Major Computer Problems!
I have been meaning to finish adding links to my "Top Ten" list but I've been busier than expected even though I'm off work this week. Now my life has been complicated ENORMOUSLY by a serious computer problem that I am not very confident will work out all that well. Yesterday, my son was given a video card by one of his friends that would be an upgrade from the one we have on my main PC. IF IT WORKED! Brandon installed it, found that it wouldn't put an image on the monitor, so he reinstalled our old one. Unfortunately, when he did that, things didn't go back to how they used to be. I will spare you the boring details but after working on it for a good portion of last night and this morning, no easy solution is available. It looks like my C drive may be lost, corrupted somehow by whatever happened in the shuffling of video cards yesterday.
Now I am on my daughter's eMac, editing my blog, but without the familiar interface that I have gotten used to. This one is much plainer than what I get through Internet Explorer (I'm using the "Safari" web browser at the moment.) So I'm not going to do much more blogging than this. I'm mainly here to give an explanation of what's going on for anyone who may be wondering why I haven't responded to emails or finished linking the Top Ten.
Maybe later I will be able to compose a few end o' the year thoughts... but for now, I'm out of things to say.
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Sunday, December 28, 2003
Another "Top Ten 2003" List!
Here are my choices for the Top Ten PoMoXian stories of 2003. My criteria for choosing is that the story needs to encapsulate an issue that is somewhat contentious among Christians themselves and affects the way that Christianity is seen by the more general culture in America and it's primary sphere of influence (aka "the West.")
Each story poses a challenge to anyone who tries to briefly summarize it, but I'll sum up my reason for choosing the topic as best I can.
1. The War in Iraq
After a year and more of build-up, the USA proceeded to invade Iraq, in the face of worldwide popular opposition and a sizeable minority here at home. Christians were polarized by a desire to support our president and our troops in their battle with a despised tyrant on the one hand, and concerns about "preemptive war" and the use of violent "shock and awe" tactics that wreaked enormous destruction on the cities of Iraq. For some, the war was a justified, possibly even inspired campaign against evil, led by a godly, morally focused president, and for others, it was a cynical pursuit of power and wealth that misused or contradicted biblical teachings on the role that Christians should take in resisting evil.
2. It's a Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay World
Open expressions of homosexuality continued to become more commonplace and visible in the mainstream of American life, well beyond the entertainment industry, where depictions of gays have become routine. For those who find homosexual relationships offensive, this was a difficult year. From the trivial (Madonna kissing Britney and Christina), to more profound issues regarding same-sex marriage and the ordination of a gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, Christians faced the challenge of responding to the demands for acceptance from those who felt it was time to come out of the closet and claim their "place at the table" in society. While it appears that many in our society are comfortable with this emergence of gay attitudes and sensibilities, some observers see the potential for a significant backlash that could have legal and political implications for the year ahead.
3. Judeo-Christianity vs. Islam
The question of how Christians relate to followers of the other Abrahamic religions is certainly not new, but the war in Iraq and the USA's deeper-than-ever involvement in Islamic society raised the stakes considerably and brought Islam to a higher degree of awareness to many people who never seriously considered its claims. Some Christians view Islam as a thoroughly corrupt departure from the Judeo-Christian tradition, while others see it as an honorable way of faith that is currently dealing with an "extremist" problem not unlike what has occured over the course of Christian history (e.g. during the Crusades.) Similarly, Judaism has been strongly embraced by some Christians (most notably premillennialist evangelicals and fundamentalists), creating a surge of support for the nation of Israel in their struggle against hostile Palestinian forces. Questions of eschatology and the Jews status as the "chosen people" remain highly contentious and sometimes result in confusion from non-Christians who want to understand the stance that Christians take in regard to Middle East issues.
4. 10 Commandments Monument
This was probably the most visible demonstration of a fairly small group of activist conservative Christians who feel led to bolster the claim that the USA is a "Christian nation" by installing monuments, mandating the Pledge of Allegiance with emphasis on the "under God" phrase, leading prayers at public school events, etc. Judge Roy Moore invested the full power of his office as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and wound up losing his case, for the time being at least. His followers view him as a courageous, perhaps prophetic defender of righteousness, others see him as a rabble rouser or a shrewd politico. What isn't clear is just how much the general public is willing to accept or concede to those who want to pay homage to Christianity in the public square, since most of these matters are settled in courts, not at the ballot box or in legislative bodies.
5. Myths at the Megaplex
The movie industry brought closure to two major screen epics this year, as the Matrix and Lord of the Rings trilogies each saw their final installments released. Without going into reviews of either series, it's sufficient to say that they each were successful at stirring up conversations on theological and philosophical themes across a wide expanse of the public, getting people to talk openly and somewhat freely about "the meaning of life" in ways that organized religion seems to have lost the ability to do. Maybe the fact that the issues were brought up in the relatively safe arena of "entertainment" rather than "religion" has something to do with it.
6. Growth of the United Security States of America
Though most people in the country haven't been directly affected in ways that they perceive as negative, there's little doubt that many of us are wondering just how much everyday life will change as the new Department of Homeland Security and Patriot Act legislation fully establish themselves and settle in to ordinary routines. The color-coded terrorism alert system, rigorous checks at airports, increased use of surveillance and other government interventions are becoming familiar, and so far at least, public opposition or alarm has been muted. But religious groups are taking notice of these new allowances and some are beginning to question just how much they should accept or resist the government's ability to intrude, especially if there's no public accountability for "secret" operations.
7. The "Porn-ing" of Western Civilization
It's another one of those "old" issues that rose to a new level of prominence. This year, pornography seems to have entered the mainstream to the point where it could be said to be a "fixture" of our entertainment industry. Cable TV broadcasts of Howard Stern regularly feature interviews with porn stars, the E! network's "Hollywood True Story" series did an episode about Jenna Jameson, "Girls Gone Wild" ads barely conceal nudity and come close to revealing sex acts on the air, and of course the Internet, cable and satellite broadcasts supply all the porn, at an affordable price, that any consumer could ever want. Music performers and videos regularly incorporate porn style and sexually explicit themes in their content and a TV series ("Skin") attempted to build on this apparent acceptance of porn by featuring a pornographer as a lead character (but the show was quickly canceled, indicating that people still prefer their porn somewhat better concealed, and have little interest in the lives of those involved in producing it.) For the most part, Christians seem to be standing by helplessly against the onslaught, and probably a higher percentage of them than care to admit it are part of the consumer demographic.
8. Catholic Sex Abuse Scandal
The thought of priests taking advantage of vulnerable children entrusted to their care is bad enough, but when the institutional hierarchy was implicated in covering up the misconduct and knowingly placing unsuspecting others at risk by transferring pedophiles to new parishes, it got very hard to take. Even non-Catholic Christians were appalled that a denomination could get so enmeshed in trying to manage and conceal such depraved behavior from ordained leaders. The erosion of respect and credibility for many church leaders was significant and called into question their ability to speak effectively on a variety of other moral and ethical issues.
9. New Kinds of Christianity
From Elaine Pagel's "Beyond Belief," to authors like Marcus Borg and Brian McLaren, alternative versions of what it can or could mean to be a Christian in today's culture continued to find appreciative audiences. "Open Theism" stoked the fires of debate in evangelical circles, while the best-selling "DaVinci Code" wrapped up many thousands of readers with intriguing conspiracy theories implying that Christian theology and doctrine were based on false pretenses. Old fashioned, straight-ahead orthodoxy still has numerous adherents, but the cultural trends make it easier than ever to make a credible claim at being a Christian without necessarily have to sign on to a comprehensive systematic set of doctrines or a denominational identity.
10. Bio-ethical dilemmas
The Terri Schiavo case, the partial-birth abortion ban, the AIDS crisis in Africa and elsewhere, debates over human cloning and stem-cell research, the "morning after pill," and other similar controversies all pose difficulties for Christians who seek guidance and clarity on these fundamental issues of life and death. As medical and scientific knowledge develops, it seems to be increasingly difficult to find definitive insight or direction from ancient scriptures that were written in an era when humans had such little control over their health, reproduction and ability to regulate pain or the progress of disease. It's an area where it's easy to invoke platitudes and stick with rigid principles, until one is brought into a personal encounter with a comatose relative, an infertile couple, a debilitating illness or undesired pregnancy. Many Christians seek to provide leadership in addressing these concerns, but currently, the church speaks with multiple and conflicting voices, and it's hard to imagine a consensus developing in the foreseeable future.
So those are my Top Ten for 2003. Any of them are worthy of in-depth discussion. If there are issues that you'd like to comment on, or something that you think I left off the list, please send me an email! (One of these days, I will try to set up a "comment" section on this blog but at the moment I have no idea how to do that...
Here are my choices for the Top Ten PoMoXian stories of 2003. My criteria for choosing is that the story needs to encapsulate an issue that is somewhat contentious among Christians themselves and affects the way that Christianity is seen by the more general culture in America and it's primary sphere of influence (aka "the West.")
Each story poses a challenge to anyone who tries to briefly summarize it, but I'll sum up my reason for choosing the topic as best I can.
1. The War in Iraq
After a year and more of build-up, the USA proceeded to invade Iraq, in the face of worldwide popular opposition and a sizeable minority here at home. Christians were polarized by a desire to support our president and our troops in their battle with a despised tyrant on the one hand, and concerns about "preemptive war" and the use of violent "shock and awe" tactics that wreaked enormous destruction on the cities of Iraq. For some, the war was a justified, possibly even inspired campaign against evil, led by a godly, morally focused president, and for others, it was a cynical pursuit of power and wealth that misused or contradicted biblical teachings on the role that Christians should take in resisting evil.
2. It's a Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay World
Open expressions of homosexuality continued to become more commonplace and visible in the mainstream of American life, well beyond the entertainment industry, where depictions of gays have become routine. For those who find homosexual relationships offensive, this was a difficult year. From the trivial (Madonna kissing Britney and Christina), to more profound issues regarding same-sex marriage and the ordination of a gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, Christians faced the challenge of responding to the demands for acceptance from those who felt it was time to come out of the closet and claim their "place at the table" in society. While it appears that many in our society are comfortable with this emergence of gay attitudes and sensibilities, some observers see the potential for a significant backlash that could have legal and political implications for the year ahead.
3. Judeo-Christianity vs. Islam
The question of how Christians relate to followers of the other Abrahamic religions is certainly not new, but the war in Iraq and the USA's deeper-than-ever involvement in Islamic society raised the stakes considerably and brought Islam to a higher degree of awareness to many people who never seriously considered its claims. Some Christians view Islam as a thoroughly corrupt departure from the Judeo-Christian tradition, while others see it as an honorable way of faith that is currently dealing with an "extremist" problem not unlike what has occured over the course of Christian history (e.g. during the Crusades.) Similarly, Judaism has been strongly embraced by some Christians (most notably premillennialist evangelicals and fundamentalists), creating a surge of support for the nation of Israel in their struggle against hostile Palestinian forces. Questions of eschatology and the Jews status as the "chosen people" remain highly contentious and sometimes result in confusion from non-Christians who want to understand the stance that Christians take in regard to Middle East issues.
4. 10 Commandments Monument
This was probably the most visible demonstration of a fairly small group of activist conservative Christians who feel led to bolster the claim that the USA is a "Christian nation" by installing monuments, mandating the Pledge of Allegiance with emphasis on the "under God" phrase, leading prayers at public school events, etc. Judge Roy Moore invested the full power of his office as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and wound up losing his case, for the time being at least. His followers view him as a courageous, perhaps prophetic defender of righteousness, others see him as a rabble rouser or a shrewd politico. What isn't clear is just how much the general public is willing to accept or concede to those who want to pay homage to Christianity in the public square, since most of these matters are settled in courts, not at the ballot box or in legislative bodies.
5. Myths at the Megaplex
The movie industry brought closure to two major screen epics this year, as the Matrix and Lord of the Rings trilogies each saw their final installments released. Without going into reviews of either series, it's sufficient to say that they each were successful at stirring up conversations on theological and philosophical themes across a wide expanse of the public, getting people to talk openly and somewhat freely about "the meaning of life" in ways that organized religion seems to have lost the ability to do. Maybe the fact that the issues were brought up in the relatively safe arena of "entertainment" rather than "religion" has something to do with it.
6. Growth of the United Security States of America
Though most people in the country haven't been directly affected in ways that they perceive as negative, there's little doubt that many of us are wondering just how much everyday life will change as the new Department of Homeland Security and Patriot Act legislation fully establish themselves and settle in to ordinary routines. The color-coded terrorism alert system, rigorous checks at airports, increased use of surveillance and other government interventions are becoming familiar, and so far at least, public opposition or alarm has been muted. But religious groups are taking notice of these new allowances and some are beginning to question just how much they should accept or resist the government's ability to intrude, especially if there's no public accountability for "secret" operations.
7. The "Porn-ing" of Western Civilization
It's another one of those "old" issues that rose to a new level of prominence. This year, pornography seems to have entered the mainstream to the point where it could be said to be a "fixture" of our entertainment industry. Cable TV broadcasts of Howard Stern regularly feature interviews with porn stars, the E! network's "Hollywood True Story" series did an episode about Jenna Jameson, "Girls Gone Wild" ads barely conceal nudity and come close to revealing sex acts on the air, and of course the Internet, cable and satellite broadcasts supply all the porn, at an affordable price, that any consumer could ever want. Music performers and videos regularly incorporate porn style and sexually explicit themes in their content and a TV series ("Skin") attempted to build on this apparent acceptance of porn by featuring a pornographer as a lead character (but the show was quickly canceled, indicating that people still prefer their porn somewhat better concealed, and have little interest in the lives of those involved in producing it.) For the most part, Christians seem to be standing by helplessly against the onslaught, and probably a higher percentage of them than care to admit it are part of the consumer demographic.
8. Catholic Sex Abuse Scandal
The thought of priests taking advantage of vulnerable children entrusted to their care is bad enough, but when the institutional hierarchy was implicated in covering up the misconduct and knowingly placing unsuspecting others at risk by transferring pedophiles to new parishes, it got very hard to take. Even non-Catholic Christians were appalled that a denomination could get so enmeshed in trying to manage and conceal such depraved behavior from ordained leaders. The erosion of respect and credibility for many church leaders was significant and called into question their ability to speak effectively on a variety of other moral and ethical issues.
9. New Kinds of Christianity
From Elaine Pagel's "Beyond Belief," to authors like Marcus Borg and Brian McLaren, alternative versions of what it can or could mean to be a Christian in today's culture continued to find appreciative audiences. "Open Theism" stoked the fires of debate in evangelical circles, while the best-selling "DaVinci Code" wrapped up many thousands of readers with intriguing conspiracy theories implying that Christian theology and doctrine were based on false pretenses. Old fashioned, straight-ahead orthodoxy still has numerous adherents, but the cultural trends make it easier than ever to make a credible claim at being a Christian without necessarily have to sign on to a comprehensive systematic set of doctrines or a denominational identity.
10. Bio-ethical dilemmas
The Terri Schiavo case, the partial-birth abortion ban, the AIDS crisis in Africa and elsewhere, debates over human cloning and stem-cell research, the "morning after pill," and other similar controversies all pose difficulties for Christians who seek guidance and clarity on these fundamental issues of life and death. As medical and scientific knowledge develops, it seems to be increasingly difficult to find definitive insight or direction from ancient scriptures that were written in an era when humans had such little control over their health, reproduction and ability to regulate pain or the progress of disease. It's an area where it's easy to invoke platitudes and stick with rigid principles, until one is brought into a personal encounter with a comatose relative, an infertile couple, a debilitating illness or undesired pregnancy. Many Christians seek to provide leadership in addressing these concerns, but currently, the church speaks with multiple and conflicting voices, and it's hard to imagine a consensus developing in the foreseeable future.
So those are my Top Ten for 2003. Any of them are worthy of in-depth discussion. If there are issues that you'd like to comment on, or something that you think I left off the list, please send me an email! (One of these days, I will try to set up a "comment" section on this blog but at the moment I have no idea how to do that...
Saturday, December 27, 2003
Christmas Gifts!
Here's a summary of what I got for Christmas.
First, let me say that compared to a lot of people, our family didn't spend all that much money on gifts this year. Partly because of many other bills and expenses we're dealing with (college tuition, car repairs, home remodeling from earlier in the year, expanded insurance coverage now that the twins have their permits, etc.) And also because we just didn't see the need to be so materialistic and consumer-like in purchasing the big ticket items that so many advertisers try to portray as mandatory for this time of year.
So anyway...
I got the Boondocks collection, A Right to be Hostile. Aaron McGruder is the sharpest currently working comic strip artist that I know of, though I have to give props to Garry Trudeau for his wit and longevity.
The Essential Silver Surfer, Vol. 1. A recollection of my childhood past, even though the issues collected in this volume were all released before I discovered Marvel comics. The Surfer still ranks as the most cosmic hero of them all and I so enjoy reading Stan Lee's lofty pseudo-philosophical prose.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Expanded DVD set. Another incredible package of fascinating documentaries about the making of the film, as well as enriching additions and background to the main feature itself.
Treasure of the Sierra Madre DVD. A great Bogart performance and compelling story makes this classic one of my favorite old-time movies. I also have the special edition of Casablanca from the same series of Warner Brothers reissues - it's excellent and I would imagine that "Treasure" will be as well.
Metropolis DVD - This is the authorized restored version of the 1927 Fritz Lang silent film that stands as a milestone of the science fiction genre. Fabulous set designs drew my interest - I've seen some poor quality transfers on VHS but I'm looking forward to watching a crisp version of what is commonly regarded as a masterpiece of early cinema.
12 Monkeys DVD - Cool movie, great time-travel saga with a Terry Gilliam twist. I put these four titles on a list of 50 different DVDs that I would like to get for Christmas so they were all surprises, except for the Two Towers which I made clear was "needed" for me to fully enjoy Christmas. :o)
Bowling for Columbine DVD - I picked this one myself using a gift certificate that I got. Michael Moore is an excellent filmmaker and I am eager to see all the extra stuff that he added to this release.
Slippers
Hand Made Glass wind chimes
a Detroit Lions baseball cap (it's not exactly the same as the one depicted in the link, but it's the closest I could find.)
...and the funniest gift I got was a pair of VHS videos from the Pentecostal preacher Jesse DuPlantis. They were from my grandma, who thought Jesse was a comedian! One is titled "Running Toward Your Giant" and the other is "A Merry Heart Doeth Good Like a Medicine." The laughter in my mom's living room was uproarious, especially when I went into my revivalist's voice and read the blurbs off the back of the case: "It's amazing how many people will stand back and let a stinking devil from hell defy the promises of God. This video challenges you to stand in the strength of God, run toward that giant in your life and defeat it in the name of Jesus."
I hope that you all are as happy with the gifts you received as I am with mine!
Here's a summary of what I got for Christmas.
First, let me say that compared to a lot of people, our family didn't spend all that much money on gifts this year. Partly because of many other bills and expenses we're dealing with (college tuition, car repairs, home remodeling from earlier in the year, expanded insurance coverage now that the twins have their permits, etc.) And also because we just didn't see the need to be so materialistic and consumer-like in purchasing the big ticket items that so many advertisers try to portray as mandatory for this time of year.
So anyway...
I got the Boondocks collection, A Right to be Hostile. Aaron McGruder is the sharpest currently working comic strip artist that I know of, though I have to give props to Garry Trudeau for his wit and longevity.
The Essential Silver Surfer, Vol. 1. A recollection of my childhood past, even though the issues collected in this volume were all released before I discovered Marvel comics. The Surfer still ranks as the most cosmic hero of them all and I so enjoy reading Stan Lee's lofty pseudo-philosophical prose.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Expanded DVD set. Another incredible package of fascinating documentaries about the making of the film, as well as enriching additions and background to the main feature itself.
Treasure of the Sierra Madre DVD. A great Bogart performance and compelling story makes this classic one of my favorite old-time movies. I also have the special edition of Casablanca from the same series of Warner Brothers reissues - it's excellent and I would imagine that "Treasure" will be as well.
Metropolis DVD - This is the authorized restored version of the 1927 Fritz Lang silent film that stands as a milestone of the science fiction genre. Fabulous set designs drew my interest - I've seen some poor quality transfers on VHS but I'm looking forward to watching a crisp version of what is commonly regarded as a masterpiece of early cinema.
12 Monkeys DVD - Cool movie, great time-travel saga with a Terry Gilliam twist. I put these four titles on a list of 50 different DVDs that I would like to get for Christmas so they were all surprises, except for the Two Towers which I made clear was "needed" for me to fully enjoy Christmas. :o)
Bowling for Columbine DVD - I picked this one myself using a gift certificate that I got. Michael Moore is an excellent filmmaker and I am eager to see all the extra stuff that he added to this release.
Slippers
Hand Made Glass wind chimes
a Detroit Lions baseball cap (it's not exactly the same as the one depicted in the link, but it's the closest I could find.)
...and the funniest gift I got was a pair of VHS videos from the Pentecostal preacher Jesse DuPlantis. They were from my grandma, who thought Jesse was a comedian! One is titled "Running Toward Your Giant" and the other is "A Merry Heart Doeth Good Like a Medicine." The laughter in my mom's living room was uproarious, especially when I went into my revivalist's voice and read the blurbs off the back of the case: "It's amazing how many people will stand back and let a stinking devil from hell defy the promises of God. This video challenges you to stand in the strength of God, run toward that giant in your life and defeat it in the name of Jesus."
I hope that you all are as happy with the gifts you received as I am with mine!
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Ho-ho-hum
Here we are just a couple days away from Christmas and I really haven't had much to say about the holiday itself, other than mentioning a shopping trip or two. The truth is, I really don't feel all that Christmas-y, for various reasons. What's on my mind is mostly work stuff, and a list of tasks and obligations that require my attention. I've eaten a fair amount of Christmas food, chocolates, mixed nuts, goodies of all sorts, and we've been discussing the meaning of Advent in a class at church. But honestly, it just feels to me like a day that's going to come and go as quickly as any other, and I really don't feel all that sad or sorry about it. My kids are older, but not old enough to be very close to starting their own families, so the sentimental aspect of the season is not very strong. And in some ways, I think the "real meaning of Christmas" topic has been examined to the point of exhaustion. I find it hard to come across any aspect of the Christmas story that I haven't already encountered in years past, and I'm not such a traditionalist that I get all that much satisfaction from hearing the old story one more time. It's not like I'm beyond "awe and wonder" but it just seems like Christmas, from whatever angle one cares to consider it, is kind of played out and not much of a source of transcendent insight for me at this point in my life.
Am I sounding Scroogey or Grinchy? I hope not! I have nothing "against" Christmas at all, it's just not grabbing me this year, and that's just how it is with me, if you care to know. I will enjoy the family get-togethers and exchanging gifts, for all that. But I don't expect to be spiritually moved to any significant degree, no more than I might on any other occasion.
God bless us, everyone, anyway!
Here we are just a couple days away from Christmas and I really haven't had much to say about the holiday itself, other than mentioning a shopping trip or two. The truth is, I really don't feel all that Christmas-y, for various reasons. What's on my mind is mostly work stuff, and a list of tasks and obligations that require my attention. I've eaten a fair amount of Christmas food, chocolates, mixed nuts, goodies of all sorts, and we've been discussing the meaning of Advent in a class at church. But honestly, it just feels to me like a day that's going to come and go as quickly as any other, and I really don't feel all that sad or sorry about it. My kids are older, but not old enough to be very close to starting their own families, so the sentimental aspect of the season is not very strong. And in some ways, I think the "real meaning of Christmas" topic has been examined to the point of exhaustion. I find it hard to come across any aspect of the Christmas story that I haven't already encountered in years past, and I'm not such a traditionalist that I get all that much satisfaction from hearing the old story one more time. It's not like I'm beyond "awe and wonder" but it just seems like Christmas, from whatever angle one cares to consider it, is kind of played out and not much of a source of transcendent insight for me at this point in my life.
Am I sounding Scroogey or Grinchy? I hope not! I have nothing "against" Christmas at all, it's just not grabbing me this year, and that's just how it is with me, if you care to know. I will enjoy the family get-togethers and exchanging gifts, for all that. But I don't expect to be spiritually moved to any significant degree, no more than I might on any other occasion.
God bless us, everyone, anyway!
Sunday, December 21, 2003
Weekend Wrap Up
Yesterday I recapped the things I'd been doing earlier in the week, through Thursday. Friday was a Christmas shopping night, so not much to say about that except that I walked out of the line at Best Buy after getting stuck for over five minutes behind a "problem customer" but I had no choice to go to another register because they have an employee assigned to regulate who goes where. So after I asked to switch lanes and was told no, I set the merchandise down, left the store and went over to Circuit City to buy the same items. That showed them!
Saturday, I got on the computer and did some blogging, obviously, then I went out and did some more Christmas shopping, for Julie this time. Everyone else is done. Today I went to church, then over to my mother-in-laws for that side of the family's Christmas gathering. We got our usual jar of nuts from Koeze's and three sticks of almond bonket (however that's spelled.) It's a sweet Dutch pastry, if you need a clue.
Bush at War
I'm just about finished with the book "Bush at War" by Bob Woodward. It's interesting, kind of enlightening, also rather frustrating at times because it demonstrates just how hard-to-reach our governing rulers are when they get their minds made up about how to conduct foreign policy. I would say that Woodward played it pretty safe, didn't write anything that would cost him his high level of access to the major players of the Bush administration. While it's not necessarily written as an endorsement of Bush policies, and has some content that could be interpreted in unflattering ways, I think the overall impression that the book would make on the hypothetical "average reader" is favorable and somewhat apologetic. There are many occasions where Woodward could have challenged the assumptions or dug deeper into the subject matter, but the style is light, the book reads quickly and basically serves as a little peek behind the scenes, giving colorful anecdotes that reveal more about the temperament of the key figures in the war against the Taliban of 2001-2002 than in the complex reasons behind the various decisions that were made.
Overall, the book has me thinking about the nature of our government these days, what kind of an entity the United States of America actually is when it gets down to pragmatic realities and pursuing our national interests. My general conclusion is that Bush is doing what he believes is necessary to uphold his responsibilities to the nation, and my biggest disagreement with him may stem from a different view of what our national interests "ought" to be. In the realm that he, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, etc. inhabit, accumulating, holding and wielding power is the prime objective. Presumably, if power is conceded, then our freedom and liberty are at risk. I am just not confident that we define freedom and liberty in the same way. And I am concerned that too often, our policies abridge the human rights of people in other nations, when we support governments and economic arrangements that produce rather than alleviate poverty. Now anything that I could honestly say to defend my concern would be based on reading the research of others. In my own life, I'm just basically doing my thing, living off a social worker's salary and getting by the best I can. But I don't presently trust the basic orientation of the Republican Party at this time - to me, their platform seems more about division and exploitation than about national unity and promoting human progress. Woodward's book casts the war in Afghanistan as a simple exercise of going after the bad guys who were responsible for 9/11. Subsequent events and the long track record of the members of this administration indicate to me that, while settling the score with terrorists was a big part of the war's justification, a lot more was included when setting objectives for the final outcome. I feel like I have to do a lot more study to understand just what kind of an effect the push toward corporate globalization (which is what I consider to be the US government's "bottom line" agenda, both Democratic and Republican) has on the people in other lands.
Yesterday I recapped the things I'd been doing earlier in the week, through Thursday. Friday was a Christmas shopping night, so not much to say about that except that I walked out of the line at Best Buy after getting stuck for over five minutes behind a "problem customer" but I had no choice to go to another register because they have an employee assigned to regulate who goes where. So after I asked to switch lanes and was told no, I set the merchandise down, left the store and went over to Circuit City to buy the same items. That showed them!
Saturday, I got on the computer and did some blogging, obviously, then I went out and did some more Christmas shopping, for Julie this time. Everyone else is done. Today I went to church, then over to my mother-in-laws for that side of the family's Christmas gathering. We got our usual jar of nuts from Koeze's and three sticks of almond bonket (however that's spelled.) It's a sweet Dutch pastry, if you need a clue.
Bush at War
I'm just about finished with the book "Bush at War" by Bob Woodward. It's interesting, kind of enlightening, also rather frustrating at times because it demonstrates just how hard-to-reach our governing rulers are when they get their minds made up about how to conduct foreign policy. I would say that Woodward played it pretty safe, didn't write anything that would cost him his high level of access to the major players of the Bush administration. While it's not necessarily written as an endorsement of Bush policies, and has some content that could be interpreted in unflattering ways, I think the overall impression that the book would make on the hypothetical "average reader" is favorable and somewhat apologetic. There are many occasions where Woodward could have challenged the assumptions or dug deeper into the subject matter, but the style is light, the book reads quickly and basically serves as a little peek behind the scenes, giving colorful anecdotes that reveal more about the temperament of the key figures in the war against the Taliban of 2001-2002 than in the complex reasons behind the various decisions that were made.
Overall, the book has me thinking about the nature of our government these days, what kind of an entity the United States of America actually is when it gets down to pragmatic realities and pursuing our national interests. My general conclusion is that Bush is doing what he believes is necessary to uphold his responsibilities to the nation, and my biggest disagreement with him may stem from a different view of what our national interests "ought" to be. In the realm that he, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, etc. inhabit, accumulating, holding and wielding power is the prime objective. Presumably, if power is conceded, then our freedom and liberty are at risk. I am just not confident that we define freedom and liberty in the same way. And I am concerned that too often, our policies abridge the human rights of people in other nations, when we support governments and economic arrangements that produce rather than alleviate poverty. Now anything that I could honestly say to defend my concern would be based on reading the research of others. In my own life, I'm just basically doing my thing, living off a social worker's salary and getting by the best I can. But I don't presently trust the basic orientation of the Republican Party at this time - to me, their platform seems more about division and exploitation than about national unity and promoting human progress. Woodward's book casts the war in Afghanistan as a simple exercise of going after the bad guys who were responsible for 9/11. Subsequent events and the long track record of the members of this administration indicate to me that, while settling the score with terrorists was a big part of the war's justification, a lot more was included when setting objectives for the final outcome. I feel like I have to do a lot more study to understand just what kind of an effect the push toward corporate globalization (which is what I consider to be the US government's "bottom line" agenda, both Democratic and Republican) has on the people in other lands.
Return of the King
Here are a few more thoughts about the ROTK film that I mentioned so briefly in yesterday's blog (originally posted last night on my PoMoXian email list.)
I saw the movie this past Thursday night, with my family, and a good portion of my enjoyment was stealing brief glances down the row of seats to see my children's cheezy grins at the coolness of what they saw on the screen. Not that every moment of the film was "smile-inducing" on the level of the emotions that the story triggered - but the whole thing was delightful as far as the craftsmanship and power of the story was concerned. It is indeed a rare privilege to be in on the ground floor, so to speak, of what will undoubtedly come to be regarded as a sheer masterpiece of cinematic art.
Honestly, though, I have had a hard time writing down anything resembling a review. I won't try my hand at that until after a second viewing. I'm mostly feeling like there's not much I could add to what's already been written by others. Plus, there is a lot to digest when I think of the magnitude of the whole story/film/phenomenon and the cultural impact it's made on so many different people. With the trilogy being "complete" (mostly - there's still the expanded DVD to be released next year...) there's also a kind of finality to deal with. We can't really speculate on "what's gonna happen next," not that there's anything lacking at this point.
I think what we are feeling is somewhat similar to what the audience who first heard Beethoven's Ninth Symphony experienced after its debut and early performances. Like we've been in the presence of genius, an expression of the creative spirit that will outlive all of us and remain strong into succeeding generations.
A lot of people are falling all over themselves trying to convey just how impressed they are. It's worth the try, just so that we can each bear witness as we're capable to what a splendid job the entire LOTR production company did in this "labor of love."
I'll wrap up all this gushing to ask about other films that Peter Jackson has made. I will hit the IMDB after I post this, but at the moment, I can't name any of his other films. Of course, I am now officially committed to seeing the rest of his work and will be there in the audience for anything that bears his name in the future until something happens to persuade me otherwise. I think Jackson has already out-performed George Lucas by any yardstick and the only real advantage I see that Steven Spielberg has is longevity and a broader range of work in different genres over the course of time. But neither of them have taken on such "perilous" material, by that I mean a project that had such lofty expectations going in and could have been a monumental disaster if not well-executed.
Here are a few more thoughts about the ROTK film that I mentioned so briefly in yesterday's blog (originally posted last night on my PoMoXian email list.)
I saw the movie this past Thursday night, with my family, and a good portion of my enjoyment was stealing brief glances down the row of seats to see my children's cheezy grins at the coolness of what they saw on the screen. Not that every moment of the film was "smile-inducing" on the level of the emotions that the story triggered - but the whole thing was delightful as far as the craftsmanship and power of the story was concerned. It is indeed a rare privilege to be in on the ground floor, so to speak, of what will undoubtedly come to be regarded as a sheer masterpiece of cinematic art.
Honestly, though, I have had a hard time writing down anything resembling a review. I won't try my hand at that until after a second viewing. I'm mostly feeling like there's not much I could add to what's already been written by others. Plus, there is a lot to digest when I think of the magnitude of the whole story/film/phenomenon and the cultural impact it's made on so many different people. With the trilogy being "complete" (mostly - there's still the expanded DVD to be released next year...) there's also a kind of finality to deal with. We can't really speculate on "what's gonna happen next," not that there's anything lacking at this point.
I think what we are feeling is somewhat similar to what the audience who first heard Beethoven's Ninth Symphony experienced after its debut and early performances. Like we've been in the presence of genius, an expression of the creative spirit that will outlive all of us and remain strong into succeeding generations.
A lot of people are falling all over themselves trying to convey just how impressed they are. It's worth the try, just so that we can each bear witness as we're capable to what a splendid job the entire LOTR production company did in this "labor of love."
I'll wrap up all this gushing to ask about other films that Peter Jackson has made. I will hit the IMDB after I post this, but at the moment, I can't name any of his other films. Of course, I am now officially committed to seeing the rest of his work and will be there in the audience for anything that bears his name in the future until something happens to persuade me otherwise. I think Jackson has already out-performed George Lucas by any yardstick and the only real advantage I see that Steven Spielberg has is longevity and a broader range of work in different genres over the course of time. But neither of them have taken on such "perilous" material, by that I mean a project that had such lofty expectations going in and could have been a monumental disaster if not well-executed.
Saturday, December 20, 2003
Thursday 12/18/03: Worth the Wait
We went to see Return of the King on Thursday night. Good flick. Lives up to all the hype. So when does the DVD come out?
We went to see Return of the King on Thursday night. Good flick. Lives up to all the hype. So when does the DVD come out?
Wednesday 12/17/03: MUCH TOO MUCH
One thing that I didn't mention that happened on Tuesday is that Julie and I discovered that our furnace was having a problem. Namely, it wasn't keeping the house warm, because it wasn't igniting any flame to generate the heat that would raise the overall temperature in our home. Big problem, seeing how we live in Michigan and it's December and all...
I found the number of Advanced Heating & Cooling. Their service guy, T.J., had replaced the ignitor last year so I figured it may still be waranty-covered or replaceable at some kind of discount. I later discover that he's pretty much an independent repairman guy who just uses an answering service number to contact him when a customer calls.
So I call Advanced, his answering service pages him and he gets back to me, we set up an appointment for him to come check it out after noon on Wednesday. I have to work, but my daughter will be home so I say, sure come over, we need it fixed ASAP. The interior temperature was around 63 when I spoke with him and probably got lower as we slept that night. It was bitter cold outside and we have a few drafty windows that let the chill in.
However, these plans were complicated when I heard that Alyssa wasn't going to be home after all. She'd been called in to work at Flowerland because of a sick call. She's back from college for the next few weeks, just FYI. So I figured I'd have to take off early from work to meet him and approve whatever repair he felt was needed.
I also had previously scheduled our '93 Intrepid for some front end work. One of the ball joints was going bad, and the car made this disturbing crunching/clunking sound most of the time when I made any kind of a sharp turn. I was genuinely concerned about the wheel falling off if I didn't get it taken care of very soon. The job had actually been set up for the previous week but they had to cancel because the technician who would do the repair was off that day. So I didn't want to push this repair back any further.
So now we had to get the Intrepid to the garage at 7:45 am, when Zink's opens, and from there, I'd whip Julie and Alyssa to work by 8:00 am. Thankfully, everything is close enough together that this timetable was realistic, though still very tight. After I dropped off those two, I went straight in to work, where I had a 9:00 am appointment to deal with a fairly sensitive matter involving some questionable conduct by a staff from one of our neighboring programs that affected the home I supervise.
Complicating my workday even further was our plan to have our annual Family Christmas Party that same evening. This involves preparing the unit for a few dozen visitors, including friends and relatives of our clients, and staff and their families. There are just a lot of details to be managed and as Home Supervisor, I have a lot of that responsibility fall on me. But now I would have to leave early to meet the furnace repair guy, as well as pick up Julie when she got off at 3pm, Alyssa when she got off at 5pm, and somewhere in all that find time to go pick up the Intrepid which was due to be fixed the same afternoon.
I got out of my 9:00 am meeting a little after 10:00 and went back up to my office. I chatted with staff, got some more fill-in on how the girls were doing, the usual stuff. Then around 10:30, T.J. called and said he was ready to head over to my house and fix the furnace. So I had to leave on very short notice, without really doing much if any of the party set-up that I had planned to do. Fortunately, I had already done nearly all of the necessary shopping the day before.
So up the freeway I dashed, and T.J. got to my house not too much after I did. I expected that he'd find the malfunctioning part, replace it, charge me a hundred bucks or so for the 15 minutes it took him to resolve the problem, and we'd at least have some heat again.
Didn't work out quite so easy. It seems that the part T.J. wanted to replace isn't manufactured anymore, and he wasn't able to find any warehouses in the area that still had any in stock. He also went on to tell me that Luxaire, the brand of furnace that came with our house, is one of his least favorites to work on because "they have their own peculiar way of doing things." I don't follow all the details, but for example, the broken piece we need to replace uses four wires to do what two wires normally does on most furnaces. There are other complications and "temperamental" issues pertaining to the Luxaire brand as well, apparently. So T.J. resorted to improvising, coming up with a part that was adapted to over-ride the broken piece. He said it was kind of like putting a Chevy axle into a Ford, but it was probably the best he could do until a proper replacement could be found. If that quest failed, we'd be looking at buying a new furnace...
T.J.'s struggles to fix the furnace went on and off throughout the day. As of today (early Saturday afternoon) we still don't know if the needed part is going to be found - he's got a nationwide search of his distribution network going but hasn't heard any conclusive results yet and probably won't until Monday now. A few more tidbits about the furnace: it's 14 years old and this particular model was only manufactured for eight months before it was phased out or replaced for who knows what reason. GGgggghhhhh.... how tedious. So now, if we want heat, we have to manually light it up, which is kind of fun, but for some reason, the thing keeps shutting down due to lack of gas moving through the pipeline even though I've got the thermostat set up to 80 degrees. The gas is shutting off for some other reason that we haven't been able to determine yet. The automatic ignitor switch is overridden, so maybe that has something to do with it. So we have to re-light the furnace every 15 - 30 minutes if we want to pump more heat into our dwelling place. Brrrrrrrrrrrr...
So I'm looking at a potential $1500 bill or maybe more!
Then there's the Intrepid. It's a '93 model, with approx. 145,000 miles on it. I was told the ball joint repair would run around $200 and could be finished around 3:00 pm.
Wrong.
There were also two tie-rods going bad that the guy at Zink's recommended I replace. That added another $300 to the bill. They also hadn't been able to start the repair until 2:00 or so, which meant that they would have to "two-man" it if they had any chance to get it done before they closed at 7:00 pm. That wasn't really very good as far as my needs were concerned, I politely let him know. I explained to him the busy-ness of my afternoon and evening. Oh, did I happen to mention that my youngest son also had a dentist appointment at 6:00 pm? Just to add a little to the dramatic tension...
So I approved the repair, the whole thing, just do it, gotta have reliable transportation even though I'm not sure the Intrepid is worth investing $500 into but whatya gonna do?
Went to pick up Julie, explain the whole business to her, got her home and we talked out our various options. Throughout all this time, I was also calling work explaining to them that my intentions to return and help with the party preparation were sincere but not easily fulfilled because of all the problems I was running into, so they'd have to carry on without me but I'll be there as soon as I possibly could!
So after dropping off Julie at home, I went out to buy a few small gifts for my "Secret Santa" person at work, since we were due to reveal who had whom and give our final gifts at our team meeting the next day, Thursday morning. Also, I had to pick up plastic cups and candy canes to bring to the party. And from that errand, I went to pick up Alyssa from work at 5 pm.
Then we got home and we coordinated what had yet to be done. T.J. showed us how to re-light the furnace. I called Zink's to tell them that I'd pay for the repair sometime after 6:00 pm even if it wasn't done, since I'd probably have to pick up the Intrepid after they closed at 7:00. They assured me that they'd be finished by closing time. So the plan was for me to drop off Julie and Derek at the dentist, go from there to Zink's to pay up, go back home for a little bit, then back to the dentist around 7:00 pm to pick them up again, then we'd go to Zink's, I'd get the Intrepid and head from there to the Christmas party. Which is pretty much what happened.
So I wound up being late to the party, and wasn't able to do all of the traditional welcoming and hosting things that I do, but I was able to do some of them, in different order than what we've estabished the past several years. We had a big turnout, around 60 people, the most that we could ever recall coming over to one of these events. Quite fun, and I give our staff my utmost respect and gratitude for getting it all together without me. I was still more than a little disoriented coming from all the domestic problem-solving that I'd been dealing with all day, all the running around and tight scheduling, to an atmosphere at work that was quite different than what we all normally deal with - even though there was a positive mood overall in the house, there were a lot of emotionally sensitive kids to deal with and a lot of eyes on me for various reasons.
What a wierd and expensive day.
One thing that I didn't mention that happened on Tuesday is that Julie and I discovered that our furnace was having a problem. Namely, it wasn't keeping the house warm, because it wasn't igniting any flame to generate the heat that would raise the overall temperature in our home. Big problem, seeing how we live in Michigan and it's December and all...
I found the number of Advanced Heating & Cooling. Their service guy, T.J., had replaced the ignitor last year so I figured it may still be waranty-covered or replaceable at some kind of discount. I later discover that he's pretty much an independent repairman guy who just uses an answering service number to contact him when a customer calls.
So I call Advanced, his answering service pages him and he gets back to me, we set up an appointment for him to come check it out after noon on Wednesday. I have to work, but my daughter will be home so I say, sure come over, we need it fixed ASAP. The interior temperature was around 63 when I spoke with him and probably got lower as we slept that night. It was bitter cold outside and we have a few drafty windows that let the chill in.
However, these plans were complicated when I heard that Alyssa wasn't going to be home after all. She'd been called in to work at Flowerland because of a sick call. She's back from college for the next few weeks, just FYI. So I figured I'd have to take off early from work to meet him and approve whatever repair he felt was needed.
I also had previously scheduled our '93 Intrepid for some front end work. One of the ball joints was going bad, and the car made this disturbing crunching/clunking sound most of the time when I made any kind of a sharp turn. I was genuinely concerned about the wheel falling off if I didn't get it taken care of very soon. The job had actually been set up for the previous week but they had to cancel because the technician who would do the repair was off that day. So I didn't want to push this repair back any further.
So now we had to get the Intrepid to the garage at 7:45 am, when Zink's opens, and from there, I'd whip Julie and Alyssa to work by 8:00 am. Thankfully, everything is close enough together that this timetable was realistic, though still very tight. After I dropped off those two, I went straight in to work, where I had a 9:00 am appointment to deal with a fairly sensitive matter involving some questionable conduct by a staff from one of our neighboring programs that affected the home I supervise.
Complicating my workday even further was our plan to have our annual Family Christmas Party that same evening. This involves preparing the unit for a few dozen visitors, including friends and relatives of our clients, and staff and their families. There are just a lot of details to be managed and as Home Supervisor, I have a lot of that responsibility fall on me. But now I would have to leave early to meet the furnace repair guy, as well as pick up Julie when she got off at 3pm, Alyssa when she got off at 5pm, and somewhere in all that find time to go pick up the Intrepid which was due to be fixed the same afternoon.
I got out of my 9:00 am meeting a little after 10:00 and went back up to my office. I chatted with staff, got some more fill-in on how the girls were doing, the usual stuff. Then around 10:30, T.J. called and said he was ready to head over to my house and fix the furnace. So I had to leave on very short notice, without really doing much if any of the party set-up that I had planned to do. Fortunately, I had already done nearly all of the necessary shopping the day before.
So up the freeway I dashed, and T.J. got to my house not too much after I did. I expected that he'd find the malfunctioning part, replace it, charge me a hundred bucks or so for the 15 minutes it took him to resolve the problem, and we'd at least have some heat again.
Didn't work out quite so easy. It seems that the part T.J. wanted to replace isn't manufactured anymore, and he wasn't able to find any warehouses in the area that still had any in stock. He also went on to tell me that Luxaire, the brand of furnace that came with our house, is one of his least favorites to work on because "they have their own peculiar way of doing things." I don't follow all the details, but for example, the broken piece we need to replace uses four wires to do what two wires normally does on most furnaces. There are other complications and "temperamental" issues pertaining to the Luxaire brand as well, apparently. So T.J. resorted to improvising, coming up with a part that was adapted to over-ride the broken piece. He said it was kind of like putting a Chevy axle into a Ford, but it was probably the best he could do until a proper replacement could be found. If that quest failed, we'd be looking at buying a new furnace...
T.J.'s struggles to fix the furnace went on and off throughout the day. As of today (early Saturday afternoon) we still don't know if the needed part is going to be found - he's got a nationwide search of his distribution network going but hasn't heard any conclusive results yet and probably won't until Monday now. A few more tidbits about the furnace: it's 14 years old and this particular model was only manufactured for eight months before it was phased out or replaced for who knows what reason. GGgggghhhhh.... how tedious. So now, if we want heat, we have to manually light it up, which is kind of fun, but for some reason, the thing keeps shutting down due to lack of gas moving through the pipeline even though I've got the thermostat set up to 80 degrees. The gas is shutting off for some other reason that we haven't been able to determine yet. The automatic ignitor switch is overridden, so maybe that has something to do with it. So we have to re-light the furnace every 15 - 30 minutes if we want to pump more heat into our dwelling place. Brrrrrrrrrrrr...
So I'm looking at a potential $1500 bill or maybe more!
Then there's the Intrepid. It's a '93 model, with approx. 145,000 miles on it. I was told the ball joint repair would run around $200 and could be finished around 3:00 pm.
Wrong.
There were also two tie-rods going bad that the guy at Zink's recommended I replace. That added another $300 to the bill. They also hadn't been able to start the repair until 2:00 or so, which meant that they would have to "two-man" it if they had any chance to get it done before they closed at 7:00 pm. That wasn't really very good as far as my needs were concerned, I politely let him know. I explained to him the busy-ness of my afternoon and evening. Oh, did I happen to mention that my youngest son also had a dentist appointment at 6:00 pm? Just to add a little to the dramatic tension...
So I approved the repair, the whole thing, just do it, gotta have reliable transportation even though I'm not sure the Intrepid is worth investing $500 into but whatya gonna do?
Went to pick up Julie, explain the whole business to her, got her home and we talked out our various options. Throughout all this time, I was also calling work explaining to them that my intentions to return and help with the party preparation were sincere but not easily fulfilled because of all the problems I was running into, so they'd have to carry on without me but I'll be there as soon as I possibly could!
So after dropping off Julie at home, I went out to buy a few small gifts for my "Secret Santa" person at work, since we were due to reveal who had whom and give our final gifts at our team meeting the next day, Thursday morning. Also, I had to pick up plastic cups and candy canes to bring to the party. And from that errand, I went to pick up Alyssa from work at 5 pm.
Then we got home and we coordinated what had yet to be done. T.J. showed us how to re-light the furnace. I called Zink's to tell them that I'd pay for the repair sometime after 6:00 pm even if it wasn't done, since I'd probably have to pick up the Intrepid after they closed at 7:00. They assured me that they'd be finished by closing time. So the plan was for me to drop off Julie and Derek at the dentist, go from there to Zink's to pay up, go back home for a little bit, then back to the dentist around 7:00 pm to pick them up again, then we'd go to Zink's, I'd get the Intrepid and head from there to the Christmas party. Which is pretty much what happened.
So I wound up being late to the party, and wasn't able to do all of the traditional welcoming and hosting things that I do, but I was able to do some of them, in different order than what we've estabished the past several years. We had a big turnout, around 60 people, the most that we could ever recall coming over to one of these events. Quite fun, and I give our staff my utmost respect and gratitude for getting it all together without me. I was still more than a little disoriented coming from all the domestic problem-solving that I'd been dealing with all day, all the running around and tight scheduling, to an atmosphere at work that was quite different than what we all normally deal with - even though there was a positive mood overall in the house, there were a lot of emotionally sensitive kids to deal with and a lot of eyes on me for various reasons.
What a wierd and expensive day.
Tuesday 12/16/03: WMJPC Meeting
Continuing with my recap of this past week...
Tuesday night I went to the West Michigan Justice and Peace Coalition meeting. My personal task was to present a set of guidelines for our email discussion list, so I did that and they were well received. Otherwise, I generally participated in the discussion of numerous items on the agenda. You can read for yourself the minutes of what we talked about and since I have plenty more to say on other subjects, I'll let these notes speak for themselves.
Continuing with my recap of this past week...
Tuesday night I went to the West Michigan Justice and Peace Coalition meeting. My personal task was to present a set of guidelines for our email discussion list, so I did that and they were well received. Otherwise, I generally participated in the discussion of numerous items on the agenda. You can read for yourself the minutes of what we talked about and since I have plenty more to say on other subjects, I'll let these notes speak for themselves.
Monday 12/15/03 The Weather Underground
Finally! It's Saturday morning and at last I have some time to sit down and blog for awhile without having to wait to use the computer (or kick one of my kids off, which is usually what I have to resort to in order to have evening access to the PC.) As I said yesterday, it's been a jam-packed week.
Let me finish up my comments on the Weathermen. Though I remember hearing about them as a kid when they were active and fairly notorious, it didn't register on me just how far they had gone in conducting terrorist activities. They actually planted a bomb in the US Capitol building! As well as another dozen or two incidents in all different regions of the USA. Though they made a decision to try and avoid inflicting human casualties (with their bombs exploding late at night in empty rooms), it still seems remarkable to me that things went as far as they did. And since this was the case, why did we not have the kind of Patriot Act/Homeland Security national clampdown consolidation of power that we've seen since 9/11? My thought is that our political leaders were, as a whole, more conscientiously concerned with protecting constitutional liberties than they are now. Even though we still have some outspoken champions of free speech and the Bill of Rights in general, that consensus has eroded on both the left and the right, and we have a significant number of politicians who would curtail those freedoms for the sake of an expedient solution to some problem or another.
I don't have hard data to back me up on this, but it's my sense of how things are. It seems like our anxieties are still the object of manipulation by various powerful forces in this country - I'd like to encourage people to not get so hung up on worrying about "the bad guys." Obessing over their potential for doing evil may incline us to support misguided policies and those who would enact them to further their own agenda, rather than providing for the common good.
But back to the Weather Underground film. One must really listen to their own rhetoric to get a real appreciation of how quickly righteous indignation can turn into dangerous delusion. These young adults took hold of a few radical principles and elevated them to such serious importance that they lost all sense of perspective. Weaving archival footage of the Vietnam conflict and putting it all in the context of a massive nationwide anti-war movement helps us understand their frustration as the casualties and atrocities continued to escalate in SE Asia. And I must also say, if we think that Bush is a poor-to-mediocre president, one only has to view a few clips of Nixon in his prime to get a sense of how grossly offensive presidential rhetoric can be. I appreciated the chance to get a glimpse of how the political polarization that I see as characteristic of these times has really been going on for quite awhile.
Well I could ramble about this film quite a bit more but I think that's sufficient for now. Afterwards, viewers had a group discussion about the documentary and its significance. There were a few older folks there who'd lived through all that stuff and had good insight into other aspects of the Weathermen story. And a lot of younger folks who were probably interested in learning about what an earlier generation of activists had gone through in their struggles against the Establishment. A cool time, a chance to talk openly about the role of violence and non-violence when resisting government sanctioned and privileged injustice. Okay, time to move on to other things that happened this week.
Finally! It's Saturday morning and at last I have some time to sit down and blog for awhile without having to wait to use the computer (or kick one of my kids off, which is usually what I have to resort to in order to have evening access to the PC.) As I said yesterday, it's been a jam-packed week.
Let me finish up my comments on the Weathermen. Though I remember hearing about them as a kid when they were active and fairly notorious, it didn't register on me just how far they had gone in conducting terrorist activities. They actually planted a bomb in the US Capitol building! As well as another dozen or two incidents in all different regions of the USA. Though they made a decision to try and avoid inflicting human casualties (with their bombs exploding late at night in empty rooms), it still seems remarkable to me that things went as far as they did. And since this was the case, why did we not have the kind of Patriot Act/Homeland Security national clampdown consolidation of power that we've seen since 9/11? My thought is that our political leaders were, as a whole, more conscientiously concerned with protecting constitutional liberties than they are now. Even though we still have some outspoken champions of free speech and the Bill of Rights in general, that consensus has eroded on both the left and the right, and we have a significant number of politicians who would curtail those freedoms for the sake of an expedient solution to some problem or another.
I don't have hard data to back me up on this, but it's my sense of how things are. It seems like our anxieties are still the object of manipulation by various powerful forces in this country - I'd like to encourage people to not get so hung up on worrying about "the bad guys." Obessing over their potential for doing evil may incline us to support misguided policies and those who would enact them to further their own agenda, rather than providing for the common good.
But back to the Weather Underground film. One must really listen to their own rhetoric to get a real appreciation of how quickly righteous indignation can turn into dangerous delusion. These young adults took hold of a few radical principles and elevated them to such serious importance that they lost all sense of perspective. Weaving archival footage of the Vietnam conflict and putting it all in the context of a massive nationwide anti-war movement helps us understand their frustration as the casualties and atrocities continued to escalate in SE Asia. And I must also say, if we think that Bush is a poor-to-mediocre president, one only has to view a few clips of Nixon in his prime to get a sense of how grossly offensive presidential rhetoric can be. I appreciated the chance to get a glimpse of how the political polarization that I see as characteristic of these times has really been going on for quite awhile.
Well I could ramble about this film quite a bit more but I think that's sufficient for now. Afterwards, viewers had a group discussion about the documentary and its significance. There were a few older folks there who'd lived through all that stuff and had good insight into other aspects of the Weathermen story. And a lot of younger folks who were probably interested in learning about what an earlier generation of activists had gone through in their struggles against the Establishment. A cool time, a chance to talk openly about the role of violence and non-violence when resisting government sanctioned and privileged injustice. Okay, time to move on to other things that happened this week.
Friday, December 19, 2003
IT'S BEEN A VERY BUSY WEEK!
Here's the rundown on what I've been up to since Sunday (other than work, which I won't talk about here...)
Monday night I went to see a documentary film about the Weather Underground. The Weathermen were a group of extreme hippie activists who engaged in acts of terrorism, mainly planting bombs in buidlings around the United States as acts of protest against the government during the early 70's.
I just got called up for dinner, so I'll leave off here. Check out the website for more about that film. It's a very powerful portrayal of a remarkable era, especially considering where things are at in the USA these days. Despite my disagreement with the Weathermen's tactics, I feel like we are less free and more fearful in today's cultural climate than we were back then, and this is a big loss.
Here's the rundown on what I've been up to since Sunday (other than work, which I won't talk about here...)
Monday night I went to see a documentary film about the Weather Underground. The Weathermen were a group of extreme hippie activists who engaged in acts of terrorism, mainly planting bombs in buidlings around the United States as acts of protest against the government during the early 70's.
I just got called up for dinner, so I'll leave off here. Check out the website for more about that film. It's a very powerful portrayal of a remarkable era, especially considering where things are at in the USA these days. Despite my disagreement with the Weathermen's tactics, I feel like we are less free and more fearful in today's cultural climate than we were back then, and this is a big loss.
Sunday, December 14, 2003
IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T HEARD... "WE GOT HIM"
I had the unique pleasure of being awake this morning when the news of Saddam Hussein's capture was just breaking on the BBC World Service that my local NPR station plays in the wee hours of Sunday morning when I go out to pick up the newspapers that my sons and I deliver each week.
Quite an event - I also saw the press conference when they first aired the video clip showing him with the beard, the medical examination, etc. As well as the pathetic, miserable little hole in the ground where he was hiding for who knows how long. The emotion of the Iraqis in the room who erupted verbally when his image came on the screen was electrifying. Such passion, and I could only imagine how deeply personal that moment was for so many people who have suffered or lost loved ones at the hands of that tyrant and his regime. Wow.
Obviously, this is a big moment in the unfolding story of Iraq and the USA role there. I am hopeful that it will give the Iraqi leaders a boost and give their people an opportunity to get involved in a truly democratic process that will govern and rebuild their society.
I could go off on a political tangent but instead I'll stay more on the spiritual significance of Saddam's capture. I see it as a great opportunity for the achievement of justice. I'm really glad he's still alive, even though I have to figure most of his ardent followers are feeling grievously betrayed by his passivity and lack of strong resistance. People are supposed to go to their martyrdom for this guy? And he was calling for such tactics, supposedly? I hope that the common folk of the world who it seems are sometimes all too willing to get behind "strong men" like Saddam will see just how self-serving and cowardly they really are when it gets down to it.
But I do look forward to his trial. To me, that will be the best thing that could happen as far as Saddam's ultimate fate was concerned - like with Milosevic, it's good to see these bullies held accountable, on the stand, tried by a court and with all the facts that can be determined entered into the annals of law and history. No heroic last stand, no mystery as to his final ends, nothing really to commemorate or honor in a "noble demise." So I commend those responsible for getting the job done.
I'm still against the war and still likely to vote for someone other than Bush though, just ta let ya know! :o)
I had the unique pleasure of being awake this morning when the news of Saddam Hussein's capture was just breaking on the BBC World Service that my local NPR station plays in the wee hours of Sunday morning when I go out to pick up the newspapers that my sons and I deliver each week.
Quite an event - I also saw the press conference when they first aired the video clip showing him with the beard, the medical examination, etc. As well as the pathetic, miserable little hole in the ground where he was hiding for who knows how long. The emotion of the Iraqis in the room who erupted verbally when his image came on the screen was electrifying. Such passion, and I could only imagine how deeply personal that moment was for so many people who have suffered or lost loved ones at the hands of that tyrant and his regime. Wow.
Obviously, this is a big moment in the unfolding story of Iraq and the USA role there. I am hopeful that it will give the Iraqi leaders a boost and give their people an opportunity to get involved in a truly democratic process that will govern and rebuild their society.
I could go off on a political tangent but instead I'll stay more on the spiritual significance of Saddam's capture. I see it as a great opportunity for the achievement of justice. I'm really glad he's still alive, even though I have to figure most of his ardent followers are feeling grievously betrayed by his passivity and lack of strong resistance. People are supposed to go to their martyrdom for this guy? And he was calling for such tactics, supposedly? I hope that the common folk of the world who it seems are sometimes all too willing to get behind "strong men" like Saddam will see just how self-serving and cowardly they really are when it gets down to it.
But I do look forward to his trial. To me, that will be the best thing that could happen as far as Saddam's ultimate fate was concerned - like with Milosevic, it's good to see these bullies held accountable, on the stand, tried by a court and with all the facts that can be determined entered into the annals of law and history. No heroic last stand, no mystery as to his final ends, nothing really to commemorate or honor in a "noble demise." So I commend those responsible for getting the job done.
I'm still against the war and still likely to vote for someone other than Bush though, just ta let ya know! :o)
Saturday, December 13, 2003
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
I'm trying to read my own blog, but I got a "Sorry, unable to fulfill request message." So now I've gotten on to this page, and I'm gonna see if this will come through. Since this is just a test, and I don't have any particular news to report, you'll just have to bear with me. But wait, I do have some news. I am redesigning PoMoXian.com so expect it to look different by this time tomorrow.
I'm trying to read my own blog, but I got a "Sorry, unable to fulfill request message." So now I've gotten on to this page, and I'm gonna see if this will come through. Since this is just a test, and I don't have any particular news to report, you'll just have to bear with me. But wait, I do have some news. I am redesigning PoMoXian.com so expect it to look different by this time tomorrow.
Thursday, December 11, 2003
I'm supposed to come up with some ideas for my relatives to choose from when they go shopping for my Christmas gift. I have a wish list at Amazon.com with around 50 different DVD's that I would be happy to receive. I could easily add that many CDs and books, but the thing is, I have a lot of that kind of stuff already. I've ripped almost all of my CDs into my hard drive, up around 430 hours or so of music, last time I checked, and even though I will probably edit out some of the dross that I really don't ever think I'll want to listen to on my PC, I have a hard time seeing the point of asking for more. But I still enjoy picking up new stuff every so often. I just revised my "Most Recent" list on the right sidebar. Got some new items: Massive Attack's "Mezzanine" CD (heavy trip-hop, really beautiful headphone music), a Marcus Borg collection I got for a good price, "God at 2000" and a cheap classic martial arts DVD of "Five Deadly Venoms." I do enjoy media! And on that subject, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King opens next week. I will be busy with political action meetings and a Christmas party at work for several nights next week. Not sure when I will fit in a screening of the new epic flick, but I can't imagine we'll wait too long.
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Theocracy in the News
On my "Radical-Middle" list, Lorna Forrestor forwarded an excellent article on George W. Bush's use of religious language. In following up on the original source of that article, I found another one titled "American Apocalypse" which I think everyone should read, so without further ado I'll shut up now so that you can get right to it.
On my "Radical-Middle" list, Lorna Forrestor forwarded an excellent article on George W. Bush's use of religious language. In following up on the original source of that article, I found another one titled "American Apocalypse" which I think everyone should read, so without further ado I'll shut up now so that you can get right to it.
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Family Guy
I spent a good portion of the evening supporting my children. Curt had a band concert, featuring Christmas music of course. He plays percussion. This is my sixth year attending one of these shows, now he is a junior and next year, he and Derek will both be in the same program. This year though I have to go to Derek's middle school concert on Thursday and listen to the lurching sixth graders plow through "Hot Cross Buns" and "Good King Wenceslas."
After the concert, we came back home and I spent a bit of time with my mom and grandma and Julie having coffee 'n cookies. But then I got on my computer and helped my daughter Alyssa polish up her European Civ paper as she finishes her first semester at Grand Valley State University. She's writing on the transition between medieval and Renaissance art, a good topic. I helped her flesh out a few points, tightened up some of her grammar and colloquiallisms and lay out good intro and conclusions. It was fun doing this over AIM (chat) - I do feel blessed and privileged to live in a time when we can have this kind of convenient and instantaneous communication, on a literate level, across the miles.
It's good to be involved with the 21st century!
I spent a good portion of the evening supporting my children. Curt had a band concert, featuring Christmas music of course. He plays percussion. This is my sixth year attending one of these shows, now he is a junior and next year, he and Derek will both be in the same program. This year though I have to go to Derek's middle school concert on Thursday and listen to the lurching sixth graders plow through "Hot Cross Buns" and "Good King Wenceslas."
After the concert, we came back home and I spent a bit of time with my mom and grandma and Julie having coffee 'n cookies. But then I got on my computer and helped my daughter Alyssa polish up her European Civ paper as she finishes her first semester at Grand Valley State University. She's writing on the transition between medieval and Renaissance art, a good topic. I helped her flesh out a few points, tightened up some of her grammar and colloquiallisms and lay out good intro and conclusions. It was fun doing this over AIM (chat) - I do feel blessed and privileged to live in a time when we can have this kind of convenient and instantaneous communication, on a literate level, across the miles.
It's good to be involved with the 21st century!
Monday, December 08, 2003
MoveOn.org, Howard Dean, political fires are burning!
So I went to this meet-up/video screening sponsored by MoveOn.org where I saw a DVD called "Uncovered," an expose on the War in Iraq. Basically, it featured a lot of interviews with various individuals who had different roles in gathering intelligence or interpreting the data about what was happening in the Saddam Hussein regime in the years and months prior to last March when the USA invaded Iraq. Interspersed with these interviews are many video clips of President Bush and the leading figures in his administration (Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell, Rice, etc.) who were responsible for selling the necessity of the war to the American public and the rest of the world. It was a powerful and somewhat disturbing presentation. But not really surprising, at least to me, because I had my strong suspicions all along that the "intelligence" that was being presented to us to justify a war was being selectively sifted and interpreted so as to maximize the sense of danger that ordinary citizens would have and persuade us that armed conflict was our only reasonable and effective response to the threat.
Well the video is good and important and everyone should see it, but what I enjoyed the most was just the chance to connect with a bunch of new people and pick up a bit of the buzz surrounding these new web-centered populist events that are indeed affecting the way politics is done in this country. I recognized a few familiar faces in the crowd of about 40 or so people who were there, but mostly they were all new. After the video and a brief nationwide conference call where I heard the voices of people like Eli Pariser and Wes Boyd (from whom I've received dozens of emails in months past), there was an hour + of very energizing, enjoyable political chatter. I felt very comfortable and pleased to be there - lots of interesting discussion, many ideas that I found refreshing, and no, this was not a "Bush-bash" where all the world's ills were laid at the feet of the GOP. Of course, the prevailing sentiment was that we need a new president and that the current admin's policies have been catastrophic on several levels, but really the vibe of the meeting was more positive and constructive, wanting to get involved and shape the culture however we can. We recognize that Bush is a formidable politician, well-funded and commanding of many resources - but we want to overcome all that and get behind a political movement that reflects our values and priorities better than our government has done these past three years. It's a big, huge job, but what alternative do we have?
There were a few Howard Dean campaign workers that I connected with and I am officially "intrigued" by his candidacy. There is still a long way to go but I was favorably impressed by what they had to say about their guy and I will be spending a bit more time studying his positions and getting to know who his supporters are in this area. But it is late now, I have an early morning and very busy day at work ahead of me, so I'm gonna quit now without even adding any links to this entry. MoveOn and Howard Dean are so easy to find on the Internet though - you shouldn't need my help!
So I went to this meet-up/video screening sponsored by MoveOn.org where I saw a DVD called "Uncovered," an expose on the War in Iraq. Basically, it featured a lot of interviews with various individuals who had different roles in gathering intelligence or interpreting the data about what was happening in the Saddam Hussein regime in the years and months prior to last March when the USA invaded Iraq. Interspersed with these interviews are many video clips of President Bush and the leading figures in his administration (Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell, Rice, etc.) who were responsible for selling the necessity of the war to the American public and the rest of the world. It was a powerful and somewhat disturbing presentation. But not really surprising, at least to me, because I had my strong suspicions all along that the "intelligence" that was being presented to us to justify a war was being selectively sifted and interpreted so as to maximize the sense of danger that ordinary citizens would have and persuade us that armed conflict was our only reasonable and effective response to the threat.
Well the video is good and important and everyone should see it, but what I enjoyed the most was just the chance to connect with a bunch of new people and pick up a bit of the buzz surrounding these new web-centered populist events that are indeed affecting the way politics is done in this country. I recognized a few familiar faces in the crowd of about 40 or so people who were there, but mostly they were all new. After the video and a brief nationwide conference call where I heard the voices of people like Eli Pariser and Wes Boyd (from whom I've received dozens of emails in months past), there was an hour + of very energizing, enjoyable political chatter. I felt very comfortable and pleased to be there - lots of interesting discussion, many ideas that I found refreshing, and no, this was not a "Bush-bash" where all the world's ills were laid at the feet of the GOP. Of course, the prevailing sentiment was that we need a new president and that the current admin's policies have been catastrophic on several levels, but really the vibe of the meeting was more positive and constructive, wanting to get involved and shape the culture however we can. We recognize that Bush is a formidable politician, well-funded and commanding of many resources - but we want to overcome all that and get behind a political movement that reflects our values and priorities better than our government has done these past three years. It's a big, huge job, but what alternative do we have?
There were a few Howard Dean campaign workers that I connected with and I am officially "intrigued" by his candidacy. There is still a long way to go but I was favorably impressed by what they had to say about their guy and I will be spending a bit more time studying his positions and getting to know who his supporters are in this area. But it is late now, I have an early morning and very busy day at work ahead of me, so I'm gonna quit now without even adding any links to this entry. MoveOn and Howard Dean are so easy to find on the Internet though - you shouldn't need my help!
Thursday, December 04, 2003
A few interesting websites to pass on...
The Heretics Hangout is where you can read up on a few famous martyrs, in order to learn from their example and successfully avoid being burned at the stake.
The Hall of Church History gives a nice visual walk-through of the most significant developmental stages that Christianity has moved through. Follow the links to get massive amounts of text from the original sources. However, the webmaster has decided leanings in favor of Reformed Evangelicalism, so while he provides a lot of excellent material, it's not as well-rounded as I would make it if I put such a collection together.
Sites Unseen claims to be "Earth's Mightiest Alternative Christian Links Portal," a claim I won't argue with. They list PoMoXian.com as well as this blog, with my name (Dave Blakeslee) as the description of what the site is about. Fair enough. I'm gonna have to put this on my website's page of links. Lots to explore here!
The Heretics Hangout is where you can read up on a few famous martyrs, in order to learn from their example and successfully avoid being burned at the stake.
The Hall of Church History gives a nice visual walk-through of the most significant developmental stages that Christianity has moved through. Follow the links to get massive amounts of text from the original sources. However, the webmaster has decided leanings in favor of Reformed Evangelicalism, so while he provides a lot of excellent material, it's not as well-rounded as I would make it if I put such a collection together.
Sites Unseen claims to be "Earth's Mightiest Alternative Christian Links Portal," a claim I won't argue with. They list PoMoXian.com as well as this blog, with my name (Dave Blakeslee) as the description of what the site is about. Fair enough. I'm gonna have to put this on my website's page of links. Lots to explore here!
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Jumping on the Bandwagon
This past Monday I went to a lecture sponsored by a group that I've been a part of, the West Michigan Justice and Peace Coalition. The Coalition is a new organization consisting of groups in our area that have common objectives of supporting peace and non-violence causes. The event was held at Fountain Street Church and featured Dr. Gary Dorrien, who's done a lot of research on the topic of the "neoconservative movement," which as it turns out has laid out the foreign policy of the current Bush administration. His talk is available on-line in mp3 format, and a text of a speech he gave last April is also available for anyone who would rather read than listen. But I'm not blogging about what he had to say. I found it interesting and stimulating, to be sure. But this blog is more about me. :o)
What I have to say is that I feel a resurgence of interest in the political process, and I'm looking forward to getting involved again in attempts to influence the way our society is governed. Even if I can't help "our side" win an election, I at least feel a strong motivation to participate in giving voice to the opposition. So I intend to attend the MoveOn.org "meetup" that's to be held in my area on Sunday, December 7. I understand that approximately 1,500 such events are planned in different cities across the USA. The purpose of the meetup is to watch a video titled "Uncovered, the Truth about the Iraq War" that MoveOn.org has produced.
I've just come to the conclusion that the current political order in this country is corrupt and in need of drastic overhaul. At this time, I'm inclined to see if the Democratic Party is able to offer some kind of constructive alternative. So are a lot of us. Going to the meeting on Sunday night will give me a chance to connect with other people who want to help make a difference. We'll see where this leads... You can count on me to provide updates on this very spot that you are currently reading, so come back soon!
This past Monday I went to a lecture sponsored by a group that I've been a part of, the West Michigan Justice and Peace Coalition. The Coalition is a new organization consisting of groups in our area that have common objectives of supporting peace and non-violence causes. The event was held at Fountain Street Church and featured Dr. Gary Dorrien, who's done a lot of research on the topic of the "neoconservative movement," which as it turns out has laid out the foreign policy of the current Bush administration. His talk is available on-line in mp3 format, and a text of a speech he gave last April is also available for anyone who would rather read than listen. But I'm not blogging about what he had to say. I found it interesting and stimulating, to be sure. But this blog is more about me. :o)
What I have to say is that I feel a resurgence of interest in the political process, and I'm looking forward to getting involved again in attempts to influence the way our society is governed. Even if I can't help "our side" win an election, I at least feel a strong motivation to participate in giving voice to the opposition. So I intend to attend the MoveOn.org "meetup" that's to be held in my area on Sunday, December 7. I understand that approximately 1,500 such events are planned in different cities across the USA. The purpose of the meetup is to watch a video titled "Uncovered, the Truth about the Iraq War" that MoveOn.org has produced.
I've just come to the conclusion that the current political order in this country is corrupt and in need of drastic overhaul. At this time, I'm inclined to see if the Democratic Party is able to offer some kind of constructive alternative. So are a lot of us. Going to the meeting on Sunday night will give me a chance to connect with other people who want to help make a difference. We'll see where this leads... You can count on me to provide updates on this very spot that you are currently reading, so come back soon!
Sunday, November 30, 2003
Little Synchronicities
While in the midst of ripping all of my CDs into my nice new 120 Gb hard drive, I happen to have Bob Dylan's "Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Live 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue" disc 1 getting copied. On the random shuffle, "Gotta Serve Somebody" comes up, the only other Dylan track (from "The Sopranos" soundtrack, not from "Slow Train Coming," which I don't own) on disc at the moment, out of over 160 hours that's been catalogued up until now. What are the odds of that?
Now playing: Muddy Waters, "You Need Love" which is one of the songs that Led Zeppelin totally ripped off when they composed "Whole Lotta Love." Lyrics: "I ain't fooling, you need schooling, baby, you know, you need cooling, woman way down inside, you need love, you got to have some love, she got to have some love." What is that?! As I said, a total rip-off. But I still like Zep.
While in the midst of ripping all of my CDs into my nice new 120 Gb hard drive, I happen to have Bob Dylan's "Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Live 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue" disc 1 getting copied. On the random shuffle, "Gotta Serve Somebody" comes up, the only other Dylan track (from "The Sopranos" soundtrack, not from "Slow Train Coming," which I don't own) on disc at the moment, out of over 160 hours that's been catalogued up until now. What are the odds of that?
Now playing: Muddy Waters, "You Need Love" which is one of the songs that Led Zeppelin totally ripped off when they composed "Whole Lotta Love." Lyrics: "I ain't fooling, you need schooling, baby, you know, you need cooling, woman way down inside, you need love, you got to have some love, she got to have some love." What is that?! As I said, a total rip-off. But I still like Zep.
Saturday, November 29, 2003
Thanksgiving Wrap-Up
Coming down off the holiday whirlwind, now it's Saturday morning, more like a typical weekend.
As compared to many people, I suppose I have it easy for the holidays. All my family is in town (except for my dad who lives in the Caribbean) so there's no travel involved except local drives. The day got off to an early start with the delivery of the massive chock-fulla ads newspapers, the epistle to the consumers that instructed them on the extra special superdeals that the retailers had prepared for them the next morning. (Not that I'm above all that. I checked out the electronics and recorded media deals, since that's my particular craving as far as consumerism is concerned...)
We hosted the big meal this year, but my mother-in-law was our only guest. Everyone else did other things. Of course, we ate a nice big dinner, everything was tasty and very nicely done. My jobs were more based on cleaning up before and after rather than food prep. Julie got our kids somewhat involved in that, peeling potatoes and such, but as usual, she did the bulk of the work. She was raised to do this kind of thing, to make a great traditional holiday meal, with fresh baking, everything done pretty much from scratch using whole ingredients (no "warm and serve" shortcuts) but my daughter is on a whole different wavelength. Her idea of cooking is microwaving garden burgers or boiling water for ramen noodles.
In the evening we went over to my mom's place to get together with her, my grandma, sister and her husband. Our conversation began on the topic of "The DaVinci Code" which my sister is soon to start reading. I haven't looked at that book yet, but it's come up in other conversations as well as on the email lists so I wonder if I'm destined to read that book soon. The main reason for our get-together, besides Thanksgiving Day, was to celebrate my youngest son Derek's birthday. He turned 14 on Friday, but we had his party a day earlier. This year he got a lot of money rather than gifts. He couldn't think of anything he especially wanted. Julie and I bought him a new bed (mattress/box set) and a Nintendo game, Kirby Air Ride, which he did specifically mention looked good to him. He got these gifts from us on Friday, since that was his real birthday. We couldn't have given them to him Thursday since we didn't have them until late Friday afternoon.
The story with that is that we had been contemplating a new bed for him for awhile but we hadn't settled on where to buy it. There were two places we considered. One was the "Sleep Doctor" which is a franchise operation, and the other was "Dr. Zzzzzz's Mattresses" which is a single, local store. We got a chance to meet Norbert, the owner, and he seemed like a nice guy, so we decided to go with the entrepreneur in our neighborhood. We got a good deal on a floor model set of twin mattress and box spring. Julie and I picked it out on her lunch break from work on Friday. But since a bed isn't exactly a "fun gift" and can be considered part of parents normal obligation to their kids, we decided to get him something to play with as well. So I headed off to Circuit City after dropping off Julie to get Derek a video game of some sort. But I wanted to find something fairly inexpensive since we were dropping a couple hundred and more in buying the bed. Plus we have Christmas coming up...
When I got to Circuit City, the place was pretty busy, as one would expect on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Lines were long, aisles were crowded. The shoppers were on edge.
I went to the Nintendo aisle and found, to my delight, that a new game called "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Battle for Bikini Bottom" was on sale for $29.95! That's a substantial savings from the typical $50 price tag for GameCube titles. And who doesn't like SpongeBob? I knew at least that Derek did, and so I figured I had the perfect selection. So I went through the ten-minute wait in line and pulled out the plastic to pay for the disc.
The price scanned through at $40 plus tax, so I told him about the sale price I saw. He told me that the regular price he charged me was correct and that the sale was on the GameBoy Advance version, the small hand-held game. I told him that since the price was clearly indicated for the GameCube edition in the rack, I thought I was entitled to the discount price. (This has worked to my advantage in the past.) The clerk stepped away from the register, walked back to the racks to check it out, and I could feel the seething pressure rise from the customers standing behind me in line.
He returned to tell me that he couldn't offer the discount and that in his opinion, some other customer had moved the tag, but the tag itself said GBA, not GCN which was sufficient (in his opinion) to hold the line at $40. I grudgingly agreed to pay full price so that I didn't have to go through the line and forestall my departure from the store. And on the way home, I justified and accepted the purchase as worthwhile and necessary.
But when Julie heard about my choice, she didn't seem too enthusiastic. I was surprised - I know she likes SpongeBob, as we all do, more or less, in our family. She was concerned that Derek might not like the game and that it would be too silly or childish. Oh brother, now I had to rethink the whole thing. I asked Brandon, Derek's 16 year old brother, what he knew about the game and he said basically he doesn't like any "TV spin-off" games as a general rule. We looked up some game reviews, which were fairly favorable but after some discussion, the consensus was that I should go exchange the game for something else. So I whipped back to Circuit City and as a self-gratifying reward for all my labors I bought a CD, the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street" which was on sale, like all other discs normally priced $10.99 to $13.99 in the store, for a mere $9.99. I would have bought the newly remastered edition of Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" but that was priced $14.99, and I didn't feel like going through another check-out hassle, even though the lines weren't quite so long now that it was getting near 7:00 pm.
The other thing I did yesterday that bears mentioning here was going to Office Max when they opened at 7:00 am to get a new hard drive for my computer. I had pretty much filled my 80 gig, mostly with music, so I added another 120 gig, which I'm in the process of filling with just about every CD in my collection. I also picked up a few of the "freebie" deals (CD-R's, universal remote, new keyboard, PC toolkit, CD headset, etc.) that feature rebates equaling the cost of the initial purchase. So I have a bit of work to do organizing all my receipts and getting them mailed off in time. One problem I'm finding is that my hard-drive and a couple other items have two separate rebate coupons that need to be mailed in, and I have no idea how to provide a UPC code to each of the redemption centers. I think manufacturers do these rebate deals with the assumption that a significant number of people will forget to turn in the receipts or will do something to invalidate their claim. It's actually very insidious and manipulative!
That's my account of Thanksgiving in suburbia. In case you were wondering what all of this had to do with the "theme" of this blog.
Coming down off the holiday whirlwind, now it's Saturday morning, more like a typical weekend.
As compared to many people, I suppose I have it easy for the holidays. All my family is in town (except for my dad who lives in the Caribbean) so there's no travel involved except local drives. The day got off to an early start with the delivery of the massive chock-fulla ads newspapers, the epistle to the consumers that instructed them on the extra special superdeals that the retailers had prepared for them the next morning. (Not that I'm above all that. I checked out the electronics and recorded media deals, since that's my particular craving as far as consumerism is concerned...)
We hosted the big meal this year, but my mother-in-law was our only guest. Everyone else did other things. Of course, we ate a nice big dinner, everything was tasty and very nicely done. My jobs were more based on cleaning up before and after rather than food prep. Julie got our kids somewhat involved in that, peeling potatoes and such, but as usual, she did the bulk of the work. She was raised to do this kind of thing, to make a great traditional holiday meal, with fresh baking, everything done pretty much from scratch using whole ingredients (no "warm and serve" shortcuts) but my daughter is on a whole different wavelength. Her idea of cooking is microwaving garden burgers or boiling water for ramen noodles.
In the evening we went over to my mom's place to get together with her, my grandma, sister and her husband. Our conversation began on the topic of "The DaVinci Code" which my sister is soon to start reading. I haven't looked at that book yet, but it's come up in other conversations as well as on the email lists so I wonder if I'm destined to read that book soon. The main reason for our get-together, besides Thanksgiving Day, was to celebrate my youngest son Derek's birthday. He turned 14 on Friday, but we had his party a day earlier. This year he got a lot of money rather than gifts. He couldn't think of anything he especially wanted. Julie and I bought him a new bed (mattress/box set) and a Nintendo game, Kirby Air Ride, which he did specifically mention looked good to him. He got these gifts from us on Friday, since that was his real birthday. We couldn't have given them to him Thursday since we didn't have them until late Friday afternoon.
The story with that is that we had been contemplating a new bed for him for awhile but we hadn't settled on where to buy it. There were two places we considered. One was the "Sleep Doctor" which is a franchise operation, and the other was "Dr. Zzzzzz's Mattresses" which is a single, local store. We got a chance to meet Norbert, the owner, and he seemed like a nice guy, so we decided to go with the entrepreneur in our neighborhood. We got a good deal on a floor model set of twin mattress and box spring. Julie and I picked it out on her lunch break from work on Friday. But since a bed isn't exactly a "fun gift" and can be considered part of parents normal obligation to their kids, we decided to get him something to play with as well. So I headed off to Circuit City after dropping off Julie to get Derek a video game of some sort. But I wanted to find something fairly inexpensive since we were dropping a couple hundred and more in buying the bed. Plus we have Christmas coming up...
When I got to Circuit City, the place was pretty busy, as one would expect on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Lines were long, aisles were crowded. The shoppers were on edge.
I went to the Nintendo aisle and found, to my delight, that a new game called "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Battle for Bikini Bottom" was on sale for $29.95! That's a substantial savings from the typical $50 price tag for GameCube titles. And who doesn't like SpongeBob? I knew at least that Derek did, and so I figured I had the perfect selection. So I went through the ten-minute wait in line and pulled out the plastic to pay for the disc.
The price scanned through at $40 plus tax, so I told him about the sale price I saw. He told me that the regular price he charged me was correct and that the sale was on the GameBoy Advance version, the small hand-held game. I told him that since the price was clearly indicated for the GameCube edition in the rack, I thought I was entitled to the discount price. (This has worked to my advantage in the past.) The clerk stepped away from the register, walked back to the racks to check it out, and I could feel the seething pressure rise from the customers standing behind me in line.
He returned to tell me that he couldn't offer the discount and that in his opinion, some other customer had moved the tag, but the tag itself said GBA, not GCN which was sufficient (in his opinion) to hold the line at $40. I grudgingly agreed to pay full price so that I didn't have to go through the line and forestall my departure from the store. And on the way home, I justified and accepted the purchase as worthwhile and necessary.
But when Julie heard about my choice, she didn't seem too enthusiastic. I was surprised - I know she likes SpongeBob, as we all do, more or less, in our family. She was concerned that Derek might not like the game and that it would be too silly or childish. Oh brother, now I had to rethink the whole thing. I asked Brandon, Derek's 16 year old brother, what he knew about the game and he said basically he doesn't like any "TV spin-off" games as a general rule. We looked up some game reviews, which were fairly favorable but after some discussion, the consensus was that I should go exchange the game for something else. So I whipped back to Circuit City and as a self-gratifying reward for all my labors I bought a CD, the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street" which was on sale, like all other discs normally priced $10.99 to $13.99 in the store, for a mere $9.99. I would have bought the newly remastered edition of Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" but that was priced $14.99, and I didn't feel like going through another check-out hassle, even though the lines weren't quite so long now that it was getting near 7:00 pm.
The other thing I did yesterday that bears mentioning here was going to Office Max when they opened at 7:00 am to get a new hard drive for my computer. I had pretty much filled my 80 gig, mostly with music, so I added another 120 gig, which I'm in the process of filling with just about every CD in my collection. I also picked up a few of the "freebie" deals (CD-R's, universal remote, new keyboard, PC toolkit, CD headset, etc.) that feature rebates equaling the cost of the initial purchase. So I have a bit of work to do organizing all my receipts and getting them mailed off in time. One problem I'm finding is that my hard-drive and a couple other items have two separate rebate coupons that need to be mailed in, and I have no idea how to provide a UPC code to each of the redemption centers. I think manufacturers do these rebate deals with the assumption that a significant number of people will forget to turn in the receipts or will do something to invalidate their claim. It's actually very insidious and manipulative!
That's my account of Thanksgiving in suburbia. In case you were wondering what all of this had to do with the "theme" of this blog.
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Interfaith Worship Take 2
Here's what I imagine will be my final comment on the ecumenical Thanksgiving service that was held here in Grand Rapids this past Monday. I've already moved on, getting ready to celebrate the real Thanksgiving with my family tomorrow. But I promised it and I have to deliver...
The event drew around 500 people, which to me seems like a rather substantial crowd, especially considering the weather. We had a strong and heavy snowstorm throughout the day, which led to jam-packed traffic conditions. The first really cold night we've had this winter provided a great excuse and reason to just stay inside and drink one's hot beverage of choice. But a lot of people thought it important enough to go out into the cold night and be a part of this unique service.
Trinity United Methodist Church hosted the gathering. Trinity is one of the more left-of-center churches in town. In fact, they host the annual meeting of the Institute for Global Education - I was there exactly one week earlier, in the same room that was used for the reception following the worship service. A woman from the church greeted the audience, and then a woman sang a song titled "Swimming to the Other Side." It was one of those earnest folk tunes that avoids any gender-specific references to any particular deity and is perfectly inclusive in every respect. A noble attempt to express encouraging, uplifting thoughts, but to my slightly jaded, cynical ears, just too wordy and self-consciously metaphorical for me to get comfortable with.
A representative from a local "Free Thought" organization then led a responsive reading that again took pains to speak meaningfully to those belonging to "different Faiths or to no Faith." Happy thought, I suppose, that we could all reasonably agree on.
Next we had a Native American man lead us in prayer to the Four Directions (East, South, West, North) as well as to the Sky and Ground. His delivery was a bit faltering, but he seemed very sincere.
There was a bell-ringing choir from Trinity UMC that was very good - I was impressed with how they controlled the sounds of the bells. They performed Faure's "Pavane" and another selection toward the end of the service.
A female pastor from a Spiritualist congregation read a quote from Annie Dillard. A representative from the Baha'i group here in town read from their scriptures, which sounded something like a westernized version of the Quran, in King James (thee, thine) English. Brent Smith, pastor of the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church led a litany that spoke of the "expanding grandeur of Creation" in terms that would make Ralph Waldo Emerson proud.
We heard a reading of several passages from the Quran, in Arabic, which were translated in English so that we could understand what was being said. The text spoke of Allah's provision of abundant crops and admonished us to "waste not by excess: for Allah does not love the wasters." (6:141)
Several African-American women sang a spiritual called "Anyway You Bless Me" which got the crowd clapping and injected a warm emotional note into the proceedings. Then we participated in a unison reading, a statement of thanks to God, led by Rabbi Michael Shaddick from Temple Emanuel.
Following this was what I considered the highlight of the evening, a Sikh prayer sung by two young women that was really beautiful and moving. It had a chanty, trancy quality to it. One of the women played accompaniment on this little keyboard that she fingered with one hand while pumping accordion-like bellows with the other.
Then we had the homily, delivered by Fred Stella, leader of the local Self Realization Fellowship meeting, a meditation group with Hindu roots, who is also head of the Interfaith Dialogue Association that took over the organizational aspects of this meeting following the withdrawal of GRACE that I've described in earlier messages. His message made reference to the Rig Veda, the Bhagavad Gita and the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda. If I can find a copy of his comments on line, I'll post them here. He's quoted in the GR Press coverage of this article. Basically, my summary of his message is that he sees this coming together of people from different religious traditions as a new, radical and positive thing. I'm not sure I share his assessment. It's not that I see it as bad as much as I am not convinced that this is really a significant movement - it's more of a curiosity, as far as I can tell. Nice to see people living together in a neighborly style, but the event as a whole didn't seem coherent to me. I didn't observe dialogue in the service - it was more like a museum display, or an compilation of religious set-pieces placed side by side. I'd be surprised and kind of concerned to learn of anyone seriously "converted" as a result of the service. It was pleasant, and friendly, but as I listened to his comments and looked around the sanctuary, it seemed to me that the "true believers" from the various faith traditions were largely not in attendance - especially from faiths that are rooted in "ethnic minority" segments of our local population. Until we see some serious engagement happening across community lines, I'll continue to question the effectiveness and premises upon which services like this one are based.
Back to my account of the service and its participants:
A Jewish woman (also from Temple Emanuel) sang a song titled "Bless this House." Then we had a time of silence, introduced by a woman from the local Quaker meeting. Afterward, an offering was taken for the local food pantry, accompanied by three young people on conga drums. We had the bell ringers after that, a final benediction and a Bach "Fantasia" on the pipe organ wrapped things up before we went into the parlor for refreshments.
I noted a couple officials from GRACE who were in attendance. One guy even said to David Baak, one of GRACE's more prominent officials, "Do you have your fake nose and mustache disguise to wear tonight?" as if merely attending the service was enough to get him in trouble...
Overall, I didn't see anything terribly offensive or antithetical to Christianity about the meeting. Those who objected to GRACE's involvement probably took offense at the lack of opportunities to make rebuttal to the inclusive tone of most everything that was said, but I think it would have simply been rude to engage in that kind of debate or confrontation, when nothing of that sort was being directed at Christians or people of any other beliefs. But anyone who would find this meeting threatening or hostile to their faith is, in my opinion, being more reactive and uncharitable than the situation calls for.
Here's what I imagine will be my final comment on the ecumenical Thanksgiving service that was held here in Grand Rapids this past Monday. I've already moved on, getting ready to celebrate the real Thanksgiving with my family tomorrow. But I promised it and I have to deliver...
The event drew around 500 people, which to me seems like a rather substantial crowd, especially considering the weather. We had a strong and heavy snowstorm throughout the day, which led to jam-packed traffic conditions. The first really cold night we've had this winter provided a great excuse and reason to just stay inside and drink one's hot beverage of choice. But a lot of people thought it important enough to go out into the cold night and be a part of this unique service.
Trinity United Methodist Church hosted the gathering. Trinity is one of the more left-of-center churches in town. In fact, they host the annual meeting of the Institute for Global Education - I was there exactly one week earlier, in the same room that was used for the reception following the worship service. A woman from the church greeted the audience, and then a woman sang a song titled "Swimming to the Other Side." It was one of those earnest folk tunes that avoids any gender-specific references to any particular deity and is perfectly inclusive in every respect. A noble attempt to express encouraging, uplifting thoughts, but to my slightly jaded, cynical ears, just too wordy and self-consciously metaphorical for me to get comfortable with.
A representative from a local "Free Thought" organization then led a responsive reading that again took pains to speak meaningfully to those belonging to "different Faiths or to no Faith." Happy thought, I suppose, that we could all reasonably agree on.
Next we had a Native American man lead us in prayer to the Four Directions (East, South, West, North) as well as to the Sky and Ground. His delivery was a bit faltering, but he seemed very sincere.
There was a bell-ringing choir from Trinity UMC that was very good - I was impressed with how they controlled the sounds of the bells. They performed Faure's "Pavane" and another selection toward the end of the service.
A female pastor from a Spiritualist congregation read a quote from Annie Dillard. A representative from the Baha'i group here in town read from their scriptures, which sounded something like a westernized version of the Quran, in King James (thee, thine) English. Brent Smith, pastor of the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church led a litany that spoke of the "expanding grandeur of Creation" in terms that would make Ralph Waldo Emerson proud.
We heard a reading of several passages from the Quran, in Arabic, which were translated in English so that we could understand what was being said. The text spoke of Allah's provision of abundant crops and admonished us to "waste not by excess: for Allah does not love the wasters." (6:141)
Several African-American women sang a spiritual called "Anyway You Bless Me" which got the crowd clapping and injected a warm emotional note into the proceedings. Then we participated in a unison reading, a statement of thanks to God, led by Rabbi Michael Shaddick from Temple Emanuel.
Following this was what I considered the highlight of the evening, a Sikh prayer sung by two young women that was really beautiful and moving. It had a chanty, trancy quality to it. One of the women played accompaniment on this little keyboard that she fingered with one hand while pumping accordion-like bellows with the other.
Then we had the homily, delivered by Fred Stella, leader of the local Self Realization Fellowship meeting, a meditation group with Hindu roots, who is also head of the Interfaith Dialogue Association that took over the organizational aspects of this meeting following the withdrawal of GRACE that I've described in earlier messages. His message made reference to the Rig Veda, the Bhagavad Gita and the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda. If I can find a copy of his comments on line, I'll post them here. He's quoted in the GR Press coverage of this article. Basically, my summary of his message is that he sees this coming together of people from different religious traditions as a new, radical and positive thing. I'm not sure I share his assessment. It's not that I see it as bad as much as I am not convinced that this is really a significant movement - it's more of a curiosity, as far as I can tell. Nice to see people living together in a neighborly style, but the event as a whole didn't seem coherent to me. I didn't observe dialogue in the service - it was more like a museum display, or an compilation of religious set-pieces placed side by side. I'd be surprised and kind of concerned to learn of anyone seriously "converted" as a result of the service. It was pleasant, and friendly, but as I listened to his comments and looked around the sanctuary, it seemed to me that the "true believers" from the various faith traditions were largely not in attendance - especially from faiths that are rooted in "ethnic minority" segments of our local population. Until we see some serious engagement happening across community lines, I'll continue to question the effectiveness and premises upon which services like this one are based.
Back to my account of the service and its participants:
A Jewish woman (also from Temple Emanuel) sang a song titled "Bless this House." Then we had a time of silence, introduced by a woman from the local Quaker meeting. Afterward, an offering was taken for the local food pantry, accompanied by three young people on conga drums. We had the bell ringers after that, a final benediction and a Bach "Fantasia" on the pipe organ wrapped things up before we went into the parlor for refreshments.
I noted a couple officials from GRACE who were in attendance. One guy even said to David Baak, one of GRACE's more prominent officials, "Do you have your fake nose and mustache disguise to wear tonight?" as if merely attending the service was enough to get him in trouble...
Overall, I didn't see anything terribly offensive or antithetical to Christianity about the meeting. Those who objected to GRACE's involvement probably took offense at the lack of opportunities to make rebuttal to the inclusive tone of most everything that was said, but I think it would have simply been rude to engage in that kind of debate or confrontation, when nothing of that sort was being directed at Christians or people of any other beliefs. But anyone who would find this meeting threatening or hostile to their faith is, in my opinion, being more reactive and uncharitable than the situation calls for.
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Fantasy Sports Update (as if you actually care...)
My fantasy football team lost again this weekend, a squeaker that came down to the last play in last night's Buccaneers/Giants game. I sure do seem to have had some bad luck at these games this year. It looks doubtful that I'll make the playoffs, similar to how my baseball team wound up losing ina tie-breaker after being one of the best lineups all summer long...
My fantasy football team lost again this weekend, a squeaker that came down to the last play in last night's Buccaneers/Giants game. I sure do seem to have had some bad luck at these games this year. It looks doubtful that I'll make the playoffs, similar to how my baseball team wound up losing ina tie-breaker after being one of the best lineups all summer long...
Interfaith Worship (short fill-in)
This is just a quick fill-in about the ecumenical worship service, not my official write-up. I didn't have time to do the event justice last night, nor do I expect to do so tonight. I'll just say for now that it was a fairly interesting event, but not really all that compelling. The biggest problem I had with the service was that it was quite obvious to me that this was a synthetic exercise - an a la carte presentation rather than a genuine outgrowth of Spirit that emerged from a community that has been exploring and growing together for some time. The hodgepodge nature of such a gathering interrupts the flow of pneuma so that we wind up with a kind of spiritual "show and tell" presentation. Leading to an inconsistent level of effectiveness, based on how adept each presenter was at summing up his or her tradition quickly and concisely.
Well I will have more to say about this but for now I'll just use this blog to link you to the Grand Rapids Press article, written by Charles Honey who I have met and respect quite a bit. He is a good guy handling a rather sensitive journalistic beat in this town.
This is just a quick fill-in about the ecumenical worship service, not my official write-up. I didn't have time to do the event justice last night, nor do I expect to do so tonight. I'll just say for now that it was a fairly interesting event, but not really all that compelling. The biggest problem I had with the service was that it was quite obvious to me that this was a synthetic exercise - an a la carte presentation rather than a genuine outgrowth of Spirit that emerged from a community that has been exploring and growing together for some time. The hodgepodge nature of such a gathering interrupts the flow of pneuma so that we wind up with a kind of spiritual "show and tell" presentation. Leading to an inconsistent level of effectiveness, based on how adept each presenter was at summing up his or her tradition quickly and concisely.
Well I will have more to say about this but for now I'll just use this blog to link you to the Grand Rapids Press article, written by Charles Honey who I have met and respect quite a bit. He is a good guy handling a rather sensitive journalistic beat in this town.
Monday, November 24, 2003
The snow came down surprisingly fast and thick today - I'm not ready for this! But it is here anyway. Should melt away soon though, but not tonight. In a short while, I'll be heading off to the ecumenical Thanksgiving service that has made headlines here in Grand Rapids ever since a leading Christian organization (GRACE, Grand Rapids Area Center for Ecumenism) pulled out because some member churches were protesting the involvement on non-Christian groups (Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc.) in the event.
I've never been to one of these, so by protesting the event, the "conservatives" have at least increased my interest. Though I will go with a critical eye. I'm not at all convinced that this is a good or necessary thing for Christians to do, but I do wonder, since the event has been held for several years, why is GRACE just now pulling out? What has changed in the nature or relationship of religious movements in our community?
I'll be back on the blog later tonight, probably, with a report on what happened.
I've never been to one of these, so by protesting the event, the "conservatives" have at least increased my interest. Though I will go with a critical eye. I'm not at all convinced that this is a good or necessary thing for Christians to do, but I do wonder, since the event has been held for several years, why is GRACE just now pulling out? What has changed in the nature or relationship of religious movements in our community?
I'll be back on the blog later tonight, probably, with a report on what happened.
Sunday, November 23, 2003
In this morning's G.R. Press editorial page, I read about a small flap that's developed regarding the B.C. comic strip. The artist, Johnny Hart, has gotten himself into trouble over the past several years as he's incorporated more explicitly religious (Christian fundamentalist) ideas into his panels. Here's a link to his strip from November 10, which some are saying takes a cheap shot at Islam. Notice the crescent moons (in the sky and on the out-house door), the SLAM in a column that could be seen as an "I" and the perplexing lack of anything clearly witty or humorous in what happens. Did Hart think his readers would just laugh at the idea of a person walking into a small building in the dark of night, not realizing he was in an outhouse?
The editorial says he's "shocked" to hear that some would interpret his strip as anti-Muslim, and that in his own words, he's "not that smart." Funny - I recently Bill Frist defend himself using the same exact words when he scheduled a vote for a time when he knew that several leading Democrats would be away from the Senate to attend a presidential debate. (Is this some kind of a "plausible denial" catch-phrase in right-wing circles?) Given his willingness to take jabs at others on the conservative Christian "out" list (liberals, feminists, secularists, environmentalists, etc.), I think he ought to realize that he does have something of a reputation. Plus antipathy toward Islam would fit with his generally conservative views on issues. I have a hard time maintaining a balanced perspective on Islamic culture myself, and I'm actually not very open to incorporating Quranic wisdom into my own life at all, to be honest.
Anyway, it's not all that big a deal, but still kind of intriguing to figure out what is really going on here.
The editorial says he's "shocked" to hear that some would interpret his strip as anti-Muslim, and that in his own words, he's "not that smart." Funny - I recently Bill Frist defend himself using the same exact words when he scheduled a vote for a time when he knew that several leading Democrats would be away from the Senate to attend a presidential debate. (Is this some kind of a "plausible denial" catch-phrase in right-wing circles?) Given his willingness to take jabs at others on the conservative Christian "out" list (liberals, feminists, secularists, environmentalists, etc.), I think he ought to realize that he does have something of a reputation. Plus antipathy toward Islam would fit with his generally conservative views on issues. I have a hard time maintaining a balanced perspective on Islamic culture myself, and I'm actually not very open to incorporating Quranic wisdom into my own life at all, to be honest.
Anyway, it's not all that big a deal, but still kind of intriguing to figure out what is really going on here.
In today's class at church, we wrapped up the N.T. Wright video series on Paul. According to Wright, Paul's "central message" was that up until his time, the whole creation had been groaning in travail, as in the pains of childbirth, and that through Christ, God was demonstrating that He was with us and that furthermore, He was doing something to ease that suffering through the church, which is the body of Christ.
This idea comes from Romans, chapter 8, of course, so there's no problem as far as I can see attributing these ideas to Paul. But to say they are the "central message" of Paul, well I have to think about that. I hesitate to just accept that because I see this idea as one of many that Paul proposed, not THE idea that summed up most everything that Paul was trying to say.
I'm still digesting this one. I will say for now that if this is what Paul was most eager to get across, the church has mostly seemed to have misread him or at least got the emphasis wrong. I don't really see the church as fully engaged with the "groaning" of the world as it could or should be. So does that mean that we're just not getting what Paul was saying? Or is it more the case that Paul said so much that it gives us room to take what we like from his works, make that selective interpretation of Paul a sufficient justification for our own agenda and leave it at that?
I won't even get into the controversies over the pseudo-Pauline writings, though this issue does cloud things a bit when it comes to determining "what Paul really said and meant." There's plenty enough for us to disagree on in our readings of Romans, Corinthians, Galatians and Phillipians!
Then there's the question of what to make of the idea that the church is God's way of responding to the collective groaning of not just humanity but the whole creation itself. It's a striking metaphor, and an image that carries some power, but how does it match up to our experience? My impression of the church is that in many cases, it's not merely oblivious to the groaning, it's also giving us even more to groan about! Whether its in the realm of endorsing unjust socio-economic orders, breeding contempt for those who are concerned about the natural environment, sponsoring attitudes that lead to discrimination, oppression or bigotry in the hearts of its members, or lending moral authority and legitimacy to war and violence... How is God's Spirit moving through the world, setting those in bondage free, when so many who claim to be acting in His name seem so intent on refastening those bonds?
I'll leave you with that question, one that I am presently wrestling with.
This idea comes from Romans, chapter 8, of course, so there's no problem as far as I can see attributing these ideas to Paul. But to say they are the "central message" of Paul, well I have to think about that. I hesitate to just accept that because I see this idea as one of many that Paul proposed, not THE idea that summed up most everything that Paul was trying to say.
I'm still digesting this one. I will say for now that if this is what Paul was most eager to get across, the church has mostly seemed to have misread him or at least got the emphasis wrong. I don't really see the church as fully engaged with the "groaning" of the world as it could or should be. So does that mean that we're just not getting what Paul was saying? Or is it more the case that Paul said so much that it gives us room to take what we like from his works, make that selective interpretation of Paul a sufficient justification for our own agenda and leave it at that?
I won't even get into the controversies over the pseudo-Pauline writings, though this issue does cloud things a bit when it comes to determining "what Paul really said and meant." There's plenty enough for us to disagree on in our readings of Romans, Corinthians, Galatians and Phillipians!
Then there's the question of what to make of the idea that the church is God's way of responding to the collective groaning of not just humanity but the whole creation itself. It's a striking metaphor, and an image that carries some power, but how does it match up to our experience? My impression of the church is that in many cases, it's not merely oblivious to the groaning, it's also giving us even more to groan about! Whether its in the realm of endorsing unjust socio-economic orders, breeding contempt for those who are concerned about the natural environment, sponsoring attitudes that lead to discrimination, oppression or bigotry in the hearts of its members, or lending moral authority and legitimacy to war and violence... How is God's Spirit moving through the world, setting those in bondage free, when so many who claim to be acting in His name seem so intent on refastening those bonds?
I'll leave you with that question, one that I am presently wrestling with.
I've added a new sidebar to this site. It shows my most recent movie (attended in the theater), most recent DVD purchase (not rental), most recent book purchase (not "currently reading") and most recent CD purchase (not counting library loans or oddball acquisitions from dollar stores or other clearance tables that I occasionally patronize.) This is intended to give an idea of my media consumption habits, which reflects fairly accurately what's on my mind these days...
Sunday morning. Got up early, as I always do, to go out and pick up our bundles of the Grand Rapids Press. Two routes worth, adjoining each other, thankfully, one for each of our twins. The routine is that Dad goes out to retrieve the bundles and notifies the boys that it's time to start waking up, Mom gets up as soon as she hears the van pull away, and puts a blanket over our Pakistani rug to prevent ink and other messes from getting into the fabric. Then Dad returns with the bundles and unloads them into the living room. The twins usually stay in bed until either Mom or Dad go into the room to insist that they get up and help unpack the bundles. Then they get up, get dressed, and join us. Mom sits in the midst of the rows of piles of newspaper (which consist either of double or triple bundles for each individual copy, depending on the amount of advertising - today was just a double, but it'll be triples for the rest of the year with the holiday advertising that will hit after this weekend.) She takes one paper from each stack to assemble one full copy and stacks the papers in front of the boys, who then bag 'em up in plastic and toss them to the doorway, where Dad picks them up several at a time and walks them back to the minivan. Once that process runs its course, Dad gathers the leftover papers which would be used if we run short and need to pick up extra supplies, the boys retrieve their delivery bags and Mom picks up all the trash (paper and plastic wrap.) Then it's off to deliver the papers, a few blocks over from where we live. We have been doing this for I think four years now? Something like that... Anyway, we have it down to such a routine that sometimes I'll have little "snap out of it" moments when I'll realize that I don't have any tangible memory of having done a certain section of the route - mainly, I drive the van around, but there are a few homes I deliver to as little time savers, when they are located just off the main course that the boys walk. Most of their customers are elderly, it seems. Brandon's route consists almost entirely of condos in a retirement community, but even the private homes on Curt's route are mostly inhabited by folks in the latter half of their lives. They can be generous with the tips around Christmas time, but also quick to complain or get nit-picky if certain conditions aren't met. The boys have to remember where to deliver papers - some want it on a particular porch, or placed so that the homeowner can open the door and grab the paper without having to step outside, etc. And some will call us at 10 minutes after whatever time the paper is due if they haven't received it yet.
That is probably more than you need to know about our paper route, but it's what I have to say this morning.
That is probably more than you need to know about our paper route, but it's what I have to say this morning.
Saturday, November 22, 2003
I'm on-call supervisor this weekend, so as compensation for carrying the pager, I get an extra day off. I took it yesterday, spending the morning messing about the house, watching the Animatrix on my computer, out to lunch with my pals, then shopping with Julie for my youngest son's birthday present (he turns 14 next Friday.) Went to go pick up my daughter after that. It was a pretty easy, pleasant day. Listened to William Orbit's "Pieces in a Modern Style" later at night, when Julie and I spent time reading our books after the kids were in bed. Also watched a TV show, "Joan of Arcadia," based on the recommendations of others. That's unusual for me these days - I don't watch much "episode TV" at all. Mostly just sports, news, the occasional documentary, sometimes music or comedy shows. DVDs are a different story altogether. I like watching programs of my own selection on the tube. Anyway...
Did a little updating to my website earlier this morning, and a bit of correspondence to my lists as well. Julie was away most of the day, putting up a Christmas tree for a woman who's hired her to do this for several years now. She got paid $260 for her labors today! Of course, it's a big tree with lots of lights. The woman is affluent and does a lot of entertaining. Julie says she keeps her tree up until February, to get the maximum benefit from it.
We enjoy the extra Christmas spending money.
Speaking of money, we have a lot of spending to do. Alyssa's winter tuition bill came in yesterday, our car insurance is due next week (having the twins on our policy adds about $500 to the bill!), and both our vehicles have some maintenance needs that should be tended to before the cold weather sets in. It's been pretty nice around here lately - fairly warm and even sunny, which is nothing to take for granted as far as November in Michigan is concerned.
The "holiday atmosphere" is starting to take hold around here. Christmas music is playing in the retail outlets, advertising is definitely pointing us down the path of gift purchases, the big movie blockbusters are either out or soon to be released, my staff schedule at work is sketched in through the beginning of January and so on. We're about to enter that phase of the loop again.
Did a little updating to my website earlier this morning, and a bit of correspondence to my lists as well. Julie was away most of the day, putting up a Christmas tree for a woman who's hired her to do this for several years now. She got paid $260 for her labors today! Of course, it's a big tree with lots of lights. The woman is affluent and does a lot of entertaining. Julie says she keeps her tree up until February, to get the maximum benefit from it.
We enjoy the extra Christmas spending money.
Speaking of money, we have a lot of spending to do. Alyssa's winter tuition bill came in yesterday, our car insurance is due next week (having the twins on our policy adds about $500 to the bill!), and both our vehicles have some maintenance needs that should be tended to before the cold weather sets in. It's been pretty nice around here lately - fairly warm and even sunny, which is nothing to take for granted as far as November in Michigan is concerned.
The "holiday atmosphere" is starting to take hold around here. Christmas music is playing in the retail outlets, advertising is definitely pointing us down the path of gift purchases, the big movie blockbusters are either out or soon to be released, my staff schedule at work is sketched in through the beginning of January and so on. We're about to enter that phase of the loop again.
Thursday, November 20, 2003
Not only have I been busy, but I've also not been able to enter anything into my blog because of a problem with my computer not remembering my password. As if I'm supposed to remember it myself!
Anyway, here's real quickly what I've been up to.
Monday night was the annual meeting for the Institute of Global Education, of which I am a board member. The highlight for me is that Mark Mattison is joining the board, which I hope will give us more energy and focus since he's good at facilitating discussion and keeping folks from too much story-telling and meandering. Which is a problem with our board at times.
Tuesday I went out with friends from work to Ucello's Sports Lounge, just to hang out, talk, unwind and socialize. Lots of fun!
Last night, our family watched Finding Nemo, which I saw for the first time (Julie and two of my sons had seen it at least once already.) Cute and funny, I can see why it made so much money this summer.
I also got my copy of the Beatles "Let It Be Naked" CD that just came out. It's great, a real joy to listen to, quite an improvement over the earlier version of that album. The new mix cuts out the banter that might have been funny the first couple times we heard it, but is just distracting now. It also cut out "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae" which I never enjoyed listening to and really have no business on an official Beatles album (they would have been fine in the Anthology series.)
That's about it. Nothing all that profound, really, but it's been a good week.
Anyway, here's real quickly what I've been up to.
Monday night was the annual meeting for the Institute of Global Education, of which I am a board member. The highlight for me is that Mark Mattison is joining the board, which I hope will give us more energy and focus since he's good at facilitating discussion and keeping folks from too much story-telling and meandering. Which is a problem with our board at times.
Tuesday I went out with friends from work to Ucello's Sports Lounge, just to hang out, talk, unwind and socialize. Lots of fun!
Last night, our family watched Finding Nemo, which I saw for the first time (Julie and two of my sons had seen it at least once already.) Cute and funny, I can see why it made so much money this summer.
I also got my copy of the Beatles "Let It Be Naked" CD that just came out. It's great, a real joy to listen to, quite an improvement over the earlier version of that album. The new mix cuts out the banter that might have been funny the first couple times we heard it, but is just distracting now. It also cut out "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae" which I never enjoyed listening to and really have no business on an official Beatles album (they would have been fine in the Anthology series.)
That's about it. Nothing all that profound, really, but it's been a good week.
Saturday, November 15, 2003
Matrix Revolutions Take 2
I went out with my friend Mark Mattison last night to see the third Matrix film for the second time. It was a 10:30 pm show, so I spent an hour or so resting my eyes listening to the Orb's Orbus Terrarum CD. Then I popped in my DVD of Matrix Reloaded to watch the "Neo meets the Architect" scene one more time before heading off to the theater. Julie was hosting her monthly Creative Memories gathering downstairs and the boys were playing a new Nintendo game, Viewtiful Joe, on their GameCube (until I took over the TV to watch the DVD.)
My experience watching Matrix Revolutions again was overall quite enjoyable, a lot more fun than the first time I saw it in terms of simply appreciating the film for what it is. I've gotten over the apprehensions, curiosities and other expectations that had accumulated over the past several months (the interval between Reloaded and Revolutions.) I'd read other peoples' reviews, blogs and scattered thoughts, talked about it with a few people who've seen it, and thought through what I saw the first time. Now I could just sit back and let it sink in more gradually, taking the finished work in on its own terms.
The final verdict in my book is that this was a very good, satisfying and worthy successor to the first movie, which is still more or less perfectly complete in itself. The trilogy as a whole didn't "need" to be made as far as the original Matrix film was concerned, but it happened and we have us a large-scale epic that tosses out a lot of big questions, aggressively pushes special effects forward, makes several fashion statements along the way and will soon take its place (once the DVD of the last movie is released) as a pop-culture relic to be studied, examined and debated for years to come.
As far as the story itself, it made more sense to me this time. I could reflect on the course of the dialogue more patiently, get a clearer read on what the foreshadowing was pointing the audience toward, and just smile at the visual grandeur of so many scenes. I won't get into a fine-detail analysis of the various symbols, myths and metaphors of the film. I have other things to do this morning. But given my previously expressed ambivalence after seeing it for the first time, I want to come out and give Matrix Revolutions a heartier endorsement this time around. Assuming that you basically liked the concepts and presentation of this movie series in the first place, I would encourage any viewer who seemed disappointed with the first viewing to give the film another shot to see if anything improves after checking out the rerun.
I went out with my friend Mark Mattison last night to see the third Matrix film for the second time. It was a 10:30 pm show, so I spent an hour or so resting my eyes listening to the Orb's Orbus Terrarum CD. Then I popped in my DVD of Matrix Reloaded to watch the "Neo meets the Architect" scene one more time before heading off to the theater. Julie was hosting her monthly Creative Memories gathering downstairs and the boys were playing a new Nintendo game, Viewtiful Joe, on their GameCube (until I took over the TV to watch the DVD.)
My experience watching Matrix Revolutions again was overall quite enjoyable, a lot more fun than the first time I saw it in terms of simply appreciating the film for what it is. I've gotten over the apprehensions, curiosities and other expectations that had accumulated over the past several months (the interval between Reloaded and Revolutions.) I'd read other peoples' reviews, blogs and scattered thoughts, talked about it with a few people who've seen it, and thought through what I saw the first time. Now I could just sit back and let it sink in more gradually, taking the finished work in on its own terms.
The final verdict in my book is that this was a very good, satisfying and worthy successor to the first movie, which is still more or less perfectly complete in itself. The trilogy as a whole didn't "need" to be made as far as the original Matrix film was concerned, but it happened and we have us a large-scale epic that tosses out a lot of big questions, aggressively pushes special effects forward, makes several fashion statements along the way and will soon take its place (once the DVD of the last movie is released) as a pop-culture relic to be studied, examined and debated for years to come.
As far as the story itself, it made more sense to me this time. I could reflect on the course of the dialogue more patiently, get a clearer read on what the foreshadowing was pointing the audience toward, and just smile at the visual grandeur of so many scenes. I won't get into a fine-detail analysis of the various symbols, myths and metaphors of the film. I have other things to do this morning. But given my previously expressed ambivalence after seeing it for the first time, I want to come out and give Matrix Revolutions a heartier endorsement this time around. Assuming that you basically liked the concepts and presentation of this movie series in the first place, I would encourage any viewer who seemed disappointed with the first viewing to give the film another shot to see if anything improves after checking out the rerun.
Thursday, November 13, 2003
I have a few spare minutes tonight. Julie is out with some friends at the Frederick Meijer Gardens, listening to a talk by Rick Bragg, who is the co-author of the new Jessica Lynch biography. The boys are done playing Ragnarok Online so I got the computer to myself for a little while.
I watched the movie Solaris tonight. A good flick. I like it. It's slow and thoughtful, deliberate, brainy. About a planet that is more like a living organism that responds to the memories of humans in its orbital vicinity by creating replicants of dearly departed loved ones. The story revolves around George Clooney as a psychologist who goes to investigate the strange happenings at an space station. After he arrives, he finds himself visited by his dead wife, who we find out later committed suicide, for which he feels partly responsible. But it's not really his wife, it's an alien that emanated from Solaris, which in a sense is trying to seduce him, a seduction he willingly falls for, since he sees in it a chance to redeem the horrible mistake he made earlier in his life. Any more than that and I've spoiled it more than I already have. But there are some interesting theological elements that weave into the story, plus it's a well-made movie, aimed at adults but also kind of a unique entry as far as dramas intended for more mature audiences are concerned.
The week at work has been pretty good overall. Actually, the past few weeks have been alright. I'm glad of that. It's nice to feel fairly unstressed about my job.
I'm still reading that Dudley Young book, Origins of the Sacred: The Ecstasies of Love and War. What a fascinating book! I would love to share its insights with more people, but as it is, I'm barely able to keep up with the email discussions that are already going in the various groups to which I subscribe. And when I do find the time to sit down and go through my messages, I tend to draw a blank as to what I would like to say in response. I'm kind of overloaded with the ideas contained in all these messages. When I give them at least a portion of the consideration they deserve, I can get frozen trying to figure out what I would say in response. So I wind up just passing them by.
Still, I think I do an okay job of contributing my share to the different groups. But it's hard to keep up the kind of response rate that I used to. And having done that now for a few years, I wonder if the use of my time is justified. I got a lot of that stuff out of my system. I'm not as eager to engage as I used to be. The critical stages have passed, I'm more at ease with just thinking and believing and living as I do without wondering just how my perspectives on various issues fit into the gridwork of competing worldviews and whether or not I am sufficiently "in line" with the authorities who speak officially for the traditions that I claim as my own.
I watched the movie Solaris tonight. A good flick. I like it. It's slow and thoughtful, deliberate, brainy. About a planet that is more like a living organism that responds to the memories of humans in its orbital vicinity by creating replicants of dearly departed loved ones. The story revolves around George Clooney as a psychologist who goes to investigate the strange happenings at an space station. After he arrives, he finds himself visited by his dead wife, who we find out later committed suicide, for which he feels partly responsible. But it's not really his wife, it's an alien that emanated from Solaris, which in a sense is trying to seduce him, a seduction he willingly falls for, since he sees in it a chance to redeem the horrible mistake he made earlier in his life. Any more than that and I've spoiled it more than I already have. But there are some interesting theological elements that weave into the story, plus it's a well-made movie, aimed at adults but also kind of a unique entry as far as dramas intended for more mature audiences are concerned.
The week at work has been pretty good overall. Actually, the past few weeks have been alright. I'm glad of that. It's nice to feel fairly unstressed about my job.
I'm still reading that Dudley Young book, Origins of the Sacred: The Ecstasies of Love and War. What a fascinating book! I would love to share its insights with more people, but as it is, I'm barely able to keep up with the email discussions that are already going in the various groups to which I subscribe. And when I do find the time to sit down and go through my messages, I tend to draw a blank as to what I would like to say in response. I'm kind of overloaded with the ideas contained in all these messages. When I give them at least a portion of the consideration they deserve, I can get frozen trying to figure out what I would say in response. So I wind up just passing them by.
Still, I think I do an okay job of contributing my share to the different groups. But it's hard to keep up the kind of response rate that I used to. And having done that now for a few years, I wonder if the use of my time is justified. I got a lot of that stuff out of my system. I'm not as eager to engage as I used to be. The critical stages have passed, I'm more at ease with just thinking and believing and living as I do without wondering just how my perspectives on various issues fit into the gridwork of competing worldviews and whether or not I am sufficiently "in line" with the authorities who speak officially for the traditions that I claim as my own.
Monday, November 10, 2003
I got to see the lunar eclipse tonight while sitting on my living room sofa. It was a rare clear night in Michigan! If you missed it, you can see the eclipse for yourself right here.
The moon turned to blood!
The moon turned to blood!
Sunday, November 09, 2003
This morning, in the Adult Education class at Park Church, we watched part of a video series that N.T. Wright made about the apostle Paul. This particular installment (the fourth) covered Paul's understanding of resurrection. What I found most remarkable about the video was that nowhere in it did he directly address the question about what is supposed to happen in the "end of time" event known as the "general resurrection of the dead." Even though he alluded to this happening at some point in the future, nothing was said about how this might transpire. Given the fact that billions of humans have now lived and died, I can't help but wonder about how all of these people are going to be reconstituted in a physical way. What will be the material composition of our bodies? Will the resurrection happen along some kind of naturalistic lines, the result of some kind of process by which we are all "reborn?" The scriptures indicate something different - a kind of miraculous re-awakening, bodies being called forth from the tombs, rising to meet the Lord in the air and so on. But what about all the bodies that have decomposed, whose elements have been dispersed throughout the earth? It is a wierd question, I know, but it seems to me that people who propose that this event will *really happen* at some point in the future of our universe have an obligation to explain at least their best guess as to how it will occur.
Overall, it seemed to me that Wright was trying to adhere to a certain line of orthodox thinking, affirming the classical Christian teaching, while also applying it primarily to the lives we are living here and now, which is fine. But it bothers me that he avoided the most obvious questions that came to my mind. I can recognize why he would - these are tough questions to address, because the minute he says something too vague, rationalistic, uncertain or definitive, there is almost certain to be a highly critical, attacking response from some of his Christian brothers or sisters who don't like his answer. So we are stuck with this evasive tap-dance, answering questions that are a bit further down on our list but are more conventionally comfortable and manageable in the high stakes game of theological propositionalizing.
Overall, it seemed to me that Wright was trying to adhere to a certain line of orthodox thinking, affirming the classical Christian teaching, while also applying it primarily to the lives we are living here and now, which is fine. But it bothers me that he avoided the most obvious questions that came to my mind. I can recognize why he would - these are tough questions to address, because the minute he says something too vague, rationalistic, uncertain or definitive, there is almost certain to be a highly critical, attacking response from some of his Christian brothers or sisters who don't like his answer. So we are stuck with this evasive tap-dance, answering questions that are a bit further down on our list but are more conventionally comfortable and manageable in the high stakes game of theological propositionalizing.
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