2025 Switzerland/Germany: Church of St. Gallus and Othmar

 The Church of St. Gallus and Othmar in Kaiseraugust Switzerland.  You know, your average 125+ year old church you just stumble upon when taking a walk. Happens every day...

2025 Switzerland/Germany: Early Morning

In order to get to the Augusta Raurica Museum, I needed to take a train and a bus - which lead to me getting up early on a Saturday morning.

Basel, Saturday Morning, around 0700:

Crossing the Rhine:

From the train:

Depending On Me

 

Of all the changes that being promoted to a "People Leader" means (current in vogue phrase for "Manager"), one of the things that continues to surprise me the most is the amount of times people want a thought or opinion from you.

It is not that this should be strange to my line of work (Quality Assurance), nor to the type of individual that inhabits such roles:  on the whole, anyone that works in Quality is always highly opinionated.  It is just that - as a "People Leader" - your opinions matter.

The fact that I derive so much humour from this situation is based on the fact that I know myself in a way that my coworkers do not.  Not just that on the whole I am a highly unserious person; it is that I scarcely trust myself to make decisions for my own life, let alone those influencing a business.

It makes me wonder if this is true for a lot of people that we look to for decisions:  Are they as put together as they appear to be, or are they just as often surprised by people asking them for decisions and opinions as I am?  After all, I am the sort of fellow that finds myself boldly strolling out of the bathroom with my zipper down or misplacing my keys if I do not put them back in the same place every day.  Am I really the one that should be approached for critical things?

In my heart, I would like to believe that almost everyone struggles with this sort of thing, a sort of common Imposter's syndrome where we act as if we know what we are doing, even if we do not.  If it does not always lead to great decisions, hopefully it at least leads to great laughter.

A Year Of Humility (XXII): God's Agenda

 "How is it we're like that, so zealous to put on outward, heroic shows of loyalty for the faith and yet so reluctant to set aside our own agendas and do what Jesus wants?

Our zeal is misdirected.  Paul reminds us, 'The sinful mind is hostile to God.  It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.  Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God' (Romans 8:7-8).'

We need to transfer our zeal from outward things to inward spiritual things.  We need to be less willing to cut off ears in Jesus' name (Ed:  Matthew 26:51-52) and more willing to humble ourselves by going into our prayer closets alone with God to get his agenda for our lives." - Keith Green, If You Love The Lord

As humans, we tend to be given to great acts of attention and glory.  Part of it, I suppose, is simply the fact that many crave the public notice and resulting feedback (by my naming, The Age of Attention).  Part of it - something I suffer from greatly - is that buried urge to do acts of great glory, covering one's self with nobility even in sacrifice (there is a reason that the great heroic epics survived as long as they have).  And perhaps part of it is simply the feeling that we need to be doing something - anything.

It is not that we are not to do anything, suggests Green.  It is that we are to do the right things.

We know the story of Peter above, defending Christ (as he saw it), perhaps in his mind doing his part to bring God's kingdom to earth by defending the Messiah.  But Christ rebukes Peter, reminding him that those that live by the sword die by it and that - if He really is the Messiah - then God could send 12 Legions of angels in a flash.    What Peter forgets in that moment is that - earlier, when Christ had asked him to come and pray with him, a direct request - Peter fell asleep.  

Too often we do what we think God wants us to do and not what God actually wants us to do.

How hard - and how humbling - to submit ourselves to God and follow His instructions.

Yes, sometimes they are not clear to us - but there are plenty that are plain as day.  Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  Love others the way God loves you.  Grow in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.   Pray at all times.  Be thankful in everything.

It is not a mystery.  But in order to follow these orders, we have take the first basic step of humbling ourselves before God and admitting that His agenda, not ours, is what we will be about.

100 Years From Now

 

I am not trying to encourage rank foolishness.  On the other hand, more often than not what holds us back is ourselves, not others.

The Fight Out Of You

 

(Pre-game reminder to myself as I prepare for a weekend of training.)

Strangers Online

 (Editor's note:  I will be traveling between today and next Monday to participate in a training seminar with my headmaster; responses may be delayed.)

I have never really been one to argue much online.

Oh, once upon a time I was worse:  20 to 15 years ago, brash and full of "right" thinking, I was (uncharacteristically now for me, anyway) willing to have a go online with people.  I was never very good at it - I am just not very good debater - but that never seemed to hold me back.

And then, one day, I stopped.

Probably a combination of reasons, one being that I was outclassed in more than one argument, the other that I had a tendency to make jokes a little too hard - until they landed upon myself.

It helped, in this case, that I have always had a distaste of verbal conflict.  Even today, I will walk out of rooms where a heated debate is happening.  I hate arguments and I hate to listen to people argue.  

Does that mean I miss a lot of discussion?  Possibly.  But it also means that I generally have a lot more peace and a lot less regrets in my life.

But there are people for whom such activities seem to be sport.  They genuinely seem to enjoy the rough and tumble of online "discussion".  And more power to them, as long as they keep it among themselves.

But it does make me wonder:  at the end of the day, I suspect 90% or more of that will be with people they have never met and will never see, in a medium that in theory could, at any moment, evaporate.  I grieve the loss of InterWeb friends that pass that I actually feel like I know in some fashion; what, I wonder, would be the realization be like to truly accept years of heated debate and arguments and comments were with (effectively) invisible strangers?

2025 Switzerland/Germany: Augusta Raurica VI

 Following the earthquake of A.D. 250 and the destruction of the settlement of Augusta Raurica in A.D. 260 by the Alemanni, the Romans attempted to maintain the border by building a military camp in the locale of Augusta Raurica.  Named Castra Rauracense, it became the heart of a much smaller settlement.

Walking down to see the ruins of the camp (it is in the center of modern Kaiseraugust):

Views of the excavated walls:

Current excavations underway:

A sign showing a view of the walls, gate towers, and gate:

Roman soldier of the later Augusta Raurica settlement period:

Down to the Rhine.  Barring the modern conveniences of boats and houses, this is probably what soldiers in the 3rd Century A.D. saw:

2025 Switzerland/Germany: August Raurica V

 (Continuing the visit of a model Roman home at the Augusta Raurica museum.)

A view from the Cubiculum nocternum of the Peristylium:  

Roman houses often fronted the street with shops and workshops, for which the house owner collected rent (if they themselves did not own the shop outright).  Below is a Fabrica, or workshop:

In the next door over (Item 16 above) is the Capona, or pub.  Cooked food could be purchased here:

The Fauces, or entry hall.  Next to the Capona, it was the entry into the house proper:

Cave canem (Beware the dog):

Return to the Peritylium:

Altar to the Lares, or household gods:

Not Good For My Peace

 

(Source)

In Alasdair McIntyre's work After Virtue, a section almost at the end of the book has stuck in my mind since I read it:

"It always dangerous to draw too precise parallels between one historical period and another; and among the most misleading of such parallels are those that have been drawn between our own age in Europe and North America and the epoch in which the Roman empire declined into the Dark Ages.  Nonetheless certain parallels there are.  A crucial turning point in that earlier history occurred when men and women of good will turned aside from the task of shoring up the Roman imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of that imperium.  What they set themselves to achieve instead - often not recognizing fully what they were doing - was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained that both morality and civility might survive the coming age of barbarism and darkness." (Emphasis mine)

It struck me because in popular history, the idea of a "collapse" has long been portrayed as the extinguishing all at once of the civilization known as Rome. In point of fact, individuals continued to think of themselves in the mold of Rome at least a century or so past the traditional date of A.D. 476.  In that sense, "Rome" did not fall until the men and women who saw all things good (in that sense) made the conscious decision that trying to maintain the society that enabled that - "Roman" - could no longer meet the needs.

What, you might ask, has all of that to do with a person and cat turning away?

One of the best things that I have done in the last six months - largely as a result of "The Election" - is turned away from virtually all sorts of news, media, and social media.  Never quite 100% of course, but enough that there are entire days I have no clue what is going on "out there".

On the whole, I find myself less stressed and more joyful.

But as I have continued down this road (imperfectly of course; there is far more I should ignore than I do) the ramifications of it are rather astounding to me:  I care less and less about the struggles of the age.

To be fair, the things I do care about at this point tend to revolve around the nature of economics and finance - not so much that I can impact those any more than I can impact other national or world events, but I tend to be impacted by them more directly.  And even understanding those events is confusing enough.  As for the rest - it exists, much like the sun exists:  It rises and falls with neither my blessing nor work nor permission.

Which, of course, is fine for me.  Not so fine, I suppose, for those that derive power and influence from such things.

I have written several times before that we live in the Age of Attention, where the self is the product and attention the currency we exchange for it.  That attention is derived from two things:  The outlandish and extreme (I discount the interesting and harmless here; after all, things about bees and button quail and rabbits hardly move the outlandish meter) and the "Them" which are not like us and our beliefs  (that, of course, being true of both "Sides" of the Aisle).  As a corollary to the Age of Attention, I have also noted that we now effectively live in the Age of Rage, where it seems so many people are defined by what they are against and the rage that consumes them against those things.

Neither item, of course, particularly helpful for someone looking for internal peace.

I have been checking out.  I get the idea more and more people are.

This is, of course, no danger to those that are checking out.  This is a huge danger to those that bank on people being involved in the Age of Attention and the Age of Rage.

The difficulty is that once someone checks out of something, it becomes very easy to check out of more things.  Before long, we move from caring about those things to carrying about the superstructures and understructures that create those things. Quite often we have moved on to other models and other structures where attention is not the currency and rage is not in fashion.

All of a sudden, those that have checked out are no longer a mere fad.  They are a danger to "everything" because they fail to care (about the "right" things of course, but fail to care nonetheless).  They must be made to care, made to pay attention.  If anything, all mediums become saturated with whatever "the thing" is.

At least for me, the more saturated things get, the less I find myself seeking to be involved.  Honestly, the less I find myself involved in maintaining the status quo.  

It is not that I, in McIntyre's words, am building "a civil and moral community". That sounds too pretentious.  All I am trying to do is maintain my personal equilibrium. It does make me wonder though, what a huge number of people "maintaining their personal equilibrium" would look like.

A Year Of Humility (XXI): Calm

 

I had never really thought of the impact of "volatility of emotions" on humility. 

But it made sense, after I sat and gave it some thought. After all, when I am - as Isaac the Syrian notes - "Rash, hasty, perturbed, having hot and volatile thoughts", almost the last thing in my mind is being humble. 

Why?

Well, rather embarrassingly, when I am in such moments almost the last thing I am thinking about it being humble, the other person, or even (sadly) my witness.  What I am thinking about in most of those moments is me - my rights, my need to be right or vindicated, my "needs".

When I am emotional in such ways, my emotion clouds my ability to think about anything but myself.  And thinking about myself first and foremost never leads to humility.

At least for myself, just another excellent reminder about how carefully managing my daily emotions and my inputs to those emotions can assist me in working on my humility - and Heaven knows I need every additional advantage I can give myself.