Mother's Day Among the Tulips

 Spring was coming along nicely...

 until it wasn't.

 But the shock...

 eventually wore off,

 and life got back to normal for May.

So hey, everybody...

it's Tulip Time in Pella!

(...not to mention Mother's Day.  So we hit it - and it was good.)

One.. Last.. Assignment. (Updated)

REL 120 is over as of Thursday last.  All my students left with that "phew" look on their face: palpable relief.  I wanted to feel the same, albeit more like the "good tired" feeling you have after leaving all you've got on the court following a close game in which you played well, win or lose.  You're glad to sit down - before you fall down - and relieved not to have to dig deep for more right now.  I'm learning that, for the teacher, said end-of-term relief is deferred until your grades are posted.  And that, dear reader, is what stands in front of me now: grading 14 essays.  The objective tests are done, the team presentation is done, but the essays are not.  Yet.

I have this lovely grading rubric to use, though, which should give me some much-needed objectivity as I wade through the students' emotional ramblings around this very personal topic: "Explain your preferred ways of knowing (your epistemology), and your essential worldview (your presuppositions).  How do these, then, influence your analysis of the world religions we've studied, as well as your own choice of religious practice (if any)?"

My first pass through the papers produced 3 full credit ones, with no dings for word length or formatting, and with solid evidence of grasping the concepts in the assigned readings and applying them personally.  That leaves 11 with flaws, which I have to evaluate and deduct for in the scoring.  I can see that there is at least one where this is going to be really difficult, because the person is in the throes of a personal and existential crisis and does not seem to be thinking clearly.  Arrgh.

I have a feeling that even after multiple readings it's going to come down to the wire.   I have a week left.

*****

Update 5/9/13:  Done!  Painful, to be sure, especially with cajoling two recalcitrant students to get their late papers in before the deadline, and dealing with a particularly prickly student's complaints about her essay score (wanting a detailed explanation of the areas of downgrade).  Still, I'm pleased with the results: 3 As; 7 Bs; 4 Cs, no failures.  Turns out that having three different kinds of assignments (test, essay, presentation) helped students with weak performance on one kind raise their scores through another kind and come out okay.  Instructor victory!

Wrapping it up

My first class teaching while using my new Seminary degree is nearly in the books.  REL 120 - World Religions officially ends on May 2 (at least class does... there will still be grading to do of essays and presentations).  As you might expect, dear reader, the teacher learned right along with the students.  And fortunately, of the trial and error part of a new class, the error part was really the smaller of the two by a stretch.  Most of the things I tried came off well, and the students reacted quite positively for the most part.  A real hit were the outside speakers, who came in two at a time, 6 out of the 8 weeks, and talked about their religious affiliation, and the personal impact it has on how they live out their lives here in the metro (I use that last term loosely).   They represented these religions:

     Hindu
     Sikh
     Jainist
     Buddhist
     Jewish
     Catholic
     Protestant
     Islam
     Baha'i
     Universalist/Unitarian
     Native American

It helped a lot, I think, to lift this course out of the dryness of an academic text and put a human face and voice on it.  At least that's the students tell me.

So, the last test is administered this week (thank God for scannable forms and a grading machine!), then the essays and presentations are due on the last night.

Maybe I'll get retained as an adjunct instructor and get to teach PHIL 120 - Intro to Philosophy next year!  Except where am I going to find current devotees of Aristotle and Nietzsche and Kierkegaard to come in and speak?

Chained to the CPI

The Concord Coalition is an organization I generally agree with when it comes to government fiscal policy, but this week they sent an email singing the praises of something called the "Chained CPI" as a replacement for the "regular" CPI as the COLA in Social Security.  It's one of the "under the radar" ways that fiscal hawks think they can make a dent in the Federal debt and budget deficits without really touching (very much) the "third rail" of politics: Entitlement programs.  

They supplemented their own positions with links to this article explaining the case for switching the COLA index, and to this article criticizing the NY Times for opposing the switch.  The CC's support is all within a larger strategy of trying to eliminate government debt, a noble cause and one which I support.  However, they got it wrong on this one.  What they are advocating is a bait & switch, a broken promise, a failed trust.  I had to call them on it, had to write them back.  So I did:

"Folks, I cannot disagree with you more on your advocacy of the Chained CPI as a better way to measure inflation.  While it may indeed better reflect reality when it comes to how people deal with inflation, what it does NOT do well is function as a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).  The presumption is that COLAs are in place for the express purpose of "keeping people whole", in terms of what it takes to maintain their standard of living, which is the rationale behind its inclusion in Social Security.  If you go to the Chained CPI as the COLA standard, you are no longer keeping people whole, you are forcing them to change!  In essence you require that, to keep whole, they adapt in the exact same way as other consumers do to inflation: by changing what they purchase to mniimize the inflationary effect.  

"But that is not, I submit, what a COLA is for - it's not to ensure that 'seniors' adapt to inflation & make sacrifices like everyone else.  It's to be sure they don't HAVE to!  While I am not of retirement age yet, I can recognize a shell game when I see one, even if it's being played on someone else.  In this particular shell game, the government promises COLAs (the bait), and then changes what COLA means (the switch).  I say shame on the government for suggesting it, and shame on you for supporting it.  Keeping your promises, whether at the level of the individual, or at the level of society, is crucial to trust, both personal and public."

[response pending]

Twelve Words

Before heading out to church this Easter morning to celebrate Resurrection Day, while having my morning coffee time with God I reflected on the essentials of the Christian faith, beginning with the ancient formula of the church: "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again."  Then I thought of the creeds, and their focus on a few aspects of the faith that were most contentious back in the day when the creeds were written, and so needed to be locked down.  

In these formulations, Jesus was: "conceived by the holy spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.  He descended into Sheol.  On the third day He rose again from the dead, in accordance with the Scriptures.  He ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, from whence he shall come to judge the living and the dead."

N.T. Wright has recently written (in his book "When God Became King") that the creeds are insufficient to teach theology or even learn adequately about the Christian faith, in large part because they have this enormous gap between "born of the virgin Mary..." and "... suffered under Pontius Pilate".  And in that gap lives everything about the Kingdom of God - both Jesus' announcing that it was here, and His living it out as we watched.

So it seems to me that the story of Jesus cannot be simply reduced to Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection, but that it needs a fuller list of words ending in "..tion".  A dozen should do, I think.  This dozen right here:

Jesus' life story is this, in twelve words:

Incarnation
Maturation
Proclamation
Demonstration
Acclamation
Opposition
Persecution
Crucifixion
Resurrection
Confirmation
Ascension
Restoration

Each is important in telling His story (telling His-tory).  Each has a place and a point and a purpose.  I'd be happy to elaborate on them sometime.  Just ask.  :)



Oh, and... putting my teacher hat on for a minute... as I teach REL 120 - World Religions, for Upper Iowa University, I am aware of the aspects of different religions that overlap with one another, including with Christianity.  Other religions have notions of the first four ideas in the list, several have stories involving the next three.  But the last five?  ..not so much.  The Resurrection of Jesus is unique among religions (even considering those who put forward a cycle of death and rebirth - they are not like it at all).  And so, St. Paul was right when he said (in 1 Cor. 15:17):  "... if Christ was not raised, then your faith is futile - you are still in your sins!".  Resurrection Day celebrates that lynchpin of the Christian faith, for without it there is nothing worthy of our faith.

Happy Easter!  He is risen!

March Nonsense

According to ESPN, some 8,500,000 brackets were submitted for their NCAA Men's Basketball Bracket Challenge.  Eight and a half MILLION!  As of this morning, there were ZERO perfect brackets left.  None.

Honestly, predicting outcomes of college basketball games in March is nothing like the regular season (which is hard enough, in conferences like the Big East or the Big Ten, where the big boys keep knocking each other off so you don't know who's good and who's just lucky).

But 8,500,000 to 1?  This is getting into the range of winning-the-lottery type odds.   Hey, you know what they should do with the lottery?  They should split the pot among the people who have the nearest-to-perfect numbers, no matter how bad, just like in NCAA pools.  Pay out to first, second and third place lottery number picks, and use some kind of tiebreaker scheme.

I'll bet they sell more tickets if people know they were absolutely, positively, going to pay out the whole pot each time to whichever schmuck who got closest.  As of the round of 32, I'm in 8th place (out of 53) in my office pool, and I think I'm still in it!  Just need some big team to go down that I didn't pick to go to the final four.  If this were the lottery, I'd have torn up my ticket by now.

Oh, speaking of... I need to go check last night's MegaLotto results... I got a feeling I've got some ticket shredding to do.

Hm.  Just had a final thought.  How about developing an office pool on storm tracks?  How much snow will the next winter storm dump?  Which state will get hit hardest in the upcoming hurricane season?  Maybe the Meteorologists Local #15 already does this, and they just keep the results private to protect their reputation as scientific prognosticators, when we already know their odds of being right about weather in March are about as good as mine are in predicting an all-Big-Ten and all-Big-East Final Four each year, with Wisconsin and Marquette advancing to the championship game.  :(

Habemus Papam!

So good to see the election of a Pope from someplace other than Europe, especially since the church has not been Euro-centric for, like, decades, right?  Let's hear it for the Argentines!  And the Jesuits!

Hey, maybe the Pope will come to the Big East tournament next year when it's the Catholic 7+ playing ball (mostly Jesuit schools, BTW, so the Holy Father should feel right at home there in the Garden).

He is a bit long in the tooth, though, don't you think?  I mean... 77 or some such "way up-there" age?  Let's hope that he doesn't become too pooped to Pope, like that last guy Benny did.

Pope Francis is his adopted Pope-name, apparently.  Good call on that, I think.  He could do worse for an inspiration than St. Francis of Assisi, you know?  "God grant me the serenity..." to know what I can and can't change, and all that stuff.

Oh, and Timothy Cardinal Dolan?  Hang in there, boss.  You got next.

The Political Middle

Have I talked about this before?  If I have, stop me.

(or rather... stop reading!)

We have in this country a political spectrum ranging from far right (extreme conservatives) to far left (extreme liberals), both of which are deemed extreme only in relation to the "political middle", who are neither liberal nor conservative, or perhaps vary from one to the other depending on the issue.

Based on the way primary elections are held in this country, and based on how the dialogue (or should I say demagoguery) around issues goes, you might think that the extremes are the largest factions of the electorate.  Not so.  They're just the loudest.  Moderates are not all that vocal, precisely because they are not rigid ideologues convinced of their positions.

So, think of the political spectrum as being like the famous "Bell Curve" (aka the Standard Normal Distribution):

The dark brown shaded area on either side represents the most extreme ideologies of the political right and political left.  These are sometimes referred to as the "activists".  The medium tan areas are not as active politically (although they may volunteer), and are perhaps not as ideologically "pure" as the activists, but still share many of the same core beliefs and general worldview.  They are the "straight-ticket" voters, the "single-issue" voters, the part of the "base" that candidates feel they need to secure in order to get their party's nomination, financial support and volunteer labor. 

The beige section in the middle are the moderates ("independents" who don't necessarily register with a party).  Those closest to the peak of the curve are the true "swing voters", able to vote situationally depending on the times, the issues of the moment, and the particular candidate.  The graph that follows puts it in a bit different light.  If we ask the question of a voter "how liberal are you", the answers we might get look something like this:

The basic problem that both major parties (Democrats and Republicans) have is that the "base" (the activists and straight-ticket, single-issue voters) turn out for the primary elections and therefore determine the parties' candidates for the general elections.  So the candidates we get to choose between are either significantly left or right of the middle, either more conservative or more liberal than most, and by quite a bit.

Then in the general election, the two major parties fight over the middle, the independents and moderates.  And normally, there are a good number of voters in the center-left and center-right that stick with the inertia of their "usual" party affiliation.  These folks may find it easier to move a little more to the right or left to align with the chosen candidate on their side of the middle, than it is to move all the way up and over the hump to the other side, even if the candidate is an extremely articulate and compelling draw.  

So it winds up that whatever dollars are spent in the general election, are focused on winning the 5-10% of the electorate that hovers near the middle - those who decide at the last minute, are least convicted about a particular ideology behind the issues, and are more interested in how the process affects our civil discourse and the business of governing.  They may vote more on gut instinct than anything else, and are not usually easily swayed by extremism, stridency and vitriol, which is a lot of what you hear in the primary season.

In all of this, I have to wonder why no one has come up with a Moderate Party.  Wouldn't you think that a party (and its candidate) who targets the 68% of the electorate clustering around the political center, would win elections year after year after year?  Wouldn't it become a political dynasty?  That party's primaries would try to select a candidate that is closest to the center politically, one who is adept at sensing the times and appealing to what is best for the community at large, both taxpayer and beneficiary... the civil-tongued voice of both reason and compassion, of independence and community.

I think that's why third parties to date have not succeeded.  They follow the same general pattern; they are driven by activist ideologues, supported by their small but loyal base, and as such do not appeal to the center.  Libertarians are one example, Socialists another.  These tend to also form a spectrum of their own, only not right and left (conservative and liberal), but near and far (statists and individualists). Think of it as wanting government to be near to us... or far from us.  We depend on government, or we fear it.  Any successful Moderate Party would need to be aware of both spectrums: a conservative/liberal ideology and an immanent/distant government.

Wouldn't Congress function so much better if 68% of its members were Moderates, and only 16% conservatives and 16% liberals?  The extremists could keep the Moderates honest, inform everyone of the issues and the implications of landing on one side or the other.  The moderates then would form compromises and get stuff handled with a minimum of rancor.

So... what shall we call this new party?  And who should be our standard bearers?  Maybe the Common Sense Party, whose acronym (like the Republicans have the "GOP") could be "ATM"... for All Things in Moderation.  Its mascot could be the owl, wise and still.  And for leaders, how about Colin Powell, Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman?  Alan Simpson & Erskine Bowles, maybe?  Or two younger Senators, Scott Brown, R-MA and Mark Pryor, D-AR?  The National Journal sorts the Senate by ideology here.

Feeling the vertigo

Daughter's Facebook Post:  Argh, the worst part of being slightly OCD is compulsively checking your work e-mail, only to find it empty because one of your bosses is out of town and the other is on paternity leave. Again, I invoke the name [redacted], because she knows the feeling... — with [redacted]

Like ·  · 3 hours ago via mobile · 

• 

  Daughter's friend:  HA! I even do this in my sleep.

  2 hours ago · Like
• 

  Wise Old Me: A generation ago there used to be a bright line between work and the rest of your life, hence the term "work/life balance". The trend now is for work time and non-work time to become seamlessly integrated. You are feeling the vertigo as your senses adapt to a "zero gravity" sort of environment, where work is not predominantly pulling you, nor is your personal life - nothing (and everything) is pulling you, so you simply push off in the direction you choose. This is how we roll now, in the internet age.

Weather: How extreme is it?

Seems like the media is enjoying the process of hyping the weather the way they hype everything else, from the Oscars to the Fiscal Cliff.   SuperStorm Sandy!  Winter storm Q!  Snowmaggeddon!  Must we have a dramatic label for everything?

The latest hyped up storm which blew through here last night was initially forecast to drop some 20 inches during white-out conditions.  I just blew out about 5.5 from my driveway, and the only white-out I experienced last night was mistakenly opening my eyes when my face was buried in the pillow.

I'm starting to think that I should measure the extremity of winter by how many times I use my snowblower.  The little shovel-only snowfalls don't count.  Two years ago I didn't use the dang thing one time.  That was an unusually warm winter, and I would count it as extreme.

The count this year so far:  3.

That's within one standard deviation.  One more substantive snowfall (which is looking like Monday) and it will be right about at the mean.  

Yawn.

The Missionaries of Democracy

In past ages, various religious groups (most notably those descended from Abraham), had muscular missions movements.  (nice alliteration, huh?)   Whether it be the ancient Israelites, Roman Catholics, Lutheran/Anglican Protestants, or Muslims - all were guilty at some point of getting converts "at the point of a sword".  Examples are abundant in the literature of soldier/missionaries saying to the newly conquered:

"Renounce your pagan ways, confess your allegiance to [our version of] God, and you will live."

We don't do those things anymore, right?

Well, not so fast.  The United States sure does.  Our military and its expanding outposts around the world have become the modern equivalent of the muscular missionaries of past ages.  Except the faith we are preaching is Democracy.  Capitalist Democracy at that.  We say to the conquered (or those about to be so):

"Listen, you backward and corrupt nations: throw off your feudalism, your tribalism, your totalitarianism, your communism, your radical theocracies, and embrace western democracy, the only true and pure government under heaven.  Embrace Democracy... and Capitalism, too!  If you do, we'll give you foreign aid, and teach you how to spend it on trade with us.  We'll establish a military presence within your borders to protect you, send in NGOs to teach you how to live, and set up American businesses to provide your workers with jobs and buy your cheap goods.  Life as our allies will be better than you've ever had it before.

"If you refuse... well, there will be sanctions first to give you time to repent.  But at some point, we'll just send in drones, bomb your leaders, arm the revolutionaries among you, and once they overthrow you, we'll sign one-sided agreements with them and license out your natural resources to our real friends.  So, avoid this harsh judgment, won't you?  Just renounce your past ways and confess your belief in Capitalist Democracy as the one true path to Enlightenment and Prosperity.  Repent, and you shall live!"

Winter Storm Luna?

So the National Weather Service (NWS) has begun naming winter storms the way they name hurricanes.  And at present, winter storm Luna has us iced in.  (temporarily.  until the temps hit the 40s, which they will shortly).

Having grown up with winter storms (and walked through more than one to get home from school), driven foolishly through far too many on bald tires with crummy wiper blades, and shoveled out of untold numbers more, I questioned the judgment of the NWS when they began this naming business.  This stuff is normal life in the Great Lakes states.  The only winter storms we really remember are the ones that hit hard at Christmas, disrupting everyone's travel plans, or the ones that knock out power for long enough to have you lose the contents of your refrigerator/freezer.

I think it was a plot by those soft Easterners in Washington who can't cope with a little snow and ice.  You ask a native of the Upper Midwest if naming winter storms is a good idea, and they'll just look at you and ask: "are you from here?  If you were, you wouldn't ask."

What we ought to name is tornados.  (or is it tornadoes?  You say potato, I say potatoe...)  And we do sort of name them, right?  In 2011, we had two that people would remember: Joplin, MO, and Tuscaloosa/Birmingham.  We name them after the towns that they flatten, where the homes are gone and people die.

Flattening towns, and making people homeless (or dead):  now that's a storm you name.

As for winter storm Luna, I think I'll just go sprinkle some salt.

On being Bible-minded

First time I saw this graphic, I said to myself: "There has got to be a purpose for this, but I'm not sure I can articulate what it is."  Produced by the Barna Group (founded by George Barna of church growth strategies fame), it purports to tell the reader which sizable US cities (96 of them) are more "Bible-minded" than others.

Bible-minded?   What?

You mean as opposed to Koran-minded, or Veda-minded?  Or do you mean as opposed to secular-minded (i.e. readers of Asimov and Hitchens and the NY Times)?  Or as opposed to business-minded (devoted to stock tickers & the WSJ)?  Or culture-minded?  Or porn-minded?  Or crime-minded?  Or ... what?

Well, with Barna, you always have to consider the target audience, which is usually Evangelicals who are involved in church-related ministry (or companies like the one I work for who market to that same audience).  If you want to find a really ripe mission field for the Gospel, you could target New England.  From this chart it looks like a Bible-less wasteland.  If you want to find where the "Bible-believing churches" or their attendees live (in order to sell them Bible-related stuff), why... just work your way down the west side of the Blue Ridge and make straight for the Gulf.  You'll find the picking's nice & ripe.  Folks down there read the Bible most every day, and think it gives a mighty accurate description of the way things are.

At least that's how Barna Group defined being Bible-minded: weekly Bible reading and a commitment to its accuracy.

Hm.  Typical of those east-coast elites & intellectuals to disagree.

Play Money

Remember Monopoly money? When I played, I always surreptitiously slid a $500 under the board, so I would "forget" about it, and other players would, too. It was sort of my off-shore account, not real visible to the authorities. :)

Sometimes Monopoly money got used for other purposes (like pretend grocery shopping, or to teach budgeting), or it got colored upon, cut with scissors, chewed up by pets or toddlers, and it often disappeared altogether. But, the great thing about Monopoly money was... if you lost it or it was otherwise no good, you could always make more!

President Obama must have played Monopoly as a kid. Because his administration is talking about making some new stuff to take the place of what they've searched around and discovered... they don't actually have! So they will just play Monopoly and make some more. Out of platinum this time instead of paper.

$1,000,000,000,000.   One coin.   One time.

(yeah, sure..)

One of my favorite sportswriters, Gregg Easterbrook, whose column (TMQ) I read religiously on ESPN.com, included a piece in this week's edition which contained this snippet about the trillion-dollar-coin gambit, which could get around a recalcitrant Congress when it comes to debt ceiling time. He suggests: why stop at a trillion? It's fake anyway, so how about a ga-zill-ion dollars, like when we were kids? He says:

The Trillion-Dollar Coin Won't Work in a Coinstar Machine: The platinum trillion-dollar coin has been getting a lot of attention. Comedian John Oliver suggested one should be used in the Super Bowl coin toss, to heighten excitement. Slate asked readers to design a trillion-dollar coin. One has Big Bird on the obverse, another the legend MADE IN CHINA on the reverse. The winner depicts Barack Obama doing the Doctor Evil finger pose.

An obscure statute authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to mint platinum coins "in the Secretary's discretion," in any denomination. Why stop at a trillion dollars? The United States could mint, say, a $100 trillion coin and use it to purchase Europe. We could mint a $1 quadrillion coin and use it to purchase the Milky Way.

I like it.  Let's buy Europe!  Kind of like Monopoly and Risk combined.  You don't fight wars for countries anymore, you BUY them.  With fake money!  How great is that?!?

American ingenuity at work, baby.

Happy Old New Year

Every New Year's Eve, I bring up from the wine cellar (read: basement) the oldest bottle I have. At I write this, I'm enjoying a 20-year old California Zinfandel (from Whaler Vineyard in Mendocino), purchased back when we lived in Visalia, CA, and while I was still a newbie oenophile.

The trickiest thing about storing wine for that long (without decent climate-controlled storage) is whether the cork will have leaked, and let in too much oxygen (turning the result to vinegar). In my experience, 1 of 2 makes it this long. And that's assuming you can get the cork out in one piece, too, which almost never happens, this bottle included. You wind up using a strainer to filter out little pieces.

But when a bottle does make it, the experience of interacting with it is pretty remarkable. The young explosion of ripe fruit is all gone, of course... that's expected. But what it leaves in it's place is the interesting part. This one laid down nicely and survived the years (and the cross-country moves) quite well. Surprisingly it still has some tannin (albeit that disappears within a few minutes in the glass), with hints of tobacco on the nose and almost a brandy-like finish. Smooth.

It just goes to show you that "old" can be quite satisfying, not to mention intriguing. Naturally, I knew that already, from substantial personal experience. ;)

Happy New Year! (from a well-aged collector of wine experiences.)

Whither the Apocalypse?

It's the day after doomsday, and all is still here.
Not a creature is missing, not a thing disappeared.

No comet came crashing, no meteors dropped,
The south and the north pole? They didn't flip-flop.

No enlightenment dawned, there's no New Age in sight,
And no nuclear holocaust unleashed overnight.

The preppers are snuggled all tight in their lairs
I wonder who'll tell them they can come up the stairs?

Today looks like yesterday, with the same thing tomorrow:
We'll have the same mix of delight and of sorrow.

So have a Good Christmas, take a cup of good cheer:
It seems safe now to celebrate a Mayan New Year. :)

Violence During Advent

Reflecting on the CT school shootings, we can remember in this Advent season that Jesus was born into a culture of violence against the innocent. Mt. 2:16-18 tells us:

"When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

'A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.' "

And another prophet tells us that it won't always be like this. We won't always live in a world of darkness. Isaiah 9: 2, 5-7a reads: 

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. [...] Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end."

There is still hope, even for people living in a culture of violence.

It's Winter Somewhere, Right?

So here we are in mid-December again, decorating the house, while Karen Carpenter sings: "It's that time of year when the world falls in love, every song you hear seems to say "Merry Christmas'...", there's a holiday party to go to tonight, and I want another cookie right now.

But there's no snow.  Instead there's a cold rain, and it's not looking like a real great chance of a White Christmas.  However, last weekend, I had my fill of snow for a while, including driving in it, standing in line in it, etc.  Minneapolis got a foot of the stuff the very day I went north by car for a Vikings/Bears  game.  Witness the Metrodome upon arriving, and the line waiting for the light rail afterwards.  Fortunately I parked under cover at the Mall of America, and didn't have to scrape off before heading home.

But boy, did we have great seats! First time in my life that I have sat right on the 50 yard line, and only 18 rows back. Wow.

It was great to be in that stadium again, even if it is small, and kind of a dump. The food is cheap, though, compared to other pro venues. And of course, the "community sing" happened every time there was a Viking score (and there were a few!), where we all sang along to "Skol! Vikings, let's go!".

Fun day, even with the snow. At least I can say I actually saw some this year. :)

A kinder, gentler, Borg?

Sunday, the pastor was talking about what human beings need to thrive.  One of those things is relationships - ones that go beneath the surface communication we have with co-workers, neighbors, shirt-tail relations, etc.  We need to be known, and we need to be loved.  And in order to be loved fully, we need to be known fully.  In this way, we are assured that we are loved IN SPITE OF our flaws, and not simply because we've hidden them.  This can only happen in committed, trust-filled relationships.

He went on to talk about the way our culture likes to put off making commitments in relationships, because committed relationships tie us to other people and cut off other options.  I found myself relating well to this idea.  I prefer options to commitments.  But at the same time I know that committed relationships are beneficial and redeeming.  I just tend to run from them.

Have you heard the term "web of relationships"?  That, to me, is not a helpful metaphor.  I think of committed relationships as a spider web - sticky, entrapping, immobilizing.  It's like that scene in Lord of the Rings, where Frodo is caught in the web of Shelob, the giant spider.  Frodo is trying to do what's right, but in doing so he's caught, and can no longer move independently and freely - instead he's dependent on someone else to rescue him, to free him from the confines of this web.  Unfortunately for me, this is the default setting on how I have seen relationships, from grade school onward.  I need a total reset on this topic.  I need a new metaphor to work with.

But what metaphor?  Maybe, um... a "network" of relationships?  Network is not a threatening term like "web" is.  I put files out on the network at the office, where I can share them with others.  J1 is really good at networking for career advancement purposes.  J2 has a vast network of friends.  D has fewer but deeper, more committed ones she goes to regularly.  You can plug in to a network, and unplug, too, right?  Yes, there may be a network administrator that sets some rules of use, but is that so bad? Seems benign enough.  I could sort of see small groups at church in this way..   maybe..  like networking..  especially if you aren't locked in to them forever.  But how committed are unpluggable relationships like this?  Not very.  Doesn't the network really need to be deeper, stronger?

Ah, but what about a network like "the Borg"?  Remember that Star Trek movie, First Contact, where the main enemy for the episode was this network which expanded only by assimilation?  Here each person was assimilated into the collective consciousness called the Borg, such that all their unique talents and perspectives were added to the network, so that the network benefited, but in return they lost their individuality.  They simply became automatons doing the bidding of the collective.

Assimilation like that in a church setting is something I have experienced in the past - where you join, and in joining you are expected to behave, to present yourself publicly in a certain way in order to be part of the group.  You are expected to think and speak, and deal with life's difficulties, in a certain way - the way the collective says you should.  And if you try to deviate behaviorally, theologically, or express doubt in the collective wisdom, you are reprimanded for it.  I fear this every bit as much as being caught in a spider's web of relationships.

But couldn't there be a kinder, gentler, version of the Borg?  Couldn't the church preserve our individuality in the midst of deep connectedness?  It seems that this is what Saint Paul was driving at in 1 Cor. 12-14: the importance of each one's unique talent and perspective, but within the context of a dynamic, spiritually living organism called "the Body of Christ".  In my reading of the passage, no one is expected to give up their individuality when becoming a part of the church, rather a recognition of that uniqueness is what Paul teaches.   Still, there is an expectation of some baseline commitments and behavior, for the greater good - there is a sense in which the collective must work cohesively, cooperatively, implying a need for mutual submission and committment.

I get this, at least in principle.  I support the need for community, for committed relationships within it, and for a more corporate reading of the New Testament.  But it's still a really, really difficult thing for me to warm up to.  I need a better metaphor for committed relationships in community than a web (Shelob) or a network (Borg).  There must be something else that I can use to get more comfortable with the notion of commitment within a community.  And sitting here at home on Thanksgiving, sick as a dog from a seasonal rhinovirus, I'm not sure "members of the same body" is the best one, either.  I'm feeling real familiar right now with the notion that when one of the parts of the body hurts (in my case, my rib cage and throat from hard coughing), the whole body suffers.  Ugh.

I just can't think of a better metaphor than that one.   Yet.

Major Dad, reporting for duty.

So as of July, we were back to empty-nesting again, after a brief stint as every-day, active-duty parents for J2 while he re-attempted college. While that experiment did not go well, what did go well was a temp job that turned into full-time with benefits. As a result, by next month, he'll be financially independent of us again as well. So, no dependents will be listed on 2013's 1040 form, except the basic two you get from filing jointly. In the meantime, during this same stretch J1 lost her job, and for the last 3 months, she's been unemployed and searching, which has gotten us involved as well. (She's now fully employed again, though, thanks be to God).

There is kind of an oscillation to this grown-child parenting phase of life. One kid is nicely settled but the other one is facing some sort of life trauma. Then that kid's trauma resolves, with said kid settling in to better circumstances, and ... the formerly solid one gets rocked by some unexpected jolt. You're not neck deep in their circumstances the way you used to be when they lived at home, though. As a parent of grown kids, your main involvement with them is a sweet/sour cocktail of joy and worry, with the exact blend varying from one serving to the next. For the most part, it's essentially passive involvement, reacting to their ups and downs.

But occasionally, there is a need to become actively involved. I've experienced this with each kid a couple of times in the last couple of years. What it kind of feels like is a reservist being called to active duty. Sometimes you can see it coming, just by seeing circumstances develop, other times it's a total surprise. But, surprise or not, convenient or not, you do what reservists are expected to do: report for duty. And right now, soldier!

When J1 and then J2 went off to college, I essentially went from being a father on active duty, to a weekend warrior in the parenting reserves. Maybe once a year, you have a couple weeks of active duty, refreshing your parenting skills, but mostly it's just a light weekly or monthly contact keeping current with a SitRep briefing by phone, by email, or over Sunday dinner. But now and then, sometimes without warning, you get the call: "Hey, Dad? Um...", and you dig the uniform out of the closet and put it on, hoping it still fits.

"Reporting for duty, sweetie (or buddy, as the case may be), Major Dad at your service. So what's our situation?"

As for me, after hearing positively from both children about their life circumstances, I think I just got my orders being released from my latest deployment. This father-soldier is putting his civvies on again. :)