Sudden irregularities confuse children.

Click to enlarge: Leonardo Da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man"

In 7th grade biology class at Bethel Christian School (when it was on 737 East 26th St. in Erie, PA), we were asked to prepare a report on tree leaves. We collected them, cataloged them, ironed them between sheets of wax paper, and bound them together in reports. I suppose things are still done much the same way today.

The problem was, we weren't studying trees at the time or anything remotely related to trees. We didn't share, discuss, or otherwise use the leaves again. The assignment came out of nowhere, as though we hadn't met some sort of state requirement for 7th grade biology and needed something quick and easy to satisfy an audit.

I also wrote a report that same year criticizing evolution. I towed the company line and got a B for my efforts, if I recall correctly. The cover of my report was outstanding, if I do say so myself, sort of half man/half ape, a teenager's conflation of Da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man" and Planet of the Apes.

[2103-05-01]

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O Happy Day

This was the weather report on my desktop on Tuesday May 28, 2103. I can't tell you how soothing that was to see. No kidding, like God had pulled a giant cozy flannel blanket over the earth.

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Oh, by some incredible fluke, my 7th grade biology class credits transferred through a couple school changes into college credits. How in the world that happened, I don't know, but I got college credit for mutilating a worm and a frog in 7th grade.

 

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You can't hate an exception (one bad apple).

I'm troubled by good things that go bad, and the temptation to judge the remaining good things by the turning of a few.

We can't avoid good things going bad, but we can avoid thereby judging a class of things or people or ideas.

We don't stop eating apples because we find a bad one in the fruit bowl. We don't stop going to school because we had one bad teacher. We don't stop reading because we encountered a crummy book.[1]

But we do use other people's pain to justify our hate, especially toward clerics, political parties, friends, and other groups of humans that can be defined by how they look, talk, or believe.

You can't hate an exception that hurt someone else anymore than you can hate tacos because they made your best friend sick.

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What's worse than finding a worm in an apple? Finding half a worm.

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The Osmonds (1972) - Opening (One Bad Apple)
 

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[1]
Of course, if we're treated to an especially repulsive experience, we will respond angrily to symbols of that revulsion: An alcoholic parent, a dog bite, food poisoning, etc.

Sometimes the pain runs so deep, we can't see past it. That's understandable for the victim, but not those commiserating with him or her.

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Mistrust is often not due to a single person, but the people around him or her.

Click to enlarge: President Obama.

"To say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance. For the same human progress that gives us the technology to strike half a world away also demands the discipline to constrain that power - or risk abusing it."
--President Obama, speaking on drone policy on May 23, 2013

Comment: As much as I disagree with him on some issues, I like Obama and think he will be remembered as one of our greatest presidents and an example of when democracy worked. Neither you nor I will be around to know if I was right, so I will enjoy thinking I'm right.

And these are fine words. I think Obama is sincere. But it's not Obama I'm worried about, it's the 2nd bananas that pull levers and push buttons, the Cheneys and Rumsfelds, those are the guys that worry me.

[2013-05-24]

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Click to enlarge: Chelsea Clinton (L) and Jeb Bush (R)

I hope there will never be another Bush or Clinton in the White House in my lifetime.

I know that's another 30-40 years (Lord wilin' and the creek don't rise), but I'd appreciate it if US voters would cooperate.

Just because you got a famous last name through the Lucky Sperm Club doesn't entitle you to run the country.

[2013-04-11]

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Sometimes you feel like a verb, sometimes not.

Vintage 1977 Almond Joy and Mounds commercial



[2013-05-24]

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Ever hear anyone say, "I got a brain, I could be brain surgeon"?

[2013-05-24]

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Say something else in that ear.

"Suffering is often not an event, but a condition of the heart.

Some crosses are invisible."

--Clarence 0ddbody

[2013-03-10]

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I can tell my brother by the flowers in his eyes, I'm on the road to Shambala.

Click to enlarge: An artist's rendition of Shambhala, in Buddhism a mystical kingdom and place of peace and tranquility.

Once upon a time people sang about things like Shambhala and believed they were real, or at least attainable with sufficient and sincere introspection.

I don't think that's such a bad thing. I can think of worse things to sing about.

 

 

 

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Say something else in that ear.

"We spend most of our lives finding ourselves, which means almost daily deciding we are not what others want us to be.

We often keep this to ourselves, for it's better in the long run, regarding small matters, to be what others want us to be.

That is most often called having manners."

--Clarence 0ddbody

[2013-04-20]

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I can tell my brother by the flowers in his eyes, I'm on the road to Shambala.

Three Dog Night - Shambala (1975)

 

[2013-04-28]

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Prescience is sometimes mistaken for resignation.

Click to enlarge: A bear eating a fish.

Those who work hard and succeed tend to think everyone who hasn't succeeded has failed because they haven't worked as hard.

This is a cultural axiom so ingrained you can't discuss your way around it. Disputing its logic would be like saying you didn't vote but still want to complain about who gets elected.[1]

Salmon struggle upstream to spawn or die trying, perhaps plucked up by a hungry bear. Less than 10% of tadpoles survive to become adult frogs. Most cows end up at the butcher (and even a fifth of dairy cows are turned into hamburger after their utters give out).[2]

We each have our role, our moment, our purpose, if we've been fortunate to find it, and prescient enough to embrace it.

[2013-03-10]

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Say something else in that ear.

"Prescience is sometimes mistaken for resignation. They are not the same thing."

--Clarence 0ddbody

 

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Overheard:
"We prayed like hell"
--Oklahoma tornado survivor on 5/21/2013.

[2013-05-21]

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[1]
Which of course you're welcome to do, but no one will listen to you.

[2]
My Uncle Ken, who was a missionary in the 60's in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, told of us a bug that lives underground and periodically matures and flies up into the air, where it dies and falls to the earth. Children sit over the holes these insects crawl out of, and as they take flight, the children pull the wings off and catch them in their mouths like popcorn. Uncle Ken said they taste like Hersey's kisses.

True story.

Carolee, his eldest child, came back to the United States fluent in Lingala. (She was very little and doesn't speak it anymore.) Their other children Tom Tom and Dee Dee also spent time in the Congo with Uncle Ken and Aunt Dorothy, and I think Tom Tom was actually born there.

Lingala is a Bantu language spoken throughout the Congo.

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Iggy disses the 60's

Click to enlarge: Punk icon Iggy Pop today. I remember him from a caption in a People Magazine from when I was a boy that showed him holding his (blurred) penis in his hand while singing; the caption read, "When in doubt, whip it out."

Iggy Pop disses the 60's:

Renee Montagne:
We are talking the summer of love and music like Jefferson Airplane, something like that.

Iggy Pop:
"I never liked them. They had one good song: 'White Rabbit.' But it was better than [sings], 'Are you going to San Francisco?' That blows."

[snip]

Renee Montagne:
At this point, is it a point of pride that The Stooges won't make money from the record?

Iggy Pop:
"In the mid-'90s, The Stooges and Fun House turned over into the black, and all the band members who survived started getting checks. And then a little later, the same happened to Raw Power. Little by little, that old band has defeated a lot of our shag-haired, frilly-vest-wearing crapola, corporate rock gods and goddesses of the '60s and '70s.

Source >

 

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I had a neighbor on first floor Bolt Hall at Calvin College that was really into punk, including Iggy Pop. I think he deejayed, which was a new occupation to me. He had thousands of vinyl records on a shelf under his loft, and some of the best stereo equipment on the floor. He wore lot of military camouflage.

He was very kind and friendly, especially to freshman like me. He liked everybody.

I don't think he stuck around after my first year. He said of his departing pre-sem roommate going to Notre Dame, "I feel the pain of the Reformation," and he sincerely put his hand over his heart. He wasn't kidding.

I wish I could remember his name. I'd look him up.

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So why is Iggy Pop still so annoyed after 40 years? He seems to have held on to the punk angst that motivated his music in the 70's.

Ad for Chrysler 300C John Varvatos Limited Edition
(Iggy shows up at the end)
 

Selling out? I don't know. Punk is dissonant and unpredictable, so perhaps a corporate Iggy Pop is the perfect fit. Somehow disappointing, though.


[2013-05-02]

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Cooking with Sustenance

Click to enlarge: A tin of generic luncheon loaf, which we'd otherwise likely call Spam. Generic foods obtained some popularity when I was a boy. They promised lower prices and comparable quality without the name brand. I worked at Loblaws and we had an entire aisle of them, everything from cigarettes to napkins. Some generic packaging was white, like this tin, but the variety we sold was yellow with black lettering. My family tried many of them. Crackers and canned goods seemed to be okay most of the time. Most of the others had such poor quality, you only needed to try them once to be convinced there was something behind a brand.

I've always had the idea that there is a market for those who don't want or like fancy food. This decidedly practical food would be called "sustenance," would be block-shaped and light so it's easy to store, would be shelf-stable, easy to cut, and available in a variety of flavors, like pizza, fajita, chocolate, etc. It would satisfy quickly, contain only as many calories and nutrients as needed, and would stick to your ribs, as my family used to say.

This kind of food would be great for writers, in fact artists of any sort who don't like taking time away from their work to eat.

Oh, and there would be only one reality show devoted to food. It would be called "Cooking with Sustenance," and it would involve only dishes you can make with sustenance and what you could do with all the time you saved not making a mess in the kitchen and cleaning up.

[2013-05-13]
 

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Click to enlarge: Are we not men? We are Devo. "Devo" stood for "de-evolution," a term which presumes that evolution is "up" or "better" in some way, which is not a helpful biological concept, and in fact has contributed to support of racism from some academic quarters that were likely unaware of the influence. All that aside, there was something hypnotic in Devo's techno-new wave sound. I didn't care for it, but like generic foods, it had some fans, and similar quirky notes.

It's common for folks, especially young people, to say stuff like Someday we'll figure it out, someday if we all try really hard, we'll fix the world.

I thought so once. I was young and optimistic and thought the right people at the right time could make the right decisions.

But we never will. The world is permanently broken. (Or evolving from one state of disrepair to another, your choice, the metaphor doesn't matter.)

It will remain that way and you can't fix it. You can bandage it, but it won't heal.

Souls are different. Souls you can heal.

But hate and fear and mistrust?

No.

We have our eyes in the front of our heads. We are descended from predators.

Hate and fear and mistrust are needed for survival in a world bereft of love, kindness, and trust.


Jocko Homo (original version)
a.k.a. "Are we not men? We are Devo."

[2013-04-25]

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It's in there. (Ruminations on Real Presence)

Click to enlarge: Prego used to use the tag line, "it's in there," which meant it was made with authentic ingredients.

Jesus is not in a Baptist church in quite the same way he is in a Catholic church.

That is because the doctrine of Real Presence means Jesus is literally, physically there, and not just in the omnipresent "God is everywhere" sense, but in the very same way he was here 2,000 years ago, literally and physically.

 

Click to enlarge: This is the inside of a typical Baptist church. This happens to be Berean Baptist Church in Belleville, Michigan. I have not been there and cannot say if the beliefs are as typical as the architecture.

If you believe that, then communion becomes not just a symbolic gesture, but a channel of grace. Ie, when you participate with a penitent heart, you receive something as real to the spirit as vitamins are to the body.

(I'm not talking about a cognitive difference, but a responsive one. People behave differently when they think someone they are talking to is literally nearby. Compare Baptist and Catholic communion services just after, when the pastor dismisses the congregation. What happens?)

 

Click to enlarge: This is the inside of a Catholic church. I don't know if it's typical because I've only seen the inside of two, and that is hardly a basis for deciding what is typical. (This happens to be St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Detroit area, picture obtained here > ) However I do know that if you attend a Catholic church, you hear the same doctrine as any other Catholic church. I come from the GARB Baptist tradition (General Association of Regular Baptists), and within that tradition, you can be sure that one church to the next also professes similar if not identical doctrines. I suspect Catholics have the same expectations, which are sometimes (if rarely) not met.

I do not believe taking communion saves you by itself any more than the body can survive on vitamin supplements.

Nor do I believe that what you believe regarding this doctrine makes you a better or worse person.

But I do believe one view is more right than the other.

And I believe Jesus meant what he said in John 6:53-56.[1] Four times, Jesus speaks of eating his flesh. He doesn't say "Oh by the way, I'm speaking metaphorically," and he uses visceral words that mean to chew or gnaw. This was so troubling to some listeners, who understood him literally, they stopped following him.

 

 

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Click to enlarge: A 1975 Chick comic titled "Chaos" from when I was a boy. This one happens to feature the Rapture, an element of evangelical theology in which the redeemed are taken up into heaven at the Second Coming of Jesus.

What recommends a blog post that more or less updates my developing theology? A biographical note, perhaps: When we were kids, we regaled each other with stories of a certain occult stripe that invariably involved exorcisms, ghosts, and other unworldly things. Fellow 7th grader Peanut Smith[2] at Bethel Christian School said that he knew for an absolute fact that a priest "serving communion" spilled the wine and when it hit the floor it was real blood.

Most of what we knew of Catholicism unfortunately came from stories like that, nominal Catholic friends, and Chick comics. An exception was Fred Faulk and his family. Fred was a devout Catholic and worked at Loblaws in Erie with Dad. He gave my family a very nice nativity scene one Christmas that is now with me.

It's probably unfair to brand most Catholics I knew as nominal; that's an evangelical description. Baptists expect a more overt expression of faith if it's genuine; that's why, for example, Baptist Mid Missions, the missionary arm of the GARBC (General Association of Baptist Churches) will not bring medical assistance if they cannot also bring religious education along with it, at least, that was a condition of their missionary work when I was a boy, and I felt then, as I do now, that that was somehow unfair. The reasoning was that there are only so many dollars to go around and Baptists should use every penny to spread the Word.

The distinction is an unfortunate byproduct of the Calvinist doctrine of total depravity, in which works are eyed suspiciously when they are an expression of piety.

[2103-05-13]

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[1]
John 6:53-56

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.

The only evangelical objection to a literal interpretation that has any merit (that I can see) is that Jesus made no indication he meant to be understood literally, but there are a couple problems with this:

1. Assuming something from what someone didn't say is dangerous. Evangelicals should especially be wary of this since they use it to counter Catholic arguments for Marian veneration, among other things.

2. Jesus not only repeats himself, he goes out of his way to make it clear he's talking about "true" food and drink, that he's not being metaphorical.

You can reject John 6:53-56, but I don't think you can say it's metaphorical.

[2]
I don't remember his real name, but we all called him Peanut.
 

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He went thataway.

If you know me or spend much time here, you know I often ask myself how I'd like to be remembered, what I'd like on my grave stone, things like that.

Today I realized that it doesn't much matter, because after everyone's gone who knows me, so will be gone any recollection of the subtleties that made me, me - lilts and tilts and gaits and other wonderful things that characterize humans.

That's part of the reason I why I write here and elsewhere, every day, but no amount of words (or pictures or video) can fully capture the presence of a human being.

[2013-02-16]

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Click to enlarge: My Grandpa Grandy, LaVerne E Grandy, at the Grand Canyon, circa 1950.

I can still see my Grandpa Grandy's reserved smile, how he cleared his throat and adjusted his head before speaking, and how his hands shook later in life with essential tremors (that were unrelated to drinking or Parkinson's). Those things, even though I record them here, will leave this earth with the last person that enjoyed them as expressions of what it meant to be "grandpa" to me, which was something different than what it meant to be "dad" to my mom, "husband" to my grandma, or son or brother or grandson himself.

[2013-02-16]

 

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Click to enlarge: This gravestone reads "Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and no place to go." I have no idea if it's real. Kurt Vonnegut wrote that even though he was an agnostic, he didn't have the guts to fully deny God this side of the grave. I'm not sure it takes a lot of courage to be an atheist on your deathbed, since, if you're right, it doesn't really matter, does it? IMHO anyone, like Vonnegut, that doesn't go so far as to curse God and die, harbors some belief, else why not?  Vonnegut is among my favorite literary writers (which include Capote and Salinger).

Anyone ever average up the length of the characters on a tombstone?

I did. A very brief survey.

50-100 characters

Imagine that.

Less than a tweet.

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Of course, it varies. Rich folks have bigger tombstones and more space. Even grave yards are segregated. And there are many buried with no tombstone, because they couldn't afford one, or no one cared, or no one was left to care, and that is sad.

I'm fond of grave yards, even old, poorly maintained ones. I like the beauty, the peace and quiet, the communion I know is represented by the stones, and the love that put them there.

Gravestones are less memorials than mileposts. They say, "He went thataway."


[2013-02-16]

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Eating Gunpowder

Click to enlarge: A barrel of gunpowder.

Overheard on May 8, 2013:

"If the [Catholic Church] is wrong... then... what was the fate of millions upon millions for over 1600 years until Baptists appeared?"
-- Nicea325
(More >)

That's a very good question.

Similar good questions:
• What happens if you hear but don't understand?
• What happens if you've been so conditioned by others (angry parents, ministers, nuns) that you simply can't see the love of Jesus in anything?[1]
• What happened to Jews that lived and died before Jesus?
• What happens to anyone that lives and dies without any knowledge of Jesus? (Forget the typical response that almost no one alive today hasn't heard about Jesus. That may or may not be true, but it certainly wasn't true 50 years ago let alone 2,000 years ago.)
• Are aliens accountable for accepting Jesus? Or did Jesus visit them and express his love in a way they could understand and respond to?

These are good questions, especially the last one, which is a valuable thought experiment.

Asking is worth the effort aside form the answer you get back.

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Click to enlarge: Rodney Dangerfield was a popular stand-up comedian when I was a boy. He was known for complaining, "I don't get no respect." Watch a little of what was funny in my day > "At my house, we pray after we eat."

Disrespect v. Disagreement

I just heard a progressive radio show host laugh at the statement of a prominent pro-life politician.

We offer more respect for the beliefs of those that killed thousands on 9/11 than one person defending the unborn.

If you choose to mock those that disagree with you, don't be surprised if they don't respect you.

[2013-03-11]

 

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[1]
I heard as child that some guard dog owners feed their dogs gunpowder. It makes them vicious. It also eventually kills them. We do that to people, too. We inject so much of our own pain into them, they can no longer feel anything good. Catharsis quickly turns to abuse when the listener is impressionable, and that can be any age.

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The Troubled Middle (repost)

(I don't know why I felt the need to repost this. I am at odds with some very dear people on some things, these among them.)

I'm going to state my opinion on three topics that almost everyone reading this will partially disagree with:

1. Abortion is wrong. It's not a reproductive rights issue, it's a human rights issue.
2. Gay marriage is not wrong. It's like any other marriage. It's not a moral issue, it's a civil rights issue.
3. Recreational drugs use should be legalized.

a. I don't know anyone who has had an abortion.
b. I have no friends or family that are gay (that I know of). [This was true when I wrote it.] I have some former acquaintances that I have heard are gay, but I have no first-hand knowledge. I simply don't travel in circles where this is openly expressed.[1]
c. Despite my appearance and opinion on this subject, I have never taken non-prescription drugs. Never.

If you disagree with me, I respectfully differ and believe you are wrong. If I didn't think so, I would think otherwise. I trust you would as well. We can still be friends.

I am not a woman, I am not gay, and I know no one with a drug problem. I still have an obligation to form an opinion on these topics. All are emotionally deep and deserve sensitive, considered discussion, not sarcastic "if you don't agree with me you're stupid," which is too often the tone of what passes for public discourse, especially on the cable news outlets.

Lots of folks align themselves with larger groups that promote policies and practices they disagree with because the one big idea they do agree on outweighs the others they don't. That's unfortunate.

Someone out there agrees with me on two or three of these issues. I'll bet a lot do, and they've thought a lot about it and they know why they think the way they do. Many of you are Christians and have prayed about it as well.
Don't take a side that compromises your own stand on important issues.
Make your own side.

Become part of the troubled middle.[2]

Live and let live. Share peace and love and all good things.

I probably won't change any minds with this post.

I'm posting it anyway.

Which makes me unwelcome among those I wish to be welcome, because I seek tolerance of all sides, all views. Not necessarily acceptance, though that may come.

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I like some things Michael Moore does more than others. This is one I like:
Michael Moore vs Westboro Baptist Church

 

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[1]
If you're the least bit undecided on the appropriate Christian response to homosexuality, read retired physicist and minister John Berguson's comments here >; a summary of opinions on all sides is here >. They made a difference in my approach to this issue many years ago. "Christians of good will can and will differ."

[2]
I think the term originated with Strachen Donnelley >.

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Started: 2012-04-28
I waited a long time to post this. I've thought a great deal about it, and read a great deal, over many years; I struggle not with what I believe - I am at home with my own thoughts – but with how others will respond to me.

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Some recent pictures...

		Mommy, Dee Dee, Mimi and Charlie VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

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Sometimes we establish habits that are contrary to our beliefs. Easy to do, and easy to confuse others.

When I was a boy, Sunday school teaches would ask, "Does anyone outside church know you're a Christian? If they don't, there's a problem." That's a good question for grownups, too.

[2013-03-07]

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Sometimes it looks like we are far away from a core set of values when we are just walking parallel to them. Some of us see connections in disparate ideas that others don't. The next big idea is always related to the last one, and it often jumps the rails into neighboring disciplines.

[2013-03-07]

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