Leaving for the airport in about half an hour. Managed to get about half a night's sleep, which I think is pretty good before taking an exciting trip. I hope I'm able to get some rest somewhere along the way. It's probably good that we'l get to Lviv in the evening, local time, Friday, as we'll be able to get rest shortly after we arrive.

Tell me if this makes you dizzy.

I keep feeling I should post something. I've gotten into a few controversies on other folks sites, but nothing new or noteworthy. Just stirring up some pretty old arguments.

Thurday morning I leave for Lviv for the prupose of teaching English classes and participating in Bible discussion groups with professional and academic Ukrainians. In preparation for this, our team had a meeting a couple of weeks ago with Dean Storelli who teaches people to teach ESL at Duke University. We got to learn about Stephen Krashen and some of the newish ideas regarding aquiring a second language. It was all enormously helpful and I look forward to telling my (andvanced level) students about what I learned.

The theme that the staff in Lviv picked for the week is "friends for a lifetime." I'm not sure what they are planning to do with that, but I found I had two books on my shelves on the subject of friendship, so I read them this past week.

The Friendship Factor is one I read about ten years ago but it was good to dust off and read again. I ws amazed at how much had stuck with me along the lines of "oh, THATS why I started doing that." It's a very practical and pragmatic book about how to cultivate, deepen and maintain friendships.

The other was Becoming Friends by Paul J Wadell. This is a more philosophical book by a Notre Dame educated Catholic. What really stood out was the chapter on Aelred of Rivaulx, a 12th century monk from Northumbia. Aelred studied the relaionships between the Cistercians at his monastery and decided there were three types of friendships. Carnal friends are those who are drawn together to participate in evil together, such as gossip or drunkenness. Worldly friends are those who hope to gain some advantage from their fiends. And Spiritual friends are thsoe who are joined due to their commonality in Christ. There's lots to explicate there, but you get the general idea.

I think its about time to head out to our last team meeting before we leave. Pray for us, if you would.

My brother has taken it upon himself to make sure we are stocked with quality films at our house. We watched two that he sent us in the last two nights. Last night we watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. A good fun flick. One thing I picked up. One of the unseen lawmen chasing the eponymous pair was called Laforce (sp?), the greatest lawman in the West who always wore a white straw hat. Anyone remember which movie referenced that?

Tonight we watched Network. If there was a better movie made in the 70's I'd like to know. It was an amazing job of keeping up a darkly humorous tone through a film on a relatively serious subject. The writing was absolutely masterful. I can't say much more in the spirit of the film without cussing, so I'll leave it at that.

I have a new obsession. This site just puts up the last 20 or so images people posted to livejournal pages. Some degree of this will be unsafe for work/children, but that can't be predicted in any way. Just a weird way to see random pictures.

Breaking Chess news. Seriously. (Sorry, link apparently dead now.)
 
Ok, dumbed down version on ABC here.

Somewhat amusing version of This Land. (not really for children)

Voting With Our Feet?

Just looking over these numbers, there's something I noticed. The states predicted to vote for Bush have gained eight electoral votes elative to the states predicted to go to Kerry. Just to complete that, the undecided ones have lost two. Are republican states better places to live? Do they just have more kids there?

On that last point, I remember seeing some analysis recently on the affect of abortion on voting. An ever larger number of aborted children since Roe v Wade would have been of voting age, and a disproportionate number were aborted in places that vote more often for the democrats. I guess it doesn't pay to kill off your voters.

Another entry in the Headline Hall of Fame.

Over on the "big Lutheran blog", as I'll call it for now, Josh et al have been trying to point out why they think Calvinism stinks and all of us should become Lutherans. At some point it got into views of politics and I mentioned in a comment (I don't even remember under which post, sorry) that I was completely ignorant of Lutheran views on politics and would love to hear something about them. Thus is was something of a surprise to me to see bubble to the top of my reading stack a volume I'd forgotten I had, God and Caesar, a collection published by Augsburg back in 1959. Apparently there had been some regular symposium on religion and politics at Valpo in the 50's, moderated by Princetonian Otto Piper.

Having gotten most of the way through this, and assuming that it represents both typical and well-expressed Lutheran views, I would have to say that they win on this front. The Calvinist concepts of positive law seem to me to fundamentally twist the attitudes of their adherents. Not that I wish to downplay the role of the law within the scripture or to endorse the Lutheran views of law and gospel, but the american Calinist tradition, through theology and historical situation, teaches that we have to create our own society and law embodied in a just state; and while that is certainly a noble sentiment, it seems rather different than what the NT teaches us about how to act as a follower of Jesus on this earth. As Hauerwas likes to say, the church doesn't need a politics, it IS a politics.

Here's a warning from the gvt that we should probably all heed.

From time to time I think about what I would like this blog to be, other than just getting me some practice writing. If I'm honest with myself, I realize that what I really want is legions of adoring fans. Thus I always feel a bit humbled when a post only gets comments from my wife and my mother. I want to see dozens of people writing in saying, "There was more wisdom in the second sentence of your post than in the last three generations of my family combined." Which means I want to attract flatterers with no sense of shame or honesty I suppose.

A couple of weeks ago I got invited to play a part in a VBS play. I had taken a drama class back in HS, but never got a part in a play. That's probably for the best, since I enjoy acting WAY too much. I don't need another narcissistic pursuit in my life.

Anyhow, the VBS play was based on two kids and a time machine. The particular day I was involved they were summoned to a courtroom to decide if Jesus was a prophet or a priest or a king. I was the bailiff, the formerly blind Bartimaeus. My friend Brian was the judge, and some others played Peter, John, and the widow from Nain (the witnesses). Brian's wife, Brenda, was running the show an told me to have as much fu as I could with my role. Brian told me the judge would be a cross between Shelby Foote and Freg Gwynne's character from My Cousin Vinny. I figured that gave me some license, so I went with something like a Scatman Crothers character. It seems I was a big hit with the kids. I guess that's just because I was loud and goofy. Probably the same reasons my wife keeps me around. Brian and Brenda and thier two boys, btw, are coming with me to L'viv in two weeks. Should be fun.

i wonder if there's much objective difference between web personality tests and horoscopes. For instance, I took this little one, and found myself smiling at the flattering results:

You are a WRCF--Wacky Rational Constructive Follower. This makes you Paul Begala. You are unflappable and largely unconcerned with others' reactions to you. You were not particularly interested in the results of this test, and probably took it only as a result of someone else asking you to.

You have a biting wit and intense powers of observation. No detail is lost on you, and your friends know it--relying on you to have the facts when others express only opinions. You are even-tempered, friendly, and educated. Foolish strangers may mistake your mildness for weakness--they will be surprised.

You entire approach to life is enviable. You will raise good kids

But surely everyone gets a flattering result, don't they? I suppose The Paul Begala thing bugs me a little, but at least we share a name.

Discovered an interesting blogger this week who has a nice post on a dear topic here. I suppose we all have our own distinctive ways of saying what Tim is saying, but it seems generally on the mark.

If you ever listened to Van Halen's first album, you should check this out.

Let me also say that this is good advice for everyone, not just Canadians.

A Brief Introduction to Presbyterianism (via Kris10)

Back when many of us were discussing Mel Gibson and the issue of portrayals of Jesus I had asked a few times how people interpreted Galatians 3:1

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified

.

The last time I wrote to Stan Hauerwas, I asked him, among other things, for his thoughts on TPOTC. I like his response:

I didn't think Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" was as bad as most people thought it was. My deepest problems concerning the movie are about whether film is a medium that appropriately embodies the Gospel. We become spectators to violence, and I don't think that's what the gospel wants us to be. I thought also the separation of the Passion from the life is always a problem. I made the point [not sure where] that the medium is not appropriate to the Gospel, and was asked what the appropriate medium is? Of course I said the liturgy. That just seems so obvious but people seem to miss it.

Had a very fun (role-playing) gaming session last night with Tom, David and Todd. Todd is quite the stickler for historical details. The highlight of the evening, after we had vanquished various monsters and three of the four serpents guarding the tower containing the obligatory princess, was the serpent of riddles. We had three riddles to answer, all of which came from a vulume entitled The Earliest English Poems. The riddle were, in fact, pretty hard, but we managed to come up with all three, though of course with a few clues from the GM.

Today our Ukraine team and the team from our church heading to Peru were something of a focus for the church. We were officially "commissioned" during the morning service, and in the evening there was a special prayer meeting for us. Lots of loving concern was expressed about Lenise and her care while I will be away. It's great to be at a church that loves us so well.

Update for those worried about the fate of the ducklings.