Archive for December, 2008
Monday, December 29th, 2008
December 24, 2008
This year I would like to say Merry Christmas to a few people across the country and across the years:
- Merry Christmas to Cormac McCarthy! I read a couple of your books—No Country for Old Men (the book is more depressing than the movie) and The Road (about a father and son trying to survive and move South during a nuclear winter being chased by cannibals)—this year and I really enjoyed them. They are, however, quite depressing, so I am guessing that you are not expecting to have a Merry Christmas. I hope you have one anyway.
- Merry Christmas to Wendell Berry! I am always challenged, depressed and encouraged (simultaneously) by your stories and essays. I hope no one’s iphones or ipods work on Christmas. Will that make it merrier for you?
- Merry Christmas to Ayn Rand (hopefully converted in articulo mortis—in the moment of death—because she was a vocal lifelong atheist)! You were right. Socialism is about whining.
- Merry Christmas to President Elect Obama! I hope that you are in actuality as you seem in the news now. If so, we will no doubt be adding your birthday to the calendar of national celebration. May your term of office be filled with good cheer and peace on earth, but may you not give quite as many gifts as have promised.
- Merry Christmas to my friends working in the banking and investment industry—especially Neil and Tim! Next year couldn’t be as bad as this one…right? (Please tell me…right?)
- Merry Christmas to
Faith
Christian
School
in
Texas
! What a neat idea: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373.
- Merry Christmas to Terrell Owens! I heard that his invitation to the Cowboys’ team party was…misplaced.
- Merry Christmas to Brad Lidge! We all really enjoyed your first season with the Phillies. We will be expecting more out of you next year.
- Merry Christmas to Philadelphia Phillies fans! I bet you did not see that coming!
- Merry Christmas to Charlie Manuel (Phillies Manager)! You did a great job. BTW, I still have not understood anything that you have said at any press conference.
- Merry Christmas to Maddy, Layne, Karis and Elyse! May your Christmas (in no certain order) have proper garnishes, be filled with extremely difficult (at least for Daddy) Narnia trivia, be filled with games that you will win, win, win, and have plenty of lollipops. Please go to sleep now or Santa is going to go to sleep.
- Finally, Merry Christmas to my long suffering, omnicompetent wife, Emily. To whom I am just the garnish. You make our Christmases wonderful and beautiful. The kids love this time of year because of you and so do I. Sorry for the misunderstanding on the BBC Pride and Prejudice. It is on the way and I will watch it twice as penance—but only with you curled up on the couch next to me.
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Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
December 20, 2008
I am nearing the end of my annual trek through the Divine Comedy and wanted to note some passages that were sweeter this time, but first a note on The Comedy:
WARNING: Reading The Divine Comedy CAN and SHOULD become addictive. Remember: “A canto a day, keeps damnation away.” BUT (this is a really important word) Dante’s masterpiece is not initially user friendly. It is demanding. It expects a lot out of you. You have to make an investment before you get a return. Now for the most important advice (a rule given me by Wes Callahan of Schola Tutorials) that has made all the difference for me in loving The Comedy): THE FIRST TIME YOU READ IT EXPECT THAT YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND ALMOST ANYTHING. THE SECOND TIME YOU WILL UNDERSTAND VERY LITTLE. By the third time, you will be beginning your addiction.
Anyhow, I am now in the middle of
Paradise
and I love it more each time. There are two sections that have had a real impact. First . . .
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Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
December 17, 2008
Christmas is almost here and I hope that you and yours have a blessed, safe and happy Christmas. This year I have been doing more thinking about the first Christmas. Here is one thing that has changed my perspective . . . .
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Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
December 15, 2008
One of the books that we read in Omnibus is Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. In this massive, philosophically infused novel, Rand who escaped Soviet Communism tells a story about the pernicious effects of socialism in the world. In the world she presents the inventive, hard working, entrepreneurial folks find themselves continually fleeced by other slower working whiners who protect themselves by crying until someone gives them some government protection or subsidy—usually made up of money taken from—guess who?—the hard working, creative capitalists.
Recently, I have seen what appears to be the prophetic fulfillment of this novel in the legion of proposed bailouts. . . .
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Monday, December 15th, 2008
December 15, 2008
The modern world is all about power. If you scratch much of what is done today when you get down to the root motivation you find some person or a group of people lusting after power and control. Whether it be by controlling Congress and pushing through your agenda or by using marketing or advertizing to affect the behavior of others or by shouting down your opponent in some debate—or better yet on talk radio, almost everything is done to make “my kingdom come.” We want to use other people as objects (perhaps batteries) to reach our ends (which are, no doubt, the best ends possible). This hideous cultural default setting points to the influence of the philosopher Fredrick Nietzsche who taught that life was simply a quest to have power.
I am increasingly convinced that our Christianity is being affected by this dangerous thinking as well. . . .
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Friday, December 12th, 2008
December 11, 2008
I am used to waking up to disturbing stories in the paper. Today, I read this interesting article on decreasing science scores in the local public schools here in
Lancaster
County
. Here it is:
What is wrong? Scores are falling in the very area where we are investing massive amounts of money and attention. How could this happen? There could be many reasons, but I have one educational suggestion:
Logic is missing.
Teaching science in school is actually a recent innovation. One of my teachers remembered that in her youth, science was not taught at her school. The debut of Sputnik launched science education in
America
. To do science and math well, however, you have to train and exercise the rational and logic faculties. Few schools today have Logic classes and if they do it is an elective for a tiny sliver of students. All students, however, need to learn to think clearly and critically. If we continue to ignore Logic (the underlying skill), we should not have hope in improving in our Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
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Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
December 9, 2008
We know enter the time in the church calendar called Advent. Advent is not a pre-Christmas warm up. It is a time in which we enter into the experience of God’s people before Christ’s coming. Before Jesus was born in
Bethlehem
, many wonderful things had occurred. God had created the world and made it wonderfully. God had made covenant with saints like Noah, Abraham, Moses and David. He had sent prophets like Daniel, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Before Jesus Christ, however, the sum and substance of every promise was one that waited for ultimate fulfillment. God’s people longed for their sins to be once and for all put away; they longed for an end to oppression; they longed for a return to the perfect communion that our first parents experienced in the Garden before the Fall. They longed for all of these things, but the world that they saw before Christ was full of sin, oppression and death. How would—how could—God fulfill His promises in a world so full of darkness and corruption? We know the answer to the question. . . .
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Monday, December 8th, 2008
December 08, 2008
As someone keenly suspicious of all things blogish, I suppose at the beginning of this blog I should offer some defense, some justification, for having a blog. I will not. I will, however, offer my top ten reasons that I do not have a blog:
- There are not enough blogs out there. Even the more dedicated technophile must recognize that this is bunk. Everyone has a blog. I know pets that have blogs. I have even noted that students who aren’t doing well in their Composition class have blogs. Their name is Legion.
- Most blogs are worth reading. This is lunacy. Spend 15 minutes reading random blogs. You will immediately have a desire to pull your money out of the bank and move to a country that does not have computers. It is a leper colony out there and I believe that it will get worse. I bet that our President Elect (as if we have some other President…who is that guy?) will have his Presidential blog up and running before the ink is dry on the first stimulus package. Most blogs make me want to put my eyes out…or at least wear very, very dark sunglasses.
- They are great places to rip on your enemies…or better yet your friends. This is the worst thing about the “culture of the sincere” that we “enjoy” now. People seem to have swallowed the idea that if you feel something deeply enough you have a right—nay, a duty—to post it for the world to see. When people apply to teach at
Veritas
Academy
, I Google them and check for blogs. My favorite one result was when I found a promising candidate who—every Monday without fail—posted the most caustic review of yesterday’s sermon along with a few choice insults on the intelligence and mental abilities of his pastor. I asked him about this when I called to let him know that he was no longer under consideration. He was stunned! He thought it outrageous that I was worried that after I hired him his blogs would turn into “What my idiot Headmaster said yesterday…” This desire to rip people globally is sort of ill. If you are looking for that here. Go elsewhere.
- All of my thoughts are worth you reading them. Again, this sort of thinking is bunk. Some people tend to post things that make one wonder about the standards that they are using to treat things as important. I have no plans to write about toothbrushing or shoe tying or the cost of eggs. Look these things up if you need help.
- This is the way we will communicate in the future. I hope not. I am not as scared as some folks about the virtual world but that is just because I live in
Lancaster
County
. Propane is high technology for some here. I pass horses on the road almost every day. I hope that the future is more human more personal more real.
- My deepest emotions need an outlet. Yuck! Please, if you have deep emotions, keep them tamped down or treat them with some dignity. While I do rant from time to time, I will not make this one of those bear my burdens unless something really bad happens. You have enough problems of your own. I will not give you too many of mine. I have a refrigerator two steps from my desk. Most longings never get off the runway for me.
- I have time to kill. This is not the case—way not the case. Whatever the opposite of time is, that is what I have. I have loads of the opposite of time. I type quickly and often think slower than I type (thus, I might from time to time have some retractions).
- Writing is good for you so practice, practice, practice will I. While this is a generally true for students, I see little evidence that blogs are contributing to an upsurge in good prose or poetry. On the contrary, they tend to lead to new (unique?) grammatical constructions, self-directed spelling and sentences that defy all efforts foisted about them to squeeze out some sensible meaning.
- The world is bleak and I need to shine this light into the darkness or we will all Atlantis-like crumble into the sea. I bet not. Some seem to invest a sort of self-importance in their blog as if they are on a mission—or maybe a blog/mission or blmission. This is not a quest for the Holy Grail. I think that the world is doing ok and if I stop now it will, I believe, still end up getting where God would have it go.
- Blogging is fun. It might be, but I am not sure that it is yet. Still, I will preserve and hope that it is enjoyable, if not for you, at least for me.
Well, that is why I do not have this blog. You might wonder then, naturally, why do I have this blog? Again, you are delving into deep feelings (see #6 above). Know this: I have my reasons and they are good. If you enjoy what I write, keep reading. If not, read something else, but read something good, in fact, try this:
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