I guess. . .

I just put down the phone from multiple calls with one of our sons. He is at school and the battery is dead on the car he is driving. Besides being beat up cosmetically, this car is very reliable. It surprised me a bit. I offered to drive to Visalia, 15 miles, if I could get the truck started. I couldn't. His mother, M, is in Fresno taking her mother to the doctor and is coming through Visalia. He said she is coming later, he would walk to grandma's and wait for her. I made a few more offers and each time he said it was okay, he'd go to grandma's.

I'm a bit nonplussed about this. I'm so used to dropping things to go help others that when I was told I was unneeded, he would deal with it, I didn't know how to react. Then I thought. Thank you, God. With Your guidance, we have raised independent children that don't pitch a fit when they are inconvenienced.


Addendum: Twenty minutes after the last phone call, our son called and said he got the car running; he'll be home soon. Thank you, God, again.

Cheerios

It's mid-afternoon and the temperature is 96 and going up. I'm still thinking about the Cheerios I ate for breakfast. What a life I lead. I don't usually eat cereal for breakfast. A bagel, toast, something along that line. If M cooks I'll eat just about anything. I used to be the pancake and waffle king in our house, but in the last few years, or decade, the children have grown up and they fend for themselves. It was the teach them how to live on their own theory, or I'm too tired to make waffles malaise. They have all become good cooks and will do so at the drop of a hat.

I also don't use or drink much milk. As a boy I tried to emulate my father. He milked cows before school, so he learned to dislike milk. So another reason for not much cold cereal. But this morning Cheerios was the choice. Sugar encrusted Shreaded Wheat didn't sound appetizing. Cheerios it was.

What a treat! Simple, unadorned, good for you and tastes like seeing an old friend. Why do we run to new things when we have what we need already in front of us? Why do we need that new pair of shoes? The new car. The new house. The new spouse.

Simple, unadorned and good for you. The Bible. Why do I resist.

More Fireworks

For those of you living in the forgotten corners of this country or others, you have to relish the victory of the Fresno State Bulldogs and their National Championship in baseball. We live nearby, know parents of a player and the unifying of this valley was wonderful to observe. Maureen did a better job than I can, so go here for her post. Seeded number 89, ends up National Champion. Do you wonder why baseball is so great?

My summer school English class watched Independence Day recently. Actually a friend substituting outlined the character parts and showed the first part of the movie one day. I returned to find the notes on the board and reinforced them the next day and finished the movie. After watching the movie, I did the obligatory English teacher thing of discussion, and having students recite all of the dictionary definitions of independence; I was struck by an off kilter thought about this film that somewhat fits with the theme of my previous post.

In the movie the president makes an impassioned speech before the last battle about the new meaning of Independence Day, 4 July. It will symbolize independence of the entire world, not just the US. When I saw the movie for the first time, the audience stood and cheered at the end of the movie. There were many smiles as we walked out. People showing great character in a great conflict against an overwhelming opponent, while overcoming obstacles from those on their side. The result is independence for the people. But are they really independent?

Those people walking out of the theater and myself, are we acting as if we are independent? That day in front of my class an allegory collided with my brain. If we are the global economy that is spoken of often, who are the aliens? They devour one planet after another; they have been on Earth for decades; they have no concern for the inhabitants; they are corporations. Politicians, like the career bureaucrat who hid Area 51 from the president, are only concerned with maintaining their station in the food chain. Technology used incorrectly, by the aliens, destroys us. Technology used correctly by, the outcast nerd (Jeff Goldblum), the outcast drunk (RandyQuaid), and the disenfranchised military hero (Will Smith), saves the day. They all took the Hero's Journey and acted with character and independence.

Do we have the character to act independently to overcome our alien?

A Modest Proposal

Recently there have been some proposals about some things of interest to me. The good Gov proposed just yesterday to not buy or use fireworks. The state is on fire, fire crews are stretched to the limits, my brother and sister in law in Napa were near enough a fire to see the helicopters and Borade bombers fly by dropping their loads. Not a bad idea to stop setting fires when Nature is doing a pretty good job right now.

Many proposals have come out on the Oil/Gas price problem. Here is mine. On the 4th of July and those days near it, do not drive nor purchase gasoline or diesel. Make Independence Day mean something--be independent. How many things can you do where you are without having to drive somewhere? Watch the people around you. Walk downtown or around the block. How about just getting to know your family and neighbors? "Hello, my name is John Q and I think I live across the street."

That would be a true Independence Day.

Character. To Be, or Not. . .

This pizza is being baked in a wood fired pizza oven that a colleague and her husband have in their backyard. The husband, Ed, and I have talked much about its construction and capabilities. I desire to build one of these.

The book I'm wading through, Lila by Robert Pirsig, has got me thinking about our culture. The subtitle is An Inquiry Into Morals. That is what caught my eye after the author's name. I've been wondering about why some people do what they do and how they justify their actions. The last chapter I finished, 21, was about the Victorian philosophy of intellect being subordinate to society. According to Pirsig, the question the Victorians asked was, "Would society approve?" The Victorians had a definite idea of right and wrong. Their idea of God is one of a gracious gentleman. So their pursuit was to be the same, strive to be a gracious gentleman. Strive to become what a human would and could achieve, gentle and gracious. Anything else is inferior. Poverty, Native Americans, the Wild West, sex, anything that didn't fit within the social value of society first. That created a static society that was resistant to change and tried to force everyone into the same box. That view also led to the first World War and sent millions of young men to their death. While the Victorians wanted to remain static, someone else was dynamically figuring how to kill people faster. Peter Weir made a movie about Gallipoli with Mel Gibson that showed part of the horror of WWI.

After WWI people realized that the Victorian ideal of society wasn't working. While the robber barons lived well, many did not. People used their intellect to question why we do things the way we do and they started changing society to fit their new intellectual ideal. There was no Victorian sense of right or wrong. Things were judged on if they worked or didn't work. Think of the Lost Generation, Communism, Socialism. But my question, and Pirsig hasn't answered it yet, if we question why and how we do something and are dynamically changing to fit in the new, where do we stop questioning and changing? Don't we reach a point that we are changing just to change? Do we just keep changing until we find something that feels correct and good? How do standards, morals, ethics, and ideals fit into a value system that thinks change is the ideal? Where does human character fit into this mix?

Seems to me that both groups had/have it wrong. The Victorians took something like the Bible and made it so strictly interpreted and enforced, that no one could follow the rules. The Intellectualists looked at the Bible as a Victorian construct that should be thrown out because "I will continue to look for what makes sense to me" is the new ideal. Anything goes. In Every arena. We have been living more than 80 years in this new ideal of, "if it feels good, do it." Do whatever you want, and to the degree you want to do it. The phrase was coined in the Sixties, but the feeling has been with humanity forever and became prominent in the 1920's. Human-given license to do what we want.

Aren't we all looking for the ideal that will allow for the most beneficial experience for humans? Maybe the Bible isn't something that should be used to beat humans over the head with, nor something to be avoided as antiquated and obsolete. Maybe the Bible is a guidebook given to us by a Superior being, God, that show humans how to live in the most beneficial way, down the most beneficial path. Maybe living this life, following this guidebook is living a life of character. Maybe living a life of character is what is most beneficial for humans.

No maybe.

Stole this. Unashamedly.

After watching this you will see why. Thank you, Brad.

Jimmy Dugan

Life is HARD. Scott Peck says, "Life is Difficult."
Why do we not accept this and then live.

Too Much, or Know When You're I-Gnorant

I teach summer school. The students I teach are repeating a class they have failed. This is a chance for them to make up the class so they can graduate on time, or at least have the chance to graduate. Not all of the classes on campus are like this, but most. Each day is roughly the equivalent of a week of regular school. Not good in most cases because there is no real way to cover a week's work in one 6.5 hour day, but in a repeat class it's not too bad. You are allowed to miss three days before you are dropped, or should we say three "weeks."

There is another summer class that is semi-notorious. It is a class that is actually taken in place of a "regular" class during the year. Six weeks to replace 18. In US History. Do you ever wonder why young people don't know things? The summer class is full partly because the teacher that teaches it during the regular is difficult. The school justifies the shortened summer class by saying they would have to hire another history teacher if the class wasn't offered in the summer.

I just heard a story. Some of the students are going to miss this US History summer class to go to golf camp. The last three days of the class. Finals of this class that is a class they're taking because they can't handle a teacher that makes them work. I wonder if they will complain if their grade goes down. I wonder if by some chance they have to be tardy to a class and the three days in Pebble Beach means they get zero credit for the class and an F on their transcript.

Maybe justice will happen instead of feces.

Borrowed, Or Stolen?

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."— John Stuart Mill

I saw this on my wife's blog and as usual it made me think of the human condition. Too bad we don't have more people worried about others. We need more people like Atticus Finch, Dr. Paul Brand, . . . you and me?