A Year Of Humility (XXXIV): Thy Kingdom Come

 "Thy Kingdom come,
Thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven." - Matthew 6:10

The Lord's Prayer is probably one of the earliest prayers I ever learned, outside of a bedroom prayer that we said every night.  It has, over the years, had greater and lesser repetition in my prayer lexicon:  some churches (mainline Protestant) recited it every service, other (non-denominational) occasionally or even not at all, reserving it for sermons on "How to pray like Jesus".  But it remains there, embedded in my mind, a plaque on the wall of my inner sanctum like the 10 Commandments that were posted on either side of the altar in the Episcopalian church of my youth.

"Thy Kingdom Come". That is a phrase that just sort of rolls of the tongue in this prayer, wedged in between the Hallowed-ness of God and our day sustenance and forgiving others, things that would seem to be far more relevant to our daily lives.  And how often have I muttered those words and just thought "Wow, if God's kingdom came and His will would be done, that would just be...swell."

I wonder, do we truly understand what that means?

For myself, God's Will (as revealed in His word, the sermons and writings of His servants, and that occasional nudge of His Spirit) is not something I am always so good at obeying.  I can often treat it as optional or even outright ignore it.  But that is not what Jesus says:  Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

How is it done in Heaven? Immediately.  Completely. Without the option of holding back or thought of cost to self.

Do I want that?  Do I really want that?

Sure, it is easy enough to think that I would love to see that upon evil, upon the sin in the world, on those who abuse and mock Him.    At some point, says the New Testament, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.  Ah, says the lesser part of my self, the vindication.

But what about me in that moment?

Do I confess Him as Lord?  I do, or at least I believe I do to the best of my ability. But then comes the question "Why do you confess me as Lord and do not do what I ask?"  The question was leveled at the Israelites more than once and by Jesus as well (Luke 6:46) ; it should equally be leveled at me.

Am I quick to obey?  Do I pivot as soon as asked?  Do I act selflessly when asked to follow or act?  Or do I try to negotiate with God about what obedience means and how far I have to obey and if a thing can be put off entirely?

Thy will be done, indeed.

Book Review: Rachel's Folly

Folly (ˈfä-lē):  

- A lack of good sense or normal prudence and insight; 
- Criminally or tragically foolish actions or conduct; 
- A foolish act or idea; 
- An excessive costly or unprofitable undertaking; 
- An often extravagant picturesque building erected to suit a fanciful taste

I have long been a fan of the writings of Patrice Lewis.

I originally found Lewis sometime after I started "getting into" the InterWeb; I cannot remember precisely how long ago but easily over fifteen years now at her website Rural Revolution. I have, over the years, spent time via her writing with her husband Don and her two daughters (Older Daughter and Younger Daughter) and their homesteads (Old and New) in Idaho.  Her writing has always been enjoyable, a sort of mix of advice, explanation, and sharing of the life she and her family have chosen.

That Lewis is a writer was not a surprise:  when I first started reading her, she was both posting on her blog as well as on other sites.  It was through her that I discovered the now defunct National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the organization that encouraged the idea that anyone could write a novel in 30 days (1500 words a day, in case you were curious).  It was from there that she landed a contract with Harlequin Romance and launched into a novelist career while still working at her and Don's homestead and managing a relocation.  

I purchase her first effort as well as a later one.  They were both enjoyable but - let us be honest - I am likely not the prime target market for Amish Romances.

My interest was piqued, then, when I read on her blog that she was trying a slightly different tack for a novel which did not fit neatly into that category and was going to be self published:  Rachel's Folly.

The protagonist (or at least one of the protagonists) Rachel Tresedor works at a production company which is starting up a Pioneer-style reality show in which a family has to live in mid to late 1800's conditions. As part of the interview process, she is challenged by one of the interviewees - Samuel Finn, a professor whose area of expertise is American pioneer living in the late 19th century - to come experience the pioneer lifestyle for four months on his property in Idaho.  Her boss thinks this is an amazing opportunity; under the twin hammers of her pride of not failing a challenge and a possible promotion, she heads to Idaho to effectively travel back in time.

Finn's property is a sort of living history experiment:  he lives as a 19th century pioneer would with mostly 19th century technologies (a modern Amish cook stove being a notable exception) and to the best of his ability provides for himself as much as possible.  Tresedor is thrown into this mix:  donning a prairie dress, she stumbles into learning to live in the 19th century.  She learns to cook and bake using a wood stove.  She learns to milk a cow.  She learns to harvest a garden and cut wood.  She visits the nearest neighbor, an older widow named Bernadette who offers her practical skills and sage wisdom on both living on the edges of civilization and about life.

Behind the scenes, of course, is a budding attraction between Rachel and Samuel.  Could she stay? Will they fall in love?  Or will she head back to modern civilization, largely untouched by her experience except the novelty of it?

Well, of course I am not going to reveal the ending.  You will need to read the book for that conclusion.

---

As I mentioned before, I have been a long time reader (happily so) of Lewis, so I cannot give a truly unbiased review of the book. That said, in terms of fiction and readability (compared to other fiction), it stands up.

The characters are well developed, with motivations and personalities and agendas in place.  If they are a sort of "trope" of the hard driving female executive and eccentric college professor, they are very well written ones and hardly seem stale.  The background characters that are there are equally well fleshed out.  There was never a time that I said "That is not something a reasonable person would do".

Descriptions of living in the 19th Century are done in an interesting combination of intense detailed explanations (making a pie crust, starting a wood cookstove, milking a cow, cutting a log using a bucksaw) and generalized descriptions (making cheese, gardening, activity in a barn). The detailed descriptions are not surprising to me, as these all reflect tasks Lewis has written about in the past.  And I like the mix of specific and detailed; too often books of this kind can get bogged down in detailed descriptions of everything which both demonstrate the author's knowledge of arcane skills and fail to move the story forward.

The descriptions of the land, the cabin they live in, the property they are working on - again, all well done and reflective of the fact that Lewis has lived for years in this neck of the woods.  If the setting for Rachel's Folly is not a real place, it should be.

---

Whenever I finish a New-To-Me fiction book, I like to consider three questions:

1)  Would I read it again?

2)  Does it speak to issues or spark thoughts that are applicable to my life?

3)  Will I miss these characters?

1)  Would I read it again? 

A resounding "Yes".  At 296 pages (print edition), it is an easy read and enjoyable read, just light enough that one need not pay too much attention yet deep enough that there is a great deal to consider.

2)  Does it speak to issues or spark thoughts that are applicable to my life? 

Also a resounding "Yes".  Besides just the story of "Eccentric Man teaches Modern Woman about life 150 years while each sorts out their feelings about things and each other", the book touches on issues like the fragility of modern living, sustainability, committing to goals.  Some quotes:

"Many (the pioneers) wanted free land, some wanted gold, some wanted to escape a shady past...but they were all united by the common inability to drive to the drugstore for aspirin, or run down to the nearest convenience store for a quart of milk.  It's this inability to go to outside sources to solve minor problems that fascinates me." (Samuel Finn)

"He (Samuel) nodded.  'I thought so. But here, I make everything. I grow, or raise, or till, or preserve, or create, or build. Everything.  And that, 'he concluded, 'is the most powerful pull a man can feel for what he does.'"

"'We live in a modern society that's nothing but rules and regulations. The longer I live out here, the more I resist the thought of returning to civilization and all those societal expectations.'  He gazed out at the damp, quiet woods. 'I like living by my own terms', he concluded." (Samuel Finn)

"Too much stuff becomes little more than clutter.  Junk.  You said you were interested in environmental issues.  Don't you think a resistance to shopping is one of the best places to start?" (Bernadette, Samuel's neighbor)

"'Won't that be nice. It means you'll be able to work for longer hours at a job you probably like but may not feel passionate about.  But you'll make more money, whoo hoo.  That way you can buy more...what did you call it?  Stuff.  Is that how you want your life to unfold?'

She scowled at him.  'It's how life unfolds for millions of people, buster.'

Samuel gave a little flick of his fishing rod.  'Then maybe you should challenge the prevailing assumption of what life should be and start considering what life can be.'"

Suffice it to say, there is enough for anyone to chew on in this pages.

3) Will I miss these characters?

One of the saddest things for a reader is one comes to the end of a book and realizes that there is either no sequel or the status of the sequel is unknown (I have commented before that this same experience happened for me with David Drake's The Forlorn Hope).  We will never meet these characters again, we will never hear them (in our mind), we will not see their new undertakings.  That can tinge with sorrow the happiest ending.

And honestly, I will miss Samuel and Rachel.  They seemed like the sort of people I would like to know  and I would wish that I could read more of what happens next (instead, of course, of revisiting what happened before).  Here is hoping a sequel is in order.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I strongly recommend this book.  Yes, it is an enjoyable read - and for a romance, not too overly "romantic" for those of us that are not into it.  But its ideas and characters make it something that will make the reader think in turn - something, arguably, every author hope for.

(Post Script:  Rachel's Folly, as self described on the back cover, is her going on this adventure.   As noted above, there are at least five definitions to the word folly. I would argue any one of them will work for the title, depending on how one's interprets the outcome.)

Essentialism (XXX): Execute: Be

 "Beware the barrenness of a busy life" - Socrates

McKeown starts this chapter with story of Mahatma Gandhi, a man who started his adult life thinking that he would become a barrister and ended his life pursing the liberation of the oppressed, ultimately seeing the independence of India.  Gandhi, suggest McKeown, the essence of the Essentialist life: having found his purpose, he removed everything that did not serve it, a process he called "reducing himself to zero".  He wove cloth and wore it.  He avoided all newspapers as "their contents only added non-essential confusion to his life."  He simplified his diet.  He went days without speaking.  At his death, he owned less than ten things.  He never - intentionally - held political office, yet became the Father of his Nation.

It is impossible, suggests McKeown, to argue with the statement that Gandhi lived a life that mattered.

We are all not Gandhi - nor should we be.  But, McKeown suggests, we can purge of our lives of the non-essentials and live the way of an Essentialist, each in our own way.

There are two ways of thinking about Essentialism. The first is something that we practice occasionally, something we try to fit into our lives as yet another thing that we have to "pack in".  The second is to think of it as something that we are, something that is intrinsic to us.

Essentialism finds its itself embedded in many spiritual and religious traditions. Whether as founders of religion or as reformers, the call to the essentials of a faith and its cousin, simplicity, are in almost every major religious tradition,  And this extends to philosophers and men and women of all walks of life:  anyone can embrace the way of the Essentialist.

Like many things in life, McKeown suggests that the Non-essentialist runs the risk of minoring in the majors.  The Non-essentialist has non-essentials at their core; they can never - without reversing the two - reach the essentials on a long term basis:

In contras, the Essentialist has identified their Essentials and have them at the core:

Over time, then, the Essentialist continues to make the essentials more of their core and the non-essentials less:

(Author's note:  If this looks a lot like Stephen Covey's Circle of Control, you would not be wrong.)

As we focus on our Essentials, we will encounter new opportunities and options - which themselves can lead us astray from our main purpose.  But if we know our essentials - if we are Essentialists - we will have the clarity to recognize which of those opportunities and options match with our interests, talents, and purpose.

By continuing to focus on the Essentials - by making the decisions every day to focus on those things that are our Essentials (and these will be different for every person), we slowly transform ourselves into an Essentialist. We learn to do less and less - so that we can do more.

---

Application:

The quote from Socrates resonates with me, especially in an age given to busy-ness and effort and a life that can be 24/7/365 if we let it.  We can plan out every minute of every day and still accomplish nothing of value.

One of the "lectures" that I give as part of "Sage Advice" portion of my job to those entering the industry is how my career over the past 25+ years has been reduced to documents being stored away (once upon a time in bankers boxes in storage facilities, now mostly online storage), waiting for shredding and/or deletion.  Hours, days, weeks, months even years spent on projects that were super critical at the time and were presented as needing my total sacrifice - all slowly drifting away as recycled paper and re-opened memory.

Does that cover everything?  Of course not.  There were plenty of things that I did that were outside of that venue (or even in it) that were essential, times with family and friends, of service and enjoyment, of things that lasted beyond the moment themselves.

There were some. There could have been more.

My struggle has not so much been having the non-essential and essential reversed in my core, it has been my unwillingness to surrender the non-essentials to the more essential because...reasons.  Choice was seen as limiting, not expanding my ability to do more through less.  Sometimes choosing the good was confused with choosing the best.

Now I am trying to always ask:  What is truly essential?

The Collapse CCII: White Out

 09 December 20XX+1

My Dear Lucilius:

Snow again.

By snow I mean a sheet of snowfall so constant and so white that it completely blanks out any attempt to see more than a few feet. It roared in last night, borne on a wind that howled not so much with the souls of the damned as much as the souls of civilizations that have disappeared.

Going outside is useless beyond a few feet. I have tied my ropes to the outhouse and green house as I do every Winter; this time I do not know that I could make it back without them. I also essayed getting out to try and check on others, but gave up within twenty feet of the house; I had no idea if I could find my way back.

There will be not much of anything done until this blows over.

I have endeavored to keep the front door clear and enough around the Cabin that I can use a rake to pull the snow off from time to time, and have tried (not very successfully) to clear paths to the outhouse and greenhouse. To both; I have tried to not enter the greenhouse at all to preserve whatever residual warmth may be left. This has left me frozen, sweaty, and hot at one or more points during this exercise.

On the way to the outhouse one can see the beehives, heavily wrapped for Winter and standing like lone sentinel rocks in a bay. They, too, need their snow occasionally removed.

Heavy snow was not a thing I had ever seen growing up. You remember as well as I do our childhood, with its occasional few inches or even foot of snow that was enough to slide on or perhaps coax a small snowman out of, snow that was good for a day or two and then melted to slush, retreating to the shadowed corners of yard and house.

Not now, Lucilius, not now.

I have driven Pompeia Paulina to distraction with my pacing and worrying to the point that she actually ordered me to sit - quietly – for 20 minutes to give her some peace. I sat of course – never before have I seen such a side eye from my wife – but the worrying did not stop.

Has snow happened here? Of course it does; every year. Sometimes heavy snow. And even with power outages at times. But between that snow and those power outages were things like power that came back on and places one could go to restock and refuel. There is none of that now, of course.

And nothing to be done for it.

I write this, bundled up even with the stove radiating heat. In a bit I will go back out, clear the paths again, pull what snow I can down, bring in more of the wood – and we will hunker down. Again.

Outside, I can hear the howl of the wind. It is ridiculous to think that I can hear the snow borne on the wind as it crashes into the house or piles on the ground, but I swear I do.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Singapore Airport (II)

 One of several ponds with fish in the aiport:

Their indoor airport carts had light bars that showed how long and wide the cart would be to passers by.  Why is this not a common thing?

Pedal stations to power phone or laptop recharge:

There are also several different indoor gardens:

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Singapore Airport (I)

 The Singapore Changi Airport is approximately 25 square kilometers (9.7 square miles) and is rated as the 15th busiest airport in the world, handling 67.7 million passengers in 2024.  It is also the recipient of numerous "Best Airport" awards.

Looking outside. Outside of Costa Rica, I do not think I have ever been in a tropical country.

It has a huge amount of shopping, as you might imagine.

And a butterfly garden!

A And J At Home

The Ravishing Mrs. TB is currently staying with her mother as she has had her second knee surgery (which is going splendidly).  Fortunately for me, I have roommates to come home to in her absence:

You may wonder about A's shaved side.  He had a growth that had to be removed.

Why fill a bookshelf with books when a cat needs a place to read?

A Year Of Humility (XXXIII): Simplicity

 One of the things that has surprised me as I have written about humility for an extended period of time is the number and variety of ways that humility manifests itself in so many other aspects of our lives:  because of humility, other things happen and/or manifest themselves.

Another one that inserted itself into my consciousness this week was simplicity.

Simplicity is something which minds and voices far more melodious and mellifluous than mine have spoken on with great authority.  I can only speak to the effects of simplicity on my own life; theirs the reasoning of it and benefits behind it.

If I think on it, simplicity is often connected with humility although perhaps somewhat by accident:  those that live simple lives are often humble, and we in the West at least (but also, I think elsewhere) associate those that sworn to live humble lives of service - such as monks and nuns - are associated with simplicity.

I sit here, writing this on a Saturday morning, hardly in a setting of simplicity by simple examination.  I live in an urban area as I have for most of my adult life, which is by default is neither associated with simplicity or humility. I have a home, which has things - many things, it could be argued - that I really do not need or need only in specific situations.  

And yet, my life at this moment radiates a certain simplicity - and with it, a humility that is unexpected.

This is the first weekend in over a month that I have not been training, traveling, or scurrying around trying to catch up on the weekends.  It is hot (for here, anyway) this weekend, so my plans largely involved "staying in".

I have had the simple luxury of slightly sleeping in, of multiple cups of good coffee not slammed down between meetings, of being able to read at a relaxed pace.  I have made cheese already with yogurt planned for tomorrow.  A the Cat has taken to napping on a box of photo albums in what is officially called The Rabbit's Room; J The Rabbit is here in her cage with the cage door open, not feeling the need to come out but aware that she can, cleaning herself (a sign of trust; no animal cleans themselves when they feel unsafe).  

These strike me as simple things in an age of media and frenzied activity and InterWeb wonder and the idea that "out there" is where enjoyment is.

But here is the funny thing as I sit and think about the situation: the sense of serenity and peace and, dare I say, humility, that comes from all of this.

Inherently there is nothing pride inducing about a cup of coffee or a napping cat or the words of Epictetus, of doing laundry or cleaning house (later today, of course).  They is nothing inherently glamourous or glorious about them, nothing that possess me to brag on them.

There is a connection I can intuit here but not fully make. This sense, at this moment...I do not fully have the words for it. It is the sense one has when it is raining and one is inside with a hot beverage and a book, watching it all.  It is the quiet awe that sits on one when, miles and miles from civilization, one looks upon a wilderness and wildness largely untouched by humans.

Perhaps it is the peace of simply being in the moment, of enjoying the sense of simple pleasures or simple concepts or even the sense of simply being.  But nothing about any of the moments suggests pride or ego or advertising to the world about myself and the greatness of me and my accomplishments.

I cannot fully define it. But if simplicity brings humility and this is indeed the outcome, I desire more of it.

My Leadership Style

(Apologies, this week has been consumed by a work investigation.  That said, this is really how I run my life and my department.)

Essentialism (XXIX): Execute: Focus

"Life is available only in the present moment.  If you abandon the present moment, you cannot life the moments of your life deeply." - Thich Nhat Hanh

Greg McKeown starts this chapter with a story of Coach Larry Gelwix, who coached the Highland High School Rugby team to 418 wins, 10 losses, and twenty national championships over 36 years.  Coach Gelwix has a simple question which, conveniently, is a simply acronym for win as well:  "What's Important Now?"

This helps his players focus - instead of getting caught up in what just happened (the past) or worrying if they will win (the future), it helps them focus on the play they are in "right now" (McKeown's emphasis).  It also allows the players to stay focused on how they are playing:

"Larry believes a huge part of winning is determined by whether the players are focused on their own game or their opponent's game.  If the players start thinking about the other team they lose focus.  Consciously or not, they start wanting to play the game the other team is playing.  They get distracted and divided.  By focusing on their game in the here and now, they can all unite around a single strategy.  This level of unity makes execution of their game plan relatively frictionless."

Coach Gelwix makes a difference between being beaten and losing.  Being beaten means they were better than his team.  Losing means that the team lost focus on what was essential.

To operate at your highest level of contribution, says McKeown, we have to deliberately tune in to what is important in the here and now.

For the Essentialist, there is only the now.  There is not the past with its mistakes and errors or the future with its possibilities or worrying about the things we cannot control.  There is only being focused and present in the current moment and on what we are doing now.

He revisits the Ancient Greek concepts of time, something we have touched on before here as well:  chronos, the simple passage of time, and kairos, those moments in time that are right, opportune, different.  The way of the Essentialist is to tune into the present, into the kairos moments, to those things that are truly important right now.

To be focused is to be present in the moment.  To this end, McKeown points out that while some multi-tasking may be possible, what is not possible is multi-concentration or multi-focus.  We can only focus on one thing at a time.

So how do we focus?  How do we be in the now?

- Figure Out What Is Important Right Now: "When faced with so many tasks and obligations that you can't figure out which to tackle first, stop.  Take a deep breath.  Get present in the moment and ask yourself what is the most important this very second - not what's important tomorrow or even an hour from now.  If you're not sure, make a list of everything vying for your attention and cross off anything that is not important right now."

- Get The Future Out Of Your Head:  A helpful practice McKeown mentions here is taking a moment and listing things which are essential - but not right now-  out of his head and onto a piece of paper.  This helps him to focus by not losing the ideas and knowing that these were now things that he did not need to act on.

- Prioritize:  After prioritizing the "Right Now" list, work on those first, one at a time until they are done.  This allows focus on those things.

McKeown quotes the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who spends an hour a day drinking tea with other monks:

"Suppose you are drinking a cup of tea.  When you hold the cup, you might like to breathe in, to bring your mind back to your body, and you become fully present.  And when you are truly there, something else is also there -life, represented by the cup of tea.  In that moment you are real, and the cup of tea is real.  You are not lost in the past, in the future, in your projects, in your worries.  You are free from all of your afflictions.  And in that state of being free, you enjoy your tea.  That is the moment of happiness, and of peace."

Pay attention, says McKeown, to the kairos moments of our day.  Write them down, think of what triggered that moment and what you brought from it.  If you can recognize that trigger, you can try to re-create it.

---

Application:

Typically at this point I would write "As long-time readers of my blog know...".  But that would yet another rehashing of a comment that we have discussed for a long, long time: I have trouble focusing.  Instead, it is perhaps more useful to consider the wider world around us.

And how that world does everything in its power to prevent focusing.

We live in an age of distraction. Mathew Crawford in his book The World Beyond Your Head refers to the loss of what he calls The Attention Commons, that space that used to exist where people were effectively free from having their attention grabbed by advertising or a constant stream of noise and images.  Nicholas Carr in his book The Shallows quotes research that notes that at the best of times, our minds can hold 3-5 thoughts in working memory - and thanks to the wonder of the InterWeb and the plasticity of our brains, we are literally becoming unable to concentrate on deep issues.  The very fact that we can be in a meeting with people speaking and a computer and two cell phones in front of us, checking each for updates as we move from screen to screen, never really in any one conversation - and that this is acceptable behavior - should give a clue about how the modern world values focus.

With this sort of avalanche against us, the ability to focus in the modern world is almost a superpower.

What is the best way I have been dealing with it?  Very old methods.  Do one thing at a time and, to the best of your ability, remove all other options to multi-focus (e.g., write and check e-mail or even, for me, write and listen to something).  Do things via analog (which almost by default is doing one thing at at time).  And try, more and more, to do less and less via the InterWeb.

Focusing in the modern environment is not impossible.  It is just very, very hard.

The Collapse CCI: The Second Advent Candle

 07 December 20XX+1

My Dear Lucilius:

Today was the lighting of the second Advent candle.

Pompeia Paulina was patiently waiting for me when I came out into the early morning grey that constitutes daylight in Winter here. It is one of the things that I had underestimated when I first relocated here, the true shortness of the days of Winter. Especially in a world without power, one can work before the daylight, but one’s effectiveness can be serious curtailed – who wants to risk an injury just to get a 20 minute head start on something in the dark?

The Advent wreath was there, along with its for candles. The match sparked; one candle, then another candle glowed in the early morning gloom.

The second candle, she said. The Candle of Bethlehem, of Preparation and Peace.

Bethlehem in our day was one of the most well known small towns of history; we had the benefit of 2,000+ years of Christian history behind us. And while even leading up to Christ’s birth it undoubtedly had some fame as the birthplace of David, one of Israel’s great kings, it (like many other birthplaces) had slipped into backwater status; were it to have happened now, likely there would be some small sign commemorating David’s birthplace and perhaps a small museum preserving David’s birth house, manned by volunteers and preserving his parents’ memorabilia (all of the good stuff would undoubtedly be at the museum in Jerusalem), selling post cards and bumper stickers that read “I felt Bethlehome in Bethlehem”.

It was a small place, that history seemed to have moved on from. And yet Scripture promised that something amazing would happen there:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,

Yet out of you shall come forth to Me

The One to be Ruler in Israel,

Whose goings forth are from of old,

From everlasting.” - (Micah 5:2)

It was almost 1,000 years between David and Christ and almost 700 years between the prophet Micah and Christ. What did people do?

They waited. They prepared.

They prepared for the coming of Messiah. They waited. They kept the laws as they were given and looked to the future and God – sometimes a God that was not speaking to them at all. They prepared their hearts for the Promised One.

And then, in the fullness of time, Mary and Joseph prepared themselves for a journey they did not intend to make under circumstances not of their choosing to this small, backwater town. Where something which had been prophesied – but was still very unexpected – happened.

We sat in the candlelight as Pompeia Paulina read and then just watched the candles burn for a bit in silence. And then, in silence, blew the candles out and began the day.

Even with the promise, Lucilius, there is still preparation – and waiting – to be done.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: Flying High

One of the impediments of getting to Southeast Asia, and likely why it is not on many American's destination list, is simply the amount of time it takes to get there.

From the U.S. West Coast (Los Angeles in this case), it takes 17 hours to fly not to Cambodia or Vietnam, but to Singapore, where one can then take a second flight to Cambodia or Vietnam (for Cambodia, another 4 hours).  Never in my life have I flown so long.

Fortunately for me, The Ravishing Mrs. TB had a plan.  In her case it was the use of credit card points (the credit card point arena is something I neither understand nor wish to understand, but there is a huge subculture for it) to purchase two business class tickets on Singapore Airlines Business Class for something like $200 for fees, at least to Singapore.

They certainly feed you well.

Snack

Dinner Salad

Main course

Dessert

Second Dinner

Second Dinner Course Two

Dessert!  Because nothing screams "Dessert" like a cheese plate.

Laydown seat.  This was a lifesaver as I actually slept.

It certainly made for a relatively pain-free start to the trip.

2025 Cambodia And Vietnam: An Introduction

And so, we arrive at the start of my trip to Cambodia and Vietnam.

(Cambodian Royal Palace - Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

If you had asked me a year prior to selecting this trip, I would have told you that these areas in particular and the region of Southeast Asia in general was never one that I had any strong urge to visit.  I had the basics of geography of course, a class in Communist Government Structure that likely including Vietnam, and at least one graduate class in ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations).  I also had the tail end of an American's knowledge of Vietnam and the Killing Fields of Cambodia, fueled by vague television pictures and the knowledge that at least one of my cousins had died there.

(Angkor Thom - Siam Rep,  Cambodia)

Yet somehow, I ended up in Cambodia and Vietnam.

(Angkor Wat - Siam Rep, Cambodia)

I believe that when The Ravishing Mrs. TB asked me if I was interested, I surprised her as much as myself in saying yes.  In a way, it was the perfect trip:  I really had no historical basis beyond a very hazy one and so no impressions either way about going.

(Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam)

There places I had heard of, of course:  Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat, Hanoi, The Mekong Delta, Ho Chi Minh City.  I had seen various pictures over the years and perhaps a documentary or two.

Like most things, of course, pictures and documentaries do not do things justice.

(Mekong River - Vietnam)

It was different - probably the most different sort of tour I have done to date.  There is always a veneer of Western Civilization - it is hard to escape that anymore - but behind that veneer was a layer of reality that is sometimes hidden from places that are more used to tourism.  In some ways, these were not the picturesque villages of Europe or the carefully excavated cities of Rome and Greece.  Yes, there were elements of the picturesque there, but it was also the reality of societies in transition between the modern and the traditional.

(Imperial Citadel - Hue, Vietnam)

I know for past series I have usually given a run down of history before I have launched into tour itself.  That said, I do not know that this makes sense this time.  These, at least for me, were very different histories with players and movements and people groups that were unfamiliar to me and I suspect unfamiliar to many.  It perhaps makes the most sense to just holistically roll in the history as we go.

(Ha Long Bay, Vietnam)

Was it what we expected?  I do not know how to answer that questions, because I do not know what I expected.  I do know that it by far was one of the most different places I have visited with a very different history that does not lean much into or rely much on what I have studied and read on most of my life.

("Train Street" - Hanoi, Vietnam)

But scenery was beautiful, the food was good, and the people universally friendly.  If it was not what I expected, it was certainly memorable and exciting in its own right.

(Water Puppet Show - Hanoi, Vietnam)

Welcome, friends, to a slice of Southeast Asia.