I Come Undone

Suns of the Morning

2010-05-04T09:39:00.000-05:00

I, blinded by two suns this morn, reveled in their brilliance.
One sun, the sun in the sky.
And a second, the sun in the lake.
Twins from a solar mother, birthed in air and birthed in water,
Radiance upon radiance lit my path.
I gazed upon their beauty, though through shuttered eyes,
Delighted in their ephemeral and yet eternal light;
Ephemeral, in that the hours of light go ever fleeing
Through the few hours before nocturns.
Eternal, in that they reappear day after day
Before and beyond my sojourn here,
Racing in a course brief in duration yet long enduring
As they round and round again that course,
A long race down decades, centuries, millennia.
Shine on, you bright suns, children of a bright morning,
Shine on, and I shall run on, 'til you see me no more.

Words

2010-03-27T17:08:00.003-05:00

What are you doing back here? I thought you'd given up on this.

Right. Well, still the words need wrestled with. The things to be said need said. I need a way of saying them. Speaking them. Writing them. Shaping them.

So, the words don't mislead anymore?

Well, maybe. Moon, not the finger; shore, not the raft and all that. But, still, there they are. Where I live. One of the places I live. Still they must be handled somehow. It might as well be well handled. The raft may not be the goal but it still needs to float, if I'm not to drown.

Okay. Wrestle away. Wrangle them, write them, find them, shape them.

Daylight Saving Time

2010-03-16T09:19:00.004-05:00

You can tell Congress I said, "Go to Hell!",
They've all but thrown me in some dark well,
Taking away my morning sun, the lovely one,
Whose winsome rays and warming gaze
Had long been absent my morning run.

Now, having won him back with long months of pleading,
Where have they taken the light I've been needing?
I wake, looking to kiss my long time friend,
Only to find the night has not yet found its end.

Daylight Saving Time? Saving for whom?
For when? For why?

But not long now will I keep up my ire,
I spend my venom by spinning bike tires.
At least, 'tis yet spring and she is kind.
Tonight while home I ride, I'll find my friend the sun
And feel his embrace upon my back, and at table.

So wait, I grow calm again and will plead again
With the dear sun, that he return and warm the morn'
And make me glad once more that I was born.
Born to live under his kind reign, and with season's turn
Coax him back again.

Good Fiction

2010-03-08T19:53:00.001-06:00

"I had a teacher I liked who used to say good fiction's job was to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. I guess a big part of serious fiction's purpose is to give the reader, who like all of us is sort of marooned in her own skull, to give her imaginative access to other selves. Since an ineluctable part of being a human self is suffering, part of what we humans come to art for is an experience of suffering, necessarily a vicarious experience, more like a sort of "generalization" of suffering. Does this make sense? We all suffer alone in the real world; true empathy's impossible. But if a piece of fiction can allow us imaginatively to identify with a character's pain, we might then also more easily conceive of others identifying with our own. This is nourishing, redemptive; we become less alone inside. It might just be that simple. But now realize that TV and popular film and most kinds of "low" art--which just means art whose primary aim is to make money--is lucrative precisely because it recognizes that audiences prefer 100 percent pleasure to the reality that tends to be 49 percent pleasure and 51 percent pain. Whereas "serious" art, which is not primarily about getting money out of you, is more apt to make you uncomfortable, or to force you to work hard to access its pleasures, the same way that in real life true pleasure is usually a by-product of hard work and discomfort. So it's hard for an art audience, especially a young one that's been raised to expect art to be 100 percent pleasurable and to make that pleasure effortless, to read and appreciate serious fiction. That's not good. The problem isn't that today's readership is "dumb," I don't think. Just that TV and the commercial-art culture's trained it to be sort of lazy and childish in its expectations. But it makes trying to engage today's readers both imaginatively and intellectually unprecedentedly hard."

-David Foster Wallace, from an interview with Larry McCaffrey

War, Love, Mathematicians

2010-03-02T20:42:00.003-06:00

It was not until late in my college career that I discovered that Mathematics is really interesting. I'd always like math and done well, but it seemed like just manipulating symbols by some set of rules I didn't know about but could implicitly understand. It was only when I found out that Mathematicians spend time discovering and proving the rules and searching for relationships between numbers that I began to see the fascination and beauty. I'd only seen the border of the country they lived in each day.

Much of that beauty is captured in David Leavitt's The Indian Clerk, a novel about the great mathematician Ramanujan and G.H. Hardy's discovery of Ramanujan and attempts to bring him to Cambridge from India. If the idea of a book about math puts you off, I'd recommend 1. taking a second chance, there's not that much to figure out here but some of the mystery of numbers is well portrayed, and 2. don't worry, this is really about people, some of whom happen to be mathematicians. The characters have a diverse set of romantic, familial, and social relations. The grip of the story comes from their attempts to make sense of themselves and others as they seek for love and friendship and struggle with desire and commitment.

Leavitt seems to have done his homework well and thoroughly on the historical figures and also on Cambridge near the beginning and through the first World War. I've read other account of some of the side characters, Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein make appearances as do both the Cambridge Apostles and the Bloomsbury group. A strength of the book is the way that the strange times in which social norms were changing but not yet changed comes through in the characters lives and isn't just backdrop but is motivation for what they do and with whom they do it. Marriage as a social necessity and the outcome of marrying for those reasons, the progressive politics in a time of war and the compromises that one makes in embracing them, and the relationship between teacher and student are explored not as abstract themes or historical curiosities but as the realities of the lives of the men and women in the book.

The narrative point of view shifts between characters fairly often, though Hardy's is the main voice, several other character's perspectives are adopted and their relationships with Ramanujan serve to tie together their personal stories. All in all, I think the book strikes a balance by treating abstract ideas and people of ideas with enough hooks to make the book a page turner. It was easy to get engaged with their lives and difficult to put down.

Frank's Frank Faith

2010-02-15T19:20:00.003-06:00

Frank Schaeffer caught my attention again last fall when he appeared on a news program criticizing evangelical leaders for not criticizing sentiments that endorsed religious violence against the president. I picked up his memoir, Crazy for God, and I really enjoyed getting a look into his life as the son of a star evangelical writer as well as how things got to be that way. That story was touching and was both critical and loving.

When I saw that he had a new book, Patience with God: Faith for Those Who don't like Religion {or Atheism}, I decided it was worth a look. The book discusses the New Atheist movement, something Schaeffer has written about before but this appears to be the most extended treatment, and what he labels "evangelical/fundamentalism" a way of picking out a literalist, absolutist approach to faith (though mainly to Christianity). As one might imagine from the title of the book, he has little patience for either but he thinks he can still recommend faith in God so long as that faith takes a middle path between extremes. He is himself Orthodox and attends an Antiochian Orthodox church near his home but, unlike some of his earlier evangelism about Orthodoxy, he is not recommending the Orthodox church as a solution itself, there are fundamentalists even inside those walls.

The first part of Schaeffer's book is mainly a critical examination of the two movements mentioned, and this is where I was most critical. When talking about Dawkins and his followers there is plenty of things with which to find fault but Schaeffer falls prey to some of the same moves that he criticizes in Dawkins and Bill Maher. He's dismissive, derisive and makes fun of the people who flock to Dawkins website. I can't see how this is better than Bill Maher's approach to religion in Religulous which comes in for its own treatment in Patience. Dawkins makes plenty of bad arguments, so it seems that would be the place to lay blame not with those inspired by him or with the commercialism of his website that likely has little to do with his personal decisions. Later, when he turns to religion, Schaeffer gets carried away with pointing out the limits of the intellectual resources of such an approach and repeatedly suggests that whether the people are dim or not, they are certainly acting like ignorant children. While the main thrust of what he had to say was reasonable, the tone becomes too close to insults for both atheists and fundamentalists. This seems like taking the low road he accuses these groups of taking.

When it comes to his positive suggestions, I am still puzzling over what they were meant to be. As far as I could tell, the big problem both groups are supposed to have is that they think they know the truth. If they knew what Schaeffer knows, they would know that they don't know that, none of us knows the truth. One problem here is that Schaeffer, at least implicitly, endorses a form of relativism about truth that reduces itself to a contradiction. Another is that he seems to have confused ideas about the limits of human knowledge with the idea of true statements or with making provisional statement of what we think we know. Whatever one thinks the limits of human knowledge are, it seems that a straightforward interpretation of Schaeffer's message would leave us with little to say to one another.

That said, the second part of the book is where Schaeffer finds his stride. It had many of the good qualities of his memoir but wasn't repetitive of that material and seemed topically organized in a way that helped him put together the inchoate ideas of the first part of the book. His recommendations for spirituality become a living out of his doubts and his belief in a life connected to loved ones and the beauty of both art and the natural world. These are where Schaeffer finds existential meaning and the reasons he thinks belief in God is reasonable after all, even if we don't have proof. His granddaughter takes a central role in his meditations and when he talks about his fear for his son (who served as a Marine) and his gradual loss of his mother, he finds his most moving voice and his faith becomes most attractive. It's not clear that case he makes for God is more than a case for leading a life of meaningful engagement with the world, but he makes a good case for that by sharing those who helped him find his way to such a life. Each chapter begins with an epigraph drawn from Kierkegaard and this serves as a good cue to what Schaeffer is about in his book, recommending a leap of faith that he cannot defend as a rational step because the very nature of the leap is that it is beyond reason.

Worshipping the Bible

2010-02-13T17:37:00.000-06:00

"Of course, evangelical/fundamentalists can't stand the Bible's obvious flaws because they worship the Bible, not God. So they try to fix their "inerrant" Bible's reputation by torturous justifications. They even make rules for God as if they understand God as some sort of creature trapped in the pages of the Bible, something like a fly caught on flypaper."

-Frank Schaeffer, Patience with God

Book Blogging

2010-02-10T20:09:00.004-06:00

So, I probably owe you a post. That is, if you're even still there. On the other side of my monitor.

Since I'm not great at faithfully posting, I think largely since there's no real theme here just my occasional thoughts. Perhaps, if I try to stick to one thing I'm already invested in and write about that it would go better. So, I'm going to attempt to do some book reviews. I've read some since December.

36 Arguments for the Existence of God: a work of fiction

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?"

The above quotation is from Hillel, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. I'm sure I've heard it before but it was just one of the unexpected lessons I got from 36 Arguments for the Existence of God. The book was more than I had expected that way.

The story is about Cass Seltzer, a psychologist of religion, who suddenly finds himself in high popular demand after his book on religious experience is released (and promoted) in a world suddenly re-sensitized to questions about religion. This might make no more than an interesting short story if it weren't for the history and inner explorations of Cass that Goldstein reveals throughout the book. His book, The Varieties of Religious Illusion (a nod to both William James and Sigmund Freud, two of history's most famous psychologists of religion), is both a best seller and the product of his own tumultuous life in and around academia and religion. In the course of reading his story we meet his first graduate advisor who takes an old-fashioned approach to the humanities into a mystical flourish, his Hasidic cousins in their secluded village, his anthropologist ex-girlfriend who's giving up living in the Amazon to try and live forever, and the love of his life who has a strong need to succeed. Along the way, there are quite a few asides about psychology and Jewish mysticism that serve to fill out what is going on in the story, and that's all before the appendix with the titular 36 arguments.

The characters are engaging, which surprised me given that they are mostly tenured professors. My worry was that these would be the kind of characters only interesting to...well, tenured professors. But I think Goldstein puts enough human drama into the story that they don't come off as dusty or out of touch. Cass is a charming protagonist, uncertain of himself and what to do with his fame, busy enjoying the mysteries of his life including the mystery of his recent fame. I'm undecided about the tone of the narrator. The asides I mentioned come often enough that it begins to seem pedantic and artificial. Do we really need the explanations of basic cognitive psychology to explain how Cass was perceiving his experience at the moment? Is there a Psychology for Dummies book lurking inside the text of the novel? The reason I'm not outright critical is that this is, in fact, a book about academics. These are the very kind of people who would be tempted to give you asides like this if you were having a conversation with them. Maybe it's appropriate. As a MacArthur fellow and holder of a Ph.D. in Philosophy (not to mention she's a fellow at Harvard's Psychology department presently), Goldstein may not be able to help it. Restraining one's teaching habits can be difficult enough on any topic, but I assume writing about teachers doesn't help any.

Whatever its flaws may be, I really enjoyed the book. I picked it up because the premise sounded intriguing and unusual. I thought that it might be more critical of religion, given that Cass' success dovetails with the New Atheist's (he is dubbed the atheist with a soul), but it was actually quite sympathetic with the ways we live with mystery, religious or otherwise. The parts in the Hasidic community were very touching and the struggle of one character to decide whether to stay in the only community he has known or to leave and pursue his passion for Mathematics is moving and shows a nuanced approach to the value of a religious life. In fact, other than the appendix (which is meant to be the appendix to Cass' own book), there is little that is directly critical of religious belief. One of the things I loved most was how the characters all face the difficulties of discovering how to live life well and appreciate its many mysteries and gifts.

Reasons for Belief

2009-12-09T09:48:00.000-06:00

Mme La Maréchale: Are you not Monsieur Crudeli?
Crudeli: Yes, Madame.
Mme La Maréchale: Then you're the man who doesn't believe in anything.
Crudeli: In person, madame.
Mme La Maréchale: Yet your moral principles are the same as those of a believer?
Crudeli: Why should they not be -- as long as the believer is an honest man?
Mme La Maréchale: And do you act upon your principles?
Crudeli: To the best of my ability.
Mme La Maréchale: What? You don't steal? You don't kill people? You don't rob them?
Crudeli: Very rarely.
Mme La Maréchale: Then what do you gain by not being a believer?
Crudeli: Nothing at all, madame. Is one a believer from motives of profit?
-- Denis Diderot, "Conversation with a Christian Lady" (1774)

Heschel

2009-12-05T19:29:00.001-06:00

"Above all, the prophets remind us of the moral state of a people: Few are guilty, but all are responsible."

-Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets

From Speaking of Faith's program on the rabbi this week.

Busy Day for the Mind

2009-11-10T09:54:00.002-06:00

Three articles today in the Times on mind issues. One on the physiological role of dreams, one on pig cognition research, and an opinion piece on diagnosing Asperger's and Autism by Simon Baron-Cohen. Baron-Cohen is one of the leading experts on this topic and the topic is potentially quite important for a lot of people with more direct impact than the other two pieces.

Not quite so dramatic after the fact

2009-10-15T21:51:00.001-05:00

This headline from the NY Times made me laugh:

Boy Thought Missing in Balloon Is Found Alive at Home

Yeah, this story was interesting when we thought the boy was missing. If you didn't know about it until later, this seems like one of the most mundane headlines you can imagine.

Burning Leaves

2009-10-08T19:45:00.002-05:00

The trees on my street are all burning,
Autumnal colors fan the flames in the leaves.
But this fire does not destroy, it makes perfect,
The beauty that was latent in vernal greens.

Red, Yellow, Orange and minglings of all three,
Thrill my heart morning and evening,
As I pass between the glowing branches.
Seeming to shine without need for the sunlight,
The beginning of the last days for tree clothing
Shed with magnificence hitherto unsuspected.
And what a way to die! What a way to fall to earth!
Making themselves radiant in their final hours,
Welcoming death silently but not without splendor.

Ambiguity in Summmary

2009-10-01T17:53:00.003-05:00

To be fair to headlines, it is sometimes necessary to have them to resolve an ambiguity in a story summary. The following came from the NY Times email updates:

Experts say that Senator John Ensign may have violated ethics
laws by helping an aide get work after having an affair with
his wife.

There is an ambiguity here that I couldn't resolve until referring back to the headline:

Senator's Aid to Mistress's Husband Raises Ethics Flags

There. Now I've been fair to headlines.

A Memento Mori Courtesy of Quaker Oats

2009-09-06T09:22:00.003-05:00

He pulls the Life cereal from the open cabinet with anticipation of its sweet crispiness. Opening the cardboard closure, then unrolling the inside bag, placing his bowl on the placemat before him and tipping the box to pour, watching the squares fall clinking into a stoneware concavity he anticipates the way the milk fills each tiny window of each small square hastening the unavoidable sogginess and prompting a measured haste in consumption. Halfway to full, the cereal squares are suddenly covered in a modern day pixie dust of settled cereal and sugar from the bottom of the package. "What? That's all there is?" runs through his mind, silently projected onto his lips. "I thought for sure that I had more Life."

Headlines. Who Writes Them?

2009-08-29T22:25:00.003-05:00

I have a passion about headlines. They are so regularly so bad that I'm pained pretty much any day I read a paper or browse a news website. Usually, I complain because they are stupid, needlessly inflammatory, or misleading. When they cross the line to poor grammar or vocabulary, I really get hot under the collar. Someone is getting paid to edit these things for crying out loud. They're almost always under ten words. I can see missing a bit here or there in an article, especially under pressure, but the headline?

E.G.

Latest abduction invokes Elizabeth Smart saga

NO, IT DOESN'T. It evokes that saga. Abductions cannot perform invocations. A little Latin would have helped someone catch this, a little more thought would have done the same.

Owe it to the Fields

2009-08-04T17:42:00.002-05:00

"We owe it to the fields that our houses will not be the inferiors of the virgin land they have replaced. We owe it to the worms and the trees that the buildings we cover them with will stand as promises of the highest and most intelligent kinds of happiness."

-Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness

Brief Book Review

2009-08-03T21:36:00.002-05:00

Thoughtful and well written, the book itself is in addition a physical delight in terms of size, paper quality, and illustrations. DeBotton justly selects the examples to accompany his text making what would be quite abstruse rather accessible even for those unfamiliar with architecture. The basic arguments are easy to follow, conversational in tone and supported with examples from both history and everyday life. Where the arguments get thin not much rests on them, so it seems a forgivable error. The main arguments seem easily justified and reveal what many would agree with, had they taken time to explore the ideas or the trouble to do the research. I checked the book out after seeing it in (500) Days of Summer and thought that it might be of tangential interest, but I enjoyed it independently of the movie tie in and am warmly recommending it to friends. De Botton combines well historic traditions of essayists and philosophers with contemporary non-fiction. His thoughts are worth taking seriously and his prose makes it easy to do so.

When you come to visit

2009-07-03T06:45:00.002-05:00

Now you know what to do when you come to visit. I've been in almost all the places in the slide show that accompanies the article. It's a bit surreal to see places you've stood pictured and talked about in the NY Times.

Independence Day

2009-06-30T16:40:00.002-05:00

We went to "the Midwest's largest fireworks display" on Sunday. They hold it a week early in a nod to both local shows that would be overwhelmed and the higher rate at which police services must be recompensated on a holiday. One of my favorite parts is the way in which the fireworks, especially when they fill the sky, look as if they are impossibly close. This effect is persistent even as I think through how far distant they must truly be.

In much the same way, I recognize how distant the founders of our country remain from my daily concerns and the assumptions and habits that support our daily life at present. Yet, all the same, this time of year they seem closer than they are. Watching the fireworks and standing for the anthem I feel the same issues that they wrestled with and left us to wrestle with, issues of freedom and responsibility, local and national power and interests, the pursuit of happiness and the ability to be happy, these issues feel as present as I imagine they were for the founders when they declared our independence and worked to make the ideals into a tangible structure that would support the people working to live out this independence.

Watching the fireworks, I'm tempted to think that it is an especially odd way to celebrate lofty ideals and an attempt to live a way of life that seemed to be more an artifact of thought than any historical reality. I can see the representative effect as we sing about rockets' red glare while rockets do indeed light up the sky and F-16s fly overhead; it felt like a battle briefly. But the indecorousness of the event is perhaps interpretable as fitting when we consider that it took a fairly severe thumbing of the nose at decorum to shrug off a monarchy that had been in place a long time and was considered fitting and natural by many of the founders' contemporaries. Perhaps a bit of indecorous behavior is just the thing.

Fireworks are the kind of loud, flashy, noisy display that put me in mind of being home, the years spent in smaller towns in the Midwest. The kind of rowdy behavior that is commonplace and occupies the time and finances of a lot of my childhood neighbors and friends. One of the oddities of living in a larger, more diverse community is that it is actually easier to separate oneself from certain segments of the population. If one wants to be especially effective at this, I can recommend taking up residence in a graduate housing complex. When the majority of your neighbors have at least a bachelor's degree and often have come from abroad to study in a top program, certain pattern's of behavior are largely non-existent. (This is not to say that there are no challenges, just that certain patterns often accompanied by a certain red tint on one's neck are not the challenges you're likely to face in living with your neighbors.) Not only does the firework show draw out the full range of humanity in our fair city, but getting to the park requires walking through a low-rent area. This is readily apparent not just by the quality of much of the housing, but also by the kinds of behavior one observes while passing through. I tend to keep one eye sharp for trouble while at the same time struggling to make out what it is I can or should do to help people. It also draws out my latent fears at being perceived as a rural naif, my concern that someone will discover that I don't belong in the city or among scholars. While I appreciate this opportunity to do some soul searching on a personal level, I also appreciate that it reminds me that our democracy is young, its ideals are still being worked out, and the the pursuit of freedom is not over when we are free from external interference alone. The struggle to be a free people takes place just as much in the hearts of those who have declared their independence. The fireworks serve as a reminder of what has been accomplished and a reminder of the work left to be done.

Adaptation

2009-06-18T16:23:00.003-05:00

"Only dead religions stay the same; living faiths adapt continuously to changes in their environments. There may be purity in the arena of ritual, but not in cultural and religious history, where believers are always negotiating with their environs, mixing and mingling the sacred and the profane. Even the process of translating scripture into a new language is a compromise of sorts; all efforts to tell the story of the Buddha or Confucius, Krishna or Jesus are themselves retellings of earlier tales. The Gospels of Luke and Matthew are based in part on the Gospel of Mark, and Paul's letters represent a radical reinterpretation of those texts - and extension of the aborning Christian movement beyond the limited confines of Judaism (and Jesus' own Aramaic-speaking community) to the Greek-speaking world."

-Stephen Prothero, American Jesus

Tea and Jesus

2009-06-17T18:35:00.003-05:00

So, I thought I'd use the tag I created last summer for book reviews. Summer provides me the opportunity to read a little more widely than I usually accomplish during the school year, which in turn increases the chance that I read anything that anyone else might enjoy.

First off, a listen in that I listened to the audiobook of Three Cups of Tea. Chances are you've already heard about it. I know the NY Times online was running banner ads for it for a while and it's made the bestseller lists and talk shows. In case you haven't, I'll add my recommendation to the long list.
Greg Mortenson quite literally stumbles into his life's mission when he wanders into a town near K2 which he had just failed to summit. He's taken with the villagers and starts working to build the children a school. What I found most surprising is that he did so much on his own and with great odds against him. I had initially assumed that he was a rich mountain climber who rounded up a few rich friends to take care of these children, but one of the best parts of the story is his struggle to make ends meet while working to gather the funds for people he loves but who are often ignored by their own government as well as international aid groups.

Another book I've read this summer is Stephen Prothero's American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon. I mentioned Prothero's Religious Literacy last summer and read another of his books earlier this year. He's a good writer, mixing well his story with his academic writing, a task that is not always well done. In American Jesus he does a particularly fine job of this, introducing themes and then reweaving them into the narrative when it is appropriate later in the book. Less about the figure of Jesus historically or theologically, the book focuses on interpretations and ideas about Jesus and is mostly an account of Americans and their response to one of the central figures of the American imagination. The book is structured around four tales of insider adjustments and four outsider adjustments that Prothero labels Resurrections and Reincarnations respectively.

The first section Resurrections (Enlightened Sage, Sweet Savior, Manly Redeemer, and Superstar) cover a linear story from Jefferson to the present, and I learned a lot about several figures I knew only vaguely. The parts covering Jesus People and the developments from their efforts evoked some nostalgia in my mind, though I think we were only loosely associated with any of this, some of the names and phenomena seemed familiar from childhood. This part of the book also gives Prothero a framework for talking about the approaches to Jesus that he puts to good use when discussing the less mainstream approaches, and as the focus shifts to different groups the mostly linear first part provides context for less well-known approaches.

The second section was in many ways more interesting to me, though that is not meant as any slander to the first part. The Reincarnations (Mormon Elder Brother, Black Moses, Rabbi, and Oriental Jesus) were less well known to me, but more than that the stories told provoked my empathy for the ways that these minority groups identified and reshaped the character of Jesus in ways that helped them adjust and triumph in an America that had little room for them. This is most striking in the chapter on black identity and its shift from slave days to civil rights. I felt triumphant with the preachers who claimed a black Jesus as a way of moving beyond just rejecting slaveholder Christianity to a way of highlighting the place of the downtrodden and the mission of Jesus to that people. Such a change does not come without tensions both inside the black community and with more mainstream religion but even this thension illustrates the importance of the figure of Jesus in these struggles.

I often hesistate to recommend academci books because the style is offputting to readers not doing research, but I think Prothero easily avoids such a style in this lucid account of one aspect of American religious history.

Rather Puzzling

2009-06-16T19:26:00.002-05:00

I thought this case of four men suing to have a book burned was rather odd. I understand finding a book offensive, I can even imagine cases where one might wish to see a book not in the teen section of a library (though it would take a pretty extreme case to convince me), but I can't see how you can claim that a book being in the library hurts you personally. Further, what does that have to do with burning it? As far as I know, the gentlemen in question could buy a copy (or several) and burn them in their own private book burning ceremony or host a public one in an appropriate venue. I can't see how they think they have a claim to a public book burning of the library's book. It seems that they want to use their first amendment rights of speech and assembly to restrict others' freedom of the press. Also, if they thought they had a legitimate case, they probably should have contacted the ACLU to get a larger, more experienced team on their side. I suspect their appeal to the CCLU reveals a suspicious lack of real precedent.

On further search, it looks like they may have run into problems with the ACLU and ALA on an earlier case. They should also hire someone to check their spelling. "Racial" can't be what they intended to say.

Through a Glass Darkly

2009-06-12T06:31:00.002-05:00

We are often in each day presented with mirrors in which we can see our own faces, our own character that we do not otherwise observe alone. Most of these opportunities come from interactions with other, and for many of us, the best mirrors are our children. I find how swift I am am to anger, how slow to serve, how lacking in compassion. Jon Kabat-Zinn calls children, especially young children, live-in Zen masters, forcing us to face the ways we live mindlessly rather than mindfully. Like Zen masters, these lessons are not always gentle reminders but often abrupt demands that we be mindful in our lives.

One of the difficulties in making the most of these opportunities is that it is rather easy to look in the mirror but not see what is there. I blame my children's behavior for my anger and think, "why can't they just do or not do that thing?" I focus on the mirror itself instead of seeing what the mirror presents. I confuse the raft with the shore, or the finger pointing for the object it points toward. Recognizing this, we can be attentive to these opportunities and see what it is we look at in the mirrors presented to us.

Thoughts on the Mahabharata

2009-05-27T02:17:00.006-05:00

I've been reading the Mahabharata for the first time. Several things have struck me about it both as a work of literature and as a part of a culture. One thing that stands out is the number of parallels between the Mahabharata and the Homeric epics. But beyond the parallels there is a striking contrast in the more clearly didactic nature of the work. I don't know if this is a result of more primitive compositions of the stories or of later redaction of the work as it was passed down, but the adventures have clearer moral lessons and there is often explicit debate about what the right thing to do is in a given context.

There's a lovely scene in the Vana Parva where a yaksha questions Yudhishthira about ethics. His four brothers have failed to listen to the voice of the yaksha and are lying on the ground dead for their disregard. Yudhishthira alone listens and answers the questions rather than drinking from the forest pool to quench his thirst. They go through a series of questions and Yudhishthira demonstrates his righteousness. The word consistently used for this moral uprightness in thought and action is Dharma. The word has a variety of subtle meanings and in a later Buddhist context tends to refer more to teachings of righteousness, such as the way it is used in the three refuges. But in the Mahabharata it is used mainly for the actual right character of the persons in the story.

When Yudhishthira manages to answer all the questions to the satisfaction of the yaksha, the yaksha praises him as the wisest and most righteous person in the world and grants him as a boon the life of one of his brothers. Yudhishthira demonstrates his adherence to Dharma here as well by asking for the life one of his youngest brothers although he sorely needs the elder two of the brothers. He does so because it honors his brother's mother, who he honors equally to his own birth mother. At this point he gets praised even more and when he presses the yaksha to reveal his form, the yaksha reveals himself to be Dharma, Yudhisthira's father.

What I think is most striking about the scene is the levels at work in the way Dharma is being incarnated. There is the deity who is the personification of Dharma as a concept or idea. He has in turn taken on a particular form so that there is both the realization of an abstract idea into a being who has taken on a particular body at the time. Then there is the incarnation of Dharma in the figure of his son, Yudhishthira. But this also takes place at two levels. Yudhishthira is a kshatriya and mortal because of his mother and thus is an incarnation of Dharma at that level. But he has also shown his adherence to dharma in the questions he answers and the actions he took in answering the questions instead of obeying his desires, in the boon he has asked, in the task that led him to the pool in the first place, and in his being in the forest during that extended period. This is where I think there is a surprising subtlety to the story. We have just read an extended set of questions on a moral theme and it seems like the didacticism may be taking a more central role that our literary sensibilities might judge well. But, in that very scene there is this (at least) four-fold realization or incarnation of Dharma, the subject that the questions are concerned with.

The scene ends with Yudhishthira's joyful fall at his father's feet and his declaration that he is satisfied in life, having met his father who he values above all both in the particular form of his father and the idea that his father is a realization of. He asks for one final boon, that he be granted victory over six of his deadly enemies (not the several he will soon have to fight in battle): lust, anger, avarice, possessiveness, arrogance, and envy. Dharma replies, " 'My child, there is not need to grant you something you already have! You have conquered these enemies long ago! Go, my children, and be happy. Your sufferings will soon be over. I am on your side. Where I am, there will Victory be.' " (trans. Kamala Subramaniam)

Welcomed Gentile

2009-04-10T19:51:00.002-05:00

I posted the Levi quotation the other day because I got to be the Gentile at a Passover seder. My friend Dan invited me to his home and I had thought of going. Then I learned that his wife had to leave town and he would have been alone, which he assures me makes reciting the haggadah a bit odd and it feels quite perfunctory. Instead I was able to share a meal with him and we exchanged questions, told stories, and both observed and altered tradition. It was an honor to be in his home and to be the guest at the meal. It was easy enough to be there since Dan and I agree on enough that there was none of the tension that often accompanies being an outsider, and it would be a stretch to call it an interfaith gathering. However, I see hope in our ability to dwell together and to honor the past without being bound to repeat mistakes of the past.

One of the best parts of the evening was hearing Dan talk about his time in Israel. He served in the army, worked on a kibbutz and studied at a yeshiva for a while. As we ended the haggadah with "Next year in Jerusalem" he told me about being in Jerusalem for holidays and his observations about observing Passover in Israel and in diaspora. We shared our experiences growing up in the Midwest, far from the middle East.

"Next year in virtue and justice."

Pesach

2009-04-08T08:22:00.001-05:00

"Tell me, how is this night different from all other nights? How, tell me, is this Passover different from other Passovers? Light the lamp, open the door wide so the pilgrim can come in, Gentile or Jew; Under the rags perhaps the prophet is concealed. Let him enter and sit down with us; Let him listen, drink, sing and celebrate Passover; Let him consume the bread of affliction, the Paschal Lamb, sweet mortar and bitter herbs. This is the night of differences in which you lean your elbow on the table, since the forbidden becomes prescribed, evil is translated into good. We spent the night recounting far-off events full of wonder, and because of all the wine, the mountains will skip like rams. Tonight they will exchange questions: The wise, the godless, the simple-minded, and the child. And time reverses its course, today flowing back into yesterday, like a river enclosed at its mouth. Each of us has been a slave in Egypt, soaked straw and clay with sweat, and crossed the sea dry-footed. You too, stranger. This year in fear and shame, next year in virtue and justice."

-Primo Levi

From the Liner Notes

2009-03-30T10:24:00.000-05:00

"Music is a weird and cosmic thing, its own strange religion for nonbelievers, and what a joy it is to make, in any form."

-Robin Pecknold

Hold Each Other

2009-03-27T08:33:00.001-05:00

"When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn't make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better. "It's all right" we whisper, "I'm here, I love you." and we lie: "I'll never leave you." For just a moment or two the darkness doesn't seem so bad."

-Neil Gaiman

If You have a Dad...Or even if you don't

2009-03-18T22:21:00.000-05:00

There's a site that Trent Gillis pointed out on the Speaking of Faith blog that I want to recommend highly. Days with My Father is the photo journal of a son and his 98 year old dad. Moving, gripping, I highly recommend spending a while to look at it. It will be worth your time.

Top O' the Mornin' to Ye!

2009-03-17T10:31:00.002-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Best Day of the Year.

Big Plans

2009-02-13T16:07:00.004-06:00

"So, do you have big plans for the weekend?"
"No."
....
"I'll do big things, but I hate to waste bigness on the plans themselves. I save it up for the doing rather than the planning."
"Aha."
"Why do you say 'aha'?"
"Well, after that bit of enlightenment, what else would I say?"
"It's just that I shouldn't waste my ha's like that if I were you. You should save them for laughing. If you discover something truly great, that deserves at least a 'Huzzah', 'Eureka', or 'Gadzooks'. But don't waste your effort on minor revelations."
"What do you say to mark smaller learning events, then?"
"I shouldn't say anything at all. Just be still and learn it all the way."

Happy Birthday, Gentlemen!

2009-02-12T07:09:00.000-06:00

Two hundred years! It works out nicely that The Origin of Species was first published in 1859 allowing Darwin's birthday and the sesquicentennial of his magnum opus to fall in the same year. Lincoln won his first presidential election in 1860, so his timing wasn't as good, but he was working in a more restrictive medium.

Still...

2009-02-09T20:07:00.001-06:00

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.

-Lao Tzu

Huzzahs for Neil

2009-01-26T13:58:00.002-06:00

Neil Gaiman won the Newberry Medal for The Graveyard Book. I had no idea that my book recommendations were so solid. One might enjoy reading his response blog post.

Hope

2009-01-20T19:24:00.003-06:00

I understood something today that I had not before. A fact about my own hope, my own heart, my perception of who we are as Americans. I did not live or was not aware of the problems of earlier presidencies. Nixon has never been more than a historical event in my mind. Thus, I grew up thinking that this was a great place to live and I was proud to be an American. Over time, I grew disaffected and began to think that perhaps it was inappropriate to commit allegiance to a state that was bound to be temporal. The lessons of nationalism's excesses led me to believe that patriotism was vanity if not an evil. Yet, through all this, I never experienced a radical isolation from our country such that I felt ashamed to be an American. Embarrassed at times but not ashamed. During the violations of dignity and freedom carried out during the last administration, violations carried out in the name of protecting our ideals, I became increasingly alienated. At the same time, I came to cherish the high ideals on which our country was founded, and learned to become patriotic again. This combination made the ongoing revelations of injustice increasingly more painful.

Today, watching Barack Obama deliver his inaugural address, I recognized what it was that I had not been able to describe before. Part of why I supported him in his campaign was that I trusted him. Trusted him in a way that allowed me to again be hopeful that we could, all of us, reclaim our ideals, reclaim the halls of power for those who would recognize it limits, and become again who we have always aimed to be. Hearing discussion of recent promises to close Guantanamo and to end the farce that passed for fair trial there and elsewhere under our auspices, combined with the images of our new president, I was overwhelmed.

In another way, today retained a bittersweet edge. For, now that he has taken office, I know that it is my duty as an American to watch closely for mistakes, for errors, for ways that any administration can go astray. It is not that my hope is diminished, but that the reality of hope brings with it new work and new challenges. The relief I feel today is tempered by the realization that no one human being will live up to our ideals. Perhaps no group of human beings can. But what we can do is strive to realize them as fully as we can. Given that, I am proud to be an American today, proud to call this my home, and eager to see what changes may come and to see us set our sights high again. After too many days of covering them in fear, to set our eyes on the prize and to renew our hope.

Signs, signs, everywhere the signs...

2009-01-08T08:06:00.005-06:00

Taking my son to the restroom yesterday, I asked him which we should enter. He suggested the one with a sign like the above. I asked if this was the restroom for those wearing pants and in wheelchairs. He insisted that it was the men's room. I asked whether I could still enter if I was wearing a kilt. This did not sit quite right with him, though he took the point that I would still be a man and should go into the men's room. Then, after a pause, he suggested that the sign indicated that one person could use the facilities while the other waited. This might seem odd to an adult user, but it accurately captures most of our visits.

Winter Growth

2009-01-06T13:20:00.003-06:00

Day after day, I face my mortality.
I look my limitations in the reflected face,
seeing there my frailty.

"Failure forces us to see ourselves,"
I almost said. But nothing can force us to see,
sight we must learn and apply by discipline.
Perhaps by sudden insight, yet not by force.

As I learn to fail, I learn who I am.
Not who I would be, not the successful man,
driven by the winds of success to be what is wanted.
But who I am and will be in any weather.

Day by day, I face my mortality.
I become who I am and let my self grow,
hoping to be ripe in time for the reaper's blade.

Fayez

2008-12-09T07:00:00.002-06:00

A touching story from NPR today. I recommend listening rather than reading, so that you can hear the emotion in the commentator's voice. His compassion for his friend is something we can all aspire to embody and the man he describes lived a beautiful testimony by uniting his words and actions as the proof of his faith.

Verbing the Google

2008-11-21T18:28:00.002-06:00

A little self reporting. Nothing inspiring. Sorry.

I've noticed that I'm completely comfortable with "googling" as a verb. I'm sure it is just the prevalence of this shorthand for searching something on google. I almost used "youtubed" today to talk about looking at a video on youtube. I'm a little less comfortable with this, though I think I've heard it used. I'm not at all comfortable with "amazoning" a book, though I've certainly never heard this used.

But why? Frequency? Ambiguity? It seems like "youtubing" could be ambiguous between posting and watching, so looking up and buying from Amazon doesn't seem to be a major problem. Is it just that we "google" all the time? Is this why shorthanding a noun by using it as a verb works with my ear for what we call this?

Ad Hoc

2008-10-25T13:50:00.002-05:00

Here's

a

really

long

but

mostly empty

post to move

that last one down

so that it doesn't

overlap the

sidebar too much.

New Obama Ad

2008-10-25T13:48:00.003-05:00

In case you, like me, don't see a lot of television. Here's the new 2 minute ad that the Obama campaign is releasing as an attempt to get beyond the back and forth attacks and to give answers to voters' questions.

Brilliant

2008-10-13T19:58:00.002-05:00

Sign reported on in Friday's Planet Money podcast. Great podcast, greater sign. The guy got twenty bucks for it the other day.

VP's on Parade

2008-10-05T08:59:00.003-05:00

Early on in the primary season, I had thought that John McCain seemed like one of the better Republican candidates, in part because of his reputation for independence. I certainly preferred him to Huckabee or Romney, though my reasons for preferring him to Romney faded the more McCain fell in lockstep with Republican dogma.

It was highly unlikely that I would ever have voted for him, but I thought that perhaps we would have had a reasonable choice between two strong candidates. For the last five weeks, any thought of this has disappeared. I dislike folksy speech of the kind given by Sarah Palin, but that alone would not have led me to think her a bad choice. It's what she expresses in her folksy speech that disturbs me.

I think that competence is important in a candidate standing for office and the higher the office the higher the standard of competence. That said, it's not even her readily apparent incompetence that disturbs me.

It's her discussion of Dick Cheney that sealed my concerns. I no longer think that she is a legitimate choice, even for Republicans/Conservatives. It is in the interest of all Americans that Palin and those who agree with her not be given authority. Her admiration for Cheney as a Vice President is, as far as I'm concerned, proof positive that she should not be elected. While Joe Biden has shown that he has a clear sense of the powers and limits of power that are given to the VP by the Constitution, Palin has described the Constitution as implying even greater powers to the VP. Joe Biden has explicitly rejected the Bush administration's interpretation of the unitary executive and has shown repeated knowledge of and concern to follow the Constitution. The justification of torture and extraordinary rendition (and sometimes without bothering to attempt justification) carried out under the current administration is criminal and an attack on the very ideal of who we are as Americans and as civilized Humans. Whatever other concerns I might have about Sarah Palin, this alone is sufficient to disqualify her for standing for high office.

Here's to the hope that we'll never find out what she might actually do if given the office.

Warner

2008-10-03T21:53:00.002-05:00

I thought Judith Warner's piece in the Times today was one of her better pieces of writing. I often like them, but this stood out to me.

Look! It's a widget.

2008-09-30T22:19:00.001-05:00

I posted a new widget for Neil Gaiman's new book, The Graveyard Book. It's out today. The audio sample also features a rendition of Danse Macabre as performed by Bela Fleck. Lots of fun.

Musings on a Friday Evening

2008-09-19T19:28:00.002-05:00

Deep, thought-provoking and insightful meditation on the nature of life and the universe.

There, now I feel I've done my duty.

Week Two Down

2008-09-12T20:19:00.001-05:00

School is still going pretty well. I gave my first quiz this week. No rioting yet.

And something both funny and revealing about fiscal conservatives.

Survival

2008-09-05T14:10:00.004-05:00

I survived my first week of leading discussion sections. I even enjoyed it quite a bit. My time as an undergraduate was one of the more enjoyable parts of my life and it is nice to take part in the experience of my students. The nice weather we're having today also helps everything seem rosy.

For some less than rosy food for thought, I offer this bit from Jon Stewart and the right.

Neverwhere for Free

2008-09-03T15:00:00.002-05:00

Neil Gaiman's book Neverwhere will be available for free in electric format for a limited time. See his blog for details. I'm working, so I'll just say that I liked it. It's relatively short. Much shorter than American Gods which was last offered for free.

Sunrise

2008-09-02T20:02:00.002-05:00

This morning the sun in its ascent looked as if sown into sheets of sky. Less rising from behind the horizon than tearing free of its cotton shroud. Beautiful and majestic it stood in the sky wreathed in its triumph, glowing from the effort of its escape.

New We ad

2008-08-28T14:29:00.000-05:00

The Possibilities of Love

2008-08-28T08:45:00.002-05:00

The great doubters and believers have been preoccupied with another great schism: the one between what human beings are and what we wish we were, what we do and what we understand. That we love, and that love, among other possibilities, brings forth life, is very strange. We cannot say it is inexplicable, and yet, when it happens (either true love, or conception, or both) we stand amazed. Love can drastically alter a rational person's worldview. The birth of a child can bring extraordinarily religious feelings - because it is such a good thing, but also because it makes no real sense. Where did this miniature human being come from? Technically, we made it out of nine months' worth of French toast, salad, and lamb chops. Technically, our bodies hold tiny little instructions for how to build human eyes, a language center in a human brain, and a human spirit - fussy, joyful, or otherwise. But how strange that such a thing as fussy exists and is created thusly.

-Jennifer Michael Hecht, Doubt: a History

Belief in Belief in God

2008-08-22T18:06:00.001-05:00

It is seldom remarked (though often observed in private, I daresay) that
many, many people who profess belief in God do not really act the way people who
believed in God would act; they act the way people would act who believed in
believing in God. That is, they manifestly think that believing in God is—would
be—a good thing, a state of mind to be encouraged, by example if possible, so
they defend belief-in-God with whatever rhetorical and political tools they can
muster. They ask for God’s help, but do not risk anything on receiving it, for
instance. They thank God for their blessings, but, following the principle that
God helps those who help themselves, they proceed with the major decisions of
their lives as if they were going it alone.

Those few individuals who clearly do act as if they believed in God, really
believed in God, are in striking contrast: the Christian Scientists who opt for
divine intervention over medical attention, for instance, or those who give all
their goods to one church or another in expectation of the Apocalypse, or those
who eagerly seek martyrdom.

Not wanting the contrast to be so stark, the believers in belief-in-God
respond with the doctrine that it is a sin (or at least a doctrinal error) to
count on God’s existence to have any particular effect. This has the nice effect
of making the behavior of a believer in belief-in-God and the behavior of a
believer in God so similar as to be all but indistinguishable.

-Daniel Dennett

The Warm Tomato

2008-08-11T22:47:00.002-05:00

The warmth that the sun had worked all day to put into the tomato slowly shone into my fingers as they grasped its tender flesh. The tomato's surrender to the sun and the soil that allowed it to ripen now became its surrender to our table. We welcomed the sun to our table through its child, the red fruit.

Before the News

2008-08-07T16:50:00.003-05:00

I awake before the news.
Before it tells me how things are in the world.
I awake and face the world,
The world unfazed by my perceptions,
The world without a volume control.

I peer into its reality; and it,
In turn, peers into me.
I am made small by a world too large for my arms.
A world that grows ever smaller,
Yet retains its own wild autonomy.

I envy the world its malleable borders
And how they blend with its rigid core reality.
And, in this act, I both envy and am joined with the world.
I gaze from both inside and out.
I gaze at a world outside me and find it
The very mirror of my soul.

I awake before the news.
I awake with the world.

The Thoughts of Akbar

2008-08-04T16:52:00.002-05:00

"Akbar forced his thoughts back onto their proper path. He was not a perfect man, that was a flatterer's phrase, and Abul Fazl's flatteries led him into what Mogor dell'Amore had called the webs of paradox. To elevate a man to near-divine status, and to allow him absolute power, while arguing that human beings and not gods were the masters of human destinies contained a contradiction that would not survive much examination. Besides, the evidence of the interference of faith in human affairs was scattered all around him. He had not been able to forget the suicide of the angel-voiced sisters Tana and Riri for whom death had been preferable to compromising their faith. He did not wish to be divine. If there had never been a God, the emperor thought, it might have been easier to work out what goodness was. This business of worship, of the abnegation of self in the face of the Almighty, was a distraction, a false trail. Wherever goodness lay, it did not lie in ritual, unthinking obeisance before a deity but rather, perhaps, in the slow, clumsy, error-strewn working out of an individual or collective path."

-Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence

A Timely Poem

2008-07-30T16:01:00.003-05:00

"A Man In His Life"

by Yehuda Amichai

A man doesn't have time in his life
to have time for everything.
He doesn't have seasons enough to have
a season for every purpose. Ecclesiastes
Was wrong about that.
A man needs to love and to hate at the same moment,
to laugh and cry with the same eyes,
with the same hands to throw stones and to gather them,
to make love in war and war in love.
And to hate and forgive and remember and forget,
to arrange and confuse, to eat and to digest
what history
takes years and years to do.

A man doesn't have time.
When he loses he seeks, when he finds he forgets,
when he forgets he loves, when he loves
he begins to forget.

And his soul is seasoned, his soul
is very professional.
Only his body remains forever
an amateur. It tries and it misses,
gets muddled, doesn't learn a thing,
drunk and blind in its pleasures
and its pains.

He will die as figs die in autumn,
Shriveled and full of himself and sweet,
the leaves growing dry on the ground,
the bare branches pointing to the place
where there's time for everything.

The Present Moment

2008-07-26T08:54:00.004-05:00

The Buddha was asked, "What do you and your disciples practice?" and he replied, "We sit, we walk, and we eat."

The questioner continued, "But sir, everyone sits, walks, and eats." The Buddha told him, "When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. When we eat, we know we are eating."

Most of the time, we are lost in the past or carried away by the future. When we are mindful, deeply in touch with the present moment, our understanding of what is going on deepens, and we begin to be filled with acceptance, joy, peace, and love.

-Thich Nhat Hanh, The Long Road Leads to Joy

The Paul Bunyan of Blasphemy

2008-07-22T15:51:00.002-05:00

A fine piece on Robert Ingersoll, a too little known 19th century American public figure. Learning about Ingersoll helps break the idea that things in politics have always been as they are now. An excerpt:

It seems American politicians scarcely think twice about sidling up to the religious fringe — Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama each has had the odd preacher in the attic. But, fearing the wrath of the righteous, they’d rather be struck by lightning than show a glimmer of respect for nonbelievers.

Not Much

2008-07-17T22:20:00.005-05:00

I don't have much to say at present. Summer is glorious, if a little hot at times. I'm reading a lot of interesting books right now but I won't bring any up at present. Just consider this your virtual hug for the day. Life is a precious opportunity. We do well to attempt to be fully present in every moment of our existence.

P.S. I went to see Rushdie. Standing room only. He read aloud from his new book and fielded questions. Then he signed my book.

Concerns About Obama

2008-07-04T08:52:00.002-05:00

I share most of these concerns about recent moves by Obama. That said, I'm not motivate to move towards McCain.

I think the more interesting question is how to handle disagreements. It is unlikely that we are ever going to agree with every decision a candidate makes or even every policy stand that she takes. I don't think that a person even in the highest office is going to set right what is wrong with the world or our country. I look less for someone to believe in than for someone to make principled choices and be willing to reassess them as changes in circumstance or information dictate the need for change. I still hold a great degree of hope that Obama can win and be an outstanding president. It would not be much of a challenge to do better than the current officeholder.

4th of July

2008-07-04T08:51:00.002-05:00

Happy Independence Day!

Right Speech

2008-07-01T21:40:00.003-05:00

"Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am determined to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy, and hope. I will not spread news that I do not know to be certain and will not criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the family or community to break. I am determined to make all efforts to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small."

-The Fourth Mindfulness Training, quoted in: Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching

Choosing the Life You Live

2008-06-27T17:19:00.004-05:00

We all risk being wrong about some of our most deeply entrenched beliefs and the treasured values that rest upon them. The kind of beliefs that we consider to be most central to our identity and the shape of our life could turn out to be false. It seems that this gives them a power to possibly deform our values. Some of us worry about this more than others, some seeming not to worry at all. Recognition of our fallibility should encourage a measure of humility and a degree of tolerance for others who disagree. (I am not saying that this makes all beliefs and values equally valid or equally likely to be true, just that we sometimes think we know things more surely than we actually do.)

I wonder if there is another opportunity, often overlooked, that affords us the chance to examine the way we put these beliefs and values into action as well as the results that our actions have in shaping who we are. I think it can be summed up in the following question: "Would I be willing to have lived my life this way even if I turn out to have been wrong about my fundamental beliefs?" Imagine defending your values in the event you are mistaken. For the Christian: What if there is no heaven? What if God is Allah and is upset that you failed to recognize his Prophet? What if Hindus are correct and you are reincarnated? How are you affecting your karma? For the Atheist: What if God demands an account? Can you justify the life you chose and the decisions you made? How are you affecting your karma? For the Buddhist: What if Jesus is not just a good teacher but a wrathful God? What if God wants to know why you did not keep kosher dietary laws? (actually on this last one, I think a lot of Buddhists would probably be kosher eaters)

Consider this a reformulated version of Pascal's Wager. Pascal's version is more sophisticate than is often understood but it still poses the question in terms of believe in God or don't believe in God. I'm querying beliefs in a range of directions. We don't believe in God in one generic way but in a variety of specific ways, many of them contradictory with one another. We don't disbelieve for one set of generic reasons but for any number of specific reasons. And whether we believe or disbelieve we shape our lives in a variety of specific ways based upon those beliefs that we do hold. Beliefs shape our identities but they are not a formula which makes everyone a cookie cutter version of some ______ist based in their choice of ______ism. What are you making of your life? How much are you counting on your metaphysical beliefs to turn out to be true? After all, you wager the one life you have on this set of beliefs.

Perhaps the most troubling question is, "If Anansi has tricked whoever was in charge out of their rule, how are we to avoid his tricks?"

Miscellany of Things I want to say

2008-06-22T19:39:00.003-05:00

I just listened to one of this week's To The Best of Our Knowledge. The program title, "Atheism and Its Critics", fits the first segment though not the second and third. (Having listened to several programs on this topic, I'll admit I thought it something of a relief. They covered most of the tired rhetoric in one section and an hour of the same old things would have been tiresome.) The second and third are other approaches to evaluating religion and assessing its goods and ills. It would have been more interesting to me to hear more of that brought into the discussion of the "New Atheists". Instead it was an opportunity for Dawkins to pontificate on religion and hear two theologians inveigh against him. The first seemed off topic and I don't know what Nietzsche and Camus he's been reading. The second comes off as a tool, unaware that his simplistic explanations don't come close to answering Dawkins' claims. In his favor, he does no worse at addressing moral realism without God than Dawkins does, so we shouldn't hold that against him in particular. That said, the second segment was interesting for its results and the approach to treatment of prisoners was laudable. The third segment was moving, and the rabbi seemed to express more sense on religion that any of the three atheism v. theism representatives. If there was something worth hearing in the Dawkins bit, it is that he sets out succinctly his problem with the story of Christ's redemptive death. This is not a deep treatment but the problem is serious enough and ties into my former post and Steve's comments on it there.

Now for a couple of audio book reviews.

I've finished Stephen Prothero's Religious Literacy. I think Prothero is easy to listen to and seems to have a genuine enthusiasm for his topic. The book does three major things, all done fairly well. 1. He examines American ignorance of religion, despite American devotion to religion, and gives a fascinating account of its roots. (Hint: its not the religious right's whipping boy of 1960's court rulings on separation of church and state.) 2. He makes a case for why religious literacy matters and how we might carry out a program of education to remedy our illiteracy. 3. He talks about religion and more accurately religions in an informed way and provides the basic information that allows one to understand a bit of what the various faiths represented in our country are about. It' more than just ethics.

I also finished The Universe in a Single Atom by the Dalai Lama, read by Richard Gere. What I found most enjoyable about this was the blend of personal stories and reflections with a thoughtful approach to the intersection of science and religion. While much of this would be limited to Buddhist approaches to religion, the approach to spirituality would, I think, work within a variety of traditions. It would be a decent introduction to Tibetan Buddhism as well as some issues in Physics, Consciousness, and Genetics. The sciences aren't covered in depth and there is a lot to Tibetan Buddhism that is not discussed but the discussions were informative and thought provoking. I enjoyed Gere's reading and he also talked a bit about his own interaction with the Dalai Lama in a very personal way.

Evolution and Sin

2008-06-15T08:42:00.005-05:00

The following quotation brought to you from a piece in the Times titled, "Darwinists for Jesus." Pertinent to the last post and thoughts on purity and impurity.

But Dowd’s preaching also draws on more contemporary scientific thinking. Central to his pitch about a “God-glorifying, Christ-edifying, Scripture-honoring way of thinking about evolution” is how findings from evolutionary psychology might help people overcome guilt about their immoral or unhealthful behaviors. “We live in a world today that is very different from the world that our instincts evolved to deal with,” he says. “We have cravings for sugar, salts and fats because for 99 percent of human history, we didn’t have easy access to those things.” Likewise, he says, addictions like sex and drugs are part of our inner proclivities. “Today we have a far more empirical way of talking about human nature than through stories like the original sin,” Dowd says.

I should be clear that I am not endorsing Dowd. It's not clear that his ideas are internally consistent, but its interesting and he draws criticism from both sides of the debate over evolution and Christianity.

Thinking About

2008-06-13T06:28:00.002-05:00

I read the initial piece mentioned in this commentary the day it came out. I wanted to say something about it then but didn't know what to say. I'm still thinking and need to pull my thoughts together. Warner uses a stronger tone than I would and I'm not committed to her conclusions. However, I think there's something deeply disturbing about the practices.

Book Review

2008-06-12T18:04:00.005-05:00

I recently finished listening to The Reluctant Mr. Darwin audiobook and wanted to mention it here. It gives an account of the period of development, writing, and repercussions of The Origin of Species. The book is quick paced and would, I think, be an attractive option for someone not interested in taking on Moore and Desmond's lengthy version or Browne's two volume biography. The author, David Quammen, has a good ear for narrative and also makes clear how elements of the story are particularly salient. He also does a good job of giving a quick and dirty account of natural selection and how evolutionary theory has changed. He manages this without spending too much time away from the main thrust of the narrative. One other feature that makes it worthwhile is the attention he gives to Alfred Russell Wallace, the co-discoverer of natural selection.

It seems fair to say that Quammen relishes the opportunity to get in some jabs at Intelligent Design proponents but I didn't notice that any were unfair. In fact, I would say its entirely appropriate, given the popular audience and whimsical tone of the book. He also gives special attention to the religious doubts Darwin had and in this area it seems that he perhaps favors giving a consistent picture over giving a complex account but I wouldn't say that he misrepresents the picture. One possible shortfall is due to the nature of the focus on the Origin: he leaves out mention of some of the late works which have retained some significance.

All things considered, I think it is an admirable work for brevity and wit. I would heartily recommend it to someone with a mild interest who might be put off by the longer secondary works or someone who just has limited time. The audiobook is well done, and though I didn't learn much new material I did find it a worthwhile listen and entertainingly told story.

Thoughts on the Sabbath

2008-06-09T19:58:00.004-05:00

I have been thinking about the passage from the Christian Bible that says, "The Sabbath is made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." I don't want to offer an interpretation, or exegesis of the passage. I have some thoughts inspired by this statement, and I don't want to claim that they are orthodox thoughts or that what I have been thinking is a clear unfolding of some principle there. So, with that grain of salt recommended, here's my thought.

I think that there's a lot of wisdom to be gained from the statement and the attitude it represents. What I often see, and it discourages me, is people whose religion (or perhaps more appropriately, whose interpretation of religion) has them in a stranglehold. Jesus seems to wave this all aside and set right side up the ordering of values. A religious teaching or even a system of religion should serve people, offering them some wisdom or peace or inspiration. What often happens is that we end up taking not wisdom but foolishness, not peace but worry, not inspiration but indignation.

The examples I have in mind are not clear cut and it is seldom clear exactly when someone is using religion or being used by religion, but I think that they can shed some light on the concerns that have set me thinking about the passage. I have been in situations where I made harsher statements of stricter judgments than I otherwise would have except that I felt it was the outworking of my religious convictions. Upon reflection, I feel ashamed of having done this, and in at least one case I know that I felt that it was wrong at the time but went ahead with it because it was "the right thing to do." Now, I have been since childhood a literalist and often find it challenging to ignore the literal but obviously wrong interpretation of people's statements. So, perhaps it was often the case that I justified my egotism or anger in religious terms and was indeed using religion for my own ignoble purposes. But, I think, at least once or twice, I was used. I do not mean that people used me, but that my own ideas used me. I thought that man was made for the Sabbath.

The other prime example in my mind is that of Fred Phelps and his protests of homosexuals as well as military funerals. The latter he holds to be justified because soldiers's deaths are God's judgment on us for not believing (and more importantly, acting) as he does. Clearly, this man has disordered priorities. I don't know enough about his background to make an educated guess about whether he was an angry bigot who found religion as an outlet or whether he was an otherwise compassionate person driven astray by his ideology. I think what is a clearer case is that of his followers. Surely some of them, especially if they grew up in his church, were lead to think that they are only doing what Jesus wants of them. In such a case, they are being taught that man was made for the Sabbath.

In interpreting the passage there are questions of how far we are to take Jesus' words and how much his divine status allowed him to make judgments of that sort. What I find helpful is to keep the idea in mind when considering how to interpret passages or practices of a religion. I would broaden the scope from Sabbath laws to religion generally and from Christianity in particular to religious belief (and ideology) broadly construed. When our religious beliefs and practices harm ourselves or others, it will often be helpful to ask, "For whom was this practice made?" If we find that it is the case that the practice was made for people, then perhaps we will more clearly see how it should be adjusted or even abandoned. This is not to reject religion or make it unimportant - such importance is manifest in the lives of billions - but to set it in the larger context of human beings and human suffering. What is often lauded for its ability to relieve suffering can too easily become another instrument to increase suffering. What is often lauded as a source of moral guidance can too easily become a source of morally narrowed vision. What is made for man can too readily become construed as that for which man was made.

I'll close with an example that I think serves to show a clear case of understanding how to make this work: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. One thing King did was to draw on the language of scripture and its power to inspire and transform and link that language and that power to a cause that liberated people. If scripture had been clearly in support of civil rights, then it seems that there must have been a long dense period in human history. In this dense period, people committed to the interpretation and preservation of those same texts that would later inspire Dr. King failed to see this obvious meaning. What I would propose as more likely is that as people realized that the system of racial division was broken and harmful, it became clear that religion as a source of inspiration and moral guidance could become part of a movement for change. In this case, where others had found justification for keeping slaves or for keeping races separate, a group of people found the way to transform the divisive and harmful elements of the institution into an instrument of unity. Building upon common faith, they worked for the common good. They understood that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man.

More Politics

2008-06-08T08:54:00.003-05:00

Reflections on Obama's victory and the differences between Obama on the one hand and McCain and Clinton on the other. In which weaknesses and strengths are highlighted and reasons given why the candidates under discussion might be better or worse. In which also, mere character assassination is avoided with preference given to actual reasons for praise and blame.

Holy Fatwas, Batman...

2008-06-07T15:05:00.002-05:00

Salman Rushdie is going to be doing a book signing and discussion at our local Borders, a mere five minute bike ride from my apartment. While I am fond of the Borders, I am still blown away that they are getting an author of Rushdie's stature and fame. I know where I intend to be on July 11.

History We Can Be Proud Of

2008-06-03T19:58:00.002-05:00

There are many great events and moments in American history, mixed with some terrible events and great failures. Surely, the Civil Rights Movement is one of our best moments and a great contribution to a culture of liberty around the world.

I would say that this is a historically significant event worth celebration as part of that movement:

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois prepared to claim the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night after The Associated Press said he had won a majority of delegates to the party’s summer convention. By doing so, he shattered a barrier more than two centuries old to become the first black candidate ever nominated by a major political party for the nation’s highest office.

You don't have to agree with his politics to appreciate that it is a great step forward for such to be the case. It is, of course, a moment built on many others both great and small. Cumulative progress.

On the other hand, if the other major candidate for that nomination had won, we would have seen another barrier broken. I hope it is not the case that one barrier was broken because the other was more repulsive to more people.

Upon Beholding the Image of a Snail

2008-06-01T20:01:00.002-05:00

Boy: Look, Daddy, it's a slug.

Dad: That's a snail.

Boy: Oh.

Boy: I think it's a slug that's trying on a snail's shell.

Greatest of all Adventure Stories

2008-06-01T09:50:00.001-05:00

Good piece in the Times.

Quotation:

Science is the greatest of all adventure stories, one that’s been unfolding for thousands of years as we have sought to understand ourselves and our surroundings. Science needs to be taught to the young and communicated to the mature in a manner that captures this drama. We must embark on a cultural shift that places science in its rightful place alongside music, art and literature as an indispensable part of what makes life worth living.

End of Semester Two

2008-05-17T07:45:00.002-05:00

I've handed in all my papers, and have taken my one final exam. I did well in the undergraduate course I took and am waiting to hear about the two graduate seminars. It's a big relief to be finished and summer is a welcome break.

I mean nothing says relaxation like a forty hour job this summer. But, it is a little less pressure, so I am glad for the opportunity to do some manual labor and not have to think through complex arguments just to get my work done.

Now it's just a matter of waiting to hear if I did well enough to make it back for a second year of grad school...

Overturning

2008-05-16T08:25:00.002-05:00

Insofar as government is involved in marriages, it seems that it would be for the protection and recognition of the relationships formed by its citizens. Recognizing that certain privileges, such as access to a loved one in the hospital, are often restricted to legally recognized family bonds it seems that there is reason to have some principle by which the substantive relationship the people form are given legal recognition.

Given that: Hooray for California

A couple of interesting comments from the piece I linked:

“The right to marry,” Chief Justice George wrote, “represents the right of an individual to establish a legally recognized family with a person of one’s choice and, as such, is of fundamental significance both to society and to the individual.”
Chief Justice George conceded that “as an historical matter in this state marriage has always been restricted to a union between a man and a woman.” But “tradition alone,” he continued, does not justify the denial of a fundamental constitutional right. Bans on interracial marriage were, he wrote, sanctioned by the state for many years.

I think this makes clear why the court made the decision they did and why such a decision was justified.

From the opposition:

“The court was wrong from top to bottom on this one,” said Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage. “The court brushed aside the entire history and meaning of marriage in our tradition.”

How could a court possibly brush aside the entire history and meaning of marriage? What is the meaning of marriage that they swept aside?

Ba, Ga, Da

2008-05-14T18:34:00.001-05:00

You've got to see and hear this to believe it. 60-Second Pscyh was about the McGurk effect. The information is old but I was unaware of it and it is surprising to hear the effect of visual stimuli on our auditory perception.

Sub-Prime Radio

2008-05-12T19:07:00.002-05:00

This American Life and NPR put together an episode of This American Life that explains the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Generally, I don't find accounting interesting but I thought this explanation of what was going on was fascinating. Plus, I had been wondering what the crisis was all about.

Airplane Insurance and Superstition

2008-05-06T08:17:00.002-05:00

Worthwhile piece from the NY Times Science section. We are generally bad at assessing probabilities and will reliably make certain mistakes. This piece talks a bit about that and the instincts that lead us to make the mistakes.

New Post

2008-05-05T22:13:00.002-05:00

I sometimes check my blog to see if there's anything new. Then I realize that it would be a little creepy to find something new.

I'm not sure what it says about our country that a politician can't afford to be honest and straightforward in what they say and at the same time can't afford to appear to be anything less than honest and straightforward in what they say. Whatever it says about the state of our democracy, I doubt that its a very nice thing to say.

Books, Writers

2008-04-27T20:08:00.002-05:00

To the Best of Our Knowledge had a program on writers today. They spoke with Khaled Hosseini about The Kite Runner and about Afghanistan. I've recommended his book to friends before and would do so again. They also talked to others about Lolita, its infamy and greatness. One of the people they spoke with taught the book in the university at Tehran, Iran. Her juxtaposition of Nabokov's flight from totalitarianism and her teaching of his book under a different regime is informative. I've spoken of Lolita before and the narrator's repulsive character. I think the discussion on TTBOOK was pretty good in that direction of setting out why a morally repulsive character can be worth reading about.

Interesting Bit

2008-04-26T09:29:00.001-05:00

Here's a piece on religious discrimination in the military. It could have been a better piece if they had more information but the twist in the general perception of discrimination is interesting.

Papers

2008-04-24T19:42:00.002-05:00

Papers and the work I should be doing on them are keeping me pretty occupied at present. Have had many thoughts. Have not made them into writings.

I'll leave some other words here, then:

Close your eyes,
Have no fear,
The monsters gone,
He's on the run and your daddy's here,

Beautiful,
Beautiful, beautiful,
Beautiful Boy,

Before you go to sleep,
Say a little prayer,
Every day in every way,
It's getting better and better,

Beautiful,
Beautiful, beautiful,
Beautiful Boy,

Out on the ocean sailing away,
I can hardly wait,
To see you to come of age,
But I guess we'll both,
Just have to be patient,
Yes it's a long way to go,
But in the meantime,

Before you cross the street,
Take my hand,
Life is just what happens to you,
While your busy making other plans,

Beautiful,
Beautiful, beautiful,
Beautiful Boy,
Darling,
Darling,
Darling Sean.

-"Beautiful Boy", John Lennon

Spring's Return

2008-04-21T18:47:00.008-05:00

Spring had returned, and with it she had returned to the playground below his landing. She lived somewhere down the way, he thought in the 300s as that was near where he had seen her unloading groceries that day last fall.

It wasn't just that she bent over frequently, though that did nothing to lessen his desire to stay, but it was the way she laughed with her daughter as she pushed the swing. It was the laughter that kept him longer each evening just as the sun lingered later. As if he too wanted to see that smile, hear that laugh.

At the same time that laughter was the thing that scared him most. Had he ever laughed like that? That innocently? So full of wonder?

If so, the memory had died and he'd survived it with only the comfort of its bitter relatives. Memories he'd sooner forget. If you don't remember the laughter, can you keep it safe for another?

Worry over this unknown kept him from descending from his landing even as hope for the answer he wanted to be true kept him from going inside. Each night, this wrestling match between hope and doubt found him ringside in the fading light and their vehemence added to the bite of the winter wind as it tried to keep its hold on the spring air.

They wrestled like Jacob and God on the banks of Jabbok. He wished like hell he knew which one was Jacob and which was God. Either way, Jacob wouldn't get away without a limp, so he knew his hope would always be a cripple but also that his doubts would always be imperfect, carrying a mark of hope in their hobble. The pattern he was well acquainted with but from his vantage he couldn't see who was holding on to whom and couldn't guess the final outcome with anything like certainty.

Soon enough, it was dark. She took her girl and went home and he sat there, knowing it couldn't last forever. By the end of summer, he'd be moving and his opportunity would be gone. He was hoping the opportunity wouldn't wave farewell with him still on the landing. He hoped he'd find the courage to run to greet it long before then.

To Defend Their Love

2008-04-16T17:14:00.005-05:00

"I'm done for," Boonyi thought. "They're going to pack me off to that bastard sitting like a cold fish by the river, waiting to have me handed over on a plate - me, Boonyi Kaul, whom he could never otherwise have won."

She was wrong. Abdullah Noman the sarpanch spoke first, followed by Pyarelal, and the other three members of the panchayat, Big Man Misri the carpenter, Sharga the singer, and the frail old dancing master Habib Joo, also made brief remarks, and their verdict was unanimous. The lovers were their children and must be supported. Their behavior was worthy of the strongest censure - it had been licentious and rash and filled with improprieties that were a disappointment to their parents - but they were good children, as everybody knew. Abdullah then mentioned Kashmiriyat, Kashmiriness, the belief that at the heart of Kashmiri culture there was a common bond that transcended all other differences. Most bhand villages were Muslim but Pachigam was a mixture, with families of pandit background, the Kauls, the Misris, and the baritone singer's long-nosed kin - sharga being a local nickname for the nasally elongated - and even one family of dancing Jews. "So we have not only Kashmiriness to protect but Pachigaminess as well. We are all brothers and sisters here," said Abdullah. "There is no Hindu-Muslim issue. Two Kashmiri - two Pachigami - youngsters wish to marry, that's all. A love match is acceptable to both families and so a marriage there will be; both Hindu and Muslim customs will be observed." Pyarelal added, when his turn came, "To defend their love is to defend what is finest in ourselves."

-Salman Rushdie, Shalimar the Clown

Dirty Books

2008-04-15T10:41:00.001-05:00

"The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book."

-Walt Whitman, after Emerson suggested he tone down the language of his poems

Conversation

2008-04-14T17:52:00.002-05:00

Me: I can't wrestle right now, I feel poorly.

Boy: No you don't.

Me: How could you possibly know how I feel.

Boy: But we have food.

Me: ??? What???

Boy: We aren't poor. We have food.

Garden Fairies

2008-03-31T10:29:00.001-05:00

Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

-Douglas Adams

More to come on this, I'll just leave you with the idea for now.

Battleground God

2008-03-27T14:32:00.002-05:00

I recently came upon this interesting game. It tests for consistency and bullet biting in one's beliefs about God. It is not a test for theism or against it, and starting as a theist, atheist, or agnostic one can progress through the whole game unscathed. Consistency is a check of how your belief cohere with one another, so if you believe A and not A, then your beliefs are inconsistent. Bullet biting is accepting absurd or repugnant conclusions. For instance, you can be consistent in your belief but they imply that rape is morally acceptable. This is generally considered a problem.

No Reason?

2008-03-26T10:53:00.004-05:00

A Wisconsin couple allowed their 11 year-old child to die from diabetic ketoacidosis, because they were praying for a miracle and thought that it would be better to pray and not take her to the hospital. They attribute her death to their lack of faith, though the mother has expressed her belief that the child could be resurrected. Meanwhile, the police chief says that there is no reason to remove her three siblings from the home, as there are no signs of abuse in the home.

I can't imagine that it was their faith that was lacking. And while I would allow that there may be no signs of abuse, there is a clear sign of neglect. Watching your child die when a clear medical solution is available seems like a clear sign of neglect. Further, parents who can watch their child die slowly without availing themselves of resources they were aware of seems like a clear sign of incompetence. If there are no signs of abuse, it is because none of the other children are suffering a life-threatening illness at present. Clearly, not too long ago there were signs of abuse.

Praying for your children is not abuse. Believing that they could be resurrected is not abuse. Blaming your lack of faith for a problem with your children might be self-abuse, but does not seem like child abuse. But letting your child die for your beliefs is clearly beyond the pale. It is cases like this where I think our current principles of non-interference by government is misguided. Freedom of religion does not entail freedom from common sense but we seem to have trouble drawing the line. I'm certainly not an advocate of restricting belief but we should restrict actions and in cases like this, inactions.

The article mentions that they did not belong to a church but a small bible study group in their home. This is a case where I wonder if belonging to an organized religion might have helped, provided that most pastors would surely counsel taking your child to the hospital. I'm not assigning blame to their small group ways, but at least being mainstream seems to mollify some of the side affects of individual irresponsibility.

While my parents would always pray for me first, I'm certainly glad that they did not think that prayer and hospitals were mutually exclusive. I'm angry at the parents and angry about the ideology that led them to that place. Given that my parents believed firmly in prayer and miracles, I wonder if this is a place where the distinction between belief/religion and ideology could be teased out. When religion leads you to deny common sense and well established facts at the cost of others well-being, it becomes ideology. What do you think?

Llewelyn

2008-03-25T22:25:00.003-05:00

He opened the drawer and took the .45 out and ejected the clip and checked it and put it back and put the pistol in his belt. He turned and looked at her.

I'm fixin to go do somethin dumbern hell but I'm goin anyways. If I dont come back tell Mother I love her.

Your mother's dead Llewelyn.

Well I'll tell her myself then.

- No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy

Web Goodies

2008-03-23T17:05:00.004-05:00

I thought I would mention a couple of things available on the Web that I enjoy, though I enjoy one of them primarily through the radio, but I'm not sure how many places it is broadcast. That show is To the Best of Our Knowledge, it is a production of Wisconsin Public Radio. They usually have interesting topics and good interviews. The recent one on interfaith dialog was gripping and focused on both historical and personal stories. They had one a while back called "From Electrons to Enlightenment" and was a five parts series on religion and science. Two weeks ago (or so) they had one on language and in recent weeks one on consciousness. The website makes them available for a time as streaming audio and they offer a podcast, though it is only 20 minutes and so by necessity misses some of the more interesting bits.

The other is a set of two podcasts, Philosophy Bites and Ethics Bites (I get them through iTunes). These are brief (about 20 minutes) discussions on a philosophical topic. The ones I have heard are pretty good and as part of this evaluation I was pleased when the interviewer pushed an author on a concept that seemed a little fishy to me as well. The kind of philosophy discussed is the kind I am working on and thus avoids some of the ambiguity in the term (such as when people will think I know something about Deconstruction or Buddhism). The ethics is applied ethics, so that is not my favorite but I think they do a good job discussing the concepts, and it is the kind of thing that undergraduates (not philosophy majors) like most in Ethics courses, so it has potential to be of general interest. Their podcast is free and Philosophy Bites has a goodly amount of back episodes available for perusal and download if the most recent topic doesn't grab you.

The Resurrection of Love

2008-03-23T12:04:00.003-05:00

Nevertheless, no matter how much they killed themselves with work, no matter how much money they eked out, and no matter how many schemes they thought of, their guardian angels were asleep with fatigue while they put in coins and took them out trying to get just enough to live with. During the waking hours when the accounts were bad, they wondered what had happened in the world for the animals not to breed with the same drive as before, why money slipped through their fingers, and why people who a short time before had burned rolls of bills in the carousing considered it highway robbery to charge twelve cents for a raffle of six hens. Aureliano Segundo thought without saying so that the evil was not in the world but in some hidden place in the mysterious heart of Petra Cotes, where something had happened during the deluge that had turned the animals sterile and made money scarce. Intrigued by that enigma, he dug so deeply into her sentiments that in search of interest he found love, because by trying to make her love him he ended up falling in love with her. Petra Cotes, for her part, loved him more and more as she felt his love increasing, and that was how in the ripeness of autumn she began to believe once more in the youthful superstition that poverty was the servitude of love. Both looked back then on the wild revelry, the gaudy wealth, and the unbridled fornication as an annoyance and they lamented that it had cost them so much of their lives to find the paradise of shared solitude. Madly in love after so many years of sterile complicity, they enjoyed the miracle of loving each other as much at the table as in bed, and they grew to be so happy that even when they were two worn-out old people they kept on blooming like little children and playing together like dogs.

-from One Hundred Years of Solitude,
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Obama on Race in America

2008-03-18T21:42:00.004-05:00

Barack Obama gave a speech today to address the recent controversy over comments from his pastor. He took the opportunity to discuss race in America more generally, and I thought it one of the more moving but also well-balanced discussions I have heard. I've linked a page with the video and transcript and I'll quote from his speech. Having discussed the option of taking race as a spectacle as has been done before and then he said:

Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

EDIT: The Times had an editorial that gives a good overview, if you need a short summary. The actual speech is a little long, so you may need to set aside time if you want to watch the whole thing. I would recommend doing so, whether you support him or not.

Contentment

2008-03-13T18:17:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking about what Matt said recently on his blog and trying to figure out what I think. I'm quite sure that he's right that killing yourself at a job just to make it to the top is a futile enterprise. One the other hand, I'm surrounded by people who put in long hours at their academic work not to make it to the top (at least not wholly, ambition is certainly there) and so I wonder about the value of giving a significant part of your energy and resources to a cause you believe in, and hopefully also enjoy.

In this category, I would also consider people who work as real civil servants or aid workers. The kind of politicians not in it for the power and fame or the kind of person who disappears from public view in the inner city or in a destitute foreign country. Many of these projects will never succeed. They may be worthwhile anyway, that is, intrinsically valuable. But how do we balance this.

I wonder if contentment is a way to resolve this. So, there is a kind of striving and working for a goal. The kind of hard work that sometimes is very stressful and makes one pull out one's hair or despair of ever being the kind of person one wants to be. Perhaps contentment can help even out the kind of highs and lows that come from any kind of extended effort toward a goal. Just a thought.

It comes to mind, as I write, that there is a yoga video that talks about this. I usually roll my eyes when they give esoteric advice but this one tip helps in the actual exercise and is one of the reason I like yoga in that it is both active and very relaxing. The instructors talks about striving to reach into the poses yet doing so without focusing on attainment of goals. So, breaking out of an old routine or limitation yet not worrying about getting to a somewhere someday but instead living in the moment and being awake in the time that we have.

On Unbelief

2008-03-11T22:50:00.002-05:00

I went to see Richard Dawkins at the Memorial Union Theater tonight. Tickets were free and he is one of the most famousest of hobbits I've ever seen. It was all a bit underwhelming. He was talking about his book, The God Delusion, which I've read and listened to him and his wife read. So, it was mostly stuff I've heard with p0werpoint slides. The questions were ones similar to what I've heard put to him before on the radio or podcasts. Oh well, I got to meet some of my friends' friends when I ate dinner with them before the talk, so that was good. Also, I do think the topic of God's existence is worth talking about and Richard is interested in truth and reason in a way that is closer to the values of many of the religious people I've known. And he's certainly not the monster I had imagined when all I knew of him was that he had the chutzpah to deny that God exists, actually hearing his voice the first time took a lot of the force of that away. I just think I would have preferred a talk on The Ancestor's Tale which I've also read and which is fascinating. The God Delusion is a decent popular level discussion of religion, but not that great. The Ancestor's Tale is full of amazing stories and things I was vastly unfamiliar with. The Blind Watchmaker would have been good, too or Unweaving the Rainbow, the bit he read from that to close was my favorite bit of the night, very moving stuff.

On a related note, one of my professors blogged a bit about respecting believers that I thought pretty decent stuff and certainly less offensive that Dawkins. I'm not sure about all of it, but its an interesting take.

And a bit of Unweaving the Rainbow, for the road:

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.

Progressive and Liberal

2008-03-03T12:00:00.001-06:00

To be liberal is in a sense to be a conservative - it means, to a large extent, wanting to go back to being a middle-class society. To be a progressive, however, clearly implies wanting to move forward. This may sound like a contradiction, but it isn't. Advancing the traditional goals of liberalism requires new policies. ...

If the new progressive movement succeeds, the need for partisanship will eventually diminish. In the 1950s you could support Social Security and unions and yet still vote for Eisenhower in good conscience, because the Republican Party had eventually (and temporarily) accepted the New Deal's achievements. In the long run we can hope for a return to that kind of politics: two reasonable parties that accept all that is best in our country but compete over their ability to deliver a decent life to all Americans, and keep each other honest.

For now, being an active liberal means being a progressive, and being a progressive means being partisan. But the end goal isn't one-party rule. It's the reestablishment of a truly vital, competitive democracy. Because in the end, democracy is what being a liberal is all about.

-Paul Krugman

Love Child

2008-03-01T13:00:00.006-06:00

I woke the other morning and found my hair like this:

Wondering what had happened, I came to this realization: I am the love child of Wolverine and Conan O'Brien.

I can't tell you how pleased this makes me:

Worth Reading....Maybe Important Reading

2008-02-29T13:54:00.002-06:00

There's a piece from the New York Times Magazine from a few years ago that I have heard bits and pieces of before. I just ran across another quotation from it today and looked up the original. I'll be spending a little time with it soon to read the full article but I'll leave you with this gem mined from the author's conversation with an aide to the Bush administration:

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''