Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Well, This Has Been An Interesting Morning...
First, a mentally ill/drug addicted former student sends me an abusive Facebook message because I gave him an "F" on a term paper 21 years ago, then I discover that a former employee of mine has been caught stealing. For thirds, I get a message from Amanda's stolen phone that was meant for the thief's girlfriend.
In the first case, I'm impressed with my former student's ability to hold a grudge. Heck, he's not even Celtic. Although, judging from his grammar, spelling, and usage, I'm reminded why he failed the term paper.
In the first case, I'm impressed with my former student's ability to hold a grudge. Heck, he's not even Celtic. Although, judging from his grammar, spelling, and usage, I'm reminded why he failed the term paper.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Surfboard Tales: Memoriam
Click the quotation below for the whole story:
“The waves are like life, man. And I don’t mean that like in those books about surfing. Waves aren’t about metaphysics or Eastern religion or Californicated gibberish. Everyone tries to apply some deep meaning to life, too. They create massive organizations to define it. Folks have tried throughout history to apply meaning to it, and life resists it. Life is just life. That’s why it’s like the waves. All of that verbiage, all of those words to try to turn a wave into something mystical, and the wave just is. You can tell me about energy and gravity and moon phases and [stuff], but I don’t care. I know it’s just a wave. You just ride it. Like, it’s just life, we just live it. And even when we think it’s over, we still ride it.”[Kinda, sorta, related site: The "paddle-out" for Sean Collins, both the California and Hawaii versions. The scene of the south side of the Huntington Beach pier makes me nostalgic, as that was where I first rode a proper SoCal wave."
Saturday, January 7, 2012
The End Of Something
The old, mostly dead, Roxbury Christmas tree, aka "Senior" [as opposed to the new one, "Junior"] is being cut down today. I feel like there should be a gathering of mourners.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Today's Observation From Theologian Stanley Hauerwas
"There was a time when unbelief also appeared to be adventuresome, when the denial of God was experienced as an exciting new possibility, a heroic refusal to participate in oppressive social convention. In our day, unbelief is the socially acceptable way of living in the West. It no longer takes courage to disbelieve...we Christians have given atheists less and less in which to disbelieve! A flaccid church has robbed atheism of its earlier pretensions of adventure."
Hauerwas, Stanley (1989-10-01). Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (p. 50). Abingdon Press.
Hauerwas, Stanley (1989-10-01). Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (p. 50). Abingdon Press.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
The Surfboard Tales Collection
I Used To Play Bass For Thousands Of Dead Herring [I Could Do This All Day; For Some Reason, A Lot Of Headlines Look Like Good Names For Rock Bands]
Thousands of dead herring - it sure smells like the animal apocalypse
"It Sure Smells Like the Animal Apocalypse" sounds like a good album title, now that I think about it.
"It Sure Smells Like the Animal Apocalypse" sounds like a good album title, now that I think about it.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Church Fire
The Somers Congregational Church in Tolland County suffered a fire last evening and, as one may see, appears to be a total loss. We'll keep them in our prayers.
This Week's Provocation
"Once the concept of “human rights” has established itself as an axiom, the question inevitably arises: How and by whom are these rights to be secured? With growing emphasis, post-Enlightenment societies have answered: by the state. The nation state, replacing the old concepts of the Holy Church and the Holy Empire, is the centre-piece in the political scene in post-Enlightenment Europe. After the trauma of the religious wars of the seventeenth century, Europe settled down to the principle of religious coexistence, and the passions which had formerly been invested in rival interpretations of religion were more and more invested in the nation state. Nationalism became the effective ideology of the European peoples, always at times of crises proving stronger than any other ideological or religious force. If there is any entity to which ultimate loyalty is due, it is the nation state. In the twentieth century we have become accustomed to the fact that—in the name of the nation—Catholics will fight Catholics, Protestants will fight Protestants, and Marxists will fight Marxists. The charge of blasphemy, if it is ever made, is treated as a quaint anachronism; but the charge of treason, of placing another loyalty above that to the nation state, is treated as the unforgivable crime. The nation state has taken the place of God. Responsibilities for education, healing and public welfare which had formerly rested with the Church devolved more and more upon the nation state. In the present century this movement has been vastly accelerated by the advent of the “welfare state.” National governments widely assumed to be responsible for and capable of providing those things which former generations thought only God could provide—freedom from fear, hunger, disease and want—in a word: 'happiness.'"
(Lesslie Newbigin, The Other Side of 1984: Questions for the Churches [Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1983], pp. 13-15)
(Lesslie Newbigin, The Other Side of 1984: Questions for the Churches [Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1983], pp. 13-15)
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