He Began to Have Nightmares

            I spent last week on vacation. Before I left, however, I came across an article in a magazine dated 2008. It was about a Serbian abortion doctor named Stojan Adasevic.

            During Adasevic’s life, he performed over 48,000 abortions. Then one day, he renounced this practice. Why?

            Stojan had begun experiencing chronic nightmares where he saw children between the ages of four and twenty four years of age standing in a field. In every dream, he was advised that the children were “the ones you [Adasevic] killed with your abortions."

            Adasevic became a pro-life activist. He returned to his religious roots in the Orthodox branch of Christianity. He also became an outcast in his nation’s medical community.

            I think I understand why Adasevic experienced a change of heart. Sometimes, maybe most times, dreams need to be discounted. In this case, however, I think Stojan’s dreams permitted him to imaginatively see the consequences of his practice.

            I wish him many blessings in his activism—and his renewed faith.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. I think the most under-appreciated variable in the challenge of public education is the self-motivation of the student.

            I read yet another lament today about the state of education in the U. S. I propose a moratorium on such talk until we address allowing children to face the consequences of their disinterest in learning.

            In Christian ministry, we say each child must cultivate a faith of his own. The same is true in public education.

            The pendulum has now swung past the line of good communal health. Until we address this reality, our society will wring its hands in angst.

2. Rest in peace, Nick Charles. You brought a little bit of home to me on CNN in Argentina.

3. News to me from the world of the weird: I came across another old article in a Christian magazine a couple of weeks ago. In it, the editor was interviewing Joe Eszterhas, Hollywood screenwriter and author. Having recently written his memoir, Eszterhas was asked about the strangest thing he experienced in Hollywood. He replied it was Marlon Brando asking every visitor at his home to provide a stool sample for his private collection. Ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to weirdness, we have a winner!

4. Is it my imagination, or is this the worst June the Rangers have experienced in a long time?

5. For anyone who refuses to believe I surrender my desires for the good of my family, consider this. Tomorrow, I am accompanying my family and my sister’s family to spend the day at Six Flags. It’s not the heat I hate, and I love the rides. It’s the lines I despise.