Tulip Mania

T is for Tulip Mania.  Originally cultivated in the Ottoman Empire, tulips were imported into Holland in the sixteenth century. As the Dutch Golden Age grew, so did this colorful flower. Tulips became popular in paintings and festivals. In the mid-seventeenth century, tulips were so popular that they created the first economic bubble, known as "Tulip Mania".

Everyone began to deal in bulbs, essentially speculating on the tulip market, which was believed to have no limits. The true bulb buyers began to fill up inventories for the growing season, depleting the supply further and increasing scarcity and demand. Soon, prices were rising so fast and high that people were trading their land, life savings, and anything else they could liquidate to get more tulip bulbs. Somehow, the tulips enjoyed a twenty-fold increase in value - in one month!

Needless to say, the prices were not an accurate reflection of the value of a tulip bulb. As it happens in many speculative bubbles, some prudent people decided to sell and reap their profits. A domino effect of progressively lower and lower prices took place as everyone tried to sell while not many were buying. The price began to dive, causing people to panic and sell regardless of losses.

Dealers refused to honor contracts and people began to realize they traded their homes for a tulip bulb; panic was prevalent throughout the land. The government attempted to step in and halt the crash by offering to honor contracts at 10% of the face value, but then the market plunged even lower.  No one emerged unscathed from the crash. Even the people who had locked in their profit by getting out early suffered under the depression that followed.

From 1634 to 1637, an index of Dutch tulip prices soared from approximately one guilder per bulb to a lofty sixty guilders per bulb. By the peak of tulip mania in February of 1637, a single tulip bulb was worth about ten times a craftsman’s annual income. 

Today, Holland is still known for its tulips and other flowers, often being affectionately called the "flower shop of the world." Tulips are cultivated in great fields of beautiful color, and tulip festivals abound throughout the country in the spring.  The Dutch people took their love of tulips abroad when they settled, and tulips and tulip festivals are now found in New York and Holland, Michigan, where the connection to their Dutch roots is very strong.

The photos in this blog were taken at Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Each spring when the tulips are in bloom, the gardens are covered with over 150,000 tulips that  line the walkways of Arkansas' premier botanical garden.

The peak tulip viewing times at the gardens are March 15 through April 1. Garvan Woodland Gardens are beautiful any time of the year, but I think that the tulip season is the best.  We make sure to visit the gardens during tulip time each year.

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Failure To Thrive

Frederick II was a man of extraordinary culture, energy, and ability. He was king of Sicily and Germany during the first half of the 13th century. He was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1220. Frederick is considered by modern historians to be the most gifted, vivid and extraordinary of the medieval Holy Roman Emperors.

Frederick astonished his contemporaries who called him stupor mundi, ‘wonder of the world’.  His court blended Norman, Arabic and Jewish elements.  He was witty, entertaining and cruel in six different languages, Latin, Sicilian, German, French, Greek and Arabic.  He was a man of serious intellectual distinction, and he was friendly with Jewish and Muslim sages.  He encouraged scholarship, poetry and mathematics, and original thinking in all areas.

Frederick’s openness to ideas kept him at odds with the Roman Catholic Church. His demands that the Church renounce its wealth and return to apostolic poverty and simplicity did not sit well with the papacy and its supporters, who branded him as Antichrist. He was excommunicated not once but four times.

Frederick was an avid patron of science and the arts. He had an unlimited thirst for knowledge and learning, and considered himself to be an equal of the scientific minds of his times. He carried out a number of cruel experiments on people.

I recently watched a video presentation by Ty Gibson titled, ‘Frederick’s Experiment’. In it he tells of one of these cruel experiments. The purpose of the experiment was to discover what language children would naturally grow up to speak if they were never spoken to.

King Frederick took babies from their mothers at birth and placed them in the care of nurses who were forbidden to speak in the babies hearing. Along with the prohibition on speaking, a second rule was imposed. The nurses were not allowed to touch the infants other than to clean or feed them. To his great dismay, Frederick’s experiment was cut short without finding out what language the babies would speak. The babies grew up to speak no language at all because they died. In the year 1248, an Italian historian named Salimbene di Adam recorded, “They could not live without petting.” The babies literally died for want of touch.

Modern medicine calls this phenomenon, “failure to thrive.” For some reason, we humans flourish under the influence of love and we gradually die without it. Dr. Dean Ornish in his national best seller, Love and Survival, presents study after study demonstrating that love is a chief influence for mental, emotional, and even physical health. He says, “The scientific evidence . . . leaves little doubt that love and intimacy are powerful determinants of our health and survival. Why they have such an impact remains somewhat a mystery”

The problem for many scientists is that they are trying to understand the human need for love within the context of Darwinian evolution. Evolution begins with a survival-of-the-fittest premise; it states that self-preservation is the highest law and the main factor in our survival. Love, is self-giving rather than self-preserving, and, therefore, makes no sense in the evolutionary context.

If evolution is the truth of human origins, then human beings are merely biological animals and there is no such thing as love. And yet, here we are; creatures who thrive on love and are utterly dependent on it. Every human has a desire to love and be loved.

We can’t help but ask the question at some point: What is that something more that we so desperately long for? In 1 John 4:16 the Bible tells us that “God is love”. And in Genesis 1:27 it states that, “God made mankind in His own image”.

Scientist may feel that the reason that love and intimacy have such an effect on our health and survival is a mystery, but I don’t. God made us to love and be loved.

Why I Relay

The 2014 Relay For Life of Polk County celebration will he held May 30th starting at 6:00 P.M. at Janssen Park in Mena.  15 teams of hard working local volunteers have been raising money to be used in the fight against cancer.  Each one of these volunteers have a story and a reason that they participate in Relay For Life.  Here a some of the reasons that local Relay For Life volunteers have for being involved.

I am involved with Relay For Life because I have had multiple friends and family members touched by this disease.  I believe that coming together as a community to raise money for more birthdays is a duty for every community member. - Natalie Rose

I Relay because of my daughter Melissa.  It was such a helpless feeling for her Dad and I - not knowing what we could do to help her.  Then we learned about Relay For Life and we have been involved ever since.  Raising dollars to help find a cure for this horrible disease is our way of helping Melissa and others. -  Rhonda McKee

I Relay because of my mother in law and brother in law and several friends.  My mother in law and brother in law are survivors but I have lost two very close friends.  It is my hope that if we keep fighting we can find a cure - Terri Harrison

I Relay because I never want a parent to hear the words "your child has cancer".  At the age of 1 year 23 months my son was diagnosed with leukemia.  Cancer is an evil battle and one that needs to go away!  The American Cancer Society is the leader in research and finding cures.  I am proud to support that effort. - Charlotte Wiles

I Relay because I lost my father, brother, father in law, brother in law, and sister in law to cancer.  The loss of them was very hard, but seeing my 2 1/2 year old grand daughter have a bone marrow test and seeing her go through surgery was heart breaking.  Thanks to the Lord and the knowledge he gave doctors, she is a survivor.  I want to raise money for research so that a cure can be found and no other family has to go through what we have gone through. - Toni Tillota

I Relay for one of my best friends and co worker, Betty Johnson and for my two aunts that have passed away from colon cancer.  Relay is a great camaraderie of friends, family and co workers caring for each other. - Debbie Welch

I Relay because I want to fight for a cure for cancer.  My favorite part of Relay For Life is the lives we touch and the friends we make for life. - Crystal Mos

I Relay for the fight against cancer because I have lost a lot of family member to cancer.  My favorite part of Relay For Life is when everyone comes together to raise money for the fight.  The night of Relay is the best because everyone is there for the same reason.  It feels like one big family reunion. - Jared Standridge

I started with Relay For Life because I lost my aunt to pancreatic cancer.  I want so badly to help in the fight for a cure for ALL cancer.  I am amazed that so much of every dollar goes to research.  I Relay for More Birthdays. - Brandi Sachs

I Relay to be involved in my community and for the people that aren't able to. - Samantha Rusert

My team Relays for cancer survivors and for a cure for cancer! - James Hale

I Relay for my son Traven.  We are all in this for a cure for cancer. - Carol Lane

I Relay because I care.  I want a cure. - Jacque Gallego

I am involved in Relay For Life to help find a cure for cancer.  Relay is good people working together for a cure and having fun. - George McKee

The American Cancer Society, through the fundraising efforts of volunteers like these here in Polk County along with volunteers in over 5,200 Relays in the U.S., saves lives and creates more birthdays by helping you stay well, helping you get well, finding cures and fighting back against this disease. Thanks to research funded by Relay For Life, many cancers that were once considered a death sentence can now be cured and for many more people their cancer can now be treated effectively.  Every person in Polk County who has been touched by cancer benefits from the research funded by the dedicated volunteers of Relay For Life of Polk County.

Sweetheart

The best decision I ever made was to marry the girl who stole my heart when she walked into Mr Brost's History class the beginning of my senior year of high school. I know that high school romances are not supposed to be forever and that when kids get married when they are in their teens the marriages aren't supposed to last, but we have proven those things wrong. It is still awesome to go through each day with my best friend.



This is the girl that took my breath away when she walked into class that morning. I was too shy to talk to girls, so it was almost a year before she had any idea that I was interested. I think that the good Lord knew that I needed all of the help I could get so he made it so that our paths crossed in a number of ways that year. Mr. Brost selected five students to work together each week producing learning packets for History class. Gina and I were both in the group. We both worked at the Harris Pine furniture factory. I worked on the dresser jig, and she made drawers. I would spend my breaks back with the drawer makers, but she still didn't catch on.

It came time for our High School graduation and I still had never gotten up the nerve to ask her out. Finally I mustered up every ounce of courage I could find and asked her if she would march with me when we graduated. She told me that she would like to but she had already told Russell she would march with him. If I would talk to Russell she would march with me. Once again summoning up every bit of courage I had I talked to Russell. He was very gracious and bowed out. I was on cloud nine.

The rest is history. After a year of a long distance relationship, five hundred miles, we were finally in the same place at the same time. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this girl. On June 15, 1975 we were married in the Denver First Seventh-day Adventist Church.  There hasn't been a dull moment since.

Let me call you "Sweetheart," I'm in love with you.
Let me hear you whisper that you love me too.
Keep the love-light glowing in your eyes so true.
Let me call you "Sweetheart," I'm in love with you.





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Why Relay For Life Is Important To Me - Lawry's Testimony

This is my article as published in the May 15, 2014 issue of The Mena Star.



The 2014 Relay For Life of Polk County celebration will he held May 30th starting at 6:00 P.M. at Janssen Park in Mena.  15 teams of hard working local volunteers have been raising money to be used in the fight against cancer.  Each one of these volunteers have a story and a reason that they participate in Relay For Life.

For the past eight years my wife and I have worked tirelessly to raise money for cancer research.  One of my wife's motivations is the story of her mothers struggle with cancer.  Even though her mother's cancer was terminal, she agreed to be a part of a bone marrow study that was funded by the American Cancer Society.  My wife and her family tried to talk her out of it knowing how painful it would be, but she said, "you never know who you might help".  She lost her battle with cancer in 1976.  20 years later a bone marrow transplant, made possible by that research from 1976, saved my wife's sister's life.

Recently my wife's cousin was diagnosed with Leukemia and was told that without a bone marrow transplant his life expectancy was just three months.  After a successful bone marrow transplant his cancer is now in remission.  My wife's mother was willing to take part in research because it might help a complete stranger not knowing that it would end up saving the lives of family that she loved.  Research that is being conducted today will save many lives in the future.

A little over a year ago my Mom learned that she had a cancerous kidney tumor. Last February she underwent treatment on her kidney tumor. The procedure that the doctors used is called cryoablation. Cryoablation uses hollow needles that are inserted into the tumor. When the probes are in place, the cryogenic freezing unit  uses cold energy to destroy the cancerous tissue.

I have spent the last eight years doing all that I can to raise money for cancer research through the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life.  When I first got involved with Relay For Life the procedure that was used on my Mom last year was just in the research stage.  It has only become an available treatment in the last three years.  Research that was funded by money that I helped raise right here in Polk County ended up providing a treatment and cure for my Mom.  With cryoablation treatment kidney cancer is cured in approximately 97 percent of patients.

The American Cancer Society, through the fundraising efforts of volunteers of over 5,200 Relays in the U.S., saves lives and creates more birthdays by helping you stay well, helping you get well, finding cures and fighting back against this disease. Thanks to research funded by Relay For Life, many cancers that were once considered a death sentence can now be cured and for many more people their cancer can now be treated effectively.  Every person in Polk County who has been touched by cancer benefits from the research funded by the dedicated volunteers of Relay For Life of Polk County.

Relay For Life

Relay For Life has been raising money for the American Cancer Society since 1985, when Gordy Klatt came up with a way to raise funds for his local American Cancer Society office in Tacoma, Washington, and show support of all his patients who had battled cancer.  He did this by spending 24 hours circling the track at Baker Stadium at the University of Puget Sound.  He ran more than 83 miles and his efforts raised $27,000 to fight cancer.  It has only gotten bigger and better from there.

Relay For Life events are held for the purpose of celebrating cancer survivors, remembering those we have lost, and giving hope that one day the world may be cancer free.  Through the celebrating and remembering, the success gets passed along to the American Cancer society through the fundraising that happens all year long.  With each Relay For life that takes place, it adds to the overall funding that can be used toward cancer research and treatments.

Volunteers from all around Polk County are preparing for this years Relay For Life celebration that will he held May 30th starting at 6:00 P.M. at Janssen Park in Mena.  15 teams of hard working local volunteers have been raising money to be used in the fight against cancer.  This year alone, because of the fundraising efforts of over 5,200 Relays in the U.S., the American Cancer Society is funding research for over fifty different types of cancer.

This year has seen some new and innovative fundraising efforts by Relay For Life team members.  There has been a Flushing out Cancer toilet bouquet seen around town.  The Boots vs. Burgers Basketball Bash was a lot of fun.   The Melanoma Awareness Prevention Program Pageant had over 40 participants and the audience filled the Crossing auditorium.  The Miss-ter Relay Pageant was highly entertaining.

Relay For Life of Polk County volunteers are serious about fighting cancer.  They are fighting for every birthday threatened by every cancer in our community. Each volunteer who works to benefit Relay For Life takes pride in knowing that they are working to create a world where this disease will no longer threaten our loved ones or rob anyone of another birthday.

For the past eight years my wife and I have worked tirelessly to raise money for cancer research.  One of my wife's motivations is the story of her mothers struggle with cancer.  Even though her mother's cancer was terminal, she agreed to be a part of a bone marrow study that was funded by the American Cancer Society.  My wife and her family tried to talk her out of it knowing how painful it would be, but she said, "you never know who you might help".  She lost her battle with cancer in 1976.  20 years later a bone marrow transplant, made possible by that research from 1976, saved my wife's sister's life.  Recently my wife's cousin was diagnosed with Leukemia and was told that without a bone marrow transplant his life expectancy was just three months.  After a successful bone marrow transplant his cancer is now in remission.  My wife's mother was willing to take part in research because it might help a complete stranger not knowing that it would end up saving the lives of family that she loved.  Research that is being conducted today will save many lives in the future.

A little over a year ago my Mom learned that she had a cancerous kidney tumor. Last February she underwent treatment on her kidney tumor. The procedure that the doctors used is called cryoablation.  Cryoablation uses hollow needles that are inserted into the tumor. When the probes are in place, the cryogenic freezing unit  uses cold energy to destroy the cancerous tissue.  I have spent the last eight years doing all that I can to raise money for cancer research through the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life.  When I first got involved with Relay For Life the procedure that was used on my Mom last year was just in the research stage.  It has only become an available treatment in the last three years.  Research that was funded by money that I helped raise right here in Polk County ended up providing a treatment and cure for my Mom.  With cryoablation treatment kidney cancer is cured in approximately 97 percent of patients.

Research is at the heart of Relay For Life.  For more than 65 years, the American Cancer Society has been finding answers that save lives - from changes in lifestyle to new approaches in therapies to improving cancer patients' quality-of-life.  In fact, no single nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization in the US has invested more to find the causes and cures of cancer.

You can be a part of Relay For Life by searching for a Relay near you at this link.

To read many other great blogs or to become part of the ABC Wednesday family click here.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!  I'm thankful to be able to spend some time with my Mom today. A little over a year ago my Mom learned that she had a cancerous kidney tumor. Last February she underwent treatment on her kidney tumor. As you can see from the CT scan capture it was a large tumor. The procedure that the doctors used is called cryoablation.

Cryoablation uses hollow needles through which cooled, thermally conductive, fluids are circulated. Cryoprobes are inserted into the tumor. When the probes are in place, the cryogenic freezing unit removes heat ("cools") from the tip of the probe and by extension from the surrounding tissues.  The most common application of cryoablation is to ablate solid tumors found in the lung, liver, breast, kidney and prostate.

The concept of cryoablation is relatively new in cancer surgery for any disease.  Traditionally, surgeons have treated cancer by literally cutting it out. In contrast to this approach, cryoablation is a different concept in that cold energy is used to destroy the cancerous tissue at the exact site where it exists in the body. Cryoablation is particularly well suited to kidney cancer.

Cryoablation is a very promising new approach to kidney cancer. This kind of new treatment is why I am a strong supporter of cancer research.  I have spent the last eight years doing all that I can to raise money for cancer research through the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life.  As I was researching this procedure I came across the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Library website.  I found these words about Renal Cryoablation that were written in 2008.  "Early results have demonstrated that it may offer an alternative for the treatment of renal masses with the advantages of minimal complications, spared renal function, decreased overall costs and equivalent oncologic efficacy. Long-term results are required in order to apply this minimally invasive technique to a broader spectrum of patients".  Just six years ago the procedure that was used on my Mom was a brand new technology.  It has only been available in Arkansas for three years.

Several large medical centers have produced data demonstrating that kidney cancer is cured in approximately 97 percent of patients who undergo cryoablation with a follow-up of three years. Because it is such a new procedure , 10 year follow-up information on patients having undergone cryoablation is not yet available.  Some of the data is showing 98 to 100 percent cure rates.

I have been involved with the American Cancer Society and Relay For Life for the past eight years.  My wife and I have worked tirelessly to raise money for cancer research.  When I was raising money I didn't realize that the research that was being funded would come so close to home.  Before cryoablation was an available treatment for kidney tumors, the only treatment was to surgically remove the kidney. Over a year after her treatment, my Mom is doing good and her doctor is confident that the treatment was successful.

I know that at Relay For Life events we often hear that we are raising money to find a cure. Cancer is not just one disease, it is many many diseases. Sometimes when we see how many people are affected by cancer and how much misery suffering and sadness it causes it seems hopeless. In my work for the American Cancer Society people often tell me that there will never be a cure because cancer is a big business and the doctors and pharmaceutical companies would suppress a cure if it was found. What a sad way of life it is for these people who have no hope. One of the things that Relay For Life events around the world focus on is providing people with hope. Hope is why we Relay!

  
I like a statement that the American Cancer Society released recently.  "Together with our millions of supporters, we save lives and create more birthdays by helping you stay well, helping you get well, finding cures and fighting back against this disease. Thanks to research funded by the American Cancer Society, many cancers that were once considered a death sentence can now be cured and for many more people their cancer can now be treated effectively".

It is way to simplistic to be focusing on a cure.  The American Cancer Society is focusing on "cures" plural.  The fact that many cancers that were once considered a death sentence can now be cured should give us hope. The fact that eight years ago when I got involved with Relay For Life the treatment used on my Mom would not have been available, but thanks to cancer research is now widely used gives me hope. The 97 to 100 percent cure rates that have been seen with renal cryoablation gives me hope.

Happy Mothers Day!

Higher and Higher

When I was attending grade school during the 1960’s I had two passions that consumed me. I loved baseball. I chewed lots of really bad gum to collect baseball cards. As much as I loved baseball, what really intrigued me was space exploration.

My heroes were the astronauts in NASA’s space program. I read everything about them that I could get my hands on. In 1969 my interest in space was at a fever pitch. Everyone was talking about the race to land on the moon. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, the entire world was captivated. Every newspaper covered the story. I soaked it all in. I couldn’t believe what a marvelous world I was living in. The moonwalk was a part of pop culture. After watching the moonwalk on TV, the Moody Blues drummer, Graham Edge, penned the poem "Higher and Higher", which was used to open their next album.

"Blasting, billowing, bursting forth
with the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes.
Man, with his flaming pyre
has conquered the wayward breezes.

Climbing to tranquility,
far above the clouds,
conceiving the heavens,
clear of misty shroud.

Vast vision must improve our sight.
Perhaps at last we'll see an end
to our own endless blight,
and the beginning of the free.

Climb to tranquility,
finding its real worth,
conceiving the heavens,
flourishing on earth".



As I listened to these words I realized even as a boy that this optimism that space exploration would make the world a better place wasn’t the way things would be. I read in my Bible in Obadiah 1:4, “Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord”.

As a Christian I had always looked at space exploration as a way to learn more about the awesome things God had made. I was excited by the new discoveries and what they could show me about how awesome God is. As I studied science and read about space I always kept God in the picture.

While I went through High School I stayed interested in space, but there were many other things to interest me and take up my time. I realized that as interesting as space exploration was it wasn’t changing things here on earth. By now there had been 6 moon landings and moon walks. In just a few years astronauts on the moon had gone from the most exciting and talked about thing on the planet to ho hum, so you can drive a vehicle on the moon. The space race was over and pop culture had found other interests.

NASA didn’t recapture the interest of most Americans until 1981, when the Space Shuttle Columbia made the first flight of a space vehicle that returned to earth and was reusable. Once again man seemed on the verge of conquering the heavens. One of the exciting new directions in space exploration was the Hubble Space Telescope. In 1979 work was started on this new project. After many delays it was finally launched in 1990. Nothing NASA had done since landing on the moon captured the interest of the American public as much as the Hubble Telescope.

The images that the Hubble produced were breathtaking. When I first saw the images I thought of the words of David found in Psalms 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork”.

One Hubble photo in particular fascinates me. It is called The Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Astronomers picked a seemingly empty spot in the sky. Staring at the spot in the sky for ten days, Hubble kept taking pictures one after another for the entire exposure time, accumulating data. Astronomers put the exposures together into one final picture. Each time they added an exposure, the view got deeper, revealing fainter objects. When they were done they had the deepest picture ever taken of the heavens.

The image is of a small region in the constellation Ursa Major. It covers an area 2.5 arcminutes across, one part in a million of the whole sky. The image contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies. That would mean that the whole universe contains a million times 10,000 galaxies. Astronomers estimate that our home galaxy, the Milky Way, contains between 200 and 400 billion stars. How many stars are in the universe? I will let you do the math.

Isaiah 40:26 tells us “Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out one after another, calling each by its name. And He counts them to see that none are lost or have strayed away”.

The universe staggers our imagination. It is humbling to realize that our planet earth is simply a speck of cosmic dust in the great universe that God has created. David was amazed by God’s love for us. In Psalms 8:3,4 he wrote, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him And the son of man that You visit him?

Go outside tonight, take a look at the sky and know that there is a Creator who cares for you, who died for you and wants to bring you home to live with him.