American TV channels have been filled with stories about Ronald Regan.
If you own a TV or radio and aren’t in a coma, you’d be quite aware a former US president passed away.
Canadian channels had a great deal of coverage of D-day ceremonies in France. I know these things because I have heard and seen them via media.
I didn’t know that Sunday was Trinity Sunday.

Over at blogdex, 21 of the top 40 links and posts are about the death of the former president. connexions choses a different topic.

In all the hero-worship and hagiography of today, a more important festival is in danger of being lost. Today is Trinity Sunday, a day given not to the remembrance of an event but to the celebration of the Person and Life of God himself. God, who brought the universe to birth, who holds all things in the hollow of his hand and who poured himself out for the sake of a fallen humanity, has been supplanted.

It isn’t very surprising. We have never needed much of an excuse to push God aside, to call on his name to serve our agenda and to claim his blessing on us and ours. It is the way of things, part of the rhythm of of our lives, that we turn away from God and set up idols which are closer to home. In the church and out of it, we share with the Israelites of old an irresistible urge to erect strong images of gold and bronze that we can see and adore.

He notes that it is understandable that people would have a strong ideological response.

The attractions of today are obvious. Ronald Reagan, whether you see him as hero or villain, is likely to evoke a powerful ideological response. If you’re old enough, you are bound to remember your feelings on hearing the news that he had been elected those years ago. He is credited with “the defeat of communism” and “making America great again”. Alongside this, what has God to offer today? The tales of the heroism of Normandy stir pride and patriotism. We can still talk with a few who made the terrifying asault on those beaches in 1944. We can see and hear and feel the reality of their courage in film and television drama. God has none of that excitement. The doctrine of the Trinity cannot compete with Band of Brothers.

But still I cling to my naive belief that the really important celebration of today, the festival that is of eternal significance, is the celebration of the Trinity. Too often regarded as a dry an entirely optional doctrine, the Trinity is for me absolutely fundamental to the life of the Christian believer. It drives mission and lies behind our pastoral practice. The way that we understand the Trinity goes to the heart of our faith and determines not just our “believing” but bears directly on our behaving in church and society. We are made in the image of God, so the scriptures say. The question today poses is, “What does that image look like?”

I think celebrity worship is so much a part of us now, we don’t know the difference between basic respect of leadership, hero-worship or celebrity.
I dare not pretend to understand the mystery of the Trinity, but I do know that scholars have tried, sometimes to my consternation. I do know that the mysterious wonder of the Trinity is relational, and Richard attempts to take the concept out of the ivory towers and into our lives.

At a party when you watch the dancers the dancers, you usually find that there is a great range of ability. Some glide and shimmer. Some are timid. Some are clumsy, a danger to themselves and others. (That would be me!) Saddest of all are not the dancers whose dancing is poor and inexperienced, but the many who never get up, who could dance but decide they will not.

The problem with human life is not bad dancing, but that many of us choose to ignore the dance that is going on before us. What matters is not how well we dance, but that we take the risk and get up on to the dancefloor. We can leave behind dull certainty, the place of safety that merely observes and comments on the dance. Today, and everyday, we are invited to join the circle and move to the music, the rhythm of the Trinity – the Rhythm of Life.

Teenagers and blogs
David Huffaker has done some postgraduate research at Georgetown University about teens and blogging. 70 teen blogs were studied indepth.

He found the gender split in blog use was 50-50. But worryingly, teens tended to reveal more personal details on blogs than in chatrooms and forums.

The teen bloggers were between 13 and 16 years of age.

“Overall, there were a lot more similarities than differences in blogs. In terms of personal disclosure, they were using names that were close to real names,” he said.

The average blog post is over 2,000 words, which is really interesting when you are trying to get kids to write essays. Females tended to link to personal homepages while males were giving out details of their location more often.

On average, males used more emoticons, like smiley faces. Previous studies in computer communication, explained Mr Huffaker, have suggested that females are more likely to use them.

He also found that not only did teenage bloggers write a lot more than would be expected, they were also using the blogs as a form of “self-therapy”.

He also found:

About 67% used the facility that allowed them to comment on blog entries.

About 40% talked about music and bands, but many were a lot more candid about themselves.
Two of the blogs he studied were by 15-year-old mothers whose posts described what they were going through.
Many of their posts were accompanied by messages of support from strangers.

If your teen is interested in blogging, here are some online safety guidelines.

Election
Why don’t young people vote?
There are a lot of reasons, and David Artemiew looks at a few.