Happy Birthday, Streckfus

Truman was born September 30, 1924. He would have been 88 today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm very tired. I need to reconnoiter, reconstitute, relax, refresh.

Peace out. God bless. Don't eat yellow snow.

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Wie Gehts, Baby? (Repost)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

{txt version
Wie Gehts, Baby?

We travel light and clueless
bruise to bruise and into
forgetfulness,

Aber
alles spins and tilts again akilter into
darkness.

Sturm und drang und
beetle dung
glomm'd thick and sludgey gel'd; and sluggish; and slow; slow-er; stille

Aber
alles stirs and lifts and floats like weightless sea
detritus.

Silence
thin as moonlight spreads
o'er winking midnight snow

Whilst angels' wings
thrum lullabies
and starlight guides us home.
endtxt}

All original work copyright me.

[2012-02-21]

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Reading by Flashlight

1
The Ghostly Hand and Other Haunting Stories

These are two books I have early memories of reading cover to cover. (There are a couple more I will share later, they are even earlier.)

Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Däniken was given to me by my father; he brought it home with him after work one day when I had been home sick. He worked like dog, but stopped at a bookstore just for me. I would have been in 5th or 6th grade. This was a huge bestseller at the time, and occupied a special place in conversations that included ghosts, the Bermuda Triangle, Bigfoot, and other wonderful things that occupy the minds of children.

I bought The Ghostly Hand and Other Haunting Stories with my own money from Scholastic Book Service back before there was a gold mine called Harry Potter, and children's books cost less than a dollar. That would have been around 6th grade at Vernondale Elementary School in Millcreek, PA.

The monthly Scholastic orders arrival was like Christmas for young readers. Each orders was rubber banded with our original order form which bore check marks next to what we'd ordered and our own printed name in thick black #2 pencil, familiar but as ancient as cuneiform.

I read The Ghostly Hand and Other Haunting Stories by flashlight in Mom and Dad's bed.

Going to bed early was a treat. I meant I got to read and listen to the radio.

I still l have these books because of the great sentimental value they hold. I hope Charlie or Dee Dee or Mimi keeps these and a few others if only for that reason.

[2012-08-31]

2
The first step toward consensus...

... is understanding that just because we disagree doesn't mean we dislike each other. Unfortunately, this sometimes accounts for why two parties can't come to agreement; indeed, why they often can't even enter the same room, and why one party must withdraw, even if they are nearer the solution.

Which is to say we are sometimes the biggest part of our own problem..

[2012-08-11]

3
Heroes on the Half Shell

NPR: "There's a whole generation that still remembers the theme song to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." This was followed by a bunch of 30-somethings singing the theme song and the narrator referring to the turtles as "heroes on the half shell," which IIRC was a promotional tag.

You know you're getting old(er) when your yesterday is someone else's childhood.

BTW, "heroes on the half shell" is inaccurate, if clever; oysters are served on the half shell. Just because turtles have semi-spherical shells, and "heroes" and "half" both start with "H," doesn't make it a better fit. It sounds instead to my ears like George Bush saying "They misunderestimated me."

Then again, we are talking about crime fighting turtles. It's not like a millionaire dressing up in a bat suit or something. Seriously.

[2012-09-28]

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The most dangerous man alive - an honest cop.

1
The most dangerous man alive - an honest cop.
In the 60's and 70's, there was a popular look that was scraggly and rather Jesus-like. This picture of Al Pacino as Serpico in the 1973 film is an example.

In 6th grade at Vernondale Elementary school on Wilkins Road in Millcreek, PA, our art teacher gave us an inventive project in one of our weekly art classes. She set out a box of magazine pages that had been cut in half; the images on them had been nearly symmetrical, so there were a lot half faces, half buildings, half martini glasses, etc.. The project was to choose a half and any medium to complete the other half.[1]

I loved that kind of project, as I excelled at pencil drawing and occasionally colored pencil.

(A friend, whose name was Robert, did the other half. He was in Mrs Roslanowick's class across the hall. We were both very artistic. I never saw Robert after 6th grade. His half of Serpico was slightly thinner than mine, as the art teacher didn't quite accurately halve the photo, and my Serpico came out a few pounds heavier, which I thought looked healthier.)

My mom liked my Serpico drawing so much, I mounted it on a piece of wood and it hung in our house for a while (as did other pieces of my artwork). I don't have the original anymore. She initially thought it was Jesus, but I pointed out the sunglasses, which are hidden in Al Pacino's curly locks.

[2012-09-14]

2
Build a house around this.

A few years ago, there was a company that made news during one of the economic downturns that are now common. This company made gold-plated plumbing fixtures and saw a decline in their business. The discussion around this was very serious. No one stopped to ask if gold-plated plumbing fixtures were practical or if it was smart to build a business around them.

A long time ago, when I was in college, there was a local TV ad for an all-you-can-eat steak house. They showed a very large man stuffing himself with steak and French fries until he looked like he would explode. My Calvinist roommate Mark Jorritsma said it was sinful, and not metaphorically, but it was truly an abuse of the body and God's bounty. I was new to Calvinism then and didn't understand that, but I do now and agree with him.

(I did not, alas, remain with Calvinism, though some Baptistic theology is Calvinistic and informed my spiritual understanding.)

[2012-09-05]

3
Old Baptist Joke

An old minister and family acquaintance used to introduce himself and his wife this way: "Hi, I'm Pastor Bob and this is my first wife, Betty."

Of course, old Baptists only ever have one wife; that's why it's funny.

[2012-09-26]

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[1]
In those days the art teacher visited each class with a rolling cart that carried all the supplies needed for the lesson. Her arrival was like an extra hour of recess for that day. I got lots of nice comments on my artwork. I chose unpretentious and fun subjects and simply enjoyed creating. I never did anything with my talent; to tell you the truth, I would have been a competent artist, but I wouldn't have been a great one.

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.

1
Communion on the Moon

Did you know Buzz Aldren conducted a communion service on the moon? (Source > ) I think that's pretty cool. Not because it was religious, but because it was a very human thing to do and the ultimate expression of humility that only a Christian can fully understand. If he had bowed toward Mecca, I wouldn't have been as impressed, but I would have understood the gesture.

Strange I never heard this before, but the Wikipedia article explains why.

[2012-09-16]

2
Education and Religion

I used to wonder how in the world an educated person could also be religious. I now wonder why so few are.

I do continue to wonder why so many religious people are embarrassingly unread. I don't suppose that will ever change.

[2012-09-16]

3
Story Idea

I win a 50/50 raffle, but I'm the only one that bought a ticket.

[2012-09-15]

4
My Opinion on the Packers-Seahawks Call

I think the yellow helmets with the big G’s on them really pop when ten guys are fighting over an inflated rubber bladder wrapped in dead cow skin.

[2012-09-25]

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The subject for this post is a quote by George Carlin.

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Microsoft Office for Free

1
An Open Source Cloud Solution

I have a Google alert set up for "openoffice outlook" in case there is some interesting development in how people are getting around OpenOffice.org's lack of an integrated email/calendaring app.[1]

This story on Microsoft.com, however, gave a very interesting solution to a different problem - working with OpenOffice in the cloud.

How is MS Office free? I can work with Microsoft Office formats locally using OpenOffice and sync with Microsoft SkyDrive in the cloud. That means I don't need a copy of MS Office for offline use; instead, I can use OpenOffice to edit locally and SkyDrive syncs for cloud storage. SkyDrive is free with limited storage and the cloud GUI provides most of the tools most people will need. No, you can't replace an entire corporate office suite, but it's fine for the 47% of us that don't work or pay taxes.)[2]

(Libre Office, a fork of OpenOffice, is supposed to work even better with MS Office formats.)

[2012-09-05]

2
The first casualty of tight marketing deadlines is...
... tight copy.

[2012-09-16]

3
Story Idea

Scene 1
Outside a shop window. Some years ago, on a busy street, during the holidays. It's nighttime. Snow is lightly falling. Christmas music is playing. The only light is from street lamps and the shop window; in the window there are toys from yesteryear. Children crowd around the window, nudging each other to get closer. Their eyes are wide as they imagine playing with:

* GI Joe and Barbie
* Major Matt Mason
* A scale model of a Saturn V rocket
* Monopoly, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Rook[3], and Yahtzee
* Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators mysteries for young readers
* A Star Trek phaser
* A record player and record albums of the Jackson 5, the Osmonds, the Partridge Family, and Bobby Sherman.
* A wooden recorder
* A cap gun[4]

Scene 2
Inside the shop. It's dark. The only light comes in from the outside. Children peer in, amazed, but there are no toys in the window as seen from the inside. The shop is empty. There is no color except within the window, which frames children backlit by sepia street lights; all else is grays and blacks. Broken glass crunches under slow-moving feet. Glinting cobwebs move slightly. Elderly men and women crowd around the window and nudge each other for a view of the children and imagine being young again.

[2012-09-23]

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[1]
I use Thunderbird with the Lightning plugin to poll a dozen or so addresses I work with, but like a lot of folks, I've come to rely on Gmail and Google Calendar for most of my hour-to-hour needs.

[2]
Someone once made fun of me for using Gimp for image editing. If you prefer fancy schmancy and top flight software with a matching to price tag, this idea's not for you. Writers have modest needs. Fancy doesn't equal better; in fact, it often means the writer is compensating for inadequacies elsewhere.

[3]
Also known, if I recall correctly, as "Baptist 500"; they were "Christian" playing cards. We were not allowed to have playing cards in our house when I was a boy. I think that was a carryover from the rules in Dad's home when he was a boy.

[4]
A cap gun was fed by a perforated roll of paper that held small blisters of gunpowder; when the toy gun hammer fell, the gunpowder ignited and made a loud pop. It had a very distinctive burnt paper smell to it. Children up through age 7 or so were very good at clearing and reloading cap guns.

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Clarence Finds an Alternative to Mitt and Barack

I challenged myself: I went to a handful of presidential candidate comparison sites and ran through the issues without consideration of who was on the other side of them.

Here are some of the more interesting results:

2012 Presidential Candidate Selector
Link >

2012 President Selector Rankings:
1. Ideal Theoretical Candidate (100 %)
2. Barack Obama* (83 %)
3. Jill Stein* (78 %)
4. Joseph Biden (63 %)
5. Kent Mesplay (60 %)
6. Stewart Alexander* (56 %)
7. Robby Wells* (47 %)
8. Ron Paul (44 %)
9. Gary Johnson* (43 %)
10. Rocky Anderson* (42 %)
11. Mitt Romney* (36 %)
12. Jon Huntsman (28 %)
13. Michael Bloomberg (27 %)
14. Rick Santorum (23 %)
15. Newt Gingrich (21 %)
16. Buddy Roemer (21 %)
17. Donald Trump (20 %)
18. Michele Bachmann (18 %)
19. Tim Pawlenty (17 %)
20. Rick Perry (7 %)
21. Herman Cain (6 %)

2012 Presidential Candidates Quiz: Find Your Match
Link >

1. Obama
2. Stein
3. Goode
4. Johnson
5. Romney

Vote Chooser 2012
Link >

1. Barack Obama
2. Mitt Romney
3. Newt Gingrich
4. Rick Santorum
5. Ron Paul

But then I found The Blaze, and with a very quick selection of filters (instead of answering probing questions), I found the candidate I'm really closest to.

Who was that?

This man:

Visit Ron Paul >
Ron Paul Summary on The Blaze >

Since I'm not convinced either Obama or Romney are the right choice, and I never have and never will vote against anyone, and I have always voted my conscience (which until now coincided with one of the major parties), I have little choice.

Or one very obvious choice.

Ron Paul is running as a write-in candidate. Good for him.

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Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer was a close 2nd, but his banking background and healthcare stance disqualifies him for me.

Roemer Summary on The Blaze >

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Started: 2012-09-21

Mark Afresh and Darrell Dik

I recently finished reading the biblical Book of Mark from scratch, insofar as that's possible. (You can of course re-read anything, but discarding all the baggage you accumulate during previous readings is impossible, not to mention the countless inputs from related and unrelated sources; but the exercise is enlightening.)

I chose Mark for this exercise because it's the earliest gospel and presumably the most fundamental in its picture of Jesus as understood by the earliest Christians before too much theological interpretation accumulated around him, though that was certainly happening long before Mark was committed to papyrus.

And I chose a translation I'd never read before, the Revised Standard Version, and made brief notes about what characterized this man Jesus, and his ministry.

This is my list:

Jesus was a ...
... healer
... teacher
... exorcist
... sufferer
... apocalyptic

His ministry involved...
... Private prayer
... Forgiveness
... Healing power of intimate objects (Jesus' hem and spittle)
... Death and resurrection
... Angels
... Departed spirits
... Ecumenism (9:38)
... Special place of children
... Parables
... Holy Spirit

I think it's fair to say that this is what the earliest Christians thought was most important to pass on, and probably even a superset of a smaller set of beliefs needed to qualify a believer as a "Christian." Mark wrote mostly to gentiles (as I understand it) and so wasn't interested in a list of Davidic begats. And it also doesn't include a nativity narrative. It is, however, remarkably supernatural and full of miracles, demons, and ghosts of the holy departed.

I have usually seen Jesus as a force of social change, a Jewish hippie - counter-cultural, peaceful, passively resistant, a dropout, the target of a stymied establishment - popular concepts during my youth; there is some of that in Mark, but it's also the Jesus the 60's wanted (and needed) to see, and remains an indelible part of the Jesus I know.

Interestingly, some of the things I find most fascinating as an adult were not emphasized when I was a child, eg, Jesus' encounter with demons, ecumenism, and baptism as a conduit of salvation.[1]

(Peripheral for most Baptists, these things eventually disappear in the background; but if you cross your eyes and look long enough, new details jump out like dolphins from a stereogram.)[2]

This is what my short notes at the beginning of Mark look like:

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The bible below was given to me by Darrell Dik, a close friend at Calvin College many years ago. It's in my nightstand and I read it to this day. Inside is inscribed a poem by Darrell and some kind words to me. I was honored that he would give it to me, since it was a gift to him and his name is on it.

I've long since lost track of Darrell. I think I had one visit with him after he married, almost 30 years ago now, and haven't been in touch since. I should look him up, though my luck in such things is spotty.

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[1]
Baptists tend to ignore passages that invite frightening or troubling inquiry. If you read Mark from scratch and just start jotting down what Jesus does, you may be surprised how many times he confronts demons; Baptists regard demon possessions as rare, and are fearful that focusing on stories like this can encourage dabbling in the occult. They also prefer to navigate around passages where baptism participates in salvation (which any honest reading leads to, IMHO; you need some fancy theological maneuvers to get around it, though as good Baptists demonstrate, it's possible, if cumbersome).

[2]
A note on sources (if you like this sort of thing): English majors and professors like to trace the sources of images and phrases in literature. You can never (well, almost never) put your finger on something specific, unless the writer himself tells you what he had in mind, and even then you may not have the whole story, because every word - including those I'm typing now - are the result of zillions of impressions and processes; even so, some of those impressions and processes are more pronounced than others.

(Example: Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" and Purchas's Pilgrimage.

Another: Mormonism founder Joseph Smith may have borrowed the name for the angel Moroni from the treasure-hunting stories of Captain Kidd; Moroni is the name of the capital of Comoros Islands, where Captain Kidd is said to have buried treasure. Source > )

Back to me: I worked sometime ago with a fellow named Rick McNeil who made a clever comment about a team member's shirt, which was very colorful. He said if he looked at the shirt long enough, he might see dolphins. No one had said anything earlier regarding dolphins or stereograms, but the shirt provided such a perfect palette for the comment, it was immediately obvious what he meant.

I have remembered that comment for a number of years, waiting for a spot to use it; not consciously, of course, but bits of it have entered and exited thought streams now and then, until it found a home here. Many more from many others are waiting, I’m sure.

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Started: 2012-07-14

If'n I was God

When I was little, I listened repeatedly to a musical story album of the 1973 film Tom Sawyer. (I say musical album rather than soundtrack because as I recall there was more story than music.)

It had a track called "If'n I Was God," sung by Tom (Johnny Whitaker) or Huck (Jeff East), which put a child's perspective on what's wrong with the world and how to fix it.

Mom didn't like the song and mentioned it a few times, but didn't ask us stop listening to it. She thought (I think) it was sacrilegious, and wanted us to have some context for the message, which was wise, for that is a tool instead of a rule, and tools serve you your entire life.

(Has anyone ever given you advice you didn't ask for, and you were a little miffed? I'd prefer not to put myself in that position with God :-)

Children preserve an idealism well into early adulthood. It's that idealism that in my day fueled Vietnam War protests and today the Occupy movements that began on Wall Street. Too bad most of us grow out of that.

Children can teach us a lot.

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All children in 1973 knew Johnny Whitaker as Jody from A Family Affair, with the loving Uncle Bill (Brian Keith) and reserved but sensitive gentleman's gentleman, Mr French (Sebastian Cabot, who also narrated the animated Winnie the Pooh specials during that period).

We watched Family Affair weekly in my family, and I have very fond memories of it. A few years later, Whitaker was was Johnny Stuart on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, a live action Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday morning show. If you don't remember the era of Sid and Marty Krofft, you missed something very special.

This is the opening sequence to A Family Affair
(poor quality, nice memory)

Started: 2012-09-16

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Dead Darlings

1
Dead Darlings

A very talented coworker introduced me to a new term: Dead Darlings. These are strings of words too good to discard, but we can never seem to find the right spot for them, so we squirrel them away for a rainy day (or writer's block).

I have many files of them, including a couple called "Tweets I Didn't Tweet" and "Blogs I Didn't Blog," and tons of short starts to short stories, longer starts to unfinished novels, and a host of couplets and quatrains and other things that have glimmers of beauty, but nothing you'd want to look at too long.

Maybe someday my dead darlings will be resurrected.

[2012-08-29]

2
I understand now.

I used to not understand folks that were at peace with life and death and eternity and all the pain and waste and questions in between.

How can they possibly be so sure that they know what they claim to know?

I understand now.

It's not a matter of being convinced (though trying to be convinced helps but will fail on its own).

It's not a lack of doubt, either (because we all sometimes doubt).

It's not apathy or ennui or exhaustion (though they may precede it).

And you can't fully verbalize it, and those that understand it best are least able to (like my father, who lived it rather than talked it)..

And neither can you give or grant or imbue or infuse or bestow it.

So what is it that I understand?

{I wrote and rewrote an answer to my own question. I wasn't happy with any of them. Pretend I wrote something concise and full of meaning here.}

It's that.

But it never ends.

It gets bruised a lot, and it waxes and wanes, but it persists, and nudges you when you need it or ignore it.

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Yesterday [2012-0918] I ran into a former coworker while standing in line at a grocery store checkout. There was a holdup at the register and we had a few minutes. When we finally parted, she cried. She'd been forced to leave her previous company, and although she looked happy and healthy, she was troubled.

A few minutes before that conversation with her, I told a guy working in the frozen food aisle that a bottle of ketchup had broken on the floor a few aisles over. The conversation went exactly like this:

Me: Excuse me, sir...
Him: I'm listening.
Me: There's a bottle of ketchup broken on the floor a couple aisles over.
Him: Thanks. It's not really at the top of my list right now.

Normally both these conversations would have upset me, for different reasons, and I would have carried both of them with me for days and obsessed over the emotion I absorbed. Instead, on this occasion, there was a peaceful coexistence with them.

Why? Partly, perhaps, because I know what my coworker went through; I ran through those emotions myself not long ago. And I also used to do that guy's job in the frozen food aisle. I wore that same quilted jacket and worked with the same equipment in the same aisle. And I must say I had moments I am less proud of than this one; IMHO he was rather restrained. If you haven't worked at a high-volume grocery store, you don't know the pressure those guys are sometimes working under.

[2012-08-28]

3
Quote

Is Sunday the last day of my weekend or the first day of my week?
--Fr John Riccardo

Heard August 28, 2012, but was a rebroadcast of an earlier talk.

[2012-08-28]

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My Opinion on the Fourth Century Papyrus Revealing Jesus Had a Wife

Different angles on the same story:

Discovery News
Jesus' Wife and Other Bible Rewrites >

Fox News
Mrs. Jesus? >

But here's a little level-setting from the San Francisco Chronicle (quoted below):
Harvard claim of Jesus' Wife papyrus scrutinized >

Stephen Emmel, a professor of Coptology at the University of Muenster who was on the international advisory panel that reviewed the 2006 discovery of the Gospel of Judas, said the text accurately quotes Jesus as saying "my wife." But he questioned whether the document was authentic.

"There's something about this fragment in its appearance and also in the grammar of the Coptic that strikes me as being not completely convincing somehow," he said in an interview on the sidelines of the conference.

Another participant at the congress, Alin Suciu, a papyrologist at the University of Hamburg, was more blunt.

"I would say it's a forgery. The script doesn't look authentic" when compared to other samples of Coptic papyrus script dated to the 4th century, he said.

 

My thoughts: If someone someday uncovers even a fraction of the conspiracy theories our generation is so fond of (the moon landing hoax, 9/11 was planned by George Bush, Hale-Bopp was an alien envoy - add your own), I certainly hope the most they'll conclude is that some folks at some point believed some of these things.

We trust enlightened teachers, scientists, doctors, politicians, philosophers (and yes, theologians) to sift out the nonsense. The nonsense still has something to say - all physical, tangible objects have a story to tell - but sometimes it's just insight into the psychology of the storyteller, not the story.

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Will that make a difference to the millions of viewers that heard the story on NBCs Today Show while brushing their teeth?

No. But most of them probably owe their theology to Dan Brown anyway and will appreciate the affirmation.

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Started: 2012-09-19

The Story of Every War

Every time the Arab world goes ballistic over an insult, the West scratches its collective head and wonders aloud how millions of sane people could possibly get this upset over a movie (or cartoon or book[1]).

My opinion: Disaffected Muslim kids are responding to a stultifying and cloistering xenophobia. They're kids; kids are naturally angry at a lot of things, and Muslim kids are probably angry at their imams, parents, and a successful and bossy apostate West, so they burn down a Kentucky Fried Chicken, which isn't a Kentucky Fried Chicken at all, but a convenient symbol of their frustration.[2]

Will any of that make a difference when sides start shooting at each other or dropping bombs?

No, and it never has before.

Old political and religious leaders know how to stir up the indignation of young men to preserve old ways that are changing.

But they won’t stop changing, no matter how many young men die.

That is the story of every war.

Story - NY Daily News: Protests against anti-Islam film erupt across Muslim world >

cØ

[1]
An Iranian religious foundation increased the bounty on Salman Rushdie's head for The Satanic Verses to $3,300,000. Nothing like breathing new life into an old fatwa. Story >

[2]
In Religion 301 (or 303?), Prof Holtrop at Calvin College had us read Bob Goudzward's Aid for the Overdeveloped West. I interpreted it as a leftist/communist perspective on affluence (Goudzward's site is here > ). It was a thin book and I don't recall finding answers in it to questions that I was asking at the time. Dutch Calvinism and liberation theology turned me off, though they introduced me to some good people and sincere hope for change.

cØ

Started: 2012-09-17

A Deeper Disparity Remains

1
Catacombe dei Cappuccini / Catacombs of the Capuchins

I heard about this on Brian Dunning's Skeptoid. The Catacombs of the Capuchins are burial catacombs in Palermo, Sicily. The catacombs were closed in 1880 and are now home to 8,000 mummies (and a lot of tourists).

Included among the residents is this little girl, Rosalia Lombardo. She died of pneumonia on December 6, 1920 but looks like she is only sleeping.

Learn more about Catacombs of the Capuchins here (Wikipedia) >
Google Images >

Mark Twain wrote about the Catacombs of the Capuchins at the beginning of Chapter XXVIII of Innocent's Abroad:

There were shapely arches, built wholly of thigh bones; there were startling pyramids, built wholly of grinning skulls; there were quaint architectural structures of various kinds, built of shin bones and the bones of the arm; on the wall were elaborate frescoes, whose curving vines were made of knotted human vertebrae; whose delicate tendrils were made of sinews and tendons; whose flowers were formed of knee-caps and toe-nails. Chapter XXVIII starts here >

[2012-08-16]

2
Do you hear what I hear?

I'm hearing a lot more basic grammar and usage errors in reality TV programming; not from participants who are speaking "unrehearsed" dialog, but from the host who's narrating from a script or teleprompter, which means it's been written and peer reviewed and approved for recording.

And it's not your run-of-the-mill split infinitive or number agreement that is acceptable in conversational English. It's the kind of thing most native English speakers would immediately recognize as errors. They're mistakes.

Sadly, fewer and fewer people are hearing them.

[2012-08-11]

3
A Deeper Disparity Remains

In light of the upcoming elections: Enormously wealthy people that make decisions that affect the poor and the middle class usually believe they are making decisions in the best interest of the poor and middle class. But they have no way of knowing that. You might as well ask a child what it feels like to be an adult, or a man to be a woman, or a cat a dog.

Related: August 8, 2012: Augusta National, home of Masters, admits first 2 women members: Condoleezza Rice and banking executive Darla Moore >

This is not a victory for all women. It's a victory for wealthy and powerful women, and good for them, but a deeper disparity remains.

[2012-08-13]

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Casting Against Type

I'm uncomfortable with analyzing Jesus' ministry in light of Old Testament prophecy and interpretations of types.[1]

Now, that's not because I think that approach has nothing to offer. Indeed, the Apostles, Church Fathers, even Jesus himself, did this as a way to make sense of the events at hand.

But knowing what I know about the ancient Near East, chronologies, redaction, etc, I cannot escape the conclusion that much of what Christians believe to be fulfillment of prophecy is just alignment of more recent events with older ones. Hindsight is 20/20.

Of course, understanding prophecy and Old Testament analogies offer helpful insights, because that is how those around Jesus interpreted his ministry and often how they introduced it to others. If we are to understand them, we must understand how they talked.

They followed an old adage: Know your audience.[2]

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[1]
Eg, Jesus as a type of Adam. For those that may not be aware, there has been a lot of attention paid historically to describing New Testament figures and events as "types" or reflections of Old Testament figures and events. This occurs frequently within the bible as well; eg, Moses and Jesus survive Pharaoh's and Herod's slaughter of infants. As a child reading my bible (which I did daily of my own will), I was often confused by similarities like this and got them mixed up. I'm sure I wasn't the only one having trouble keeping track of all the Marys. Scholars still argue about who's who.

[2]
If you look hard enough, you can find types everywhere. I think that has more to do with the nature of language and perception than it does prophecy.

A classic example is Genesis 3:15, which is often cited as the first instance of messianic prophecy (see the underlined portion):

13 The LORD God said to the woman, “What have you done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 The LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
you are cursed above all livestock,
and above every animal of the field.
You shall go on your belly
and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will bruise your head,
and you will bruise his heel.” Gen 3:14-15 (WEBME; emphasis mine. )

Well, I don't see it. Do you? It's there if Eve is a type of Mary, but it doesn't seem compelling to me; it seems more of a slice of mythos regarding the human fear of snakes.

[2012-09-17: Total coincidence - Just happened to hear Scott Hahn talking on this and it’s interesting that this is the only place in the OT (he says) that the phrase “seed” or “offspring” is used of a woman, elsewhere this phase is restricted to men. It’s the beginning of Marian veneration. I’ll let you know if there’s more on that subject that illuminates this verse.]

We sometimes find what we look for. And sometimes ancient scribes "assisted" prophecy. (My opinion.) Which does not reduce the value of these passages. There is often more truth in a fictionalized account than in just the facts, because it captures not only what happened, but the impact on those it happened to.

I would much rather read the accounts of men and women who believe they met God and did their best to tell us about it than read the transcript of a stenographer who was on the scene.

This is the story in the New York Times covering the Hindenburg disaster >.

This is a report from the scene:
Hindenburg Disaster - 1937 - Herb Morrison reports

Which one lends greater insight into the enormity of this event?

cØ

When you publicly profess a faith, you invite mockery, and the ground rules sort of prevent you from mocking back. Well, the Christian variety does.

cØ

Started: 2012-09-14

A Recipe for Lemonade

We develop vaccines and drug therapies because we get sick. We learn to tell the truth because lies eventually become painful. We often have better luck with younger children because we learn from our mistakes with the older ones.

We make lemonade out of lemons.

The same thing happens on a large, historical canvas.

You know what the Catholics are really good at? (Bear with me, this does relate.)

Acknowledging their shortcomings to each other. I mean the biggies no one really talks about, especially Protestants.

They do this in confession, which they consider a sacrament.[1]

Now, as I understand it (from Prof Thomas Madden, Heaven or Heresy - A History of the Inquisition), the sacrament of confession, though it already existed, gained traction during the Inquisitions, in which it served to help the Church identify heretics.

In fact, the beginning of individual confession (to a priest) roughly coincides with the beginning of the Inquisitions:

Beginnings of practicing the sacrament of penance in the form of individual confession as we know it now, i.e. bringing confession of sins and reconciliation together, can be traced back to 11th c.

In 1215 the Fourth Council of the Lateran made it canon law that every Catholic Christian goes to confession in his parish at least once a year. Source >

Unfortunate, but not surprising. One group thinks another group is coloring outside the lines, and since they can, they enforce a duty that requires everyone to admit their nonconformity.

That is a bad thing.

All groups have the right to insist that the rules of membership be followed, and certainly churches do, but not by forcing members of other groups to ignore their own rules.

But back to the lemonade: Confession to another human being is healthy and cathartic, and Protestants do it too[2], and since Protestants believe that all believers are priests, it amounts to the same thing that happens every day in a Catholic confessional.

My 2¢.

Oh, wait... I still have some change in my pocket...

cØ

 

Sometimes some things can look very much alike and be dangerously different. Mushrooms, for example.

I say this because it occurred to me while I was writing this how often those outside a religious practice discount one ritual because it looks a lot like another.

I had a sort of epiphany recently, in which I asked myself a question and then answered it.

The Question
If you believe that only belief (and not action) gets you to heaven, just what is it about belief that accomplishes this?

After all, a belief is just the connection of ideas, the soldering of some electrical pathways in the brain.

The Answer
We all travel our own path and the choices we make adjust that path; if our "soul" survives us, it continues along the same path we set in life.

That is, just as a physical path brings you to a physical destination, so too (in theory) does a spiritual path.

Whether the soul survives is another conversation, but the principle is sound.

My pocket still isn't empty...

cØ

Another epiphany: a sordid past state doesn't discount the value of a present or future state of a thing.

I have in mind unfortunate (and unfortunately long) historical episodes like the Inquisitions, Crusades, slavery, etc.

I look at the good things coming from good people and am often reminded of the bad things committed by people who preceded us and probably otherwise looked and talked and believed a lot like we do today.

Do we, as descendants of some inhumane people who committed some inhumane acts, bear any stain?

No, I don't think so, but we are susceptible to the same failings if we hold the same beliefs, enforce the same behaviors, and our brain and DNA haven't invented or evolved a way to avoid them.

Note the use of the word susceptible. It's not inescapable. But all human beings (and human social units) are capable of this. The nature of the home - private, secluded, protected - can harbor unthinkable abuse. Entire countries and political systems can extinguish millions. Being products of those those things doesn't mean we are bad like them, but we can easily repeat them; or rhyme with them, as Twain said.

cØ

[1]
I've heard lots of Catholics (on the radio) worry that their sins are always the same, and they are embarrassed that they are doing the same bad things over and over.

The common response to this is (in jest): Would you rather have some new sins to confess?

[2]
If you sit though enough Baptist services, you'll hear lots of talk about lying and stealing and movies and card playing; in some you may hear more on homosexuality, infidelity, drugs and drunkenness.

You won't hear what a priest hears from a penitent. There is something special about two human beings that can share deep shame for the sake of restoring a relationship with another person or personality (human, divine, or otherwise),

cØ

Started: 2012-08-22

Why Some Men Support a Woman's Right to Abortion

1
Do you know why some men support a woman's right to abortion?

I'm a man talking to women right now:

It's because men are programmed to make babies and take limited responsibility.

That's why.

It has very little to do with being an enlightened, progressive, liberal person in tune with women's rights.

If you ask a man who supports a woman's right to abortion, he will likely disagree. But he may as well be disagreeing about why he likes to eat. We may not understand the chemical attractions of carbohydrates, fats and sugars, how smell and appearance affect taste, etc, but those things are motivating factors in what and how much we put in our mouths.

Debates over personhood, viability, rape, etc are important and should continue, but shouldn't keep us from recognizing some core realities.

Including men's unrelenting desire to copulate with any warm body on two legs that looks sorta kinda like it might conceive if Tab A is inserted into Slot B.

(Please don’t misunderstand. The is no position on abortion stated in this posting. I have one, but it is not here.)

[2012-08-23]

2
Map of Arab Protests
Looks like this as of Saturday September 15, 2012. Link >

Anyone else feel that we oughtn't stay where we're not wanted? The age of needing a physical presence to maintain diplomatic relations is long behind us.

Incidentally, despite my feelings about Obama's politics, I still respect him. Not sure where my vote is going, but I'm not voting today. I'm supporting my president.[1]

[2012-09-15]

3
Overheard

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
--Mark Twain

[2012-09-12]

 

cØ

[1]
Interesting BTW that the filmmaker, Nakoula Basseley, is being scrutinized for probation violation; looks like authorities are looking for something to take him out of circulation, since you can’t do that only because he said bad things about someone’s religious beliefs. (Story >). If he’s guilty,  he’s guilty. Of probation violation.

Reminds me of evangelist/creationist Kent Hovind (“Dr Dino”), who is in jail after being convicted on 58 federal counts (tax offenses, obstructing federal agents, and structuring cash transactions). Hovind on Wikipedia > . Mr. Hovind vocally supported tax protests and other things that make government ears perk up.

Is there really free speech in this country?

Sure. Just be prepared for some additional scrutiny. If someone doesn’t like you for some reason, they’ll find another reason to make things painful for you.

That, unfortunately, is true in any country, whether citizens are allowed to speak freely or not.

cØ

My Opinion on the Anti-Islam Video Causing Demonstrations in the Middle East

• Any intentional slight against a personality or ideal that others hold sacred is cruel and unnecessary.
• Any religion that cannot absorb intentional slights has some serious self-examining to do.
• A free society is filled with both.
• Those outside a free society cannot imagine what this freedom is like and may refuse to believe it exists.
• Sensitivity to those slighted seems to be prompted as much by fear as by sympathy.
• 2,000 years ago, the particular deity I worship was reviled, flogged, spat upon, nailed naked to a cross, and stabbed with a sword. He died that way while his family and friends and strangers watched. There is a certain humility and peace one develops when dwelling on that.

That is my opinion on the anti-Islam video causing demonstrations in the Middle East.

I haven't watched the video.

One of many stories, if you're not following it: WP: More protests break out in Muslim world as U.S. appeals for calm >

cØ

Started: 2012-09-13

The Inquisition(s)

1
Why I Don't Quote Bible Verses Very Much

Sometimes when bible verses are quoted as moral or spiritual support, with little or no additional context or insight, they come across as trite and unhelpful. In these cases they mean more to the person offering them than the person hearing them; the speaker thinks that by repeating the verses, they are somehow applying a spiritual balm. They may be, but they are often only applying it to themselves.

Those who respond to this type of gesture (which is usually quite sincere) are responding to their own emotions already connected to the verses. This is how hymns and prayers and paintings and statues work, and may work very well.

When the listener doesn't respond, he may be considered hardened. I am often that person, but I am not hardened at all. I simply respond in my own way in my own moment.

I think a lot of other people are that way, too, they're just too polite to say so.

A related old joke:
So there's this new inmate having lunch in jail for the first time. Across the prison cafeteria, an inmate stands up and says "42!" Everyone laughs. Another stands up and says "86!" Everyone laughs again.

The new inmate asks the guy next to him, "What's with the numbers?"

The other inmate says, "Well, we used to tell jokes at lunch time, but we got to know them all so well, we just now stand up and say the joke's number."

So the new inmate stands up and says, "44!"

No one laughs.

The new inmate sits down and asks the guy next to him, "Why didn't anyone laugh?"

The other inmate says,"'Well, some guys can tell a joke, some guys can't."

(That's a joke my dad told me years ago. I think I got most of it right. I've never told it or wrote it down until now.)

[2012-08-26]

2
The Inquisition(s)

I've learned a great deal about the Inquisition recently by listening to Prof Thomas Madden, Heaven or Heresy - A History of the Inquisition (Amazon >  )

There's a lot I could share[1], but the biggest takeaway for me on a metalevel is how we tend to package history in ways that suit us, and sometimes it's for convenience or profit.[2]

That's old news, and that's why I won't belabor it. Suffice it to say the Inquisition wasn't the popular image we have of it today, and if such things interest you, Prof Thomas Madden is a good place to start.

[2012-08-30]

[1]
For example...
• That there were a number of Inquisitions, the more (in)famous being the Spanish one.
• That most subjects of an inquisition were let off with a warning.
• That a corporal offense needed two eye-witnesses to be tried, and "full proof" was needed for execution; I've looked for an etymological tie between "full-proof" and "fool-proof," but cannot find one yet; will post one if I do.
• That the Church was not upset at Galileo because of his heliocentric science, but because he was also writing about theological matters and refused to stop. He was imprisoned, but not tortured, and due to friends in high places in Rome, his imprisonment was comfortable.
• That the office that prosecuted the Papal inquisitions exists to this day, and former Cardinal Ratzinberger, now Pope Benedict XVI, was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Source >

[2]
In this case, for example, making scary movies about the Inquisitions; the more devious and corrupt you can make them, the more interesting you can make your movie.

Which is not to say the Inquisitions weren't a sad and regrettable snapshot of human depravity, but they weren't the Killing Fields or Auschwitz or Rwanda, either. See death tolls and learn more here >