Profound thought of the day:

I wonder how many total blog entries have been made in the last year which said, "Gee, I wish I had something profound to write today"??


I've sid it before and I'll say it again--if anyone would like to add some comments to my writings, 'til I can afford a real comment service, just e-mail them to me and I'll be happy to put your quote up, provided you give me your permission to do so.

I've heard the movie was awful, so I stayed away from it, but Correlli's Mandolin was an awesome novel. It's the story of life on a small Greek island shortly before, during and after WWII. It occurred to me that I've never really read before an account of how the war affected some particular community in Europe. Don't be intimidated by the subject though. Much of the book is light hearted. The portrayal of the Greek communist resistance alone is worth the price of the book, especially for me as I picked it up off the free rack outside my favorite used bookstore (it was slightly water damaged and had pen marks on the cover, but quite readable).

The Hauerwas book (see left), like most of his stuff, made me want to quote about eight percent of it here on my site. Unfortunately this would pretty well violate the copyright, and even though he claims to adhere to "Christian non-violence", I would want to find out what happens when push comes to shove, so to speak. His article "Sinsick", on the relatedness of sickness and sin was particularly provocative. He asks rhetorically why we are more concerned about the quality of our doctors than about the quality of our pastors. His answer: "We are atheists." We don't really believe that our church will affect the outcome of our souls, but we sure do believe that our doctors will affect our bodies.

Briefly, the Stephen Bury novel (ghostwritten apparently by Neal Stephenson) is a sci-fi political thriller, which is outside my normal scope of interest, but is just full of great writing and interesting ideas, characters and thoughts on the country we live in. If you've liked any of Stephenson's other stuff, you should like this. If you haven't read Stephenson you probably have a book shaped hole in your heart where his novels should fit nicely.

It's a bit unexpected to see this story coming out of Oregon, but it's nice to see that americans are still active in politics.

So I heard this story on NPR about the late Stephen Jay Gould and his wife, who was an artist. His wife got him into learning the work of Duchamps (I believe that's right), who apparently put a lot of mysteriousthings into his art. For example, one of his works was a photo of a urinal. No one noticed, til years later, that no urinal of that description had ever existed, and based on the design, it wouldn't work. Gould enjoyed this puzzle-art thing tremendously.

According to his wife, he felt that puzzling out the meaning and sources of these works was similar to his work with fossils; trying to find the interconnectedness, the logic. I wonder if this ever caused him to think that logical design implies personal design???

I feel like royalty now, or at least nobility, driving my new '83 Grand Marquis. It comfortably seat four Hondas in the back seat. I'm suprised to find myself enjoying it. It drinks gas like it owns a small mid-eastern country and stalls occasionally, but everything works n it, unlike ol' rusty here nothing worked anymore.

My cold has setled down to some sinus ad chest congestion, but nothing bad. Hope I'll be able to sing on Sunday. Unfortunately Lenise now has the cold, as well as some odd allergy symptoms. Her legs got all puffy yesterday, and today her eyes are swollen. I have to say that I'm not in favor of being sick, and don't recommend it to anyone else either, especially you kids out there.

excuse me. i've been sick for the last week. too tired to even use capital letters, much less to blog regularly. but don't feel bad for me. my car had it much worse. ol' rusty started coughing up blood last thursday, and we decided to have her put to sleep, as noted below. somehow i made it to cleveland and back in one piece, but i'm still a bit weary.

life goes on.

Sorry about the lack of blogging lately. I've been pretty sick. I had the flu, which has somehow morphed into a cold.

We saw "Clones" today. It was ok. Lots of eye candy, but none of the characters seemed to have much in terms of motivations, outside of Anakin. (BTW I would probably turn to the dark side too if everyone started calling me Annie).

John Perkins book is very good. Its wonderful to me to see how people from very different theoogical backgrounds come to the same conclusions about particular issues. Mr Perkins spent most of his life doing urban community development work. He came from a very poor black community in Miss.; even saw his brother beaten to death by whites. Yet his conclusions about this sort of work are almost indistinguishable from what I've read from Tim Keller, Marvin Olasky, and what I've heard from Durham Rescue Mssion founder Ernie Mills. Given the work that all of those men have done, I suppose I should listen to what they have to say.

On the literary side, Avram Davidson has been something of a serendipity to me. All I knew of him was that Gene Wolfe respected him a lot, so that wa enough for me. The Phoenix and the Mirror is inspired by a set of medieval tales about Vergil (yes THAT Vergil) as a great magician. So the story is, more or less, about an alchemical quest in Roman times. The author's vocabulary is quite astonishing, but somehow never holds up the narrative flow, which I sometimes felt was one of Wolfe's flaws. He's certainly worth a try for you sci-fi fans, if you can find his stuff. I believe most of it is out of print.

My car died last week. But fortuitously my sister-in-law just bought a new car and was looking to get rid of her old one, so we don't have to buy a new one quite yet. Unfortunately I have to drive up to Cleveland and back to make the swap, so I won't be writing til at least late Tuesday. 'til then

I coveted a vehicle sticker I saw the other day. It was on the front winshield of a pickup truck, and it said, printed backwards so I could read it in my mirror, "Slower traffic keep to right".

I'm reading Job again, and I keep coming up with the same troubles. How is what is said by Job's friends significantly different from the theology of Deuteronomy? How is what Job says correct and incorrect, as God seems to both praise and rebuke him? Is Elihu right, as God doesn't answer him at all? Is there someone who has made the whole book make sense?

Here we have perhaps the most offensive G rated website of all time.

Back and Blogging again.

I know y'all missed me terribly. Had a good time at a wedding up in the D of C. For those of you who know that area, we stayed in Waldorf, MD, the wedding was nearby in Bryantown, but the reception was in Bowie--30 miles away. In any event I got lots of birthday wishes from people I didn't really know at the wedding, so that was fun for me. We also got to visit with out friends Scott and Terri in Mannasses.

Finding a church on Sunday was a bit of an adventure. I found a PCA church in the Yellow pages and determined from the map roughly where it should be and noted they had a 9:30 service. So we checked out and headed over in that direction. The street where the church should have been was an industrial park. There were two signs for the church, but we couldn't find it anywhere. I decided we should just go to the first reasonable looking protestant church we could find.

Just down the street we found a United Methodist church. We pulled in the lot where about 4 or 5 people were standing around, then went into to the building. Completely empty, apart from a solitary elderly lady who sai nothing to us. I found two stacks of bulletins and noticed one stack said 8:45 and another said 11. As it was only 9:30 we decided to get back in the car and try again.

My wife had noted a tall steeple in town; a sure sign of baptists she informed me. So we went. I was slightly hesistant since I hadn't been to a baptist service since I left my parents church after college. he parking lot was full and we followed a stream of folks to the door. Once inside we were quite immediately geeted and asked for our names by a woman a few feet inside. And immediately (I feel like St Mark now) we are led to another woman. "This is Paul and Lenise" spake the first woman. The second woman replied "Greetings, can we get thee into a Sunday School class". She led us away. And lo, there was a Sunday School class which served breakfast. We partook of the food and sat down, having been introduced to the teacher.

The class was pretty good. They spent about a third of the time just taking prayer requests from the class and praying for them at the beginning. This insured that the length of the lesson was fitted around the prayer time. (Note to self, make sure to do this if you teach a SS class again). They were following a printed curriculum and how to minister in various situations. The particular lesson was on natural disasters, with the story of Paul's shipwreck as the text. This was particularly interesting as there had very recently been a terrible tornado in La Plata (pronounced La Plate-Ah), the next town to the south. Many of the class members either lived there or had close family there. The tornado went right through the middle of town, completely destroying everything in its path.

I won't belabor you with the rest of my trip. I'll just say that I'll give the baptists a bit higher regard next time I'm looking for a church out of town. God Bless 'em.

My birthday is on Saturday. I'm afraid I'll be out of town at a wedding that day, so phone calls will do you no good. However, buying me something from my wish list would of course be the next best thing.

Something happened to the cable in our house such that we stopped getting a signal. That was about two weeks ago. We decided to just cancel our subscription, rather than fix it. As a consequence, I've been getting more reading done. I finished the massive Davies book yesterday, Pipes' Russia book today, will finish the Wright book tomorrow, and most like will finish the Card book this week as it's fairly light. If something important happens in the world of tv, I'll rely on y'all to let me know.

It hadn't really occured to me til my friend Tom pointed it out last night, but our quaint little town is home to an unholy business triangle. We have manufacturing facilities for a tobacco company, a mattress company and a fire extinguisher company. hmmmm

I am thankful today that I've had a chance to read some many wonderful writers over the last few months. So many of the books I've been reading are just terrific. Here's a passage from Davies that I read last night. Darcourt, BTW, is the priest, and Al and his wife are very soon expecting, but it would be impossible to give you the full context for this:

. . . she and Al were quick to say that they did not believe that a few words mumbled by a parson over their child could make any difference to his future life.


Darcourt forbre to tell them that he thought they were wrong, and silly in their wrongness. He had reservations about many of the things which he, as a clergyman, was expected to believe and endorse publicly, but about the virtues of baptism he had no doubt. Its solely Christian implications apart, it was the acceptance of a new life into a society that thereby declared that it had a place for that new life; it was an assertion of an attitude towad life that was expressed in the Creed which was a part of the service in a form archaic and compressed but full of noble implication. The parents and godparents might think they did not believe that Creed, as they recited it, but it was plain to Darcourtthat they were living in a society which had its roots in that Creed; if there had been no Creed, and no cause for the formulation of that Creed, vast portions of civilization would never have come into being, and those who smiled at the Creed or disegarded it altogether nevertheless stood firmly on its foundation . . .

BTW comments ARE working again. I know y'all have developed severe itches in your typing fingers as you have been waiting to add your witty and insightful words.

Did some interesting reading in russian history yesterday. I'm starting to have more respect, or better, slightly less disrespect for the communists as I see how messed up pre-revolutionary Russia was. If you read Pipes book you get the sense from the first chapter that Russia was not designed by God to be a place for vry many people to live. The soil is just too unfriendly to gow much. The fact that in 1913 Russia had the fifth largest economy in the world is quite a testament to their hard work.

In any event, Russia never developed the common European idea of primogeniture. Hereditary possessions were always divided among all the sons. You can imagine the esult as the centuries roled on. Thousands and thousands of tiny impoverished land holdings. About 90% of the dvoriane, the closest russian equivalent to european nobility, were virtully inditinguishable from the serfs. There were, in the 19th century a group of roughly 1000 dvoriae who were fabulously wealthy (I should quote you one of the descrptions later), but they were primarily interested in finding new ways to spend their money. The group in between, something less than twenty thousand people, was the only russian equivalent to the middle class. That's 20,000 in a country that in size was three times as large as Europe. There were several cases of people making money in various enterprises, but generally whenever someone was successful, the tsar would urn it into a national monopoly so as to be able to take all the profits. Thus a nation with essentially no middle class; and frankly no upper class either.

If you ever wanted to devise an evil plan, but were just too lazy here's the site for you.

Ha Ha! I stopped into Nice Price books and found a copy of Delbert Hillier's Covenant: The History of a Biblical Idea for the outstanding price of $.98 Halfway done with it already. It's pretty good. BTW the Tom Wolfe book was terrific. Go out and read it.

Well,
Apparently SO many of you wrote in regarding the last blog that you broke the comment system. I hope you're proud of yourselves. Just wait your turn next time.

Actually it's the same old story. Guy hosts comments for free. People like it. Others find out. System is overwhelmed. Host cuts them off. Pretty soon we bloggers will be the subway musicians of the internet, writing for spare change from passers-by.

Scott Cunningham has just suggested that The Osbornes is the funniest show on tv. I couldn't say, since I haven't seen it, but I wanted to know what some of you thought were the funniest things on tv. For me it would be
1 King of the Hill
2 The Simpsons
3 Futurama
4 The Jamie Kenedy Experiment
5 Malcolm in the Middle

You can see I like Sunday night tv :)
Unfortunately our cable just went out, so we're thinking about giving up tv for a while. But I'm intereste to hear what y'all think is funny

If I understand correctly, people in France are demonstrating because a particular candidate for office GOT MORE VOTES than another candidate. He hasn't won anything yet, mind you. But jeez Louise, how can you protest that your countrymen are voting for someone you don't like. It's certainly possible that this Le Pen is a dangerous lunatic. I wouldn't know. But it seems that if he were the best thing would be to simply point that out. Just had to get that out of my system.

I'll try to think of some of my avorite film scenes off the top of my head for Jim. I did like ost of the ones he mentioned, but I always like to be different.


The opening scene of the Beavis and Butthead movie where something is not on the TV stand (go rent it and just watch the first two minutes)



Eddie Murphy crossing the freeway in Bowfinger (Chubby Rain!!!!!)


"I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?" from Pulp Fiction


Opening the trunk in Repo Men (and wondering for the rest of the movie what was in there)


Charles Durning jumping out the window in Hudsucker Proxy (it's hard to pick just one scene from that movie)

Oh, the weird thing is that a story like this might actually increase support for Israel here. Sorry if you'd already seen that one.

Ok, I really need to get to work now.

It's a good thing some youngsters occasionally show some sense. Serves him right.

So I go over to blogdex this morning to see what's what and I find this link. The funny thing is, when I entered my current age (32) it mentioned ETA Hoffmann beginning his writing career. Well, I happen to know pretty much nothing about old Ernst Teodore Amadeus, except that the novel I'm reading right now is about a foundation commissioning a musicology student to finish an opera he started. The last part I read before dozing off was from the perspective of Hoffmann's disembodied spirit hoping that the completion and sucess of the opera will suffice to get his soul out of "limbo". All part of the "lattice of coincidence." (Am I the only one who remembers the lattice???)

Sorry about the break in blogging. Had a lot of work to do last couple of days. I finished the Borg book. Found it mostly useful. He seems to want to hedge his bets on authenticity of the gospel texts, but that would be my only major criticism. Since he strives to e as non-theological as possible in his writing in this particular book, I would really highly recommend it to non-Christians who have very mistaken ideas about who Jesus was and what he did. Imagine boiling the two big Wright books on Jesus into 200 pages.

On the fiction side, I've been slowly working my way through Robertson Davies works. This particular volume is the largest. Total 1340 pp for the one volume trilogy. It's very worthwhile though. If you wanted to get started on Davies I would highly recommend his Salterton Trilogy. And y'all let me know if I've talked any of you into reading Mark Helprin yet.

Went to wedding in Hendersonville, NC on Saturday Everything seemed to go ok except that the flower girls started fighting and had to be sent out. The strangest thing though was this: the church the wedding was held in had permanent nametags for each member with BARCODES on them. They apparently use lasers to take attendance. I guess it's just one short step to imprints on the hand or forehead . . .

hmm. I blogged something yesterday, but it isn't here.

Some "Nobel" words from PJ

I felt kinda like one of those good news/bad news games yesterday. The good news is that we ot about fifty people to come out to the church last night for a prayer meeting with only one day's notice. The bad news is that it was a prayer meeting for my friend Brad who was diagnosed with a sizable brain tumor. The doctors recommended surgery as soon as possible. Another good news is that through a connection at our church e was able to meet with a Dr Friedman, who is apparently one of the most highly regaded neurosurgeons in the world, and he agreed to do the surgery. Brad said it was like getting Michael Jordan to play on your pick-up basketball team. He (Brad) was in good spirits, though I'm sure he was nervous and awkward. He has been a very active member of our church since before I came to the area. He has a wife and to oung daughters ( 3yrs and 6 months), so they could all use their prayers.

It was really a wonderfull and terrible evening. It was certainly powerful to see our church come together united in prayer and showing love for each other.

The New Yorker: The Critics: A Critic At Large The book is "Wittgenstein's Poker" (Ecco; $24), by the British journalists David Edmonds and John Eidinow, and it has become an improbable best-seller. It's a terrific book, a fuguelike account of everything we know and don't know about a ten-minute squabble between two great and ornery Austrian-Anglo-Jewish philosophers, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper—the wise man I went to see. The squabble took place in 1946 in a Cambridge tutorial room, where Wittgenstein either did or did not threaten Popper with a poker and Popper either did or did not, when asked by Wittgenstein to give an instance of a moral rule, say, "Not to threaten visiting lecturers with pokers."

Went to the mall of doom today after the service. Ran into several friends there. Saw "Death to Smoochie". It had gotten a favorable review on NRO, but from a reviewer whose name I didn't recognize. He said it was "funny". I have to disagree. Unless you find cussing (there it is again) to be funny in and of itself, there's not too much to recommend in this film. The kids song, "my stepdad's not mean--he's just adjusting" was pretty much the highlight. I found myself wishing I'd seen Gosford Park instead.

I wasn't quite sure at first if this was in good taste. In fact it probably isn't, but it's VERY funny. The Q&A with Victor Davis Hanson and the comments on Baldwin are notable.

Thanks to Jonah Goldberg for this one. I'm quite used to laughing a democrats and republicans, but I believe this marks this first time I've gotten a good laugh at the libertarians.

I am currently fascinated with pres. Hoover. Quite unlike, I believe, any other president we've had. Self made man. Self taught scholar. Holder of sixty eight honorary degrees. Saved more than one European country from starvation in WWI. Had the longest ex-presidency of anyone. Believed strongly in, and practiced an astonishing amount of, private charity. And possibly sank lower in the public estimation than any other pres.

Hmmm

An interview with the people who brought us spam. I should have checked more closely to see if their personal e-mail addresses were in there somewhere.

Finished reading Telecosm yesterday. If there's a computer geek out there who can write better than Gilder I'd like to meet him. Quite a number of historians I've read don't write nearly as well. I suppose the biggest fault in the book was that he listed Global Crossing in his stock picks at the end. But hey, it's hard to predict the future. GC just had an ordinary business failure, despite all the hype. They weren't Enron.

In response to my most recent deaconpaul quiz, blogulations go to Mark "Not Related To Lena" Horne. What can I say about Mark that hasn't already been said. Well, actually quite a lot. You can learn a lot about someone just by living in a dorm room with them for a year. Fortunately Mark is a completely different person now. I'll just share one quick Mark-story. I believe it was at his urging that we decided to do some early morning roommate devotions for a brief time. It may have been scheduled as a once a week thing-- I forget. In any event, we were reading selections from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost For His Highest. This lasted only until we each realized that we hated his writing style and were getting nothing out of it except a loss of that most precious sleep time in the early hours. That was my first and last experience of roommate devotions.

On a more serious note, I consider Mark a great friend. My introduction to many great things and ideas came through him, as well as much encouragement during my first few single years out of college. Although Mark is always easy to pick on (if you know him "in the flesh"), I've always had the greatest respect for him both as a scholar and a person.

Small kudos to Valerie for coming in second with the translation. Its fortunate you didn't win, as it would be pretty hard or me to qrite about you. I suppose I could have just made stuff up ;)

So last week I was vegetating in front of the tv somewhere aound primetime and caught about the first two minutes of a show called Crossing Jordan. Happen to catch the name of one of the actors: Mahershalalhashbazz. I scratched my head for a moment, then suddenly realized I knew EXACTLY where the name came from. I will be happy to blog adulations to the first deaconpaul reader who responds with where the name comes from. (You may use either the comments or email me --both will be time stamped.)

Comment section now available. Fire away. (at least until it breaks down)

We were the enemy, we who wore the grey robes and waited with eager anticipation for our King to return. I saw the Savior not as a martyr who had died for us but as our legitimate King, who would return, claim his kingdom, and rule with justice and truth over his own people. An Empire ruled subject people, but our King ruled only his own. We would not be enslaved by him, forced to adopt the customs of the Empire; we would share his customs as our own; they were our own. And where his people ended, his rule ended; that was a rightful kingship compared to the tyranny of Caesar.

It would be necessary to teach my wife certain codes, the use of meaningful terms to notify her when one of the Romans was in our midst. We constituted a voluntary secret community, who scratched cryptic signs in the dust; we had special handshakes to identify ourselves to each other; collectively, we waited for the coming event to free us. Outwardly we appeared the same as Caesar's people, and taht was our strength. The question that gripped us was not, Would our King return? but, Would we be able to survive against the Romans--by stealth, since we held no wordly power--until he returned? . . .

a passage from Pkilip K Dick's Radio Free Albemuth. Just so you know, the "rome" he's referring to is the Nixon administration. It's, as the kids say, kinda messed up.

I want to thank Jim and kristen for having a lovely luncheon with me yesterday. It was good to be able to put a face to a blog. Side note: doesn't "hey blogface!" sound like a good insult? Also, to Jim, I happened to notice just after I dropped you off a group of college kids with maroon Minn. shirts on. I noticed last night that the U. Minn. women's b-ball team was paying UNC here. Too bad you didn't catch a ride with them.

On a more general note. Until a get a real comment system, feel free to email comments to me. If you put the word "postable" (is that a word?) in them and keep the cussing to a minimum I'll be happy to post them.

Speaking of cussing, it's come to my attention that one or more elders from my church may be looking at my blog from time to time, so I may have to watch the cussing myself. Someone in my small group said recently "you only cus around people you are comfortable with". I believe he wasn't speaking directly to me. At least I hope he wasn't . . .

Alright, I'm overdue on my book reports to ya and I know you've been waited on the edge of your ergonomic computer chairs. I'm afraid I'm going to be a bit terse though, especially since my memory has faded by now, but here they are:

John Hood, of the terrific John Locke foundation, has recently written a volume entitled Investor Politics. Mr Hood is an occasional contributor to NR(ODT) and occasional guest host on WPTF here in the triangle. Somehow before I began reading I had developed the impression that this book was about the rising "investor class" and how they would be a "force to reckon with" in the future of amreican politics. Fortunately I was wrong and the book is much better than that. It is in fact an analytical history of the relationship between the US govt. policy and investing.

Mr Hood, in fact, attempts to start at the beginning (or before the beginning if you are a creationist) with some hypotheses about pre-historic man's discovery of trade and saving. The majority of the book dwells on US political history though. I won't attempt to summarize his outline, but I will say I was impressed with his thorough and fair analysis of such subjects as social security and the home mortgage interest deduction. Hood's strongest point, though, is carefully argued policy prescriptions. While his viewpoint is certainly that of a free-marketeer, he always argues inductively, citing study after study when proposing policy changes. Such a careful balance between history, political thought, and policy suggestions is rare in my readings.

My other review for you is of a novel. David Mitchell was born in Lancashire in 1969 (my year of birth as well), but has been living and teaching in Japan for some time. His 1999 novel, Ghostwritten, certainly has an oriental flavor to it. Each chapter in the book is from the perspective of a different character, all in different places in the world. The range of writing he used to accomplish this simply astounded me. I would strogly advise that you find a copy in yor local bookstore and read the first chapter, written from the viewpoint of a Japanese terrorist cult member. Quite disturbing, yet quite believable. Anyway, none of the characters in the book actually know any of the others, but their lives are all inter-connected in strange and suprising ways. Hard to adequately describe without giving away important plot points. There is a bit of rough language in some parts, so I won't recommend this to the squeemish. I was just hooked though. I might have to read it again to pick up some more deatils (and I NEVER read a book twice).

I think my favorite guide to strange things on the net is my friend, the factcat. This is far from the strangest, I suppose, but I can't say I ever thought about people doing this. To each his own.

I'd like to welcome all the new deaconpaul readers (I'm assuming there are some, as I've gotten a couple of pleasant e-mails). I am not, as Chris Garrett seems to think, the "czar of the web", I've just taken advantage of some very simple technology tools which my friend Mark Horne original pointed out to me. If you have any interest in making your own page like this, just click of that little blogger link or go to www.blogger.com, or e-mail and ask for directions. If this were difficult, I certainly wouldn't be doing it. Don't have time tonight for the promised book reviews as we have some cleaning to do and there is, of course, basketball to be watched. Stay tuned tomorrow though.

Made it back from Cleveland tonight. Glad to be home. Cleveland was somewhat eventful.

First, apologies to Dawn and Jason for not getting in touch with them while in Columbus. We didn't have much time there. We arrived in Columbus late on Friday and went up to Strongsville on Saturday for my father-in-law's retirement party. Unfortunately, quite soon after we arrived a tree fell accross the street, knocking out the power and blocking the only exit. We had to call the party to tell them we didn't know when we would be able to get there. The city actually cleared the tree out fairly quickly so no one had to wait too long.

The party was fun, though I didn't realize that "cash bar" meant you had to pay $1.50 for a coke. No biggie. All the old co-workers told stories about my fathr-in-law's days working for the FAA at the airport. They also gave some nice gifts including a congatulatory letter for Rush Limbaugh, which I thought was very nice.

We returned to the house late in the evening to discover that the power was still not returned, so we headed to the "retirement" home in Massillon to sleep (we being Lenise and I, Lenise's sister Mindy, her brother Erhen, and his fiancee, Jan). Up in the morning to head back north to church. I forget the name of both the church and the city it was in. The pastor, however, I remember. His name is Ted Pelikan (I believe a relative of Jaroslav), and he preached a pretty good sermon on the blind man who was healed and then questioned by the pharisees.

Visiting a church of another denomination (in this case ELCA) always causes me some reflection on how church is done, but ultimately I thought of Chesterton's comment about traveling abroad, to wit, one goes abroad to learn to truly appreciate what one has at home. I don't mean that as a criticism, I simply concur.

Anyhow, back to the narrative. The in-laws had planned an after church feast for family and some out-of-town friends. However, the power still had not returned and the house was getting quite chilly. It was ultimately out for 25 hours. We ended up at Pizza Hut, which happened to be almost empty, so we had plenty of room.

Not so much excitement the rest of the trip. Lenise had to go through all her old stuff in her old room to prepare for her parents moving later this year. She hates to throw things away, so I had to help in that area. We got to watch the movie The Patriot, which I thought was just wonderful, if a little one sided. I got to finish two books also. But they probably deserve a separate blog, since this one's already long and I should probably unpack.

OK, herer I am, blogging from my sister-in-law's place in Columbus. She sends her warmest greetings to deaconpaul readers (since, by some quick, it's actually warm in Columbus at the moment).

This falls into that category of things you probably hadn't thought of, but make sense now that you mention it. The question is: What single company has had the largest influence in technology development in the last seven years? The answer is here. I always thought there had to be a good reason to like them.

I just want to take this time to thank Jay Horne for blogging less often than me, thus making me feel a lot better.

Check back here on Friday. If there's nothing new here then, there probably won't be anything until the end of next week. I'm leaving Friday morning to go up to Cleveland to my fther-in-law's retirement party. Might get up to Michigan as well. We'll just have to see.

The Bad News: I've been too busy lately to blog.
The Good News: Thank God, I'm finally getting busy. Things are picking up for me in the tuning biz. Also, we just got our tax refund check. It was nice to dump a whole truck load of money into the bank today. I just piled it up in the lobby and said "would y'all take care of this for me, I need to get back to work." They're pretty good about that sort of thing at Wachovia.

Tomorrow I'm off to 3 more tunings, including one at the Hilton. It's looking like March will be good as well. Now if I can just do something about this weather . . .

I think I've always assumed that I would be too stunned for speech at the death of a very close loved one. Time will eventually tell, I imagine. Mrs. Pearl, however, speaks fairly coherently and is quite touching.

G.K.C. on the "science" of eugenics, which was quite popular at the time:

I never heard a man say: "Anthropology shows that I belong to an inferior race." If he did, he might be talking like an anthropologist [ . . .] I have long hoped that I might someday hear a man explaining on scientific principles his own unfitness for any important post or privelege, say: "The world should belong to the free and fighting races, and not to persons of that servile disposition that you will notice in myself; the intelligent will know how to form opinions, but the weakness of intellect from which I so obviously suffer renders my opinions manifestly absurd on the face of them: there are indeed stately and godlike races-- but look at me! Observe my shapeless and fourth-rate features! Gaze, if you can bear it, on my commonplace and repulsive face!" If I heard a man making a scientific demonstration in that style, I might admit that he was really scientific . . .

This qualifies as news, I suppose, in the same sense that the sun rising this morning qualifies; it seems our universities are an intellectual breeding ground for terrorist thought. While I am, in theory, in favor of a free exchange of ideas, I just really want to slap anyone who gave positive press to this book. I guess terrorism is ok as long as you don't bring a god into it.

It's somewhat difficult to even describe what we saw last night, but I'll give it my best. I took my wife to the UNC campus for a free showing of a play. There was no writer credit for the play, so I'll have to assume it was written by the director/producer or the cast members. In any event, here's the general idea. The group had been planning to do a performance of The Wizard of Oz, but discovered at the last minute that they couldn't obtain/afford the performance rights. Given that they'd already spent so much on sets and costumes, and they wanted to keep the show going, they went out and found the cheapest thing they could find, which happened to be a rock musical called Oedipus Rox. They went on to perform said musical on the Wizard of Oz set with WoO costumes.

After the opening number and first scene, I thought it was going to be just unbearable, but it managed to pick up steam (and humor) as it went. I don't have the playbill in front of me so I can't give you the cast member's names. The part of Scarecrow/Oedipus was played quite well. Dorothy and the wicked witch ended up playing his daughters. Dorothy was particularly upset about being transfered from the lead to such a minor role and kept bring up her "wizard" lines. She was particularly upset at Creon, as he wasn't even a cast member in WoO, he was the set carpenter. He ended up having the strongest performance of the bunch. The chorus was somewhat equally divided between people in togas, munchkins, and flying monkees, the latter wearing skirts and red vests. All in all not a bad night out on the town.

Thanks to Jim Hart for pointing out to me that I didn't put the code for my hit counter back in my template when I changed formats. I'll peek out of my blog hole now and see if I have a shadow.

BTW, I brought in Chesterton today because I just had to share this one

I cannot understand the people who take literature seriously; but I can love them, and I do. Out of my love I warn them to keep clear of this book. It is a collection of papers upon current, or rather flying subjects. Their chief vice is that so many of them are very serious; because I had no time to make them flippant. It is so easy to be solemn; it is so hard to be frivolous. That is why so many tired, elderly, and wealthy men go in for politics. They are responsible; because they have not the strength of mind left to be irresponsible. It is also easier. So in these easy pages I keep myself on the level of the Times: it is only occasionally that I leap upwards almost to the level of Tit-Bits

Ahh, there's COPS and then there is this

I'm getting the feeling that my format change didn't go over well as I've gotten no page hits in the last three or four days. I guess no one loves me anymore. I'll just crawl into my little blog hole over here . . .

Why is it that I find so many witty and profound things to blog about during the day when I'm out driving or working, but when I'm on the computer I'm too lazy or forgetful to write about them. There have been SO many quoteworthy pieces in my Chesterton book, but it's out in the car and I'm too lazy to go get it. I suppose you'll have to make do with this one from Hume:

I must confess, that there is a strange supineness, from long custom, creeped into all ranks of men, with regard to public debts, not unlike what divines so vehemently complain of with regard to their religious doctrines.

Last night I happened upon a captivating book title: Hope is not a Strategy. It was a book about sales in complex environments. I read, I suppose, a quarter of the book, and the thesis seemed to be that one must, to maximise sales effectiveness, think critically about a great host of potential problems and opportunities. Sales is not just a matter of learning your stuff and throwing it out there. It's about talking to the right people, in the right way and at the right time. It's also about being aware of competitors, of existing and potential clients, about political situations, about relationships and many other things.


It seems to me that many of these things apply to ay form of business, or many other aspects of life. If you really want improvement, hope really isn't a strategy. Thoroughness is a strategy. Gregariousness is a strategy. Kindness and gentleness and forcefulness and inquisitiveness and learning from others who are in similar situations and developing relationships are all stategies. Something to ponder.

What a fascinating article on the nature of risk and the responsibilities of the science community. It's long, so be prepared. I found it quite fascinating though.

Testing format changes.

Alright, it's time for me to come out with it. I've been hiding it too long and no longer wish to live a lie. Here goes: I hate the Olympics. There, I said it. Man do I feel better. Why on earth should I get excited about the idea of young people from all over the world sacrificing their youth and potential productivity just so they can be in the spotlight once every four years. Mind you, it isn't sporting competitions per se I dislike, its the "amateur" pretension of the Olympics. If someone should be so fortunate as to be able to make a living playing sports, more power to them. If people want to compete in sports with their friends and neighbors, that seems healthy to me. But to throw away years of your life just to be on tv for a few minutes just seems like madness.

If you really wanted to be on tv, here's an idea. Find a way to get yourself hired as a security guard for a live tv show or event, then manage to sneak in front of the camera. Not only will you be on tv, you will be earning a paycheck and performing, I suppose, a worthwhile service, i.e. keeping morons from getting on tv.

If you have angry comments, please send them to www.I-wish-to-stand-up-for-the-olympics-at-any-cost-even-if-it-actually-reduces-business-levels-in-the-host-city-and-creates-false-hopes-for-our-youth-and-pre-empts-potentially-better-programming.com

Sorry to not have a good link for this (and I did look for one), but the Earth Liberation Front has been named by the FBI as the largest active terrorist organization in our country. To this I say "hunt 'em down and throw 'em in jail like other terrorists." These are the people who bomb the research facilities of universities which are trying to find solutions to food growing problems in the third world. If you get a chance, check out the PBS Frontline special called "Harvest of Fear" (or something very close to that). It was very well done and made evry effort to be balanced, but it made me want to hunt down these ELF creeps.

I suppose that since I am the only man in America to have both seen The Count of Monte Cristo and finished reading the book the same day, that I may be entitled to comment on it. My comment would be this. DON'T READ THE BOOK AND EXPECT THE MOVIE TO BE LIKE THAT. Sorry for the shouting.

My opinion of the film is entirely colored by the book, and is therefore probably worthless. I have heard film reviewers praise it, so it might be good entertainment for those who don't have preconceptions of what the plot should be. Admittedly it would be something of a challenge to present an eleven hundred page book into a two hour movie. But to me, at least, the whole sense of the thing was lost.

To illustrate, in the novel the title character, having made his escape from prison and finding his fortune, works invisibly behind the scenes for YEARS, preparing intricate plots, assuming many identities, and creating a fabulous reputation for himself to assist him in his goal of revenge. In the film, he states to his servant that he will not simply act in direct violence against his enemies, but rather will find out everything about them and proceed to bring them to ruin and despair. Yet what he actually does is set up one quite simple plot, followed in fact by direct violence agaist said enemies.

Again, I don't know if you will enjoy seeing the movie. I can tell you this though; if you want to see a thorough and subtly plotted revenge story, read the book.

I say HA!! Finally a review on a subject close to my (professional) heart. There are actually some important issues buried in here about the relation between God, man and music.

My favorite pithy libertarian saying I've seen yet is "Be glad we're not getting all the government we're paying for."

Some members of our congress seem to expect us to pay for a lot. And while the expenses noted here are not enormous, the whole attitude just makes me scratch our head. I think we need to beef up congressional ethics enforcement to the point where at least one or two reps are booted out each year. Let the districts who voted them in just go without representation 'til they can send someone who behaves themselves.

Why is it that I just now noticed that Marvin Olasky has a web column?? I really like this one since I think Kurt Warner is about the best hero figure we have right now.

From Opinion Journal:

Many Americans headed for church after the Sept. 11 attacks, but in one corner of American Protestantism the faithful have been fleeing the pews--at the insistence of a powerful spiritual leader. According to Harold Camping, members of Reformed churches--which are attended by about two million Americans and include the Dutch Reformed Church and various Presbyterian and Baptist congregations--should stay home on Sundays. Perhaps it's not a surprise that this former elder is picking up converts, along with a host of critics.

Mr. Camping is sounding the trumpet over his Oakland, Calif.-based Family Radio network, which boasts 40-odd stations plus satellite, short-wave and Internet capability. Lest anyone believe that Mr. Camping hopes to become the patron saint of Sunday morning golfers and fishermen, it should be understood that he believes church attendance may be injurious to one's spiritual health. Indeed, he assumes that we may be in the End Times, when false doctrines are everywhere preached, often at Satan's instigation. There is little choice, he argues, other than to "depart out" before it's too late.

Well, Lenise will probably be mad, but I went and saw Royal Tennenbaums this afternoon. I was in the area of the theater and had finished my work, and seeing a movie sounded more fun than going to the gym. Plus I've been feeling a little under the weather (though I guess it would be a LOT under the weather as it was 77 degrees outside, but I digress).

Royal Tennenbaums, the way I read it, was a film about what one might want their tombstone to say when one is dead. The film's eponymous main character, played quite well by Gene Hackman, is father to three genius children, but does not take an active interest in any of them until he becomes old and his situation forces him to make some changes. I don't want to give the plot away for those who have not seen the movie, so I'll try to speak generally. The interaction between both parents, the mother being played by Angelica Huston, the three children, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson and Gwyneth Paltrow, and the other intersecting characters is complex. While their relationships are dynamic through the film the director, Wes Anderson, chose to keep the characters in "costume" so to speak; the actors seem to be wearing the same clothing throughout the film. Like his earlier film, Rushmore, all of the scenes are framed, in this case by the device of book chapters. Alec Baldwin narrates the film in a way that gives a "story time" feeling.

Also like Rushmore there is a lot to look at. Just about every shot in the film has something interesting in the background. The overall mood comes out a bit darker than the earlier film though. While the Jonathan Schwartzman character in Rushmore had serious problems, it was somewhat easy for the audience to dismiss them as childish, simply because the character was a teenager. RT is something of a sequal, but the geniuses here are grown up, have all failed in their aspirations, and have serious, adult problems. But the film's focus is not on the children, but, as I mentioned earlier, on the father and how he wants to finish out his life.

I should say that Mr Hackman is somewhat successful in changing the direction of his life, so the ending, which involves his death, is still a hopeful one. I think I would need a video copy to do more detailed analysis. This was a very carefully made movie, and I'm only giving a very cursory review. I would recommend the movie, though it has its small moments of just about everything offensive (cursing, drug use, illicit sex), but is not gratuitous.

It's late on Thursday. Been a pretty good week. Lenise and I just finished leading discussion on Psalm 88 for our small group. Both of us were suprised at how well it went. I figured, just based on the text, that it would be tough, but our group was certainly up to it. We were the second in a series of what you might call "present your own Psalm" studies. All the couples are taking turns leading discussion on a Psalm of their choosing. Not sure who (or which) is up next week.

On a happier note than Ps 88, I've gotten most of our taxes done, and we look to be getting a pretty good refund. Still waiting to hear from the bank about mortgage interest and taxes payments. The refund is due primarily to two factors:

1 Lenise has been paying ungodly amounts of taxes through payroll deductions, and,

2 My business income last year was pathetic.

So two wrongs now make a right financially speaking.

Haven't gotten around to blogging in the last week, so I apologize to all those who've been checking in on me.

Just wanted to say a word about a couple of recent concerts Lenise and I were able to attend. The first was actually before Christmas, but it wasn't a Christmas concert. It was an organ recital by David Arcus, the court organist at Duke chapel. He played a Bach piece (an new one to me), a very late work of Cesar Franck with a very dramatic ending, and his own "organ symphony". If this last piece were fresher in my mind I would say more about it. I'll just note that towards the end there was a single repeated note on a very buzzy reedy pipe setting that sounded, if anything, like a fire alarm. This was followed by a slow and peaceful ending. In his program notes Mr Arcus stated that the work was finished up around Sept 9th or 10th, and that the ending had seemed even more appropriate afterwards.

The second concert was this past Sunday afternoon. We went to the NC museum of Art in Raleigh to here the McIver ensemble playing Faure`'s piano quartet #1 and Brahms piano quartet in G minor (you know, the one with the rondo alla zingaresa). Lenise was a bit bored with the Faure`, though I found it quite lovely. We both rather enjoyed the Brahms, with I consider my very favorite chamber piece.

One word about the concert settings. The chapel at Duke University, as I learned, was thoroughly prepared for the installation of its Flentrop organ. All of the porous surfaces were treated to create more of a gothic cathedral acoustic. This process took the reverb time from 2 seconds to 7. Though the seating is a bit uncomfortable, it is a wonderful place to hear music. On the other hand, the theater at the museum has a ceiling made of deeply recessed concrete squares, effectively dozens of sound traps above. The walls have curtains on them, the floor is carpeted and the seats are padded. While it is certainly more comfortable, it is just completely dead acousticaly speaking. We sat in the third row, about 15-20 feet from the musicians, and in some places we still has trouble hearing them. Oh well.

What an extraordinary article: Paul's Gospel and Caesar's Empire by N.T. Wright

In my own bible readings over a very long time it seemed to me that the church didn't pay much attention to the whole idea of the nature of "kingship". Now someone argues that this very thing is not only present in, but central to, the "gospel" of the New Testament.

SNOW DAYS! We got about 8-10 inches of snow here on Wed. night and Thursday. Everybody's off work. I actually was hoping to get back to work a bit more. My wife is enjoying it though.


Perhaps some who are familiar with my reading habits know that I won't start a new book until I've finished one. I keep three books going at any given time: one fiction, one non-fiction, and one of either to keep in my car for travels (lunch stops, etc.). I only make exceptions for two reasons. Either there is some urgency to get done with a book (it's borrowed or something), or I just find the book unreadable. I invoked the second exception yesterday. I read the first hundred pages of Jurgen Moltmann's Theology of Hope, and I'm still not convinced it was actually translated into English. Either that or the subject matter was unable to penetrate my thick skull.

More on my level is The Man Who was Chesterton, a collection of essays, excerpts, short stories and poems. Here's a "taste" ;)

CHEESE

My forthcoming work in five volumes, "The Neglect of Cheese in European Literature," is a work of such unprecednted and laborious detail that it is doubtful if I shall live to finish it. . . . Virgil, if I remember right, refers to it several times, but with too much Roman restraint. He does not let himself go on cheese. The only other poet I can think of just now who seems to have had some sensibility on the point was the nameless author of the nursery rhyme which says: "If all the trees were bread and cheese" --which is, indeed, a rich and gigantic vision of the higher gluttony. If all the trees were bread and cheese there would be considerable deforestation on any part of England where I was living...

OK, we're back finally. Man is there a lot to catch up on. Have lots of nice presents to put away, have to update here, have some work to do, and not least of all, have to read all of your silly blogs that I missed last week. This was the fisrt time I was thankful that Joel hadn't updated his in a while. One less thing for me to read. Speaking of reading, got a good ways into The Count of Monte Cristo on my trip. Not deep, but a great adventure story. Also finished An Instance of the Fingerpost which is one of the most unusual mystery novels I've ever read. Four different narrators tell their recollection of the events with an actually suprising ending.

TTFN

Leaving on vacation this morning. We're heading to Cleveland tonight to drop off a kitten for my sister-in-law, then on to Westland, MI---my home town and also the only city in the US named after a shopping mall. May or may not have any blogs til I get back. Just check back here every hour or so just to be sure :)

How does one family produce two such smart men? This word from Jaysuprised me with that simple ring of truth. I guess there's probably much to explore here. There are a few things in scripture about private meditation, but we should compare them by volume with the "public" things Jay mentions.

How does one family produce two such smart men? This word from Jaysuprised me with that simple ring of truth. I guess there's probably much to explore here. There are a few things in scripture about private meditation, but we should compare them by volume with the "public" things Jay mentions.

Thanks to Mark for this link:N.T. WRIGHT ON JUSTIFICATION. A few poorly thought out points from me (if you haven't read Wright and don't feel like reading the linked article just bail out now).

First, Hill seems to do Wright injustice regarding the definition of justification. Wright clearly says (somewhere) that justification is a judicial declaration by God. Obviously, Wright feels that the justification talked about by Paul declares those who believe in Jesus to be members in good standing of the true people of God. Undoubtedly Hill's thoughts and Wright's thoughts on justification are not completely identical, but I think they are much closer than Hill thinks they are.

Second, Hill doesn't say enough about historical context to justify criticism of Wright in that regard. Since my knowledge of first century historical context is extremely poor, I'll say no more.

Third, and lastly for me here, is that Hill seems to want to draw a sharp distiction between "righteousness before God" and "covenant membership". Without dwelling on the subject, it seems to me at least that Wright and many others don't see that distinction so sharply. I'll leave exposition of covenant membership to the more qualified.

I will certainly agree with Hill that Wright probably needs to make more explicit where he does and does not differ with the mainstream of protestant theology. Most of the criticisms of Wright I've seen deal more with what he doesn't say, e.g. the second coming, than what he does say.

I just love this one fromJohn Derbyshire. Here's a snippet:

What do I think about all this? Well, first I think that the directors of the Tate Gallery, which receives funding from general taxation, should be locked up in prison and made to do hard labor scraping the rust off bolts for 20 years or so with nothing to eat but cold oatmeal porridge. Then I think Mr. Creed should be stripped naked, sprayed all over with bright blue paint, and made to run round and round Piccadilly Circus until he drops from exhaustion, after which he should be killed by some not-very-humane method. Then the Tate Gallery should be reduced to rubble by aerial bombardment, the rubble carted away to be used as landfill, and the ground sown with salt. Then the fools who pay good money to look at this "art" should be packed into boxcars and tipped off the white cliffs of Dover, and their mangled corpses left to be feasted on by dogs, crows and crabs.

Sorry, comments are down for now. Apparently no one like giving away large amounts of server space for free for these things.

Props out to Joel and ladydusk for having the good sense to link to my site :) Of course Mark was the leader of the pack. If anyone else has linked to me and I haven't noticed, feel free to give me a shout.

Sunday afternoon we went to an organ concert in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Flentrop organ at Duke chapel. Quite satisfying. We heard a Bach prelude and fugue, a piece by Cesar Franck, and a new composition by the organist, David Arcus. All were performed flawlessly. Interesting thing about an organ concert in a cathedral type setting, as a couple of people noted, is that you don't get to look at the performer (or even the instrument unless you put yourself in an uncomfortable position). I found that this actually helped me listen more to the music, rather than noting the peculiarities of the performer.

Today at the post office I saw the following:

Letters to Santa

Letters to Santa should be addressed to:



Santa Claus

P.O. Box xxxxx

Greensboro, NC

I've come up with a puzzle that is both long, difficult, musical, mathematical and, I think, soluble given some patience. Here goes:

Answer each of the folowing clues, then find the 2 patterns that emerge, one mathematical, one musical.

1. Square, or H
   
2. Sweet (or Candles?)
   
3. A cold month in a year that doesn't hop
   
4. North Dallas
   
5. A Pack of fun, no joke
   
6. Commander of a fleet (of old computers?)
   
7. Meditate on the flag
   
8. The end of my job, in a sense
   

The first person to come up with the full answer gets a BIG prize, which I'll think up later :)

I've already read two Roosevelt Biographies, but I may need to read a third. NR has a review this month of Edmund Morris' Theodore Rex, and I'm captivated. From his first speech to congress as president (on foreign terrorists):

The wind is sowed by the men who preach such doctrines, and they cannot escape their responsibility for the whirlwind that is reaped. . . . They and those like them should be kept out of this country; and if found here they should be promptly deported to the country whence they came; and far-reaching provision should be made for the punishment of those who stay.

Can you name me a past president you would rather have in office today??


I suppose my favorite quality of TR's was his astonishing breadth of learning. Someone wote to him in 1903 asking what he head read in the first two years of his administration. His answer, in part:

Parts of Herodotus; the first and seventh books of Thucydides; all of Polybius; a little of Plutarch; Aeschylus' Orestean Trilogy; Sophocles' Seven Against Thebes; Euripides' Hippolytus and Bacchae; and Aristophanes' Frogs. . . . [biographies, in French, of Prince Eugene, Adm. de Ruyter, Turenne, and Sobieski]. . . Macbeth; Twelfth Night; Henry the Fouth; Henry the Fifth; Richard the Second . . . Church's Beowulf; Morris' translation of the Heimskringla . . . Sienkiewicz's Fire and Sword . . . Rob Roy; Waverly . . . Pickwick Papers; Nicholas Nickleby; Vanity Fair.

Several months ago I found, on the free or very cheap rack at a used book store, Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, published bak in '67. Lots of great words you can't find elswhere. For instance:

Jack-a-Lent

1. a small stuffed puppet set up to be pelted as a sport in Lent

2. a simple or insignificant person

Or just weird definitions:

Jack(2)

To hunt or fish at night with a jacklight

Makes you think twice about saying you are "jacked".

Attention all bloggers! Don't forget to sign up for Secret Santa.

Hooray!! Comments are up and my words aren't on top of each other any more. I'll edit the links soon. The current ones are just ones I knew off the top of my head. I do find the fact cat amusing though.

If there were a "sermon on the net", it should read, in part:

And do not criticize your brother for not updating his blog for a couple of days when you update yours every six weeks on average. First update your own blog, then flame your brother.

BTW Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is very entertaining. Give it to someone you like for Christmas.

Mark---or anyone else interested, just wondering if you've heard of this book. Seems to be a dispensational critique of modern studies on Jesus, including N.T. Wright. Saw it on sale, but upon further review, it didn't look as appealing as the title suggested.

I am really thinking now about this. Mark, of course, is always bringing up something to think about. I'm off to a "retro" Christmas party. I'll let you know how it goes.

Saw this on the back of a semi-trailer the other day: "God's last name ain't damn." Not sure how to react to that one.

So my observation yesterday was this: lawn darts are illegal, but blow guns are fine. The kids made a turkey out of balloons and we shot them up with the blow darts. I guess weapons have constitutional protection. If we could only get lawn darts classified as weapon.....

Had a wonderful thanksgiving yesterday. We went to Kirk Nelson's house, thus making the total there 18 (of which half were young children). I think it's wonderful to have at least some people you don't know well yet at your thanksgiving dinner. At the end of the evening we watched a video called The Miracle Maker which is a claymation version of the life of Christ. It was actually one of the best Jesus films I've seen. It made no effort to be comprehensive, but did a very good job of "animating", so to speak, the gospel characters.

If you have ever thought about owning/managing a baseball team, go right now over to smallball and start a team. Very fun without being a huge time commitment. My team is the "Alamonsters", if you feel like losing some games to me.

Just finished reading Gaffin's Resurrection and Redemption last night. I enjoyed it, but I think I was already convinced before I started. The real question is how does the centrality of the resurrection in Paul's writings affect the way we live and think. If I figure that one out, I'll let you know.

Ok, its been way too long, but I PROMISE to blog more in the future. I've been learning some HTML lately, so I hope to update the look of my site a bit. Hang in there loyal readers.

I love this section from the very last page of Bonhoeffer's Ethics:

I have been thinking about the problem of talking about one's own fear (in air raids), a problem I wrote to you about quite recently. I believe that under the guise of "honesty" something is here presented as being "natural' which is really fundamentally a symtom of sin; it is really exactly like talking in public about sexual matters. The point is precisely that "truthfulness" soes not mean the disclosure of everything that exists. God Himself made clothes for man (Gen 3:21); and this means that in statu corruptionis many things in man are to remain concealed, and that if it is too late to eradicate evil, it is at least to be kept hidden. Exposure is cynical; and even if the cynic appears to himself be specially honest, or if he sets himself up to be a fanatical devotee of truth, he nevertheless fails to acheive the truth which is of decisive importance, namely, the truth that since the Fall there has been a need also for concealment and secrecy . . . In my view "telling the truth" means saying how something is in reality, i.e. respect for secrecy, confidence and concealment. "Betrayal", for example, is not truth; nor are frivolity, cynicism, etc. What is concealed must be disclosed only at confession, i.e., before God.

Okay, so I'm WAAYYY behind on my writing schedule. I was due to write last on Sept 11 actually, but found myself quite speechless that day and the next. Then I just got out of the habit. I will try to get back on track here. Thanks for your patience (if there are any you's out there to be patient).

Sometime very early in my life my parents (ever the cynics) must have warned me about things that claim to be "free". I didn't realize until sometime late in my thirties that the warning should go both ways. This article reminded me of a valuable lesson. I had been working for a company called Chambermaids, trying to decide if I wanted to pursue a business in the cleaning industry. Chambermaids had a fairly large and fairly affluent client base in the Detroit area. On one occasion, however, they had run a radio promotion in which they gave away one (or was it two) year of free home cleaning. As it turned out, the winners a) lived about 45-50 minutes away from the office, and b) were so slobby that it was hard to find the floor of their house. I'm not exactly known as a neat freak, but these people were out of control, as they say.

I suppose the real lesson is, beware of the sort of people attracted by things that are free. Or, conversely, your best customers are those who are willing and able to pay you.

OK all you loyal fans out there (I beleive that would just be me right now). I am going to commit to post something here at least once a week. I need to exercise my writing muscles at least a little bit.

Current readings. It'e BIG BOOK time for me now. The lightest at the moment is a theology book by Stanley Hauerwas entitled Christian Existence Today. I'm pretty proud of myself for finding this one for $2 on the sale table of a local Christian bookstore. The book is a set of essays, most or all of whih were previously published in journals and such. They fall under three categories: "The Practice of the Church's Story"- dealing with the nature of the church, "The Ministry of the Church"-deals somewhat with pastoral roles, and "Serving in the World"-which contains a priceless essay title, "How Christian Universities Contribute to the Corruption of Youth".

I have been greatly enjoying these essays, though the work is somewhat less substantial than his earlier book A Community of Character.

I'm also reading Carol Quigley's Tragedy and Hope now. This is a 1300 page history of the world from 1914-1965. It is a fine example both of "macro history", that is theories about the waxing and waning of whole civilizations, as well as "conspiracy history", which is to say he takes a look at small groups of powerful people and thier effects on the course of large events. Because of this latter element this book is something of a bible to conspiracy nuts as you can see if you peek at the amazon reviews. All that aside, Mr Quigley was a very learned man and I'm enjoying his insights. It does read fairly quickly for the 300 pages I've read so far.

As for fiction, at the moment I'm working on Crime and Punishment. I'll reserve comment on that til I've finished it.

In other news, I spent most of the afternoon on Sunday hanging out with the founder and director of the Durham Rescue Mission , Ernie Mills. What a wondeful man! Perhaps as much as anything else, I was impressed by the fact that the mission from the beginning has consistently refused to accept government money so that there would be nothing to interfere with the ministry of the gospel. I'm planning to visit and tour their facility in the next couple of weeks, so be on the lookout for my report on that.