Intersect

With the Christmas season upon us and the celebration of the birth of Jesus, I thought it was appropriate to consider how the season draws people closer to one another. It seems only natural to quote the verse in Luke 2:14 (KJV) “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

So you are probably wondering what the three circle overlap symbol is for. In mathematics it is a Venn diagram (conceived by John Venn in 1880) with three sets that overlap their common elements. The middle portion is what is known as the union of the elements.

Recently I was listening to a politician talk about using common ground instead of compromise. I thought of how slick of a marketing tool that was. No one wants to be seen as compromising their beliefs. Then it dawned on me that it’s more than slick, it’s true and acceptable to everyone. Common ground is the safest and most agreeable starting point to find peace. Who doesn’t want peace?

What’s brilliant about common ground is that it’s a win/win for both parties involved. You may think it is compromise in disguise, but the definitions are different. A compromise is “a settlement of differences by mutual concession.” Whereas, common ground is a “foundation of common interest.” When you compromise, you give up something. However, when you find common ground, you agree on a mutual foundation of what you both want. I prefer to use the term intersect “to have one or more points in common,” because it doesn’t get misinterpreted with compromise and still is equated as the union of the broader elements.

An example of compromise was when a piece of recent legislation was to allow the Bush tax rates to stay in place. The Democrats wanted an increase for the rich and the Republicans wanted it to stay the same. In the end, just before the Christmas break, the tax rates were allowed to stay in place with an extension for the unemployed added. This is compromise. It’s a compromise because everyone got something they wanted, but everyone also got what they didn’t want. A better solution would have been the common ground or intersect, which was to have taxes stay the same for the middle class and poor—no more no less. All democrats and republicans agreed on that issue, because it was the key element of the bill. If the intersect of the bill was enacted, both parties would have had what they wanted, good will would have resulted, and they could have turned to other issues that both agree on; or if time permitted, try to persuade the other party to broaden the circles of their ideas for future legislation.

I contend that my idea of an intersection of ideas rates higher than the status quo. Look at the polls for congress. As of December, 2010, congress has an average approval rating of 19.4 %. If a company had an approval rating that low, it would be a matter of time (very short time) before they would go out of business.

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that “Under our democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule; both commonly succeed, and both are ultimately right." Is that the kind of common ground we want? I think none of us want that. Politicians could accomplish great things as long as they find the intersection between their ideas, but only if they let go of their rigid boundaries and also if they remember they are there to serve the American people.

Some people like confrontation, like to be right all the time, like to cause trouble. But even they have a common thread you could weave into your life circle. The greatest casualties in world history have come from differences over religion. Well here are some quotes that prove that even differing religious thoughts have an intersection or common ground.

New Testament, Paul in Romans 14:19. “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.

Old Testament, Proverbs 17:1. “Better a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting--and conflict.”

Koran, Sura 8:61 “But if the enemy incline towards peace, do thus (also) incline towards peace, and trust in God…”

Hindi, Sri Ramakrishna. “The man who works for others, without any selfish motive, really does good to himself.”

Buddha. “Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.”

These quotes represent how peoples from all walks of life search for an intersection for which to find common ground. We may not all believe in the baby Jesus as God sacrificing his cushy life in heaven to be born a human for our salvation. However, all people from all corners of the earth want to be loved by someone, want to share love with others, and have as the angels on high said, “peace and good will toward men.”

It may seem naïve to think simple methods could accomplish great things. It may seem simple that small changes could have great impact. One baby in a manger couldn’t possibly change the dynamics of a society and then a world—and yet He did. I have found throughout my life that achieving great things doesn’t come from taking one giant leap, but rather many small steps. As Christmas passes, the New Year follows. This gives us an opportunity to begin again with a new frame of mind; one that embraces the union, intersection, or common ground, with others to achieve things great and wonderful.

Birds Not of a Feather

After Thanksgiving Day, it’s customary to ponder whether or not we have had too much to eat. But I didn’t. Instead, I recalled two separate events how birds responded to giving. The actions from these birds, in an odd way, show how petty or profound Thanksgiving can really be.

Awhile ago, I had just enough time to get some fast food for lunch before I went to my next appointment. I maneuvered through the drive-through and parked to listen to the radio and eat. While I was eating, I looked in my rear view mirror to catch a big seagull dragging a bag containing the remnants of a McDonald’s meal. The bird proceeded to swallow half a burger in one gulp, expanding his neck to almost twice its width. That would have seemed to be enough to satisfy him. However, he didn’t fly away.

Moments later, several other birds decided to get in on the action. Starlings, blackbirds, and seagulls all hovered around to get at the leftover fries that were scattered about. The wide-necked seagull guarded his booty, lunging at the other birds trying to nab some of the nearby fries. Soon there was such a flurry of feathers and birds hopping and pecking at the fries that the seagull with the swollen neck surrendered his goods. Within seconds, the area was picked clean and the seagull was alone, with an empty bag and napkins strewn nearby.

Days before the seagull event, I drove down a dip in a local road I pass by regularly. A marshy pond with cattails and lilies straddled both sides of the road. On this particular day, I saw a lone green headed Mallard Duck looking displaced wandering the pavement. It crossed the road and circled a lump of something back near the pond. I thought it might be a squirrel or opossum but as I neared the corpse, there was no doubt--a dead female duck. The male duck paced across the road again and then back to the dead female. I slowed to allow the bird to move out of harms way. But it looked up as if he wanted me to stop and help…very eerie. As I drove by, I took one last look in the rear view mirror to see the duck steadfastly staying by the female’s side.

In both incidences, each bird was left alone in the end. But the contrast between the two endings was striking. In the life of the seagull, it demonstrated selfishness and greed. In the life of the mallard, it demonstrated compassion and commitment.

Thanksgiving has now passed us by and we have stuffed ourselves with the lavish foods only a holiday could provide. In a week or two we will probably forget how we lived that day. Was it just a day where we gorged our appetites and plopped down to watch the football game, or serve ourselves better by showing compassion to people?

The pilgrims came to America with hope to live out a new freedom. But with most freedoms there is a cost. The leader of the pilgrims, William Bradford, lost his own wife barely setting foot on the soil of the new land. Instead of returning to Europe in despair, he poured his energy into “husbanding the resources of Plymouth Colony.”[1] Those that came before us stand as an example of how to survive in a savage world. They exemplified this by how they bound themselves together with compassion and commitment.

Are we truly thankful for those that braved the trail before us and also to those closest to us? Do we show compassion and commitment to others, regardless of what we will receive in return? Birds know the difference. So do you want to be like a seagull with a belly full of food and no friends, or like the male Mallard with a show of empathy to his dead mate? Incidentally, the next day I passed by the male duck on the road. He wasn’t alone anymore—he was receiving kindness from a man handing out a bag full of bread crumbs.


[1] William Bradford: Plymouth’s Faithful Pilgrim, 1998.

Was there really a city of Tuball?

Many readers have asked if there really was a city where Tuball was located. I actually wanted a location that was plausable, but not verifiable, to keep things intriguing. I settled on a shallow underwater ridge in the Caspian Sea. Plausable, because the Caspian Sea's water level has been known to fluctuate extensively (maybe even low enough for a city to be built), and non verifiable because the location of the city today would be underwater today.

One fascinating piece of information popped up when I was writing my second book. Ancient cart ruts are embedded in the ground along the Apsheron Peninsula, which juts out into the Caspian Sea, east of Baku, Azerbaijan's capital city. The ancient cart ruts may be over 7,000 years old, and they run from land directly into the sea, in the direction of where Tuball was to be. One thought is that the tracks could have been used to transport goods to a sea port. However, there is a legend in Azerbaijan that these ruts were a road to a now submerged city.

A map of Shem's journey in Tuball: The Lost City?

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Who is the oldest brother, Japheth, Shem, or Ham?

According to the Bible, when Noah was 500, he had 3 sons: Shem, Japheth, and Ham (Gen 5:32). Noah was 600 at the time of the flood. So one of the boys was 100 at the time of the flood. Which one?

A) Shem was 100, two years after the flood (Gen11:10), so that would make him 98 at the time of the flood, and concluding that he was not the eldest.

B) In Gen 9:24 Noah cursed the descendants of his youngest son Ham.

Therefore: With Ham the youngest (age unknown), and Shem not the eldest, Japheth must be the eldest---two yrs older than Shem.



Gen 10:21 Indicates that Japheth is older in the NIV & KJV, but Shem is older in NLT & NASB. Therefore this passage is too ambiguous to be used as a reference.

How are the main characters related in Tuball: The Lost City?

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