Month: September 2005

Beardedness

Michael Bates has some [delightful thoughts](http://www.batesline.com/archives/002040.html) on beardedness and why voters like them – or rather, why they don’t. I myself have come more and more to prefer the bearded version of me, not the least because my wife insists she likes me better with the fuzz on than off. She insisted I not shave for our wedding, which was a great relief. Later generations would have wasted considerable effort wondering who mommy’s first husband was, and why we insisted on putting out pictures of *that* wedding, instead of *ours*.

Of course, I get tired of looking at the same me in the mirror every day, and so I’m contemplating switching from goatee to full beard in anticipation of the harsh New England winter, which would necessitate a few days’ clean-shavenness. At the moment it is only the prospect of being a bald-faced… anything… that prevents me from taking that initial step. I hate to remind myself how accurately I could portray a fourteen-year-old.

Catechesis

I expect to really enjoy my classes, but I’m picking up a decidedly post-modern strain in almost all of my education texbooks, which is a little odd, considering the decided squeamishness about postmodernism I’ve gotten from everything else at GCTS. Comparatively speaking, in this class, judging from the texts, I’m going to get post-moderned to death.

A quote:

> Catechesis is not simply accidental, but implies intentional, mindful, responsible, faithful activities; is not only for children, but implies life-long sustained efforts; is not indoctrination, but implies the necessity of open, mutually helpful interpersonal relationships and interactions of persons within a community; is not concerned with just one aspect of life, but with all of life — the political, the social, and the economic. Catechesis implies the presence of something we can only call “wholeness”, that is, it involves the entire person, the totality of his or her life, and it affects all of that person’s relationships — with God, self, neighbor, and the natural world.

Catechesis is 42

Ahhh, Books!

The single most important factor for me in moving to the Boston area to go to seminary full-time was the prospect of, once again, having nothing else to do but go to school. I had tried every other way I could think of and it simply couldn’t be done. What is that saying? “No one can serve two masters.” In the same way, I couldn’t serve both work and school: I was constantly loving the one and despising the other. I needed a situation where I could confidently focus most of my attention on learning, or focus it on something else.

Actually, focusing on learning has always been much easier for me than focusing on anything else. Even at work, the only time I’ve been able to keep my focus on the task at hand was when it was pressingly urgent that I *learn*, and fast! The minute it was that I could confidently say that I *knew* my job, I could also confidently say that my job had lost all interest for me. In other words, the only way for me to *keep* my job was for me to find ways to make my job utterly *fascinating*, and so I consequently had little time or attention for school. (This also may explain for why I was found at school so frequently staring absently into space.)

Now, here it is. Finally, I am at a school whose sole purpose is to dedicate as much of its resources as possible to the study of the things I’m most likely to sit around thinking about anyway. Sigh… Continue reading “Ahhh, Books!”

Frightening Thought

> “Darling, has it ever occurred to you that we might be called to stay here?”

> “. . .”

> “It hasn’t occurred to you.”

> “No! I want to live in a place where we can afford to live in a house! Where we could afford to build a house. Where we… why?”

> “Well, it’s just that… if you have any missionary zeal at all, and you know God has called you to the United States, there are only two places to go.”

> “The West coast, and the Northeast.”

> “Yep. The middle part doesn’t need missionaries; they just need evangelists.”

I do have a little missionary zeal in me. I used to imagine how I would go about it if I were called to the Navajo Indians in 1807, or to Hawaii during the Second Great Awakening. But I’m called to minister in America and, except for on reservations and among foreign students, there’s no mission work left to be done. Then again, you should see this place. There are Christians here, and even more people who call themselves Christians, but are “beyond all that.”

So, if you have any missionary zeal at all, and you know you’re called to the Americas, what better place to come than here? I’m hardly saying I know I’m called to stay here (don’t cry for me yet, mother dearest!) but Lord, the fields are white!

Slippery Slope

One of the things that we discussed in my CORE410 Ethics Course at Queens was the subject of euthanasia. I personally think that it’s a form of playing creator when you decide when to die under the guise of escaping suffering. I’m not Buddhist, I don’t think that suffering is the greatest evil. I also think that euthanasia, or physician assisted suicide, is utterly reprehensible and completely against the Hippocratic Oath. I don’t even want to see the convoluted loops that the physicians that support (and perform in places like Oregon and many European Countries) this type of “therapy” put their minds through. This article, however, takes the cake. Most ethical decisions have something called a “slippery slope” where one decision leads to the next in a continuing slide downward from the original decision and circumstances surrounding it. In my opinion, these “doctors” are pretty close to rock bottom.

Citation

Since I seem to be unable to say anything at present, either about myself or about current events, I am instead linking to Jane Galt at [Asymmetrical Information](http://www.janegalt.net/blog/archives/005447.html), who has an excellent post on “Myth Busting”

As everyone knows, I had hoped that people’s attempts to use Katrina to prove that they were right all along would wait until the victims were laid to rest. This suggestion has been roundly ignored by all those who feel that their accusations will have more punch if they are made in the face of the nation’s shock and horror.

Still, it would be hoped that the message of “Hey, America, you really suck weasels!!!” could have waited a few weeks.

The whole post is a diatribe on why certain Europeans need to get off their high horse over Katrina, but what really fascinated me was all the statistical comparisons made between Europe and the US.

The average temperature in Dublin ranges from 4.8 degrees celsius in January to 15 degrees celsius in July. The average temperature in New York, where I live, which is pretty temperate for America–it doesn’t have extremes of either heat or cold–is -1 degrees celsius in January, 25 degrees celsius in July. In other words, while they have a temperature range of about ten degrees, we have a temperature range of about twenty-six degrees. And that’s not even a rugged area like Minneapolis (-11 degrees celsius to 24 degrees), Chicago (-6 to 24 degrees), or Kansas City (-5.5 to 24.5).

I never knew Europeans had it so good. There’s no wonder then, for all the stories of Eupopeans whose constitution couldn’t handle the New World and they suddenly died. Compared to the Extremes of American climate and geography, Europe is a veritable Garden of Eden!