Rick Beeman

For children, divorce is like the father grabbing the left wrist of the child and the mother grabbing the right wrist in a tug of war for control and affection of the child.  Kids are obviously the ones injured in the tussle.  Alienation is using words and actions so the child will shun the other parent in the tug of war.  I for the most part have let go of the wrist in order to not further harm the children.  Here is how Wikipedia describes Parental Alienation: Parental alienation is a social dynamic, generally occurring due to divorce or separation , when a child expresses unjustified hatred or unreasonably strong dislike of one parent, making access by the rejected parent difficult or impossible. These feelings may be influenced by negative comments by the other parent and by the characteristics, such as lack of empathy and warmth, of the rejected parent. I have mentioned past illustrations of alienating actions in previous versions of this blog so I wont re...

I haven’t had much time to write lately, though I’ve had so many blogworthy items to write about.  I’ve had my boys for the last six weeks and Im devoting all of my extra time to them and caring for Jennifer.  We are at a lull at the moment as its bedtime for Jennifer and I. The boys wanted to stay up to watch TV so I don’t feel like I’m sacrificing time with them.  Your prayers are so appreciative and coveted.  They really do work.  I feel amazingly blessed at the moment.  I feel my life is peaking, but the peak from this vantage point doesn’t seem to have an apex, it just keeps getting higher and higher.  Isn’t that how life is supposed to be?  I don’t mention all of the blessings in my life to gloat.  Instead I try to use my hardships as a testimony to how God can turn a life around.  I’ve heard a lot of dramatic testimonies of people lives before and after Christ.  But since I’ve been a Christian virtually my entire life, I have...

Ugh…I just almost finished a blog and boom it locked up on me.  As a writer, I just hate it what that happens.  I can bemoan the situation and what was lost, or reboot and try to write as quickly as possible trying to recreate it.  I can not go back and recapture lost time.  I can just move forward and make the best of it.  I have not always been like this.  About 10 years ago, in the midst of my first family.  Is that a politically or emotionally correct term?  I was a writing a screenplay.  I had 30 pages written and they were a great 30 pages, or so I thought at the time.  I can’t remember the details, but for some reason they were accidentally deleted or became corrupt or something.  I remember having a choice to make, I could quickly rewrite them or try to recover the files.  I decided to a recovery strategy.  I went out and bought expensive auto-recovery software and tried to piece together the missing parts.  ...

I feel now that I’ve left the middle east that there really is nothing exotic going on in my life.   Yet, I am so content.   That is a great thing.   I just can’t convey it enough, that I really never thought I’d see any happiness again.   For someone as so Happy-go-lucky as I was that was a startling reality for me.   But not only did I make it through the rain (like Barry Manilow) I am happier, and more content than I’ve ever been.   I simply don’t worry about anything (most of the time).   I think that is why I like to talk about my struggles and victories so much on this blog.   Maybe if some of you readers are going through a similar circumstance you can look at my life and somehow become inspired by it.   The key really is Christ.   If you have Christ in your corner, is really like a no-lose insurance policy.   That is if you are living your life right.   If not, all bets are off.   Whenever we veer off-track, and...

It was a nice day today.   I am enjoying my career thus far at SAS.   To update you, Jennifer had planned on moving to Dubai to join me.   Then at a crucial moment I was waiting on a key decision from the people I was working for in Dubai.   That same day I got a job offer to come back to the US.   I don’t really think it was entirely my skill.   It was more like they were trying to keep my wife in the US.   Since the timing was so perfect, the day we were to make a decision, it was an easy choice to come back to the US.   I have found that as long as you are walking according to God’s plan the hardest decisions become the easiest to make.    It seems that God closes all the doors and keeps one open so you really don’t have much of a choice.   That’s why it confuses me when Christians spend so much time searching out God’s will.   I think as long as you are living your life right, every choice you make is according to God’s ...

I got a couple of really nice encouraging emails after I started up this blog again.   Im not sure If Im going to be able to write in it everyday like I did in the Middle East.   I am a pretty fast typist so that helps, but I had a whole lot of time on my hands.   That time is going to go away pretty quickly.   Jenny is due to deliver our baby Girl the first week in August.   I feel so incredibly blessed to have this opportunity again.   Many of you know that my relationship with my children has been essentially ripped from me.   I feel like this new wonderful gift of life is my second chance to relive all those memories.   Really my life so closely resembles the book of Job.   Only I was not entirely blameless and upright.   I probably should give all of you an update on my relationships and really try not to be bitter because I don’t think I am.   There are periods if I dwell on my losses, I start to feel my anger getting up, b...

I thought I was done writing in this blog. First it was An American in Bahrain, then an American in Dubai. I started out writing about cultural differences between the West and Middle East and somehow it meandered into a blog about the pain of divorce and then ultimately the rebirth of a life lived according to the precepts of the Bible. Once I moved back to the US, I went through a bit of an identity crisis. For five years (Give or take a few months stateside) I was an American living either in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, or Dubai. I had many many incredible and noteworthy experiences and friendships. The blog has blessed a lot of people but also created a bit of havoc. The drama would usually elicit interest and empathy from readers. But now that I am back in the US, I reasoned who would want to read me now? That is what I thought anyways until I got an email tonight from a dear friend from Bahrain, Isa. I met Isa entirely through this blog. He stumbled across it somehow when I ...

Identity. Who are we really? How do we identify ourselves? Is the identity that we have of ourselves the same identity that other’s would bestow upon us? Probably not. I still feel like I have the physical identity of a skinny 20 year old, but my belly, Jennifer, and the mirror will tell me otherwise. We tend not to be honest with ourselves about our own identity. One of the hardest things to do in life is look in the figurative mirror, recognize your flaws and admit when you’ve made mistakes. Its so much easier to blame other people for your problems. That is safe. Once you’ve started down that road of averting blame its really difficult to turn back. “I made a mistake, I was wrong, do you forgive me” Those are probably the three hardest phrases for anyone to utter. But there is so much freedom when someone can come to that self-actualization. It’s the first step to having a genuine identity. Otherwise we are all playing different characters in the theate...

I made a mistake in a blog the purported broad characterizations which were inaccurate. I have since amended the offending blogs in order to rectify the situation. I was wrong plain and simple. I mentioned that my former employer and the hiring practices of Sunni and Shia employees. It has been brought to my attention that we did indeed hire many Shia employees as well as Sunnis. Not only that we had Muslims, Christians and Hindus as well. My former employers were actually very enlightened in that regard. As a visiting ex-pat, I just do not have the knowledge and experience yet to tell the difference between a Shia and Sunni Muslim. Apparently you can tell by their accent and some of the holidays that they observe. I am just not there yet. So if I offended or misrepresented my beliefs to anyone, I apologize. It is my objective to create a world of better understanding. When I contribute to the misunderstandings, I just defeat my own purposes.

Somehow a Russian Reporter found me on Facebook. She was interviewing me for a piece for her magazine. I took out her name to protect her identity. But I thought you might interested in our discourse. ---------- February 18 at 6:06pm Report Mr. Beeman, My name is ---------, I work for the Ukrainian weekly magazine Focus. We plan to write an article about foreigners who stay in those Arab countries where during the last weeks people have been protesting. What I want - to show some life stories of those Americans, Europeans who can tell me why they do not flee, why they stay and experience those events along with Muslim people. What I ask - just your views on that, I know that you live in Dubai, but still you can share your opinion with us. Or, may be, can help to contact some friends of yours who live in either Egypt, Bahrain or Yemen etc. Appreciate your help in advance! All the best, ----------- Foreign Desk Editor Focus magazine www.focus.ua Rick Bee...

This situation in Bahrain is getting worse. Since I am now living away from Bahrain, I feel like I can objectively review the situation from afar. I am keeping close tabs on the proceedings from my many facebook friends especially John. (Somehow a reporter from a Russian Magazine got a hold of me to get my viewpoint of the events from Bahrain. It was flattering.) The violence that is happening in Bahrain now is very real and getting more and more treacherous. I still receive emails from the US Embassy in Bahrain warning of the threats and demonstrations. They are advising all Americans to stay in their homes until further notice. Objectively speaking the Royal Family and the military seem to be really making matters worse. Common sense tells you, you don’t quell an uprising by attacking unarmed protestors. With the use of force there are bound to be accidental deaths and that is only going to inflame the situation and further entrench the opposition. Instead of d...