty-something man named Bill Ball. (Follow this link, and you can actually see Bill in the "Shots of the Crowd" pic from the CD Release Party. To my left, he's on the front row, three people in from the center aisle. Amazing that out of the 200-or-so folks there you can actually see him....) Bill was very active in our largest singles class. He, his Mom and his sister, all attended the chapel service I preached each week too.

So, I knew Kathleen well from one part of my life. I knew Bill well from another. But I had no idea that they'd ever known each other. Turns out, when he was just a youth and she was a very young minister, they had known each other at the Annual Conference level. But now, it was...what...fifteen years later? And there they both were, at my CD release party.

The week after, they both called me individually. Each conversations went something like this:

"Hey, enjoyed your CD release party."

"Thanks, (Bill/Kathleen)."

"Hey, I noticed that (Bill Ball/Kathleen Baskin) was there."

"Oh yeah, do you know (him/her)?"

"Yeah, we used to know each other years ago..."

"Oh...cool."

I would make a terrible matchmaker, BTW. I was too dense to put...ahem...two-and-two together. In retrospect, the neon lights should have been flashing and the sirens going off. I do remember wondering, for half a second, why these folks were each calling me about each other. But I quickly put it out of my mind.

But sparks did fly. Romance blossomed. And when it's right, sometimes it hits you hard and quick, and you just "know." So it was that they were married in a matter of months.

Who woulda thunk that lives would changed --destinies be sealed-- at Poor David's Pub?! (aside: It ought to give you pause. Who knows what might happen to you if you come to one of my shows?)

And of all the many ministers they know, I was deeply honored to be the one chosen to preside over their wedding. It was a wonderful night of celebration.

Then came the challenge of trying to have a child. It took a while, and a lot of medical help, buteventually their beautiful son, Skylar, was born. I can't think of two more loving and caring people, and two more loving and caring parents. Bill is such a kind and generous soul himself, and you always feel like a better person just to be in the presence of them both.

So now, just a few years after this, when life seemed to be going really well, it turns out Kathleen has cancer. And as I said, it hardly seems fair. But then, when I step back, when is cancer ever fair? I know that. And yet, when it happens to a soul as beautiful as Kathleen, even the part of me that knows that asks "why?"

Kathleen, from what I can tell, is not spending a lot of time asking "why?" She's fighting. She's fighting hard. And by all accounts, she's beating the odds. She was given a three month prognosis that she's already beaten. Beating the odds is the first step toward winning this battle.

You can learn more about Kathleen here.
And you can listen to some of her great sermons here.

If you can't make the show, you can still make a contribution here:

Checks should be made payable to Suncreek United Methodist Church
and can be mailed to 1517 West McDermott Drive Allen, Texas 75013.
(Write "Glory Be! Fund" in the memo blank.)

I am not kidding you when I tell you that I pray for her everyday. I pray for Bill and Skyler too, and for all of us who love her dearly.

She and Bill were brought together through the "Power of a Song," and so I know this show will be a special one.

Just knowing Kathleen, I have the faith that she's going to beat this.

There's too much for her to do, too much life to be lived, here among us.

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A Conversation About Art and Soul

A while back, I wrote you about a great new podcast here in our area, called Art and Soul of North Texas. I'm writing you about it again today because I was the featured artist for March. Because of our vacation, we didn't get the interview done until late in the month, and I wanted to have this notice displayed on the April page of this blog, so it would get more visibility for a longer time. So, I waited until today to mention it to you...

I'm inviting you to give it a listen. Art and Soul is created and produced by my friend, Shelly Niebhur, who is herself quite an accomplished musician and painter. Check out her own website here.


I have been interviewed for "radio" many times. But I have to say --with all due respect to the interviews that have come before-- this is the best one, hands down. The podcast format allows us lots of time to explore the issues, and have a true dialogue, and not just "canned" responses.

Here's how Shelly describes the interview:
Eric Folkerth is in studio today. A prolific singer/songwriter, minister, and blogger, Eric’s intelligent songwriting and skillful guitar playing have earned him a loyal and large fan base in our area. You’ll get to hear songs from his upcoming CD, along with songs from his first CD “Songs for the Time Being”. And, you’ll hear about a new love in his life, his Santa Cruz guitar.

You can listen online by clicking right here.

Once you're there, you can also "subscribe" to the podcast too, which allows it to be automatically downloaded into your iPod.

Many thanks to Shelly for asking me to be a guest. I hope you'll all take the time to give this interview a listen.

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