“The Hero As a Visitor in Hell”

Just today, I finished a research project for my graduate studies, and in the process of writing my paper, I came across this article that I thought was most fascinating.  It talks about the trope of a hero’s descent into Hell or some comparable place and discusses it as a necessity in the hero’s journey and quest.  In particular, I thought the author’s commentary on J.R.R. Tolkien and the “eucatastrophe” of literature particularly intriguing.

Here’s a link to “The Hero as a Visitor in Hell: The Descent into Death in Film Structure.”

U.S. Debt Deal

CNN released an article today entitled “All It Takes to solve U.S. Debt Problem is Willpower,” which I think has an excellent commentary on the way things are currently going in Washington, D.C.

The author quite skillfully points out the economic reality that we in the United States have dug for ourselves.  We all have a bitter pill to swallow if we want to escape from the weight of our debt: tax increases aren’t going to be enough, nor will spending cuts.  We all know that both are necessary, and I honestly believe that we all understand that, even the politicians in Congress.  However, where we run into trouble is when we start getting specific: “We’re going to raise taxes this much” or “we’re going to cut spending this much,” and so forth.

However, what we all have to understand as our nation deals with these financial issues is this: however much suffering we endure by fixing our debt crisis, the alternative involves much more suffering.  When we go to a dentist with a toothache, we accept the reality that however much the extraction or surgery is going to hurt, the alternative is to allow the aching in our mouth to continue to increase.

I think the heart of our problem in the United States has been that we’ve been trying to eat financial Ibuprofen by the bottle; we’ve been comforting ourselves with the platitudes that if our current economic crisis had not occurred, we would not be having nearly so much trouble paying off our debt, that once the economy rebounds, we will quite easily be able to pay off our debt, and other such things.

Again, analogously, we in the United States have been downing financial cocaine for the last forty years by living beyond our means and spending more than we make.  A cocaine addict, when he is going into withdrawal, immediately thinks that if he could just have more cocaine, then everything would be alright.  But we all know that cocaine to a cocaine addict is a death sentence; if he continues to indulge his addiction, it will eventually destroy him.  I would argue at this point that the worst-case scenario for the United States would be a total economic recovery that enables us to spend ourselves into oblivion for the next 20 years until we are so steeped in debt that there is no escape.

There is a Biblical principle that God can do good things even during trying times.  We tend not to think that way anymore; we think that good things only happen during good times and bad times can only breed bad things.  However, if we are wise stewards, we need to accept that good can come from bad.  In the spirit of that thinking, I argue that we in the United States have an opportunity to lay a strong economic foundation for the next 20 years of our nation’s existence if we will appropriately and wisely deal with the struggles that are currently facing us.  By dealing with them properly, I’m not saying we “kick the can” to the next generation and let them deal with it; we have to deal with it now.  Otherwise, we will continue to borrow from the future until there is no more future to borrow from…nor any “now” to rescue.

So, if we are going to deal with the economic realities that face us today, we have a lot of bitter pills to swallow.  Even so, if we want there to be any hope and any expectation that things can improve in the future, we will do so.

Just some rants; sorry if it’s all rather non-sensical.

SfC

Earthquakes and Fracturing: A Possible Connection?

A number of articles have been released in the last week or so speculating on the possibility that hydraulic fracturing was the cause of the recent earthquakes in Oklahoma, largely in response to the previously-unimagined 5.6 earthquake that shook Oklahoma and neighboring states in the Midwest…obviously a source of confusion seeing as Oklahoma isn’t exactly an earthquake-prone state.

I will provide links to a few articles at the end of this post, but I wanted to muse for a moment on how real this causal relationship might be.

First of all, what is “fracking?”

Hydraulic fracturing, or simply ”fracking,” is a process by which modern technology seeks to obtain oil reserves found underground.  Many have heard of the large (or even enormous, depending on who you listen to) reservoirs of oil and natural gas in the continental United States but what isn’t always articulated is that these fossil fuels are contained within layers of underground rock.  The idea behind fracturing is to drill a well into the ground, detonate (small) explosives deep within this rock layer, pressurize the well with water and other (highly) toxic chemicals to induce the flow of the oil and gas and then pump it out.

Now, before I even touch on the earth-moving subject, I should point this out:  there are a number of health and safety concerns with hydraulic fracturing already.  The EPA has yet to obtain from the oil companies a list of the highly toxic chemicals, and indeed has exempted the oil companies from some safety requirements.  There are numerous articles and reports you can find on the internet that point to fracking as a cause of cancer, groundwater contamination (and not on a small level either), and other environmental damage.

But wait…can fracking cause earthquakes?

The answer is easily…maybe.  Take Oklahoma as an example: before 2009, there were an average of 50 quakes in Oklahoma per year.  Then, in 2010, that number increased to 1,047.  The presumption is that this is a direct result of hydraulic fracturing…and an oil company in the United Kingdom recently admitted that their fracking operation led to seismic activity.  In addition, there have been other instances where much less than something as sophisticated as hydraulic fracturing resulted in seismic activity (like a dam filling a lake with water; see articles below for details).  Nevertheless, even the most vocal are merely saying that there is a connection between fracking and seismic activity; they are not saying (yet) that there is a direct connection, though one could certainly make that argument.  Some are arguing that the amount of actual activity that is being done underground isn’t enough to cause earthquakes on such a scale (and certainly not on the scale of a 5.6 earthquake).

Not being a scientist myself, I cannot accurately say one way or the other.  However, I do think that I can bring some common sense to the conversation, and my first thought is this:  how do we know what fracking does?  That is to say, we don’t have cameras watching the fracking process occur miles underground.  For all we know, the fissures created by the explosions  – even small explosions – are much larger than we would anticipate.  And that doesn’t even have to be a universal truth; maybe it’s just in one or two places where explosions used to create the fractures cause more underground movement than we would suspect.

In response to those who argue that the underground activity from fracking is insufficient to cause earthquakes, I would argue that little things we do all the time have huge consequences.  That’s simply a fact of life, from my perspective.  Those who believe that humanity is causing climate change are accepting that human activity on a small scale does impact the larger environment.  Even if removing oil was all that happened underground, we are removing liquid mass from deep underground.  At some point, there comes a time when there are holes and caves underground that do not have structural support to stay open.  So, when there is a collapse, it becomes more than just a cave collapse; it’s an earthquake.  And (potentially) the longer that area goes without collapsing, the larger the collapse will be when it does occur.

Okay…so let’s stop hydraulic fracturing!

And here’s where I think that we run into the real problem.  Based on the articles I perused and the points I just made, it certainly does seem likely, though not certain, that fracking causes earthqaukes.  But that is really not the point.  As I pointed out earlier, the EPA has relinquished a lot of its powers of enforcement over the hydraulic fracturing industry.  Why?  Because we in the United States are very focused (perhaps even…obsessed?) with finding the fuel necessary to power our economy, keep our cars going, our lights on, and so forth.  Energy is a fundamental part of our nation’s very existence.  The hydraulic fracturing industry has the potential to meet our energy needs for some time to come.  In a lot of ways, I believe that in spite of a few jostles every now and then, people will not turn against hydraulic fracturing unless it can be said to cause a major, destructive earthquake…and the reality is, even though a 5.6 is significant for a region of the world that has previously had very few earthquakes at all, a 5.6 is nothing compared to a 6.0 or a 7.0.

Which, to me, is kind of sad that, if hydraulic fracturing is causing earthquakes, most people will focus more on the pros – jobs, energy, economic development – than on the possibility of some major catastrophe.  Who knows, maybe such a catastrophe will never happen and the central midwest will just have to get used to a few jostles every now and again…but with the kind of crazy weather everyone has been having lately, I’m leaning more towards the line of, “Let’s not cause any more natural disasters than we have to.”

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

SfC

References

Is Gas Fracturing Inducing Earthquakes?

Did Fracking Cause the Virginia Earthquake?

Fracking Pros and Cons:  Weighing in on Hydraulic Fracturing

Incredible Weather Events (Follow-Up)

Well, perhaps I posted too soon.

The unusual weather just keeps coming.  For one, a reader mentioned that I completely forgot about the unusual and unexpected “East Coast” Earthquake that rattled most of the northwestern United States mere days before Irene.

For two, this last weekend has seen a spike in seismic activity in Oklahoma.  The central midwest experienced the most powerful quakes - based out of Oklahoma – felt in the region for many years.  The article I have provided a link to also states that since 2009, the volume of seismic activity in Oklahoma has increased tenfold.  (In the spirit of my last post, I happened to be watching a news article about how hard a year Oklahoma has had, starting with Snowmaggedon; my thought was, “who hasn’t had a hard year due to weather at this point?”)

And just in case Alaska happens to be on your mind in response to that question, fear not; it looks like before the week is out, Alaska will be on the list of weather victims for the year, too.  The Weather Channel is reporting that a “superstorm” is descending on the “Last Frontier” state within a few days.  They are calling for hurricane-force winds across an area the size of Colorado as well as destructively powerful (freezing) surf that could cause massive coastal erosion.  So, more reasons to keep your eye on the weather these days, folks; there’s no telling what could happen.

Me, I’m personally hoping nothing originates from New Madrid.  That would be a heap of trouble for everyone.

Keep safe and warm.

SfC

A Year of Incredible Weather Events

Note:  I am not going to cover all the weather events everywhere that have shattered records and turned heads in the last 10 months, but I will briefly mention the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in Japan, earthquakes in Turkey and New Zealand, historic flooding in Australia in January, and the record-breaking flooding currently taking place in Thailand.  These too deserve mentions as part of a very turbulent and extraordinary 10 months when it comes to the weather.

I will also warn that, as a resident of the Midwestern United States, I will most likely give extra coverage to the weather events that directly affected me, simply because I have personal experience with them.  I will attempt to be fair in my evaluations of non-local weather phenomena as well.

First of all, we began this year with:

Snowmageddon:  February 2011

Affected areas:  Northern, central & southern Midwest; East Coast

Very few of us in the Midwest can quickly forget the incredible snowstorm that slammed at least a third of the United States in early February.  I was attending a state-funded public university whose enrollment numbered in the tens of thousands, and the university was completely shut down for three days (to my knowledge, an unprecedented event).  Of course, some of our classes weren’t meeting even after that if the professors couldn’t escape from their own residences.  Friends of mine who attend the high school from which I graduated had two weeks out of school.  Chicago – not exactly a city unequipped for wintry weather – was completely shut down.  Overall, a stunning weather event that seemed likely to be the weather event of the year.  Sadly, we were all mistaken.

The Tornado Super-Outbreak: April 2011

Areas affected:  Midwestern and southern United States; Alabama hit especially hard

Tornadoes do happen; it wasn’t like this was the first time that tornadoes hit.  What was so remarkable about this event was watching the national weather and watching vast lines of tornado-producing storms tracking across multiple states, leaving behind them vast stretches of devastation that boggles the imagination.  The most destruction was felt in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; a major tornado descended in a major city doing damage on a scale that seemed like it was out of a weather disaster film, only this was no Hollywood production; this was real life.  Again, this was an event that seemed unrepeatable in its devastation; the Weather Channel just this last week released their data that indicates that this tornado outbreak was on par with the most destructive tornado outbreak in United States history.  No small deal…but hardly the last time we’d see devastation on such a scale.

Historic Flooding of the Mississippi River:  May 2011

Areas affected:  Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana

I think this weather event was less reported on, but it was still significant.  Heavy rains in Missouri, Arkansas, and further upstream of the Missouri River all converged to create a level of flooding of the Mississippi river that was on par with the historic flooding of the Mississippi during the Great Depression (and, ironically during another national economic downturn).  Many towns several feet above the Mississippi were inundated with water and many thousands of crops were annihilated by too much moisture.  Ironically, parts of the United States would soon be asking for even more.

Joplin Tornado:  May 2011

Areas affected:  Joplin, Missouri

I have always had a primal fear of tornadoes, to the point of being a recipient of some ridicule when I was much younger.  Yet even I had never imagined that something like this could happen…and I was within 100 miles of Joplin when this event took place.  One tornado striking one town killed more people than the Super-Outbreak a month earlier, destroying many thousands of homes and businesses and slicing a big gash through the heart of the town.  The only silver lining for Joplin has been a very positive out-flowing of generosity from their neighbors not only in Missouri but around the United States and the world.  Extreme Makeover recently built seven homes in seven days for seven different surviving families of the Joplin disaster.  Sadly, that is a drop in the bucket compared to all of the years worth of rebuilding that it will take for Joplin to fully recover…and the psychological wounds from that kind of event will likely never fade.

Historic Drought:  Summer 2011 (still ongoing)

Areas affected:  Southern United States, Texas hit especially hard

The northern Midwest started the year with record rainfall, yet starting in the summer, huge portions of the southern United States have had no rain.  Texas, which was already covered by significant drought in April, has felt the full force of an unending dry heat wave.  Meteorologists are saying that it will take many years for the state to recover (assuming consistent rainfall), and in the meantime many major cities of Texas are having to crack down on water consumption just to get by.  News agencies have caught wind of the fact that peanut butter prices are about to increase by as much as 30% due to the drought killing crops, but peanuts aren’t the only food affected; many millions of acres of farmland have failed to produce viable crops, meaning that food prices across the board are likely to increase…a very significant strain on many global citizens already struggling to put food on the table at night.  If people didn’t have reason to be frustrated with rising living costs and falling wages, they might now.
Hurricane Irene: August 2011

Areas affected:  Eastern and Northeastern United States

Irene was probably one of the only major weather events that received proper publicity.  For a time, it looked like Irene would be a major hurricane as it closed in upon New York City and images of shattering skyscrapers and The Day After Tomorrow filled our minds.  Thankfully, the disaster was not that bad…but that’s hardly a comfort to the people who lived through it.  Torrential rains brought upon mudslides and forced people well inland from their homes.  Others were left trapped in their own homes because the rains washed out roads and bridges, meaning that it took days for road crews to get aid to some people.  And if one round of torrential rain wasn’t enough…

Tropical Storm Lee:  September 2011

Areas affected:  Southern, Eastern and Northeastern United States

After dropping tons of rain in Louisiana (scarring some people into suspecting another Hurricane Katrina), moisture from the remnants of Lee raced to the northwest and dumped more rain on the region that had just suffered from a major blow from Irene.  The one-two punch of the two systems dumped more rain in parts of New England in a month than some places get in a year.  Again, I find it remarkable that the two systems weren’t stronger; if they had been, there’s no telling how much damage could have been caused.  But even then, New England can’t seem to catch a break.

Snowtober:  October 2011 (still ongoing)

Area affected:  Eastern and Northeastern United States

Well, I suppose the good news is that it feels like we’ve come full circle.

A freak storm that developed off of the defunct Tropical Storm Rina’s moisture combined with unseasonably low temperatures to create a snow storm that easily matches the one we in the Midwest had eight months ago.  It isn’t often that Halloween anywhere gets canceled from major snowstorms, but this is what happened.  Millions were left without power due to tree collapses (since many trees hadn’t shed their fall leaves) and more chaos and devastation carpeted the same region, which has now been hit by three major weather events in two months.

Very Short Thought

As I stated earlier, I almost wish that I could take the time to recount all of the weather events that have affected the rest of the world and not just the United States, but I fear that time would fail me.  Suffice it to say that this has been an incredible year for weather disasters.  Many people are already saying that it is global warming…and I must say that I can see why.  As I have articulated on this blog before, I find myself in the camp of Global Warming skeptics.  Not to say that I am dismissing all of these events altogether; I’m certain that one could make a compelling argument as to why these are evidences of global warming.

However, rather than starting a debate that I cannot finish at the end of my blog post, let me simply say this:  when I think of all the weather disasters the Northeastern United States has suffered from for two months, I find myself thinking of how Texas hasn’t seen almost any rain…and I wonder if perhaps the weather patterns have simply shifted the moisture away from certain places (like Texas) into others (the Northeastern U.S.).  Does that mean it’s not global warming?  No.  Theoretically, any number of strange and odd weather patterns could emerge if global warming was happening.

However, strange weather patterns alone are not proof of global warming.  These weather events, though bizarre and awe-inspiring for sure, can be explained by a simple misalignment of traditional weather patterns to bring greater amounts of weather-inducing factors to certain areas and shift them away from others.  And such a misalignment may be entirely natural to happen every hundred years or so, yet how would we know?

Well, whatever happens, I hope my readers are buckling down for a hard – and interesting – winter.

SfC

Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street

After three years as an undergraduate student, I feel like I’m emerging from a hole in the ground when it comes to current events.  I’ve been making a habit of cruising through news channels semi-regularly since I started graduate school for the purpose of just staying informed as to the goings-on in the world.  Of course, one of the big news stories for more than a month now has been the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has spawned numerous offshoots that reach not only across the United States but the world.

So, some observations of mine from the movement and the associated news articles:

Their concerns are legitimate

Yes, corporate greed is out of control.  Yes, the United States are rightfully angered by the fact that corporations, judged “too big to fail” by the political powers that be, are bailed out using taxpayer money while taxpayers receive no bailouts from the government to help pay off the bills heaped on us by the very corporations that are being bailed out.  Very few people will argue with that; most everyone knows that the current arrangement is not sustainable in any fashion.

Their primary goal is to be heard

They aren’t politically motivated; this is not a group that wants to become a new, larger and more successful version of the Tea Party (though both groups have similar concerns).  They aren’t trying to appeal to any particular demographic; it is a movement that is reaching out to people from every economic position, every race, color, political ideology, religion and local place.  Their goal is not to push a new bill through Congress; their goal is to be heard by a political and social elite that has been doing its best to ignore them.

Despite the good, there is a danger that should be acknowledged

Remember what happened in London this last summer?  A perfectly legitimate protest against a police shooting of an innocent man mushroomed into several weeks’ worth of unrest and looting, a situation that had the London police force stretched beyond its capacity to effectively address.  Could that happen in the United States?  Well, the better question is “would any of us have imagined it happening in London.”  For most of us, the answer is “no,” yet it happened.

Unfortunately, when a civil restlessness leads to rioting – even for legitimate causes – there are opportunists who will seize the opportunity to their own advantage, which could lead to a similar situation.  The other problem I see is that, like the Occupy Wall Street movement, such an uprising could spread quickly.

Now obviously, it is only a possibility that Occupy Wall Street will take such a dark turn.  Only time will tell how this will all play out.

SfC

What Does It Mean: “The Faithful Mind?”

I happened to be thinking yesterday, “what does it mean to have a faithful mind?”  When someone reads this blog, I’m sure this question has come out before.

Well, first of all, my original intention behind “faithful” was simply to indicate my desire to stay faithful to my religious beliefs, which is entirely true and valid; I put a very high value on my faith and consider it the most important part of me.

However, I do think “faithful” in the context of my life has a double-meaning: I also consider faithfulness to be a prized character trait.  If you know me, you know that when I make a commitment, a decision, or any such thing, I will very stubbornly carry out all the duties and responsibilities to that decision, no matter the personal cost to myself.  I take commitments very seriously; the most personally painful thing that can ever happen to me is when I learn that I have failed to be faithful to a relationship with a family member or friend, a commitment that I failed to follow through on, and so forth.

As for why I choose “mind” over heart in my title of “The Faithful Mind.”  I did consider “The Faithful Heart” because  it just sounds better.  However, I chose “mind.”  I have since learned that this is perhaps a better thing; according to the Bible and modern psychological research, what goes through our mind eventually affects our heart.  Do you have strong feelings for a person?  Are you angry with someone?  Do you struggle with fear or loneliness?  The more you allow those thoughts to pulse through your mind, the more they will bleed into your heart and become who you are.  A person’s heart is really a reflection of what thoughts they have allowed to dominate their mind…or which thoughts they have  chosen to dominate their mind with.

And that is really the remarkable thing.  We all know that we as human beings are capable of great things: we’ve built guns, castles, cathedrals, skyscrapers and ships that take us into space.  However, if there is a lie encapsulated in today’s post-modern technologist society, it’s that by advancing technologically, we can change the human condition.  We can in fact make the human soul better with technology.  If that were true, then wars, criminal violence, and selfishness should be on the decline today, right?  Especially in the developed and developing world, we should see crime and vice on the decline.  However, what we see is the opposite.

Now, I would personally coach that if you really want to change the human condition within yourself, you would do well to consider faith.  Christianity has much to offer in the way of life-changing, human condition-changing truth.  However, the Bible does also coach that what you allow into your mind is who you become.  Again, this is remarkable because this may be one of the only ways in which we humans can directly impact who and what we become.  It isn’t an easy road; changing the way you think is not like flipping a switch.  It is more like turning the rudder on a ship: you won’t always perceive the course change immediately…and it is far more normal that you won’t recognize how your change in thinking changed your behavior and your heart for some time.  Even so, this is a positive way to impact who you become and where your life goes.

Just some random thoughts on a Saturday morning.

thefaithfulmind

Divorce: Economically Destructive

I came upon this article recently, and I wanted to provide a link to it and comment on it.  The article is entitled “Marriage: America’s Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty.”

To begin with, I want to make it clear that I count myself a very blessed man in that I grew up in a nuclear family; my parents loved me and they loved each other, as much as we all drove each other crazy from time to time.  So, this whole thing of divorce is not something that I have experienced directly the destructive pain of divorce.  That being said, I do have something to say about  the topic.

As I am a Christian, I feel that an adequate place to begin would be the Bible.  What did Jesus say about divorce?  In Matthew 19, the Pharisees came before Jesus asking him about divorce:  “Is it lawful for a man to divorce?”  For one, I wonder why they even asked him this; according to the law of Moses, divorce is permissible, so I wonder if this was the first time Jesus taught on this.  But notice that in Jesus’s response, he does not focus on the lawfulness of divorce but the intent of marriage:  man and wife joining together and becoming one flesh (v. 6).

Then, when the Pharisees ask why Moses permitted it, Jesus explains that it was a concession to the “hardness of your hearts;” in other words, God permitted it only because the people were going to do it anyway and thus he gave them guidelines for making divorce a legal proceeding (which at the time would’ve made men think twice about divorce).  Now, however, Jesus is saying that the only proper reason for divorce was sexual unfaithfulness.  So strict was this stance that Jesus’s disciples said, “Then it’s better not to get married!”  Why would they say that?  Because suddenly they realize the gravity of the issue of divorce and how important marriage is in the eyes of God.  Surely they were thinking, “What if I marry a woman, and she turns out to be horrible to live with?  I would have to live with her until I died!”

Now, do not misunderstand this:  I love marriage, and I think it’s an incredible institution that, when done properly, infuses the married couple with life.  And as a Christian, the Bible is my first argument against divorce.

But, if you want other reasons to not divorce, read the article that I posted at the top of this post.  In that article you will find statistical data that will tell you that divorce is a major cause of child poverty; only 6% of children in a married two-parent family are poor.  Compare that with 36% of children in a one-parent household.  That is not a small difference.  That means that if you are married and are thinking of getting a divorce, then you are thinking of putting your children at risk of living in poverty.  You can cover that by saying that you love them and that you are getting divorced because you don’t want your children to live with parents who don’t get along, but statistically speaking, that is untrue.  Divorce destroys wealth in the family that goes through it, not just in the spouse divorced but also in the spouse that is getting the divorce, and it seems to me that the real losers in the whole scenario are the children.

Now, I’m not saying that you cannot deal with really important issues in your marriage.  In fact, if there is a major issue in you marriage that needs to be confronted, then confront it now and stop waiting for the issue to get out-of-hand!  And also stop waiting until you have multiple issues with your spouse to confront because then they all get mixed and mashed together.  Resolve them one at a time in as clear-thinking a mindset as you can.  And more than anything, stop using divorce as the first option you go to when you have a marriage problem; if you’re a Christian, then the only – the only scenario in which a divorce is permissible is if your spouse has been unfaithful to you.  Don’t divorce your husband because he called you fat (literally heard of it).  You can stop cooking his dinner, or maybe make his bed on the couch for a couple of nights, or stop doing his laundry.  But don’t just throw in the towel just because of something someone said that irritated or hurt you.  Don’t divorce your wife because your cats don’t get along (literally heard of it).

Now, some people will say, “But what if my husband beats me?” or “What if my wife does drugs?”  Well, those things are illegal and wrong, so I would highly suggest you call the police on him and let them throw him in jail, but don’t divorce him.  I’m not trying to downplay the seriousness of these offenses; believe me, if you experience these sorts of things, I have the highest sympathy for you.  But there comes a point where these bad behaviors reflect badly on those who are suffering at the hands of these badly behaving spouses.  After all, they got married to these horrible people.  That’s why this marriage stuff is really serious; you have to choose very carefully and not just decide on a whim who you are going to marry.  I heard of a woman who wrote in to a show that helps married people: she met a man, 3 days later they were married, and 3 days later, he was deployed with the military.  And then, she writes in to this marriage show wanting help with her marriage.  How could they even begin to help her?  She was the one who chose that situation, and as much as others can try to help, there’s a point where there is not help to be given except encouragement to stick it out.

At what point do people literally understand and ascent to the vows, “For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do we part?”  I think there are a lot of people who are lying when they say these vows today.  Maybe we should rewrite these vows to say very simply, “No matter what happens, no matter how much money we have, no matter how we feel, the only way we are getting out of this is in a body bag.  And that does not authorize either of us to kill the other while he/she is sleeping!”  Either that, or we rewrite them to say, “I’ll stay married to you…until circumstances get bad.  I’ll stay with you…until we run out of money.  I’ll stay with you…until you get cancer.”

Anyway, so this much is clear from the article: if you are married with children, and you are thinking about getting a divorce, then think of the effect that will have on your kids; for all you know, they could be scrapping a living below the poverty line for the rest of their entire lives if you go through with your divorce.  Do you really want that?  Is the possibility of that existence worth going through the painful process of divorce so you can be free of your “horrible” spouse?

Earth Day Thoughts: Global Climate and Malthusian Scare

Global Warming.  It’s happening, right?  Ever since Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, everyone has just assumed that global warming is a real thing, and based on many scientists’ stances toward climate change, we need to reduce carbon emissions and try to save the world from some kind of The Day After Tomorrow scenario.

Well, perhaps not.  Here’s a post by a fellow blogger which is entitled “Earth gives us an Earth Day present:  Arctic sea ice is highest for this date in 8 years.” In summary, the author points to recent studies that indicate that the ice in the arctic sea has actually returned to a near-normal level.  So…how does this fit in with global warming?  “Well…it’s global cooling, which is caused by global warming, which is caused by people.”  Does anyone else detect something amiss in this?  Because this is really what some scientists are saying:  that global cooling is the natural result of global warming.  So wait a minute…that sounds oddly like a cycle:  a global warming trend causes ice cap melting, which causes in influx of cooler air into the world’s oceans, which brings about a trend of global cooling, which causes the ice caps to refreeze.

Now personally, I at this point have decided that human activity has little to do with this global climate.  I am not saying that human activity doesn’t affect the climate; for certain, pollution, urban sprawl, and other such human issues cause environmental damage.  What I am saying is that, based on the data we have, the climate really is cyclic, not just in that it’s a cycle itself, but it’s built with cycles on top of cycles on top of cycles, and I highly doubt that after 100 years of our current technologically advanced culture, we will have all of that figured out.

Let us suppose, however, for the sake of argument, that human activity does affect global climate.  So the world gets a little warmer…which means that it gets a little cooler next time around in the cycle, which the next warm cycle counterbalances, and so on until we’re approximately where we’ve started.  Now, legitimately, if enough of a global warming trend occurs that all the ice caps melt and the world is drowned, that would be an…apocalyptic problem.  However, that is not what the data we have is forecasting.

Now, if there’s been two alarmist trends over the last 50 years, it has been the fears of the changing global climate (cooling during the 60′s, warming during the 90′s) and the Malthusian scare:  “The world is overpopulated! There aren’t enough resources for everyone!”  As a result, many modern philosophers have proposed euthanasia, abortion, and other such measures to help control the world’s overwhelming population.

Well, it appears that the Malthusian scare might be a total farce as well.  A recent article called “Sleepless in Shanghai” has stated that the very opposite of a Malthusian scare may soon occur.  Instead of world overpopulation, we may soon be experiencing world underpopulation.  Let me explain: in most developed countries on Earth, the birth rates are falling.  I remember when I was younger, the average children per family in the United States was 2.3.  Recently, I’ve heard that it’s dropped to 2.1.  Now, the Malthusian alarmists will say, “That’s good!  We need fewer people to feed!”  But wait a minute, let’s think about the effects that this is having and is going to have.

First of all, overpopulation is a localized problem.  There’s cities in the United States that have hundreds of people per square mile, and there’s places in the United States that have become wilderness because there’s less than one person per square mile, and that’s just in the United States.  The majority of the world’s population is concentrated in Asia: China and India alone have 3 billion people – over half of the human population on Earth is concentrated in two countries that are no larger than the United States and Canada.

Now, the real concern with the overpopulation debate is the need for resources:  The more people there are, the more resources need to be produced for them to consume.  Well, if people are really concerned with this overpopulation thing, then why aren’t people simply suggesting that we stop sending so much food to the United States and send more of it to Asia?  After all, we’re only 300,000,000 people, while China and India come together to possess about 10 times that number of people, yet the United States alone controls and consumes over half of the resources produced on the planet – in fact, one figure I’ve heard says that’s actually closer to 2 out of 3 global resources are consumed in the United States.  But most people don’t want fewer, scarcer resources in the United States.  They see a problem, but they aren’t willing to change their lifestyle in order to help fix the problem.

So, what about underpopulation? To be honest, I think underpopulation may become a far more real problem than the Malthusian scare.  For example, Social Security in the United States is under a constant threat now from the Baby Boomers.  Why?  Because not enough young people are working to support the older, more numerous generation.  (Interestingly, recent statistics have shown that approximately 50 million people have died in the last 50 years in the United States from abortions.  Now, I don’t care whether you think it’s right or wrong; that’s still 50 million fewer people that are working to support our faltering economy).  That’s just scratching the surface too; imagine how bad the housing market will be when we have too many houses and not enough people to live in them.  Yes, this is a financial disaster in the making.

Oh, and this article also points out that China, infamous for it’s famed one-child policy, is now encouraging their couples to have 2 instead of 1.  Why?  Because they’re having the same problems we are.  Their economic system is threatened.  Perhaps we should take some clues from them.

Now, inevitably, some people would say, “Well, these are all problems for the future.  Why should I care?  I like how things are right now.”  Ah…I hear these words, and the word “selfish” sneaks to the front of my mind.  So, I would say that if you don’t care enough for your children to try to give them the best kind of culture and future they can have, then I would say go ahead and don’t have any children.  Live on your thrones of materialism…and don’t expect me to be very sympathetic when you’re freaking out because the world is falling apart.

Okay, rant complete.

SfC

Monday Musician: Zimmer, “I Don’t Think Now Is The Best Time” (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Today’s Pick:

Hans Zimmer – “I Don’t Think Now is the Best Time” from Pirates of the Caribbean:  At World’s End.

I know, this isn’t exactly classical music, but this week is finals week for me, and I have lots to do this week.  So, I picked something that I know and like.   Wish me luck!

thefaithfulmind

A Letter to Susan Boyle

What, haven’t you heard yet?  I suppose that I don’t have room to talk, since I just heard today, but apparently, there’s some hidden talent in Britain!

In case you haven’t heard, a 47-year-old woman named Susan Boyle tried out for Britain’s Got Talent a week and a half ago, and the world hasn’t been the same since.  This ordinary-looking woman from Scotland has set off a firestorm of acclaim in a relatively short time.  Since I’m certain that I can’t really describe what happened, here’s a youtube video displaying her musical performance.

Dear Susan:

Thank you.

Thank you first of all for reminding me that beauty is only skin-deep.  I am ashamed to say that my initial reaction to you was not that dissimilar from that of your audience that witnessed your first performance.  You should also know that my reaction was very similar to that of your audience when you began to sing: as your judge Amanda Holden said, it truly was a privilege to hear your performance.  You not only shamed the audience that was against you; you have shamed our entire culture for thinking that success in life is determined by appearance.

Thank you second of all for giving me and the rest of of our society something to cheer for, to hope for.  I have even briefly googled news articles, and I found one that made the audacious claim that your performance alone might tip the scale of the global economy, might even save it (see here for the article).  I would show you more of how your single performance has changed the world, but I can’t even see it all.  I have taken several moral lessons away from hearing your performance, and I know that I’m not the only one.  Your sudden fame has gone beyond just that of another new idol; you have given people hope, and that is more valuable than the most precious gold that could be found.  Not only did you give people hope, but you brought out the best in them, and that is a power that few people possess.

Finally, thank you for reminding me that even the most unachievable dreams are achievable, and that when we let go of our dreams, we die.  You stood there on that stage, and your pursuit of your dreams brought you alive in a profound way, and I honestly believe that that made you beautiful in a deeper way than any form of makeover could ever hope to achieve.

Just some thoughts for you: now that you are famous the world over, don’t let it go to your head.  Part of the reason your performance was so stunning was because of the great hope and determination wrapped in humility with which you approached it.  You went before those judges as simply a human being; in your future performances, let that quality continue to grow, and I have no doubt that you will continue to be successful.

I do have one request: don’t just be a celebrity.  As Daniel J. Boorstin once said, “time makes heroes but dissolves celebrities.”  I’m asking you to be a hero that people can aspire to be not because of your success, but because of your honorable character and kindness.  Hold to your kindness and character as your most valuable possession, even more valuable than your voice, and you will join the ranks of Mother Teresa and the many other people who made a difference in the lives of your peers.

Oh, and don’t listen to your critics.  There are some people who will try to find the worst about everything, even the most extraordinary and gifted of people.  Just be yourself, and you will shame them and their criticism of you in the same way that you shamed me and my preconceptions of you.

Thank you for dreaming a dream.

thefaithfulmind

Weekly Schdeule, April 6-10: The Onsalught

Monday

-Music History – Movie Response Paper Due

-Writing About Literature – Reading

Tuesday

-Music Theory – Assignment

-Band Concert

-Writing About Literature – Reading & Response

Wednesday

-Music History – Quiz

Thursday

-Music Theory – Assignment

-Human Language – Exam (Delayed to 4/14)

-History – Paper Due

Friday

-Writing About Literature – Reading

For my history class, I just finished the book Carnival of Fury by William Ivy Hair, which is a historical novel about Robert Charles and the race riot of 1900 in New Orleans.  I must say, it was a fascinating, though somewhat shocking; I guess it is easy to forget how far we as a civilization have come in terms of civil rights and understanding have come in the last hundred years.  It is easy to look at all of the problems of modern civilization with disdain, but it is also valuable to remember that life in the United States has improved by leaps and bounds in the last century, especially for minorities.  Therefore, it should be our goal that people living in a hundred years are able to say the same thing about the 21st century.

I have also very nearly finished reading Tony Campolo’s Letters to a Young Evangelist.  Overall, I have it found it a very good assessment of the modern-day Evangelist movement, and it has been insightful to read his opinions and understandings of today’s complex issues.  He, too, is very vocal about his frustration about the apparent alliegiance of the vast majority of modern-day evangelists with the Republican party, which has led to a great deal of political agendas within the Evangelist movement.  He also points out that Fundamentalism (in the modern understanding) has begun to try to adopt the title of Evangelism to sound less politically and socially acceptable, and Campolo’s solution is for non-Fundamentalist Evangelicals to refer to themselves as “Red-letter Christians.”  Honestly, I find it far more simple to just say, “I’m a Christian,” and if someone asks for some kind of added specificity, I’ll reply, “I’m an independent Christian.”  Anyhow, that is not the only thing Campolo addresses: he also discusses the roots of modern-day Evangelism, the Praise & Worship movement, the importance of witnessing, the roots of “Rapture” theology, and many other issues.  If he ever reads this, I must offer a storng congratulations to Mr. Campolo; his book has been enlightening about many things, and he has encouraged me to think for myself on a wide range of issues.  Of course, I haven’t totally finished it, but that is where I am now.

In addition, I have very nearly finished reading the Bible from cover to cover.  After this, I will probably go back through the New Testament books again; in one of the Bible studies that I participate in, the teacher spent several weeks before Spring Break teaching us how to study the Bible for ourselves so that we can come to our own Bible-based conclusions on all issues that the Bible touches on, including Church doctrines.

Thursday, I finished reading Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, which was a novel about Blacks living in America in the mid-20th century.  However, it doesn’t just address the white-black distinctions and prejudices of the time; it also touches on class differences within each race, the necessity for knowing one’s ancestory, and many different topics.  While it was definitely not a book I would normally read on my own, I did enjoy it and the insights that it provided into another range of thoughts.

Anyhow, I am now going to spend some time writing the paper for my music history class.  It is on the American musician Charles Ives, who is considered the first modern American musician.  WE watched a documentary on him before Spring Break, and so the paper is to be a sort of review of the documentary and on Ives in general.

Have a great day and God bless!

thefaithfulmind

My Journal Entry: February 18, 2009

For a couple of months now, I have been keeping a journal, where I try to write what thoughts have been going through my head lately.  Here’s what I wrote today:

“February 18, 2009:

Here’s what’s been going on in my heart lately:

In History class today, we talked again about the illegal and hateful removal of Native Americans from the Great Plains by American miners, soldiers, and the government (itself).

…

In Music History class today, we started covering how the Americans began blending European music traditions with African musical traditions.  What sickens me is, it was done to make fun of Blacks.

And, of course, I heard yesterday that over 50 million babies have died of abortions (since 1973).  Fifty million friends, families, loved ones, snuffed out.

And now, everyone is saying that we don’t have enough food to feed the world’s population, that we don’t have enough money (50 million people missing from the workforce) to support the elderly in our country, so influential, atheist ethicists are saying that elderly should voluntarilly euthanize themselves to remove the strain from the world’s economic system.

Isn’t religion accused of supporting and validating corrupt, unequal systems of government (and society) by atheists?  What about atheism?  Doesn’t anyone see what’s happening right now, in our enlightened society in this enlightened age?

Doesn’t America waste more than any other nation on Earth?  Don’t we spend more (money) on trash bags than some nations have to spend on such essentials as food and water?  And now, with this economic crisis, are we asking our grandparents, the old and wise and experienced among us, to sacrifice themselves so we can afford our bucket of chicken from KFC?!

When will this insanity end?  When will man stop hurting man?  When will Sin’s Cycle of Death be broken?  When will death be wrong again, instead of something people accept as something that others must experience so we can live as we please?”

I suppose I should add, it would cost $10 billion dollars to build wells for everyone on Earth to drink clean water.  Compare that with the $450 billion Americans spend on Christmas.

I know I’ll probably make some people mad, maybe even furious with this…but I can’t be sorry for speaking out against perceived wrongdoings, not when so much suffering is allowed to go unnoticed.

SfC

Back in the Colosseum

Well, as with any other writer, I don’t plan hiatuses; they just seem to happen.

I think its obvious enough to say that I have returned to college life since the last time I posted something besides my Monday Musician.  The first thing that I will do is ackowledge that I didn’t achieve many of the goals that I set for myself for Christmas Break.  Of the books that I set out to read at the beginning of my Christmas Break, I was only able to start reading Eragon by Christopher Paolini and to read a great deal in the Bible.  However, I was able to read A House United by Francis Frangipane after I got back to college, so I am happy with the reading that I was able to accomplish.

As of right now, here’s a quick run-down of the classes I have this semester:

1. History of Music in the United States:  This is a fun class, and an informative one as well.  I have always been interested in how we were able to synthesize the many different kinds of music in the United States, and this class is helping me to see some of that.  This is especially true of my interest in the music traditions of the Church in the United States and how it was brought about in all forms.
2. Writing About Literature:  This class is for my English major, and is necessary for me to advance up the ladder.  We have spent the first several weeks reading and analyzing The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, which was an exceptionally thick but thought-provoking read.  We have an essay due on it a week from Friday, but in the meantime, we have moved on to reading One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, which is an irony for me since it was one of the novels on my “Banned Books Meme” that I posted a couple of months ago.  We have several other books that we will be reading in class, so it will be a fun, if challenging class as well.
3. American History, 1865 On:  This is a promising class as well.  Since I am interested in history, I am definitely enjoying this class, even though the professor is proving to be a professor who goes off on more unnecessary tangents than any other teacher I have ever had.
4. Music Theory: Yes, I still have a music theory class, and it is the same day, the same time, and taught by the same professor as the music theory class I took last semester.  It’s really just the next-level class in the music department at this college.  It is as challenging as music theory was last semester as well, so this class takes quite a bit out of me, but I’m committed to seeing it through (if for no other reason than, after this semester, I’m done with music theory for my music minor!).
5. Human Language:  This is a very helpful class for me, especially considering the fact that I am trying to write a language for my Kenushi Ryu novels.  This teacher does seem to have some problems with unnecessary tangents as well, but again, that does not diminish the learning that I obtain from that class.
6. French Horn Lessons & Band:  Again, this carries over from last semester.  My goal for the semester is to have all of my minor scales memorized by the end of the semester, in addition to learning and playing a new solo for my Jury at the end of the semester.

As you can see, I have six classes this semester instead of five, like I did last semester, and the sum difficulty of all of the classes is considerably greater than that of last semester.  I guess the simple truth that I am trying to communicate is, I probably won’t be posting much on my blog this semester, at least not as much as I would like and definitely less than what I was able to post last semester, unless I am able to get more free Saturdays than I have been.

Finally, I feel thatI should bring forth something that I have heard from the blog of Matt Cardin about the state of affairs in the world.  In his most recent blog post, Cardin has reported that many science fiction and fantasy magazines are struggling and capsizing in this economy.  He even reports that one magazine had to close down after having already promised to publish for several authors, whose stories will now not see the light of day in those magazines.This is quite a concern for me, seeing as I was planning on writing being a way of life for me (that is, I was hoping to at least make something on it, which seems less likely now).  Of course, in our society, reading is considered something that the bourgeoisie do, or something that someone does when they have nothing better to do, not as something that one should and must do as part of the human experience.  I suppose that if I’m going to make storytelling and writing my primary occupation, I ought to find a more bookish society that isn’t being affected by the current economic downfall (not happening); otherwise, I guess I could always be a teacher.  I was considering it as a possibile future occupation anyway.  Besides, you give me a room full of 15 and 16-year-old knuckleheads for 9 months, I bet I could hammer something into their head.

Then again, I do remember thatI made a post detailing the differing occupations that I had considered a couple of months ago.  Maybe I should go re-read that…

Anyhow, that’s what’s been going on for awhile.  Have a great day!

SfC

Personal Frustrations With Politics

It is a rare occurrence for me to take my blog down the road of politics.  In fact, I was thinking yesterday and realized that I had never even taken the time to congratulate the President-elect, Barack Obama, so congratulations to Mr. Obama on his electoral win.  I truly hope that he turns out to be a better president than I expected of him before the election.  I don’t think I’m the only one who sees that Mr. Obama will be leading our nation through a turbulent period of our nation’s existence, and I hope that he is up to the task.  I feel compelled to also add that I, for one, am uncertain as to how to react to the impeachment of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. On one hand, Mr. Obama has certainly made it clear that he has maintained a distance from the Governor because of his corrupting influence, but through this sequence of events, I have also become aware of the corruption of Illinois politics, which I was previously unaware of.  Of course, this casts a small shadow of doubt on Mr. Obama in terms of how he might have been involved behind the scenes.

If any of my readers are highly supportive of Mr. Obama, please do not misinterpret these thoughts.  I, for one, find it ridiculous that in some presidential elections, it seems that the nation is so completely polarized by the elections that it is a challenge for the President-elect to reunite the nation behind a single banner.  I honestly hope that I am not being a part of that; all I am stating is that I do still have some reservations about Mr. Obama, but that does not stop me from wishing him a good presidency and supporting him as our new president.  Anyhow, the focus of this post is on another matter.

I have recently heard a lot of bile being directed toward our president leaving office, Mr. George W. Bush.  I have heard titles such as “Worst President Ever” and other such degradation.  I want to simply point out some of the reasons why such hostility toward our president is unwarranted.

For starters, I truly believe that character attacks are not conducive to the freedoms that have been given in the United States.  Such attacks betray the feeling in the United States that we can judge what the President does, so I must ask the question:  “Can we common citizens really judge how the President has done in office?”  If I was asked this question, I would have to say “No.”  Now, I’m obviously not saying that the President can’t be impeached or anything like that, but I do think that people should be more careful and hesitant in making a judgment on the President.  After all, especially in the modern world, I must say that the Presidency would have to be the most demanding and stressful of occupations imaginable, and I do believe that Mr. Bush, for all of his failings, has done the best he could.

Secondly, I tend to wonder how many of the complaints raised against Mr. Bush are the result of people observing something and thinking about it, or if their complaints are simply the parrot-talk of the “geniuses” that get on television and tell us what to think about our President.  I fel obliged to point out that this is politics we are dealing with, so 99% of the people who get on television and comment on Mr. Bush have politic aims and agendas that they are seeking through their comments on him.

Third, I believe that if Mr. Bush has been a bad President, then we as the United States public need to take some responsibility.  After all, Mr. Bush is an elected official, which means that he wouldn’t be in the seat that he has been for eight years unless we (the public) put him there.  It seems to me that so many people want to attack Bush because he has involved us in two wars in the Middle East, but the way I see it, he did that in his first term in office; if we were so against these wars, then why was he reelected?  Now, I will admit that at the time of the 2004 election, many of these events were still unfolding, i.e. the lack of weapons of mass destruction and the subsequent investigation into how these errors were made.  To this, I can only say that I will admit that Mr. Bush disappointed me in this scenario.  However, I do believe that some good has still come to Afghanistan and Iraq because the United States has deposed of the former governments and have brought development and some form of hope for the future to the peoples of both of these countries, regardless of whether all of them embrace this new hope or not.

I have also noticed how everyone seems to want to blame Mr. Bush on the credit crisis.  Let me emphasis this as much as I can:  even if he knew about it (and I think he did), he was very limited in what he could do to try to stop the crisis before it started (and I believe that he attempted to do this, but his efforts failed).  You see, Mr. Bush is the president, but when it comes to economics, he is not responsible for making sure that the economic machine of the United States continues to function.  I also tend to think that Mr. Bush (one person) did not wield enough power (or influence with Congress) to help the crisis.  I fear that Mr. Bush has become the scapegoat that people have used to for their problems.

Finally, I want to make one more note about Mr. Bush:  he is a human being.  I can only imagine how much of a strain these last eight years have been on him -physically, emotional, and mentally -and no one seems to want to even thank him for the service that we asked him to pay to us.  Everyone seems to want to take out their frustration at the government on Mr. Bush, but he is only one person.  In fact, politically, I would think that Congress would be more responsible for many of the problems that we, as a nation are facing (Housing Market Crisis, Recession, etc.).  However, I fear that the convenience of a single scapegoat for the public overrides that logic in most cases.

Anyhow, those are some of the thoughts that I have had lately.  As I said at the beginning, I wish sincerely wish Mr. Obama a good, safe, and successful presidency.  May God see fit to bless him with wisdom and understanding in leading our nation.

SfC

Some Thoughts: Why American Seems to Lack Great Thought and Art (Creativity & Consumerism)

These are some thoughts of mine that have been taking shape for several months now.  I have often looked with awe upon the great minds of our past:  Da Vinci, Jefferson, Washington, Luther, Luther King Jr., Leonardo, Aristotle, Socrates, Moses, Jesus, Chaucer, Milton, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Einstein, Curie, and the brotherhood of great minds that they, along with so many others, have formed in the modern conscious, great men who, with their lives, changed the course of humanity in their respective fields,  changing the face of the globe as a result of their thoughts, words, literature, and convictions.  However, when I look at the United States and simply modern times in general, I see something very curious: there seems to be a diminished respect in the modern society for men and women that are striving toward the betterment of mankind, not to mention that there seems to be very few of this breed left.  I have often wondered why this is the case, and I want to explore this topic.

First of all, I believe that our civilization doesn’t really lack great minds.  I believe that, in truth, great minds have always been among us and always will be among us.  The key to recognizing them, however, is to be listening for them and looking for the signs of a Great Mind.  Let me also clarify that, when I’m talking about Great Minds, I’m not just talking about someone with a high Inteligence Quotient.  Sadly, I have found that some of the high-IQ people I have met in my life are also the least motivated and the least determined to do something with their gifts.  When I say a Great Mind, I’m placing a person in the company of the men and women who have changed the course of humanity by their contribution.  High IQ might have something to do with it, but I’m convinced and convicted that having a high IQ isn’t enough to qualify for this elite-of-the-elite group; one must also have a drive to change something wrong with this world (M. Luther King, Jr.) , to take humanity to the next level of exploration (Hubble), or to simply make the world a better place (Jesus).  In achieving this, I believe that IQ is secondary, and our society’s push on IQ tests totally misses the point of what the point of our existence is.  What am I saying?  I’m saying that the point of our existence does not begin and end on a test score, whether that be your IQ, ACT, SAT, or whatever.  If that was the point of our existence, Jesus would have taken an IQ test, scored perfect, and then gone to get baptized, but he didn’t, so it isn’t.

So, if our civilization really does have some great minds, why can’t we recognize them, or why do they seem to be so difficult to locate?  To be honest, I believe that not all of them are so obscure; there are plenty of effective and pioneering writers, mathmaticians, scientists, and historians in today’s world, not to mention artists, musicians, and every other occupation concievable.  The ones that are obscure are more difficult to find because ours is a large society of 300 million people, and sadly, when you have that many people, locating any single person with any outstanding characteristics becomes categorically difficult.  In a society that is so full of so many people producing so many works of art, music, and thought, I believe that the most brilliant works are obscured by the overwhelming flow of passable or even deficient counter-parts.

However, I believe that the central reason for our apparent lack of great minds and artists comes down to the society in which we live, which has become saturated with a new breed of hyper-individualism, hyper-consumerism, and hyper-capitalism.

This is based on this thought:  I believe, as a Christian, that God created the world (I do believe that God did it in a week as well, but that piece of information is hardly useful for this thought).  Thereby, when I look at the cosmos as a created order -when I look at the Earth and the numerous and complex life that exists here, and look up and see the stars without number that have been placed in the sky -I must draw the conclusion that our God is an infinitely creative and imaginative God.  Now, the Bible tells us that humanity was made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), so it logically follows that our creativity and imagination are a gift from God, having been made in his image.

Of course, creativity is not impervious to corruption.  There are plenty of ways in the modern world in which creativity has been used not for the joy that comes with creating something, but it is instead done out of greed, pride, hatred, or malice.  However, it is also a personal conviction of mine that creativity is a gift to our personalities from God’s personality, that we are most like God when we are being creative out of pure reasons.  These reason could be simply for the joy of creating something, or out of service to Him and His Church.

So, this also brings forth a question that I believe can be answered a couple of different ways:  what is the opposite of creativity?  When I have asked some of my friends this question, most of them responded “destruction,” which is correct.  So, I ask, what is the mentality that accompanies consumerism, especially the hyper-consumerism that has prevaded and enslaved our society?  Consumerism is all about consuming, which is another form of destruction.  In essence, I’m saying that our society is so busy consuming things -food, clothes, vehicles, electronics, and media -that we have lost the innate desire to be building something rather than destroying something.

This hyper-consumerism is a double-edged sword against creativity in this society:  on one hand, it distracts people from recgonizing thruly great minds among them.  This has a lot to do with our standard of living, which is defined by the movies and television shows we watch, the commericals we see, and what everyone else in society seems to by consuming.  You see, we don’t want to fall behind in our work, so we work extra hard to get ahead; we don’t want to live below the standard of living, so we try to exceed it; we don’t want to appear deficient, so we all try to appear superior.  It reminds me of C.S. Lewis’ chapter on pride in Mere Christianity.  The end result of all of this is that we have all become brainwashed participants in a rat race to achieve a standard of living that goes beyond what we need to all of our numerous wants.  We are so busy trying to “live the life” that we miss the real point of living.  So, what is the real point of living?  My answer is based on my Christian faith, but I do believe that the answer is as near a universal answer as possible: relationships.  Most of us know that, that regardless of our faith, color, gender, or personal background, we desire relationships more than we desire money, cars, houses, and wealth.  However, we are so caught up in checking the clock, racing to meet our deadlines, and trying to live luxuriously in-between that we miss real life, and reserve it to the “someday” category of our life.  This last paragraph is a bit of a tangent, but my point is, if people aren’t even willing to slow down their busy lives to really live life, then how much more are they not slowing down to pay attention to the great minds among us when they do speak.

One perfect example of this is a story my old youth leader at my high school youth group has told of a very famous musician who performed one day at one of the Monorail terminals in Washington for a newspaper article.  The man was an exceptional musician, performing on a 300-year-old multi-million dollar violin, performing some of the most advanced and difficult music ever written for violin.  This guy was used to living a very upper-class life, and most tickets for a concert performance by him would start in $700-$900 range.  Yet, of the 1,000-some people who walked by this man during his hour-long performance, less than 1% actually stopped to listen to him.  The other >99% walked by, completely oblivious to what was unfolding in their midst.  One man who was later interviewed for the newspaper article was able to remember every single lottery number he played that morning (10 or more, I believe), but when asked, he could not even remember that there was a musician playing a violin at that terminal.  Unless I’m mistaken, only one person who stopped to listen to the musician and was later interviewed by the newspaper recognized what happened:  when asked, the man replied that there was a musician at the terminal whose performance was absolutely stellar, complimenting the musician’s form, style, precision, and the performance as a whole.  Sadly, I believe that the other 1,000 people who walked within feet of the musician and missed it are the chorus of today’s society:  “I don’t want any fancy art, music, or thought-provoking treatises; all I want is a multi-million dollar lifestyle, whereby I can live as I please.”

The other wound that consumerism deals out to creativity in our society is by distracting not only the public at large, but people who have real potential to be among that brotherhood of great minds.  I honestly believe that, with the advent of all of the technology available to us in these days, there is no limit to the societal flaws that could be corrected, the injustices that could be rectified, and the betterment that could occur in our society if people would only use the tools that have been provided to them for the sake of mankind at large.  However, it isn’t that we own our electronics; ours is a materialistic society as well, so our stuff owns us.  We try to live life by waking up early in the morning, rushing to work, rushing around to our various activities, and rushing home to sit in front of a television screen for a couple of hours before going back to sleep and starting the cycle over again.  I don’t think I’m the only person whose saying, “Surely there has to be something more than all of that.”

That is why I have chosen to pursue that brotherhood, to attempt to change the world for the better.  I might achieve something with my life and I might not, but I find more excitement and happiness in the pursuit of changing the world for the better than I can imagine finding in simply existing.

SfC

Ringing in the New Year!

So last night, I went to an amazing concert by an exceptional contemporary Christian band performing in the region for the News Years celebration.  It was very powerful, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Afterwards, I spent the rest of the evening with the youth group that I attended during high school and watched them go ice skating (I decided that I would probably not be good for my healing jaw; falling on your face historically isn’t).  We also stayed up to watch a New Years fireworks show, and went out for a late-night snack afterwards.  We got back at 2:00, so I didn’t get up until late this morning.

Now, I find myself thinking about a New Years Resolution.  To be honest, I have never liked New Years Resolutions.  To my mind, they always seemed like some kind of organized effort to will ourselves into a better world with nothing but good intentions, mostly because 90% of people make New Years resolutions that they know are drastically difficult for anyone to achieve and are often unrealistic.  The result of these unrealistic expectations is that people make commitments that they don’t expect to keep or, if they do intend to keep their resolutions, they are quickly disillusioned by realizing that they cannot.  From my perspective, when this happens, I see people becoming calloused to commitments and are establishing a pattern of breaking the commitments that they make.

Do not misconstrue, this, however.  I recognize that no one is perfect and that people should make every effort to improve themselves.  I am no different in this, and thus I find that I, too, desire to make some New Years’ Resolutions:

1. Limit myself to three sodas a week - Of course, everyone knows that soda isn’t good for health, and I know for a fact that I’m not the only person whose commiting myself to less soda.  However, I’m going to try and do this slowly and sort of ease into the changes I want to make.  This isn’t to say that I will always drink three sodas during the week; even now, there are weeks were I don’t drink any soda.  However, I’m hoping to establish a pattern of drinking as little soda as I can.  Three is the maximum, set with the hope that I won’t reach the maximum every week.
2. Walk every day – Some exercise would be good for me.  I’m not saying how much; I might walk a mile, or I might walk to class.  I want to at least say, “I’m going to be physically active, more so than I have been in the past.”
3. Forgive those who wrong me - “Forgive, and you will be forgiven (Luke 6:37).”  In God’s eyes, all have sinned, and I’m no different, so there is no reason for me to be forgiven while I condemn others.  As Lewis B. Smedes said, “Forgiving is to set a prisoner only to discover that the prisoner was you.”
4. Finish Reading the Bible – I set before myself the task of reading the Bible from cover to cover in one year last February.  I’m hoping to meet that goal by this coming February, but more important than the “when” is the simple act of finishing.
5. Memorize the Book of James – We were doing this during the semester for our Bible study groups, and I managed to memorize the first two chapters and get started on the third.  I’ll focus on this more after I’ve read the Bible all the way through.
6. Pray First Thing When I Wake Up and Right Before I Go To Sleep – I like to think of it as bracketing my day in prayer.  By opening my day in prayer, I’m hoping that I will feel more in touch with God throughout the day.
7. Limit Myself to One Hour of Computer Games a Day - Again, there will be plenty of days, especially during the semester, when even one is too much and there are other things to be doing.  The idea is to give myself a ceiling limit that is not exceeded.
8. Read More – It’s vague, but effective.  I want to be reading more, if nothing else so that when my friends are talking about a book, I can contribute to conversation.
9. Be curious – curiosity is the gateway through which learning comes.  If you don’t ask questions fearlessly, then you will stop learning, and even though I don’t believe in Darwin’s theories about the origin of all life, he was right about this: the organism that does not learn dies.
10. Finish a rough script of The League of Kenushi Ryu this year – It’s a very aggressive goal, especially considering what I have yet to do, but I believe that with God’s help, this goal can be achieved.
11. Journal Consistently – I’ve often found that, if there some form of block obstructing my ability to write, it is often some form of unresolved conflict within myself, and writing in a journal seems to help that.
12. Persevere – If and when I fail to hold to these goals I have set before myself to do throughout the year, don’t just give up; just keep trying.  Failure is inevitable, but quitting is optional.

I have made all of the above New Years Resolutions with the full intention of going through with them.  We shall see how well I do!

SfC

Christmas Gifts and Two Kinds of Healing

For the past few days, I have managed to do a couple of the things on my list of things to do during my Christmas Break.  I have plowed through several of the minor prophets in the Old Testament.  For now, I have paused in Micah 3 with the hope of completing the Old Testament and perhaps one or two of the Gospels before returning to college.  In doing this, I will give myself a significant opportunity to complete the goal that I set for myself last February:  to read the Bible through in a year.

Last night was the night that my immediate family got together and opened our Christmas presents as well.  I must admit, there were several presents that I had become aware that  I would receive, but a couple others were a total shock.  Here are the material blessings I received for Christmas:

• The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell – I began reading it in a coffee shop early on in the semester and was quite engrossed in it.  Perhaps one of my favorite parts of it, however, is that at the beginning, McDowell points out that the purpose of the book is to answer questions and not to argue people to Christ.  I think that the lack of this understanding has been the cause for many failed witnessing opportunities, especially in our day.  Of course, I would hope that, in the near-future, I will get the opportunity to read it cover-to-cover, though it is a sizable read.
• Pilgrim’s Progress by Paul Bunyan – I must say that this gift was a bit of a surprise.  To be perfectly honest, I don’t know much about it except that C.S. Lewis wrote another book entitled Pilgrim’s Regress while he was an atheist.  I suppose that I will learn as I read!
• A Christmas Card – from my parents.  From what one of my siblings told me, they spent quite a bit of energy picking out excellent cards for each of us, and I liked it a lot.  It had money in it, but that was little more than icing on the cake.
• A Calligraphy and Sketching Kit – from my siblings.  This was an absolute shock.  The calligraphy kit was hit first; it contains old-fashioned pens with ink cartridges, some paper for my calligraphy practice, and a book on how to get started with calligraphy.  Of course, my siblings were quite aware that I am trying to write a language for Kenushi Ryu and hoped that I would find it fun and useful.  They also said that, at the very least, they would take it if I had no interest in it.  Too bad for them that I have a great deal of interest in it!  The sketching kit appears to be quite similar: some different styles of pencils, a guide on sketching, and some sketch paper.  These will probably hold my interest for some time.
• The Casting Crowns Album “Peace on Earth” – I’m a fan of Contemporary Christian Music, as I have stated in the past, and I was very grateful to receive this for Christmas.  I must admit that, in recent years, I have found that Holiday music completely floods the airwaves from about Thanksgiving through the New Years, and this has steadily made me a bit of a Scrooge toward hearing Christmas music everywhere I go.  However, I think that I was able to maintain a distance from the excessive Christmas music enough that it didn’t quite lose its appeal.  Anyhow, I digress; this is a good album for anyone who likes the classical Christmas anthems in addition to some new ones.
• Finally, I received some miscellaneous gifts from my friends:  one gave me a box of dark chocolate, and another gave me a t-shirt that she had made in her art class.  She made one for everyone else in our circle of friends (we call ourselves the “Rat Pack.”)  Another gave me a bag of Coal Candy because I’m evil (so she says).

These were the Christmas gifts I received from my immediate family.  Apparently, we are expecting to go to our distant relatives’ home for Christmas over the next couple of weeks, so I’m not entirely certain whether I should expect anything from them, but I am very grateful for what I have already received.

In my last post, I also mentioned that I had my wisdom teeth extracted five days ago.  My situation has changed little from my previous post: I’m still taking pain medication, though I’m not taking it every spare minute that I can.  My main problem right now is the swelling in my cheeks and some yellow-colored bruises at the site of the swelling, no doubt from where they held my mouth open to extract the little devils.  Another unanticipated problem has been a recurring stench of my breath that makes me feel that I should be quarantined for something.  Other than that, however, my healing seems to be proceeding on schedule.  I ate a cheeseburger with some fries for lunch without any pain or anything like that, a few of my stitches have detached, and everything seems to be okay.

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There is another matter that I have refrained from posting about for some time.  Someone very close to me recently lost his/her job, and as more information has become available to me, there has been plenty of speculation within my family as to why this has happened.  From my very limited perspective, however, this event has been the convergence of many agendas from several people within the community for some time.  On one hand, this person I am close to was a teacher and gave out some deficiencies part-way through the year.  The result was that some parents began gossiping about this person, tearing this person down.  It also appears that one of the people in charge desired for this person to lose their job in order to bring in another who was “in” with the boss, though this is comparatively less certain.  In the end, this person was essentially fired for insubordination and because his/her department was an embarrassment.

I do have a few comments on the reasoning given for this person losing his/her job.  It appears that this person was in the sights of the boss for some time, so it is quite possible that the boss invented situations where “insubordination” was the only possible result.  If not, this job area is an area where any more-than-cursory examination of a worker can reveal all kinds of “insubordination,” depending on how much you are looking for it and precisely how you define it.  As for being an “embarrassment,” this has set the precedent that a single bad performance of anything in this school warrants the firing of the person or personnel in charge of that department.  I can tell you from experience that the school is constantly an embarrassment as a couple of the contests that they went to, not to mention our sports teams’ occasionally “embarrassing” performance, yet the personnel in charge of these departments have received little if any punishment for such occasions, let alone losing their jobs.

In summary, the whole situation boils my blood in a way that nothing else every has.  Honestly, it makes me ashamed to be associated with this school in any way.  It also shatters the trust that I had for the boss and for the school’s board members.  Sadly, a couple of my closest friends are closely related to one of the board members, and I don’t know what to think about them or their family anymore.  It…it sickens me that this would happen at all, and the pain is amplified by being caused to someone so near to me.

I’ve often wondered how some people go about their lives holding grudges against other people, organizations, people groups, etc.  Now, it is a daily war within my soul to subdue my desire to never speak to these people again, let along forgive them.  One scripture that continuously recurs to my mind is “Forgive, and you will be forgiven (Luke 6:37),” and I have come several times to the point where I forgive those involved in this…conspiracy (for lack of better words).  However, the ongoing suffering of this individual brings the battle to the forefront of my mind again and again.  This is the spiritual battle that I wage right now, and I fear that I am at a lose as to how it can be won, save by attrition.

This is the vulnerability and struggle that is being played out within my faithful mind.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

SfC

P.S.  In an attempt to jump-start my desire and drive to read, I will be creating a new page where I keep track of my reading log, the books that I have read and hope to read in the near-future.

Theology in Life: What I Have Learned This Semester

As of Monday, I’m back at college from the break.  I’ll confess that I didn’t do everything I should have done over break, but I did take home several books from my classes because I don’t really consider reading work, so I was able to get far ahead in reading for my History class, and that has given me a great deal of opportunity to catch up and get ahead in the rest of my classes.

Right now, I have only one chapter in one book left to read for my history class, and after our second paper and our final exam, I’m done with that class.  For British literature, we have some reading left to do, a quiz or two left, a paper, and our final exam.  Religious Studies, as usual, is my most relaxed class; I can’t see myself getting anything less than an A in that class.  Music Theory, also as usual, is going to be the class that I cram for in the end; I have at least two assignments left (probably three, to be truthful), a music project (I must compose 16 measures of music using proper partwriting rules, cadences, etc.), and our final exam, which is going to be a rough one, and my last exam wasn’t such a good grade, so my grade (and my decent GPA to keep my scholarships) might hinge on this class.  Other than that, my band sessions are over, and beyond my French Horn jury, I’m really done.

However, prompted by the proximity of the end of the semester, I have begun taking a retrospective look at my first four months of college.  To be quite honest, it has gone by quite quickly, and that frightens me a little when I consider that next semester, I will be taking some pretty advanced classes.  However, I have also learned a great deal, not only about my classes and areas of interest, but also about life in general.  Of course, being a man of faith and trust in God, my spiritual growth has often coincided with some major points of thought that I have had in learning about God and myself.  Here, I will relate some of them and some explanations and how these points have changed my thinking and lifestyle:

1)  God is Order: I am actually quite fascinated to discover and consider that the foundation of modern science is based on the premise that God has created reality with calculable, mathematical constants that we, as humans with minds and souls, have the capacity to discover and understand.  Even today, there is a number of scientists who look at Earth’s position in the galaxy and notice how ours is the perfect position in the universe not only to support and sustain life, but also to explore and understand life, both on this world and beyond.  This isn’t always the case, but many of the scientists who recognize this attribute it to a Creator who had us in mind when He made everything.

The practicality of this discovery was immediate as soon as I came to college: if God is a God of order and He created the universe to have and maintain a sense of order, then it follows that I should endeavor to have a sense of order in my life as well.  This has caused me to change the way I organize my living space — well, I guess I should clarify that statement because I didn’t have a sense of order for my living space to begin with before I came to college.  In addition, I now keep a to-do list of things that I want or need to do in a day and, by doing this, I am able to keep myself on task with my schoolwork and recreation, including the writing of my book.

Since I have mentioned, I will say that I achieved little if any progress on my book during the Break.  However, I will be doing some revisions on the book itself, and I hope to further immerse myself in it in the next couple of weeks, especially after the semester’s end.

2) God is Truth and Love:  John 14:6 says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and I have been doing some thinking about that statement these last few months, and the simple statements like, “God is love” and other cliches have also been on my mind.  That is, if Jesus is Truth itself, then as a Christian, it is my job to introduce people to Truth, not simply talk about them abstractly.  It also means that God does not lie, nor does He ever twist language to say one thing and mean another, because that is also a form of dishonestly that goes against who He is.

The practical implications of this are major.  If Christ is Truth and I am trying to be Christ-like, that means that I have a very high standard of honestly.  I’m not just talking about lying or even the occasional “White lie” (which is still wrong, in my opinion) that I ackoowledge as evil; I’m talking about when someone asks me to do something and I say, “Okay,” or “Whatever” without any actual intention of going through with what I’m agreeing to.  I must also be completely honest with myself, having the strength of character to tell myself when I have a problem, when I’ve overtaxed myself, when I’ve slacked off too much, etc.  By being Truth and Love to other people instead of simply telling them about it, I am opening the door for God to live not only within me but through me.  By being more like God, I make God’s image and his reflection through me clearer and more attractive.  Also, by becoming Truth, I am allowing God to transform my soul from the inside out, and by becoming Love, I am declaring my allegiance to the one whom I believe in.  This also means that it is our privilege to love others, to give to the poor, and to worship God.  That is, God has never demanded me to worship Him or do anything else for Him; for me, I do what I do as a privilege that God has given me by introducing me to Himself and informing me of Himself.

3) God is Community: The doctrine of God being a Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit confirms this idea, not to mention that the reason that God created the universe to begin with was community.  Also, if we humans are made in God’s image, then it is not surprising to me to see why much of Western society today is dysfunctional: we lack real community.  I’m not just talking about co-workers that you whisk by on your way to you cubicle, desk, or work site every morning, and I’m not even talking about the people that you talk with from time to time about last night’s game, the weather, the recent elections, or your schoolwork.  I’m talking about people you confide in, that you trust with your secrets, that you think about during the day and discover that you love that person, not in a sexual way, but in a communal, trusting, supporting relationship.  When the creation made in God’s likeness is not behaving in the way they were created to behave, dysfunction, disorders, and destruction always results.

Perhaps the most powerful example of how this has changed my perspective this semester has been through a simple prayer group that I meet with every Wednesday before our midweek services.  We just go to a sort of living room in one of the halls on campus and hang out for half an hour.  We spend the first of our time writing private prayer requests on note cards and then pass them around and exchange them.  We make sure that its random to make sure that sub-cliques don’t form in the group, and then we relate some public prayer requests.  After that, we split up into groups of 3-5 and just pray together.  It’s enormously simply, but it’s also one of the most powerful ways that I have found to become better acquainted with people I didn’t know three months ago, not to mention the relational satisfaction that it gives me when I can’t go home to visit with my best friends for weeks at a time.

4) God is a God of both Work and Rest: another very powerful and motivating discovery for me to make was that God did create us humans to be productive.  I mean, in the book of Proverbs alone, there is a great deal of condemnation for laziness and a great deal of commendation for hard and reliable work.  Also, the Creation narrative specifies that God created six days of the week for work and the seventh day for rest.  This means that God wants us to be productive and successful members of society insofar as we can be.  Of course, there are some things that we cannot take care of on our own: for many people right now, unemployment is a growing problem around the world because of economic problems across the globe, and many people are legitimately trying to get a job to now avail.  For anyone who might be reading this who fits into that category, I’m praying for you and I hope that God gives you a source of income soon.  On the flip side, however, God did commission us as humans to work, and I believe that doing our work well can be an act of worship to God if we really allow ourselves to do as the Bible says and work as though we are working for God himself.

For me, this means that I should apply myself with all of the attention and focus that I can manage to my classes.  This is also a matter of honoring my parents; as of right now, my parents are putting me through college, and one of my goals in high school was to obtain scholarships to help ease the load from my parents and honor them for what they are doing for me.  Now that I have these scholarships, it is my desire to honor my parents’ sacrifices to me, both now and for raising me, by keeping my scholarships and applying myself in school.  I am also currently considering becoming a French Horn tutor at a local high school next semester; right now, my sister gives lessons at a local high school, and she has been doing this for a diverse number of people since she was in college (several years ago).  I’ve mentioned it to her, and she said that, if that is my choice, she will suggest me to some of her former students and I can tutor them and thereby have a source of income to prepare for my future.

However, God did also provide us with a day of rest, and I have to extrapolate from that that God recognizes that humans are prone to burn-outs and need a break every now and then.  Of course, this isn’t to excuse people who went on Thanksgiving Break last year and still haven’t returned to productivity; this is to prevent what we call workahalism and to prevent people from being so consumed by their jobs that they forget that the most important thing in our lives is relationships, both with God and with other people.

5) My place as a Steward of God’s Gifts: Finally, God has been teaching me of my position as a steward over all that He has given me.  The reason I use the term steward is this, and maybe this context will help clarify what I’m talking about:

There are plenty of people who go about this life and say, “Oh, the good Lord has been good to me.”  They might be speaking about their relationships, their financial situation, their house, their children, etc.  However, when it comes right down to it, I think that for many people, saying that is just another form of bragging and saying, “Wow, look how good I have it,” or even, “Look how good I have it in comparison with yourself.”  I have truly come to believe that, when God gives us something – money, a car, a family, a friend, an acquaintance, a job, even our body – then he is appointing us as a steward over it, with the expectation that God may ask for it back, and it would be a slap in the face to God to accept something from Him and then give it back to him in the same state that we found it, or even in a diminished state.

So, what does this mean practically?  If I am a steward of my body, that means that God has given it to me for the purpose of using it, but He also expects me to take care of it.  Supporting this proposition is the idea of doing with my body what Jesus would, and I’d have to say that I have a hard time picturing Jesus gaining weight or eating fast food all the time simply because he would want to take care of his body.

Also, stewardship with money is a concept that I think would benefit society greatly.  If people looked upon money not as their own but as a gift from God that He gave us for His Earthly purposes instead of something for them to spend on their own worldly pleasure, then I’d be willing to bet that the following things could and would happen:

• Credit card debt would cease to be a problem,
• The national debt would stop growing and would start to be paid off,
• More donations would go to starving men, women and children who can’t expect even one square meal a week,
• More hospitals would be built,
• The housing crisis would dissolve because everyone would suddenly realize that God does not approve of debt (again, in Proverbs),
• Schools wouldn’t have to teach high school students personal finances because the students would already have the one concept that they need for financial management and security,
• World hunger would eventually cease to be a problem,
• Homeless shelters would be built,
• Churches would be sending out missionaries by the tens and hundreds of thousands, and
• People would know that, no matter how much money they have, it is all from God’s hand for God’s purposes, and I’d be willing to bet that Christmas would still be the biggest shopping season of the year because everyone would be so excited to give to those they love…within reason, of course.

Stewardship also applies to how I spend my time.

These are the sorts of things that I have been thinking about and learning about this semester.  I guess it’s all a part of becoming an adult.

God Bless!

SfC

Happenings of Various Sorts: Studies, Writing, and Brief Comments on World Affairs

I return to my blog with some good news:  after a couple of weeks of focused effort, I am on the better end of the semester.  After a couple of weeks requiring unusual focus on my part, I have finished all but one of my midterms and exams for my classes.  It isn’t that I’m going to totally kick back and relax, but I can rest easier now than I was a couple of weeks ago.

I have an English exam on Monday (it was supposed to be on Friday, but the professor had an emergency and class was canceled), and then midterms are behind me.  My World War II class is back to status quo until the end of the semester, though we haven’t seen our grades from the midterm and our papers.  Music Theory is steadily improving; by investing more of my time and focus in it, I can comfortably say that I understand what is going on and am improving at doing it quickly (which is half the struggle of the class).  Religious Studies is showing itself to be more difficult on during this half of the semester; we finished Is Religion Dangerous? by Keith Ward (a very good read that, in my mind, reinforces my belief that, although people twist religion to selfish ends, it can be a fundamental and foundational force of good in the world) and now we are on to Religion: The Basics by Malory Nye, which is set up to be more like a college textbook…which makes it an overall thicker read.  In addition, we’re short on discussion groups for Religious Studies in the next couple of weeks, so we will be left to our own devices to understand the book, unless we decide to ask about it shortly before the lecture sessions.  Finally, my French Horn lessons are also going smoother, thanks to more time and thought devoted to figuring out everything.  It isn’t even really a hard task, just time-consuming.  I think I’m starting to realize that very few things in life are truly as difficult as they just time-consuming.

In addition, I have been making progress on my book as well.  I began using Photoshop to create heraldries for the many factions that will be in my world, as well as putting the finishing touches on one of the regional map.  I was also inspired earlier this week to begin writing down a rough race sketch for the humanity of Kenushi Ryu.  I will gladly share some or all of this progress, depending on if there is any interest in the readers.

However, I now find myself confronted with a gargantuan task in writing my book, a task that I have mentioned in previous posts.  Although I have, for all intents and purposes, decided that the creation of an artificial language for the purpose of use in my book will be highly positive, if not necessary.  That being said, all of the work that I have done on naming characters, cities, nations, and every other facet of my world has basically been creative, but random and, if I am going to create my own language, most or all of what I have already named will, for the sake of consistency, need to be renamed in the ancient tongue (or tongues?) of the world.  So, I find myself at a position where at least beginning the creation and forging of an artificial language seems necessary, yet I find myself faced with a project of such enormous proportions, I don’t even know where to start!  Of course, it isn’t to say that there is nothing else I can do before my language is alive; there’s still plenty of maps to be made and that sort of thing.  However, the sooner the language is created, the sooner I can forge on ahead with so many other facets of my world (Kenushi Ryu) with greater confidence.  Perhaps, if you (the reader) feel you have something to contribute to my efforts, even if it’s just encouragement, I would be very grateful!

Finally, for the last couple of weeks I have directly omitted writing anything about world affairs; the election, the economic downturn, etc.  I feel that I must explain that.

As for the election, I find myself completely disillusioned about the whole system.  That is to say, I believe that via absentee, I will cast my lot to John McCain, but I do not do so enthusiastically.  I must say that I do have my doubts about Sarah Palin; after all, in the words of Joe Biden (addressed to Barack Obama at the time, ironically) the Presidency “doesn’t lend itself to on-the-job training.”  I agree with that, and I believe that the Vice Presidency, a heartbeat away from the Presidency, is scarcely different and, no offense to Palin, but she doesn’t have the political experience of John McCain or Joe Biden.  I must restate that I do still find Obama to be a suspicious character.  To illustrate that, let me put it this way: when someone launches an attack on Obama, the media is all over it and, when McCain is attacked, there is little, if any acknowledgment.  Obama’s like the media’s poster boy.

Also, despite the enormous amount of coverage that the rumor of Obama’s foreign birth is getting on the blogs, the media hasn’t covered it, at least that I have heard of.  It is difficult to tell if this is because the bloggers are starting rumors to damage Obama or if the media coverage betrays skewed opinions and poor journalism.  Overall, a friend of mine spoke a few weeks ago of how disillusioned he was about the election, and I must agree, although for different reasons.  I have seen one too many times during this election phrases like “I will never vote for a Republican” (or it could just as easily be the other way around), which tells me that people aren’t really thinking about their vote; they’re casting their vote based on illogical biases that really don’t have anything to do with what a candidate believes and has everything to do with what party the candidate holds to.  In other words, I’m tired of people throwing their lot in to someone just because of their party affiliations…or worse, picking the candidate that talks better.  This is not saying that a good politician can’t communicate properly; it’s just that, from what I’ve observed, that’s all that Obama has.  He doesn’t have as much experience as McCain, and I’m monstrously suspicious of Obama; if nothing else, am I the only one whose noticed that his supporters practically worship the guy?  That, to me, is deathly frightening.

Well, no matter.  The election is in 10 days (not including today) and mine is just one vote in something like 300,000,000, albeit there will probably only be about 50-60% voter participation (maybe 70%, since this is a major election).  And trust me, I would love to learn that I’m wrong; I would love to hear of voter turnout at 80 or even (gasp!) 90 percent.  It sickens me that people take for granted the democratic form of government and let their potential votes fall silent.  Anyway, this is likely going to be my last post about the election; it seems like most everything that is worth saying has been said a million times.

As for the economic downturn; well, from my limited knowledge of economics, let me say that I honestly believe there is little either candidate can realistically do to reinforce the economy unless they can come up with some new way to restore investor confidence.  Every day Wall Street takes a hit, it’s suffering is echoed across the rest of the world.  When I think of the economic problem, I envision a suspension bridge; a single chord in the middle has started giving slack and lowering and the increased strain on the rest of the bridge is forcing the entire structure closer to the abyss.  I do think that, if one major stock market in the world collapses, that it won’t be the end of the world.  If two crash, then it will be more difficult to recover, but it will be possible.  Three, and we’re getting precariously close to a world-wide crash.  Four or more, and I honestly think that the whole world economic system will implode upon itself.  What will that look like?  I have no idea, and it isn’t something I want to think about.

Anyway, like I said about the election, it seems that most of the things worth saying have been said, so I will let that be for now.

Take care, and God bless!

SfC

P.S.  Don’t forget, if your interested in seeing some of the materials I’ve been able to construct for my novel, let me know!