Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Faith

What do I have faith in?

... what do i trust to make things better?

if I have to finish the sentence, "if we had more _____, things would get better." how would I fill in the blank?

Technology?
Love?
Democracy?
Kindness?
Knowledge?
Money?
Freedom?
Science?
Education?
God?
Honesty?
Hard work?
Friendships?
Determination?
Good manners?

Phrased another way: "What things have a tendency to promote life?"

What is faith?

Faith is to believe in the good in something. Faith is being convinced that adding more of that something or another will make things good - improve the situation.

By improving the situation we mean to enhance and develop and tend towards Life. By "Life" we mean the sustenance of self... the sustenance of me... the sustenance of what belongs to me... the continuance of my bodily form, my mind, my world, my consciousness.

And by "continuance" we mean, the tendency to also improve the circumstances so that life itself will continue - even possibly thrive.

Life - continuance and the hope of further continuance.

What do I trust in, believe in, have faith in that ultimately promotes Life?

If God is the embodiment of that total Good within the universe that all of life strives for and the rule of God is the reigning of those things that promote life then God can reign both in our hearts and in this world.

This God is easy to love but not easy to have faith in.

I am not convinced ultimately that life and good prevails in the end.

This is my battle between dispair and faith.

This is my wrestling for a faith in God.

So in your mind, are things getting better? or are things getting worse?

Do you have faith?

Friday, December 14, 2007

Providence ?

In an article entitled What the New Atheists Don’t See the author puts the various pop-Atheists into their proper context in the modern on-going search for meaning made by all of us. Ironically enough, the author himself is an atheist.

He nails the fundamental problem and point that I've been considering about the sovereignty of God with the concept of Providence itself and how all of us invariably require it:

I think Dennett’s use of the language of evaluation and purpose is evidence of a deep-seated metaphysical belief (however caused) that Providence exists in the universe, a belief that few people, confronted by the mystery of beauty and of existence itself, escape entirely.

I think maybe you could just replace all statements about God with simply the word "Good."

"So I hoping that 'Good' will watch over my safety on this trip."
"I pray to 'Good' that I can find a descent job."
"Thank 'Good(ness)' I've found a job and made it safely!"

I could live with that. Maybe.

Of course we've watered God down into some vague universal conceptual power of the "Tendency towards Life" that somehow runs through the ecological blood of nature itself.

(Which is kind of what everyone now a days really thinks what God is anyway.)

And maybe that is what we sense and feel and mean and maybe even project into a personal image of ourselves when we pray/talk about/sense "God."

I could live with that. At least it means that man is still created by God. (I think.)

Only one thing is left - the "Father" that Jesus talked about, understood, and explained.

Does he exist as an entity that I can personally know and trust? Is He more the face of this entity/concept of this universal "Tendency towards Life" that attracts and enthralls us all? Is he both? Do the limits of my mind require that I can sense this universal "pull" to Life and Good but can only think of it in terms of a personality.

So maybe God does and doesn't exist.

So I'm back to propositional nonsense and relative everythingness.

That sucks!

Who will free me from this non-sensible whimsical yet torturous merry-go-round ?

God. Do you hear me?

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

What I Give Up When I Give Up God

What I lose when I lose God


  • Someone to appeal to for help
  • Someone to be grateful to
  • Knowing a sovereign power of good is watching over me

Someone to appeal to for help
Prayer.


Its nice when I am despondent or desperate to go to someone in prayer - intimate, meditative conversation - whom I can have confidence in - that He is beyond me, that He cares, that I can appeal to Him to reach beyond my circumstances and make some magical hand entry into my world and change things just enough so I can pull out of my dilemmas and survive one more time.


Without God, I have no one to go to for help. No one I can place my hope in.


Someone to be grateful to
Thankfulness.

Gratitude for the good things in life is an important, powerful, and some would say necessary emotion for happiness. I AM grateful. I want to be happy with what I have and for all the good that has come to me. I could just as easily been a slave girl dying of poverty in a third world country. I'm not. I am free. I eat everyday. I am healthy. I even have a certain amount of wealth that most men in the world today would be envious of. I am grateful for that. I need to feel and have this emotion - for my own happiness.

Without God, I really have no one to worship, to be to grateful to, to thank for all my blessings.


Knowing a sovereign power is watching over me
Faith.

I like to think that someone or something with the power to make good cares about me. I like to think that that person, as mysterious and as invisible as He is, is watching over me, is cheering me on, is hoping for my best, cares, loves, has power - is willing to use it. Is in fact using His power in ways that I am unaware of, to control, guide and direct little and big accidents in my life - so that things work out for me ultimately.

Without God, I am on my own.


I don't know if I can live with all of that.
I don't know if I can live without God.... whether He is real or not.

Friday, November 9, 2007

"Not a difficult question in the least"

I asked a close friend of mine (who's an atheist) if he really, in his heart-of-hearts, believed that there is no God. I expected a bit of an open-ended hesitation, but got none. Here's his reply:

******************************

No problem, that’s not a difficult question for me in the least. As you know I’ve lived my entire life without faith from a young age (I was never convinced) and so it’s not something I ‘deal’ with. I think that as a child it’s much easy to shed the burden of religion then an adult because the longer you live with something you believe in the harder it is to give it up and face all the time and energy lost in life on something meaningless (in general, I’m not referencing yourself here).

To answer your question though, my best assessment of reality is that there surely is no gods, God, Allah, Christ or whatever else we’ve imagined in our extremely short time on this earth. It’s actually kind of hard for me to level with religious people because to me, the idea is just so silly, preposterous, counter-productive, pointless, mind-numbing, ridiculous and stone-age-like I find it impossible to not be condenscending, which I totally hate to come off as. With older people [part delete], it’s easy. I like playing along with it because I know it’s something that makes them happy. I mean, what older person couldn’t use the belief that they will live forever in some paradise being visited by all their loved ones as they die off one by one? Sure makes getting old and dying easy, probably the main reason religion will always be part of human society. People want to live forever, like duh..

I’ll continue in a second, just want to send this off….

The poor dude has nails through his hands and feet.

After some further email exchanges with my well-respected atheist friend where he just kind of rails about 'the problem of evil' issue he wrote me this nice little summation which is kind of nice I thought:

************

I always say that if there is a god then he’s a real asshole for what he’s allowed his children to do to each other and the earth. Personally, I don’t want to be associated with this type of being, omnipotent or not. And White Jesus is a lie. Hell all of Christianity is just elements of past religions. Other religions are slightly more appealing (other than Islam) but none more unappealing then the symbol of a guy being tortured on a cross. Do you ever think of that. Just look at that image and forget all the weird justifications and stories. Just look at the image and think to yourself, how can this be anything good? The poor dude has nails through his hands and feet. Look at how popular the Mel Gibson movie was.. sick..

Epistemology and Ethics: How do we know what's good and evil?

(reply to my atheist friend)

Fair enough here. …

Two concepts I think I disagree with you on:
1. “there’s nothing more subjective then concepts like ‘good’ and ‘bad’”
2. “I can easily break them all in a single evening and feel no remorse, guilt or regret”

On #1.

I think ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are in fact fairly universal throughout all mankind. Its pretty obvious. Good is anything that promotes life. (especially for me and those extentions of me like my kids, parents, friends, etc.)

Things like food, health, clothing, warmth, love, comradery, exercise of the mind and body, wealth (generally and to an extent). These are all categorically ‘good’ for basically any human (and living creature). ‘evil’ or bad is the “taking of away of that life” ….. death, pain, poverty, general ignorance and stupidity, etc.

Even a worm knows to squirm and try to get away when death and pain await him on the end of a fishing hook.

Good and evil are universal “knowns” and are only subjectively defined by whether we’re talking about you or me. 


On #2.

I’d hesitate to claim that you or anyone could quit so easily kill, maim, steal, lie, cheat, etc. (10 commandments) with or without God.

You say you could, but don’t, not because of God but because (I assume) society would punish you if you got caught. (?) and so to avoid punishment we don’t kill, injure, steal from others? There’s some truth to this but there’s another side also. And Lord help us if its just the governmental laws and enforcements that prevent us all from going ape-shit on each other.

I’d have to suggest that we proceed doing good to others (and not doing evil – 10 commandments) because man has an ability to see outside our selves and even look back upon ourselves from outside. This allows us to visualize being treated by others in good and bad ways. It allows us to visualize and feel the placement of ourselves into “the shoes of others”. We have the unique trait (evolved or not) called EMPATHY.

We can feel for others because we can imagine ourselves in that position.

Do you not feel for the frozen widow, abused child, hit-over-the-head-and-robbed neighbor? Of course you do. And you do because you know intuitively that it is best to “do to others, what you would have them do to you” because you can picture that pain happening to YOU.

That’s what being human is.

Now, where’s evil come from?

I do know that all acts of evil require only one thing first – the cancelation of empathy.

You can generally only steal, hurt, kill, etc. when you see in your mind that other person, not as another “you” and not as a “you, me, person” at all. They become an “it”. A person Unlike me. Not a person at all in fact. But a thing. An it. Someone outside of that realm of ‘me’.

So, empathy (conscious ?) can be overcome. Especially if the need for me is for MY good. But the payment of EVIL to YOU is never evil in my mind. Because you are not a “you”… you are an “it”… something not me or like me.

I would even propose that in the mind of any actor of evil, it is never evil in their mind, because evil can only be applied to myself (or someone like myself). So even when I do evil, when I turn off my empathy capacity, in my mind I am doing good.

Fair enough?

I’ll reply to other emails as I read them… do you care if I publish these conversations?

Do we pay for our wrong-doings? Can someone pay for me?

My final reply to my respected atheist friends last reply went like this:
*********
A sacrifice of self in payment for crimes is the standard “make things right” story.

Whether it’s jail time, money fine, 50 lashes on the back, or the electric chair – if you did wrong you must suffer for it.

The fact that a single perfect person could somehow exchange and take on the penalty that belongs to others is the ultimate love story.

It’s a beautiful and rich story if nothing else. But yes I agree the death sentence torture picture carried around as a symbol is a bit bizarre and sadistic. But the one soldier that risked his life to save others, or the father that faced the enemies to protect his family and dies … these are the ultimate love stories, don’t you think? What is love if it is not the loss of something of self for the gain and salvation of another?

I don’t agree with the sacrifice of self for payment system as a universal proper means to reestablish evil humans with a holy god … but it seems to ring deep within the human psyche as a fair exchange. (at least with Christians and primitive tribes like Aztecs and others that sacrificed animals and people to appease their gods.)

White Jesus is of course a cultural and historical massaging of an image to be more like us. Christians in Africa tend to make Jesus negroid. It may not be accurate but it’s not evil.

And the whole “problem of evil” doesn’t have a good answer but there’s no thinking person who hasn’t considered this – many ending up having faith in god still. … If nothing else there’s the whole “God made man free” and/or the “God made man good and he corrupted himself (fall from garden)” storyline .. . I don’t buy these but I’m not sure I buy that – “if there was a good god he would stop all people (and animals) from ever hurting each other” bit either.

Something’s going on and he may or may not exist…. But the existence of pain and suffering itself doesn’t indicate he doesn’t. In fact, if you go the yin/yang route, humans can’t know joy without knowing sorrow…… can’t know life w/o knowing death… etc. etc…

Maybe the urge itself just to cry back “hey it’s not fair” is just a childish cry. Maybe humans have growing up to do still to make sense of mysteries we don’t understand.

But on a very simple level – yes …. If God is All-powerful and God is All-good then the “All good” totally rules! and there is no such thing as pain, sorrow, death, violence, disease!

1 + 1 = 2

I suspect, if there is a God, our assumptions of the 1 + 1 are not correct. He is not All-Powerful and/or he is not All-Good.

Of course he may not exist.

Truthfully, it’s easier to think that he’s pure imaginary anyway, but the existence of evil doesn’t in my mind necessitate the call.

That’s why I think there’s something to the myth of the Garden of Eden. It was the very taking on of man of the first ‘knowledge’ of good and evil. Binary - either/or categorizing of reality itself according to the myth is what BIRTHED the consciousness (and self-consciousness) of man.

It isn’t like Adam only knew ‘good’ before the fall and then he knew ‘evil’ afterwards. He knew NEITHER good NOR evil before the fall. He knew BOTH afterwards. This is the story of the birth man – some deep primordial memory, like in a dream, that rings deep enough within man to become the primary creation myth of Western civilization itself.

In evolutionary terms, when man became man (with self-awareness and such – remember how they ran around naked till this thing happened… and THEN they became ashamed (self-conscious) of themselves. Others smarter than myself hypothesize that this growth of awareness coincides with the beginnings of language itself in the history of man (Walker Percy). Others think this birth occurred possibly due to mind-altering drugs within cultures that sparks the brains into leaps of evolution and alternate forms of thinking (Julian Jaynes, “Food of the Gods” Terence McKenna)

Mitch

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Is Delusion of God good?

For those that don't care to navigate through the last ramble, here's the succinct version:

Maybe God doesn't exist, but mayber its better to pretend that He does.

(I can't believe I'm debating this childish stuff in my head. Why can't I be like normal Christians and just believe in God up to the point where it conflicts with practical aspects of life. Nooooooooooooo..... I have to REALLY believe.)

(Or really not believe.)

I am an extremist.

And I became a Christian originally because I was seeking out the truth. Of course I was on a lot of LSD at the time. :)

U2's line of "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" has become my mantra for life. I'm just tired. When does the "Seek and ye shall find" part kick in?

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Truth vs. Good

what i learned this morning.

learned item #1:

truth does not equal good... in otherwords, these are not the same... it can not be assumed that truth itself will always produce good. It does not.

The serpent told the truth to Eve in the garden that if she ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil she would become LIKE God himself - knowing both good and evil. He told her the truth. But knowing the truth in itself was not a good thing - for Eve, and Adam, and for all their children forever.

this is one of the secrets of the story of the garden.

hmmmm...

I always assumed that truth = good. That if I could find the knowledge and facts and history and truth of the story and nature of man and God and earth - that that would be good.

Wrong-oh!

learned item #2:

God is not the god of this world... in fact there probably is no god of this world other than the billions of human beings living here. Each.

(Jesus, David, and God all said humans were gods - look it up.)

consider Jesus's prayer:

"Daddy - who lives in ANOTHER WORLD"
"Hallowed by thy name" - whatever it is, however its pronounced, hats off to the eternal taboo of man that words in this world are a bridge to the next - including the power to tap into or offend that other world.
"May Your world come."
"May Your will" (and desires and control and government) be done -
"in THIS world like it is in YOUR world."

Get it? God is god of his own world. Not this one. His will isn't done here on earth. Jesus said we should pray and ask him and wish that it would happen.

So if he is the god of heaven then he's not the god of earth which is where I live - here - 3D visual, green, planet with blue water as seen from the space shuttle.

Conclusion: There is no God - in this world. (God being defined as the supreme being of "Good" and all-mighty power that makes all things happen)


if i combined this items i could conclude that if the God we understand and believe in (Supreme all-mighty loving power in another world) does NOT EXIST IN THIS WORLD

and

it may not actually be good to know this (truth does NOT = good), then its probably best to believe that there is a God over our world even though there isn't one.

So, the Great God in Heaven may be there but He's not here but its good to pretend that he is. (presto! - religion!)

Everybody - one big group-hug illusion - let's prayer and pretend He answers, hears us, does what we ask (if its good and He knows its good - which nullifies the whole request kinda doesn't it?) and gives us comfort and relief and salvation and hope etc. etc.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Two Sources of Truth: Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition

******* Email Repsonse from my friend John in Chicago ********************

Just wanted to get back to you with some ideas
Thought filled considerate compassionate and on fire rhetoric
First and probably essential to my thought process of God is that there are two sources of Truth
Sacred scripture and Sacred Tradition
2nd I have chosen to accept the teaching of the Apostles and their successors
3rd my confidence rests on historical foundation of the literature commonly accepted and taught throughout the world
Some conclusions are an accurate assessment of reality
Some conclusions are my impressions of the meanings of this information
Delusions developed by my imagination or created for me by misunderstanding Truth
These are my perceptions, as inaccurate and flawed as the case maybe
I hope I am not being abstract or evasive am I ????
So too the big IF does lay in the back of my mind any way
Perhaps this is just an illusion?????
However, the foundation of the entire idea of God is FAITH I think don't you???
So then there must be even an incling of this Faith to be earnestly and honestly pursuing God
Otherwise we proceed from this vantage point into imagination and illusion
I recall reading John Paul Sartre and William Percy
But does this bore you ??sorry if it does. I'll drop it.
Moving into the arena of Faith I find myself swept away by my presumption
The unexplainable taken at the simple words handed down to us by those who gave their very own blood and suffering for this Truth which they died for
Jesus himself the prime suffering one the bearer of that great God we all long to know
The tangible of the intangible the visible of the invisible
His word more carefully chosen than my own will ever be
He is the One revealer of all that is good all that is Truth
Sorry I'm on fire Hope that you didn't get burned

I don’t wanna get burned either

****** my reply to John ********

Thanks for the on-fire hope…. I don’t wanna get burned either. My apologies if I introduced you to Sartre’ and sorry if you spent unneeded time reading Percy (he was a believing Catholic, you know.)

The two sources of truth are the easiest to sweep away, although yes, the historical sound case can be made for belief.

Faith – I’m not sure what this is or where it comes from or what it even means really…. Can you have faith in a truism ? I suspect you can only have faith (or not) in Good itself – being what we wrap with the persona of God. Yes that’s abstract, but my hunch is that the fall of man itself is seeded in the FINDING of good and evil, i.e. the Knowledge of good and evil, i.e. the fact that we think in terms of and sort out categorically things into ‘good’ and ‘evil’. The fact that we bucketize, categorize it all! (but yet we have to – that’s what speech is)

Did Adam separate out in his mind and speech into good and evil before the discovery of knowledge? No.

How did he know God before? By faith? I think not.

But his own self-awareness (and shame) through the ‘knowledge’ of good and evil was his curse that man has lived with ever since. God himself has faded into the background and has Himself become only some penultimate cloud of conscious ‘Good’ and all that it means to be ‘good’. (total sovereignty, total power, consummate love, biggest baddest bestest father, wisest creator without a face or body but does have a manifestation of himself into flesh (his son) and his invisible being that floats within and upon and around us (his spirit).

THAT is the god I am calling into question! The one that I/we have made and supported with ancient memories, texts, accounts of miracles and walking on water and healings and resurrections that just smell like stories – yet stories that meet a deep need within.

I don’t want to deny God. I just don’t want to be responsible for supporting Him. And I sure don’t want to continue an emotional imagery that tends to fade the longer I live in this world – that even reeks with the feel of self-creation.

It’s been a long time since any of us were in the garden.

Does anybody remember what it was like?

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Below the Line of Despair

I've been meaning to post up my present spiritual condition for a while now and haven't had the gumption or opportunity to do it till now. An old close friend that I met in Bible college back in 1976 has come back into my life through email. John was the scholarly thinking, deeply passionate person who wanted to know God with all his mind and heart just like me. We fought many a theological battles together and John was as faithful of a friend as anyone could ever ask for.

So here is my reply to John that developed in an email in the context of each of us trying to discover after all these years what we have come to with our faiths. John is now a dedicated but somewhat fragile Chatholic living in the blood pump of the Evangelical America (Wheaton, Ill.) and I am left over road-kill from the same Christian protestant fundamentalism that arose during the last century and still boltsters forward in strong stride.

LETTER BELOW THIS LINE:

Oh John, oh John…. Good to hear you honest.

First things first: the southern phrase of you all is spelled and pronounced “ya’ll”.

But America is getting pretty homogenous so this is mostly a quaint cultural remnant hardly noticed by any here nor there, I suspect.



Well good to know you still have the faith, even if vulnerable. I’d love hearing more about your experiential side. Catholicism is obviously a deep faith and possibly worthy of great thinkers like yourself.

Please excuse me for being so hard on you and on the faith. I myself just barely (just barely) hold on to any smidgeon of faith I have left. Actually, I’m probably not even a Christian in nearly any kind of sense I can fathom – except for the church going (I go to a Baptist church) and Bible reading and simple spiritual apologetics and uplifting I try to give to my Sunday school class each week.

Inwardly, the spiritually experiential side of me has evaporated due to my intellectual and sensory sides (my eyes and ears, etc.) I’d still like to believe… but believe what? That Jesus rose from the dead? I think there’s a good chance that somehow maybe he did. So? What am I supposed to do with that? Worship the distant memory of him. Believe what his immediate disciples said and try interpreting that over and over again and again for the 21st century? I’ve done that. It leaves me hollow. So where is the experience? Where is he now? If he came up from the grave, why didn’t he stick around? (To leave, so this “spiritual” ghost can float around above our heads and induce circumstantial questionable events left open for our interpretation?)

The chief fundamental problem that Schaffer himself knew and entitled his first book – “God is There” – okay…. Where?

Well…. Enough of that stuff … sorry to dump on you… I even requested prayer in church last Sunday….. it all seems so lame… yet a remnant of faith must be there still… I feel like either such a pawn in this big joke of a game played by the gods or else just another typical human (fancy monkey) with this advanced need to worship a conceptual power to explain personal phenomena in my life and in the world. (the self-delusion you mentioned – thus implying that “good” is more important than “true”.)



Anyway… change the subject a little… Are you familiar with N.T. Wright ? Are you familiar with the “Emerging church” movement and the thoughts around it? A fair non-scholarly place to start is “A Generous Orthodoxy” by Brian McLaren if you’re interested… sounds right up your alley for the “God is one, church is one” thing.

Look at N.T. Wright’s 5 volume study on the original history and context of Jesus and Paul and 1st century Judaism for the scholarly side.

I know you’re life is busy and I’m using time here at work to write so you don’t have to respond in detail. I can’t imagine us really getting together, but it’s possible. Adena goes to Illinois once in a while and I’m toying with the idea of coming up around Thanksgiving.

Let’s keep conversing. Good to hear from you and good to know you still have faith. I have about 1 grain left. 

Mitch

Friday, September 21, 2007

Critters Around My Cabin

Introducing Cory the coral snake, Terri the tarantula, and Porky the porcupine... local characters that I've seen hanging around my cabin in the last couple of weeks. (I didn't get pictures of the oppossum, the squirrel, the garden spider, the skink, the lizard, etc. etc. etc.)

Tyranny of Experts

A Tyranny of Experts: How outsourcing authority demeans democracy.

...ahh, yes... Walker Percy couldn't of stated the loss of the sovereignty of man better.... at least on the global level.

My favorite quote from this article is ...
He seems to be imprisoned in the contemporary technocratic imagination, which views the expert as the solution and the people as a problem.


...wish i'd of said that.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

America's Dirty Little Secret - WE ARE MAXED OUT!

Every voter and every high school kid should be required to watch this and take notes.

America's best kept secret is out - we're all barely living on the edge of economic survival. WE ARE MAXED OUT!

Also, be sure to watch the documentary - MAXED OUT. This movie is entertaining and relevant. It made my wife very upset. She even confessed to me secret debts she had never told me about before (to the tune of about $1500).


I have watched the movie - TRON. Does this increase my geek value?

Friday, August 17, 2007

How to Play Harmonica - Part 2-b

OR
You could memorize this chart:
To Play In:CGDAEF
Use this Harp:FCGDAB

Structural Differential? or Flying Spaghetti Monster?


I think I'm going to make me one of these this weekend. It was invented by my old mentor Korzybski. I'm surprised that there are still people out there using his ideas to clarify the human situation. I don't know that anybody has ever actually made one of these things, but Korzybski gives full instructions in his book "Science and Sanity" on how to do it. I've always wanted to build one, just so people will go - "What is that?"

It kind of reminds me of the flying spagetti monster.

I wonder if there's some deep Jungian meaning here?

Naahhhhhhhhh......

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Epistemological Nightmarish Treadmill

Science, logical, and literal understanding lineinates cause and effect ideas.

You can understand things like by-laws, how-to-fix-computer-when-it-blue-screens, disarming-a-knife-attack-via-karate-move-#1, when-cells-process-energy.

The brain synapes follow a specific route.

A -> B -> C -> D

This can be taught, memorized, repeated, and printed.

Artistic, intuitive and representative understanding has no fixed path.

Therefore parables, metaphor, and abstraction is used to convey such understanding.

Brain synapes burst outward in all directions, seeking relative meanings, concepts, connections.

c
^
|
B <- A -> D
|
?

This cannot be taught, memorized, repeated, or printed.

It can only be alluded to.

Seeds can only be planted.

Fingers can only point the way.

These are ideas that are alive and can only be discovered but never captured.

Monday, August 13, 2007

How to Play Harmonica - Part 2

The only absolute law in harmonica playing is: YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE RIGHT KEY.

That's it. If you can get the right harmonica to the right key of the song that's playing then you can play the harmonica. If you don't have the exact right key, you will sound like crap - no matter what.

That's the value of the diddy in "Part 1".

Let me explain.

If you want to play songs like "Yankee Doodle" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" then you just ask what key the person is playing in (or look at the sheet music, or find the root chord that keeps repeating and/or ending on, or just tell the other instruments to play in the key you happen to have) and then play in THAT key. (hint: you'll being "blowing" into the harp mostly.)

So, if the song is in "C" key, then pick up a harp that has the letter "C" on it. They play in the key of "C" - you play in the key of "C".

But this only works for simple and straight forward songs. This is called playing "straight" harp.

If you wanna play blues, or rock n' roll (anything from Chuck Berry to Black Sabbath) then you have to play "cross" harp.

Cross harp.

That's where the diddy comes in.

If it's you gonna play some more,
I'll take your root (key) and count to four


This means if they play in the key of "C" then you have to find a - C, D, E, F - 1,2,3,4 - "F" harp.

(include the "c" on the count)

They play in the key of "C", you play "cross harp" with a harmonica labled as the key of "F".

Second part of diddy.

If it's me you want to jive,
Take my harp and count to five.


Sometimes you are leading the song. The other instruments want to know, "Hey, what key are you playing in? We wanna jam with ya." (If it's me you want to jive)

You look down at your harp and it has a stamp on it of "F". So you count. (First some music theory - notes go from A thru G and start over.)

So, it's - F, G, A, B, C - 1,2,3,4,5.

You tell them to play in the key of "C".

Now here's where they jam with you a little and it doesn't quite sound right still and they say, "That's too hard to play in that key" (while you're rockin' and rollin' by yourself.)

So you look down at your collection of harmonicas (harps) and you grab a harmonica marked "C"..... think through your diddy (if it's me you want to jive, take my harp and count to five - 1,2,3,4,5 - C, D, E, F, G). "Ok, then how about you guys play in the key of "G". (While you're playing in the key of "G" also, BUT you are using a "C" harmonica - because you are playing "Cross harp" instead of straight harp.

Now that you've got the right harmonica and key going - here's the next big secret:

YOU DON'T BLOW, YOU SUCK.

Yes, that right - most of what you'll be playing is INHALING notes. Suck, inhale, pull in that air to get that root note.

That's the big difference in "straight" harp and "cross" harp.

In straight harp, you blow air - push it. (At least 90% of the time.)

In cross harp, you suck the air - you pull it. (At least 90% of the time.)

If you can get this much down, you are 90% through the hard part about learning to play harmonica. The rest is fun.

Soon you'll see how all these hair-brain vocalists who really can't play a single instrument somehow can play a harmonica with their band.

(I'm talking like Mick Jagger and Robert Plant even.)

They've got the right key and they're playing "cross" harp.

More to come soon. In the meantime, get the right harp, find the right key, and just inhale a bunch (mostly on the low end - across 3 or more holes - low end is on the left) pretty much anywhere and everywhere on the whole harmonica (multiple wholes) and try to find where it matches the song and sounds kinda good. Repeat.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

A Wild River


Hello Team,

....thought I'd share with you a couple of pictures from my adventure Sunday on the Blanco river.

This is a wild river without damns nor access. Once we launched we were committed to 12 river miles of rapids, waterfalls, the "narrows", and absolutely no access to civilization, phones, roads, people, etc..... till we came to the first property with road access (literally where I live).

It took us 10 hours.

I wiped out dozens of times, freaked out twice, and thought I was going to drown once.

And I was humbled throughout.

The three women that went with me (including my wife) are possibly the toughest human beings on earth. (That's a story in itself - all macho that I've had in the past is now forever gone.)

The highlight was "the narrows" itself which is a sharp 70 foot waterfall into a deep gorge. You have to drag (port) your kayaks around this gorge and then lower each kayak down a 40 foot cliff which each person also has to scale free handed and then stand on a thin ledge in the roaring current while propping each boat and the equipment before you can launch again.

Porting the "narrows" took maybe 2 hours.

Afterwards, deep in the gorge, flat on my back in a small open cavern, exhausted with only 5 more miles of rapids to go, I looked up and I said, "I AM AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH."

And I was.

Humble again,
Mitch


Friday, August 3, 2007

How to Play the Harmonica - Part 1

I came up with a diddy this morning on the way to work. Now I can tell what harmonica to play "cross-harp" to in what key.

See it's not as simple as grabbing a harmonica in the key of "A" when the rest of the band is playing a song in the key of "A". Oh no! It's not that simple. Till now!

If it's me you want to jive,
You take my harp - and go up five.

If it's you gonna play some more,
I'll take you key - and go up four.


This diddy (a.k.a. algorythmn) is perfect to memorize to quickly translate back and forth between a harmonica player and another instrument. And that is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL if you're tring to play with others or your own guitar when you are mostly a "cross-harp" or blues harmonica player.

Two meta-points I want to make first before I explain this diddy/algorythmn (diddlygorythmn? algordiddy? well, Al Gore diddy or didn't he? ... sorry)

1. Memory - Like how Dostoevsky's clerk from "underground" figured his liver was bad but wasn't sure, that's how I feel about my memory. I can't remember sh*t. But part of the problem is, I really don't want to either. Everything I've ever committed to memory I had to forget later - because it was wrong! So why waste mental space for trivia that can be disputed, is probably wrong, and science, teachers, culture, and kids will later change?

(This is a post-modern problem if that means anything to you.)

Plus, I'm getting older. I don't go to college classes and learn stuff for tests, I hardly ever talk intelligently with humans (sure we debate work problems from cubicle to cubicle now and then - but mostly its more of a human political balancing act), I drink more, the LSD and drugs of my youth are probably catching up with my brain cells, and damnit - I just don't hardly give a shit about information I probably won't use!

All knowledge, meaning, information seems meaningless! I mean, you can "guess or google" ANYTHING in a matter of minutes! Why should I memorize it?!

Oh well... anyway... it was from embarassment of having about 10 harps on me and fiddling through each one of them to find the key to a song (by then it's half over), that I got tired of "playing it by ear" and I made up this diddygorythmn.


2. Driving Time - (I'll make this point quicker) Use your driving time! Use it to create and do something. Don't use it to consume, smoke cigarettes, listen to music, drink your coffee and space out - or chatter chatter your little mind away.) Use it to CREATE something! DO something that you can do with your time AND while driving.

I made up the above "diddygorythmn" to solve an ongoing legitimate problem that I've never faced up to or thought through that has driven me embarrassingly crazy over the years and made me look like an amateur moron many a time.

I taught myself how to play this harmonica - completely while driving to work. I taught myself. I only used the time I would normally just be driving to work. Wasted time converted into a talent.

Time may be your only truly limited resource.

You drive to work. It takes 30, 40, 50+ minutes a day. Possibley twice that going back and forth to work. You have 24 hours in a day. You live maybe 75 years. That's it. It costs you a lot more than gasoline and insurance coverage to drive to work. It costs you your life.

Friday, July 27, 2007

I Have Gravitas - a helluvalot in fact!

.... man I'm gonna apply for this job in London... part of the requirement is to have:
"the gravitas to be able to extract information from others and then recommend proposed improvements with conviction and authority"

Hell, I'm good at that!
... what's 'gravitas' anyway?

List of social networking websites

Here's the future boys. On your mark! Get Set! Go network!

(Wow... I can live my whole life now without having to leave my computer.)

If you're not sure how - here's some entry tips on how to use what (I predict) will soon replace Monster if it hasen't already.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

If We Beat the Enemy Does That Mean We Win?

If the war on gangs doesn't work, why do we think the war on terrorists will work.

There has been an effort to suppress gangs. This effort has failed and in fact has had the opposite effect!!! - this latest justice policy report reveals.

Hmmm.... is anyone surprised? I kinda am. But again, I kinda ain't.

So is anyone surprised that Al Queda has significantly grown and world terrorism has been on the increase since 911 and the "war on terror?"

Something counter-intuitive is happening here. The fact is that if you DON'T arrest kids in gangs they generally cause no crimes and leave the gang basically unscathed in about 12 months time. If you DO arrest (lock-up, put-away, get 'em off-the-streets) these same kids - you lock them into a gang identity forever removing their otherwise normal chances of a healthy productive life - for life!

This report reveals that gangs are not nearly the problem hyped up as by the news and police propaganda. And instead reinforcment of gang activity takes place by adding more cops to the streets and "cracking down" on the "gang problem."

Who would've thunk it?

Should someone mail this report to President Bush? Or is it too late? Have we already set into motion the dividing lines and locked in hatred from 1000s if not 1,000,000s of angry young muslims around the world.

Will our future be like in those dark anti-utopic sci-fi worlds we see in movies where everything is unstable and currents of violence and hatred lurk around each corner?

And what wise man will step forward and see that love, kindness, understanding, and even forgiveness can change a heart and soul? - not force and defeat of enemy. (I could be wrong here.)

Hey, isn't this kind of what that one famous guy said - "love your enemies" . What was his name again. Oh yeah, Jesus.

But isn't some of these main supporters of this war on terror Christian based? Hmmmmm.... Maybe they're not Christians like in "Jesus-said-to-do-this" kind of Christianity.

Here's a quote I liked from the report:

Further, the thrust of most gang enforcement efforts
runs counter to what is known about gangs and
gang members, rendering the efforts ineffectual if not
counterproductive. Police officials make much of targeting
reputed “leaders” while ignoring the fact that
most gangs do not need leaders to function (not to
mention the risk that removal of leaders will increase
violence by destabilizing the gang and removing constraints
on internal conflict). Research on the dynamics
of gang membership indicates that suppression
tactics intended to make youth “think twice” about
gang involvement may instead reinforce gang cohesion,
elevating the gang’s importance and reinforcing
an “us versus them” mentality. Finally, the incarceration
of gang members is often considered a measure
of success, even though prison tends to solidify gang
involvement and weaken an individual’s capacity to
live a gang- and crime-free life.


Put the words "terrorist organization" in the above quote where the words "gang" are.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

just don't seem right

i try to never pea in the shower... it just don't seem right

actually, i don't
but i'm tempted to
i mean you gotta go... and water's all draining ta' same place... probably
but it just don't seem right

so i lean outside the shower... and into the weeds... as best i can

Thursday, July 12, 2007

How to Make the Class Experience Better

Response to a query for suggestions on a SQL Optimization class I took recently:
**** ******* *********

Yes I enjoyed the class. Yes I have recommendations.

How to make the experience better next time:

Work harder at making sure each student is orientated to the page/exercise/script/folder/screen that teacher is working on at the moment: Too many students including self miss a beat, not know how they got to where they are, lose contact with flow of talk, quickly get discouraged and miss the exercise. When everything builds upon the previous thing learned, keeping orientated with where the class is supposed to be and getting there is paramount.

Spend time working with the students through the labs instead of just turning them silently loose for an hour and a half. Get them orientated again and make sure they get started right. Too many people are lost too much of the time. Just because a few basically already know it and stay with the teacher, doesn’t mean everybody does. Students are just too embarrassed to admit they’re not keeping up. It’s the Teacher’s responsibility to ensure everyone is onboard. Just asking, “is everybody with us?” and no one answering is not sufficient.


Orientation. Orientation. Orientation.

Ensure the student is orientated with where we are and how we got there.

Ensure it!

Look over her shoulder if you have to. If they’re not on the same page, they’re not orientated.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Too Bad for You - Suckers. My Wife Cooks.

Preacher gave a sermon yesterday. Said, "So, when did 'cooking' become a four-letter word?" His message series was titled "Marriage by the Book."

Not being very interested in the sermon, I leaned to my wife eventually and whispered, "Is this relevant?"

She tuned me in with, "Oh yeah, you'd be surprised the women that don't cook."

I said, "Huh? Really? Well how do people eat then?"

After sitting through the pretty boring sermon - mostly describing the ideal woman from Proverbs 31 and how she was industrious and cooked and was a pleasure to behold and on and on - I went to the Sunday School class only to hear the women laugh and carry on how they don't cook at all. One prominent lady said she doesn't even bother to bring home fast food. It was pretty much a joke of an idea to even think about cooking. The male teacher himself said his wife's stove had been broke for two years. And the wife didn't even know it. Another minister's wife joked how she had just informed her husband no Sunday dinner would be ready for today and he'd have to take her to a restaurant.

As church was ending a man in the foyer was practically crying, shaking, and telling me how these sermons on happy marriages were killing him. He couldn't take much more. He said he was ready to "just give it all up" and to "cut losses and get a divorce". He said he was embarrassed that his children had to hear what a good mom was like.

After going home I asked my wife more about these other women that don't cook.

She reminded me of some friends of ours who are on the edge of divorce. She doesn't cook, the house is usually a wreck, and she doesn't particularly prepare herself or any greeting for when her husband gets home off of work.

She complains her husband isn't being the loving kind of husband she wants. She may leave him.

I thought of another person. I was his best man at his wedding. He has two children.

His wife used to broadcast often that she "does not cook and never will. Period." They pack up the kids and go out somewhere every night - if they want to eat.

They're going through a divorce now.

We went home after church and ate:
  • Chicken fried chicken w/ gravy
  • Green beans (grown from her garden)
  • Fresh tomatoes and cucumbers (garden again)
  • Homemade brownies

I brought in the leftovers to work today and ate it all again.

It was really really really good.

Mmmmmmmmmm.........


The Rightness of Playing by the Rules

A conversation yesterday caused me to rethink my primary supposition that playing "with" the rules is a superior mode of behavior than playing "by" the rules.

I'm a much better boundary pusher and game designater than player. I find it more fun to alter games with more interesting rules than to play by someone else's pre-defined rules.

I'm talking of course about social interaction, rules of engagement, unspoken rules, rules of etiquette.... that sort of thing. Purely the abstract and unsaid norms that are picked up by culture and mimicry alone.

What Clint forced me to note is that there is a chord of discongruency between a Machiavellian approach to social orders with moral values. This may seem obivious to most, but being a bit of an elitist and rebel and having grown up under the air of suspicion that everyone and everybody's basically hiding some kind of original intent - I can't help but being this weird Machiavellian Christian paradoxical misanthrope.

I don't trust the world but I trust in some ephmeral omnipotent Good.

So I'm changing my way of thinking.

I see that there is a fundamental "rightness" to "playing by the rules" and a fundamental "evil" and arrogance to "playing WITH the rules."

Systems themselves sustain the individuals. Thus any system resists subversion (by making rules, and punishing rule-breakers) to sustain itself while the individuals who "play by the rules" sustain themselves by sustaining the system.

(some of this has to do with the science of "emergence" - guess or google it.)

The conclusive moral of the story for me is to:

FIND THE FLOW

.... and GO with it.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

2 B Faithful to the Green Godess or 2 B a Damned Hypocrite: That is the Question

While chatting with a drunken neighbor the other day the discussion of native songbirds being displaced by non-native intrusive species came up. You know - how European Sparrows and Starlings and such have displaced the original American Buntings and Tanagers and such? They've been doing it for hundreds of years now encouraged by the encroaching landscapes of agricultural and suburbian growth.

He intensely tells me how he hates these intrusive birds and says he takes a gun out and shoots them every chance he gets.

Him being an aggressive, redneckish, self confessed drunkardly sort of person, I was surprised to see him have such a passion for native species ala the "environment."

I was surprised just to hear him act like he liked anything really other than beer.

Thinking I was in some kind of normal semi-intelligent conversation, I started reasoning with him how, "Well, these other birds are creatures of nature also and just want to eat... blah blah ... the earth changes, animals migrate... etc... I'm not sure despising, trapping and shooting all of them is the answer... and so on"

Foolish me.

He got extremely irrate, looked at me in appalled disgust and said, "Why you're nothing but just a God-damn hypocrite!"

He hollared at his wife he was soundly going home now and stomped off. I thought he wanted to punch me. (We were at least friendly acquaintences before that.)

I didn't know what to say and really felt dumbfounded.

I don't believe I've ever been called a hypocrite before. It didn't make sense. How can you be a hypocrite about basic nature and the environment with a "things-like-to-eat" stance.

(I have a degree in Environmental science and I sacrifice much to live in the Texas hill country wilderness where I live. I love animals and nature. I never use pesticides. I gave up hunting cause I don't like killing, and I'll carry a spider or insect out of the house to set it free outside instead of killing it.)

I pondered for weeks why he so vehemently dispised and rebuked me so under his "realization" that I was hypocrite.

Then it finally dawned on me.

This was some kind of religion to him.

He's a member of some kind of Green Goddess cult.

It's religion. How else could one become a hypocrite, except within the confines of some kind of a religious proclamation?

(By the way, he works for a construction company that claims to be very eco-friendly and has the green image built into their marketing.)

Friday, June 22, 2007

First Great Adventure

my little 5 year old nephew was swimming in the Blanco river the other day..... water was high and rapids were flowing. we got caught up in a flow and kind of got swept downstream... i was struggling a little bit but being very sure to hang onto his arm.... i was going to drown myself before I let him get into trouble... he couldn't swim, but I wasn't really too worried cause i knew that the rapids weren't too long and they were shallow. we were never really in any danger though i'd had a beer or two and i shouldn't got caught up with this little one in the rapids in the first place.

we came out of it after falling about and sucking water a few times. I pushed him to the shore and came out myself.

he walked up to his dad, who was a little bit bit worried and would've jumped in to save us both at any given moment, and commented, "I just had my first great adventure."

It was cute and funny and dramatic.

What struck me the most was just the awareness that this little boy had of his own life - to the extent that he could frame up in his own little mind his own life to the extent of viewing his whole life in his mind - and he figured this was his first "great adventure."

I was honored.

I hope he'll remember me and his first great adventure.

driving home drunk

i was driving home this evening and i realized that you should wear your seat belt especially if you're drunk. I was kind of swerving across the double yellow lines without my seat belt on and it struck me - if I wrecked, I'd be hurt even worse without my seat belt. So I'm going to try and remember and encourage everyone else. When you drive drunk, be sure to wear your seat belt. It'll give you a little bit more protection in case you wreck.

Friday, June 8, 2007

Open Response to cousin Kirby Grider in Iraq

Sent Fri 5/25/2007 9:10 AM

Dear Kirby Grider,

What an honor to receive such a complimentary letter. Just this one letter expressing appreciation for the work I’ve done gives me hope that it’s not done in vain. Knowing there are others like myself who just want to know and appreciate those people that came before us and generated the seeds that today have become myself - makes it an honor for doing it all. Thank you very very much for expressing your appreciation.

I hope this letter finds you and you can forgive me for the long delay in response. You may have been put aside, but you were not forgotten. Thank you for the bravery it takes to keep up such faith.


[Your letter has been sitting on my desktop as I’ve pondered and played and forgotten. But I’ve left it there to remind me to make the time to reply in a proper manner.]

In response to your letter:

So you knew Goldie, huh? That’s cool. I’ve got some pictures and video of her and me in her last years. She gave me lots of good material, documents, and photos. I need to trace back to where you say your family and mine tie and maybe I can find some pictures you’d be interested in.

So you remember stories of Grandma Phoebe, huh? That’s super cool. There’s maybe one or two people left alive that actually remember her. One of them is my Uncle Roy who was a child when she was around. He is about 80 now. (I’ve named my dog “Phoebe Dove” as a keepsake of her name.)

Scotch-Irish blood is a bit of a misnomer. There was hundreds of years of warring and land switching between the three sections of northernmost England between the mixed bloods of Scotch/Irish/English. This is what has come to be known in common language as just “Scotch-Irish”. They in reality were migrants from those warring tribes in that three-fold area that arrived into the 13 colonies right AFTER the main English settled the coastal plains. Since all the good lands were taken, they were forced to reside and “settle” the backwoods lands and into the Appalachian foothills.

They were a warring and migrant class of people where the women kept what little homes they maintained and the men did mostly warring. They were tough and fit into the rough life of mountain living and Indian fighting. These were where the original hillbilly archetypes come from.

The families moved up and over the Appalachians and up the Ohio valley which pretty much ends in the Kentucky, Southern Illinois, Missouri valleys and bottom lands. (Look at a relief map and you can envision it.)

That’s the high level view of what populated these areas and where our ancestors in Southern Illinois came from.

As far as your personal family history goes… considering that you have two children and the interest is deep within your heart, I would strongly recommend you not put off pursuing your father and his history.

Get at least the names and pictures before it is too late. Don’t put it off. Your mother may be embarrassed or something, but she needs to get it off her chest also. It will make for a blessed conversation between you and your mom.

Thanks for being a soldier and taking on the hardship of being over there in Iraq.

My advice:
Research, find, and write down who you are, where you came from and what you think.
You never know who it might help plus you’ll make it that much harder for them to forget about you.

Again, my sincerest apologies for such an extreme delayed response.


Your friend and cousin,
Mitch Sanders

Meet Kirby Grider - A distant cousin

Subject: Ingles Descendant
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:44:15 +0300

Mr. Sanders,

Let me first say, that I am very impressed with your research into the Ingles family and that if I may contribute at any time, I am at your call.

Let me first tell you who I am. My name is Kirby Scott Grider, son of Linda M. Montgomery. She was married twice previously, first to Paul Grider, second to Ricky L. Shipman SR., and then thirdly to Craig Montgomery. She is the daughter of John Wesley Eudean Ingles. Who of course is the brother of Goldie Ingles, who you spent a lot of time with.

Now that you are aware of who I am, I would like to say thank you for the work that you have done. I know Goldie was very much interested into our family blood lines and unfortunately I did not get to spend a lot of time with her talking before she left us. I joined the Army as soon as I was old enough and been traveling the world. I am actually writing this email from my desk in Iraq. I have tried to keep up with any updates you have posted on your website and to my best recollection it has been updated since I last looked at it. You have preserved my families history for years to come, thanks to the technology age and computers.

I have been very interested in my families military background and continue to try and research it. Most significantly Samuel and Andy Ingles. The Civil War time frame is my favorite period in our Great Counties history. The ability for it to fight in those conditions and stay a country and not let itself divide. Brothers fighting Brothers and Cousins fighting Cousins. It must have been a very trying period. Abe Lincoln is my favorite president at that. He must have been a great man to deal with the things he had in those four years and the decisions he made to include his significant losses in his family.

One of the things that interest me most is my families ties all the way back to the homeland, which ever it may be. Ireland or Scotland. The different cultural background as well is interesting that Phoebe had Native American blood, pipe smoking and fortune telling. I remember my grandparents telling me stories of her when I was young and thought they were just stories your grandparents told you. They made her out to be a very strong woman. It was also very interesting that Goldie would say that the Pollard side was Spanish. I just wonder where that side would eventually lead to. The possibilities are endless. I was born to Linda Ingles in 1979, she was a single mother and to this day, I do not know who my biological father is. I could probably find out if I asked my mother since she has kept it a secret from everyone, but I suspect one person knows, but that time will come when I can complete the background of who I am and my family genes. I lived with my mother, grandmother, and the other siblings

I was born to Linda Ingles in 1979, she was a single mother and to this day, I do not know who my biological father is. I could probably find out if I asked my mother since she has kept it a secret from everyone, but I suspect one person knows, but that time will come when I can complete the background of who I am and my family genes. I lived with my mother, grandmother, and the other siblings of my mother which are 7 total including my mom until my mother met the man I call Dad. My dad met my mother when I was two years old and they finally married when was three. I have two sisters and a brother. My older of the two sisters was Paul Griders and the younger brother and sister are born from Rick Shipman. Family history is very important to me and I am grateful for what you have done. I have read your site more than a few times and always intrigued by my family and their history, as I am sure you are with your side.

I am probably not very good at relating how my family history goes, but I have two children of my own. One not born from me and the other is 3 years old who is my biological son. Its very important to me that they understand their bloodlines and their families lives in history. I think it really tells a story of how we came about and who we are. Any advice or interesting things that you could tell me would greatly be appreciated. I know I have been rambling on. So I will let you go.

Thanks again for the work.

KIRBY S. GRIDER
SSG, USA
Senior Human Resources SGT
2nd BN, 14th IN
VoIP 242-7678

Monday, June 4, 2007

Abbie Ostrem - The Magic Touch

Abbie Ostrem is a great photographer and if you were a friend of hers you might be lucky enough to get a few shots of yourself published on her website.

I happen to be lucky enough.

She's a truly awesome photographer and when she came by the other day we were preparing our garden. She brought her camera and just ripped off a few shots. They came out awesome and my mom has since framed a few to decorate her home.

Thanks Abbie. I'm honored.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Enough Laws !

More laws will not help. More laws will not solve the problem.

And what is this "hate-crime" crap? So we punish people extra hard if they are prejudice. And if I'm a victum of a crime and happen to belong to a a minority I can expect extra justice.

This doesn't sound right.

What happened to "...liberty and justice for all" ?

I got an email from a lesbian friend of mine encouraging me to join the "Human Rights Campaign" and write to my Congress because "one-in-six hate crimes are motivated by the victum's sexual orientation, and today's federal laws don't include any protections for these Americans?"

Huh?

Exactly what kind of expansion of Federal Laws does one think we need to protect these Americans?

Another friend (non-Lesbian) reponded how she took a college class and it revealed that the more emphasis placed upon specialized treatment in criminal cases to minorites (such as homosexuals), the less actual equalities tend to come forth in smaller issues (such as spousal rights among homosexuals).

Personally I don't think special protection to minorities based on sexual orientation adds anything to their dignity or equality status.

One of the biggest myths of American popular culture right now is that more laws will help.

More laws will NOT help.

In fact, there should be a law that says for every new law a politician comes up with, they have to eliminate three laws in the same category.

Today I heard that Arizona (or was it New Mexico?) wants to pass a law saying that its illegal to "speak bad" or degrade American soldiers that have been in Iraq. Apparently, some war protesters put the actual names of some soldiers on T-shirts.

Now, maybe those folks could be sued for slander or something like that. But do we need new legislation?

Maybe we should make one more law that says, "Law makers cannot make any reactionary laws." If some event like the above provokes law makers to react, they should have to wait at least one year to think it over before they can make such a new law."

So, two more laws:
1. Any new law must be accompanied by the removal of three old laws.
2. Any new law based upon a particular social event (e.g. "dog bites kid", "kid kills other kids in school","gay man gets beat up","people wear soldier names on T-shirt") must wait a year to be considered.

Monday, April 2, 2007

The cause of all pain is NOT Sin.

Christian Fundamentalist Myth #1 - The cause of all pain is Sin.

The implication is that pain/suffering could've been avoided with righteousness [non-sin].

A first response is "well, I didn't sin. and yet this bad thing happened to me (causing pain)."

The American Christian fundamentalist's response to that would be something like, "well, maybe you didn't sin, but someone did."
[this is where it gets a bit muddy.]

"Either the person who put that pain upon you (obviously the murderer, the thief, the adulterer, the liar, etc.) - you were a victum of disobedience to God."

OR

"Your own actions of sin caused this pain/suffering. You brought it upon yourself."

OR

"The cause of the pain was the sin of your forefathers - even if we have to go all the way back to Adam and Eve who did the first sin."

These answers are not good enough - though they contain enough truth to muddy up the issue causing you to feel at fault for your own pain.

The part about evil men hurting you holds true. Their sin did cause your pain. A bad man hits me over the head with a baseball bat, sending me into a coma, depriving my family of an income and a father. His sin caused my pain.

The other view is you caused it yourself. The normal implication from an evangelical preacher would be something like, "Well, maybe you was sinning by hanging out with bad people, or you did some hidden sin that caused this [karma-like] evil to come upon you." This is often thought, implied, and used as an excuse to distribute guilt and ignore suffering.
Another twist on this thought is: "well maybe its just your response to the situation that holds the sin that actually causes your pain" Something like, "If you didn't try to play God and be in control of your own life in the first place (implying that you don't trust God to make your decisions for you and somehow don't metaphysically manifest Himself in you) then you would not feel this pain/suffering or notice it as painful. (see, it gets muddy)

They call it "putting God/Christ on the throne of your life") - [Pastor Mark of Wimberley First Baptist preached a whole sermon on this thread yesterday].

The implication of this is some kind of evangelical twist involving the truism that if we respond positively to a negative situations we can still be happy - even in sad settings. (This has some obvious mixed truths and lies that we can't go into now.)

The part of all this I don't like - is somehow it's still your fault. You COULD avoid the suffering if you were somehow less sinful, more spiritual, or a better responder. (or something like that).

Jesus' first disciples had this mistaken and harmful view also. They came upon a blind man from birth and they asked him, "Who was it that did the sin - causing this man to be born blind? The man himself or his parents?" [John 9:2]

Jesus responded, "Neither."

Neither. Nobody did some kind of sin that caused this man to suffer. Not the man, not the parents. And by implication, not the parents' parents' partents' parents.

Then why was he born blind? Why was his whole life one of suffering - the loss of eyesight and begging on the streets? - life as a burden to himself and to all. I don't know. Jesus really didn't answer them other than healing the man and telling his disciples the reason was so that God's glory could be revealed.

That's a bit mysterious.

But it wasn't because the man or the man's parents caused it by sinning.
We do Christianity and our brothers and sisters a grave disservice by perpetuating this myth that "the cause of all suffering is Sin." We also allow grief and suffering to continue by believing this lie.

We should be healing the people that suffer. Not explaining their pain with non-Jesus theologies.

Our call is to heal.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Guess Or Google - "it's a phrase !"

"guess or google" - Google Search

...heard a phrase from the DJ on radio today asking callers to answer a trivia question for a prize... in passing he said you could "guess or google" the answer.

I hereby predict this phrase - "guess or google" - will become a common lingustically redundant clause of Americana nomenclature.

"guess or google" returns only 81 hits if googled today.

..... we'll see how many hits it returns a week, a month, a year from now

or

if you ever hear this more than once - then i will be proved right

or

if you ever use "guess or google" as a phrase - - then i will be proved right

...if i am proved right, i will immediately declare myself "master guru Nostrodomus-like predicter of cultural nomenclature changes".

(google that ... hmmmm...)

Friday, March 16, 2007

the Moon

Almost 50 years old and just learning how the moon works - pathetic..... I've always been curious but never quite understood the cycle "new moon" "waxing/waning".... that kind of stuff.... i mean when you look up at the moon (this same moon that all mankind looks at every night and has done so for ... hmmmm .... how long?) do you know if it's getting bigger? smaller? how fast it changes? what's a quarter moon? etc.

Well you get the idea. I went to this Virtual Reality Moon site and this site and putting the two together you can figure it out.

My question is, how did I grow up? get through grade school? get a college degree? (in Environmental Science even!?) and grow to be 49 years old? and live in the deep dark Texas hill country? and still not follow what the moon does ???!!??

...the one giant orb in the sky that has ruled the night and earth and humanity and the animals and the people for eternity.... the most primitive cave man ancestor that i ever had would have understood what he looked at every night and would've had names for each face... and would've known what to expect the next night - all his life! It was assumed knowledge.

...and i look at the moon nightly and go, "hmmm", if that, and not much else.

...society somewhere let me down... this should've been taught like in kindergarten. Are we that much removed from nature!?

Anyway.... Bruce Lee's son has a nice quote of mortality and the moon that's actually on his grave stone. He's buried next to his dad in Seattle. Here's a picture of me pondering them both (from this page.)

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Multitasking Myth

Multitasking Myth - Google Search

Yes! I knew it!

I've been saying for years now that multitasking is basially a myth.

A VP of a major business here just said to us recently, "You can only focus on about 5 things at a time."

That's plain erroneous.

You can only focus on 1 thing at a time. (sure you can DO multiple things at a time that don't really take thought - walking and chewing gum for instance, even driving and talking on the phone, but let me see you brush your teeth and comb your hair at the same time.)

Now I've found the studies and the charts to explain it.

I love it when my intuitive self-realizations goes against everything my surrounding culture tells me - and then I turn out to be right!

Wahoo!!! (...and it seems to happen more often than not.)

:)

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Ambiguous Replies to CYA

...while emailing a co-worker here yesterday - trying to find some answers to questions - i finally realized the answers given me could just as easily come from a magic 8-ball.

.... on about the 12th email reply, I told her this. She didn't think it was funny, but all her answers were buttressed with caveats such as "I believe blah blah is the case", "blah is true unless your boss tells you otherwise", "as far as I know...", etc.

... i can't write computer programs based on that. Computers and logic have a strong tendency to be binary.

After analyzing this some i've realized this is a corporate cultural tendency - so i went to my favorite corporate guru and tried to find a dilbert cartoon that utilizes the Magic 8-Ball. I couldn't find one but i did find a quote and the list of 8-Ball responses - both published here. [please forward the dilbert comic if someone finds it.]

The Necessarily Ambiguous List of Acceptable Corporate Replies

Reply hazy, try again.
Better not tell you now.
Ask again later.
Concentrate and ask again.
Cannot predict now.
Signs point to yes.
Most likely.
As I see it, yes.
You may rely on it.
Outlook good.
It is decidedly so.
My sources say no.
Very doubtful.
My reply is no.
Outlook not so good.
Don't count on it.


I've didn't include the following absolute statements from the original Magic 8-Ball because they don't really fit in with our corporate culture:

Yes.
Without a doubt.
Yes - definitely.
It is certain.


Scott Adam's 8-Ball Corporate Wisdom

Dilbert.com - DNRC - Read the Newsletter: "If you replaced all of the CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies with Magic 8 Balls (tm), and came back in five years, you would discover that some of those companies had compiled excellent track records by pure chance. The CEO's job in a huge company is essentially the same as the Magic 8 Ball: saying yes, no, or maybe, without the benefit of understanding the questions. A Magic 8 Ball is highly qualified for that sort of work."

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Manic Management

I koined this phrase "Manic Management" trying to describe what I see as a fractured-focus quasi attempt to solve problems that results more in churn than in productivity. It's measured more by the high energy input and frantic interactions than by success for the long haul within short periods of time. Meetings burst open and slam shut and you're back next week on the same problem, each time thinking you've solved something but you haven't.

Churn is a new term I've learned here at work also. It can best be described as walking hard on a treadmill and then looking up asking, "Hey, are we there yet?" And everybody does it.

Anyway, I thought I was being witty and wrote these 7 tips addressing the concept. Now, it's been on my whiteboard in my cubical for more than a couple of days, and I may be offending people with it - the cardinal sin of office cube etiquette. I need to erase it, so I'll slap it on this wall and see if it sticks.

7 Tips to Avoid "Manic Management"
  1. Less is usually more
  2. Don't confuse multi-tasking with multi-accomplishing
  3. Sound coming from the mouth does not equal expressed knowledge
  4. Remember: Your $.02 probably won't pay the tax
  5. It can be planned without being done
    It can be done without being planned
    It cannot be done without being done
  6. Too much information is the problem - not the solution
  7. "Fractured Focus" is a symptom of our age. Avoid it.




Friday, February 23, 2007

Why I don’t want Burnett Ranch Turned into Another Subdivision

  1. I hate subdivisions
  2. Less water for everybody
  3. Subdivisions suck
  4. If I wanted to look out my window into someone else's window, I would move back to suburbia
  5. Burnett Ranch wasn't meant to turn into suburbia
  6. I like walking to my neighbor's house and it taking longer than 30 seconds
  7. I like wildlife
  8. I'd rather see deer, raccoons, rabbits and foxes, than concrete, driveways, roofs, cars, and bulldozers
  9. Enough is enough
  10. I lived in tract homes and didn't like it
  11. Trees are better than buildings and concrete
  12. I'm looking for a peaceful co-existence with neighbors and nature
  13. I am not looking for a peaceful co-existence with developers, businessmen and real estate profiteers that live somewhere else
  14. I clear cedar and own and live on the property I bought and want others to be able to experience that same joy
  15. I believe in clearing, working and living on your own land - a way of life nearly extinct
  16. Bulldozers destroy nature, they don't make it
  17. I'm sick of living elbow-to-elbow with commonly designed housing projects designed by some developer for his benefit
  18. I moved to Burnett Ranch to live different than the 99% of Americans - is that so wrong?
  19. I like nature
  20. I hate subdivisions, tract homes, "custom"-housing-that-looks-the-same and grieve the loss of the last bit of American frontierism which is still alive in Burnett Ranch
  21. People buying property to chop up into smaller units to sell most likely aren't planning on living here and planting a garden and becoming a good neighbor
  22. Light pollution from the concentration of homes blots out that pretty starry night I've gotten used to seeing
  23. I seriously dislike traffic
  24. Hays County already has water wells going dry. How much more water do you think is down there?
  25. A good thing is a good thing is a good thing. The style of living and the size of lots existing in Burnett Ranch provide a good thing. This good thing will erode away once we start allowing the further subdividing of the existing land into smaller and smaller suburban-style lots.