I am on this "kick" to extract from my journals some insights on some things that have gotten my attention, and recently I found a replacement copy of a book by Charles Colson I had many years ago entitled A Dance With Deception (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1993). To give you a little of Chuck Colson's story, he was a former Nixon aide who was caught up in the Watergate scandals of the early 1970's, and as a result he had to do some time in prison. While in prison, he became a born-again Christian and began what would later evolve into a very effective ministry organization called Prison Fellowship International. Prison Fellowship has impacted a number of inmates, and one of my old school friends from years ago works with a ministry in Orlando affilliated with them today. Up until his passing a few years back, Colson wrote a lot of good material, and this book I have at hand that I will be basing a lot of my own insights on is for me one of his best - it is not an extensive reference work, as it consists of transcripts of his commentaries on the radio over a period of several years, but it is packed with rich information. Colson also represents a strain of Evangelicalism you rarely see anymore - he was one of a great company of committed, conservative Evangelical leaders who stood for traditional values and truth, people like Jerry Falwell, the late Dr. D. James Kennedy, Bill Bright, Francis Schaeffer, and others. Almost all of these great men of principle have now passed on into their eternal rewards, and their successors often don't have the same fire and passion these great leaders had, and the past 15 or so years of what has happened in America is evidence of that issue. At any rate, there is a section beginning on page 203 of A Dance with Deception that got my attention years ago, and it is one of the main reasons I got this book again to begin with. Let us just launch into it and see where it goes.
The section I am talking about is entitled "The Difference It Makes," and it is a transcript of a radio commentary broadcast by Colson on December 22, 1991. The commentary recounts the story of the Humaita Penitentiary in Brazil, which is privately administered by Christian volunteers who worked with Prison Fellowship at that time. As a prison, it was a little different in that there were no guards, and once an inmate was brought in, the shackles came off and a rather radical system of actual rehabilitation that works with the inmates in stages to recover their freedom - at its center though is a Christocentric focus that integrates faith into the rehabilitation process, something the yapping mutts at the ACLU would never let happen here. I am also sort of struck by how much this program resembles St. John Bosco's educational philosophy in that it emphasizes that the purpose of correction is not necessarily punishment, but rather rehabilitation, aiding the offenders to regain their place in civilized society by educating and disciplining them. There is a huge contrast in the system at the Humaita Penitentiary in Brazil and the penal system we see in the states - I have also been reading over another book entitled The Kennel by Kent Hovind (under the pseudonym "Elijah Green"), and the fictional account of Hovind's own unfortunate incarceration exposes a corrupt, corporate-run prison system that markets incarceration as a commodity. In the marketing of incarceration, prisons in the US these days don't necessarily have as their objective rehabilitation, but rather they encourage bad behavior to boost business - this usually is marked by ungodly sentences for fairly minor offenses that don't even give a corresponding punishment to the offense. Anyone who keeps up with what has been happening, in particular the past 20 or so years, understands that something is not working well in the American justice system, and essentially what that is has to do with corruption in government as well as the sharklike behavior of "Big Business," as Soros, Trump, and all the other movers and shakers are pressing an agenda with a bunch of pansy-keistered politicians aiding and abetting them. Contrasting the model of Humaita with the current penal system in the US has made me come to the conclusion that maybe the "under-developed" Third World may have more common sense on things than our supposedly "sophisticated and enlightened" Western culture does. Take a look at even the churches over there - they are fairly traditional (with the exception of some pockets of "Liberation Theology" sectarians, who are often egged on by apostate Theology professors in the West anyway), vibrant, and once many of them do embrace Christianity, they do so with a conviction and devotion that should shame us here; a lot of times, that decision could even cost them their lives! So, why is it then that the "Third World" is poor but vibrant, while the "First World" is rich and in moral decay? Good question, isn't it? It begs another question as well - are we really as "enlightened" as we think we are in the US and elsewhere? That is where the question of "worldview" now comes into the focus of this discussion.
If you seriously take the time to sit down and ponder about how worldviews change, and how these views impact even those professing Christianity, it immediately raises some concerns. One thing Colson points elsewhere in his book is something that has become more evident in the 25 or so years since he originally authored this stuff, and what it addresses is how we as Christians have allowed blatantly non-Christian influences to impact theology and philosophy. For instance, let me go back to my alma mater, where I had originally planned on doing my graduate work. After only a few weeks there, I came to realize that something very odd was happening in the Religious Studies Department at this particular university, and as I noted this odd "something," I also began to feel very disturbed in my spirit about some issues. Many of the professors in that particular Religion department were quite fond of quoting people such as Martin Heidegger, which in itself is disturbing, and to explain why let's first talk about Heidegger a little, shall we? In the early part of the 20th century, Heidegger was a German philosopher who openly supported and endorsed Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, and it is something he had never relented of even at the day of his death. Heidegger unfortunately had a seriously negative impact on theologians too, in particular Jurgen Moltmann, a theologian who exerts an unhealthy influence himself over this recent and odd new generation of Pentecostal and Evangelical academics out there. Even much of the exegetical/hermeneutical technique these younger academics use and are teaching on Christian college campuses has at its root Heidegger's influence, as well as that of the theistic evolutionist/transhumanist and apostate priest Teilhard de Chardin. Both of these figures have wreaked havoc on Christendom to such a degree that it has radically redefined what Christianity is on many Christian college campuses. Of course, we all know that Satan has no originality - the same crap he fed Eve in the Garden of Eden is the lie he feeds people today, and humanity is too blinded to even see it. Satan is shrewd enough to know not to tamper with an effective system, so he just repackages the same old deceptions in more "relevant" language of the day and it still deceives a lot of people, including the "smart ones" among us. Many so-called "Christian" academics have fallen prey to what G.K. Chesterton called "the cult of scientism," and what he means by that is that often scientism, with all its picking apart, over-analytical prattling, and its worship of facts and figures has robbed the world of its wonder, and has dulled the natural sense of wonder God endowed us with (Thomas Peters, The Christian Imagination - G.K. Chesterton on the Arts. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2000. p. 56). In other words, many Religion Departments at professing Christian colleges actually do more to destroy the faith of a student rather than helping them grow in faith, and as such I would not be adverse to doing away with Religion Departments in some universities - there are, however, bright exceptions to that and I am proud to say that Franciscan University of Steubenville, where I am working on my Masters currently, is one of those shining examples. There is a reason why this is the case - at Franciscan (unlike some other - ahem! - schools I could name!) the faculty are faithful to the Fidei Depositum of the Church, and they know it is their job to help their students spiritually grow as well as intellectually develop. So, in doing that, many of my professors at Franciscan have actually rekindled a sense of wonder that Chesterton extolled so much in his writings within me. However, the lies of Heidegger, Moltmann, and others who have apostatized and are leading other academic elites to do so are being repackaged today in what sociologist Christian Smith calls "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism," or its more simplified name, "Christian humanitarianism." I am about to make some enemies with what I am going to say next, but so be it - it wouldn't be the first time honestly!
I am about to give some background on some disturbing things I saw on a certain Evangelical university campus, as it will show that my concerns are not merely speculative or alarmist, but they can be proven by just walking on that campus and sitting in the classroom of one of the Religion faculty there. One professor in particular there taught a graduate-level Hermeneutics course I took at the time, and he is a prime culprit for what I am about to share. For some years, I had been keeping up with some of the faddish ridiculousness going on in Evangelicalism, as I was no longer part of it but still wanted to keep up with things. With the rise of people like Rick Warren (who, ironically, is now considered "conservative" compared to what came after!) and the later "Emergent Church" movement, there came a general postmodernist shift away from what used to be fairly sound doctrine from an Evangelical perspective. Therefore, when I first came back to the campus of this particular university almost four years ago, I sort of expected some change, but I was really not prepared for what I actually did witness. Now, this particular professor I am discussing now is, as a person, a genuinely nice guy - he has a decent personality, a quiet demeanor, and he's approachable and easy to engage in conversation with. But, as with anything, looks can be deceiving. It didn't take long at all to see what really made this guy tick, and almost from cracking the very first textbook in that class a well-informed and seriously-discerning observer could know that something was not right in Dodge. This particular professor relied heavily in his hermeneutical lectures on a couple of books that frankly had very little to do with the subject of Biblical interpretation. One of these books was by a post-modernist "Christian" philosopher by the name of Merrold Westphal, and was entitled Which Community, Whose Interpretation? The second was a book by an "Emergent Church" proponent by the name of Scot McKnight entitled The Blue Parakeet, which essentially raises doubts about the Bible's authority in the reader's mind rather than affirming it, as Aquinas taught, as a book of divine authorship that in its dictates is to be taken as true (for a more in-depth analysis of the errors of McKnight's book, I would recommend Baptist apologist James White's review of it found here - http://www.equip.org/article/the-hidden-agenda-of-the-blue-parakeet/). Now, some of the other texts utilized in this class, including Kevin VanHooser's mammoth reference book published by Baker Academic, are good material; I still use VanHooser's reference book today for projects. And, even in this professor's own books - one of which was a textbook used in the class - there are some good nuggets of things I utilize today. It is important to understand that good scholarship does attempt to find something useful in the most disagreeable of texts, and this professor's own text was analoguous to a fatty piece of bacon - there were some good bits of lean meat in it, but also a lot of pungent, disagreeable fat as well. In contrast, there are books by my profs at Franciscan - notably those of Drs. Regis Martin, Mark Miravalle, and Scott Hahn - which are like feasting on a good porterhouse steak; there may be minimal fat around the edges, but you walk away from the plate satisfied and well-nourished. Still others - McKnight's book, as well as Westphal's come to mind - are like cheap salt pork - there may be a tiny morsel worth salvaging here and there, but you have to render a lot of disagreeable, unhealthy fat to find them. So, let's talk a little about this Westphal guy now, shall we?
Merrold Westphal is by all intentions a philosopher - he is a committed postmodernist, and why his material is even considered for a Bible course is beyond me, because it really is not suited for it. Looking at his CV (accessed at http://faculty.fordham.edu/westphal/vitamw.pdf) he is an alumni of Wheaton (1962) and got his Ph.D. from Yale in 1966. He looks to have been influenced a lot by people like Heidegger as well as Kierkegaard (enough said there!) and he attempts to even "Christianize" atheism in many of his writings and speeches. He also tends to idealize people like Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud, none of whom can be said to be friends of traditional Christian doctrine. Even as a philosopher though, Westphal is actually quite sloppy - while it is definitely possible for philosophy and theology to be compatible (as demonstrated by Aquinas, St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Romano Guardini, and so many others) Westphal doesn't complement either well. In a similarly-themed text by Lutheran theologian Jaroslav Pelikan entitled Fools for Christ's Sake, although I would disagree with a lot of that too at least Pelikan has the discernment to distinguish between a fundamental Thomistic principle of being vs. nature, which Westphal neglects in order to press his own agenda. His heavy reliance on Jurgen Moltmann's "Theology of Hope" also warrants concern too, as Moltmann was essentially a panentheist who failed to distinguish between Creator and creation, and all the while claiming to promote "gospel values." Although Moltmann claimed a "conversion" as a German POW in an American camp in WWII, his theology doesn't reflect a sound conversion experience, unlike that of his supposed mentor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whom I believe was a true martyr for Christ. Moltmann is essentially inclusionist, panentheistic, and well, just liberal! When one reads good theology, such as that of de Lubac, Guardini, von Balthasar, or orthodox Reformed Protestants like Francis Schaeffer, you see a abysmic difference between the faithful theology they wrote about in contrast to the bereft theologically-themed philosophical babble of Westphal. A true theologian doesn't seek to alter doctrine, but to affirm it, and a true philosopher doesn't try to redefine morality and natural law, but affirms it as well. Westphal fails miserably in both areas. That leads to one final note before we wrap up about Westphal's idea of "prophetic revelation."
Westphal tends to assume God can use anything or anyone to be a "prophetic voice," and for Westphal his idols Marx and Nietzsche are "prophetic voices," which he says very clearly in his own book. On the outset, Westphal appears Thomistic - after all, Aquinas taught that all of us by virtue of being (being qua being) are essentially good, right? If Westphal would have affirmed just that, he may have been on the right track. However, it is evident that Westphal would fail to see what Aquinas really meant by that affirmation - Aquinas taught that man in his being was created good by God, but in nature man was corrupted by the Fall, which is orthodox theology. Westphal avoids that altogether and basically just baptizes these guys as "God's prophets" and that is where he went horribly wrong. A true prophetic voice is one that is yielded to God - Nietzsche and Marx rejected God, and therefore would have forfeited being willfully used by someone they hate. When I made a point of this in a reading reflection in that particular class, the professor commented "Well, God used a jackass in Numbers 6, so why couldn't he use an atheist too?" First, to answer that we rely on Aquinas - God could use a jackass because of the Law of Non-Contradiction; God authored the "Book of Nature," and therefore Creation was subject to Him and could be used. God used a talking jackass to actually perfect Nature. In the case of people, we have a little thing called "free will" which - and, I will discuss the theological aspects of this elsewhere later - in which God allows us to make the choice; this is why we pray "Thy Will Be Done" in the Lord's Prayer, for heaven's sake! Nature is not subject to the same responsibility or privelege of free will as humanity is, which is why God used the jackass in Numbers 6 instead of Balaam - think about it, guys! That therefore is a moot argument by virtue of the evidence alone. Summarily, Westphal's reasoning is based more on his own subjectivism rather than being grounded in the Fidei Depositum, and his reasoning is sloppy, faulty, and anemic. This was not a discussion per se of Westphal, but he is an example of the postmodernist nonsense floating around out there, often in the name of "Christianity," and it presents a conflict in worldview for the true Christian as well. More to say on something else next time.
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Friday, March 4, 2016
Pondered Thoughts - A Series: Part 1 - How Adversity Shapes Us
As I have been doing Sunday School lesson series on my Sacramental Present Truths page, I wanted to maybe begin a series of introspection on various aspects of my own worldview as analyzed and honestly stated, something I have had some trouble doing over the years as expressing one's honest thoughts is not an easy task. A number of things inspired this over the past several weeks, including having to sit for long periods (three to four hours) after my workday was over in the company cafeteria waiting for my wife to pick me up on her way home from her job. Sitting there, I was able to spend a lot of time writing, and it more or less motivated me to talk about some things I normally would not address, but was able to lucidly write about extensively in my personal journal. I figured that experience was as good of a place to start regarding these reflections, so we'll go with it.
Over the years, I have had to be put in some odd positions, including long periods of waiting in offices, at bus stations, and in lobbies of hotels and restaurants due to divergent work schedules that Barbara and I have had to manage with one vehicle. Often I let her take the car, and what that sometimes means is either getting to my office way early or staying way late, long after my work shift is over. At other times, it meant waiting in restrooms, or sitting for hours on a bus in order to ride hours to get home on a bus, or it meant being at weird places at weird times. Often, while I am waiting around, I take the opportunity to write in my personal journal I have been keeping consistently for about 20 years, and despite the circumstance I am thrust into, I often get some of my best insights from those circumstances as I am sitting and writing, waiting and watching. You observe a lot, and at times working observations into my thoughts yields some interesting perspective. I want to share some of those moments here at this point, and there is an important lesson - Dolly Parton once said that when life hands you cow patties, you grow a garden. Well, a lot of rich, stinky manure produced bountiful fruit in my case, and looking back on it, there were valuable lessons to be learned in such situations. Now, mind you, I hate those types of situations, but again to use another analogy, I have learned to take the lemons and make a good lemonade out of them. Now, I want to serve you some of the lemonade! So, enjoy the bounty of my "garden of thought," and hopefully you will appreciate how much manure produced it!
I am currently looking at a fairly recent entry I penned on February 25th of this year, as some good insight began to be shared at this point. At that time I was pondering some stuff I was dealing with, and the one realization that hit me was that I needed to learn to take a more balanced approach to my own particular "story" - the good should be preserved as best as it can be, and the bad should be seen in lieu of the good. The resulting fruit of doing this would be to come away from a given situation of any sort with more self-awareness and a motivation to let the real me begin to blossom as God intended while at the same time thinking of how this experience would be used to benefit someone else. Negative things in one's past are a given, and they are inescapable. The issue is not if one has negative situations or adversity, but rather how one handles them. Take the manure analogy for instance - manure will not do much good except make you stink if you allow it to bury you, but if you can manage to make something useful of it by letting it nourish the soil of your imagination, it will bear abundant fruit. It is important to note here that "manure" is metaphorically speaking of life's adversities, and not the falsehoods and "Walter Mitty Syndromes" some people like to construct around themselves. A Pentecostal televangelist once said that "your present position doesn't determine your future potential," and he was right. It doesn't mean that you become blissfully unaware of it in some quasi-gnostic fashion, but rather taking the adversity and using it as a growth tool. At times it is hard to do in certain situations when you are in them, because it is so easy for any of us to focus on the present situation, but we need to grow beyond that. I want to now use a story from classic literature I am fond of to illustrate the point.
In 1855, the British writer William Makepeace Thackaray wrote an amusing little story called The Rose and the Ring which I became acquainted with when I was a kid myself. My mother had bought me, when I was just a baby, a set of story books compiled in 1925 by an educator named Olive Beaupre Miller entitled My Book House, and excerpts from Thackaray's book were included in one of the volumes. Although a humorous story, it had a great moral to it. The story centers around the lives of four young monarchs in two fictional kingdoms, and two of them - Princes Giglio and Bulbo - were given by their mothers an enchanted ring and rose respectively that rendered anyone who possessed them desireable to the opposite sex. However, Giglio, along with the Princess Rosalba, also received something else from an enigmatic personage called the Fairy Blackstick (who also gifted the two queen mothers with the rose and ring too) when at their christenings the Fairy called upon them and gave them the gift of "a little misfortune." As it ended up, Giglio's and Rosalba's fathers, who were both kings of their respective nations, were overthrown and the two youngsters were greatly diminished in their upbringing - Giglio's father was succeeded by his ambitious uncle, Valoroso XXIV, and Rosalba's father was overthrown by a rebellious vassal by the name of Padella, who was Bulbo's father. When Padella overthrew Rosalba's family, she was very young and ended up getting lost in the woods where some lions raised her, while Giglio ended up being totally neglected in the palace and almost disowned by his contemptous uncle. However, when it all came to a head and both of them ended up in trouble, the Fairy showed them what that "little misfortune" taught them, and in the end they became the rulers of their kingdoms as well as being married to each other. On page 113 of the story, when Giglio and Rosalba are reunited and the Fairy pays a visit to them, she said the following to them about the circumstance: "Bless you, my darling children! Now you are united and happy, and now you see what I said from the first, that a little misfortune has done you both good. You, Giglio, had you been bred in prosperity, would scarcely have learned to read or write - you would have been idle and extravagant, and could not have been a good king as you now will be. You, Rosalba, would have been so flattered, that your little head might have been like Angelica's, who thought herself too good for Giglio." (William Makepeace Thackaray, The Rose and the Ring. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1902. p. 113). When I read that, I think to myself, "what would I have turned out like, had circumstances been different - better or worse?" Many who know me and my story know I grew up very poor for most of my childhood from about age 9 onward, and it was not an easy way to grow up. I had to learn early about how to creatively deal with adversity - my application of an Appalachian trait of "makin' do" - and the way I did so was to educate myself. I read a lot when I was a kid, being in a small town in West Virginia where you have little money and not much else to do I found a lot of solace in reading a wide diversity of material at an early age. Some of my elementary school classmates I still keep in touch with have an amusing memory of my fifth-grade year when I read the whole set of World Book Encyclopedias through at least three times. Reading books was a sort of escape from the rather grim surroundings I had to grow up in, and a lot of what I read then actually inspired me, gave me a lot of clarity, and fueled an active imagination - I wanted to apply what I was reading in an active, practical way, and you would not believe some of the experiments I got into! I think too that is one reason why I have always liked that one movie Matilda that graced the cinema several years back - I watch that movie, and I see a female version of myself in that little girl (who was well-played by child actor Mara Wilson). If you recall the movie, Matilda faced a lot of adversity - she had two deadbeat parents (Danny DeVito and Rhea Pearlman played those roles well too), a school with a butchlike headmistress who despised children and only wanted to set up her own little despotic kingdom in order to satisfy her own insecurity, and on top of all that her dad was into illegal activity and was under surveillance by the authorities. But, young Matilda discovered the joy of reading, and it changed her life, and like the fictional Rosalba in The Rose and the Ring, a "little misfortune" cultivated character and motivation in little Matilda too. I was a lot like that when I was around the same age - I never got to know my father, and my mother was often so immature that her idea of life was to sit around passing gas, drinking beer, and listening to depressing honky-tonk records (we also didn't have a TV when I was a kid either - in a way that is not such a bad thing though!). So, I had to mature earlier than I probably should have then, as we went through a lot of diversity where we lived at the time and my only escape was in reading as well as in time listening to Henry Boggen play vintage big band records on WBT-AM out of Charlotte, NC. However, I also had some other help then too, although I didn't fully appreciate it at the time. My fifth and sixth-grade teacher was a large jar-headed man with the demeanor of a Marine drill sergeant by the name of Guy Dispanet Jr., and although initially I hated him, in time he brought my potential out of me and after three years with him in the classroom - he flunked my butt in the first year, so I had to repeat fifth grade, but it was good for me - I gained his respect, and in turn I came to really respect him as a teacher, as he ended up being one of the best I ever had. God used Dispanet to give me the swift kick in the keister I needed to begin to develop my potential, and it paid off richly in later years. Although much of this was there before I even encountered Guy Dispanet in that small classroom in Kirby, WV, in 1980, I credit him with guiding me to channel the assets I possessed in such a way that it made me shine like I was intended to. Although he passed away in 1993, I still have a special place for Dispanet in my thoughts, and I owe him a great deal for helping me to be formed and shaped in such a way that I could begin to reach the potential I had. Thank God for good teachers, which these days are a rare commodity. If you had them, and they are still with us, please reach out to them as they can use the encouragement of knowing they helped shape someone's life.
Adversity is never pleasant when you face it, but in the adverse circumstance there is a lesson to be learned that will make it count for something later. Do you remember, for instance, Genesis 3:17? Adam and Eve had really screwed up, but they refused to own it - people who read that account in Genesis 3 often focus on taking the bite out of the fruit as the mortal sin, but that really was not it - Adam's sin was self-justification, for instead of having the stamina to take ownership for what he did and petitioning God's mercy, Adam instead chose to attempt to explain his way out by "passing the buck" first on Eve, and later on God Himself (read this later on Sacramental Present Truths, as it is part of a recent Sunday School lesson). So, in verse 17, God handed down sentence to Adam, and part of that was that God cursed the ground for Adam's sake. Like the Fairy Blackstick in The Rose and the Ring, God "cursed" the ground for the purpose of building in Adam character through his adverse condition of all that backbreaking labor he was going to have to do just to survive, and ironically God was telling Adam this - if he does labor, then the fruit of the labor will be more satisfying, so instead of a "curse" work would actually be good for him! So, although adversity is unpleasant, it actually may be to our advantage to go through it when we do because it grows us, much like stinky manure grows beautiful roses and delicious tomatoes. The problem with adversity though is that often we don't see how it is good when we are experiencing it, and often it is only in hindsight that we can say "aha!" to the whole situation. But, that's fine too - at least we got the message, albeit late! But, it doesn't have to be totally that way, because in adversity it is important to stay focused on the bigger picture, and if you can do that, then you will be surprised at what will result from it.
There is much more - oh so much more, as I had three hours to write journal entries on this subject! - that could be said, but the bottom line is actually quite simple. Adversity builds character in that it challenges us to use a negative circumstance to a positive advantage, and in doing so we see for ourselves what we are made of. If everything were all "lollypops and rainbows," we would never be challenged to stretch ourselves, and thus a lot of things we could do would never even be thought of. As a concluding thought, I think also of Jacobo Timerman, the Russian-born Argentine journalist who was imprisoned by the Peronist regime in the late 1970's for speaking out against atrocities. Timerman wrote a great book about his experiences called Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number, that was originally published in 1980. I first became familiar with the book when I was ten years old, during one of those long, poverty-stricken summers in Kirby, WV, where mostly all I had to do then at times was read many times over several past issues of various magazines that people gave us, and one of those was an issue of Reader's Digest that had an excerpt from this book of Timerman's in it. As I eventually got the book and read it more thoroughly, something struck me about what he said on page 36 - "Memory is the chief enemy of the solitary tortured man - nothing is more dangerous at such moments. But, I managed to develop certain passivity-inducing devices for withstanding torture and anti-memory devices for those long hours in the solitary cell." (Jacobo Timerman, Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981. p. 36). Timerman was an agnostic unfortunately, and unlike others who were unjustly imprisoned such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he unfortunately didn't know how to use adversity to his advantage in this case - far from being the enemy of the "solitary tortured man," the memory at times may be the very thing that maintains sanity in adversity. Our memories, both good and bad, can be a great classroom for us if we allow them to be so, and having the time to reflect on them can help one make some sense out of a situation and instill a resolve to overcome it. Growing up as I did - and unfortunately I don't have the liberty to share that entire story for a variety of reasons at this time - I valued memory and imagination, and it was something I believe God used to develop what He gave me personally. As G.K. Chesterton remarked in his various writings, humans were created by God as both creatures and creators, and as such it is the poetic, or imaginative, view of existence that keeps a person sane (Thomas Peters, The Christian Imagination - G.K. Chesterton on the Arts. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000. p. 44). If it hadn't been for an insatiable desire to read and learn, I would have been just another Appalachian statistic rather than being able to rise above circumstance and go after what I felt God called me to do. Timerman fails to admit it, but in reality something drove him to maintain sanity in that dank Argentine prison, and thankfully for his sake it did!
So, as I now conclude this discourse, my advice to anyone facing adversity is to do several things. First, utilize the adverse situation as a learning experience, and if you are a God-fearing person, you need to ask Him "what is it I am supposed to come out of this with?" An applicable verse in that instance is Romans 8:28 - God orders all things for our good, in essence. Second, it is important to maintain focus on the greater picture - if you have a job or a hobby, school, or anything else, don't let the adversity derail you, but rather focus more on the task and excel. You may actually surprise yourself if you do! Third, adversity is a good condition to begin writing - write down anything that comes to mind in a journal preferably, and as you do so, it helps sort a lot out that may be going on in your mind due to the situation you are facing. If you take those three steps, you will not only learn about yourself, but you will also discover that you may have more strength than you give yourself credit for. It is also important to remember that adversity is not a question of if but rather of when - no one is immune from life's crapstorms, and at some point one will inevitably blow through your life. Rather than letting it blow you away though, it is important to root yourself, and I cannot think of any better way than prayer and a consistant religious faith to do so - and, don't do it alone; pray with your husband or wife too, because adversity may be something you are facing together and you need each other too. If you do that, not only will you be strengthened, but also your religious conviction, your marriage, and even your knowledge will be strengthened as well. Hopefully this insight will help someone, and I have more to share on another subject next time.
Over the years, I have had to be put in some odd positions, including long periods of waiting in offices, at bus stations, and in lobbies of hotels and restaurants due to divergent work schedules that Barbara and I have had to manage with one vehicle. Often I let her take the car, and what that sometimes means is either getting to my office way early or staying way late, long after my work shift is over. At other times, it meant waiting in restrooms, or sitting for hours on a bus in order to ride hours to get home on a bus, or it meant being at weird places at weird times. Often, while I am waiting around, I take the opportunity to write in my personal journal I have been keeping consistently for about 20 years, and despite the circumstance I am thrust into, I often get some of my best insights from those circumstances as I am sitting and writing, waiting and watching. You observe a lot, and at times working observations into my thoughts yields some interesting perspective. I want to share some of those moments here at this point, and there is an important lesson - Dolly Parton once said that when life hands you cow patties, you grow a garden. Well, a lot of rich, stinky manure produced bountiful fruit in my case, and looking back on it, there were valuable lessons to be learned in such situations. Now, mind you, I hate those types of situations, but again to use another analogy, I have learned to take the lemons and make a good lemonade out of them. Now, I want to serve you some of the lemonade! So, enjoy the bounty of my "garden of thought," and hopefully you will appreciate how much manure produced it!
I am currently looking at a fairly recent entry I penned on February 25th of this year, as some good insight began to be shared at this point. At that time I was pondering some stuff I was dealing with, and the one realization that hit me was that I needed to learn to take a more balanced approach to my own particular "story" - the good should be preserved as best as it can be, and the bad should be seen in lieu of the good. The resulting fruit of doing this would be to come away from a given situation of any sort with more self-awareness and a motivation to let the real me begin to blossom as God intended while at the same time thinking of how this experience would be used to benefit someone else. Negative things in one's past are a given, and they are inescapable. The issue is not if one has negative situations or adversity, but rather how one handles them. Take the manure analogy for instance - manure will not do much good except make you stink if you allow it to bury you, but if you can manage to make something useful of it by letting it nourish the soil of your imagination, it will bear abundant fruit. It is important to note here that "manure" is metaphorically speaking of life's adversities, and not the falsehoods and "Walter Mitty Syndromes" some people like to construct around themselves. A Pentecostal televangelist once said that "your present position doesn't determine your future potential," and he was right. It doesn't mean that you become blissfully unaware of it in some quasi-gnostic fashion, but rather taking the adversity and using it as a growth tool. At times it is hard to do in certain situations when you are in them, because it is so easy for any of us to focus on the present situation, but we need to grow beyond that. I want to now use a story from classic literature I am fond of to illustrate the point.
Prince Giglio meets the Fairy Blackstick on a coach, from "The Rose and the Ring"
In 1855, the British writer William Makepeace Thackaray wrote an amusing little story called The Rose and the Ring which I became acquainted with when I was a kid myself. My mother had bought me, when I was just a baby, a set of story books compiled in 1925 by an educator named Olive Beaupre Miller entitled My Book House, and excerpts from Thackaray's book were included in one of the volumes. Although a humorous story, it had a great moral to it. The story centers around the lives of four young monarchs in two fictional kingdoms, and two of them - Princes Giglio and Bulbo - were given by their mothers an enchanted ring and rose respectively that rendered anyone who possessed them desireable to the opposite sex. However, Giglio, along with the Princess Rosalba, also received something else from an enigmatic personage called the Fairy Blackstick (who also gifted the two queen mothers with the rose and ring too) when at their christenings the Fairy called upon them and gave them the gift of "a little misfortune." As it ended up, Giglio's and Rosalba's fathers, who were both kings of their respective nations, were overthrown and the two youngsters were greatly diminished in their upbringing - Giglio's father was succeeded by his ambitious uncle, Valoroso XXIV, and Rosalba's father was overthrown by a rebellious vassal by the name of Padella, who was Bulbo's father. When Padella overthrew Rosalba's family, she was very young and ended up getting lost in the woods where some lions raised her, while Giglio ended up being totally neglected in the palace and almost disowned by his contemptous uncle. However, when it all came to a head and both of them ended up in trouble, the Fairy showed them what that "little misfortune" taught them, and in the end they became the rulers of their kingdoms as well as being married to each other. On page 113 of the story, when Giglio and Rosalba are reunited and the Fairy pays a visit to them, she said the following to them about the circumstance: "Bless you, my darling children! Now you are united and happy, and now you see what I said from the first, that a little misfortune has done you both good. You, Giglio, had you been bred in prosperity, would scarcely have learned to read or write - you would have been idle and extravagant, and could not have been a good king as you now will be. You, Rosalba, would have been so flattered, that your little head might have been like Angelica's, who thought herself too good for Giglio." (William Makepeace Thackaray, The Rose and the Ring. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1902. p. 113). When I read that, I think to myself, "what would I have turned out like, had circumstances been different - better or worse?" Many who know me and my story know I grew up very poor for most of my childhood from about age 9 onward, and it was not an easy way to grow up. I had to learn early about how to creatively deal with adversity - my application of an Appalachian trait of "makin' do" - and the way I did so was to educate myself. I read a lot when I was a kid, being in a small town in West Virginia where you have little money and not much else to do I found a lot of solace in reading a wide diversity of material at an early age. Some of my elementary school classmates I still keep in touch with have an amusing memory of my fifth-grade year when I read the whole set of World Book Encyclopedias through at least three times. Reading books was a sort of escape from the rather grim surroundings I had to grow up in, and a lot of what I read then actually inspired me, gave me a lot of clarity, and fueled an active imagination - I wanted to apply what I was reading in an active, practical way, and you would not believe some of the experiments I got into! I think too that is one reason why I have always liked that one movie Matilda that graced the cinema several years back - I watch that movie, and I see a female version of myself in that little girl (who was well-played by child actor Mara Wilson). If you recall the movie, Matilda faced a lot of adversity - she had two deadbeat parents (Danny DeVito and Rhea Pearlman played those roles well too), a school with a butchlike headmistress who despised children and only wanted to set up her own little despotic kingdom in order to satisfy her own insecurity, and on top of all that her dad was into illegal activity and was under surveillance by the authorities. But, young Matilda discovered the joy of reading, and it changed her life, and like the fictional Rosalba in The Rose and the Ring, a "little misfortune" cultivated character and motivation in little Matilda too. I was a lot like that when I was around the same age - I never got to know my father, and my mother was often so immature that her idea of life was to sit around passing gas, drinking beer, and listening to depressing honky-tonk records (we also didn't have a TV when I was a kid either - in a way that is not such a bad thing though!). So, I had to mature earlier than I probably should have then, as we went through a lot of diversity where we lived at the time and my only escape was in reading as well as in time listening to Henry Boggen play vintage big band records on WBT-AM out of Charlotte, NC. However, I also had some other help then too, although I didn't fully appreciate it at the time. My fifth and sixth-grade teacher was a large jar-headed man with the demeanor of a Marine drill sergeant by the name of Guy Dispanet Jr., and although initially I hated him, in time he brought my potential out of me and after three years with him in the classroom - he flunked my butt in the first year, so I had to repeat fifth grade, but it was good for me - I gained his respect, and in turn I came to really respect him as a teacher, as he ended up being one of the best I ever had. God used Dispanet to give me the swift kick in the keister I needed to begin to develop my potential, and it paid off richly in later years. Although much of this was there before I even encountered Guy Dispanet in that small classroom in Kirby, WV, in 1980, I credit him with guiding me to channel the assets I possessed in such a way that it made me shine like I was intended to. Although he passed away in 1993, I still have a special place for Dispanet in my thoughts, and I owe him a great deal for helping me to be formed and shaped in such a way that I could begin to reach the potential I had. Thank God for good teachers, which these days are a rare commodity. If you had them, and they are still with us, please reach out to them as they can use the encouragement of knowing they helped shape someone's life.
Adversity is never pleasant when you face it, but in the adverse circumstance there is a lesson to be learned that will make it count for something later. Do you remember, for instance, Genesis 3:17? Adam and Eve had really screwed up, but they refused to own it - people who read that account in Genesis 3 often focus on taking the bite out of the fruit as the mortal sin, but that really was not it - Adam's sin was self-justification, for instead of having the stamina to take ownership for what he did and petitioning God's mercy, Adam instead chose to attempt to explain his way out by "passing the buck" first on Eve, and later on God Himself (read this later on Sacramental Present Truths, as it is part of a recent Sunday School lesson). So, in verse 17, God handed down sentence to Adam, and part of that was that God cursed the ground for Adam's sake. Like the Fairy Blackstick in The Rose and the Ring, God "cursed" the ground for the purpose of building in Adam character through his adverse condition of all that backbreaking labor he was going to have to do just to survive, and ironically God was telling Adam this - if he does labor, then the fruit of the labor will be more satisfying, so instead of a "curse" work would actually be good for him! So, although adversity is unpleasant, it actually may be to our advantage to go through it when we do because it grows us, much like stinky manure grows beautiful roses and delicious tomatoes. The problem with adversity though is that often we don't see how it is good when we are experiencing it, and often it is only in hindsight that we can say "aha!" to the whole situation. But, that's fine too - at least we got the message, albeit late! But, it doesn't have to be totally that way, because in adversity it is important to stay focused on the bigger picture, and if you can do that, then you will be surprised at what will result from it.
There is much more - oh so much more, as I had three hours to write journal entries on this subject! - that could be said, but the bottom line is actually quite simple. Adversity builds character in that it challenges us to use a negative circumstance to a positive advantage, and in doing so we see for ourselves what we are made of. If everything were all "lollypops and rainbows," we would never be challenged to stretch ourselves, and thus a lot of things we could do would never even be thought of. As a concluding thought, I think also of Jacobo Timerman, the Russian-born Argentine journalist who was imprisoned by the Peronist regime in the late 1970's for speaking out against atrocities. Timerman wrote a great book about his experiences called Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number, that was originally published in 1980. I first became familiar with the book when I was ten years old, during one of those long, poverty-stricken summers in Kirby, WV, where mostly all I had to do then at times was read many times over several past issues of various magazines that people gave us, and one of those was an issue of Reader's Digest that had an excerpt from this book of Timerman's in it. As I eventually got the book and read it more thoroughly, something struck me about what he said on page 36 - "Memory is the chief enemy of the solitary tortured man - nothing is more dangerous at such moments. But, I managed to develop certain passivity-inducing devices for withstanding torture and anti-memory devices for those long hours in the solitary cell." (Jacobo Timerman, Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981. p. 36). Timerman was an agnostic unfortunately, and unlike others who were unjustly imprisoned such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he unfortunately didn't know how to use adversity to his advantage in this case - far from being the enemy of the "solitary tortured man," the memory at times may be the very thing that maintains sanity in adversity. Our memories, both good and bad, can be a great classroom for us if we allow them to be so, and having the time to reflect on them can help one make some sense out of a situation and instill a resolve to overcome it. Growing up as I did - and unfortunately I don't have the liberty to share that entire story for a variety of reasons at this time - I valued memory and imagination, and it was something I believe God used to develop what He gave me personally. As G.K. Chesterton remarked in his various writings, humans were created by God as both creatures and creators, and as such it is the poetic, or imaginative, view of existence that keeps a person sane (Thomas Peters, The Christian Imagination - G.K. Chesterton on the Arts. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000. p. 44). If it hadn't been for an insatiable desire to read and learn, I would have been just another Appalachian statistic rather than being able to rise above circumstance and go after what I felt God called me to do. Timerman fails to admit it, but in reality something drove him to maintain sanity in that dank Argentine prison, and thankfully for his sake it did!
So, as I now conclude this discourse, my advice to anyone facing adversity is to do several things. First, utilize the adverse situation as a learning experience, and if you are a God-fearing person, you need to ask Him "what is it I am supposed to come out of this with?" An applicable verse in that instance is Romans 8:28 - God orders all things for our good, in essence. Second, it is important to maintain focus on the greater picture - if you have a job or a hobby, school, or anything else, don't let the adversity derail you, but rather focus more on the task and excel. You may actually surprise yourself if you do! Third, adversity is a good condition to begin writing - write down anything that comes to mind in a journal preferably, and as you do so, it helps sort a lot out that may be going on in your mind due to the situation you are facing. If you take those three steps, you will not only learn about yourself, but you will also discover that you may have more strength than you give yourself credit for. It is also important to remember that adversity is not a question of if but rather of when - no one is immune from life's crapstorms, and at some point one will inevitably blow through your life. Rather than letting it blow you away though, it is important to root yourself, and I cannot think of any better way than prayer and a consistant religious faith to do so - and, don't do it alone; pray with your husband or wife too, because adversity may be something you are facing together and you need each other too. If you do that, not only will you be strengthened, but also your religious conviction, your marriage, and even your knowledge will be strengthened as well. Hopefully this insight will help someone, and I have more to share on another subject next time.
Monday, December 14, 2015
2015 In Review
This past year has been one fraught with challenges for us as we end it, and to be honest a large part of me is glad to see it go! There has been a lot happening this year and at the same time it often indicates a new chapter in life, but the turbulence getting to that new chapter is hell. I am going to hit on a few highlights to review the year, and as I do so, I am hoping that as 2016 approaches I will have more things of interest to report next year at this time.
1. Graduate School
My studies at Franciscan University of Steubenville have been intense this year for both semesters, as I officially entered the Catechetics and Evangelization program at the end of 2014. Most of my coursework this year has been in the practical side of the catechetical process, and it is somewhat challenging because after studying a lot of Theology, Catechetics is a bit to adjust to because it requires some different approaches that I didn't have in the Theology courses. However, they are not bad because I have actually learned a lot, and I am also using much of the information from these new Catechetics courses to refine my own style of writing and teaching, which is the purpose. The Fall 2015 semester just finished up last week for me, and I still maintained my 3.0+ average and still have 27 credits to go before finishing the program. I anticipate, if all goes well that is, to finish up by the end of the Spring semester of 2017 at the current rate of class load.
To be honest though, I am looking forward to finishing out the program as also so much writing and research has been starting to cause me to have classic symptoms of "burnout," although the Christmas break before the Spring semester should rejuvenate me a little. I am in the process now of discerning what would be my best course of action for my Ph.D. work in a couple of years, and although Ave Maria University was originally in the plans, I am thinking now a little more practically as far as maybe doing an online doctoral program, because quite honestly Polk County, FL, where we live now, is not exactly an advantageous place to live - the job market is bad, and only having worked a grand total of 9 weeks for all of 2015, we are feeling it in our household. So, one aspect of the 2016 year is a possible move to an area that has a more stable job market.
2. Church Work
Church work this year involves two things. First, at our local parish I initiated a Bible Study on Sunday mornings at 9:45AM, and so far it has been going nicely. We have already completed studies of Romano Guardini's 1932 classic The Lord's Prayer, as well as Scott Hahn's 2001 study of the Eucharist and Revelation entitled The Lamb's Supper, and currently we are working through a study on Genesis based loosely on Henry Morris III's (he is the director of the Institute for Creation Research in Dallas, incidentally) 3-volume work The Book of Beginnings. I am posting the lessons as I do them on my other blog, Sacramental Present Truths, and they will serve as lesson plans for future coursework when I teach in another parish somewhere else one day. The idea behind the blogs though is that they will go into more detail than the class lessons, and they provide background for the classes in case someone who is new to the parish wants to "sit in." This Genesis study is lengthy and involved, and probably will take up the better part of 2016.
Also, this year we suffered a major loss in our parish too, as our Senior Warden, Barry Weller, passed away at the end of October. Barry was a very valuable asset to our local parish, as he did so much and contributed a lot. His widow, Karen, is still with us and she has been a trooper through this loss, although she must really miss him after spending 37 years of her life in the marital covenant with him too. Barry had been in declining health since about the beginning of 2014, as he had many complications due to liver and kidney ailments, and although he was tenacious in his fight, the limitations of human endurance can only stretch so far and the Lord saw in His mercy to take Barry home to his eternal reward. Barry will be greatly missed, and his legacy will be also warmly remembered.
On the diocesan level, we attended our third Synod in Athens, GA, this past April, and I was elected a second term Deputy Speaker of the House of Laity. It is kind of neat to have a leadership role, albeit minor, in the diocese, and I am really loving being part of the ACC and its family structure. We have a great Archbishop in Mark Haverland, and his leadership and insight are always encouraging and enlightening. I only wish Archbishop Mark many more years, as he is also a tremendous asset not only to our diocese, but to the ACC as a whole (he is the Primate of the Original Province as well as being our diocesan Bishop).
3. The Homestead
Things at home have been challenging this year too. My mother moved in with us back in September 2014, and as of this writing she has been with us 15 months. That is still quite an adjustment for us, and the goal is to get her into her own place as immediately as we can. This year also saw some other visitors - on November 13th, I was sitting out in the living room watching TV in the evening when I heard this tiny but loud "meow!" at our front door. When I opened it, two of the most adorable little tabby kittens bounded in, and we ended up fostering them for a month until SPCA finally re-homed them. I kind of miss them, but at the same time I am glad they are also gone, because it was becoming somewhat of a challenge to keep them plus our four cats too.
The challenges of the past year have also compelled us to re-evaluate our stay in Lakeland, as we are now looking into employment and moving options outside the area. Polk County, where Lakeland is, unfortunately does not have the most hospitable job market, and this despite the fact it has a prime location between the booming tourist center of Orlando in the east and the beaches of Pinellas County on the west. Our plans for right now are to concentrate possible job opportunities on the eastern side, possibly Orlando or what is called the "Palm Coast" (the stretch of Florida's East Coast going roughly from Melbourne to West Palm Beach area). Out-of-state options are also being explored too. I have been feeling for some time that we are on the cusp of a new life chapter opening for us, and perhaps the circumstances are being set in place to make that happen. We shall see.
4. Music Library
As of this year, my current CD collection has reached a total of 1198, as well as 904 LP records too. I have not collected as much this year as I have pretty much gotten most of what I was looking for, but there are some observations I will make.
As of this year (2015), I have been collecting CD's for 20 years, having bought my first ones sometime around the beginning of March 1995. LP records, as of October 1st of this year, are something I have collected for 33 years. I am at a point in collecting this stuff where I can now actually enjoy what I have without plotting and planning to get a huge bunch of new stuff, and I am also able to as well download and save some rare stuff from the internet (sites such as YouTube and Soundcloud) and making them into CD's myself. Mass CD buying as I have done in earlier years is something that is not totally necessary anymore, as primarily I can find specific material on Amazon. I am somewhat saddened though that many of my longtime vendors - notably my old friend Ren Brown, who for years operated World's Records out of California, and whom I have done hundreds of dollars worth of business with - are no longer in business, so new material is not as easy to find as it once was. With graduate school too and so many other things, as well as a tighter budget, I just haven't had the time or resources this year to collect like I once did. But, vintage big bands are still my thing, and I always keep a diligent eye out for something for my collection I am looking for.
5. Other Milestones and Pursuits
This year also marked the commemoration of a great tragedy, as in November 1985 a devastating flood inflicted some damage on my home state of West Virginia, and it is hard to believe it has been 30 years since that happened. A part of me is still sad regarding how so many people - including many of my own friends and relatives - lost so much in that catastrophe, and although many of those little communities did recover nicely, it also has had an impact economically as well as altering so much of the original infrastructure in the state as well. I only hope that nothing like that ever hits West Virginia again in my lifetime. It is also the 10th commemoration of when Katrina wiped out New Orleans too, and the people of New Orleans are some who West Virginians can identify with, as both of us have seen the wanton destruction of nature at its worse. New Orleans too is recovering as well, although like West Virginia so much was lost there too.
On a personal level, no new books have been published this year on my part, although I do have the opportunity to broadcast a radio program in my home state of West Virginia. A local network up there, Allegheny Mountain Radio, has afforded me the opportunity to broadcast 30-minute messages on the air for their audience, and I have already submitted the first one. I am essentially going to broadcast what I have been teaching in our parish Bible Studies, as it may be something that really reaches and touches people.
Conclusion
Well, there you have it - my year in review! As you can see, limitation have not allowed me to post much, as it has been in some aspects a slow but challenging year, and I am hoping 2016 will be much more productive. I wish all of you reading this the best of holiday seasons, and I pray you all have a good 2016 year as it dawns upon us.
1. Graduate School
My studies at Franciscan University of Steubenville have been intense this year for both semesters, as I officially entered the Catechetics and Evangelization program at the end of 2014. Most of my coursework this year has been in the practical side of the catechetical process, and it is somewhat challenging because after studying a lot of Theology, Catechetics is a bit to adjust to because it requires some different approaches that I didn't have in the Theology courses. However, they are not bad because I have actually learned a lot, and I am also using much of the information from these new Catechetics courses to refine my own style of writing and teaching, which is the purpose. The Fall 2015 semester just finished up last week for me, and I still maintained my 3.0+ average and still have 27 credits to go before finishing the program. I anticipate, if all goes well that is, to finish up by the end of the Spring semester of 2017 at the current rate of class load.
To be honest though, I am looking forward to finishing out the program as also so much writing and research has been starting to cause me to have classic symptoms of "burnout," although the Christmas break before the Spring semester should rejuvenate me a little. I am in the process now of discerning what would be my best course of action for my Ph.D. work in a couple of years, and although Ave Maria University was originally in the plans, I am thinking now a little more practically as far as maybe doing an online doctoral program, because quite honestly Polk County, FL, where we live now, is not exactly an advantageous place to live - the job market is bad, and only having worked a grand total of 9 weeks for all of 2015, we are feeling it in our household. So, one aspect of the 2016 year is a possible move to an area that has a more stable job market.
2. Church Work
Church work this year involves two things. First, at our local parish I initiated a Bible Study on Sunday mornings at 9:45AM, and so far it has been going nicely. We have already completed studies of Romano Guardini's 1932 classic The Lord's Prayer, as well as Scott Hahn's 2001 study of the Eucharist and Revelation entitled The Lamb's Supper, and currently we are working through a study on Genesis based loosely on Henry Morris III's (he is the director of the Institute for Creation Research in Dallas, incidentally) 3-volume work The Book of Beginnings. I am posting the lessons as I do them on my other blog, Sacramental Present Truths, and they will serve as lesson plans for future coursework when I teach in another parish somewhere else one day. The idea behind the blogs though is that they will go into more detail than the class lessons, and they provide background for the classes in case someone who is new to the parish wants to "sit in." This Genesis study is lengthy and involved, and probably will take up the better part of 2016.
Also, this year we suffered a major loss in our parish too, as our Senior Warden, Barry Weller, passed away at the end of October. Barry was a very valuable asset to our local parish, as he did so much and contributed a lot. His widow, Karen, is still with us and she has been a trooper through this loss, although she must really miss him after spending 37 years of her life in the marital covenant with him too. Barry had been in declining health since about the beginning of 2014, as he had many complications due to liver and kidney ailments, and although he was tenacious in his fight, the limitations of human endurance can only stretch so far and the Lord saw in His mercy to take Barry home to his eternal reward. Barry will be greatly missed, and his legacy will be also warmly remembered.
On the diocesan level, we attended our third Synod in Athens, GA, this past April, and I was elected a second term Deputy Speaker of the House of Laity. It is kind of neat to have a leadership role, albeit minor, in the diocese, and I am really loving being part of the ACC and its family structure. We have a great Archbishop in Mark Haverland, and his leadership and insight are always encouraging and enlightening. I only wish Archbishop Mark many more years, as he is also a tremendous asset not only to our diocese, but to the ACC as a whole (he is the Primate of the Original Province as well as being our diocesan Bishop).
3. The Homestead
Things at home have been challenging this year too. My mother moved in with us back in September 2014, and as of this writing she has been with us 15 months. That is still quite an adjustment for us, and the goal is to get her into her own place as immediately as we can. This year also saw some other visitors - on November 13th, I was sitting out in the living room watching TV in the evening when I heard this tiny but loud "meow!" at our front door. When I opened it, two of the most adorable little tabby kittens bounded in, and we ended up fostering them for a month until SPCA finally re-homed them. I kind of miss them, but at the same time I am glad they are also gone, because it was becoming somewhat of a challenge to keep them plus our four cats too.
The challenges of the past year have also compelled us to re-evaluate our stay in Lakeland, as we are now looking into employment and moving options outside the area. Polk County, where Lakeland is, unfortunately does not have the most hospitable job market, and this despite the fact it has a prime location between the booming tourist center of Orlando in the east and the beaches of Pinellas County on the west. Our plans for right now are to concentrate possible job opportunities on the eastern side, possibly Orlando or what is called the "Palm Coast" (the stretch of Florida's East Coast going roughly from Melbourne to West Palm Beach area). Out-of-state options are also being explored too. I have been feeling for some time that we are on the cusp of a new life chapter opening for us, and perhaps the circumstances are being set in place to make that happen. We shall see.
4. Music Library
As of this year, my current CD collection has reached a total of 1198, as well as 904 LP records too. I have not collected as much this year as I have pretty much gotten most of what I was looking for, but there are some observations I will make.
As of this year (2015), I have been collecting CD's for 20 years, having bought my first ones sometime around the beginning of March 1995. LP records, as of October 1st of this year, are something I have collected for 33 years. I am at a point in collecting this stuff where I can now actually enjoy what I have without plotting and planning to get a huge bunch of new stuff, and I am also able to as well download and save some rare stuff from the internet (sites such as YouTube and Soundcloud) and making them into CD's myself. Mass CD buying as I have done in earlier years is something that is not totally necessary anymore, as primarily I can find specific material on Amazon. I am somewhat saddened though that many of my longtime vendors - notably my old friend Ren Brown, who for years operated World's Records out of California, and whom I have done hundreds of dollars worth of business with - are no longer in business, so new material is not as easy to find as it once was. With graduate school too and so many other things, as well as a tighter budget, I just haven't had the time or resources this year to collect like I once did. But, vintage big bands are still my thing, and I always keep a diligent eye out for something for my collection I am looking for.
5. Other Milestones and Pursuits
This year also marked the commemoration of a great tragedy, as in November 1985 a devastating flood inflicted some damage on my home state of West Virginia, and it is hard to believe it has been 30 years since that happened. A part of me is still sad regarding how so many people - including many of my own friends and relatives - lost so much in that catastrophe, and although many of those little communities did recover nicely, it also has had an impact economically as well as altering so much of the original infrastructure in the state as well. I only hope that nothing like that ever hits West Virginia again in my lifetime. It is also the 10th commemoration of when Katrina wiped out New Orleans too, and the people of New Orleans are some who West Virginians can identify with, as both of us have seen the wanton destruction of nature at its worse. New Orleans too is recovering as well, although like West Virginia so much was lost there too.
On a personal level, no new books have been published this year on my part, although I do have the opportunity to broadcast a radio program in my home state of West Virginia. A local network up there, Allegheny Mountain Radio, has afforded me the opportunity to broadcast 30-minute messages on the air for their audience, and I have already submitted the first one. I am essentially going to broadcast what I have been teaching in our parish Bible Studies, as it may be something that really reaches and touches people.
Conclusion
Well, there you have it - my year in review! As you can see, limitation have not allowed me to post much, as it has been in some aspects a slow but challenging year, and I am hoping 2016 will be much more productive. I wish all of you reading this the best of holiday seasons, and I pray you all have a good 2016 year as it dawns upon us.
Monday, November 16, 2015
The Resolute Churchman
Barry Weller (1939-2015)
In 2011 we moved back to Lakeland after 13 years of living in Pinellas County, and when we did so we began to attend a former parish of ours, St. Mary Anglican Catholic Church in Winter Haven. Although there were many familiar faces, a lot had changed also over those many years. Among the changes was the parish's affilliation - when we attended there in the late 1990's, it was under an "Continuing Anglican" jurisdiction called the Anglican Province of Christ the King, and at that time it also had quite a number of more members. However, due to some circumstances in the early 2000's with a rogue "priest" named Baker, membership had declined but the parish remained strong throughout. At around the same time, in Orlando there was an ACC parish, St. Matthew's, and a few years later it also closed. Several of its people found their way to Winter Haven, and among them were Barry and Karen Weller.
Barry was a Godsend to St. Mary's in that he brought it back into the ACC (which it was part of many years previous) and he also was able to bring several of St. Matthew's parishioners with him, even the vicar, Fr. Guy DiMartino (who is still essentially our Cure of Souls even today). Also, he brought a breath of fresh air that the parish definitely needed after the carnage wrecked by a former vicar, and in time St. Mary's recovered and became a small but vibrant parish. Barry, who served on the Vestry, also provided good lay leadership as well.
Barry was a native of New Jersey, and after many years of working as a professional salesman, he retired initially to the Orlando area with his dear wife Karen. He actively became involved in the local parish (St. Matthew's) and in December of 2000 he was licensed as a Lay Minister, which he faithfully served for many years both at St. Matthew's and later at St. Mary's. After suffering a cardiac episode in 2005, Barry also felt led to begin a nursing home outreach at the Brandywine Convalescent Center in Winter Haven, a ministry he faithfully did up until early 2014. That essentially gives a little history of Barry's life in a nutshell.
I first met Barry and Karen in September 2011, the Sunday after we moved back to Lakeland, and over the years Barb and I became very close with him and Karen. Barry eventually was instrumental for my own licensing as a Lay Minister in January 2012, and I wanted to reflect on that a little too, as it gives some insight into how Barry was.
Barry was what I would describe as a Churchman par excellance. He loved his Church, and he served her faithfully. He was also a committed traditionalist, and demanded perfection in liturgical matters not only of himself but of his fellow layreaders as well. As a matter of fact, he could be a little intimidating at first impression, and at one point early in my service at St. Mary's my thoughts of him were "Lordy, this guy is strict!" But, far from being a bad quality, that "strictness" showed how seriously Barry took liturgical protocol and how he loved and served the Church to the best of his ability, and he expected the same of others too. If I were to describe him now, I would call him the "R Lee Ermey of Lay Ministers!" However, despite the perfectionist exterior, Barry was actually a man with a big heart and a great love of life - he had a great sense of humor, was always smiling, and he would help a fellow parishioner in need without question or batting an eye. I also used to be amused by him at the altar when he served, for as the Offeratory was playing he would often grin and sway along with it too. And, he loved watching Duck Dynasty I recall too - being we were both fans of the show, we would often catch each other up on what was happening if one of us missed an episode for any reason.
When we first started attending St. Mary's again after moving back to Lakeland, Barry was as "fit as a fiddle" and had a pretty active life at the retirement community where he and Karen lived. As a side business, he sold Avon, and that gave him a lot of exercise and kept him agile. However, something happened in early 2014 that would change that almost overnight. One Sunday, Barry was not able to be at Mass due to what we all thought (including Barry himself) was a flu bug or something. However, it soon became apparent that something more serious was going on, as his health began to rapidly decline. Later, he was found to have some kidney trouble, and had to undergo dialysis treatments. And, to complicate things further, he also was diagnosed with a liver disorder. In recent months, on the rare occasions when Karen was able to get him to Mass, he didn't even look like himself - he still had the smile, had a strong faith, but the life that was once in him was fading fast. Nonetheless, Barry was a fighter, and he had the gumption to fight for a long time for his health. However, on October 24, 2015, his time came, and Barry passed onto his eternal reward. His passing was not a shock, as we had anticipated it, but at the same time it was a tremendous loss to so many. This past Friday (November 13th) we had the funeral for him at the Church, and Barry is now at rest. Through all of this, I also have to say that his wife Karen, a sweet lady anyway, was a real trooper - the strength she displayed and the dedication she had for her ailing husband is something that many should envy, as it is a rare quality as well as possibly divinely-endowed strength.
Although Barry is now at rest and enjoying the fruits of his eternal reward, he left a great legacy for both his family and those of us who were his fellow parishioners. Even at the diocesan level, Barry was appreciated by so many of our clergy and laity, and he deserves a place of honor in any record of the heritage of our church, be it on the local or diocesan level. Rest eternal, Barry, and remember that many of us love you and look forward to seeing you one day on the other side of eternity.
The West Virginia Flood of 1985
30 years ago this year, I was 15 years old, and was beginning my freshman year of high school. It was a year of great transition for me personally, as we had moved from our house of 5 years in Kirby, WV, and at that time Mom and I were actually living briefly with my grandmother and step-grandfather in the town of Baker, WV. At the end of October 1985, my grandparents were compelled to make another move to the town of Rowlesburg, WV, and just prior to moving there at the mid-November 1985 timeframe, something major happened. In the early morning hours of November 5, 1985, a number of people across a wide part of the state of West Virginia were abruptly interrupted in their sleep by a raging cascade of water surging up many of the state's rivers due to effects of a tropical system in the Gulf of Mexico called Juan, and those moments would alter the lives of thousands of West Virginians from that point forward.
My great-grandmother's house in Hendricks, WV, on the right - the house in the foreground was Homer and Kay Carr's place. This was the aftermath of the Flood of 1985.
I was not directly affected by the Flood, as at the time we lived far away from the rivers and all we got was some yard and basement flooding from a pond across the road from the house. But, it did impact me in other ways. The picture above, for instance, shows the house I practically grew up in - it was my great-grandmother's home for many years, and in its attic were a lot of personal mementos that were destroyed in the Great Flood. At the time of the Flood, my cousin Buzz and his wife Helen lived in that house, and they were displaced. However, when we moved with my grandparents from Baker to Rowlesburg in November, some two weeks after the Flood took place, we saw the devastation first-hand. Rowlesburg, quite honestly, looked like a war zone - the level of destruction from the overflowing Cheat River was so massive that it was almost infathomable to comprehend unless you were actually looking at it, and then the reality of what happened was so shocking that it caused many people to just emotionally shut down. However, it also instilled in many residents of many communities - including Parsons and Rowlesburg - a remarkable resolve, and the people in those communities really pulled together to help each other.
The famous "cow in bridge" photo that a photographer shot in St. George, WV, just upriver from my home town of Parsons.
The good news about many of the communities is that this resolve on the part of their residents led to steady recovery, and thankfully today - 30 years later - many communities have rebuilt and people are restored (for the most part) to their regular lives. But, the Flood was something that will linger in the memories of all of us who witnessed it firsthand, and there are losses from it which will never be replaced, including memories and even some precious lives. As I am writing this, it is almost hard for me to believe it has already been 30 years, as many of the memories of that time are still fresh and vivid as I think about them. But, as Romans 8:28 says, God works together all things for good, and surprisingly out of the chaos of destruction has blossomed much good fruit.
This was SR 72 coming into Parsons from the southeast after the Flood hit.
Near the town of Rowlesburg on the day after the Flood.
One vivid memory of the Flood that was long-term occurred after our move to Rowlesburg. The local high school, which was originally down close to the river, was trashed badly, and a provision was made by the Preston County Board of Education to temporarily resume classes at the Kingwood Fire Hall on the Buckwheat Festival grounds. Due to SR 72 being pretty much washed out between Rowlesburg and Kingwood for many months, the bus ride to school was a rather lengthy one - it required going down 72 onto US 50, heading west to the small town of Fellowsville, and then proceeding north through Tunnelton to Kingwood. In the fire hall where our classes were held, the "classrooms" consisted of walled petitions, so it was somewhat crowded and noisy at the time. I ended up finishing out my freshman year of high school in that environment, but it also had its benefits - students tended to be closer and there was less of the high school "clique" mentality due to the fact that many of the kids were in the same boat. Kids from middle-class, poor, and wealthy families had suffered equally, and the "flood experience" was a common bond everyone shared. However, it was also a little depressing, as at times high school resembled a Third-world refugee camp with the close quarters, the makeshift classrooms, and other "make-do" situations. However, everyone managed well, and commendably - despite personal losses experienced by many of the students, many of them also excelled in their schoolwork too, and that spoke volumes.
The red-brick building in the backgruond of the Buckwheat Festival picture in Kingwood, WV, is the Kingwood Fire Department, which served as my high school during my freshman year.
As mentioned, in time life slowly returned to normal for many communities, as rebuilding of lives and communities began almost immediately. Many communities, such as Rowlesburg and Parsons, recovered well, but also lost something in the fray - some aspects of these communities that made them unique was lost forever, only to be preserved in the memories of those who lived there prior to the destruction. And, the Flood also bore good fruit for me personally - it was one of the things that compelled me to make a commitment to serve Christ, a step I made on a winter night in January 1986 at the local Southern Baptist church in Rowlesburg, a church which itself was a remarkable testimony to the community of service - those Baptists really stepped up to the plate then and helped a lot of people, as did the local Roman Catholic parish in Rowlesburg at the time, St. Philomena's. And, with the upheaval of a recent move, the after-effects of the Flood, and so many other things going on with me personally, I eventually recovered and actually ended up having a good experience in my high school years. However, the growth it brought was somewhat unpleasant and painful for many, yet the fruit it produced was beautiful and can be seen to this day.
It is hard to say whether another catastrophe of this magnitude will ever hit that part of WV again, although when Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, many West Virginians were both apprehensive and sympathetic to the plight of the citizens of New Orleans - they empathized with the New Orleans people in that they knew the experience, but at the same time I know many of them were apprehensive because the question at the back of their minds was "could 1985 happen again to us?" There have been floods up there since 1985, and some have packed a punch, but none measured up to the legacy of the Great Flood of 1985. Our prayer is that it never happens again, and that its memories, as well as the memories of many of what life was like in those communities before the Flood, live on in future generations, as so much deserves to be preserved.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Cash Does Not Equal Class!
In watching the recent Presidential campaign of Republican front-runner and tycoon Donald Trump, one thing I have noted about him is that he is by nature a nasty and uncouth person. Whether it is personal attacks against his opponents, or chauvinistic remarks against women, etc., "the Trump" is someone who is really unpleasant. I don't really believe that a man like Donald Trump is the caliber of person whom we should have leading our country. However, I have noticed in the past eight or so years that the current President, Barack Obama, is equally bereft when it comes to social skills; the well-publicized "fist-bump" the Michelle Obama gave Queen Elizabeth II (totally breaching royal protocol!) as well as his rather cavalier attitude toward other world leaders (for instance, I treat my most vicious enemies better than Obama has treated Benjamin Netanyahu!) shows that this man, who is supposed to be representing himself as the leader of the largest free-market democracy on the planet, is lacking when it comes to even basic etiquette. However, unfortunately our high-profile leaders, movers, and shakers represent something that is a serious problem in our nation - a lack of class and good manners. And, it seems like the higher one moves up the social scale, the less manners one has. What has happened?
I am thinking back to my Philosophy of the Human Person course from a couple of years ago, and want to refer to the textbook my professor, Dr. John Crosby, both wrote and used in the course entitled The Selfhood of the Human Person (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1996). Dr. Crosby gives four premises in his book, beginning on page 14, regarding what personhood is and how we should perceive the human person from a Judeo-Christian moral perspective, and this is what they are:
1. Persons are ends in themselves and not mere instrumental means
2. Persons are wholes of their own and never mere parts
3. Persons are incommunicably their own and never mere specimens
4. The most important one - each person belongs to himself and not another (persona est sui iuris)
I note these philosophical tenets of personhood to say that good manners generate from a healthy personalist philosophical perspective, but they also stem more importantly from a Biblical (read Christian) worldview that sees man as created in God's image and not coming from a single cell that evolves into a blob of gel and then into an ape that smells - in other words, social Darwinism, and its tenet hallmark of "survival of the fittest," is a worldview in direct opposition to the dignity of the human person. Yet, so many secularists are so focused on themselves that often the dignity of their fellow man takes a back seat to their own pursuit of wealth and status, and many of society's issues today go back to simply a matter of good manners! Let me elaborate more.
When many of us were young, we were taught a lot of basic things called manners (at least my generation was - today I doubt if many kids are honestly!). For instance, if someone gave you something you said "thank you," and if you asked someone to pass the salt at the dinner table, you said "please." In public, you always addressed those who were your elders as "Mister" if they were men, and "Miss" if they were women - that is a habit I still use today when addressing matronly elderly ladies, as I will often call them "Miss Margaret" or occasionally by last name, such as "Miss Grant." If you are taught these things as a child, they become second nature later in life too. Another thing - when accompanying a lady, be it a wife, mother, or daughter, it was always customary to open the door of a building you were entering for them first. And, one more - when using the facilities, it is a good practice to wash one's hands. I want to spend a little time on this last one now, as it is a big pet-peeve in at least one context.
After working for almost 20 years in the corporate world, I notice things. One of the most disturbing observations I have made is that it seems that the higher up the corporate ladder one is, the less etiquette and manners they possess. On many occasions in offices when I was using the bathroom for instance and an executive or upper-level manager was present in the facilities at the same time, I noted that they do their thing and then walk out without washing their hands. I mean, seriously - these guys are meeting clients, having business lunches and shaking hands and kissing butt constantly with filthy, germ-ridden hands! I have now made it a personal point - maybe to my detriment! - to not offer a handshake to someone I know is upper management, because for some crazy reason I just don't feel like contracting a nasty virus because such a person is too lazy and stuck on themselves to wash up after taking a leak! That is why, if by some fluke Trump is elected President, I almost expect to see an outbreak of influenza in Washington because I doubt if Trump washes his hands either, being most of his upper-management fan club in the corporate world don't seem to take that courtesy seriously. That could also explain why there have been so many outbreaks of flu and cold in recent years too, who's to say?
A further thought on this entails something I came across in researching my own family tree. Upon finding out that I am a blood descendant of nobility, I began reading up on some of my ancestors and it turns out that many of them lived by a type of chivalric code called Nobless oblige. Nobless oblige is a French term that literally means "nobility obliges," and what it entails is one basic premise - whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly. It is good manners taken to a whole new dimension, as it demands a sort of accountability of one's office he or she holds. To put it in vernacular, in essence it means that with privilege comes responsibility and that duties validate rights. Although on the outset it may seem that nobless oblige is in opposition to personalist philosophy, in reality it is actually an affirmation of the dignity of the human person in that it admonishes that a true leader of one's people serves the best interests of his people rather than asking his people to serve him. In other words, true nobless oblige has no place for uncouth behavior against even the most "common" of persons, nor does it allow for self-serving interests at the expense of other human persons. If more of our corporate executives and politicians lived by this, it would practically transform society overnight. It is really tragic these days that the most humble and poor among us often have better manners and dignity than the most affluent, and although that is good in a sense, at the same time it is the affluent who have the influence, and that influence is exerted often on a younger generation that seeks to emulate the ways of the affluent in some hope that by acting so, they can also rise to that level. However, although that could happen, it comes with a huge price in that often by attaining wealth and position, one feels the need to sacrifice basic humanity and it manifests itself in some sinister ways. Let me now give an example from my own family.
I have a relative who is a corporate executive. Although this relative worked hard (which is admirable) in the process they lost a lot of their basic humanity. On one occasion, this relative for instance lost a cherished pet, and at around the same time one of their siblings was diagnosed with a debilitating illness. In this case, the sibling is less affluent, struggles financially, and even the most minor of health problems could jeopardize the sibling's home. While the more affluent sibling went on social media blubbering over the loss of their beloved pet, the same affluent sibling didn't even acknowledge their kin's illness - the latter could die actually, but it seems as if their own brother or sister doesn't give a rat's behind, yet will bawl and mourn a dead parakeet. In history, only one other well-known figure displayed similar behavior. This man was a world leader and he loved dogs - so much that he even granted them rank in his military. This same man was also disturbed over the fact that lobsters were not cooked humanely, and issued a set of strict laws about how to properly cook a crab without it suffering so much. Yet, this same person was responsible for millions of deaths because he viewed certain races and people with infirmities as "weak" and "useless," and he exterminated them with a cold assembly-line efficiency while laboring under the delusion that he was building an ideal society. That leader was Adolph Hitler in case you haven't figured it out, and although the animal-rights radicals would have loved him, no one in the 20th century embodies such pure evil and demonic destruction as Hitler due to the human carnage he is responsible for. Many politicians, academics, and corporate executives in "Fortune 500" companies have much the same mentality today, and would sell out their own mothers for a buck or a title. Therefore, it could be concluded that manners are no longer important to such people because they have a power-addiction which prompts them to justify their actions and eliminate the need for basic manners and a sense of human dignity. And, that is why we see so much happening in our society today, where no one even salutes the American flag during the national anthem because they have no sense of decency in many cases.
In the past generations, there used to be a news column you could read in the daily paper called "Miss Manners," and the lady who wrote those (I can't recall her name at present) taught the importance of using manners in interpersonal situations. One of her premises for this was that good manners were not to make you feel important, but rather to make the other person feel important. Perhaps we need to revisit some of those values today, as it certainly could not hurt us! And, to show I am practicing my preaching, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this, and please remember to wash your hands when you use the bathroom, open the door for a lady, and salute the American flag when "The Star-Spangled Banner" is played or sung. So long until next time!
I am thinking back to my Philosophy of the Human Person course from a couple of years ago, and want to refer to the textbook my professor, Dr. John Crosby, both wrote and used in the course entitled The Selfhood of the Human Person (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1996). Dr. Crosby gives four premises in his book, beginning on page 14, regarding what personhood is and how we should perceive the human person from a Judeo-Christian moral perspective, and this is what they are:
1. Persons are ends in themselves and not mere instrumental means
2. Persons are wholes of their own and never mere parts
3. Persons are incommunicably their own and never mere specimens
4. The most important one - each person belongs to himself and not another (persona est sui iuris)
I note these philosophical tenets of personhood to say that good manners generate from a healthy personalist philosophical perspective, but they also stem more importantly from a Biblical (read Christian) worldview that sees man as created in God's image and not coming from a single cell that evolves into a blob of gel and then into an ape that smells - in other words, social Darwinism, and its tenet hallmark of "survival of the fittest," is a worldview in direct opposition to the dignity of the human person. Yet, so many secularists are so focused on themselves that often the dignity of their fellow man takes a back seat to their own pursuit of wealth and status, and many of society's issues today go back to simply a matter of good manners! Let me elaborate more.
When many of us were young, we were taught a lot of basic things called manners (at least my generation was - today I doubt if many kids are honestly!). For instance, if someone gave you something you said "thank you," and if you asked someone to pass the salt at the dinner table, you said "please." In public, you always addressed those who were your elders as "Mister" if they were men, and "Miss" if they were women - that is a habit I still use today when addressing matronly elderly ladies, as I will often call them "Miss Margaret" or occasionally by last name, such as "Miss Grant." If you are taught these things as a child, they become second nature later in life too. Another thing - when accompanying a lady, be it a wife, mother, or daughter, it was always customary to open the door of a building you were entering for them first. And, one more - when using the facilities, it is a good practice to wash one's hands. I want to spend a little time on this last one now, as it is a big pet-peeve in at least one context.
After working for almost 20 years in the corporate world, I notice things. One of the most disturbing observations I have made is that it seems that the higher up the corporate ladder one is, the less etiquette and manners they possess. On many occasions in offices when I was using the bathroom for instance and an executive or upper-level manager was present in the facilities at the same time, I noted that they do their thing and then walk out without washing their hands. I mean, seriously - these guys are meeting clients, having business lunches and shaking hands and kissing butt constantly with filthy, germ-ridden hands! I have now made it a personal point - maybe to my detriment! - to not offer a handshake to someone I know is upper management, because for some crazy reason I just don't feel like contracting a nasty virus because such a person is too lazy and stuck on themselves to wash up after taking a leak! That is why, if by some fluke Trump is elected President, I almost expect to see an outbreak of influenza in Washington because I doubt if Trump washes his hands either, being most of his upper-management fan club in the corporate world don't seem to take that courtesy seriously. That could also explain why there have been so many outbreaks of flu and cold in recent years too, who's to say?
A further thought on this entails something I came across in researching my own family tree. Upon finding out that I am a blood descendant of nobility, I began reading up on some of my ancestors and it turns out that many of them lived by a type of chivalric code called Nobless oblige. Nobless oblige is a French term that literally means "nobility obliges," and what it entails is one basic premise - whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly. It is good manners taken to a whole new dimension, as it demands a sort of accountability of one's office he or she holds. To put it in vernacular, in essence it means that with privilege comes responsibility and that duties validate rights. Although on the outset it may seem that nobless oblige is in opposition to personalist philosophy, in reality it is actually an affirmation of the dignity of the human person in that it admonishes that a true leader of one's people serves the best interests of his people rather than asking his people to serve him. In other words, true nobless oblige has no place for uncouth behavior against even the most "common" of persons, nor does it allow for self-serving interests at the expense of other human persons. If more of our corporate executives and politicians lived by this, it would practically transform society overnight. It is really tragic these days that the most humble and poor among us often have better manners and dignity than the most affluent, and although that is good in a sense, at the same time it is the affluent who have the influence, and that influence is exerted often on a younger generation that seeks to emulate the ways of the affluent in some hope that by acting so, they can also rise to that level. However, although that could happen, it comes with a huge price in that often by attaining wealth and position, one feels the need to sacrifice basic humanity and it manifests itself in some sinister ways. Let me now give an example from my own family.
I have a relative who is a corporate executive. Although this relative worked hard (which is admirable) in the process they lost a lot of their basic humanity. On one occasion, this relative for instance lost a cherished pet, and at around the same time one of their siblings was diagnosed with a debilitating illness. In this case, the sibling is less affluent, struggles financially, and even the most minor of health problems could jeopardize the sibling's home. While the more affluent sibling went on social media blubbering over the loss of their beloved pet, the same affluent sibling didn't even acknowledge their kin's illness - the latter could die actually, but it seems as if their own brother or sister doesn't give a rat's behind, yet will bawl and mourn a dead parakeet. In history, only one other well-known figure displayed similar behavior. This man was a world leader and he loved dogs - so much that he even granted them rank in his military. This same man was also disturbed over the fact that lobsters were not cooked humanely, and issued a set of strict laws about how to properly cook a crab without it suffering so much. Yet, this same person was responsible for millions of deaths because he viewed certain races and people with infirmities as "weak" and "useless," and he exterminated them with a cold assembly-line efficiency while laboring under the delusion that he was building an ideal society. That leader was Adolph Hitler in case you haven't figured it out, and although the animal-rights radicals would have loved him, no one in the 20th century embodies such pure evil and demonic destruction as Hitler due to the human carnage he is responsible for. Many politicians, academics, and corporate executives in "Fortune 500" companies have much the same mentality today, and would sell out their own mothers for a buck or a title. Therefore, it could be concluded that manners are no longer important to such people because they have a power-addiction which prompts them to justify their actions and eliminate the need for basic manners and a sense of human dignity. And, that is why we see so much happening in our society today, where no one even salutes the American flag during the national anthem because they have no sense of decency in many cases.
In the past generations, there used to be a news column you could read in the daily paper called "Miss Manners," and the lady who wrote those (I can't recall her name at present) taught the importance of using manners in interpersonal situations. One of her premises for this was that good manners were not to make you feel important, but rather to make the other person feel important. Perhaps we need to revisit some of those values today, as it certainly could not hurt us! And, to show I am practicing my preaching, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this, and please remember to wash your hands when you use the bathroom, open the door for a lady, and salute the American flag when "The Star-Spangled Banner" is played or sung. So long until next time!
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
A Statement on Social Media
There is something I have been wanting to do for a long time, and that is give a position and my personal guidelines for participating in social media outlets. Recently, I read two Christian articles on this subject - one from a Coptic Orthodox bishop and the other from a Seventh-Day Baptist minister - and it got me thinking that maybe I need to work on something like that too. So, this will be my attempt at creating a personal manifesto that gives my own position on utilizing social media.
Social media is a relatively new phenomenon, being less than 12 years since it really caught on. Back around 2005 or so, I began to hear a lot about this thing called "MySpace," but personally I never got involved in it. Up to that point, most social interaction for me was on message boards of different groups I was involved in, as I am sure it was for many. I have personally been involved on social media for about 9 years as of this writing, having gotten my initiation into it via a site called Bebo.com, which at the time was a more cerebral alternative to MySpace (I'm curious - does MySpace even exist anymore???). I first set up a Bebo page back around March of 2006, and for about 3 years it was my primary social media involvement until a dear friend of mine sent me this invite in late 2008 to sign up with something new called Facebook. Facebook, the creation of a whiz-kid by the name of Mark Zuckerberg, was not quite as well-known back then, as the MySpace frenzy was still the thing, but I thought at the time, "what the heck" and joined up on it. And, almost on a daily basis now, I visit Facebook, and have for about the past seven years. There are many advantages to tools such as Facebook, as long as the users keep in mind that these things are just tools, and not something your life should revolve around. Facebook, despite its attributes, can suck people into it and it can become an obsessive thing, so we need to be careful about that. Later on, I am going to talk more about that aspect.
As mentioned, Facebook has its virtues, and one of those is the ability to reconnect with distant relatives, old school friends, and old co-workers you may have had from years past. It is also a great place to exchange information too - if you want good recipes, old photos, genealogical material, etc., Facebook can prove to be a valuable resource. Of the now 708 "friends" I have on Facebook as a matter of fact, approximately 40% are relatives (I have a lot of cousins on both sides of my family, and almost all of them have Facebook accounts now!), while another 20% are old college and high school classmates and co-workers, and the remaining 40% are people who I have made friends with who have common interests - music, politics, religion, etc. So, as far as networking is concerned, it is fantastic. Also, there is now a service called SocialBook which will actually print your Facebook content in a bound volume, something I plan on doing for posterity-sake later. However, with these positives are also negatives, and let me briefly touch on those.
One thing about Facebook is that almost anyone can "friend" you (given your permission of course) and a lot of times weirdos try to "friend" you with ulterior motives - it is not uncommon, as a matter of fact, for pages to be "hacked" by weirdos and privacy compromised. Another negative is the fact that everyone has opinions, and at times people don't agree on certain things and it can cause fights to erupt - this is true especially in the past 8 years or so, when so many political and social issues are out there. I have been in more than one "cyber-war" and have experienced a lot of "defriending" from people in regard to that. I try now personally not to get into those scuffles if possible, although at times trouble can find you even when you are not looking for it because, especially in specified "groups" or on specific "pages" promoting something, there are people who do what is called "trolling," and they thrive on instigating fights and causing problems. "Trolling" in essence is a type of harassment in which a person called a "troll" targets a site they don't like, and they find ways to constantly comment negatively and cause trouble. There are ways for dealing with "trolls," and we'll also get into that later. Bottom line though is this - be selective about what you post, and don't necessarily advertise every detail of your personal life. I want to quote something from Coptic Bishop Yusef about this, as he has some good wisdom especially in regard to minors participating on Facebook groups, etc. Bishop Yusef says that "A parent does not give a child car keys until they are of age to and have the skills to drive. A parent does not allow their children to take the car unless they know where they are driving to and from. A partent does not allow the child to drive if they are unsafe, lie about where they are going or have been. A parent does not allow a child to drive with speeding tickets or upon the discovery of its inappropriate use. This is termed parental responsibility. Is it any less for things such as Facebook? Know what your adolescent or young adult are thinking and saying." (Bishop Yusef, "Facebook: Fun or Fateful?" in The Saint Anthony Messenger, Vol 25, Issue 6, June 2015. p. 8). In a similar vein, Seventh-Day Baptist pastor Scot Hausrath writes "When it comes to utilizing social media, not only is wisdom key, but so is self-discipline. One of the biggest challenges I have regarding Facebook, for example, it to realize that there is a time to access it. For example, when I'm writing a sermon, lesson, article, etc., I need to focus my thoughts on that one project. Checking my FB news feed at that time is more of a distraction than a blessing. It's a very tempting thing to do, because I love hearing what's going on in my friends' lives, so I need self-discipline to keep my thoughts focused on the task at hand. Social media are amazing tools, and they have revolutionized our everyday lives. Let's just make sure that it's a revolution of enhancement, not a revolution of distraction." (Scott Hausrath, "Devotional - Sharing the Journey with You" in The Sabbath Recorder, vol. 237, No. 6, June 2015. P. 13). Both of these Christian leaders, from radically different church traditions, are telling us something about using social media - do it responsibly, and don't let it sidetrack us from what we need to be doing. And, both of these quoted articles inspired me to talk about a few of my own guidelines I have come up with.
1. When on Facebook, Know Your Security. Facebook allows for security settings to monitor who sees what on your page, and in doing so, you can be selective about content. In my case, only a handful of my closest FB "friends" can see everything I post, and no one who is not a "friend" can gain access to the content on my personal page. There is a "Settings" bar on your FB page you can use to set up these boundaries, and it will be a valuable asset to get to know the "Settings" feature.
2. You Don't Have to See What All Your Friends Are Doing Either! The more "friends" you get on a site like Facebook, the more you are going to see what they post, as you will see everything that all your friends do unless you take an important step. On each of your "friends'" pages, there is an opt-out feature to where you can "Unfollow" their posts and you therefore will not see them in your newsfeeds. If you wish to limit what you see, that is the way to do it. I maybe actually "follow" less than 10% of my total "friends" list on Facebook personally, thanks to discovering that feature. And, most of them will be none the wiser about it, so no harm done - you are not saying you don't want to be friends with them, but rather that you don't need to know all their activities. Recently, one of our relatives on Facebook - this particular relative is one of those people who thinks they know everything and should control everybody, the type of person I really cannot stand personally - lambasted my wife for supposedly "overposting" on her own Facebook page. If the relative would have taken the time to explore their own Facebook page, they could have just simply "unfollowed" my wife and not have to look at the posts on the newsfeed. That being said, let me say this - your personal Facebook page is your page, and you can post whatever you want, however much you want, whenever you want, and that is your freedom. I of course don't necessarily want to see it, nor do I have to, but I don't have to get nasty about it either. A simple "Unfollow" solves the problem peacefully. Perhaps if said relative would learn to shut up and take that into consideration, it could save that person a lot of trouble.
3. Fights Are Unnecessary and CAN Be Avoided! I want to spend a little time talking about social media etiquette, as some people need a lesson in it. There are a few things to address, and we'll start with those:
a. Don't pick fights on people's personal Facebook pages! I view my own Facebook page as an extension of my house, and when someone comes onto my page and deliberately tries to pick a fight over something they don't like that I posted, that is the same to me as disrespecting me in my own living room, and it won't be tolerated. In "groups" and "pages" on Facebook, that is another thing, because those are public forums, but even then I feel best to try to avoid conflict if all possible, even when every fiber of my being is wanting to say something. Therefore, when on Facebook, exercise some common courtesy please - what people post on their personal pages is their business, and if you don't like it, you have your own page to vent that dislike, so don't pick fights on someone else's turf.
b. If someone is becoming really beligerent, you are well within your rights to "block" them. There are some people who get a joy our of picking fights with people they disagree with, and then beating the issue to death by constantly posting negative crap, even personal attacks against the person they disagree with. If that becomes a problem, there is a "Block" feature you can utilize to stop them from seeing your posts or responding to them. This is especially true in groups or what are called "Public Pages," where people often can soapbox. If you are one of those people who has the propensity to cause trouble and pick fights, rant on your own FB page and don't ruin discussions for other people in the group. Fights are disrespectful as well to page administrators, and when you are trash-talking someone you disagree with on one of those pages, you are disrespecting your host. In other words, you need to learn some manners and get over yourself.
c. If someone comments on your page and you feel that the comment is inappropriate or inflammatory, you reserve the right to remove it. This goes back to "a" above - people who are trying to either bait you or even disagree with something you say, even if they are close friends, need to respect the fact that this page is yours, and if they disagree, they have their own page to voice that. If you feel a comment is inappropriate, you can and do have a right to remove it at your discretion. Your personal Facebook page is like your "house," and you have the perogative to set your own "house rules" which people visiting your page have to respect. If they don't they should be deleted.
These are just a few basic rules I have for my own Facebook participation, and if you do likewise, you will have a more pleasant social media experience. The same could also apply to other social media outlets, such as this Twitter thing (which I still don't understand!). On a professional site such as LinkedIn, it is even more important to maintain strict standards, because potential employers and other business people utilize LinkedIn and get a first impression from your profile on there. Another thing I want to mention in relation to all this too is a simple one - when posting on Facebook, be careful how much personal information you divulge. For instance, if you have 6 bowel movements a day, you do not have an obligation to describe each in vivid detail as some do, and your "friends" don't really want to see that stuff either. However, there is nothing one can do about what one posts on one's personal page, because again that is their domain, and they can write or post what they want. However, if you don't want to see that stuff on someone else's page, you can "unfollow" either the friend or the post, depending on which is more practical, so that is up to your discretion.
I hope this will help with your own Facebook experience to make it more pleasant, and as you have different experiences unique to your own situation, you may even have other (and maybe better!) standards than these, and make sure you are clear about those to any of your social media "friends" and followers. Take care until our next visit!
Social media is a relatively new phenomenon, being less than 12 years since it really caught on. Back around 2005 or so, I began to hear a lot about this thing called "MySpace," but personally I never got involved in it. Up to that point, most social interaction for me was on message boards of different groups I was involved in, as I am sure it was for many. I have personally been involved on social media for about 9 years as of this writing, having gotten my initiation into it via a site called Bebo.com, which at the time was a more cerebral alternative to MySpace (I'm curious - does MySpace even exist anymore???). I first set up a Bebo page back around March of 2006, and for about 3 years it was my primary social media involvement until a dear friend of mine sent me this invite in late 2008 to sign up with something new called Facebook. Facebook, the creation of a whiz-kid by the name of Mark Zuckerberg, was not quite as well-known back then, as the MySpace frenzy was still the thing, but I thought at the time, "what the heck" and joined up on it. And, almost on a daily basis now, I visit Facebook, and have for about the past seven years. There are many advantages to tools such as Facebook, as long as the users keep in mind that these things are just tools, and not something your life should revolve around. Facebook, despite its attributes, can suck people into it and it can become an obsessive thing, so we need to be careful about that. Later on, I am going to talk more about that aspect.
As mentioned, Facebook has its virtues, and one of those is the ability to reconnect with distant relatives, old school friends, and old co-workers you may have had from years past. It is also a great place to exchange information too - if you want good recipes, old photos, genealogical material, etc., Facebook can prove to be a valuable resource. Of the now 708 "friends" I have on Facebook as a matter of fact, approximately 40% are relatives (I have a lot of cousins on both sides of my family, and almost all of them have Facebook accounts now!), while another 20% are old college and high school classmates and co-workers, and the remaining 40% are people who I have made friends with who have common interests - music, politics, religion, etc. So, as far as networking is concerned, it is fantastic. Also, there is now a service called SocialBook which will actually print your Facebook content in a bound volume, something I plan on doing for posterity-sake later. However, with these positives are also negatives, and let me briefly touch on those.
One thing about Facebook is that almost anyone can "friend" you (given your permission of course) and a lot of times weirdos try to "friend" you with ulterior motives - it is not uncommon, as a matter of fact, for pages to be "hacked" by weirdos and privacy compromised. Another negative is the fact that everyone has opinions, and at times people don't agree on certain things and it can cause fights to erupt - this is true especially in the past 8 years or so, when so many political and social issues are out there. I have been in more than one "cyber-war" and have experienced a lot of "defriending" from people in regard to that. I try now personally not to get into those scuffles if possible, although at times trouble can find you even when you are not looking for it because, especially in specified "groups" or on specific "pages" promoting something, there are people who do what is called "trolling," and they thrive on instigating fights and causing problems. "Trolling" in essence is a type of harassment in which a person called a "troll" targets a site they don't like, and they find ways to constantly comment negatively and cause trouble. There are ways for dealing with "trolls," and we'll also get into that later. Bottom line though is this - be selective about what you post, and don't necessarily advertise every detail of your personal life. I want to quote something from Coptic Bishop Yusef about this, as he has some good wisdom especially in regard to minors participating on Facebook groups, etc. Bishop Yusef says that "A parent does not give a child car keys until they are of age to and have the skills to drive. A parent does not allow their children to take the car unless they know where they are driving to and from. A partent does not allow the child to drive if they are unsafe, lie about where they are going or have been. A parent does not allow a child to drive with speeding tickets or upon the discovery of its inappropriate use. This is termed parental responsibility. Is it any less for things such as Facebook? Know what your adolescent or young adult are thinking and saying." (Bishop Yusef, "Facebook: Fun or Fateful?" in The Saint Anthony Messenger, Vol 25, Issue 6, June 2015. p. 8). In a similar vein, Seventh-Day Baptist pastor Scot Hausrath writes "When it comes to utilizing social media, not only is wisdom key, but so is self-discipline. One of the biggest challenges I have regarding Facebook, for example, it to realize that there is a time to access it. For example, when I'm writing a sermon, lesson, article, etc., I need to focus my thoughts on that one project. Checking my FB news feed at that time is more of a distraction than a blessing. It's a very tempting thing to do, because I love hearing what's going on in my friends' lives, so I need self-discipline to keep my thoughts focused on the task at hand. Social media are amazing tools, and they have revolutionized our everyday lives. Let's just make sure that it's a revolution of enhancement, not a revolution of distraction." (Scott Hausrath, "Devotional - Sharing the Journey with You" in The Sabbath Recorder, vol. 237, No. 6, June 2015. P. 13). Both of these Christian leaders, from radically different church traditions, are telling us something about using social media - do it responsibly, and don't let it sidetrack us from what we need to be doing. And, both of these quoted articles inspired me to talk about a few of my own guidelines I have come up with.
1. When on Facebook, Know Your Security. Facebook allows for security settings to monitor who sees what on your page, and in doing so, you can be selective about content. In my case, only a handful of my closest FB "friends" can see everything I post, and no one who is not a "friend" can gain access to the content on my personal page. There is a "Settings" bar on your FB page you can use to set up these boundaries, and it will be a valuable asset to get to know the "Settings" feature.
2. You Don't Have to See What All Your Friends Are Doing Either! The more "friends" you get on a site like Facebook, the more you are going to see what they post, as you will see everything that all your friends do unless you take an important step. On each of your "friends'" pages, there is an opt-out feature to where you can "Unfollow" their posts and you therefore will not see them in your newsfeeds. If you wish to limit what you see, that is the way to do it. I maybe actually "follow" less than 10% of my total "friends" list on Facebook personally, thanks to discovering that feature. And, most of them will be none the wiser about it, so no harm done - you are not saying you don't want to be friends with them, but rather that you don't need to know all their activities. Recently, one of our relatives on Facebook - this particular relative is one of those people who thinks they know everything and should control everybody, the type of person I really cannot stand personally - lambasted my wife for supposedly "overposting" on her own Facebook page. If the relative would have taken the time to explore their own Facebook page, they could have just simply "unfollowed" my wife and not have to look at the posts on the newsfeed. That being said, let me say this - your personal Facebook page is your page, and you can post whatever you want, however much you want, whenever you want, and that is your freedom. I of course don't necessarily want to see it, nor do I have to, but I don't have to get nasty about it either. A simple "Unfollow" solves the problem peacefully. Perhaps if said relative would learn to shut up and take that into consideration, it could save that person a lot of trouble.
3. Fights Are Unnecessary and CAN Be Avoided! I want to spend a little time talking about social media etiquette, as some people need a lesson in it. There are a few things to address, and we'll start with those:
a. Don't pick fights on people's personal Facebook pages! I view my own Facebook page as an extension of my house, and when someone comes onto my page and deliberately tries to pick a fight over something they don't like that I posted, that is the same to me as disrespecting me in my own living room, and it won't be tolerated. In "groups" and "pages" on Facebook, that is another thing, because those are public forums, but even then I feel best to try to avoid conflict if all possible, even when every fiber of my being is wanting to say something. Therefore, when on Facebook, exercise some common courtesy please - what people post on their personal pages is their business, and if you don't like it, you have your own page to vent that dislike, so don't pick fights on someone else's turf.
b. If someone is becoming really beligerent, you are well within your rights to "block" them. There are some people who get a joy our of picking fights with people they disagree with, and then beating the issue to death by constantly posting negative crap, even personal attacks against the person they disagree with. If that becomes a problem, there is a "Block" feature you can utilize to stop them from seeing your posts or responding to them. This is especially true in groups or what are called "Public Pages," where people often can soapbox. If you are one of those people who has the propensity to cause trouble and pick fights, rant on your own FB page and don't ruin discussions for other people in the group. Fights are disrespectful as well to page administrators, and when you are trash-talking someone you disagree with on one of those pages, you are disrespecting your host. In other words, you need to learn some manners and get over yourself.
c. If someone comments on your page and you feel that the comment is inappropriate or inflammatory, you reserve the right to remove it. This goes back to "a" above - people who are trying to either bait you or even disagree with something you say, even if they are close friends, need to respect the fact that this page is yours, and if they disagree, they have their own page to voice that. If you feel a comment is inappropriate, you can and do have a right to remove it at your discretion. Your personal Facebook page is like your "house," and you have the perogative to set your own "house rules" which people visiting your page have to respect. If they don't they should be deleted.
These are just a few basic rules I have for my own Facebook participation, and if you do likewise, you will have a more pleasant social media experience. The same could also apply to other social media outlets, such as this Twitter thing (which I still don't understand!). On a professional site such as LinkedIn, it is even more important to maintain strict standards, because potential employers and other business people utilize LinkedIn and get a first impression from your profile on there. Another thing I want to mention in relation to all this too is a simple one - when posting on Facebook, be careful how much personal information you divulge. For instance, if you have 6 bowel movements a day, you do not have an obligation to describe each in vivid detail as some do, and your "friends" don't really want to see that stuff either. However, there is nothing one can do about what one posts on one's personal page, because again that is their domain, and they can write or post what they want. However, if you don't want to see that stuff on someone else's page, you can "unfollow" either the friend or the post, depending on which is more practical, so that is up to your discretion.
I hope this will help with your own Facebook experience to make it more pleasant, and as you have different experiences unique to your own situation, you may even have other (and maybe better!) standards than these, and make sure you are clear about those to any of your social media "friends" and followers. Take care until our next visit!
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