Another Iris

I received my wish!  Another Iris!:

I am not very good with garden design, but my little block behind the house is coming along nicely.

Brief Life

"Brief life is here our portion,

Brief sorrow, short-lived care;

The life that knows no ending,

The tearless life is there.

There God, our King and Portion,

In fullness of His grace,

We then shall see forever,

And worship face to face."

- Bernard of Cluny

A (Few) More Words From... A.W. Tozer

"If some watcher or holy one who has spent his glad centuries by the sea of fire were to come to earth, how meaningless to him would be the ceaseless chatter of the busy tribes of men.  How strange to him and how empty would sound the flat, stale, and profitless words heard in the average pulpit from week to week.  And were such a one to speak on earth, would he not speak of God?  Would he not charm and fascinate his hearers with rapturous descriptions of the Godhead?  And after hearing him could we ever again consent to listen to anything less than theology, the doctrine of God?  Would we no thereafter demand of those who would presume to teach us that they speak to us from the mount of divine vision or remain silent altogether?"

- The Knowledge of The Holy

Good Enough For People

Old ZInfandel

Of all the wines I have tasted, I still love Old Zinfandel the best.

Old Zinfandel (or "Old Zin") is a red wine made specifically from old vines that are, for the most part head trained (e..g single plants either originally attached to a post or grown up around one) versus the trellis trained that pretty much is all that goes in place any more (there are reasons for that, of course:  It is easier to manage the vines and the production is more reliable year after year).  In some cases, the vines can be from 40 to 80 years old.

I cannot tell you fully why I like them - I like red wine in general and zinfandels in particular.  And perhaps it is just something in my head.  But I like the thought of drinking wine that is pulled from vines that have been around for a while (in some cases, longer than I have) planted in the old style (again, I am becoming more and more "old style" as well.

Two of my favorites are Bogle's Old Zin and Gnarly Head Old Zin:

Do you have a favorite wine?

Losing A Playlist

So somehow in the transfer process, I lost my I-phone playlist.

I had it on my phone, one that I had carefully built over the last 10 years, occasionally adding songs to it but (on the whole) keeping it more or less the same.  Until I accidentally added everything on my phone to the playlist. I tried manually deleting them for a while but there were too many.

No problem, I thought:  I will just delete the list and then add it.

So I deleted the list.  And then tried to add it.  And then my phone failed to synchronize.  And suddenly the "copied" playlist disappeared.

My initial reaction was shock, then anger.  How long had I had that playlist?  And now, I could not find it?  I was aggravated, searching through my computer and my phone.  Nothing.

But then I started thinking.

How long had I had that playlist?  And how many songs - really - did I listen to from it?  Not many.  And how many should I be listening to from it?  Probably even less (mostly due to the headphone and hearing issues.  I really do not need to be listening to loud music any more).

So I composed myself.  Found a partial list that I could transfer if I wanted to. I have all the songs still there if I want to recreate it.

And strangely enough, felt more free.  It was a relic that had been with me a very a long time indeed.  I will try a week or two without it.  Who knows: I may find that I no longer need that list at all and I can just "listen" to music.

Iris

One of my Irises finally bloomed.  I have been waiting 10 years.

They were originally planted in Old Home, when they were dug up and brought here.  They were planted, then re-planted in a pot, and then re-re-planted in the ground two years ago when the dog broke the pot.  Every year they had leaves but no blooms.

Irises were my maternal grandmother's favorite flower.  So I am super happy that after waiting so long, we finally got to see one.

The Loss Of Touch

As I was wandering the highways and byways of the InterWeb last week, I found a rather interesting article entitled "No Hugging:  Are We Living In A Crisis Of Touch?" (actually from 2018, but I just found it).  Having had some thoughts about the matter, I decided to make the time to read the article.

Turns out, we may be a victim of unintended consequences.

Touch, states a neuropsychologist interviewed for the article, is now associated with setting off legislative processes and hysterical processes (his words, not mine) and is creating problems for mental health because (it turns out) we need some level of touch.  It has gotten to the point, says the article, that in at least one school in Britain children were asked to band-aid themselves up rather that the teacher do it and risk a complaint.

The article has some of the science behind touch (it appears, as with so many other behaviors, there is a point to it) and some interesting facts (the high point of touch seems to about age 20, after which it declines 1% a year.  You can do the math).

This is not surprising, of course, given the current general climate that any touch, any time, any where can be considered grounds for angst - even years after the event has happened.

The market has stepped in, of course. From the article, there are now "cuddle shops" where a client can choose from up to 72 different "cuddle" services.

As I have written before, physical touch has essentially become a no-go for me.  If you are not family I have to know you well - pretty well indeed - to consider anything beyond a handshake.  It is nothing personal of course, just me trying to protect myself in a world where the slightest unwanted brush can be misinterpreted and ruin one's life. 

The fact that people will soon be paying for the service of a touch is, I think, is as sad and foolish a statement on where we have ended up as any I can think of.

Micah 4:4

"Everyone will sit under their own vine, 

and under their own fig tree,

and no-one will make them afraid,

for the LORD almighty has spoken."

(Nighean Dhonn was confirmed last Sunday.  This was her choice for her confirmation verse.)

A Few Words From...Jayne Cobb

"Shepherd Book used to say 'If you can't do something smart, do something right". - Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin), Serenity, 2005

No WiFi In The Forest

Garlic

Thank God for garlic.  Without it, I would have surrendered gardening a very long time ago.  It has continued to produce for me every year since 2000.

Entitled To The Knowledge Of Others

I do not know the Patriot Nurse (https://www.thepatriotnurse.com) other than from reading an occasional reference in someone else's article (we all tend to run in the same circles as some point, do we not?) but was struck by this quote from her which was posted on Survival Blog:

“The Internet has brought us both good and bad. Like the Guttenberg press so many years ago, a revolution in widely accessible information has ushered in an era of unparalleled appetite for knowledge. Because of the non-concrete nature of this information’s platform, people lose sight of the fact that solid wisdom and experience is not free, nor is it easily gained from surfing the web. Information is a-plenty nowadays, but wisdom and real experience is preciously scarce. My degree, all of my travels and the lessons I learned to make me the healthcare professional that I am cost me. It cost me lots of money, lots of time, lots of pain, heartache, disappointment, and long hard days and sleepless nights. With Reid [Heinrichs], amp that up ten-fold.

People nowadays feel entitled to the labors of others. Instead of feeling grateful for the life experience given away, many display contempt. The astonishing thing is that people now feel baselessly superior to the person on the other end of the screen without recognizing their own limitations. Welcome to the new era of no experts, ‘free’ information. Beware of the Internet expert behind the comment section. When the lights go out, he won’t be able to help you. The tried-and-true experienced individual will.”

It is part of a larger article called "The Death of Expertise In The New Era of Free Info", one which I commend to your attention as well.  

It is a rather profound point, and one that I have intuited (but have never been able to state so forthrightly).  If you think about it, it is more and more becoming an underlying current of our society:  doctors should practice medicine, researchers should develop medicines, farmers should grow food, fire fighters should fight fires not only because it is there job but because - even if they were not being paid for it, or paid appropriately - they "should" do it as that is their duty to others.  In other words, their training and expertise exists as an obligation to others, not as the property of the individual who worked to gain the experience.

This was predictable, or course.  Ayn Rand predicted it 50 years ago in Atlas Shrugged.  You will remember, if you have read the book, how Henry Rearden came to his moment of clarity when he carefully pointed out to the government officials that their expectation was for him to use his expertise, his experience, and his money because he was "obligated" to do so for the betterment of society, not from any sense of economic benefit.  He and his company had become servants of people who could not do what he did, did not know what he did, but demanded that he serve them because of their need.

There is only one problem with all of this, of course:  when disincentivized, people stop doing things.

To the doctor, the handyman, the researcher - if they are not being rewarded for what they do, they will ultimately find another way to do it to get rewarded.  You see this now in doctors that only accept non-Medicare patients or have paying pools of patients.  You see this in the handyman that works for cash locally.  You see this in the researcher that moves to a different area or research, something that does not involve making a drug.  Society does not make experts work for others by demanding it - instead, it drives it underground, depriving society of that expertise.

One day, these people who are so demanding that others serve them will wake up and discover that they expertise they demanded no longer is accessible.  Gulliver, it will have seemed, has simply gotten out of his tiny ropes and moved on.

The Tragedy Of The Commons: A Modern View

As part of the transition from 18th Century Agricultural to Industrial England, I was introduced to the concept of "The Tragedy of the Commons".  In short, at one time English villages (perhaps many others as well) had a village commons where anyone could graze their sheep.  Over time, as other land become less and less available, more and more people would use the commons - but as it did not belong to anyone it was not cared for by anyone and thus degraded more quickly as a usable land such that in the end, no-one could use it.

Fast forward 300 years or so.

As I drive to my gym I transit under the major North-South Artery and through an underpass.  As I have looked over to the northern side, I one day noticed a pile of garbage and stuff rising up.

I have no idea where it came from.  One might think it was from those occasional road cleanups that the community service folks do.  There is an ongoing homeless encampment 200 yards away under the overpass that may contribute.  Or perhaps someone just dumped a load there (for all of the civic "We are the future", there is still plenty of that which still occurs around here).

No matter where it came from, the larger question is who is responsible for cleaning it up.  It is on at least four different kinds of property:  city, county, state, and federal (through the interstate).  Yet no-one has taken any responsibility for cleaning it up.  I suppose, if I were to ask, I would get the answer one typically gets at most bureaucracies:  "It is not our responsibility, it is X's, because they have the budget line item for it" or "Our authority ends within 25'/7 m of the freeway.  That  is a problem for Y". 

So, it really belongs to no-one.

Mind you, the pile is just sitting there in our humidity and heat and rain, slowly rotting away and providing a breeding ground for mold, yeasts, and who knows what vermin.  And I am sure that there are some level of individuals (like myself) that drive by it every day and notice it.  And yet there it continues to sit, an eyesore and dumping ground that grows and spreads.

The ultimate breakdown of societies is not always tied to a major failure or event.  It is just as often tied to the simple development that no-one takes care of the major things that society needs to get along - until, like the commons, they are no longer able to be used by anyone.  And once no longer able to be used, things tend to collapse rather quickly.

A Second Thought On An Open Letter To Men

Brett and Kate McKay have posted a wonderful (and telling) article over at The Art of Manliness called "Marriage Isn't A Game of Russian Roulette".  It is less than 1,000 words and rather short but but pithy, so I do commend it to your attention.  In short (and I do not it justice), the thesis is that rather than marriage being an unknown risk with more bad outcomes than good, it can be something that one goes into with risk assessment for a better outcome.

(If  you would like, feel free to take a moment and review it.  I will just be here, drinking coffee....Read it?  Great!)

I do not find any of the recommendations or suggestions in the article at all unreasonable - in fact, they are pretty good ones and ones that (looking back) I probably would have benefited from in my (rather anemic) dating life as a whole, once upon a time.  But what I find terribly interesting is that they feel this sort of article needs to be written at all.

As I have commented before, this is one of the most dangerous times (socially) to be a man of any age or status, but especially one who is dating.   Almost anything you do is likely to be carefully scrutinized and judged against what the "new social culture" says a man should be.  You are incredibly open to misunderstandings, outright accusations, or social shunning.  So while I was a little surprised that this article came out now, I am not surprised that it came out at all.  I suspect the cultural backlash of men to the current society has begun, and is becoming noticeable enough that something had to be said.

My recommendation?  I do not really have a dog in this fight specifically any more, but my comments now would be as my comments then (and really, no different than the article):  Risk management and risk avoidance are the best paths forward.  Carefully come to know the women you are dating - mostly in public venues where the risk of single source accusations are at a minimum.  Assume your actions will always be misinterpreted, and instead hold yourself to a business level interaction (be professional, be thoughtful). 

And to re-emphasize one of the article's points, if you have a hint of anything untoward or concerning, walk away.  The risk, any more, is simply too great.

Silence

Friday night I watched the 2016 movie Silence. 

The movie is based on the novel by Shusaku Endo and follows the travels of two Jesuit friars to Japan, who have heard that their mentor, Father Ferrerira, has renounced Christianity due to the persecution taking place in the mid-17th century.  They set out for Japan, knowing that if they are captured it could cost them their lives.

The movie follows these two friars as they make contact with the kakure kurishitan, the "hidden Christians" who exist in the midst of a very active persecution of Christianity.  They move from village to village and separate until the main character, Rodrigues, is captured by the local magistrate's men.  From then, it becomes a struggle of wills between the magistrate Inoue Masashige and Rodrigues to make him renounce his faith (the Japanese learned that forcing a priest to apostatize was far more effective to their ultimate cause than killing individual Christians).

The movie is based on actual historical events (which I previously knew little about) and was directed by Martin Scorsese (he of The Last Temptation of Christ fame).  I would recommend the movie, except that one should be prepared to be disturbed.

The depictions of the persecution of the Japanese Christians, although not gory, is certainly difficult to watch - more so knowing that it is based on historical events.  The atmosphere of fear, of constantly living under the threat of discovery, is palpable.  Christians are tied to crosses at low tide and then battered and drowned at high tide.  Christians have water from hot springs slowly poured over their bodies, burning them.  They are hung upside down and slowly allowed to bleed out.  They are (in one case) beheaded.

The main character, Rodrigues, struggles constantly with the silence of God.  Why are these Christians being made to suffer?  Why has God not acted?  If he apostatizes Christians may be saved - but what does that mean about his relationship with Christ?

I cannot discuss the movie itself more than that without revealing the plot - but I would argue that it is an important movie for every believer to see because it asks real questions about the role of faith and outward Christian living in the midst of a persecution none of us has ever had anything like in our lives.

It is one thing to be asked to renounce our faith to avoid being ostracized on social media.  It would be another thing entirely to do it knowing that such a decision may be the choice between life and death - for ourselves or others.

Concentration and Srength

Affections Of A Worthy Woman

The Collapse XXII: A Quiet Waiting

06 August 20XX

My Dear Lucilius:

Have you been listening to the radio of late? I generally tend not to as I find myself becoming either aggravated or depressed (or occasionally, if I listen to the music of my youth, nostalgic) but after my shopping trip of a few days ago, decided that it might be worth “tuning in” (as they say) to see what people are saying.

I have to confess I find the whole thing rather alarming.

On the one hand, I listen to the local national news broadcasting stations. To listen to these, it appears that all we have been experiencing recently is a rather small problem, a “hiccup” in the economic engine of the United States (and the world, apparently) easily resolved in a few days. Certainly, there may be individual outages or slight inconveniences, but on the whole things are fine and carry on about your business.

To listen to the call in shows – either local or where I can find them on the InterWeb – is a very different thing entirely.

What I experienced seems to be not the exception but the rule – not only in the country in general, but almost everywhere (so far as I can tell) – in a few places better, in many places the same, in some places far worse. I am (once again) grateful that I live here, far away from any large population center that would give such events the place to flourish.

Have I noticed anything different? Not particularly – except that traffic has slowed to an unusual event now. I have perhaps seen 20 cars over the last two days when (in usual high tourist season) I would see far more.

Have I acted differently? Again, not particularly. I have not a made driving trip since my shopping trip six days ago, but that has been known to happen in the past. I have taken the liberty of reorganizing the workshop and going through items and storing them or putting them away, or at least making them not so obvious if someone were to look in. I have also completely recleaned my closet and reorganized the supplies there as well, more to just verify what I have in place rather than from any particular need.

The thing I have heard – at least in the radio shows with callers – is the fear in the voice of some of callers. I have not heard this sort of fear for many years.

It has made me sit up and take notice.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca

Hated For My Name's Sake

Luke 21:17:  "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake."

Matthew 24:9:  "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated for My name's sake."

Mark 13:10: "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake.  But he who endures to the end will be saved."

Christ was brutally honest how He expected His followers to be treated, both in His time and at The End Of The Age - and by extrapolation, during all time in between.  Yet I cannot think of the last time that I heard a sermon preached on any of the above verses.

Why?  Because they are hard to hear.  Because they go against the grain of human existence, the desire to be liked.  Because it promises nothing in this life but derision, disgust, and hate (I mean, beyond forgiveness of sins and eternal life, of course).  Because we try to find ways to connect to the world on all levels, instead of speaking Christ's words of life to a dying world.

Do we grasp that?  Do we understand this?  Or are we so dependent on the world liking us, so convinced that we have to be "relevant" to matter, that we would rather be hated by God for the world's sake? 

If the church has become the desire of the world and its system, then - per Christ's words - we are doing something terribly wrong.

On The Passing Of An Entertainment Era

This weekend we went to see Avengers: Endgame.

I had not originally planned to see it, but The Ravishing Mrs. TB turned it into a family outing and, to be fair, I had stuck with portions of the series up to this point so why not finish it off.

(I will not, of course, comment on the movie plot itself to protect the 0.5% of my reading audience that will probably see the thing.  Suffice it to say I did not find this to be the most compelling movie of the series).

I checked - the first Marvel movie of this cycle (Iron Man) appeared in 2008.  22 movies in 11 years.  That is quite an accomplishment for any series.  Mind you, it was built on 60 years of Marvel paving the way and building an audience (and the unfortunate Marvel mis-starts, for the most part, from Fox.)  So perhaps in itself, a culture icon worth watching.

That said, I will not be back.

Will I miss the characters?  They were, for the most part, true to their comic book roots and Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Tony Stark/Iron Man has to be one of the greatest parts of acting in my life time (the only character in modern cinema that I can say "I want to be just like him!").  But they were only brief entertaining moments, not a lifestyle. 

To be fair to myself, for the most part these actors and actresses.  are not "my people" in the sense that they do not represent my values - which some of the remind me of as often as they can.  So in that sense, leaving them is also easy.  I only saw them for the characters, not for the actors and actresses.  I do not follow them outside of movies.  So like life insurance or home insurance we part, each having given the other fee for service.

No, the real reason I will not be back is simply that there will be nothing new.

Oh certainly, there will be new villains.  And new plots.  New, exciting ways to destroy the world.  But really, they will be varying versions of the plots that have already existed.  Like James Bond, how many different ways are there to almost destroy the world to say "This is a bit ridiculous"?

There are only so many variations of the same story before it becomes a remake (as opposed to a real remake, which we are probably due for in about 10 years).  And you know - we all know - that in the end, the heroes will triumph at great cost.  So how many different times can I be persuaded to see these great heroes fight great villains for great victories in CGI generated cinematography?

No more, apparently.

It was entertaining, for sure. I may still pull out Guardians of the Galaxy from time to time for the soundtrack, if nothing else.  But at least for me - and I expect, for certain elements of my generation - Marvel movies came to end last Thursday.   The only greatness will still remain in the old Stan Lee and Jack Kirby drawn books.

Excelsior, Stan.  It was a grand run.

On A Lessening Interest In Science Fiction

As I have continued my wandering through my used book store, I have found more and more that my non-reality readings tend more towards fantasy and less and less towards science fiction (also known as "speculative fiction" for reasons that I have no knowledge of and, frankly, am now too old to care).

Why is this?  As I pondered the fact more and more, I came to a two sided conclusion.

On the one hand, I have read and followed enough science fiction through the first 50 odd years of my life to determine that what people think the future will be like and what the future will actually be like are two entirely different things.  Read Andre Norton, one of my favorite fantasy and science fiction writers:  paper is still used are rockets still have three fins in the 24th Century and beyond.  What we thought the future would be like 60 years ago and what it is like now are very very different things. On the other side, more recent writers make the future more like today, just with fancier weapons and slightly upgraded technology - which is just a slightly modified version of the modern world, which hardly makes it science fiction.

On the other hand, the older I get, the less and less I find myself interested in "the future".  The future - certainly the far future and even the future 50 years from now - is an undiscovered country that I will never reach.  It may be occasionally interesting to ponder or to reach a book or watch a two hour movie on, but that is about it.  That future now belongs to others.

Of course, the future I find myself most concerned about at this point in the program is my future beyond life.  Because that has a reality that eclipses all others.  And that is the reality which remains most in my control, at least in the part where I can know where that future is and Who it is with  (I have written about it before here of course;  check your local Bible for more details).

As to science fiction for entertainment?  At best I look to my old reliable stable of authors for what the far future looked like 60 years ago.  At worst, I look for the apocalyptic fiction.  Those two extremes, a world that will never be or a world in which we will destroy ourselves, truly seem like the most likely options at this point.

Praise

"Lord, be it thine,

Unfaltering praise of mine!

And, O pure prince!  Make clear my way

To serve and pray at thy sole shrine!

Lord, be it thine,

Unfaltering praise of mine!

O father of souls that long,

Take this my song and make it thine!

- O' Laoghaire, 12th Century

Disappoint Them

Friends

The Collapse XXI: Remodeling

03 August 20XX

My Dear Lucilius:

My last missive was depressing: depressing for me to author and undoubtedly depressing for you to read. To perhaps lighten the mood, let me tell you something I promised in an earlier letter: the remodel.

The Cabin, as you might recall, had been in my family since before my birth, an initially unfinished fishing cabin that my grandfather and grandmother finished. It was primitive at the time – originally there was only water for the kitchen and even in my own memory I can remember the outhouse being the only bathroom at the time – but was slowly upgraded to include an actual bathroom (complete with shower and bathtub AND toilet) and a hot water heater. The only thing it lacked was the ability to live in it in any time other than summer – as it was only built as a summer cabin, it was never prepared for winter and thus a rather complex set of instructions (known for years in the family as The List) had to completed by whomever closed it down for the season.

As my wife and I were speaking of what we wanted to do after we retired (how long ago that all seems now), I wanted to try living there for greater parts of the year. She was not initially keen, but insisted if we were going to do anything the Cabin would have to be made ready for some kind of winter.

And so, The Remodel started.

My conditions when I met with contractor was that the Cabin had to be winterized, had to be firmly insulated, had to have a small wood stove installed (a very small one), and that the outer shell of the building was to remain intact. And if I could get it, slightly higher ceilings (to prevent my practice swords from digging in). Plans were drawn and redrawn based on what could be seen without entering the walls, and approved. One day a large “Pod” showed up in the middle of nowhere, where everything inside was carefully packaged and packed inside.

And then, the adventures began.

The piping in the house was simple (one run to the kitchen, one to the hot water tank, one to the bathroom) and so insulating it proved to be not a serious issue. The water from the pump approximately 10 feet from the house proved to another matter, of course: The pipe was excavated, pulled out, dropped down to a three foot depth, and then brought up to the house (insulated as it came to the more shallower regions).

The electric was all run by my grandfather many, many years ago and (perhaps not surprisingly) not up to code. This was all discovered after all the walls had been torn out of course (to add insulation), so that had to be completely redone. I had them add a few more outlets as we are now much more dependent on electricity than we were. As you can imagine, that was a great deal more than I had intended to spend.

Insulation of the walls and replacement of the windows was planned for. I perhaps insulated more than I needed to as I insisted that the highest level they could find be used both in the walls and in the attic, but I would rather pay now than freeze later.

The additional wood stove was a bit of an adventure as finding the smallest one I could turned out to be a bigger one than I had anticipated, both for heat output as well as footprint. I ended up with a very small soapstone and cast iron unit with a minimal loss of floor space.

The floor was left as was, a combination of the tile squares of colors from last mid century and unfinished boards. It gave the continuity I needed to the project. The ceiling, unfortunately, could not be lifted up so I was left with figuring out another way to complete my Iai practice.

The water pump was an issue, as the pressure tank that lived in the shed where the mower and some tools were stored. The resolution here was to tear down the shed and build an insulated pump house to house the pressure tank. The shed was relocated and slightly modified to become a very small workshop.

The only new addition I requested was a water and power line run out to where I anticipated putting another building (it was going to be a shop, but ended up being the greenhouse and the quail run). They were each trenched down to three feet and then brought over.

At the end of the process, we ended up with a cabin that looked (from the outside) exactly as it always had. The inside appeared much as it had always looked, except the temperature was much better controlled and overall our power bill dropped.

Did we overspend? Perhaps. It was certainly more than I had anticipated. But I was certain that we had many wonderful years of spending time into the early Autumn there to observe the changing of the scenery.

Of course, this discounted my wife's passing a few years later. Our summer and fall home suddenly turned into a place to retreat from the world and, initially, to prepare the next steps. What I found was the next steps led here and then the trail died off.

Your Obedient Servant, Seneca

Home for Easter: 2019

Easter was lovely at The Ranch.  The spring made everything so beautifully green.  Posted without comment, as the pictures speak for themselves:

The Contrariness Of The Mad Farmer

I am done with apologies. If contrariness is my

inheritance and destiny, so be it. If it is my mission

to go in at exits and come out at entrances, so be it.

I have planted by the stars in defiance of the experts,

and tilled somewhat by incantation and by singing,

and reaped, as I knew, by luck and Heaven’s favor,

in spite of the best advice. If I have been caught

so often laughing at funerals, that was because

I knew the dead were already slipping away,

preparing a comeback, and can I help it?

And if at weddings I have gritted and gnashed

my teeth, it was because I knew where the bridegroom

had sunk his manhood, and knew it would not

be resurrected by a piece of cake. ‘Dance,’ they told me,

and I stood still, and while they stood

quiet in line at the gate of the Kingdom, I danced.

‘Pray,’ they said, and I laughed, covering myself

in the earth’s brightnesses, and then stole off gray

into the midst of a revel, and prayed like an orphan.

When they said, ‘I know my Redeemer liveth,’

I told them, ‘He’s dead.’ And when they told me

‘God is dead,’ I answered, ‘He goes fishing every day

in the Kentucky River. I see Him often.’

When they asked me would I like to contribute

I said no, and when they had collected

more than they needed, I gave them as much as I had.

When they asked me to join them I wouldn’t,

and then went off by myself and did more

than they would have asked. ‘Well, then,’ they said

‘go and organize the International Brotherhood

of Contraries,’ and I said, ‘Did you finish killing

everybody who was against peace?’ So be it.

Going against men, I have heard at times a deep harmony

thrumming in the mixture, and when they ask me what

I say I don’t know. It is not the only or the easiest

way to come to the truth. It is one way.

- Wendell Berry

My Lent Fast: A Perspective

So now that Lent is over and Easter has come and gone, some thoughts on my fast from media, a limited social media presence, and controlling what audio media I listened to:

1)  Media is incredibly hard to escape.  It is made a little easier by the fact I have no cable and do not subscribe to any daily or periodical publications, but people still talked.

2) The biggest difference I found (beyond a decreased concern level about events) is completely falling out of the 24 hours news cycle.  It is freeing.  I imagine in some small way, this is what retirement is like.

3)  The social media experiment was not as successful as I had hoped - I need more work there and it was a busy 40 days - but in terms of keeping up with my family (at least), Telegram is far superior to FaceTome if for no other reason it is not filled with all other kinds of posts (see item 1 above).

4)  For me, music is most largely driven by how far I have to drive. The less I drive, the less I tend to listen to more modern music except for background noise (for which classical is great). I did not suffer by not listening to it. 

5)  I need to figure out a more useful way to use this time for thought and meditation.  But now I know that I can find it.

Overall, I was very pleased by this experiment.  I do not know that I will fully continue in this mode, but it has demonstrated great advantages to me.

Happy Easter 2019!

Now Mark 16:1–8; Luke 24:1–10; John 20:1–8after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene Matt. 27:56, 61and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for Mark 16:5; Luke 24:4; John 20:12an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. Dan. 7:9; 10:6; Mark 9:3; John 20:12; Acts 1:10His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like Rev. 1:17dead men.

But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, Hos. 6:2; Ps. 16:10; 49:15; Matt. 12:40; 16:21; 17:23; 20:19as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed Matt. 26:32; 28:10, 16; Mark 16:7He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”

So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word. 

And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Mark 16:9; John 20:14Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell Ps. 22:22; John 20:17; Rom. 8:29; (Heb. 2:11)My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

- Matthew 28:  1-10, NKJV

A Few Words From...Carson Napier of Venus

"I was in a quandary.  Death lay all about me; it but remained but for me to choose the place and and manner of the assignation; I could drown where I was, or I could permit myself to be dashed to pieces on the rocks.  Neither eventuality aroused any considerable enthusiasm in my breast.  As a mistress, Death seemed lacking in many essentials.  Therefore, I decided not to die."

- Pirates of Venus (Edgar Rice Burroughs)

Home For Easter

Good Morning Friends! As you read this, I am on a plane flying home to spend Easter with our families.

In a point of passing interest, it will be 10 years since this has happened.  That strikes me as significant for some reason that I cannot fully comprehend.

It will be a very short trip - out today, back home very early on Monday morning.  But it has been a very long time since I have been home in the spring, when everything is green and growing.  So in a very real sense, it makes a perfect backdrop for the message of the Resurrection.

I will be enjoying time with family.  I hope you are able to do the same.