Chapter 3 a good column

2006-05-25T03:18:00.000-07:00

I thought this was good.........(and yes, I do remember that I have a blog)

The Most Controversial Column Ever Written!Will I Live to Tell?
By Dave Konig

Is The Da Vinci Code anti-Catholic? Is Madonna (the saucy aging pop-song stylist) risking the wrath of God by crucifying herself in concert? Did South Park go too far in their depiction of Christ in the episode parodying the Danish Mohammed cartoon controversy? Is God losing any sleep over any of this?Answers: a) Of course it is. b) No, because God hasn’t paid much attention to Madonna’s career since “Vogue.” c) Guilty—but with an explanation. d) Doubtful. Then again, that raises the question: does God ever sleep? Answer: probably not, but He occasionally nods off in church, depending on how long the homily is.The pop culture vs. religion controversies continue, product sells, people get upset, arguments ensue, blood pressure rises…and product sells some more.When The Da Vinci Code was first published, my mother-in-law (Florence, a lovely woman)—and 50 gazillion other people—read it. My mother-in-law is a good Catholic and a voracious reader. Her review? “Oh it’s a terrific read. And it’s the most anti-Catholic book I’ve ever read!” Is it possible to be both? Sure it is. Is the movie anti-Catholic? Well, yeah, of course it is (I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s based on the book, right? Which I read along with 50 gazillion other people, including my mother-in-law). It’s not really a debatable point, is it? A movie about a secret Catholic plot to kill anyone who reveals the secret that the Vatican has spent 2,000 years covering up—that Jesus Christ dated, got married, had kids, moved to the suburbs, ordered the complete cable package with over 200 channels, attended PTA meetings, coached Little League and joined the Knights of Columbus…well, that’s not exactly pro-Catholic, is it? The really offensive part of The DaVinci Code is that apparently, Jesus’ kids grew up to be French. Oy vey.So yeah, it’s anti-Catholic. It’s also, in the words of its star Tom Hanks, “a lot of hooey.” And it’s directed by Ron Howard who is a terrific film maker (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Eat My Dust) and he’s Richie Cunnigham and he’s Opie and he spent a long, hot night right before he went off to college riding around in a car with Cindy Williams and Richard Dreyfuss…so cut him some slack.Now, Madonna. On a big old cross. I’m shocked, shocked! Didn’t she already do this, like 20 years ago? Or was that when she did that video where she was making out with a saint in a church? Oh, that Madonna! With the anti-Catholic imagery! Romping around in her underwear and all. She’s so…what’s the word? Controversial. At this point Madonna’s anti-Catholic shtick is about as daring and unique as the time when in the midst of a big fight with my dad I screamed in a triumph of originality, “Oh yeah? Well, I didn’t ask to be born, man!” My poor dad just rubbed his forehead, embarrassed for me at my hack material. (Sadly, I was 32 at the time, but that’s another story…). Having said that, “I’m Hung Up On You” is awfully catchy and it’s got a great beat.If Madonna really wanted to shock everybody, she’d record a song (with a catchy beat) denouncing the persecution of Christians in Communist China. Or a song celebrating the American liberation of the women of Afghanistan. Now, that’d be a shocker!The king of anti-Christian imagery this season was the recent episode of South Park that deliberately depicted a particularly vile and offensive image of Jesus. Far more offensive than anything in Da Vinci or Madonna’s act. But, of the three, the most defensible. Here’s how it worked: The episode centered around the Danish Mohammed cartoon controversy. In the episode, there was a harmless depiction of Mohammed purchasing a snack from a vendor. The image lasted for a couple of seconds and was completely uninteresting. There was also a depiction of Jesus—wildly offensive and awful. Guess which image Comedy Central refused to air? Using diabolical double-backwards-reverse psychology, the South Park creators made the most pro-Christian pop-cultural point of the season by forcing the question: Why is it okay to offend every Christian on the planet earth—but we can’t even mention Mohammed in polite company?Christianity has been around far longer than modern American pop culture (even including Madonna, who’s been around an awfully long time). For Christians, the eternal truths of Christ and his teachings are just that—eternal. The Billboard Top Ten, and the weekend box-office numbers in Variety are very, very important—but next week they’ll change. Madonna, South Park, Da Vinci—it’s all very important. Not quite as important as the fact that the Iranians are about to drop an atomic bomb on Israel and kill all the Jews, but very, very important.Meanwhile, it’s been 820 days and counting since the release of The Passion of the Christ, and the search continues for the one Jewish guy who got beat up because of that movie. If you were in the pack of crazed Catholics who saw The Passion then swarmed out of the mall theater to beat up that Jewish guy, contact me through this website. Somehow I missed that story.

best quote ever

2006-03-26T06:40:00.000-08:00

"He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart."

C.S. Lewis

Give me that old time religion

2006-03-23T22:51:00.000-08:00

This makes me sick.

And who ever said it wasn't a peaceful religion? Exhibit 1, 005, 338, 388,734, 345, or something like that.

3 attempts at a family photo

2006-03-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

It's pretty hard to get a decent spontaneous family photo using the timer on the camera and getting our collective act together in under 10 seconds, and then getting Hiskja to look at the camera. Well, here we are, in all of our unkemptness. Pick your favorite one...

A Belated Happy Losar

2006-03-02T22:43:00.000-08:00

Last month was February. Two Februaries before that, Petra and I were in Dharamsala, India, celebrating Tibetan New Year, or Losar. You can learn a little about losar here. It's a time, for Tibetans, of celebration, family, and feasting. We joined in several feasts of traditional Tibetan food......like mutton, delicious chilli chicken, butter tea, and plenty of Chang, or Tibetan barley beer. Man, we gotta get back. Actually, we have just recieved an invitation from some folks to come stay for free at their place in Manali, another Tibetan community in northern India this summer. Just maybe...

A friend of mine who lives in Dharamsala sent me these recent photos from Losar.

Tibetan buddhist monks blowing sea-shell trumpets at the residence of the Dalai Lama

Losar is when all of the old prayer flags are taken down, and new ones are put up.

The ceremonial throwing of Tsampa, a mixture of rice and barley

The Cross of San Damiano

2006-03-01T12:15:00.000-08:00

St. Francis of Assisi played an important role in my ultimate acceptance of Christ. I was living on about 180 acres of prime real estate outside of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, round-about the spring of 1999. I had watched the Franco Zeffarelli(sp?) film Brother Sun, Sister Moon, which is about the conversion and early ministry of St. Francis. Although the movie is a definite throw-back to the seventies, featuring several of the same actors from Zeffarelli's classic rendition of Romeo and Juliet, and Alec Guiness playing the role of a strangely ObiWan Kenobi-esque Pope Innocent III, it had a profound effect on me. It does a great job in capturing the passion and abandon of a young Francis.

Also, around that same time, while living in those old Ozarks, I would occasionally drive deep into the woods outside of Eureka Springs, to the Little Portion Hermitage of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity, founded by John Michael Talbot, a Fraciscan monk/musician. (I would later read Talbot's books The Lessons of St. Francis, and Come to the Quiet: The Principles of Christian Meditation, both of which are well worth the read). The times that I spent in quiet contemplation at Little Portion, which began as a Franciscan hermitage, but is now open to Benedictine and other Christian expressions, were perhaps the most refreshing times of my life spiritually.

Back to the Cross of San Damiano. I was browsing the internet and for no real reason was looking up some stuff on St. Francis. Well, I came across this book, called The Crucifix That Spoke to St. Francis. When I saw the picture on the cover of the book, I immediately recognized it as the same small piece of art that I have hanging in my living room! Now, our flat here in Ljubljana came furnished, right down to the linens, silverware, and little things to hang on the walls (some of which, like the tacky still-life painting of a lobster, are now stuck away in drawers), including a really cool little replica of what I now know to be the Cross of San Damiano. Of course, having seen Brother Sun, Sister Moon a thousand times, I know that San Damiano is the little church, the ruins of which Francis and his first followers undertook to re-build, and it was THIS crucifix that Francis was praying before when he received the commission from the Lord to re-build it! I always have had a certain attraction to this little icon hanging on my living room wall, and now that I know it's connection to St. Francis, combined with the significance of St. Francis in my own life just makes it that much more special. I feel a bit foolish that I didn't realise it before.

In case you're interested, some more recommended reading:

The Little Flowers of St. Francis
St. Francis and the Foolishness of God

Diversity, George Orwell, Cultural Marxism, and South Dakota U.

2006-03-01T00:52:00.000-08:00

I came across this article discussing a bill introduced in the South Dakota state legislature that "very simply requires the six South Dakota State universities which receive State funding to annually report what steps are being taken to insure "intellectual diversity." Lets hear it for somebody finally standing up and calling for the liberating of our universities from the iron grip of totalitarian leftism, South Dakota state congresswoman Phyllis Heineman (R., Sioux Falls) .

The author of the article begins his piece by referring to the issue of political correctness as "cultural Marxism". Accurate? Well, as AWG's favorite author, George Orwell, so brilliantly put it in his novel Animal Farm, "all animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others." Affirmative action?

The article goes on to explain that the legislation is "simply asking for a report. We are saying to universities ‘tell us your story.'"

And of course, enter "The usual suspects - such as the ACLU, the South Dakota Education Association and the State Board of Regents (who) all vehemently oppose the bill. ...
This is a very small step and yet academia is behaving as if this bill were a complete threat to academic freedom."

I like how the article ends...
"What is attractive about the bill is that it turns the code word "diversity" against the very people who have used it to shove their version of political correctness down the throats of unsuspecting students and even some faculty. "Diversity? They want diversity?" one supporter of the bill said. "Fine. Let's have at it." To bad Harvard isn't a state funded school in S. Dakota. Proof of the totalitarian leftism in question can be seen here.
Beyond liberal, to "hardline Stalinists?" It's not hard to believe at all.

Maybe this will take, and in about 18 years I'll have saved enough money to send Hiskja to the University of South Dakota! Anyone wanna pitch in?

RIP Don Knotts

2006-02-25T23:34:00.000-08:00

Don Knotts, who played the wannabe swinger landlord on the classic late 70's and 80's sitcom Three's Company has passed away at the age of 81.

Growing up in the 80's and having a television with cable put in my bedroom round about 3rd grade or so, I was reared on MASH and Three's Company. I always like Mr. Furley more than the Roper's. His wardrobe was cool.

Of course, Knotts was best known for playing the bumbling deputy on the Andy Griffith Show, but as a child of the 80's, it was Three's Company for me. John Ritter, who played Jack Tripper on the show unexpectedly passed away a couple years back. Perhaps he and Mr. Knotts are together again on that big sitcom stage in the sky.

Rest well, Mr. Furley, and thanks. A tear...

Me an' My Boy

2006-02-19T07:26:00.000-08:00

Just the very latest images of me and the boy. He drools. He's not very excited about wearing shoes. He's one. I drool. I'm indifferent to shoes. I'm thirty one.

What flavor are you?

2006-02-18T02:44:00.000-08:00

I firmly believe that there is both wisdom and folly in pretty much all of the different Christian denominations. I also believe that denominationalism is poison. One of the best books that I have read in the past couple of years is called Water Buffalo Theology by Kosuke Koyama (congregational, incidentally). In it Koyama says, and I'm paraphrasing, that when a person can point to the specific, humble observations of a Luther or a Wesley, for example, that lead him or her to a greater understanding of and a more intimate relationshiop with Christ, only then can he or she call themself a Lutheran or a Methodist, and even then they should say so silently.

You may agree or disagree, but I think the nail is hit on the head.

That said, I do love to discuss and debate the in's and out's of different theological points of view. It's fascinating to me. It's said that we can never fully comprehend the depths of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Too often that is used as a collassal cop-out...since we can't ever get to the bottom of it, it's no use discussing it. I look at it as a grand invitation to discover more and more the never-ending wonder of God. What an invitation!

I found this fun little Christian denomination quiz online and thought that I'd try it out just for grins. You can see which denomination (hardly to be taken too seriously, mind you) might be the best fit for you. Now, I've long considered myself to be "interdenominational" and I guess that my quiz results are proof of that. Here's my top ten:

1. Assemblies of God
2. Mennonite Bretheren
3. Wesleyan/Methodist
4. Seventh Day Adventist
5. Free Will Baptist
6. Orthodox Quaker
7. Southern Baptist
8. Church of Christ
9. Evangelical Lutheran
10. Reformed Baptist

Now, this list poses some interesting delimmas.

The list goes on to 24, but I'll spare you. I am disturbed that I'd be a Jehovah's Witness before I'd be Roman Catholic, though. Number 6 on my list is Orthodox Quaker, but I'd be a Catholic, Jehovah's Witness and a Mormon before being a Liberal Quaker. Damn liberals.

Top Ten Things That Make Life Liveable: #7 Education: Teaching and Learning

2006-02-16T02:47:00.000-08:00

. Number 7 is education, and it is ironically due to this very thing that I've been so busy, overwhelmed, and intimidated lately to even gather my thoughts on the subject, which vary greatly from day to day. Education, both teaching and learning, does remain however, a very big deal in my life. So much a big deal that I have to struggle daily to NOT let it be the biggest thing.

It's funny. As a traditional student, I didn't care much for education at all. In elementary school I didn't really care...I like going to school and hanging with my friends and such...work was dumb....recess was cool...some teachers were nice, others were scary (particularly the one in 2nd grade who made me wear masking tape on my mouth because I talked too much. Boy, did it work to shut me up, but boy did it also just crush my little 7 year old sense of self-worth and dignity..........bitch) Junior high is a haze of alien-like 12 and 13 year old male existence, realizing that I wasn't at all a real athlete, but a dork, as I sat the bench the whole 7th grade basketball season, save about 2 minutes and 14 seconds of playing time, scoring a mere 2 points on the season (I only took one shot ,though...100% from the field!). I was a junior high male alien. Not of this world. I feel so sorry for my son knowing that he will some day be a junior high age male.

High school was a collossal waste of time, spent with lots of fear and trembling of the mexican gang bangers that would threaten to "slice" any little scrawny gringos that made eye contact as they hurriedly scampered through those sections of the hallways that were clearly chicano turf, trying not to drop their trapper keepers. I hated high school. Not high school, per se, but rather "high school"....the popularity contests, homecoming dances and proms, jocks and cheerleaders, greasers and soc's...etc. Kids that I had sat around and picked noses with in 4th grade as best of friends were now way too cool.........(one of my favorit movies is "can't buy me love"...remember that one?)........

My last two years of high school I was pretty much just a normal guy, with friends in the jock crowd, the dork crowd, the metal-head crowd, even the chicano gang-banger crowd without distinclty belonging to any one group. I was a floater, and that pretty much was ok with me. On Friday nights I preferred to sit around at Denny's and smoke cigarettes and drink coffee with a few friends, none of which even went to my school, than play the clique games. I even would sit at home and read, sometimes. Dont get me wrong...I did go to my fair share of parties and such, but I thought they were silly too, and wondered why I struggled so much with trying to take it seriously. I really tried, but it didn't take back then. Mere simple but necessary rituals that American teens must experience. I distinctly remember walking in the front door of Roswell High School and stopping dead in my tracks and loathing the fact that I had to endure one more year of the silliness of it all. I survived the year thanks to the golf team. I was golf before Tiger made it cool. The day after graduation, I split town.

College was a whole new world, where I quickly learned just how much a waste of time high school really was, because good grades or not, I never learned how to study. My first paper for Dr. Quinn, (on Hamlet and the Oedipus complex....sheesh) was an utter disaster that woke me up to the fact that I was clueless. College was full of angst and misunderstanding and trying to "find myself", I suppose, so much more than my high school days were. Those of you who were there with me know what I'm talking about. By the grace of God I survived all of the sheer lunacy. In the academic sense, I was a very mediocre student. Granted, due to the afore mentioned lunacy, I wasn't dedicated to my studies much at all, but I did still prefer to sit around and drink coffee and smoke cigarettes with friends. Instead of talking about rocknroll and TV shows, like we did at Denny's in high school, we actually took on the deeper questions of life. We shared our studies with each other, poetry, literature, philosophies (such as they were), as well as our various struggles and successes. A very valuable aspect of my education was instilled during those times. By the grace of God, again, I graduated.

Then I got into the world of education from the other side. I became a teacher (Max once wrote a brilliant poem that I still have somewhere reflecting on how we all became teachers...the audacity. Still have that one, Max?) Something that they never told me in those ed. classes I took.....the best way to learn something is to teach it. I believe that. I've learned so much more by and through teaching than I ever did as a mere student. Growing up helps alot too, but I think that to be a teacher is to truly be a student to a higher degree. You learn so much as to the ways of man. How people handle information and process it. How people learn and interact with one another. How people react to history and think about situations. Not to mention the greater degree of understanding that you come to in regards to whatever it is you have to teach. I've found this out in so many different venues, both "formal" and "informal" education. I've taught ESL and conversational English to Tibetan refugees in India...Buddhist monks and so forth. I've taught sort of "missiological" stuff and apologetics type stuff in a college-level atmosphere. I've taught junior high aliens Language arts...high school Literature, writing, geography. That's what I'm doing these days. Also, these days, my first period of the day is reading instruction with 8,9, and 10 year olds. That's a twist that is a fresh challenge, yet really fun.

I try daily to convey the importance of education to my high school students, and prepare them for college. I'm unapologetically a hard-ass at times, but also really try to connect and show the "why's". Do they listen? If so, they sure don't admit it. I've only had one student ever thank me after the fact for being a hard ass. But, when one student gets it it's all worth it...

the following is a portion of an email I sent out a while back that conveys the point here...

But every now and again a teacher is able to reap a little bit of the rewards that we all crave and have need of...when you really can see the wheels turning in their little heads, and you really see the moment when the light begins to flicker and finally comes on. So when I ask "what is this poem really about?" and we go round and round, hit and miss, "Think beyond the actual story of the Odyssey".....swing and miss.....round and round......"Forget about the actual story"....back and forth, hit and miss....."Don't think about Odysseus himself".........I'll pull this ol' tooth out eventually..........C'mon............Then....It happens! Now the first attempts at anything are pretty bad, or at the very least leave room for tweaking....like man flying and the sort, or probably the first bullet proof vests. But she got it! She liked it! The genuine smile of her face was brilliant! Now the angels didn't start singing and stuff, but the feeling a teacher gets when a student discovers something for the very first time.....and cares(!)... is what it's all about. A little, just a little bit of tangible success, a little bit of discovery of something a little deeper, some meaning in mere words, the beauty that a poem can convey, the glim pse into the human soul? It trumps mountains of frustration and failure every time....it's why we do this every day.

Enough said about that. Now back to why I've been overwhelmed, intimidated, etc due to this very topic. I've formally become a student again, having started a Master's degree. Mixed with my full time job teaching and my family time, I'm incredibly busy. Also, the courses are quite demanding...but I love it. My wife does a wonderfully good job at handling my moodiness and rambling as I try to juggle it all.

I'll end now, because I'm struggling to retain coherent thought.

Te be a teacher is to truly be a student, and being a student is such a privelege that we don't often recognize, whether it be a formal student in a formal school, a self-education buff...science, politics, history, art, religion, philosophy, whetever...........

education: teaching and learning makes my life liveable

Slovenia pics for Prather

2006-02-14T22:58:00.000-08:00

In case Prather swings by, here's some pics of the stuff he's requiring for a European getaway...right here in Slovenia and the region. Check out the links...

Slovenian vineyards produce some great wine.

The cool Slovenian coastal town of Piran (top) is very close to Croatia (bottom), which boasts some of the most beautiful and unspoiled Meditteranean coastlines. Very close to Italy, too.

A few Slovenian castles, the bottom one of which happens to be about 5 blocks or so from my flat here in Ljubljana.

Mountain resort of Bled, Slovenia, complete with castle and old-school church on the island. History of Bled here.

Just a few pics to tempt. There's rich history in this whole region, unique culture, and of course plenty of places to sit and sip fine wine, eat great food, and talk of cabbages and kings.

Explore it yourself. You've probably never thought to before now...

With Apologies on Preseren Day

2006-02-07T00:48:00.000-08:00

With apologies to any whom I may have offended with my various comments both here and on other blogs of late, I turn once again to other things.....things that don't make good people crazy, like politics and religion do.

Tomorrow, Feb.8th, is Preseren (pronounced "pra'sharin') Day here in Slovenia. It's a national holiday, so there's no school and all the businesses and such will be closed. France Preseren was and remains Slovenia's greatest poet. As Shakespeare is to England, and Goethe is to Germany, so is Preseren to Slovenia. You can learn all about France Preseren and read his works at this excellent site, and also here, another excellent site where you can read about him in both English and Slovene! Go on, try it out. A quote from the second link above:

His cultural and political mission is best expressed precisely in verses from the poem "Zdravljica," the national anthem, which calls for the brotherhood and freedom of peoples:

Let's drink that every nation
Will live to see that bright day's birth
When 'neath the sun's rotation
Dissent is banished from the earth,
All will be
Kinfolk free
With neighbors none in enmity.

What is particularly appealing about Preseren Day to me is the fact that he's a poet. I can't think of any national holiday in the States that recognizes a poet, or any great American contributor to literature. I quote again:

Today, of course, poetry no longer has the great meaning that it did in the nineteenth century. In place of poets, soccer players (Zlatko Zahovič, Miran Pavlin), basketball players (Marko Milič), skiers, mountain climbers (Tomo Česen, Davo Karničar, Tomaž Humar), Olympians (the hundred-year old Leon Štukelj), singers, even models (Melanija Knaus)---in short, athletes and performers---ensure the recognition of a nation. Nonetheless, France Prešeren remains, at least in schools, among educated people, and lovers of belles lettres, the watermark of the cultured Slovenian.

This is a statue of Preseren, underneath his muse, which stands at the "three bridges" here in Ljubljana.

HAPPY PRESEREN DAY!!

Kanye sucks

2006-02-05T06:15:00.000-08:00

Came across this article about hip-hop's latest savior, Kanye West, and I couldn't agree with it more. Read it and jump up and cheer. Good thing that it's safe to completely blaspheme Jesus Christ, lest masked men with rifles storm the offices Rolling Stone and start lopping off heads and demanding that the mayor of compton apologize.

Anybody ever see the movie starring Chris Rock, CB4 back in the mid-90's? Brilliant. Kanye , Gusto...one in the same.

An Affront is an Affront is an Affront

2006-02-02T22:48:00.000-08:00

Not long ago, a friend of mine wrote the following as a discussion piece:

-begin-

My Anger, His Compassion
By (name withheld as a simple courtesy)
I am angry. I am angry because every day people are being murdered all over the world because they don’t embrace radical Islam. As I look around the world at the wars being raged. Many of these wars are between Islam and non-Islam. Where shall I start? India and Pakistan, the Balkans, Russia and Chechnya, Sudan, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia. Radical Islam breaks the world into two parts: The Sea of Islam and The Sea of War. The “Sea of Islam” is those lands that are in the control of Islamic governments. The “Sea of War” is those lands that are not yet under the control of Islamic governments. To deny that we are on the brink of World War III is to deny the reality of the world we live in. How do you fight a war where the “enemy” is not concerned about dying, but takes joy in blowing up himself and as many others as possible. Where are the moderate Muslims willing to take a stand against their fellow Muslims who are willing to wage this war? It is undeniable that Muslims have killed far more Muslims over the last two decades than non-Muslims have killed Muslims. In Algeria fellow Muslims killed over 100,000 Muslims. In the Iran-Iraq war it is estimated that over 2 million Muslims were killed. Both Iraq and Iran are Muslim nations. Where is the outrage within the Muslim community?
My flesh tells me to respond to Islam in the way they respond to me. But my Lord tells me something different. My Lord tells me to LOVE MY ENEMY. Are they deserving of my love? Am I deserving of His love for me? No! But isn’t that the very heart of the Gospel of grace.
There was another time in history when a people were feared and despised because of their brutality. When they would lay siege on a city, they would pile heads up outside the city gates to put fear and dread in the hearts of the city’s inhabitants. They would guide their captives by their noses. “In the inscriptions of their conquering kings we read constantly that they tore out the tongues of thousands of prisoners ‘by Asshur's [their god] bidding,’ or they impaled masses of men on stakes and left them to die in agony because Asshur had ordered the extinction of ‘that rebellious nation.”1 The capital city of this nation was Nineveh, and the people were called the Assyrians. It was to this city that God calls one of his most famously reluctant missionaries, Jonah. The message he carried was that “40 more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” This was a call to repent. Did this nation even know God? Regardless, the call was heard and the city repented.
I laugh at Jonah’s response to God’s compassion because it is often like my own. Jonah was angry at God’s compassion and went off to pout. As he was pouting God gave Jonah shade by providing a vine and making it grow. Jonah was happy and God was compassionate. Jonah goes to sleep and the vine dies. Now he is angry enough to die. God teaches Jonah a lesson. “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”2
The Lord is being compassionate on the Muslim world. He is demanding that I be compassionate as well. I have received the grace that He pours out on me to cover my sins. As I remember the compassionate sacrifice for my sins, my anger turns to worship because He is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.”

Do you agree or disagree?

-end-

This piece came to my mind this morning as I read this story, among others discussing the Middle East's outrage over cartoons like this one depicting the prophet Mohammed as a terrorist, which were first published in a Danish newspaper. Now, I'm a firm believer in the idea that one musn't judge a philosophy/religion by it's abuses. After all, "remember the crusades?" one might ask. But honestly, it's very tempting to say something like "well, if the turban fits..." I won't say that though, lest I be judged myself. Or decapitated.

What really angers me, too, is the absolute hypocrisy of the American media, et al when it comes to things like this. CNN and NBC won't show the cartoons "out of respect for islam", and will show Bill Clinton in Davos, Switzerland decrying them as "outrageous". It does seem, however, that it is completely acceptable to mock and ridicule all things sacred to Christianity. NBC's show Will and Grace is soon to feature Brittany Spears in a guest spot playing a "conservative Christian" who has a cooking show called "Cruci-fixin's". Kanye West's recent appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone? Freedom of speech or respect for religion? Well, which is it? Perhaps it's just safe to mock and ridicule Christianity over and over again because it's highly improbable that a Christian will then bomb your home, kidnap other random westerners and behead them on TV, or shoot and stab you in the street (Theo Van Gogh). Again it's awfully tempting to say it....

from the article:

-quote-

Le Monde reported that the publisher, Raymond Lakah, who is described as Franco-Egyptian, issued a statement saying he fired Lefranc as president and director of the newspaper in "a strong sign of respect to the intimate convictions and beliefs of each individual."

The statement continued, "We present our regrets to the Muslim community and to all people who have been shocked or made indignant by this publication."

-end-

Far be it to ever hear an apology like this directed at Christians in America. It makes me mad. Is that wrong?

A quote from the linked article...

-quote-

Muslims consider it sacrilegious to produce a likeness of the Prophet Mohammad

-end-

If that's really their argument, does anybody else see any irony here?

The FDA, The Ozone, and Asthma

2006-01-31T00:38:00.000-08:00

I came across THIS STORY about how certain asthma inhalers that containg CFC propellants are to be banned, because the CFC propellants are harmful to our beloved ozone layer. While there are a few good points to the whole thing, overall I think it's pretty ludicrous.

Over-the-counter medications such as Primatene(sp?) mist, which contain said ozone destroying elements are in danger of being banned, because the miniscule amount of Chloroflorocarbons(sp?) that are used to propel life-giving medicine into the lungs might destroy the ozone layer.

Aren't those CFC's inhaled, rather than being blasted so ominously into the atmoshpere, anyway?

If this were to have actually been the case around 1996 or so, I could be dead now. I have suffered from asthma since I was 3. I use prescription inhalers (the fact that a perscription is necessary for life giving medicine, with next to no side effects and can in no way be abused or cause any more damage than caffeine is another travesty). One night in Siloam Springs I woke around 3 AM with a severe asthma attack. I was out of my medicine, and had to wait until the next day for a doctor's visit, which requires insurance, to get a perscription in order to wait at the pharmacy for an hour. I had two choices if I wanted to live. Experience all sorts of hell at the less than confidence inspiring Siloam emergency room for about a million dollars, or I could rush to Wal-Mart, which stays open 24 hours, and for a few bucks get some primatene mist that would literally save my life within seconds. Guess which one I chose.

The Ozone layer is more important than providing life easily and inexpensively.
Read the article and tell me that the FDA and Drug Companies aren't mixed up in a racket of the worst kind.

Complete B.S.

listening to brother bob

2006-01-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

I was listening to good ol Bob this evening and this song came on. Quite pertinent and profound in this day and age, as always. If you don't own the album The Times Are A'Changin' then you better get off your duff and get it. Timeless Bob.

"With God on Our Side"

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.

For Christmas My brother-in-law gave me the latest release from Bob, the soundtrack to Scorsese's film of early Bob, No Direction Home. I was listening to track number 5 on the first disk "Dink's Song", an old school song from the early 60's, and my Son Hiskja started dancing as if it was the best song he ever heard. What more could I ever want other than to see my son dancing completely uninhibited to brother Bob? If you know me at all, you know that that made my day, to say the least. My son love's Bob Dylan. Seriosly...a tear.

My little boy is one year old!

2006-01-20T03:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my Son Hiskja's first birthday! Other than my wife having been sick for the past few days with a stomach bug of some kind, leading to a fairly mellow little party with just the 3 of us, it was a great day. He's drooly, he's "talking" up a storm (though we don't know what he's talking about), he's the coolest little kid that ever was, and HE'S ONE!

Merton and a Master's in Christian Apologetics

2006-01-14T23:30:00.000-08:00

My good friend Ken Smith, who lives in McLeod Ganj, India, turned me onto the writings of Thomas Merton a couple of years ago. Merton was somewhat a child of privelege, who left Columbia University to enter a Trappist (also known by Benedictine, or Cistercian) Monestary in the hills of Kentucky back in the 40's, I think it was. He died in 1968 in Thailand as a result of a freak accidental electrocution. I picked up a copy of Contemplative Prayer at a used bookstore in Kealakekua, Hawaii, and dove in. Then for Christmas that same year, two years ago now I guess, I got A Thomas Merton Reader, which I read later that year in India, as I traveled by planes, trains, and automobiles throughout northern India with my Aussie pal John Morris. The Reader includes portions of Merton's various contemplative writings, poetry, and social commentary, but my favorites were the exerpts from his autobiographical, and probably most famous work, The Seven Storey Mountain. Highly recommended. Well, this Christmas I got a copy of The Sign of Jonas, which is basically a continuation of Seven Story. It's a collection of his journal entries over the 6 year period following the completion of Seven Story, which gives a glimpse into his daily life and thoughts as he lived as a simple monk at the Abbey of our Lady of Gathsemani. I'm about halfway through it and enjoying it very much. I thought that I would share a few things that have jumped out at me...

"It seems to me the most absurd thing in the world to be upset because I am weak and distracted and blind and constantly make mistakes! What else do I expect! Does God love me any less because I can't make myself a saint by my own power and in my own way? He loves me more because I am so clumsy and helpless without Him-and underneath what I am He sees me as I will one day be by His pure gift and that pleases Him-and therefore it pleases me and I attend to His great love which is my joy." p.103

"...although it is bad to look for God where He is not to be found, it is nevertheless good to be looking more or less explicitly for God." p.53

"If we find God in our souls and want to stay there with Him, it is disastrous to think of trying to communicate Him to others as we find Him there. We can preach Him later on with the grace He gives us in silence." p.48

"Dylan Thomas's integrity as a poet makes me very ashamed of the verse that I have been writing. We who say we love God: why are we not as anxious to be perfect in our art as we pretend we want to be in our service to God? If we do not try to be perfect in what we write, perhaps it is because we are not writing for God after all. In any case it is depressing that those who serve God and love Him sometimes write so badly, when those who do not believe in Him take pains to write so well...The fact that your subject my be very important in itself does not necessrily mean that what you have written about it is important. A bad book about the love of God remains a bad book, even though it may be about the love of God. There are many who think that because they have written about God, they have written good books. Then men pick up these books and say: if the ones who say they believe in God cannot find anything better than this to say about it, their religion cannot be worth much." p.59-60

In other news, I am finally set to begin studying toward a Master's degree in Christian Apologetics. I'm pumped. (Why I'm doing this is a long story, sort of, and I'll tell you about it if you really want to know.) I'm doing it via distance learning from Biola University, in Los Angeles, California. I'll have to take a couple of trips to L.A. later on for a couple weeks at a time, but the rest is done online and what not. I'm pumped. It'll take about 3 years to finish, so I'm settling in for the haul. My first two courses are an Old Testament course, and Apologetics Reasearch and Writing. I start at the end of this month. Should be very challenging and very interesting.

annual Hajj stampede kills hundreds.............again

2006-01-12T11:20:00.000-08:00

One of the pillars of Islam is the Hajj, the pilgramage to Mecca that every able-bodied Muslim that can afford it is required to make at least once during his/her life. And every year, hundreds, if not thousands, of pilgrims end up dead in stampedes. Why is it that this happens every year? I really believe that it's a sinister spiritual element. Sinister.

This year: 345 pilgrims trampled to death and 289 injured
1990: 1, 426 pilgrims trampled to death
2004: 251 pilgrims trampled to death
2003: 36 pilgrims trampled to death
2001: 35 pilgrims trampled to death
not to mention at least 76 pilgrims were killed when a hotel collapsed a few days ago.

Tragic irony: the annual deadly stampedes usually occur at a stoning-of-the-devil ceremony. Looks like the devil hits back.

Click the title of this entry to read about it elsewhere.

Top Ten Things That Make Life Liveable - Number 8: The Internet

2006-01-12T04:43:00.000-08:00

Some time around 1993, 94, 95..around there, I began to notice that a few of my friends were spending wierd amounts of time in the computer labs at John Brown University, using this wierd thing called "email", and "the internet". I've never been into technology all that much....heck, I don't even like science fiction books...and, afterall, I am the child of my parents, who to this day still cannot get there telephone answering machine to work properly. Back in the early to mid-nineties I just didn't have any interest in talking about it. I remember my pal Max making mention of the computer class that we shared at 7:30 in the morning on semester...something about educational technology...during which we spent our time ignoring the lessons and instead playing the little box puzzle game thingy, which would make our old Mac's quack like a duck or something if you solved it. That was the extent of my technological prowess. Truthfully, I don't have much more than that these days. My early internet experiences were wierd. I had a roomate (you know who you are) who was, and still is, very much into this whole internet thing. At one point he "met" some girl from the East Coast (I want to say Maryland, or Virginia) in some chat room.....I remember thinking 'what the heck is a chat room?'...and they got chummy, as is easy online to do, and, well, she decided to make the drive to northwest Arkansas in order to meet face to face. Well, this was just too much for me to handle, and as I remember, all that came of it was dissapointment for my roommate, along with a few missing CD's (including my Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band album, Almost Acoustic) that presumably she lifted.

Some time later, another roommate installed America Online on the computer in our house, so I ended up messing around a bit with it, running our phone bill up like mad, and when some girl from a chat room (this was before I knew that the internet was used for anything other than chat rooms, by the way) decided to send me a picture of herself, I cut and run, boy. It wasn't until 1998 that I got my first email address. The rest is history.

The internet, again as Thomas Friedman has explained, has made our world flat and now makes my life liveable.

Things that I can do with the internet:

Keep a blog so maybe 3 or 4 people who care can read up on me.
Get a Master's degree.
Listen to 24/7 Grateful Dead shows from shoutcast dot com, which has 10,000 radio stations for your lisening pleasure.....classical, bluegrass, Korean pop radio....what have you. It's fabulous.
Watch the Samuel Alito confirmation hearings, live on cspan dot org.
Talk via internet phone to anybody, anywhere for dirt cheap.
Buy books.
Read books that I'm too poor to buy.
The list goes on and on, of course. You don't need me to tell you. Recipes for KimChee and fondue. Curriculum aids for teaching. Etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc...............................

Isn't it strange to think of life before the internet? Back when the world was still round and big?

I guess I'm grateful mostly for the ability that the internet has given me to re-kindle friendships from college with several of you, even if it is merely through a screen and keyboard, and to keep up with those of you who are dear to me all over the world.......The U.S., India, Australia, Canada...and here I sit in Slovenia, of all places. Heck, I even applied for my job online.

Anyway, it's number 8 on my list of the top ten things that make my life liveable.

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig

2006-01-08T02:36:00.000-08:00

As dawn broke on January 1st, 2006, I had been sitting for some time in a dark hospital room reading Thomas Merton's The Sign of Jonas by the soft glow of the monitor that was hooked up to my son, showing his heart rate, respiration rate, and blood-oxygen level, as he slept in the children's ward of the Albert Schweitzer Ziekenhuis (hospital, though literally translated "home for the sick") in Dordrecht, Holland. While we were in the Netherlands for the holidays, Hiskja, who turns one year old on the 19th of this month, came down with pneumonia. If any of you have kids that have been pretty sick, you might know how frightening and heart-wrenching it is to watch your child struggle to breath through the fluid in his lungs, and reach for you, screaming, with a look of utter terror on his little face as nurses and doctors hold him down in an emergency room and stick him with needles and strap oxygen masks to his face, x-rays...and on and on. Let me tell you that it's not a nice thing.

So, yeah. We're back in Slovenia now, and Hiskja is just fine, back to his normal, busy little self. The only sign of his short but very intense illness is his husky little voice that was wrecked a little bit by the pneumonia. I got pneumonia when I was twenty-something, and I could barely handle it. Actually, that's what got me to stop smoking cigarettes. Lord knows that it's rough on a baby. Other than that, our trip to Holland was good. Lots of family and Dutch language lessons.

Christmas was a small affair, but nice. I got books (C.S. Lewis, N.T. Wright and Merton) and DVD's (The Godfather parts 1 and 2, Luther, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and a box set of really old Hitchcock flicks) which is pretty much all I can use anymore. A couple other small things, too.

Boy, was it cold in Holland. Now we're back in Ljubljana, where there's snow on the ground again, and it's back to work for me tomorrow. I also picked up a copy of one of my all-time favorite novels, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Somewhat against my better judgement, I am going to attempt to teach it to my lit students over the next few weeks. Another teacher and myself are teaming up to do this unit. We'll see how it goes. It is a fabulous piece of writing, one of the few novels that I have read numerous times. Which reminds me that I also got a BUNCH of M*A*S*H dvd's for Christmas, completing my collection of the entire series. Absolutely brilliant. They should also provide some additional material for the Catch-22 unit. So similar.

So, I'm back. I hope that you all had a good holiday season, and that everybody in your circle stayed healthy.

I will return to my "top ten things that make life liveable" posts very soon.

Ciao

Off to the Netherlands for the Holidays

2005-12-20T23:13:00.000-08:00

Well, this afternoon we will head to the Netherlands for the holidays. My father-in-law's birthday is Christmas eve, so there will of course be a party with lots of family and libations a plenty. We're taking him a nice bottle of Slovenian wine. Then Christmas and New Years, of course. It's bound to be pretty chilly up there in the lowlands, and my wife is very excited, hoping that the canals are frozen over enough for ice skating. I don't know. This will mark Hiskja's first Dutch Christmas, and the first time that Petra has been home for the holidays since 2000. In 2001 we spent Christmas and New Years in South Africa, and the last 3 have been spent in Hawaii with my folks.

I hope to post another "top ten" post before we leave today, but I dont' know if I will be able to. My in-laws only have dial-up internet(expensive), mixed with a computer that crashes regularly, so I don't know that I'll be able to be online much in the next 2 weeks....

Later.

Top Ten Things That Make Life Liveable -- Number 9: Travel, In a Flat World

2005-12-20T01:46:00.000-08:00

Number 9 on my top ten list of things that make life liveable is...

TRAVEL, IN A FLAT WORLD

I take the phrase "in a flat world" from columnist and author Thomas Friedman's latest book The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, in which he uses the term to describe a world that is made "flat" by the inception of the internet and other technologies in global business and the sort. The internet is also on my top ten list of things that make life liveable, but I'll get to that in due time. I borrow the term simply because I can wake up tomorrow and, relatively inexpensively, hop on a plane from right here in Ljubljana and go anywhere, literally anywhere (well, except Cuba maybe because I hold a US passport, but that's another issue completely) and be there within hours. As a matter of fact, tomorrow my wife, child, and I will board a plane operated by British owned EasyJet and fly off to the Netherlands for 2 weeks, all for a grand total of $350 round trip. The world is flat. Travel, in a flat world makes life liveable. The year of our Lord, 2005 is nearly finished. At the onset of 2005, I lived on the Big Island of Hawaii, and my wife was about to have a baby. Nathan Hiskja was born on January 19th of this year (he turned 11 months old yesteray, by golly). His grandmother arrived the very same day in Hawaii from the Netherlands to greet him. In February I flew to Little Rock, Arkansas to secure a home and a job, was there for a week and then flew back to the islands. In March, we hopped on Hawaiian airlines moved to the mainland. A few months later, my mom and dad flew to visit us. In August, my wife and child boarded a Canadian Airlines flight to Toronto then on to Amsterdam, while I boarded a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany and then on to Ljubljana, Slovenia, in order to take up residence and employment. Again, tomorrow we fly to Holland simply to celebrate the holidays. In the past few weeks up to the present, different people that I know have in fact left Spain and gone to South Africa and the United States; have left Slovenia and gone to the United States; have left Slovenia and driven to Macedonia; have left Slovenia and flown to India; have gone from Cambodia to Hawaii, to Samoa, to Thailand, and back to Cambodia. Since the year of our Lord 1996, I personally have been to Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, Italy, Greece, England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Romania, South Africa, Mozambique, France, Japan, Thailand, India (stood on the border of Nepal but they wouldn't let me in dammit), Taiwan, Slovenia, Hawaii and the mainland U.S.(California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois, Washington, Colorado, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Alabama, to name some). Travel, in a flat world makes my life liveable.

Our world is large and vast. It is strange and familiar, both. It is comforting and very disturbing. It is beautiful and it is horrendous. In my opinion, one of the gravest disservices that anybody could do for themselves is to NOT take advantage of the fact that we now live in a flat world, and that the cultural, geographical, and human tapestry that is our world is readily accessible. There are so many people that have not, in reality, discovered (and who realistically have the means to do so) that the world goes far beyond the shores and/or borders or their particular country and nation (and there is a difference between"country" and "nation"). I remember when an old college buddy of mine was visiting me in New Mexico when I lived and was teaching there. We were at my parents house, sitting around the kitchen table visiting, when my dad asked my friend if he had ever been to Europe (my father and I had recently returned from a trip during which we had a great time visiting friends in England and the Netherlands). His response was something along these lines: "I have no desire to go over there. It's just a bunch of worn out culture." Sigh. I'm afraid that that same sentiment has gotten hold of too many people.

One thing that I want to give my beautiful baby boy, my son, would at the outset seem something too big. I want to give my son the world. Any parent wants the same thing: to give their son or daughter the world. My son has been lucky enough to have been born the child of parents that are citizens of two different countries. He has dual citizenship. I celebrate this because he can potentially experience more of the great tapestry, the great work of art that is the world than his mother or his father can experience. He can learn more than we can. He is a citizen of the United States, and all that comes with that, good and bad. He is a citizen of the Netherlands, and all that comes with that too... which actually means being a citizen of the European Union. Politics aside, this opens up so many more doors for him than for both his mother and father. I know so many people that need desperately to simply sit down with another human being, somebody that is of a different culture than they are, and learn what it is to be alive within the circumstances of somebody that is of a completely different mold than themselves. Not to read about it in a book (which is also another thing on my list of things that make life liveable), but to know it from the mouth of another human being, a beautiful creature made by the hands of a God that transcends all of the trappings of man, situated in a completely different corner of the big room that is the world in which we live, by the grace of God (who is #1 on my list).

I emplore you....go somewhere, somewhere that is significantly different from your comfortable home, and get to know at least one person. Dont' stay in the nice hotels that mirror your own experience, complete with HBO and CNN. Forget the flavor-of-the-day politics and what not, and drink a cup of butter tea or eat a nice cabeza taco. Discuss what it is that relates to the water-buffalo this morning, or the last time that the dalai lama came through town, or what the weather is like in the countryside that is so foreign from the midwest or the west coast. Eat of the cuisine that keeps others alive and drink of the nectar that might not taste like Coca-Cola, although if you must, you can find one pert-near anywhere.

We live in a flat world that is readily accessible, if you want it to be. Priorities are the thing. Priorities are seemingly what always need to be kept in check, and whether you've experienced it or not, travel in a flat world, much like heaters, is what makes life liveable.

Top Ten Things That Make Life Liveable -- Number 10: Heaters

2005-12-18T23:58:00.002-08:00

we have been winding down the first half of the school year, which means dealing with tests, grades, make-up work, and all of the holiday mumbo-jumbo wastes of time that come along with the season. However, today marks the beginning of my 24 day holiday. In 5 days we leave for the Netherlands for a 2 week stint, where Hiskja will be spoiled and drooled over by grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles, all reinforcing his Dutch language acquisition, and Petra and I can steal away to the city (Amsterdam or Rotterdam) for a little getaway.

My good friend Max, in his periodical emails, has been working his way through a top ten list...the top ten coolest things about being Max...complete with commentary. Forgive me, Max, but I thought that it might be fun to do the same thing. I think it was Max's last entry...BOOKS...that got me to sit down for 10 seconds and think on how much I love books too, and where would that fit into my list. So, I have decided to share my own top ten list, and comment on each of them in the coming days

DRUM ROLL........

Matt's top ten list of things that make life liveable:

10. HEATERS

9. TRAVEL, IN A FLAT WORLD

8. THE INTERNET

7. EDUCATION: TEACHING AND LEARNING

6. BOOKS

4. FOOD

4. DRINK

3. GOOD FRIENDS

2. MY FAMILY: ANNA PETRA, NATHAN HISKJA

1. GOD, IN 3 PERSONS

Well, there you are. It's quite similar to Max's list, but I promise I'm not just trying to live vicariously through Max. Commentary to follow, beginning with...

Number 10: HEATERS

One memory that I have of my early childhood is huddling with my sister under the bathroom sink (which was not an enclosed area) next to the little electric space heater that my parents kept there in order to warm up the small bathroom during those chilly Roswell, NM winters. Believe it or not, it does get fairly cold in Roswell in winter. Anybody who knows me at all probably knows that I would much rather be hot than cold. I grew up skateboarding hard all summer in the desert of the southwest, I've been in New Delhi in July, I've been in Mozambique in February (insane humid hot with mosquitoes that can carry off small children), I've lived in Little Rock during the summer months and spent 3 years of so in Hawaii. Love the heat. I'm warm blooded and cold sucks. It was -4C this morning as I walked to work. I don't fully comprehend winter sports, and what would posess somebody to want to live in, say, Green Bay, Wisconsin in the winter........(Ljubljana?)......or participate in something like the iditerod, where your snot actually freezes to your face!. cold hurts. In the words of more than one of my students, "cold is dumb." But Alas, HEATERS make life liveable. Heaters may take many, many forms. The electric blanket, for example. My trusty electric blanket kept me alive through many a cold Arkansas winter night in the drafty, central-heatingless house I occupied in Fayetteville. No automobile is worth driving if it doesn't have a heater, and nobody in their right mind would say otherwise. When I was in Mcleod Ganj, at the foothills of the Himalayas, I have fond memories of shorting out the entire SnowLion guesthouse by insisting in running a quality Indian space heater, purchased for a very reasonable sum, in an attempt to warm our concrete room, along with the candles, regardless to the shotty wiring. The radiators that we currently have in our former socialist housing flat in Slovenia are wonderful, especially the little one that is in the bathroom. There is nothing like a toasty warm bathroom when it's necessary to get naked on a frigid winter morning before the sun is even up and get in the shower.....a hot, hot shower, that is, thanks to the glorious hot-water heater. Like a baby kangaroo snug in it's mommy's pouch.....bathroom heaters. Cold is dumb. Warm is obviously better. Heaters make life liveable.

Bob Dylan to DJ!?!?

2005-12-14T01:12:00.000-08:00

How much tail would it kick to sit at the feet of Bob Dylan and listen as he plays his favorite music for you? Or to have a party at your house.....perhaps a party at which everybody has to dress up as a character from a Dylan song (a diplomat who carried on his shoulder a siamese cat, Shakespeare in the alley, a house carpenter, Maggie's pa, the list goes on and on and on)...while Bob himself is spinning the vinyl and telling you why this song kicks ass.

Well, click the title of this entry to read about Bob Dylan's empending radio show!!

oh, yes.

Opposing the ordination of Men to the priesthood

2005-12-07T02:18:00.000-08:00

Please forgive me, as it seems that my blog of late has turned into nothing more than a place for me to post things that did not originate in my own little mind. And, this post is no different. It is quite good though....

My loving wife brought this to my attention, and I just thought that it was too good to not post here.

Touche.

-begin-
Why We Oppose Men's Ordination

1. Because man's place is in the army.
2. Because no really manly man wants to settle disputes otherwise than by fighting about it.
3. Women would not respect men dressed in skirts.
4. Because men are too emotional to be priests. Their conduct at football matches, in the army, at political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force and violence renders them unfit to represent Jesus.
5. Because some men are so handsome they will distract women worshipers.
6. If the Church is the Bride of Christ, and bishops are as husbands to the Church, all priests should be female.

Some more reasons " Why Men Should Not Be Ordained " from The MENNONITE REPORTER, "Fly on the newsprint" by Ivan Emke (with acknowledgement for inspiration to Rosemary Radfore Ruether.)

1. Their physical build indicates that men are more suited to tasks such as picking turnips or de-horning cattle. It would indeed be "unnatural" for them to do other forms of work. How can we argue with the intended order that is instituted and enforced by nature?
2. For men who have children, their duties as ministers might detract from their responsibilities as parents. Instead of teaching their children important life skills like how to make a wiener-roasting stick, they would be off at some committee meeting or preparing a sermon. Thus these unfortunate children of ordained men would almost certainly receive less attention from their male parent. Some couples might even go so far as to put their children into secular daycare centers to permit the man to fulfill his duties as a minister.
3. According to the Genesis account, men were created before women, presumably as a prototype. It is thus obvious that men represent an experiment, rather than the crowning achievement of creation.
4. Men are overly prone to violence. They are responsible for the vast majority of crime in our country, especially violent crime. Thus they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.
5. In the New Testament account, the person who betrayed Jesus was a man. Thus his lack of faith and ensuing punishment stands as a symbol of the subordinate position that all men should take. The story also illustrates the natural tendency of all men to be either unwilling or unable to take a stand. From the Garden of Gethsemane to football locker rooms, men still have this habit of buckling under the weight of the lowest common denominator. It is expected that even ordained men would still embarrass themselves with their natural tendency toward a pack mentality.
6. Jesus didn't ordain men. He didn't ordain any women either, but two wrongs don't make a right.
7. If men got ordained, then they wouldn't be satisfied with that; they'd want more and more power. Next thing most of the Conference leaders would be men and then where would we be? No. The line must be drawn clearly now before it's too late.
8. Many, if not most, men who seek to be ordained have been influenced by the radical "men's movement" (or "masculist movement"). How can they be good leaders if their loyalties are divided between leading a church and championing the masculist drive for men's rights? The tract writers haven't pronounced on it yet, but the masculist movement is probably profoundly un- Christian.
9. To be an ordained pastor is to nurture and strengthen a whole congregation. But these are not traditional male roles. Rather, throughout the history of Christianity, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more fervently attracted to it. Women, the myth goes, are fulfilled and completed only by their service to others. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination. But if men try to fit into this nurturing role, our young people might grow up with Role Confusion Syndrome, which could lead to such terrible traumas as the Questioning Tradition Syndrome.
10. Men can still be involved in Church activities, without having to be ordained. They can still take up the offering, shovel the sidewalk, and maybe even lead the singing on Father's Day. In other words, by confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the Church. Why should they feel left out?

-end-

heh,heh...

Anthropomorphic animal buffoonery

2005-11-29T04:15:00.000-08:00

This article was on CNN's website. I think it's interesting that ol' Jack may be rolling over in his grave very shortly. I just hope that the "Evangelical" crowd can let the movie speak for itself without mounting a rambunctious attempt at in-your-face proselytism. I've already cought wind of a "how-to-evangelize-your-non-christian-friends-using-the-new-Narnia-film" strategy or two. Gag me with a spoon, as it were. How would these would be evangelists feel if a really interesting film about, say, the life of Mohammed came out, and large packs of muslims hanging around outside the theater then tried to instigate completely superficial, asinine, unsolicited, and categorically naive "conversations" with you in a blatant attempt to convert you to Islam?

Anyway, here's what Clive had to say about the idea of a Narnia motion picture...

C.S. Lewis opposed screen 'Narnia'
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- C.S. Lewis, author of the classic children's "Narnia" books which are about to make their big screen debut, was "absolutely opposed" to a live action version of his stories, a newly published letter shows.
Walt Disney's "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" is expected to be a big box office hit this Christmas season, thanks to its blend of magical fantasy themes and a strong Christian slant.
But a letter from Lewis, posted on the literary Web site Nthposition.com, revealed that he had strong feelings about how his book should be used.
"I am absolutely opposed -- adamant isn't in it! -- to a TV version," he wrote to BBC producer Lance Sieveking, who had created a radio version of his book which had met Lewis' approval.
The story tells of four children who travel through a magic wardrobe into the land of Narnia, home to talking animals, a wicked witch and the god-like lion, Aslan.
Disney hopes that the movie, which has its world premiere in London on December 7, will be as big a hit with children as the "Harry Potter" series, thanks in part to the support of Christian church leaders.
Although Lewis, who died in 1963, said he would have considered a cartoon version, his letter suggests he is unlikely to have approved of Disney's interpretation, particularly its computer-generated Aslan.
"Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare -- at least with photography," he wrote.
"Cartoons (if only Disney did not combine so much vulgarity with his genius!) would be another matter. A human, pantomime, Aslan would be, to me, blasphemy."

it is as likely that there should be a man without a country, as a world without a creator

2005-11-27T00:03:00.000-08:00

You can click the title of this entry to visit the "This I Believe" pages at NPR's website. I ran across this one, and actually remember hearing it on the air this past summer in Little Rock. I thought I'd post it here. I dig...

How is it Possible to Believe in God? by William F. Buckley, Jr.

I've always liked the exchange featuring the excited young Darwinian at the end of the 19th century. He said grandly to the elderly scholar, "How is it possible to believe in God?" The imperishable answer was, "I find it easier to believe in God than to believe that Hamlet was deduced from the molecular structure of a mutton chop."

That rhetorical bullet has everything -- wit and profundity. It has more than once reminded me that skepticism about life and nature is most often expressed by those who take it for granted that belief is an indulgence of the superstitious -- indeed their opiate, to quote a historical cosmologist most profoundly dead. Granted, that to look up at the stars comes close to compelling disbelief -- how can such a chance arrangement be other than an elaboration -- near infinite -- of natural impulses? Yes, on the other hand, who is to say that the arrangement of the stars is more easily traceable to nature, than to nature's molder? What is the greater miracle: the raising of the dead man in Lazarus, or the mere existence of the man who died and of the witnesses who swore to his revival?

The skeptics get away with fixing the odds against the believer, mostly by pointing to phenomena which are only explainable -- you see? -- by the belief that there was a cause for them, always deducible. But how can one deduce the cause of Hamlet? Or of St. Matthew's Passion? What is the cause of inspiration?

This I believe: that it is intellectually easier to credit a divine intelligence than to submit dumbly to felicitous congeries about nature. As a child, I was struck by the short story. It told of a man at a bar who boasted of his rootlessness, derisively dismissing the jingoistic patrons to his left and to his right. But later in the evening, one man speaks an animadversion on a little principality in the Balkans and is met with the clenched fist of the man without a country, who would not endure this insult to the place where he was born.

So I believe that it is as likely that there should be a man without a country, as a world without a creator.

Freedom of religion does not equal freedom from religion

2005-11-17T00:03:00.000-08:00

Found this article ...

-begin-
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — In New Mexico, the city of Las Cruces, Spanish for 'the crosses,' is under fire because of the religious implications of the official logo.
A federal lawsuit seeks to have the logo, which depicts three adjoining crosses, changed to something that does not include any reference to Christianity.
Filed by Paul Weinbaum and Martin Boyd, the lawsuit claims the logo amounts to religious persecution of non-Christians.
The last time we saw crosses on a police uniform is the examples from Nazi Germany and we got police in Las Cruces with crosses on their uniforms," explains Weinbaum. "I almost get upset spending time on this because we have other things we can be taking care of."
Among those who want the logo to remain as is are Las Cruces Mayor Bill Mattiace and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.
Mattiace maintains the crosses do not endorse any particular religion and are up ton individual interpretation. "Anyone can perceive what they want out of that log, so they have no right to change it for the others that are depicting and seeing something else in that symbol.
-end-

This is absolutely ridiculous. If the logo of the city, the name of which MEANS the crosses, amounts to persecution of non-Christians and must be changed, what's next? Consistency demands that you change the name of the city. It's a direct reference to Christianity (nevermind that about a million cities and towns in our country, the west and southwest in particular, have an undeniable historical heritage rooted in Christianity). Therefore, we must change the name of every city or town that contains a reference to anything Christian:

San Franciso........St. Frances
San Diego....St. Andrew I believe
San Clemente....St. Clement
Los Angeles.....the angels
we can go on and on, but suffice to say that the name of about every other town in California comes from the Christian (specifically Catholic) tradition.
Let's change our money.......In God We Trust
Let's change our nation's founding documents......"endowed by there Creator"
Let's change our judicial process....."the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me God"
Let's tear down the National Cathedral in DC....we certainly can't have a "national" house of worship that was built in the Christian tradition
The pledge of Allegience?....."one nation under God" well, we've been working on that one, now haven't we?

Yes, cops in Las Cruces are the american equivallent of SS officers.

Nietzche said God is dead because we killed him. Well, some of us sure are trying. Our country does not have a distinctly Christian heritage. It does not. Two plus two equals five. It does. Our nations very heritage is religious persecution. If we ignore it long enough, maybe it'll go away. What, pray tell, amounts to persecution of the Christian religion? Why, that's not a fair question.

Let's hear it for Gov. Bill Richardson, the Democrat governor of NM for scoffing at this silliness. Richardson for president in 08! No more New England liberal Senetors from the Dem party already.

"God is interesting again" - Anne Rice

2005-11-10T06:02:00.000-08:00

So the author of Interview With the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and many other novels of southern gothic lusty lore has turned to Jesus. Click on the title of this entry to read the article from CNN. It discusses her newest novel, called Christ the Lord:Out of Egypt. Some interesting insight from Anne herself..

-quote-
"Rice's "Lord" is perhaps the unexpected development at a time when spiritual themes are hot in popular entertainment -- from TV to best-selling novels to Mel Gibson's box-office smash "The Passion of the Christ" to Disney's upcoming film adaptation of C.S. Lewis' Christian allegory "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."
By coincidence, Rice's book also appears simultaneously with the artful "Jesus: A Novel" (Zondervan) by National Book Award winner Walter Wangerin Jr.
"Maybe this is inevitable after years of popular atheism dominating our culture. Maybe people are hungry," Rice mused.
-end

What is really to be done, and why?

2005-11-09T23:31:00.000-08:00

There is a question that really eats away at me. First, let it be known that I am a registered independent...I'm not a Republican nor a Democrat. I am a Christian (and notice that there is no adjective/label preceeding the word). That said...

This morning I was reading a small article/opinion in Sojourners (a Christian, "left-wing" if we must use such labels, magazine that I receive by email). There was an article by David Batstone called "Who would Jesus Torture"...a great question....

In the article he says:
-quote-
Admittedly, Christians of good faith part paths when political conflict leads us to consider what constitutes a just and righteous war - or if any war can be just. Though we may not consent on the means, we do consent on the need to confront the spread of evil in the world. Yet we can all affirm scripture when it says, "Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:17, 21). When we confront evil with its own means, those means mark our own character.
-end-

My question, and this truly is not coming from any political point of view and is not at all meant to challenge anybody's party loyalties/loathings, is simply........

What do we do? We can all confirm the scripture from Romas above. Of course Jesus wouldn't torture anybody. Absolutely not. But what, do we do? I've heard all the venomous spewings from both sides of the aisle, if you will, and I'm aware of the current legal squabbles about intelligence this, and intillegence that. People want to bring the troops home right now. Others want to stay the course and finish the job.....whether or not it's a job we should have begun the job in the first place....yadda, yadda, yadda.

The quote above says that "when we confront evil with its own means, those means mark our own character". That is a profound statement. But what then do we do to confront/stop violent terrorism (Is violent retaliation to terrorism to be considered terrorism, as some suggest, or is it ever justified?) from those intent on imposing any particular worldview, that is claiming so many lives, Americans, Iraqis, Spanish, English, Indian, Jordanian, Afghani,........... Does a Ghandi/Dalai Lama pacifistic approch really work? Sure it ended the British Imperialism in India, perhaps, but that was a completely different ball of wax. Would Ghandi's efforts at non-violence have been at all fruitful in opposition to Hitler? Has the Dalai Lama's passifism accomplished anything at all for the Tibetan cause? When is turning the other cheek no longer appropriate?

As a friend of mine says..."War never solved anything....except slavery in America, Fascist rule in Italy, Nazi concentration camps, etc." True. What then of that? But also, Apartheid in South Africa ended without a war...but was that the equivalent of the USS Cole, Embassies in Africa, Trains in Madrid, Busses and subways in London, and two of the tallest buildings in the world full of innocent people?

I'm really asking. "Political" venom doesn't cut it. We all have our political opinions that make us crazy and give us high blood pressure and call other people names. I don't want to go there. Practically, what is the real, moral, and just action to take, and what are the real reasons to do it. Just war...does it exist? Ever? If not, what then is to be done. I'm really, really wondering, and I'm not getting any real answers.

Ideas? (that can hopefully be put forward in a civilized and reasoned manner.)

Questions beg answers, which beg more questions, and it's in the 2nd and 3rd and 4th round of sincere digging that most people, myself certainly leading the pack, get lost....

It's grey and foggy here today, to boot...

Fall break and Billy the Kid

2005-10-31T02:13:00.000-08:00

Well friends, again sorry for the silence, but it was my fall break here in Slovenia. No school all last week and until Wed. the 2nd. The weather is getting chilly, to be sure, and the leaves have been all shades of yellow, orange, and brown, and that fally smell is in the air. We borrowed a car from my boss and went to the coast of Slovenia, tucked nicely in between Croatia and Italy. The towns of Koper and Piran are just lovely. I recommend them both highly.

A strange thing happened the other night. I'm watching Slovenian television, which leaves a bit to be desired, but I was watching none-the-less. Lo and behold but what movie should I discover...Sam Peckinpah's 70's classic "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" featuring Kris Kristofferson as Billy the Kid, and the Bob Dylan as a mysterious and quirky character called 'Alias'. Alias has some great lines, like his very existential reply when asked by some rough cowboy..."Who are you?" "That's a good question" he replies, as he whittles away on a small stick with his knife. Go Bob. I highly recommend the film when you are in the mood for an old western, and the soundtrack by Dylan is a must, featuring the original version of the highly bastardized ballad "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"....(think Axl Rose slithering behind his mike stand..."hey, hey, hey, hey, yeah..."). The most surprising part of it all was this, though. The movie was filmed in and around Lincoln, New Mexico, where Billy the Kid really lived and a mere 60 miles or so from my hometown of Roswell. I practically grew up in those parts. Seeing the desert mountains that I know all too well and the little town of Lincoln triggered in me the first true homesickness that I may have ever felt. I have'nt been back to New Mexico, save one time for a quick 3 days in Roswell, since late 2001. Since that time I've been all over Europe, South Africa, Mozambique, Hawaii, Northern India, Little Rock, Arkansas, and now Slovenia. I actually got very emotional and darn near teary when I saw the images of the New Mexico countryside on the telly here in Ljubljana as I watched the most random movie ever to be aired here of all places. I realized in a very tangible way that I really don't know where home is anymore. I've always been pretty sentimental, but I couldn't even finish watching the movie. I had to remove myself to the kitchen where I busied myself with cooking dinner and thinking on how strange it all really was. It was very saddened. I wanted to go home. I wanted my son to somehow know those desert hills and vast, vast skies like I do, in a way that can't be told with words. I wondered where in the world he'll long for when he's my age. Slovinia? Amsterdam? McLeod Ganj, India? Someplace that I haven't even heard of yet? Probably. Anyway, last night I watched Roger Moore as James Bond in "For your eyes only." Awesome. It didn't have any emotional impact on me. Who picks the movies that are aired on channel 8, Ljublanski Kabel?

And now for something completely different...

a little snippet from C.S. Lewis:

"You are always dragging me down," said I to my Body. "Dragging you down!" replied my Body. "Well, I like that! Who taught me to like tobacco and alcohol? You, of course, with your idiotic adolescent idea of being "grown-up". My palate loathed both at first: but you would have your way. Who put and end to all those angry and revengeful thoughts last night? Me, of course, by insisting on going to sleep. Who does his best to keep you from talking too much and eating too much by giving you dry throats and headaches and indigestion? Eh?" "And what about sex?" said I. "Yes, what about it?" retorted the Body. "If you and your wretched imagination would leave me alone I'd give you no trouble. That's Soul all over; you give me orders and then blame me for carrying them out."

Frank Sinatra and the Macedonian veggie guy

2005-10-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

I said before that the stories of life are just waiting to merely be told, after we've taken the time to stop and notice them. I believe that. The little things that make you smile or laught as you go about your workaday lives? That's them.

Yesterday I was walking to the market which is just around the corner from our home here in Ljubljana. Before you get there, though, you have to pass the most delightful little produce stand...fresh fruit and vegetables of all sorts piled high in and outside of this little nook at the end of a row of buildings. I think the guy that runs the place is from Macedonia. I'm not at all sure about this, but something just seems to suggest 'Macedonia'. Maybe he's Slovenian, Croatian, Bosnian.....whatever, but the boxes that the majority of his stuff sits in say 'fresh Macedonian produce'. Draw your own conclusions. This guy is one of my favorite characters in our neighborhood, regardless of the fact that I haven't ever spoken to him. Petra has though, as she buys more veggies than I do. It seems that I spend my money on beer, salami, and cheese. I'm thankful that Petra has the sense to buy healthy stuff. Anyway, what's the point. Simply this little snippet...

I was walking to the store and as I round the corner that approaches his stand, I hear a voice bellowing from within, as happy as can be...(picture on your computer's monitor here little musical notes, which signify that the following words are to be read in a sing-song manner) "STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT, EXCHANGING GLANCES..." Yes, the veggie guy was singing 'Strangers in the night' at the top of his lungs, accompnied by his little radio as he was sorting giant Macedonian grapes. He was singing with gusto, without a care in the world other than his miracle Macedonian grapes. You must picture this guy, as he is very much the proletarian...about 40 years old, blue jeans, flannel shirt, a simple vest, perhaps down, to keep out the chill, a long black pony tail hanging from his thinning head of hair, and pretty tall, scruffy face. A man's fruit and veggie man. A lady was walking by the opposite direction, laughing, and our eyes met as we shared this happy little moment of the cold day. I realized to myself that in all my life I've never actually heard anybody really singing that song, I mean really singing it. Not like in a movie or TV show, or in some silliness behind the counter at Plato's deli and books in Arkansas. It was the real deal, right here in Ljubljana....Strangers in the Night. My brief stint inside the grocery store was filled with Strangers in the Night in my head, and as I walked home, he trumped himself. Sinatra. I don't know the name of the song, but it was Sinatra and the Macedonian veggie guy singing a duet. I smile again and thought how nice a little bourbon would have been right about then.

a little theological silliness to lighten your day

2005-10-13T05:51:00.000-07:00

Church Rides at Disneyland

Disneyland Rides by Religious Tradition

In order to lighten the national mood, or do my part in it, I have decided to do some research on which Disneyland rides should be favored by various Christian religious groups. Following hours of field study and reading, the following list is correct to the best of my knowledge. I have given only a brief reason for each of my choices. Rest assured a book could have been written.

(In fact, some Radical Orthodox theologian is free to use this as the basis for his/her seminary dissertation "Constantine, Milbank, and Walt: A Biblical Purging of the Hegemony of the Neo-Platonic Disney Ride in the Imagination of the Late Twentieth Century Evangelical with Special References to Ordination of Womyn and the Oppression of the Animals.")

Ride for All Calvinists:
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
No matter what you do, you end up in Hell. It is reported that some elect riders end up in Club 33 at the end. The rest of us have no way to confirm this.

Presbyterian Secondary Ride:
Indiana Jones Adventure
In which you discover that no matter what you do, you look in the eyes of the idol. This leads you through hundreds of pre-programmed variations that feel free, but are not. At the end of the ride you discovery you can have wealth, worldly wisdom, or eternal life. You cannot have more than one. The ride decides. There are frequent splits in the ride track.

Lutheran Ride:
Splash Mountain
A ride in which you begin wondering what can be so frightening in this particular ride, slowly see your own character leading straight to a fearful doom, but then discover that a terrifying plunge leads straight to your Laughing Place. All of this happens without your ever moving as you are carried along by the Water of the ride.

Anglican Ride:
Alice in Wonderland:
It is an English ride after all and that is always cool. Follow a questionable character down a theological hole on an aging ride system and end in post-modern confusion. Did I mention it is English?

Episcopal Church USA Secondary Ride:
Mad Tea Party:
It will be fun to spin in circles until everyone gets sick!

Continuing Anglican Secondary Ride:
Frontierland Shootin' Exhibition
Having already paid once for your ticket, you get to pay again in order to take shots at pesky varmints that never seem to go away.

General Dispensationalist Ride:
Mickey's House and Meet Mickey
In which you travel by foot through a series of discrete rooms each of which builds up to and naturally leads to the next. At times one wonders if the ride is not a bit unsophisticated for modern tastes, but there are so many delightful details that one soon forgets this fear. In the End, it culminates when some guests are taken away to Meet Mickey. As a result throughout the ride one is aware and eagerly anticipates a great future work for the original Disney character.

Evangelical Feminist Ride:
Peter Pan's Flight
A popular ride with long lines in which all the men are children or child-like, this ride begins in a full nursery, heads whimsically over the edge into Darkness following a charming if irrational leader, thus leaving the nursery empty.

Baptist Ride:
Pinocchio's Daring Journey
In which we discover that one can only become a Real Boy by giving up smoking, pool playing, and drinking.

Southern Baptist Secondary Ride:
Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
Where it is proved once and for all that nobody understands the Southern point of view, but where our Heritage is appreciated, the sound is very good, and the message even better.

Catholic Ride:
It's a Small World
People from all nations gather together. The guest travels in one very stable boat, carried along by very pure Water, but the music in the ride is very annoying.

Vatican II Catholic Secondary Ride:
All of Disney's California Adventure
See it is like this: the old Park is just not cool anymore. It is hard to get teen agers to go. If we build a new park and leave out all the old characters, then we will be cool. Kids will love us. The fact that no one comes at the moment to the new park is not the fault of the new park but of the old park. Maybe we should close the old park?

Latin Mass Secondary Ride:
Davey Crockett's Explorer Canoes
This ride is not fun. In fact, it is hard work. Who expects a ride to be fun? Hard work is no more than park goers have always done. It was good enough for Walt. They don't build rides like this anymore.

Orthodox Ride:
Jungle Cruise:
An original Disney ride often overlooked due to its flashier neighbors, it contains the best script in the park which can cause you to further appreciate classic animatronics and overlook residually offensive items because of the ride's age.

Russian Orthodox Secondary Ride:
Pirates of the Caribbean
The most creative ride in the park and it was built by Walt! It is therefore old, beautiful, but full of disreputable characters you should not like but often do.

Greek Orthodox Secondary Ride:
Storybook Land Canal Boats
This is a place that contains the best of all the other lands where one admires the age of the ride, the perfect preservation of the parts, its beauty, but secretly wonders if it is not just a bit slow.

Antiochian Orthodox Secondary Ride:
Gadget's Go Coaster
The best roller coaster in the park for its size, but that means it is pretty small.

Taken from John Mark Reynolds

Gee, I completely forgot....almost

2005-10-11T23:01:00.000-07:00

Well folks, It seems that I truly forgot, for a time anyhow, that I actually have a blog that I'm responsible for. Not that I have a huge readership by any means. My inactivity here would certainly drive off the 2 or 3 of you that care. My friend and brother Matthew J. says that he still loves me though, and that he can maybe afford to get his hiney across the pond. That, by the way, is what doctor harbs suggests for all of you that might be trapped in the exhausting whirlwind (I like that word) of American politics, natural disaster after natural disaster, etc. As the Good Book says, all these wars and rumors of wars, fires, famines, droughts, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and Turkey vying for a spot in the EU are merely the beginning of the birth pangs. Geez. Let us just eat, drink, and be merry.

I haven't heard from my good friend Ken Smith, who lives in Mcleod Ganj, in northern India. This crazy earthquake that has destroyed so much of Pakistan was felt in Dehredun, India, and if it was felt there, which is further away from Mcleod Ganj, and not nearly as high in the mountains, I worry that there may have been damage or injury there. I can't find anything to suggest that this is the case on the internet, and CNN, BBC, and SkyNews are only focusing on Pakistan. No news is good news, hopefully.

I've got fall break coming up in a week and a half...already! 2 weeks OFF!!! and not much money to spend. We were hoping to get down to the coast of Croatia, which is supposed to be just gorgeous and fairly cheap. I don't know. Maybe we'll hit Treiste, Italy. Not as far away.

It's slow going trying to get settled in a foreign land. We don't have a car. It would be nice to have one, but I don't see any sign of it happening on the horizon. We can take the bus around, though, or of course walk. The city is pretty nice, and when the sun is out it's really lovely. But alas winter is nigh, and having lived in Hawaii for the past few years, I don't have any winter clothes, suitable for a real winter, you know, complete with roasting chestnuts, red noses with a small drip of snot suspended on the tip, and the whole thing.

For my man Matt who want the coordinates to get here.......it's easy. Go to O'hare. I'm sure that you can find a cheap ticket online from there to, say London or Frankfurt or Paris. It's just a hop skip and jump to Ljubljana. Just let me know and I'll pick you up. OR....I have over 3 weeks off for the Christmas break. We'll go to Holland for a bit of it. Cheap winter flights. Come one come all.

A New Beginning

2005-08-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

I have officially begun work in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It was a whirlwind of grand proportions getting things arranged in order to make this move, but I think it's gone relatively smooth. We left Little Rock, Arkansas 11 days ago, though it seems like so much more time has passed since then. My wife and little boy, whom I miss terribly, are in the Netherlands with her family, and I haven't seen them since the day we left Little Rock. I've spoken and made silly noises on the phone with them daily, however, and have been plowing my way through the anguish of trying to secure appropriate housing for a decent price in a completely foreign city. It seems that I've finally managed to do it. We'll be living in a large apartment building that from the outside and the dark hallways just screams "socialism". The flat itself is quite doable though, and the neighborhood is quite nice, complete with outdoor cafe's, a willow-lined brooke, and a giant old-church.

I'll be teaching at a very small international school (click the title of this entry for the link); junior high Language Arts as well as high school Literature, Writing, and Modern World History. Getting into my work a bit more over the past few days has allowed me to keep occupied with something other than missing my family and stressing about a home. I'm going to be quite busy, it seems.

Well, as a great poet once quipped, following the less-travelled road seems to make all the difference. What will happen?

What in the world...?

2005-08-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

I have been offered and have accepted a position teaching secondary English and History at the QSI International School of Ljubljana. Check out www.qsi.org for a glimpse of the organization.

Through a fascinating series of events over the last week and a half, the deal was cut that will take me and my little family to the capital city of Slovenia in order to teach at this school for the children of American expatriates and other native English-speaking people. We will be well taken care of and the career opportunities are really too good to pass up. Every door seemed to close here in Little Rock, and this door has just swung open.

We're shooting to leave Little Rock on the 15th, so for all you who were thinking of coming to visit, you better get to it. Or hey, now you have another excuse to go to Central Europe.

We're pumped. Petra is thrilled to get back to Europe.

Ljubljana has been called Prague without the tourists. 2 hours from Venice, Italy. 3 and a half hours from Vienna, Austria. The Alps. The Aegean sea. A magical city of castles and boroque (?) music, and my work cut out for me in helping to pioneer this particular schools secondary classes. The Ljubljana school is a relatively small one within this particular organization, which is largely considered the school of choice for the American embassies in at least 18 international cities.

sweet.

yours, with miles to go before I sleep...

From Little Rock to Ljubljana?!?

2005-08-01T16:07:00.000-07:00

I say only this in order to leave you in the utmost of suspense and total confusion...

In less than 3 weeks we're moving to Ljubljana, Slovenia.

stay tuned...

Bob 8, Willie 1

2005-07-03T12:20:00.002-07:00

So last night was fabulous. Ray Winder field, home of the Arkansas Travelers, played host to Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, and I was right up front. The show marked my eighth time to see Bob and my very first Willie show. Oh, my.

To see Dylan's setlist you can check out www.bobdylan.com. At first glance the list may seem a little predictable. No outright surprises. Opened with Maggie's Farm. To Ramona was a pleasant surprise, and High Water (for Charly Patton) was seriously amazing. Actually, all of last nights renditions were just amazing. Bob played piano all night. I heard that it sucked when he played keys, but I must beg to differ. Bob was having a great time, smiling in between songs and really getting into each number, often times much more than when he plays guitar. I sometimes feel silly every time I say it, but each time I see Bob it's better than the last time. Last night was absolutely the best gig yet.

Willie was also a joyous occasion. Pancho and Lefty. Will the Circle be Unbroken? Need I say more. And his son Luther on lead guitar singing a frighteningly great rendition of Stevie Ray's Texas Flood. Look out for Luther Nelson.

My oh my. For a brief few hours last night, all was right in the world.

Bob 8, Willie 1

2005-07-03T12:20:00.001-07:00

Bob 8, Willie 1

2005-07-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

The search continues

2005-06-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

So I've applied for two teaching postions at this point, one at Little Rock Christian Academy and the other at Bauxite High School. Bauxite (yes, like the element) is a scary little town outside of L.R. and they needed an English teacher. I said needed. I spoke to the principal about an hour ago and they filled the position not 30 minutes earlier. LRCA also filled their spot. I got a social worker friend of mine scouting the job opps here in our state capitol. I'm dyin' over here.

I notice that the state attorney general's office is advertising for an attorney to act as associate to the attorney general handling civil cases on behalf of the state. Now that'd be something, but I don't think I'm qualified.

You should all check out www.calltorenewal.org. Who wants to start a little branch here in LR while I'm here?

I'm balancing the thin line between being broke and being depressed and broke. Perspective, man, keep your perspective I keep telling myself. Something will come along.

Anybody read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair? At least it's not as bad as that.

A new year is upon us

2005-06-19T16:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my 31st birthday, and today is my very first father's day. I'm getting older by the second now, I can really feel it. A friend (who just happened to play semi-pro ball in Italy and rode a full ride hoops scholarship to the United States) just called wanting to know if I wanted to go play basketball with some people. Are you kidding me?

It's been a while, and while I don't have internet access in my domicile as of yet I thought that I'd better get back to work on this crazy little thing called blog.

We've done it. We've moved from Hawaii to Little Rock, Arkansas, and if one more person rolls there eyes at me when I tell them so and asks why I'd do such a thing I might just poke 'em in the eye.

I've applied to a Master'd degree, and have yet to hear if I'm accepted. I'm working a go nowhere job at Boulevard Bread Co., a sort of high dollar coffee shop-slash-gourmet haberdashery of fancy foods. It really is great coffee and food, but the money ain't so hot, so I'm looking.

I noticed that a pal put out a bit of a summer reading thing on his blog, so I thought that might be a good idea here. My birthday/father's day gift (along with the conplete 4th season of the West Wing on DVD - btw, which has in a twisted postmodern sort of way awakened within me a dubious political hawkishness that I'm sure is driving my wife crazy) was Thomas Friedmans's latest Book The World is Flat. I'm excited to get into that one. Along with his column in the New York Times, his other books...The Lexus and the Olive Tree, From Beirut to Jerusalem, and Longitudes and Attitudes have blessed me, so this one excites me a bit. I'm also reading, albeit slowly, Education for Social Citizenship: Perceptions of teachers in The U.S., Britian, Australia, Russia, and China. This one was given to me by my uncle, Jefferey T. Fouts, who happens to be the book's co-editor along with some Marxist guy from Hong Kong Universtiy named F.E. Lee. It's interesting, but believe me, you gotta want it. I also just checked out from the public library, which I encourage you all to support in your own communities, the recently published 2nd edition of Arkansas Politics and Government, again my political buggery coming out, as I'm slowly becoming addicted to the gubernatorial race (did I spell that right?) that's shaping up here in the state capitol. I need the proper background of Arkansas politics that this book just might provide. I just finished John Grisham's latest effort, The Broker, which just made me long for the intrigue and adventure that every lawyer or political operative surely experiences. Maybe I'll go to law school.

Anyway, It's good to be back in the land-a-cotton, with my wife and boy, frequent trips to the minor league ball park (where I'll witness Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson together soon) and the heat...Lord, the heat.

So, if Sam Walton's willing and the Arkansas river don't rise I'll update you all and maybe even take a few questions to boot. Come see us. We'll eat at the Flying Fish or Simms Barbeque and sit a spell.

ciao...

Final blog from Hawaii

2005-04-05T11:05:00.000-07:00

Well folks, we fly out this evening on our way to a new life in Little Rock, Arkansas. We'll be flying into Pheonix, Arizona, where we will pick up our new car that my uncle has graciously given us. We are now pimpin' a 97 Ford Taurus. We will then drive all the way to Lubbock, Texas, where we will pick up a bunch of stuff at my sister's house and put it in a rental truck. We will then drive on into Little Rock, and should arrive on the 11th if all goes according to plan. Lord please let it all go according to plan. We'll see how the boy does on airplanes and long car rides.

So, upon updating my little blog next, I'll have to change the name. Aloha, Hawaii. It's been real.

Where in the world is Dr. Sax?

2005-03-26T09:53:00.000-08:00

The elusive alabaster albatross himself? Long time no hear.

"Western civilization is on the verge of spiritual bankruptcy as it moves steadily towards cultural suicide."

2005-03-15T22:26:00.000-08:00

So says Ravi Zacharias. Click on the above quote to read the full article. It's long, but poignant.

Help this drunk man get home

2005-03-14T23:42:00.000-08:00

click the title of this entry for a really cool game. The instructions are in German, but the idea is to get the drunk guy home. He lives 100 meters from the bar, and you have to use your mouse to keep him on his feet. How far can you get? Have fun! (I thought about naming this entry "help Jason get home from Ferneau"...)

the death of the gospel in the red light district

2005-03-09T20:40:00.000-08:00

About a year and a half ago my wife and I were visiting family and friends in her home country of the Netherlands. Having spent a month with her parents and brother in the small village of Molenaarsgraaf, we decided to spend a couple of weeks in Amsterdam, staying as guests at the YWAM base there, where we first met. One Sunday morning we decided to attend a church service at the famed Oude Kerk (or Old Church) which looms smack-dab in the middle of the infamous red light district. Built around 1100 AD, the ominous Oude Kerk was of course the center of old Amsterdam, but now is surrounded, quite literally, by a hodge-podge of brothels, complete with women of all sorts standing in windows, shrouded by red neon light and waiting for their next customers to come along. A typical Saturday night outside the Oude Kerk brings with it the sort of company that’ll make the hair on your arms stand up and a sort of heaviness in the air amidst the loud music and street noise that’s downright creepy. On Sunday mornings, however, the red lights are turned off and the curtains in the windows are drawn. The sun shines off of the water in the canals, and the narrow lanes play host to only a handful of leftover revelers, the occasional junkie trying to remember how he got there, and here and there a woman of the evening, freshened up beyond recognition, heading home for the day, maybe to check on her family, or perhaps even running off to church. Such was this sunny Sunday morning whereupon my wife and I decided to go to church in the Red Light District.
Out of the Netherlands springs of course the Dutch Reformed church, and my wife tells me that there are as many flavors of Dutch Reformed in Holland as there are Baptist here in the States, a sort of cornucopia of Calvinism, if you will, right on down to the fundamentalists, or hyper-Calvinists. Without going into all the theological debates that inevitably come with Calvin, this particular congregation was surely among the saddest lots of worshipers this side of Pentecost, nary a smile to be seen. Everybody’s so somber. The service was conducted in Dutch, naturally, and since I can only speak enough Dutch to say that I don’t speak Dutch, while we stood up, and sat down, and stood up, and sat down again, going through the motions, I couldn’t help but gawk at the magnificent old masonry and stained glass that surrounded us, and wonder at the vast emptiness of this once magnificent house of worship. What was it like 700 years ago? The gaggle of believers gathered together only occupied a significantly small amount of floor space, which had been portioned off exactly in the center of the huge room, leaving tons of empty space between us and the walls. The minister finally took to the pulpit, adorned in his heavy green reformation style robe, and began to speak. I had no idea what he was talking about, and I noticed that throughout the sermon, my wife would look toward the floor, almost in disgust. When the service ended and we walked back onto the streets of the District, I finally asked my wife what the sermon was about. “Prayer,” she said “and it was a load of shit.”
I listened with raised eyebrows while my wife went on to explain that this guy wasn’t the usual minister, but some venerable old so and so from whatever Reformed seminary he was from. His learned sermon was all about how prayer served no purpose as far as God was concerned, but only served as some sort of exercise to make us feel better about ourselves, or to help us cope in a wicked and painful world. It’s a good thing to do, yes, but you should know that it really doesn’t matter at all in the grand scheme of things. In other words, you can’t commune with God. You can’t converse with God. You certainly can’t influence God. God’s will is going to happen, whether we pray about it or not. Or, in other words pray to pacify yourself, because Enshalla! And they wonder why the big church in the red light district is dead, while clowns like this are preaching a defeated gospel, not the gospel that the Bible teaches, of one who came to bring life more abundantly. One who has designed this thing called prayer to be the instrument by which we might know His will, and by which it might be released here on earth as it is in Heaven. It ain’t just all about us.

What happened today that made you laugh?

2005-03-01T00:11:00.000-08:00

I've been working a few evenings a week at Aki's, a little mostly-japanese food cafe down on the waterfront in Kailua town. It's a pretty nice gig, helping out in the kitchen and scoring a free dinner every night that I work. Tonight? Fish and chips featuring a small portion of a 600 pound blue marlin that was swimming in the pacific ocean yesterday. Mostly Japanese food, I said. Aki is a happy Japanese guy who's always laughing, and he speaks with such a thick accent that I only catch about half of what he says. We manage nevertheless. Aki's mother is 83 years old, doesn't speak a lick of English, and often hangs out at the restaurant "helping out" as it were. Well tonight Grandma-san was hanging around, as usual. Two customers had just finished their meal and had left, so Grandma-san decides to help clean the table. One of the customers had ordered a beer (Beck's, for the record) but left the bottle at least half-full. Grandma-san decides to carry the bottles back to the sink area, where I was busily washing plates and whatnot. I look up and into the kitchen just in time to see an 83 year old Japanese woman who comes up to my elbow at best, having just stepped out of anybody in the dining area's line of sight, tip back her head and just start chugging the rest of that Beck's, right from the bottle. In her other hand is an empty Guiness bottle! What's more, the Beck's must have been warm or something, because it started getting all foamy and spilling out all over Grandma-san's blouse, whereupon she just muttered something in Japanese (surely she was swearing) and just continued on to the sink to pour out the rest and place the empty bottles in the empty bottle crates where they belong. Just like that. Now freeze-frame in your mind if you will a short little wobbly 83 year old Japanese woman ducking into the kitchen and downing somebody's leftover Beck's, holding another bottle in her other hand. Now unpause your image and watch the beer foam all over her, causing her to presumably cuss in Japanese like a swarthy ol sailor man. I tell you that it was the funniest thing that I have seen in quite a while. Oh, my what a laugh. That made my whole week right there.

What happened today that made you laugh?

Circle Six Magazine

2005-02-27T19:05:00.000-08:00

I have been asked by the powers that be at Circle Six Magazine, a webzine boasting the tag-line "all things to all men", to join their minions as a staff writer. I posted my Hunter S. Thompson blog entry on their discussion boards, and I guess that they were impressed. I met Erick, the editor-in-chief, on the Relevant Magazine boards a couple years ago now, I guess. We and several others have sort of kept tabs on each other a bit via email and what not ever since. As the Relevant boards seemed to loose their lustre, Erick and some others started up c6m as a sort of online community for guys to do a little online hanging out and discuss life, faith, culture, beer, and your ordinary mish-mash of guy stuff. So, I'm the latest addition to the staff of c6m. Look for my first article to show up within a couple of weeks, and log on to the discussion forums if you get a hankerin' to. I'm looking forward to being a part of this project and hope that it'll provide for some good times for good people. Let's just see what happens.

Where do we go from here?

2005-02-25T09:59:00.000-08:00

Well, here's one from the Associated Press. I mean, really. Aren't we all getting a little to sensitive anymore? Aren't there better things to worry about that might "send the wrong message to kids"? Me thinks the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has just run out of things to make a stink about. What about gummi worms? It might make kids think that it's ok to pull a worm apart and eat it. What about the worm's rights ,dammit? Or Teddy Grahams. You can't simply bite the head off a bear. It's spieciesist. And don't get me going on the goldfish crackers. Believe me, that little smile that's on the goldfish cracker is a LIE! Back to the roadkill candy....I can see it now. Little Suzie or Jimmy, 7 or 8 years old maybe are eating some candy shaped like a squished chicken. Suzie says "Hey, look at this, a crushed chicken." Jimmy says "wow, hey let's go find a chicken or a kitten or a doggie or a squirrel or a fish or a birdie or a snake or a frog and smash it with a hammer!" Suzie responds "OK, or maybe we can run over them with our big-wheels." Then mommy comes outside to find Jimmy smashing a puppy over the head with a sledge hammer and laughing gleefully, while Suzie is swinging a snake around in the air like a bullwhip and striking it against a tree. "Kids," she says "What on earth are you doing?" Jimmy stops mid-swing of the sledge hammer, and with green and purple candy residue on his grinning little face replies "Mommy, we're simply acting on the notion that that it's OK to harm animals like our candy has suggested."

Geez...It's freakin' CANDY! I know that when I was a kid I wasn't pondering the moral implications of sour patch kids and lemonheads. Come to think of it, I did eat alot of Nerds, though. What about my rights? Is it only the animal candy that we're worried about here? What about Air Heads, or dammit, Nerds! Nevertheless, I was too busy shooting sparrows with my BB gun to blame my low self-esteem on Willy Wonka. What about all those birds I shot? The candy made me do it.

Animal Activists Upset at Road-Kill Candy
Friday, February 25, 2005
TRENTON, N.J. — Animal rights activists are disgusted by a new candy from Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) that's shaped like critters run over by cars — complete with tire treads.
The fruity-flavored Trolli Road Kill Gummi Candy (search) — in shapes of partly flattened snakes, chickens and squirrels — fosters cruelty toward animals, according to the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (search).
"It sends the wrong message to children, that it's OK to harm animals. And that's the wrong message, especially from a so-called wholesome corporation like Kraft," said society spokesman Matthew Stanton.
The society is considering petition drives, boycotts and letter-writing campaigns to get the candy pulled from the market, Stanton said.
After receiving a complaint from the NJSPCA Wednesday, Kraft officials pulled an animated advertisement from Trolli's Web site that featured car headlights and animals. No other decisions on changes have been made, said Kraft spokesman Larry Baumann.
"If you look across the Gummi category we certainly have many products that are offbeat, and that's what we were doing in this case," Baumann said. "We didn't mean to offend anyone."

Last thoughts on the Death of the American Dream

2005-02-22T09:13:00.000-08:00

Reflecting on the suicide of Hunter S. Thompson, somebody wrote something like "yeah we're sad, but not surprised. Mourning just doesn't seem appropriate in this case, rather maybe just a few belts of Wild Turkey, some ether and a couple doses of mescaline would be a more proper way to send him off". Well, that sounds about right. The wasteful and tragic end of a nihilistic life simply taken to it's logical conclusion. It was indeed a strange thing to get the news. I'm out in Hawaii, a few hours earlier than the mainland folks who were probably sleeping when word first got out via the AP. I noticed the yahoo headline eight minutes after they posted it.

In a Bizarro world kind of way, I feel like although I didn't know the guy personally I was only one degree removed from the Dr. himself. Back in about 1996 or thereabouts I was living in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. I worked at a little Deli/Bookstore called Plato's...which is where I obtained my hardback copy of Generation of Swine for a mere 5 bucks. Plato's was owned by Sandy Hill, this burned out philosophy professor from the 60's and 70's who was fonder of the whisky than he was his fifth wife, Paula. My then boss would often invite me to accompany him to the only bar in the dry county, the Siloam Springs Country Club, where the rag-tag who's who would swill well drinks and smoke cigarettes. It was there, gin and tonic in hand, that I met Siloam Springs attorney and municipal judge Stephen Sloan Thomas. On more than one occasion he and Sandy and I would sit and drain many a cocktail while discussing our favorite books and making recommendations to each other. Somewhere I still have his top ten list written on a cocktail napkin from the Siloam Springs Country Club lounge boasting Robert Penn Warren in the number one spot. The judge, who was a fine old-timey bluesman, picked a mean number on his old Herringbone Martin. We played together several times. He became a friend. Stephen Sloan Thomas went to Yale in the 60's. While a divinity student at Yale, he became pals with one Gary Trudeau, who based most of the characters in his comic strip Doonsbury on his old Yale buddies. Anybody who knows and loves early Doonsbury will remember the wise and respected Reverend Scott Sloan. The Reverend Scott Sloan is my pal the judge, Stephen Sloan Thomas. In the annals of Doonsbury I don't know if the Rev. Scott Sloan ever meets up with the voracious Uncle Duke or not, but that's my own one-degree-away-from-Hunter S. Thompson story. Hunter S. Thompson is Uncle Duke, fellow Doonsbury character along with the Rev. Scott Sloan, who is my pal the judge.

I wonder what Gary Trudeau will make of all this.

Needless to say that growing up and living in Roswell, I didn't ever catch wind of Hunter S. Thompson. The journalism department at Roswell High School wouldn't have known what to do with him, to be sure. I first learned of HST in 1993 sitting in the old State Line Cafe in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. (Indeed, over the first two years of my college experience I probably learned more sitting in the smoke filled greasy haze of State Line Cafe than I did in any JBU classroom, unless the venerable Dr. Guinn was at the helm.) My one time girlfriend, Erin Webb was a journalism major because of Hunter S. Thompson. As our little band of misfit bohemian beats sat around a table smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee amidst stacked books and journals, we would read aloud to each other from our favorite writers. While some read poems and such, and I read chapters from Catch-22, she read from Thompson's Songs of the Doomed. And thus I was introduced to the realm of Gonzo Journalism. (A few years later Erin's life would nihilistically come to a tragic end as well.) I was fascinated with, and I must admit maybe a bit frightened by Hunter S. Thompson from that point on.

An op-ed piece in the New York Times today pays homage to Thompson's contribution to no-holds-barred jounalism, reminding us that if we can sort through all the druggy haze and downright lunacy, we'll find a writer who was an absolute genius at the craft. A writer so dedicated to the art of the written word that he actually re-typed Ernest Hemingway's novels just to know how it was done. One can't help but wonder if his Hemingway-esque departure wasn't done merely for the same reason.

Lord have mercy.

Hunter S. Thompson suicide

2005-02-20T21:11:00.000-08:00

The associated press announced that famed "gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson killed himself tonight in his home in Aspen, Co. There aren't any stories out yet other than a very generic AP blurb. I read alot of his stuff back in college, and even in later years. Aside from the drug induced stuff like fear and loathing, I enjoyed his political stuff, particular Generation of Swine chronicaling the Reagan years in that Hunter way. It was interesting to read his take on all the beltway goings on whist I was a child growing up in Roswell. I'm sure I'll say a bit more on this as the details come out. One can only guess why he might have done it. I find out pretty quick after the fact, I think, out here in Hawaii. It's only just after 7 pm, whereas all my pals on the mainland are probably sleeping and won't here till morning. What a monday morning that news'll make.

As I live and breathe

2005-02-12T18:57:00.000-08:00

As I write this, I sit in the kitchen of my pal Jason Weinheimer, founder and ceo of sellout music (www.selloutmusic.com) hipster part time frontman of the boondogs (www.boondogs.com) along with his wife, the legendary Indy Grotto from all the way down under, bassist for the Easy's (www.theeasy's.com) and co-brainiac behind the vehemently indie indie label spin south records (www.spinsouth.com). It's Little Rock in the Winter, grey, misty and gloomy today, sunshiny and crisp yesterday. The word on the street is that me, my darling bride and bouncing baby boy just might move here, so I'm here snifffing around. Word also has it that my pal Chris Michaels, famed Little Rock attorney and (upright) bassist for the boondogs and former member of the fabled beanland, who's principal songsters now inhabit the Widespread Panic realm (Jo Jo and George), upon learning that ol' harbs could be moving to town reportedly said "so what kind of funky band are we gonna start?" I have visions of of a fourpiece consisting of me playing this killer resonator guitar and squawkin old timey stuff, Jason on upright, Michaels playing a crispy lead electric guitar ala Buddy Miller or Gurf Morlix and Boondog drummer-slash-Easy's frontman Issac Alexander sitting at an old barroom piano. Imagine the possibilites! I'll fly away indeed.

I went to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library today. It's pretty darn cool. There's something about standing in the doorway of an exact replica of the Clinton era oval office and seeing all the stuff that just gets you, somehow. Very cool.

Got the promise of a job at this gourmet coffee/bakery type place that specializes in exotic cheeses, salami, olives, and all that fancy type of food that I really like. Found this groovy apartment that my wife says we should just get even though it's only one bedroom. Met some great folks. Trees. Rivers. Groovy catfish joints. Art. Music. Access to other places. Methinks a new chapter in the never ending saga of my life is upon us. What will happen?

A hiatus from the missional world, a family, a job at a semi-society type place. Food, folks, and fun. A university campus or two; places where I can go to and work on my Master's (assuming I'm accepted, of course) via correspondence that facilitate learning and stuff. Parks for my boy to learn to run and play in while my wife and I hold hands and smile and be silly together. What's not to be excited about? Money? Well....the Lord has never failed to provide so far, and has no reason to now. Let's get off that rock out in the ocean, huh?

Kinky for Governor

2005-02-03T09:42:00.000-08:00

Man, I was born in Texas, so I think that I should get a vote!

from the FoxNews website:

-begin-

Kinky Friedman Runs for Texas Governor
Thursday, February 03, 2005
SAN ANTONIO — Musician-turned-mystery author Kinky Friedman (search) is promising an unconventional campaign in his independent bid to get elected Texas governor next year.
Wearing blue jeans, black cowboy hat, a black fringed Western jacket and smoking a cigar, Friedman announced his candidacy in front of the Alamo on Thursday morning.
"We're going to wake up this great slumbering giant of Texas independence," he said just after sunrise.
About 200 people were present for the announcement.
Friedman's announcement came 13 months before Democrats and Republicans select their nominees. He labeled the parties as "decaf or regular, paper or plastic."
"I want the thing to be fun," he said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "But you can do something fun and still have it be important."
"It's no choice at all," he said of the established parties. "Now we'll have a choice, a voice, and see if it means anything."
One hurdle he faces will be getting on the November 2006 ballot since filing regulations clearly favor the traditional parties.
He'll have up to two months in 2006, following the March primary, to collect 45,540 valid signatures on petitions to get him on the ballot later in the year as an independent. That's 1 percent of the votes cast in the November 2002 governor's race.
But according to filing rules, signatures he collects can't come from people who voted in that primary. And if there's a primary runoff, the signature period shrinks to 30 days after the runoff.
"We'll get it," he says confidently. "Things will happen."
Incumbent Rick Perry (search) is expected to seek a second full term, but a pair of fellow Republicans, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (search) and Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn (search), have been mentioned as rivals for the GOP nomination.
"The Kinkster's independent candidacy is no less of a joke than what Democrats have put up in recent years," says Luis Saenz, Perry's campaign manager.
Friedman's nearly two dozen books include one called "Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned." His campaign bumper stickers proclaim: "Why Not Kinky?"
His humor often plays on his Jewish background. He quotes Bob Dylan (search) and Willie Nelson (search), both friends, and he views the success of Jesse Ventura (search) in Minnesota and Arnold Schwarzenegger (search) in California as a sign he can prevail similarly in Texas.
Friedman's given first name is Richard and picked up the nickname Kinky for his wiry curly black hair when he was at the University of Texas in the 1960s.
After graduation, he joined the Peace Corps (search) and spent two years in Borneo. He had some modest success on the entertainment circuit with his band, The Texas Jewboys (search), attracting the attention of Rolling Stone magazine in 1972 and eventually touring with the famous all-star Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder Revue (search) in the mid 1970s.
A decade later, he traded music for a typewriter and wrote the first of 17 mystery novels. His readers include President Bush and former President Clinton, and both had him as an overnight guest at the White House.
In 1986, he ran unsuccessfully for justice of the peace in Kerrville, where he lives on a ranch nearby. Until now, it was his only bid for political office. More recently he has been writing a column for Texas Monthly magazine.
A key element of his campaign is the fight against what he calls the "wussification" of Texas, which he defines as political correctness run amok.
He favors legalizing casino gambling to solve the state's education finance dilemma, would push for life without parole to provide an alternative to the death penalty and create a Texas version of the Peace Corps, enlisting the help of his friends in the entertainment industry.

-end-

I love the pictures of Kinky on tour with Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review wearing a t-shirt that says "Bob who?" on stage. Who might he appoint to cabinet postions? Any nominees?

whatever happened to spinsouth?

2005-02-02T15:02:00.000-08:00

It's been so long...where are they? Jason? I need my steal of the week...

the quotable Lewis

2005-02-02T09:59:00.000-08:00

An unliterary man may be defined as one who reads books once only. There is hope for a man who has never read Malory or Boswell or Tristaram Shandy or Shakespeare’s Sonnets: But what can you do with a man who says he “has read” them, meaning he has read them once, and thinks that this settles the matter? . . . . We do not enjoy a story fully at first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties. Till then, it is like wasting great wine on a ravenous natural thirst which merely wants cold wetness. —C.S. Lewis, “On Stories” in Essays Presented to Charles Williams

I found this quote and started thinking about the stuff that I have read more than once. Sadly, not a whole heck of a lot. What a poser. How guilty are we all of simply wasting great wine on our natural craving for plain ol' water? Stop and smell the musty pages.

More disturbing evidence of our nation's poor education system

2005-01-31T15:29:00.000-08:00

This article is from the foxnews website...

-begin-

Free Speech? High Schoolers Say, 'Whatever'
Monday, January 31, 2005
WASHINGTON — The way many high school students see it, government censorship (search) of newspapers may not be a bad thing, and flag burning is hardly protected free speech.
It turns out the First Amendment (search) is a second-rate issue to many of those nearing their own adult independence, according to a study of high school attitudes released Monday.
The original amendment to the Constitution is the cornerstone of the way of life in the United States, promising citizens the freedoms of religion, speech, press and assembly.
Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.
"These results are not only disturbing; they are dangerous," said Hodding Carter III, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (search), which sponsored the $1 million study. "Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation's future."
The students are even more restrictive in their views than their elders, the study says.
When asked whether people should be allowed to express unpopular views, 97 percent of teachers and 99 percent of school principals said yes. Only 83 percent of students did.
The results reflected indifference, with almost three in four students saying they took the First Amendment for granted or didn't know how they felt about it. It was also clear that many students do not understand what is protected by the bedrock of the Bill of Rights.
Three in four students said flag burning is illegal. It's not. About half the students said the government can restrict any indecent material on the Internet. It can't.
"Schools don't do enough to teach the First Amendment. Students often don't know the rights it protects," Linda Puntney, executive director of the Journalism Education Association, said in the report. "This all comes at a time when there is decreasing passion for much of anything. And, you have to be passionate about the First Amendment."
The partners in the project, including organizations of newspaper editors and radio and television news directors, share a clear advocacy for First Amendment issues.
Federal and state officials, meanwhile, have bemoaned a lack of knowledge of U.S. civics and history among young people. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., has even pushed through a mandate that schools must teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17, the date it was signed in 1787.
The survey, conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut, is billed as the largest of its kind. More than 100,000 students, nearly 8,000 teachers and more than 500 administrators at 544 public and private high schools took part in early 2004.
The study suggests that students embrace First Amendment freedoms if they are taught about them and given a chance to practice them, but schools don't make the matter a priority.
Students who take part in school media activities, such as a student newspapers or TV production, are much more likely to support expression of unpopular views, for example.
About nine in 10 principals said it is important for all students to learn some journalism skills, but most administrators say a lack of money limits their media offerings.
More than one in five schools offer no student media opportunities; of the high schools that do not offer student newspapers, 40 percent have eliminated them in the last five years.
"The last 15 years have not been a golden era for student media," said Warren Watson, director of the J-Ideas project at Ball State University in Indiana. "Programs are under siege or dying from neglect. Many students do not get the opportunity to practice our basic freedoms."

-end-

It reminds me of an episode of the West Wing (I love the West Wing) where president Bartlett (Martin Sheen) is asked to give a presidential pardon to a turkey on Thanksgiving day. This goofy high school student who is taking care of the turkey is awed by the president's power to pardon a turkey. The president then rails on the kid, telling him that he actually has no power to pardon turkeys and to go back to school and demand that his teachers teach him what powers the president actually does have, and then makes a poignant remark about education reform. Anyway, I remember when I was a little kid I saw a cop smoking a cigarette while driving his police car. I was shocked to see a police officer smoking and I said "mom, that police man is smoking! Isn't that illegal?" Of course it isn't now, nor was it then illegal to smoke, but I didn't know that. I was also like 5 years old or something. I then grew up a bit and went to a high school that had a student newspaper and even a student media department, complete with our own little news show. We also had "channel one", which is where a news program, for kids-by kids was broadcasted daily during homeroom via sattelite. I remember watching daily reports of the first gulf war at the beginning of Mr. Mears' government/civics class, the very class in which I learned that burning an American flag is not illegal either. I like to think that my generation, the generation x, wasn't as lacking as the kids today. Well, actually we weren't so much lacking in education as we were simply lacking motivation (I was flipping through Bill Clinton's My Life the other day and realized that he was only 32 years old when elected gov. of Arkansas. Damn, I'm 30) although I do remember a guy named Jason Grothjan at JBU...a university, mind you...upon learning that I was from New Mexico asking "so, is New Mexico like it's own little state?" OK, maybe he slipped through the cracks. For the record, New Mexico is the 6th biggest state in the union, occupies a very large chunk of real estate between Arizona and Texas, has a big city called Albuquerque and boasts the oldest capital city in the country, Santa Fe. Some would even go so far as to say that NM is so cool some aliens were cruising the clear night skies near Roswell sometime in the 40's when their cruiser crashed. I maintain that the only aliens though are from Mexico, an entirely different country, which consequently is just to the south of New Mexico, which was the 47th United State, and remains so to this day. I wonder if the kids in today's social studies classes know that.

click here to read an interview with Tony Campolo

2005-01-31T08:59:00.000-08:00

I borrowed this link from www.liquidthinking.org. Although my pal John Mark Reynolds labels Campolo the uncle Tom of evangelicalism, I disagree. Tony came here to the UofN not long ago and I had the chance to sit in on some pretty intimate conversations with him and his wife. I also spoke to him briefly about a possible inner-city ministry opportunity that could be applied in Amsterdam much like his organization is already doing in San Francisco and Philedelphia. He got all pumped and gave me his card. It's in my wallet. I still haven't called him yet, though. I find that I agree with most of what Tony says, save the capital punishment issue (which is a fairly new stance with me, actually. I believe that Tony is blurring the line between mercy and justice, both of which Jesus stood for. But that's an involved and difficult discussion for another time.) I haven't read Speaking my Mind. I would recommend, however, Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel co-authored with Brian McLaren. I had the opportunity to listen to McLaren at the Off-the-map conference in Seattle in 2001. Good stuff. I'd visit uncle Tony's cabin any time.

click here to see my boy...

2005-01-30T19:14:00.000-08:00

Last night Hiskja and I got to spend some quality time together during which I got to tell him all about Austin City Limits. Last night we hung out and watched the Pixies. While his mother heard the indelible Frank Black coming from the living room and woke up enough to come sing along, Hiskja lost interest and fell asleep. Oh well. Maybe next week. Meanwhile, we'll defy James Dobson and catch a little spongebob.

...and here...

2005-01-30T19:12:00.000-08:00

...and here...

2005-01-30T19:10:00.000-08:00

from John Mark Reynolds

2005-01-22T16:02:00.000-08:00

I thought that this was an interesting yadda yadda yadda regarding the new Sponge Bob scandal. I dig. Not really hip to the whole "uncle tony" thing, though...

--begin--

Dobson and Sponge Bob
HughHewitt.com: "And how to explain the difference in treatment within the blogosphere accorded to Harvard's President Lawrence Summers and Focus on the Family's James Dobson? The New York Times ran a story yesterday on Dobson's criticisms of this music video. I have been unable to find Dobson's remarks except as chopped up by the Times, but today's acid editorial by the Los Angeles Times must have a copy as it concluded that Dobson concluded that Spongebob's 'a menace.'"First, no evangelical is ever allowed to denounce anything in pop culture. That is the first media rule. Since we all know, in a breath taking piece of stereotyping not seen since we danced Jim Crow, that all evangelical leaders are prudes and irrational no one ever asks if such concerns are valid. If an evangelical says it, then we know it is false and hopelessly reactionary. At this point, Michael Jackson's best p.r. hope is for some evangelical to denounce him. The LA Times would then find some way to praise the King of Pop.Second, evanglicals will by and large run away and hide when one of their own is outed for denouncing a pop culture icon, especially a cartoon. Nothing makes an evangelical young person or academic more nervous than that their carefully cultivated apologetic that "God can be cool!" will be blown away by a Jim Dobson in a minute. Such Uncle Tony award winners (to grasp the Uncle Tony award see here and here. . . put simply an Uncle Tony is a traditional Christian who enables the left in order to be taken "seriously" by the left), quickly pile on folk like Dobson to make sure they save their cultivated reputations. But to paraphrase William Shatner in his new album most of these folk are "never was" taking on "were and will be again." Dobson has done heroic labor for the Kingdom. He deserves the benefit of the doubt until we know we he said and whether what he said is defensible.I would like to offer our third Uncle Tony Award to the best example of an overly heated, before the evidence was out, distancing of a person from Dobson over Sponge Bob. Mail hopeful Uncle Tony hopefuls here.What if he said it? How bad is it? What he said needs to be taken in context of "harm done." The president of Harvard has the power to harm the self-esteem of his students. Does Dobson really have the power to finish off a cartoon sponge? If so, then Hewitt is right and he is the most influential man in America. If he did cause the Sponge to thrown in the, well, sponge, what harm? The Republic will stand without Patrick and Bikini Bottom, though my kids would be sad for at least ten minutes.Compare that to Harvard's president and his weird ramblings about women. Dobson is unlikely to kill Sponge Bob, the creators are busy doing that for him, but the President of Harvard may keep some girls and young women out of math and science. Call me crazy, but that seems worse than life without a Crabby Patty. If Dobson said what he is accused of saying, then he is at worst being overly dramatic and a bit culturally tone deaf. However, ABC goes on making Desperate Housewives which is gulity of the same problems and gets ads not vitriol. If the President of Harvard said what he said, without strong evidence to support it, then he was wrong aobut something important.Finally, Sponge Bob was a creative and very funny cartoon, a PG South Park, that made fun of everything and everyone. It was parody that the whole family could enjoy! It always had a spam-like quality, given low animation standards and jokes borrowed from elsewhere, but it did not take itself too seriously. Sadly, Sponge Bob jumped the shark when they made the Spong Bob movie. If the creative energy that went into landing David Haselhoff for the movie goes into attacking traditional families, traditional families are safe for another century.

--end--

Taken from Dr. John Mark Reynolds' blog

obscure dylan recordings

2005-01-16T20:47:00.000-08:00

I've been enjoying these tunes from brother bob on his website...this link in particular, which is Jerry Garcia doing "Simple Twist of Fate." Check it out, and the others too, like Don Henley's "The End of the Innocence" and a rare performance of "Hazel" from 1974's Planet Waves album, only the 3rd time ever played live. Ahh, to get back to the mainland. Bob ain't never played Hawaii.

http://bobdylan.com/audio/covers/twist_garcia.ram

stories of rock n roll redemption

2005-01-15T21:50:00.000-08:00

this is taken from the reputable LarkNews site

--begin--

LOS ANGELES — In a victory for nostalgia and evangelism, rock and roll acts of yesteryear are finding new life in church venues. Backstage at Calvary Community Church in Charleston, S.C., aging members of Air Supply nibble on crackers and Cheez Whiz, waiting to go onstage. But this "green room" is lined with choir robes and overlooks the backside of the baptistery. The muffled sound of cheering fans comes through the wall. "We wanted to keep playing," says Graham Russell, one of the band's longtime leaders. "Our songs still have life in them. So you tweak a few lyrics, memorize some scriptures, get yourself a testimony, and viola, you've got a fan base again." For years, bands like Air Supply and REO Speedwagon plied the county fair circuit, playing old hits and trying to pump up dwindling audiences. But as competition for county fair slots increases, and older bands fade further into the past, more are finding success playing churches, youth conventions, even acoustic sets at prayer gatherings. Ninety minutes into their show, Air Supply wraps up with their biggest hit, "Here I am, the one that you love, asking for another day." Only tonight, they sing, "Here I am, the one that you love, asking for your heart today." As part of an agreement with the pastor, the band is giving an emotionally-charged altar call. People stream forward, raising their hands and crying. Some hold lighters aloft. Some don't know why they've come down front. One man receives a booklet for new converts from one of the church's prayer partners. "I thought we were rushing the stage," he says, confused. Others find the combination of high school memories and the gospel too powerful to resist. "That song showed how much Jesus loves me better than the Bible could," says Tamara Glidden, 31, tears coursing down her cheeks. "It was like hearing the gospel in the language of my heart." When Foreigner first received an invitation from Fountain of Life Christian Center in Raleigh to perform at an evangelistic outreach, they mocked the idea. But when other gigs cancelled and the money slowed down, "We took another look and thought, 'This might just work,'" says frontman Lou Gramm, who penned rock classics like "Feels Like the First Time" and "Hot Blooded". Since then, they have played more than 40 churches across the U.S. Like most bands, they hope to re-capture the excitement of playing for an adoring crowd, though church tours lack the perquisites of stardom, like opening acts and elaborate spreads of food. The pastor or youth pastor usually introduces the band. Lighting and sound can be iffy, but bands use their arena-rock skills to keep the energy level up, kicking their legs into the air, jumping around the platform, clutching their hearts during ballads. They all agree that classic FM songs take on new dimension and impact when played in a church setting. "You haven't seen an altar call until you've seen it to REO Speedwagon's 'I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore,'" says Sam Durabian, 25, youth pastor at Second Baptist church in Boise, which hosted the band last year. "Rank sinners were down here bawling like babies." Another biggie: Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is," with its church-suited lyrics: I'm gonna take a little time A little time to look around me I've got nowhere left to hide It looks like love has finally found me In my life there's been heartache and pain I don't know if I can face it again I can't stop now, I've traveled so far To change this lonely life I wanna know what love is I want you to show me Church-circuit bands even compete with each other over how many people they can pull to the front. "Don [Barnes of .38 Special] called me last night after a church gig in Cheyenne and said they got 500 people down front with 'This Heart Needs a Second Chance,'" says Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin. "That pushes my game." But some pastors wonder if the "commitments" are real or the result of nostalgic overload. "I don't really care — we just want them to say yes," says one pastor. "We'll worry about the depth of that commitment after the concert." Bands have experienced a "church bounce" as album sales creep up the back-catalog charts. And with more bands re-uniting to exploit the trend, marketspace is getting squeezed. "We tried to book a Presbyterian church in Buffalo for Fourth of July, but they'd already booked Mr. Mister," says Air Supply's Russell "I guess the secret is out." •

-end-

Amen?

It's a Mercedes, too!

2005-01-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

So, this is actually our new neighbor's car. What a sweet ride. Only in Hawaii.

the order of the mustard seed

2005-01-10T15:32:00.000-08:00

Click the title above and check out the order of the mustard seed. Petra and I are contemplating this sort of stuff these days. A practical and purposful way to let the proverbial rubber hit the road. Who's with us?

Newt Who?

2005-01-09T23:51:00.000-08:00

The following is taken from Biola's John Mark Reynolds' blog, in response to the story that broke last week suggesting that ol' Newt Gengrich might take a stab at president in 08.

-begin-

Anything may be possible, but somethings are not very likely. It is not likely Elvis is really at your local 7/11. It is not likely that Dan Brown will donate the proceeds of DaVinci Code to the Catholic Church. It is not likely that Bill Clinton will marry Monica. In the same way, Gingrich is engaged in the strange fantasy of older men at the end of their careers that having come to an end in their chosen field, they should retire by becoming President. Four reasons Newt will never be president:

1. Clinton problems. Forgiveness? Sure, but you have to be sorry and stop. If the party base is going to overlook bad behavior in a Republican, it will be 9/11 Rudy not yesterday's Newt.

2. Bad look. Heavy, Southern, white men better look like Clinton or they look like villians in bad television movies.

3. Dated ideas. Gingrich has been running on autopilot for years. Watch him on television and count the minutes before he mentions the "Contract with America." Memo to Newt: This years freshman college class was born in 1987.

4. No executive experience. Gingrich can join every other successful presidential candidate from the House in the last one hundred years. Doesn't someone near him help Newt with self-irony?

-end-

I'll give Newt credit for making me want to read the Federalist Papers back in like '92 or'93 or whenever it was. I remember him talking about how it should be required reading for all college students who wanted to get the skinny on the constitution and the good ol' days when guys wore white leggin's and powdery wigs (sort of like Francis Schaeffer in the 1970's), so me and my old friend and former right wing, ditto-head reactionary Republican-turned-Libertarian hell's angel Drew Pickle ran out to Hasting's books and records in Roswell and eagerly picked it up while we were home for Thanksgiving or something my freshman year at John Brown University. I'm sure I read it back in Siloam Springs, perhaps in the greasy haze filled State Line Cafe between Camel lights, beat poems, and chess games with my friend and fellow bohemian Max Conroy, but I don't remember. I voted for Clinton soon thereafter, though. Sorry Newt. I also remember Robin Williams doing a great bit on some talk show - Letterman, or something - imitating Gorbachev, and he kept saying Newt Gengrich's name in this killer Moscow-On-The-Hudson Russian accent, but that's neither here nor there.

a little test

2005-01-08T13:31:00.000-08:00

So last night we had a baby shower and got lots of kiddie stuff. Afterwards our friends Luke and Lydia came over and we chatted and what not for a while then we went off to bed. Petra began having contractions, 7 minutes apart for a little over an hour. This signified our first real test run in regards to labor and actually having this little guy. First of all, it was just a test run that did not warrant leaving the house or getting all too excited. Nevertheless, the emotion and nervousness that surfaced in me pretty quick was very wierd. My stomach got all knotty and I sort of got short of breath. Now, I will say that I have had asthma my entire life, so the idea of having the baby, like, then playing any role in my breathing capability or not is up for debate. Petra was pretty calm and was more pissed off at the idea of going into labor at midnight, when she was really tired anyway. All she said was "I don't want to do this now, so just wait until morning." We did call the hospital just for a little consultation and peace of mind and it all turned out to be just a little test run from our little guy. We got to sleep and I woke up this morning feeling like I had a huge hangover, and I didn't even drink last night. So, not yet. The due date is officially the 22nd, so we'll see. We spent the morning sorting through all of the baby stuff we got last night. Isn't it amazing the wierdness that comes with becoming a father? What will happen?

we don't need no stinkin books

2004-12-28T09:39:00.000-08:00

Let's just think about how serious this really is. What does it say about grassroots America when a half-cent increase in sales tax in order to preserve a city's public libraries is just too much to ask? Raise your hand if you've ever heard of John Steinbeck. Well, anymore...especially among today's younger crowds...there might not be too many hands raised if we ask that question in the public school, or the public square for that matter. Now the folks in Steinbeck's hometown of Salinas, California are shutting down the 3 public libraries. Now I can see maybe places like Hot Coffee, Mississippi, or even Kealakekua, Hawaii not having a public library (although Kealakekua has one...of sorts. I don't know about Hot Coffee) but this is Salinas, California! 150,000 people! A blue state! Check out the article on cnn.com and see for yourself. I'm appalled.

-excerpts from cnn.com article-

Facing record deficits, the City Council voted December 14 to shut all three of Salinas' libraries, including the branches named after Steinbeck and labor leader Cesar Chavez. The blue-collar town of 150,000 could become the most populous U.S. city without a public library.

But after voters November 2 rejected a half-cent increase in the sales tax to preserve city services, Salinas has drawn the scorn of bibliophiles around the world. Editorials in newspapers from New Zealand to London have condemned the closings.

-end-

One old guy said not only is it inconvenient, but embarrassing. It is. Sadly, I don't think any of the high school kids in town will give a rip. Now I'm not just ripping on Salinas. It's a bigger problem than just theirs. Our country's priorities are pretty skewed, to say the least. Education and literacy are simply not an issue in our society at large, or if they are, they aren't the top priority. The article goes on to say...

-begin-

Libraries nationwide are struggling. According to an April study by the Chicago-based American Library Association, libraries in 41 states absorbed more than $50 million in funding cuts in the past year. More than 1,100 libraries have reduced operating hours or cut staff.
Because of cutbacks in state funding combined with rapid growth in Salinas and rising health care costs, the city cut $8 million from its budget in the last year and faces another $8 million reduction in its $60 million overall spending plan for the 2005-06 fiscal year.

-end-

I'm sure that the situation in Salinas is probably much more complicated than I know, but it's sad that the solution deemed most plausible by the city council is to close the doors on the only place where people can still go in California for free gold. It's a sign of the times, and it's embarrassing to me as an American whose early passion for literature was stoked by Of Mice and Men and Travels with Charley. If we have to shake our heads in disgust at the state of things in Salinas, we can at least applaud Oprah and her book club for prodding a million bored housewifes to turn off the soap operas and read East of Eden. That's the book that put Salinas on the map in the first place. I'll meet you there. We can find an old diner and read Cannery Row together over coffee and pie a-la-mode, then make our way to the old shut down public library and hit the killer used book sale.

napolean dynamite

2004-12-27T01:20:00.000-08:00

So I know that I'm usually a bit slow on catching most movies, but I just watched Napoleon Dynamite with some friends for the first time. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. What a freakin' hilarious film. Gah!

You can buy it for me if you want to. Looks like my best flick of '04 pick waited until the very end. Brilliant.

the quest for the radical middle

2004-12-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

Although I firmly believe that politics makes good people crazy, and crazy people dangerous, I thought that I'd reprint this op-ed piece from USA Today here...

Neither Democrats nor Republicans have a clue
By Jim Wallis
In the 2004 campaign, the religious right and the Republican Party chose a “moral values” strategy. While it might have helped them win this election, a serious focus on moral values in American politics could turn out to be a big mistake for the right — especially for its economic and foreign-policy agenda. Its efforts to reduce the values discussion to one or two controversial social issues — gay marriage and abortion — is unlikely to be successful over the long run. The conservative political agenda could come under great scrutiny when religious and moral values are applied to policies that favor the wealthy and choose war as the first, not the last, resort to threats of terrorism and tyranny.
Polls taken since the election have consistently shown that Americans care about moral values — and don't restrict them to one or two issues. For instance, a Zogby International poll found that, when asked to choose the “most urgent moral problem in American culture,” 64% of respondents selected either “greed and materialism” or “poverty and economic justice,” while 28% chose abortion or gay marriage. Voters don't want to ignore these broader issues.
Neither do our religious traditions. Thousands of verses in the Bible make poverty a moral and religious issue. The environment — protecting God's creation — is a religious matter and moral concern. Important issues of war and peace are deeply theological and just as much a “life issue” as is abortion. And human rights are rooted in the religious concept of the image of God in every person.
Right now, neither party gets the values question right. The Democrats seem uncomfortable with the language of faith and values, preferring in recent decades the secular approach of restricting such matters to the private sphere. But where would we be if Martin Luther King Jr. had kept his faith to himself? The separation of church and state does not require the segregation of moral language and values from public life. The Republicans are comfortable with the language of religion and values. But the GOP wants to narrow the focus to hot-button social issues it then uses as wedges in political campaigns, while ignoring or obstructing the application of such values where they would threaten its agenda.
We should welcome the discussion of “moral values.” And I believe the values debate should be the future of American politics. But how narrowly or widely will values be defined and how partisan will the discussion be? Will the moral-values debate cut both ways in politics, challenging both the political left and the political right? Will values be used as wedges and weapons to divide and destroy us, or as bridges to bring us together — to find common ground by moving to higher ground?
We must ask two questions: Where is the real debate in the moral-values conversation? (Because there are real differences in America on the values issues.) And where can we find common ground? (Because there is also much that we share in common that could be built upon.)
Poverty, and a serious commitment to address it at home and globally, could become part of a new common ground because the conservative and liberal sides care about it. Care for the environment also crosses conservative/liberal lines. And we desperately need a new “moral conversation” about the most effective and ethical ways to defeat the threat of terrorism without compromising our own values and integrity.
What if pro-life and pro-choice partisans worked together to dramatically reduce one of the highest abortion rates in the world by focusing on teenage pregnancy, adoption reform and economically supporting low-income women — all of which would help to reduce abortions?
When I speak across the country and say that parenting has become a “counter-cultural” activity in America, the heads of all parents, whether liberal or conservative, begin to nod. Most Americans support some sort of legal protection for same-sex couples, but the crisis of family life in America goes much deeper than how we deal with that issue. Family breakdown is indeed an urgent issue, but the real causes are found in infidelity, soaring divorce rates, family financial pressures, cultural pollution and the need to strongly support both marriage and parenting. Helping each other to raise our kids — all of the nation's children — could help unite us.
So, yes, let's discuss moral values. It might be the best way for people in the red and blue states to start talking to each other. Religion and moral values don't fall neatly into right and left political categories. Personal and social responsibility are both at the heart of religion and define what we call “the common good.” The two together could make a very powerful and compelling political vision for the future of our nation.

Jim Wallis is author of the forthcoming God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It. He is the editor of Sojourners magazine and convener of Call to Renewal, which works to combat poverty.

-end-

Well said. I urge my left-leaning friends to check out Sojourners magazine, if they would feel so inclined, and get some perspective from people of faith other than Sharpton, Falwell, et al. I would also highly encourage my right-leaning friends to do the same.

Christmas time in Hawaii

2004-12-22T09:55:00.000-08:00

So this marks my fourth Christmas in a row without any semblance of winter weather. The first was in 2001, and it took place in South Africa. That's in the southern hemisphere, so it was summer time and it was my first Christmas on the beach. The last three have been spent here in Hawaii, where the weather never changes at all and you just seem to float around in this mid-80's pleasantry all the time with visions of iced chai and orange dream machines from Jamba Juice dancing in your head. I tell you, I haven't experienced any winter weather since November 2001 in Amsterdam where it was just plain cold. Ludicrous cold. Now we can't even handle the crisp autumn weather in west texas, and when the sun doesn't shine in our condominium window on the clear Pacific mornings when the waves are splashing and crashing a few blocks below us, we curse under our fresh Kona coffee tainted breath and scramble for the flannel shirts that hang in the closet. I love the feeling of shorts and a half-buttoned old flannel shirt. It can get down right chilly at 7 a.m. out here in the middle of the Pacific. Don we then our flannel apparel until about nine-thirty or ten until it's T-shirts and flipflops and the ceiling fans come on for the day. We went to England not long ago, and I tell you that we could hardly stand the September chill. Freaking cold. All the brits are running around in shorts and tshirts (oh the white legs on those brits) while we are huddled in our wool sweaters and stocking hats laughing to ourselves that we'll never survive when we do move back to Amsterdam in a few years. I hope that Little Rock will begin to break us in. So it's laughable and in a way sort of erie when you're driving along in Hawaii in December and you see a front yard with colorful, flowery tropical plants, palm trees, and a big plastic snow man, or a sun-faded jolly old elf manequin with eight tiny reindeer. I wonder how worth it it really is to try to explain to a small Hawaiian child what exactly a reindeer is, and how the hell that thing that the fat howlie in a red suit is sitting in will ever be pulled when it ain't got no wheels. What the hell you talking about, snow? What's that? Christmas is OK, but to see the twinkling lights wrapped around a bannana tree and hear the old Bing Crosby Cristmas song on the PA and see the mad rush of mainlanders swarming the holiday speacials at WalMart when it's hot and the surf's up is just a little too much like some sort of twisted Twilight Zone meets National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. On TV you see evidence that winter does exist, and in that far away land of snow and ice skating and giant fir trees with little lights and shiny balls people are sipping hot apple cider and bundling up in their turtle-necks and gaudy christmas sweaters. It all seems strangly familiar but so obsolete. I'm going to go get some shave ice and sit by the pool, or something.

long periods of silence

2004-12-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

I know, I know. If anybody out there actually checks this site anyway I'd be suprised, but I'll apologize nonetheless for the long periods of silence. The first excuse that comes to my head is the fact that the wireless capabilities at my house are nil. It worked when we moved in...free wireless from who-knows-where, but now it has "limited or no connectivity." damn. So, that slows me down. Also, I've been busy teaching, but that has ended for the time being. I know that everybody in the world is busy, but it makes me feel better to convey the excuses for simply not keeping up. I'll try better. The news is that we are slowly getting our act together as far as moving off of this rock. The wind cries Little Rock. We have a baby soon too. whoa.

reading.........The Closing of the American Mind, by allan bloom. An amazingly prophetic book bemoaning the perils of the American higher education scene, and how it's bankrupting the souls of young Americans. It's blowing my mind and although it was published in 1987, the year of the Joshua Tree and Def Leppard's Hysteria, when I was riding the big yellow school bus to Sierra Middle School in Roswell, New Mexico, it is absolutely accurate to our situation today, friends. Read it and raise a fist.

cheers

NYT does it again

2004-11-30T09:33:00.000-08:00

I'm pleasantly suprised by the NYT yet again today. Well, if not the times then by David Brooks. I reprint his column about John Stott, and invite your comments. I think it's a great column, but there are a few names that I would add to Stott's and the end of the piece, like N.T. Wright and Richard John Neuhaus. Kudos to Brooks on this one, because he's right. If you want to make any group of individuals look like they're just a bunch of wackos, you can find plenty of people to play along. -harbs

Who Is John Stott?By DAVID BROOKS
Tim Russert is a great journalist, but he made a mistake last weekend. He included Jerry Falwell and Al Sharpton in a discussion on religion and public life.
Inviting these two bozos onto "Meet the Press" to discuss that issue is like inviting Britney Spears and Larry Flynt to discuss D. H. Lawrence. Naturally, they got into a demeaning food fight that would have lowered the intellectual discourse of your average nursery school.
This is why so many people are so misinformed about evangelical Christians. There is a world of difference between real-life people of faith and the made-for-TV, Elmer Gantry-style blowhards who are selected to represent them. Falwell and Pat Robertson are held up as spokesmen for evangelicals, which is ridiculous. Meanwhile people like John Stott, who are actually important, get ignored.
It could be that you have never heard of John Stott. I don't blame you. As far as I can tell, Stott has never appeared on an important American news program. A computer search suggests that Stott's name hasn't appeared in this newspaper since April 10, 1956, and it's never appeared in many other important publications.
Yet, as Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center notes, if evangelicals could elect a pope, Stott is the person they would likely choose. He was the framer of the Lausanne Covenant, a crucial organizing document for modern evangelicalism. He is the author of more than 40 books, which have been translated into over 72 languages and have sold in the millions. Now rector emeritus at All Souls, Langham Place, in London, he has traveled the world preaching and teaching.
When you read Stott, you encounter first a tone of voice. Tom Wolfe once noticed that at a certain moment all airline pilots came to speak like Chuck Yeager. The parallel is inexact, but over the years I've heard hundreds of evangelicals who sound like Stott.
It is a voice that is friendly, courteous and natural. It is humble and self-critical, but also confident, joyful and optimistic. Stott's mission is to pierce through all the encrustations and share direct contact with Jesus. Stott says that the central message of the gospel is not the teachings of Jesus, but Jesus himself, the human/divine figure. He is always bringing people back to the concrete reality of Jesus' life and sacrifice.
There's been a lot of twaddle written recently about the supposed opposition between faith and reason. To read Stott is to see someone practicing "thoughtful allegiance" to scripture. For him, Christianity means probing the mysteries of Christ. He is always exploring paradoxes. Jesus teaches humility, so why does he talk about himself so much? What does it mean to gain power through weakness, or freedom through obedience? In many cases the truth is not found in the middle of apparent opposites, but on both extremes simultaneously.
Stott is so embracing it's always a bit of a shock - especially if you're a Jew like me - when you come across something on which he will not compromise. It's like being in "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," except he has a backbone of steel. He does not accept homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle, and of course he believes in evangelizing among nonbelievers. He is pro-life and pro-death penalty, even though he is not a political conservative on most issues.
Most important, he does not believe truth is plural. He does not believe in relativizing good and evil or that all faiths are independently valid, or that truth is something humans are working toward. Instead, Truth has been revealed. As he writes:
"It is not because we are ultra-conservative, or obscurantist, or reactionary or the other horrid things which we are sometimes said to be. It is rather because we love Jesus Christ, and because we are determined, God helping us, to bear witness to his unique glory and absolute sufficiency. In Christ and in the biblical witness to Christ God's revelation is complete; to add any words of our own to his finished work is derogatory to Christ."
Politicians, especially Democrats, are now trying harder to appeal to people of faith. But people of faith are not just another interest group, like gun owners. You have to begin by understanding the faith. And you can't understand this rising global movement if you don't meet its authentic representatives.
Not Falwell, but Stott.

2004-11-26T14:25:00.000-08:00

So my boy Tom Friedman has admittedly been making me a little nervous lately, straying a bit from his normal level-headed fairness, in my opinion. However, his column that appeared in the NYT on Thanksgiving day I thought was quite poignant. The other day I picked up a paperback copy of the Declaration of Independance and the U.S. Constitution, published by Bantam books, for a mere dollar at Border's. I've been perusing it and reflecting on our society a little bit, in light of the political climate, which I will not get into here anymore, thank God. I also have been watching some college football games. I tend to like college sports more that pro, because there is a likelyhood that many of the players are really playing for the joy of honest competition and love of the game. (I don't like college baseball, however. I hate that phony "clank" of an aluminum bat, and the level of play is nowhere near the majors, but I digress.) In all of the games I've seen lately (only a few) I saw only one outstanding defensive play that didn't turn into the idiotic jirations and the obligatory "worship me" posing and strutting that we have to endure anymore after maybe 98% of time. This player, after making a very outstanding defensive play, simply got up, helped the other guy up and trotted off the field. I know! Imagine that! Now at the great risk of breaching the racism boundary, I simply mention that the defensive guy was white. Maybe he is truly uncoordinated as far as dancing and jirating go and just didn't want to embarrass himself, but I must say that most of what I would consider "unsportsman-like" ego inflation comes from african-american players. Maybe we can chalk that up to simple ratios, but that observation stated, label me what you will.

Anyway, with all of the fiascos of late, both political and athletic, I thought Tom Friedmans's article was on par. I reprint it here and invite your reflections and comments.

In My Next LifeBy THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

In my next life, I want to be Tom DeLay, the House majority leader.
Yes, I want to get almost the entire Republican side of the House of Representatives to bend its ethics rules just for me. I want to be able to twist the arms of House Republicans to repeal a rule that automatically requires party leaders to step down if they are indicted on a felony charge - something a Texas prosecutor is considering doing to DeLay because of corruption allegations.
But most of all, I want to have the gall to sully American democracy at a time when young American soldiers are fighting in Iraq so we can enjoy a law-based society here and, maybe, extend it to others. Yes, I want to be Tom DeLay. I want to wear a little American flag on my lapel in solidarity with the troops, while I besmirch every value they are dying for.
If I can't be Tom DeLay, then I want to be one of the gutless Republican House members who voted to twist the rules for DeLay out of fear that "the Hammer," as they call him, might retaliate by taking away a coveted committee position or maybe a parking place.
Yes, I want to be a Republican House member. At a time when 180 of the 211 members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Iraq who have been wounded in combat have insisted on returning to duty, I want to look my constituents and my kids in the eye and tell them that I voted to empty the House ethics rules because I was afraid of Tom DeLay.
If I can't be a Republican House member, I want to be Latrell Sprewell, the guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves. I want to say with a straight face that if my owner will only give me a three-year contract extension for a meager $21 million, then he's not worth working for, because "I've got my family to feed."
Yes, I want to be Latrell Sprewell. At a time when N.B.A. games are priced beyond the reach of most American families, when half the country can't afford health care, when some reservists in Iraq are separated from their families for a year, including this Thanksgiving, I want to be like Latrell. I want to make sure everyone knows that I'm looking out for my family - and no one else's.
If I can't be Latrell Sprewell, I want to be any American college or professional athlete. For a mere dunk of the basketball or first-down run, I want to be able to dance a jig, as if I'd just broken every record by Michael Jordan or Johnny Unitas. For the smallest, most routine bit of success in my sport, I want to be able to get in your face - I want to know who's your daddy, I want to be able to high-five, low-five, thump my chest and dance on your grave. You talkin' to me?
I want to be able to fight on the court, off the court, in the stands and on the sidelines. I want to respect no boundaries and no norms. And when I make your kids cry, I want to be able to tell you to just "chill" - that my coach says "stuff happens" and that my union rep is appealing my punishment in the name of the Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta. Yes, in my next life, I want to be The Man.
If I can't be The Man, then I at least want to be the owner of a Hummer - with American flag decals all over the back bumper, because Hummer owners are, on average, a little more patriotic than you and me.
Yes, I want to drive the mother of all gas-guzzlers that gets so little mileage you have to drive from gas station to gas station. Yes, I want to drive my Hummer and never have to think that by consuming so much oil, I am making transfer payments to the worst Arab regimes that transfer money to Islamic charities that transfer money to madrassas that teach children intolerance, antipluralism and how to hate the infidels.
And when one day one of those madrassa graduates goes off and joins the jihad in Falluja and kills my neighbor's son, who is in the U.S. Army Rangers, I want to drive to his funeral in my Hummer. Yes, I want to curse his killers in front of his mother and wail aloud, "If there was only something I could do ..." And then I want to drive home in my Hummer, stopping at two gas stations along the way.
If I can't be any of these, then I want to be just a simple blue-state red-state American. I want to take time on this Thanksgiving to thank God I live in a country where, despite so much rampant selfishness, the public schools still manage to produce young men and women ready to voluntarily risk their lives in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to spread the opportunity of freedom and to protect my own. And I want to thank them for doing this, even though on so many days in so many ways we really don't deserve them.

visions of Plato's dancing in my head

2004-11-19T10:38:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned, I have traded the bizarre world of Basil's in for the much more mellow Aki's cafe, and I must say that I'm very pleased with the move. My job is mostly dishwashing with a little cooking help thrown in, and the strangest thing is that I love it! The best thing for me, as I'm teaching at our litte university here four mornings a week from 9:30 to noonish (except friday mornings which are dedicated to a correspondence course I'm doing), is that it's a simple task, not much mind involved. I find myself laughing alot, and that, my friends, is a real rarity outside of the times when I'm just being silly with my sweet wife. Perhaps the thing that makes me smile most is that it really reminds me alot of working at Plato's deli and books (the greatest idea to ever shut down in Siloam Springs, Ark.) circa 1994-96. I have such a clear picture of my friend Andrew, now a noted journalist in Louisiana and proprietor of www.breadloaf.blogspot.com decked out in an apron and several towels, sitting on a large overturned pot, reading The Cider House Rules when work was slow. As I don my own apron and towels I smile fondly. As Archie and Edith Bunker would sing....those were the days. Aki's isn't Plato's, and Kona certainly ain't Northwest Arkansas, but the sly rememberances of simpler days, and fleeting glances of old friends sitting on upside-down sauce pots with a good book and a plastic glass of root beer helps to make this whole re-entry into the world of foodservice labor almost something refreshing.

a change of scenery

2004-11-15T16:14:00.000-08:00

Sometime during the late summer, or was it early fall, in 1998 I was driving west on a lonely stretch of I-40, somewhere between Little Rock, Arkansas and Oklahoma City. I had recently returned from a whirlwind, month-and-a-half long tour of Europe, you know, the kind that so many American college graduates with really big backpacks like to embark on, almost as if it's some sort of rite of passage. I had seen London, and stood as a groundling through a brilliant performance of The Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare's Globe theatre. I ate rare roast beef with horseradish sauce accompanied by hefty pints of bitter at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, the pub on fleet street where Dickens and Samuel Johnson did their drinking way back when. In Amsterdam I had pondered priceless pieces by Rembrandt and Van Gogh, and wandered blushing through the lost streets of the red light district. Ate nothing but salami and fresh mozarella in Sicily. I turned 24 in Greece, and drank ouzo after cliff diving in the Ionian Sea. In Rome I thought I heard Julius Ceasar's whisper in the ruins, and thought I felt the breath of God in the basilica of St. John the Baptist. In both instances the hair on my arms stood up. I watched World Cup soccer in a crowded tavern in Munich, drinking dunkel and cheering with the throngs for whoever happened to score a goal, Argentina, Paraguay, the Spanish...whoever. I had hopped a plane via air-hitch from Germany to Detroit to Tulsa, and it wasn't until rolling into Fayetteville a month and a half, half a world, but what seemed a lifetime later that I finally got rid of Deja Vu, the hippie chick I'd traveled with the whole time, but spoke to for only half.

Now I was back in my silver '87 Toyota corrolla heading from Little Rock to Oklahoma City, needing to find a telephone. The boondogs had come to town, friends of mine, and they were playing a little tour with the Gourds, out of San Antonio. J.R.'s lightbulb club in Fayetteville, Juanita's in Little Rock, then on to the Blue Door, a niftly little BYOB joint in OKC. I caught the J.R.'s gig and jumped at the opportunity to tag along with my old friends and new acquaintences for a few days. Went on to little rock and Juanita's spent the night and here I was rolling across the Oklahoma line. It was somewhere west of Tulsa that I finally decided to call the Hoffbrau, the steak house back in Fayeteville where I worked, and tell them that I quit. I was supposed to show up for work in about 5 hours, but I just explained that I was about 300 miles away and on the road with the boondogs and the Gourds. Now these guys were nice enough to give me time off to travel Europe and rest assured that my job would be there when I returned. It was, and I took up right where I left off. But a guy gets a certain sense of priorities when he travels abroad for a stretch of time, and once this idea of nurturing one's cultural sensitivities sets in, you really can't blame a guy for thinking it silly to pass up a chance to catch the boondogs and the Gourds at the Blue Door in Oklahoma City, America. And for free, even. Going on the road with friends, good food, fine music, and an overall sense of genuine Americana simply trumps almost everything else that a night in the Hoffbrau kitchen might offer a guy who just got back from Rome. I mean, really.

It was a few years later that I read the novel by Douglas Coupland entitled Generation X, in which the author tells of the McJob phenomenon, something that I and most of my generation had been living but somehow unable, or perhaps uninterested in chronicling for others. And it wasn't like I was simply walking away helter skelter. I did have another job lined up in Eureka Springs at a place called Sparky's Roadhouse Cafe, so in a totally self-serving sort of way my priority driven decision to quit was justified in my mind by McJob security in the form of Sparky's, which was the last restaurant that I was to work in until I wandered into Basil's bistro and pizzaria, in Kailua-Kona a couple of weeks ago.

It seems that once somebody gets in the McJob frame of mind, it's hard to kick. I quit my job at Basil's two days ago, because I got a better bite at a little cafe called Aki's a few doors down. Same pay, way more mellow. No pizza oven to burn my arms on, but probably a less colorful cast of characters. I just feel better about this place. I might be getting old, because the idea that a homeless guy with 5 full grown pit-bulls lives on the back patio of the place where I work, just outside of the door through which I carry a large trash can full of Italian table scraps late at night probably wouldn't have bothered me as much 6 years ago. Then again maybe thats' a psychological result of me being attacked by a pack of street dogs in India, of all places, and have scars to prove it....but that's another story all together. Remind me later, and I'll tell you all about it.

Anyway, all that to say that Basil's is now a figment of my imagimemory, and it's on to Aki's cafe, where I'll get free food and less stress for the same money. And that's a good thing.

2004-11-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

I'm seriously wondering if there's much of a point in me trying to maintain a blog anymore, really. If anybody has dropped by they've of course noticed that my upkeep performance is quite lacking. I did mention before that I have a poor record of finishing strong in these sorts of enterprises. But what hope there is for some inspiration for wacky stories lies in my new 4-nights-a-week job at Basil's bistro and pizzaria in beautiful downtown Kailua town. Basil's, from the outside, looks like a quaint little Italian place with prices that aren't really that over the top for a Hawaiian tourist trap. Red checkered tablecloths, nice pieces of art on the walls, mostly well crafted sketches of the local coastline scenes. The freshe smell of the sea air, as you listen to the gentle waves slapping up against the sea wall of Kailua bay, just across the street. Only about 200 yards away is the official starting and finishing points for the famed Ironman triathalon. Billy Crystal even likes to eat here when he's in town...so says the aging framed interview with Billy from some magazine of yore. I've actually run into David Robinson, the Admiral himself, of the San Antonio Spurrs at Bianelli's, another Italian joint in town, several times, but never at Basil's. He might be too tall for our place. The smell of Italiana wafting from back entices people to at least stop and peruse the menu here at Basil's. Chicken picatta. Cheese ravioli. Various pizzas. Italian sausage and peppers over linguini. Oh, look...traditional lasagna. The food? It's actually pretty good. Don't get the soup, and oh, the Lasagna that costs $10.95 a pop is actually frozen lasagna from Costco. We just put a little extra marinara sauce on it. But other than that, the grub is pretty good. They could do a little better in the wine area, but hey, but our so-so merlot goes great with the sausage and peppers dinner.

It's the cast of characters that is most amuzing to me. First there's the owners, Kenny and his brother Joe. Joe is rarely around because his wife just had a baby, so they sit outside in plastic lawn chairs and watch the Kona night hawks prowl around. (And boy, is that quite a show). Kenny and Joe aren't their real names. I know know their real names. (The fact that I don't know their real names makes me ponder some of the "trafficking" type rumors I've heard about Basil's, but haven't seen any real evidence for, but come to think of it, Kenny does keep a really large roll of cash in his pocket). Kenny and Joe are from Lebenon. Nice enough guys, but why haven't I ever met an owner of an Italian food place that's actually Italian?

The guy that I cook with most of the time is a skinny but muscular black fella from Virginia named John. John first came to Hawaii because of the military. John spent four years in the Navy, four years in the Marines and did three tours in Vietnam. He's lived in Hawaii since the war, cooks at Basil's and shoots pool on Teusday nights. Doesn't seem to get too excited about much. Nice guy.

Another cook whom I've only worked with once is named Roman. Roman is from the Bronx, and is the most stereotypical Bronx-born-and-bred New Yorker know to exist in our vast universe. I won't try to give details, but if you just looked at him you'd say "oh, he must be from the Bronx." (take that how you will). Really nice guy, who never stops talking, or rousing the waitresses in typical NYC greasy spoon style. Picture Mel from the old TV show Alice, and give him a really thick New York accent and a mouth so foul that even Dick Cheney would blush. Nice guy but somehow he makes me nervous. Says his brother is an associate vice-president of IBM. Maybe.

Ceasar is from the O.C. Cali. Kind of a big guy, diamond earrings, thick L.A. Mexican accent mixed with the lazy pidgen of the islands. Doesn't say much either. Makes furniture. Reminds me of the mexican gang members that I was so terrified of when I was in high school in Roswell, New Mexico circa 1991. He gave me a ride home last night. Really nice car. Really loud hip-hop.

Rashid is from Morocco and came to Hawaii via France, Austria, New York City. He's a very hard worker that is a very good teacher. He talks alot too, but it's fun to hear his Berber accent. We talked about all of the Moroccans in my wife's homeland of the Netherlands, many of whom are Muslim anti-assimilationists that are causing problems. (read the news from Holland lately?) He said he didn't like the Morroccans in the Netherlands. All they do is sell Hashish on the streets and make things difficult for everybody else. He's kind of right. Don't beleive us? Come with me to Amsterdam or Rotterdam. I like Rashid.

Then there's Jose, the dishwasher. Jose is from Guatalajara, Mexico and barely speaks any English. He likes to sing, and say "Hello, my friend" alot. Hard worker. Short, balding, and gapped teeth. Funny guy.

Then there's the waitresses. Of course there's a few middle-aged, sort of tired and spaced out looking new-agey end-of-the-roaders that are really terrible waitresses. Always losing their tickets and wanting us to serve salmon that isn't ready yet because they forgot to mention it until the rest of the food was ready to be served. I can't be certain, but they all seem to be named Ginny, or something like that.

Eveline is from Poland and can't say "onions." Shadya is a chain smoker and has worked at Basil's for 12 years, but only looks like she's 25 years old. Nice, but mysterious. Jaquie has tattoos (perhaps inked at the adjoining tattoo shop out back) and wears skimpy clothes. She doesn't eat meat. And then there's this other gal whose name I can't remember. She's entirely too nice and chatty. Isn't it awkward that when somebody is nice and chatty our suspicians rise? She sort of reminds me of Shelly, from the old TV show Northern Exposure.

So Basils' money is just as green as the next places, and that's where I'm working nights. I only have 3 burns so far from the 650 degree pizza oven, and have only jacked up 2 pizzas, which we served anyway. I worked at restaruant's all through college, and it just seemed alot more fun back then. I actually hung out and made it sort of a part of my life in a way that mattered for something more than some extra cash. Not anymore. I'm having a baby boy soon and our doctor just announced that she's shutting her doors and moving to Honolulu. Sweet. We're planning to move in the spring and head for the "normal" life. Perhaps in Little Rock, where it's cheap and easy, as my friend Jason put it. I'm busy teaching four days a week for the next month at our little University here, which we are little by little losing faith in. The big picture is nice and exciting. A sweet and loving wife, a baby boy, graduate school, a nice little house and a day job, then off to Amsterdam in a few years to start our school. Ik spreek geen Nederland, maar mevrouw komt uit het Nederlands. For now it's a little fear and loathing in Hawaii, where it's a great place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live here, and Basil's. Throw a 30 year old soon-to-be-dad, missionary, teacher from the University of the Nations into the mix at ol' Basil's and it only makes it a little more wierd.

Level-headedness from the NYT

2004-11-06T13:36:00.000-08:00

I've said that I'm not talking politics anymore, and I'm not really this time, other than to say that I was quite impressed with Nicholas Kristof, David Brooks, and Alissa Quart's op-ed pieces in today's (saturday) New York Times. It seems that a little bit of level-headedness is starting to show. Go check them out. (I won't put a link to them here because I think you might have to register online anyway to view them).

moving right along

2004-11-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

Well the time has come to talk of other things, of cabbages (rather than kings). I have been slacking as far as keeping up with my own blog, with pretty good reasons. First, I spent two days moving into a new apartment which, even though its' smaller and more expensive, does have benefits. Free cable may not be considered a benefit in light of my previous post swearing off cable, but it's free and I'm too busy now to just become a zombie. Free wireless internet coming from somewhere. A pool. Also, our rent is going up by increments, so it won't be full on ridiculous until January. Second, on the 3rd I completely threw out my back. It's really bad. I've made 2 emergency trips to the chiropractor, a Dr. Police (wierd name) and spent one full day completely immobilized and I'm not ashamed to say in unbelievable pain to the point of tears at one point. I think that this put me in a very bad mood, which may have been evident to some over the past day or so. I even missed our Wed. night birthing class. Then there's my work and looming studies. Finally I started a night job at Basil's bistro and pizzaria last night. So...........I vow to not talk politics much online anymore and get on with my life. How about Arafat, though? What'll happen there?

Sax, did you finish Madame Bovary? Have you started it? I'm done with it, and I promise that I will make some comments soon. For those who read Dylan's book, what do you think about him saying something about Kerouac's writing inspiring idiocy, was it? Well, I have some reading to do right now. It's a new morning and my back still hurts, but at least I can move my neck a little bit, and mom hooked me up with some dank Kona coffee. I also want to change the name of this blog. I guess nobody remembers the short-lived TV show from the 80's called Tales of the Golden Monkey? No?

Nothing but love for all you bloggernauts.

the day after

2004-11-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

Well, John Kerry will go away now. Dubya has plenty to prove to all of us in the next four years. The Senate and the House are a little more conservative now. Daschle is out, and Terry McCauliff is probably next. The Clintons are wringing their hands thinking about '08. Maybe Michael Moore will kill himself. I will not gloat. I'm an independant with the voting record to prove it. I limp to the right but don't support either party platform wholly. The limosuine liberals of the country, led by Mrs. Heinz-Kerry (I think we can all let out a sigh of relief knowing that she will go away too) will just call everybody stupid and blame everything on Rove. The majority of the country just can't be smart enough to make a decision on their own and their must have been an exit poll conspiracy. The slight majority of our country certainly can't be waxing conservative. Even though the anti-homosexual issue went 11/11, surely 2 or 3 judges somewhere will overide the conscience of the majority. Kerry's right. We gotta do something about how split our country really is. Unfortunately his uppity blue-bloodedness certainly won't do it. Not to say that W's good-ol-boyishness will appeal to the masses either. I fully expect Kerry to bow out with dignity, and commend him for foregoing the appeals that 2000 put us through. Alright George. What now?

BoSoxiness

2004-10-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

I must admit that even though I love the fact that the Sox won the world series, I was pretty dissapointed in this year's fall classic. BORING! Aparently the Cardinals had no business being in the world series. What a horrible performance, and oh, to be shut out at home in the final game of a humiliating sweep. prediction, LaRussa's gone. Did you see the looks on his face throughout the four games? Justice, redemption, and restitution would have all been better served if the ALCS would have been the end of it all. The Yanks were so much more significant than the cards, and the way that the series played out was amazing, the sox giving it to them at Steinbrenner's house. The Cards and St. Louis? A mere formality. Gravy.

In other news........I've finished Madame Bovary! Stand by...

An' if they pay me, well that's great...

2004-10-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry no posts in a few days, fans. It seems of late that we have had the proverbial rug yanked out from under our feet here in the last few days. We're being kicked out of our apartment (which is University property, and as such we are bound by University housing policy) for the simple reason that we are having a baby. Citing the ever-bogus cop-out that "it better benefits the 'community', we are being forced to move as families with small children are not permitted to live in Hale Ola (our apartment complex). Well folks.....THE EMPEROR IS NAKED! Community? We are part of the community, are we not, and we certainly do not benefit much from this decision (as fare as I can tell at this point, mind you i'm keeping an open mind). Mounting medical bills that come with having a baby. The baby doesn't come until January. The kicker is that our rent will increase from $500 a month to $825ish a month. Dont' know where that money is coming from yet, but the Good Lord has always provided and has no reason to stop now.

Anyway, I'm choosing not to remain embittered. The sox are up 2, and I talked to my man on the ground in Little Rock about the possibility of us moving there come Mayish. It' s enticing, as we need a little of the 'normal' life for a while before making our planned move to the Netherlands. If you're the praying type, we really need some money, and my work load is increasing here at the UofN starting.....now, work that don't bring an income. I see where Basil's, the little Italian eatery downtown where my sweet bride and I ate on the night that we got engaged, is hiring. A little bussing or dishwashing never hurt anybody. I'm a firm believer in the McJob.

Let's all not get too excited now.

update on Madame Bovary

2004-10-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

So I'm about half way through Floubert's (you're right, it does go good with red wine) classic tale of the moral degeneration of a young French woman........ahhh, those principled French.

My "work" schedule is about to get quite busy, and unfortunately my reading time will most likely shrink. It's wierd because I just can't read late at night anymore, I don't know why. I'm getting old, I guess, and I fall asleep easy come 8 pm. Anyway, loving it. I'm reading the classic translation by Eleanor Marx-Aveling, daughter, of course, of Karl the Kommy, who ironically never had a job in his life and was funded by Engels' father, an old-school preacher man.

When I'm done, I'll comment. Expect greatness. As usual, the comments of others are welcome and solicited. Brother Gustave. As per my English major days at ol' John Brown University, I'm unable to read one thing at a time, so I'm also enjoying a great book on fascism by Gene Edward Vieth.

As my T-shirt purchased for $5 at the Rapides Parish public library in Alexandria, Louisiana says "Zip into the future.....Read!" Book snobs of the world UNITE!

Middle Earth and the Middle East

2004-10-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

Working with the organization that I work with, suffice to say that that I get to hear first-hand accounts all the time of life in various places all over the world. Yesterday I heard from somebody who is currently living and working in Iraq, and I was surprised to hear what I did. Why? Because it's stuff that you would never hear on the news over here. It was actually good news. Positive news. But as we all know, good news is no news. A note first: the stuff we are seeing on the news is real, is happening daily and is bad, to be sure. Our friend certainly acknowledged that. However, our friends report focused on the stuff that nobody will talk about. In the city where our friend lives average monthly incomes are up from about $20 to about $150. Offices of new political parties are popping up on many street corners, and the free exchange of ideas (dangerous, but free) is beginning to abound. Re-construction is absolutely everywhere, with electricity and water reaching more people now than ever before. Schools are re-opened and being newly opened weekly and people are flocking to them to gain the education that they were denied before, and many, many people are beginning to exercise their new found freedom of religion, and are seeking answers in places that they could'nt before.

Now, I'm not posting this as an argument for or against the war in Iraq. I'm simply reporting what I've heard first hand. Some good emerging from the mess. I'm well aware that there are plenty of other first-hand accounts that would suggest nothing of the sort, and I don't diminish those reports. But there are two sides to every coin.

In other news, just downstairs from one of my favorite watering holes here in Kona, Pancho and Lefty's, there's a locally owned bookstore called Middle Earth Books. Middle Earth Books is going out of business, mainly due to the corporate giant Border's, with whom they simply can't compete. Maybe if they had an espresso bar, or something...... Anyway, I discovered last night that they are getting rid of their entire stock at outrageous prices. One can gather $40 worth of books and get a 40% discount on the lot. That's $40 worth of books for like $26. This comes as devestating news to somebody like me who has just put a moratorium on book buying. My wife and I were walking around last night and happened across Middle Earth and went in. It was so hard to keep my composure when I saw their whole stock of Dover editions. Now Dover publishes the classics for crazy cheap. Example, Short Stories of Anton Chekov for $1.50. Madame Bovary for $2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, $1.50. Forrester's A Room with a View for $2. Poetry anthologies, histories, biographies, the list goes on and on, for crazy cheap. And that's just the Dover editions. They had tables and shelves full of great stuff....John Stuart Mill, Thomas Merton, Norton anthologies, all for 50% off! The I Ching, ancient history of Tibetan Buddhism, John Bunyan, and Thoreau, the classics and contemporaries. Crazy cheap prices! 40% off a $40 purchase...................HELP!! And I truly wasn't just thinking of myself and my own sickness. I was thinking of our future school's library! Quick, somebody donate $300 so I can go clean this place out and ensure that their piles of unwanted wisdom and knowledge will be put to good use! We have to act now! They'll be gone by the end of the month!

the truth hurts

2004-10-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

Thomas Friedman's column in Sunday's New York Times reminded me once again of why I consider him the only example of level-headedness left in mainstream American jounalism. During my last trip to Northern India, a friend gave me a copy of Friedman's book Longitudes and Attitudes. It's a collection of his columns that appeared in the New York Times following September 11th, in which he basically sets off on a personal journey to discover what would drive highly educated, fairly well-off young adults from the middle east to commit such an act. His questions, comments, and analysis goes so far beyond the normal political and religious rhetoric, that when I was done with the book I felt like I had just completed a college course in Middle Eastern Studies. Read. This. Book. It was this book, in all honesty, that set me off on this jouney (that is just beginning) toward establishing a school which focuses on holistic education and more importantly, worldview. In future posts, perhaps I'll share some of the exerpts that fueled my thinking.

On to last Sunday's column. How fitting it is that his commentary would follow the accouncement that American high school students are dreadfully unprepared to enter college, and I fully agree with Friedman's endorsement of Bill Cosby for president......or at least education secretary, maybe. There's so much more to say, but I'll let Thomas speak for himself. The following appeared in Yesterday's New York Times.

'Oops. I Told the Truth.'By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
ometimes it's useful to stand back and ask yourself: If I could vote for anyone for president other than George W. Bush or John Kerry, whom would I choose? I'd choose Bill Cosby - on the condition that he would talk as bluntly to white parents and kids about what they need to do if they want to succeed as he did to black kids and parents a few months ago.
The one thing that has gone totally missing, not only from this election, but from American politics, is national leaders who are actually ready to level with the public and even criticize their own constituencies. The columnist Michael Kinsley once observed that in American politics "a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth." We could use a few really big gaffes right now. Because we have not one, but three baby booms bearing down at us, and without a massive injection of truth-telling they could all explode on the next president's watch.
The leading edge of the American baby boom generation is now just two presidential terms away from claiming its Social Security and Medicare benefits. "With unfunded entitlement liabilities at $74 trillion in today's dollars - an amount far exceeding the net worth of our entire national economy - and with payroll taxes needing to double to cover the projected costs of Social Security and Medicare, how can any serious person not call entitlement reform the transcendent domestic policy issue of our era?" asks former Commerce Secretary Peter G. Peterson, whose book on this subject, "Running on Empty," provides a blueprint for a bipartisan solution to this problem for any president daring to lead.
The second group of boomers barreling down the highway are the young people in India, China and Eastern Europe, who in this increasingly flat world will be able to compete with your kids and mine more directly than ever for high-value-added jobs. Attention Wal-Mart shoppers: The Chinese and the Indians are not racing us to the bottom. They are racing us to the top. Young Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs are not content just to build our designs. They aspire to design the next wave of innovations and dominate those markets. Good jobs are being outsourced to them not simply because they'll work for less, but because they are better educated in the math and science skills required for 21st-century work.
When was the last time you met a 12-year-old who told you he or she wanted to grow up to be an engineer? When Bill Gates goes to China, students hang from the rafters and scalp tickets to hear him speak. In China, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America, Britney Spears is Britney Spears. We need a Bill Cosby-like president to tell all parents the truth: throw out your kid's idiotic video game, shut off the TV and get Johnny and Suzy to work, because there is a storm coming their way.
The third group of boomers our next president will have to deal with is from the Arab world. The Arab region has had the highest rate of population growth in the world in the last half century. It has among the highest unemployment rates in the world today. And one-third of the Arab population is under the age of 15 and will soon be entering both a barren job market and its child-bearing years. There are eight Saudis under age 15 for every one between ages 45 and 60.
This is why I believed so strongly in trying to partner with the people of Iraq to establish some sort of decent government there that might serve as a beachhead for more progressive governance in the Arab world. I have not given up hope for this, but it may turn out that we made too many mistakes and that Iraqis are too divided for such a project to succeed. If so, the next president is going to need plan B - some combination of oil conservation that reduces our exposure to this region, a new military strategy and a renewed focus on promoting better government there through diplomatic and economic means. The Arab world is not even close to educating its baby boomers with the skills needed to succeed in the 21st century. Left untended, this trend is a prescription for humiliation and suicide terrorism.
I realize that elections are no time to expect honesty from politicians. But we're in this hole because the political season used to stop on Election Day. Now it's a permanent campaign. That is simply not a luxury our next president will have. The boomers are coming - from three directions - and we will not be able to deal with them without a president with a real penchant for gaffes of honesty.

Bravo, Mr. Friedman. Bravo. We need a grassroots campaign to overthrow MTV and the myth of reality television. The thing is, with my generation quickly becoming parents, we children of the 80's (who's parents worked hard so we wouldn't have to) need to unplug ourselves from the idiotic videogames and get ourselves back to work before we can expect our kids to listen. Finally somebody said it out loud. This outsourcing that the politicos blame on tax incentives and cheap labor is moreso about education! I've spent time in India, where college students aren't drinking themselves to death at frat parties and touting back-to-school fashion. What's amazing is that students there still would jump at the opportunity to come study in America, where they will inevitably leave most american students in the dust academically. But we'll look good in our mediocrity, by golly.

Look on any report card grading key in the country, and you will see that a letter grade of "C" is considered average. When I taught high school english, I had a female student who was from India, whose parents had immigrated to the U.S. and owned a chain of hotels. She was tied for the top GPA in her class with one other student, an American, the son of a prominant doctor and a prominant attorney. Both students worked extremely hard and never got below an A on any assignment (rarely getting below 100%). At an open house one evening this girl's father was showing a bit of dissapointment that his daughter was not the outright head of her class. I showed him a rare assignment on which she had recieved a grade below 100%. He was obviously dissapointed. Now, in my soft-heartedness (and I must admit, my nievete) I reminded him that "most parents forget that a C is considered average." He looked at me incredously and replied "Not where I come from."

volcanic dust and the quick fix

2004-10-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

A report came out today that says, based on ACT scores, that less than one in four American high school students are ready for and capable of taking on college coursework. It's a sad state of affairs when in our nation, as we now know most people can't even afford to pay for college (even state schools, much less private universities) those that can afford it, or "choose" to afford it by going into massive debt (like myself), will most likely flunk out because they haven't learned how to read, write, think critically, or even communicate with other human beings in a meaningful way. I know firsthand (and my numerous friends who have spent time in the trenches teaching high school can back me up on this) the struggles in motivating young people to think. It's especially difficult when you're teaching 11th grade English, studying the likes of Shakespeare, Dumas, Jane Austen, and Arthur Miller, and you're dealing with students who literally cannot read beyond a fourth grade level, tops. What's a teacher to do? When it's my job to teach students to read between the lines and think about abstract ideas and morals, what do you do with the student who really can't complete a sentence, much less make rhyme or reason of shall I compare thee to a summer's day/thou art more lovely and temperate or John Proctor and Joe McCarthy?

What's a nation to do? When the family has so much to do with quality education what do we do? When we glorify ghettoized language and advertise "back-to-school fashion" what do we miss? When we train somebody for a job, but fail to prepare them for life, what do we get?

Can we legislate education reform effectively? No child left behind? I can see how in the long run it might work. revamp the schools themselves. However, we want a quick fix, because our students are stupid. What do we do? What do I do?

Karl Marx said that religion was the opiate of the masses. I'm wholeheartedly convinced he said that only because he never saw a television. I'm getting rid of cable, and it really bothers me how difficult it is for me to do. Brilliant re-runs of Seinfeld and The West Wing, endless parades of college football on Saturday's, not to mention Monday night with John and Al. Heinously boring yet somehow addictive CSPAN coverage of the House and Senate. ABC, NBC, CBS, (shakes his head in disgust), FOXnews, CNN, and Headline News embarassingly ethnocentric infotainment. I'm tearing myself away, surprised and dissapointed at the wound that it's leaving. The ointment? Conversations and games with my wife, for one. As George Costanza once mused "it's amazing what you can find out about someone just by talking to them"...(sigh).
Mark Twain said "He who doesn't read the great books has no advantage over he who can't." I realize that I have to continually earn the right to complain about someone not being able to or not being interested in reading really good books. A book snob? Maybe. Is that wrong? I don't think so at all. The timeless art of storytelling isn't hard to observe. Today I'm reading The Taming of the Shrew. The Bard. Plain and simple. Tomorrow it's a toss-up between Kipling's Kim, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and the epic of epics, War and Peace. Whose with me? Let's pick one and tackle it. Why these three? Because they're the ones I have laying around my house. I've too many just crowding the shelves gathering volcanic dust. I've put a stop on book-buying for book-buying's sake. In C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce the ghost of George MacDonald asks the narrator "have you ever met a man so caught up in his first editions and signed copies that he's lost the power to read them?" I read that the other day and shuddered at the realization that I've been that man for some time. No more. What else? The spiritual discipline of study. I want to learn Dutch, the very language of my wife's heart. It's difficult for a 30 year old American educated (i.e. uni-lingual) man to learn a different language, but I will do it. Isn't it difficult to learn the heart language of anybody, regardless of the words they speak? Yet we must. And Theology. My own, based on painstakingly close study of the Word itself (and Himself), compared and contrasted if necessary to that of Luther, Augustine, Aquinas and such. How dare any man call himself a Lutheran or a Calvinist unless he can point specifically to those humble observations of Luther or Calvin that bring him to a greater and more intimate relationship and understanding of Christ himself.

These are my quick fixes. Long term? We're establishing a school. New paradigms in education, where the world is truly your classroom, observing first hand and learning from within the very fruits and consequences of the ideas that shape cultures, societies and the world. Nurturing the whole man, spirit, soul and mind alike. Revealing the need and bringing an understanding. The details of this endeavor are to come, but it will basically serve as the student's Junior College, where the less than one in four students ready to take on college coursework can come to prepare the rest of their minds, not just that part assessed by the ACT, but the whole. And where the others, the ill-equipped and undereducated came come as well and learn the how's, and more importantly the why's. They all then can go on to complete their education on a level playing field, and light years ahead in understanding the big picture, and then on to influence nations, through whetever shpere of society, be it education, business, art, or government, they so desire.

In an attic in Texas, filling numerous cardboard boxes sealed with duct tape sits the beginnings of said school's library. The great tomes of which Twain spoke. Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Wittgenstein and Lau Tzu. The Federalist Papers and The Communist Manifesto. Huxley and Orwell, Tennyson and Wordsworth. Over 300 volumes of ideas and the stories that shape them. My own collection ironically inclusive of signed copies, such as The Chosen by the late Chaim Potok and Ginsberg's White Shroud and other Poems, and first editions such as Ben Hur and Walker Percy's Love in the Ruins. You can help to build our future school's library. Send us you boxes of books. Philosophy, History, Literature, Art, Government, Religion, Poetry, Politics, old and new alike they will be put to use. Whose with me? I'm keenly aware, as my new freiend Julian Weinheimer, 17 months, has recently taught his father, some books are definitely worth reading......and re-reading........and re-reading. But those you're done with, send 'em. Bring it.

Here's an open invitation. Fly out to Hawaii. We'll sit at Pancho and Lefty's and, over ice cold Dos Equis amber and chips-n-salsa, talk all about it.

Ironmen vs. buddhist monks

2004-10-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

So our sleepy little island town is gearing up for this weekend's annual Ironman triathalon. This is where an international contingent of the lunatic fringe of athletes gathers to subject themselves to the most insane amount of physical activity and exercise ever concieved to take place in one day. We start things off with a nice early morning swim in Kailua bay of 2.2 miles (yes...miles) along with 1,000 other nuts kicking and flailing, hoping to get out of the water first. I always have visions of entire schools of tiger sharks just hanging out, delerious and ecstatic not knowing where to strike first. Then we hop on an $8,000 bicycle, you know, the kind that only ironmen or maybe John Kerry would own, and we ride as hard as we can for 112 freaking miles. By now it's crazy HOT out and nevermind the wind and humidity. Then what the hell, when that's over let's run for 26 miles. It's just ridiculous really, when the top ironmen cross the finish line downtown on the famed Alii drive all rubbery and completely incohesive of where they even are or why in the world they ever wanted to do this in the first place.

I excercised yesterday and I think I topped out at around 12 sit-ups and something like 4 pushups. I think the last time that I did a push-up was the first semester of my senior year of high school. That's like 12 years. I just don't get the whole ironman thing. Meanwhile, I can't even get out of my driveway cause I live so close to part of the race course itself............whatever.

which leads me to where I'd rather be.....Northern India. McLeod Ganj, Upper Dharamsala in the state of Himachal Pradesh, home of the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and his government-in-exile, along with lots and lots of Tibetan refugees and of course the many western pilgrims, wannabe Buddhists or pop-buddhists, if you will. It's a great place to be a Christian because there aren't any (well maybe like 3) and therefore no legalism, condemnation, Left Behind-esque christianese fluff, no sacred/secular split lurking in the shadows, or pre-concieved notions of what a Christian must look like, act like, wear, eat, and so-on. None, that is, other than the bitter and rabid opinions of most of the westerners. But as is most often the case, struggles come from within, and with no "church, inc." to speak of there's nothing left but an environment that absolutely demands a real faith, an organic church, solid beliefs with a keen understanding of why.....and nothing but time to nurture relationships, with God and with neighbor.

Our buddies just opened a business...a place for food, drink, and conversation....the ministry of conversation, as the ancient Celtic christians called it. It's a place like this that forces you to figure out how exactly one goes about loving your neighbor. I found that step one, at least, is even wanting to know them. I find here, it's rare that we even want' to know our neighbor, much less love them. Honest dialogue, hard questions, hard work in finding answers together, and an honesty in realizing those answers, and the catch......love. A real faith that's practical in a place that needs not one ounce more religion. Bald guys in crimson robes are so much easier to relate to than than your average ironman.

beginnings

2004-10-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

Who really know if this thing will ever take off or not. I'm not known in many circles for finishing strong (not known in many circles at all), though I'm desparately wanting that to be a figment of the past, like so many others that I can't rightly remember if they're true or not. Bad short term memory, mixed with adult ADD and good intentions makes for good fiction most of the time...and after all, truth is even stranger than good fiction most of the time. It can't be made up.

So, sitting in the named-for-lack-of-imagination aloha cafe, one of the few air-conditioned joints around with free wireless, amidst the wafts of lucious Kona coffee and the lotuslike sounds of Nora Jones, by laptop and cellphone atop the small round map of ancient Europe table, ice water and books, fascism:modern and postmodern by Dr. Gene Edward Vieth, Jr. of Concordia University, forward by Indian scholar, theologian, and political activist Vishal Mangalwadi, recent speaker here on our own UofN campus; The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho........haven't started either.........