American Graffiti

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Seventy years ago today, Mount Rushmore was completed. I tried to imagine what people hundreds or thousands of years from now will think of the faces carved into the stone. Today at the bank, a woman didn't know who John Hancock was or the reference when I signed some paperwork. What would Lewis and Clark have thought to find something like that carved into the mountain as they explored?

This weekend, as I have several times in the past few years, I hiked to an area in the desert southwest marred by graffiti. In order to mark these areas, people had to plan ahead and go far out of their way. Most of it mars the landscape, much like a great scar on an otherwise beautiful face. It really makes me feel sad.

Centuries and millenia from now, I suspect Mount Rushmore will be viewed as an irreparable form of 'American Graffiti'. It will come to symbolize how certain Americans tried to overwrite what was with what they thought ought to be. There was once a time when America was the bastion of propriety, where although you might get ripped off by someone dishonest or hurt by someone's immorality, it wasn't guaranteed like it was elsewhere. As we have grown more prosperous, we have done away with that.

Although long forgotten, American Pioneer and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints president Brigham Young was sensitive of man's impact on the world. When he arrived in Deseret Territory of Spanish Mexico, which is now the state of Utah, he worked hard to keep harmony with the land. Few American pioneers won the respect of so many natives. However, Brigham worried back then, at a time when Jim Bridger scoffed at the notion that Brigham would ever grow wheat in the Salt lake valley, that people would become too prosperous. He proved prescient.

Parts of American culture graffiti over what is good and brave and beautiful. Too many people confuse what happens on TV with reality. We forget that people go to the movies to escape reality, because if our lives were really like that, we would never pay to see those films. No longer concerned with survival, in our prosperity we turn to bread and circuses, drugs and intercourse, pleasure and pelf for substance. We forget that semblance does not equal substance as we concern ourselves with appearances. We think that the hotter the car the better the person.  We fear who we are that we can't wait for Halloween and Renaissance Faires so we can get away acting the way we wish we were.  Even worse, to reinforce these misbegotten notions we dress up our children and send them out to extort candy from strangers under veiled threats of violence. What will we leave behind?

I think it's interesting that they chose the Statue of Liberty as the symbol of ruined civilization in the Planet of the Apes series. America was supposed to be freedom, opportunity, and possibility. It does not mean guaranteed outcomes, equality, or indulgence. We have been bridled by unbroken success and seen Brigham Young's fear come true- that we would become too prosperous for our own good. We focus on the Kardashians and Charlie Sheen and the NFL and Barack Obama instead of actually doing things worth doing, discussing things worth discussing, and becoming something worth becoming. The broadcast of our media shows any other denizens of the galaxy that we are obsessed with things of no worth and disinterested in things that matter.

As a close friend pointed out, those messages we leave will reverberate forever. Even if monuments like Mt. Rushmore fall, what we are will endure. We are all made of matter and creating energies, and our own science tells us that our matter and energy will always exist. Rather than focusing on shaky morals and pretending to care about things, let us be something. Let us be something worth remembering, something that other beings on other worlds are interested in knowing more about us. We can be for something. We can be involved in something. We can be proactive rather than passive recipients. Either we can wait on the world to change and protest in the streets or we can do something that might actually make a difference. Rather than leave behind monuments and cave art or even stone clocks and cement ruins, let us leave behind great thoughts and great principles and great deeds, stories worth the retelling. Let that be the kind of American Graffiti that survives us.

I Also Have a Dream

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Most of the time when I'm driving, since I'm not forced to look at the outside of my car, I forget how it looks. Yesterday, I was passed by a guy driving a Ferrari who looked at me as he drove by with a look of disgust on his face. At first I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong. Then I figured it out.

It is the disposition of almost all people to compare themselves to others. We get a new suit or into a new car, even if they're not ours, and then compare ourselves to other people. I can only imagine that, as he drove by me, the man looked over and asked himself as he looked at my jalopy, "Have you no pride?" Would that really be a bad thing?

Several times, I have considered replacing at least the paint if not the entire car. Then I consider all the money it has saved me by driving away women who were only interested in my car. One of the other fellows in Chemistry showed me a scientific study on women who go after guys with fancy cars. They don't stay. I could have told you that, but it's nice to have empirical data on which to base my conclusions.

I wonder where we got the notion that the hotter the car the better the person. I wonder how many people do what they do professionally not because they enjoy it but because they enjoy the 'stuff' they can buy because of wht they do. Far too many of us spend money we do not have buying things we do not need to impress people we don't like. The rest of us, comfortable and confident in who we are, independent of what we possess, are labeled as arrogant. What a laugh!

I have a dream that one day my Saturn will not be judged by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. With rare exception, this car has outlasted even the most liberal projections of its utility and reliability. While I have my own fears about how much longer it may prove dependable, so far it has not been the problem except in a few rare circumstances. My parents always told me that it's what's on the inside that counts, but that doesn't seem to really matter to anyone. It's high time that it did.

No Loans; No Debt

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As Barack Obama attempts to bribe students for votes with student loans, I see a problem. Loans are part of what got us in trouble in the first place. Work is the solution, but giving people loans, particularly people who take out loans without intending to repay them, doesn't encourage work. There are great numbers of professional students who never get productive jobs. There are great numbers of people I know in Vegas who intend to walk away from their loans.

I was fortunate to leave college without ever taking out a loan and without debt. I worked very hard in High School and received some timely 'motivational counseling' from my mother by which I received several key scholarships. I chose to attend a small state institution to save money because my parents had already paid property taxes to support them. I took full loads, kept up my grades, and worked a part time job. I went without a car, a cell phone, and some of the expected costs. I didn't go out to eat. I also paid far less just ten years ago than the students pay today.

Even while I was in school, the costs ballooned. I remember going to the Housing unit and asking them why, during the two years of absentia for a mission, the cost to live on campus had doubled when it had taken 27 years to double the first time. They even offered less for the increased cost. Most of my classes were taught by professors, but some of my friends were not so fortunate and discovered their teachers were really graduate students, not worth the increased tuition cost.

I am not convinced that as much of education as they want us to believe is about education. I have already written about how universities exist, not to advance the students, but to advance the faculty and entertain the community. Why else do they invest so much money into the football team? Too many colleges staff famous professors who barely teach a single class. Aside from the difference the diploma makes on the date of hire, I see very little value added by attending a prestigious university. I have excelled, as did one of my favorite professors, despite going to a small and inconsequential school as he did (He went to Univ. of Nebraska for his PhD).

I don't see why there should be a need for federal intervention in student loans. Why does it cost so much? Our students are less competitive at a time when it costs more than ever before to attend college. The undergraduates where I teach pay more for undergraduate tuition than I paid in graduate school, and I'm younger than some of them are.

Recognizing that they are our customers, I try very hard to give the students a good value for the money. I worry about many of them who pay so much money to get a degree just to be competitive that it will bury them in debt for years. I remind them that grades do not indicate what they know and point out how, despite my pedigree and alma mater, I have been offered an expanded teaching schedule next semester. The department chair told me in my review that she was glad they had not only hired a competant instructor but also someone who was passionate for the students and for teaching. I consider myself worth the money. Others are paid much more. Not everyone earns what they are paid.

Some students have no choice but to go into debt. Realize that when you do so, you owe someone else for what you have and are. Debt is a new form of slavery. Once you pay them off, then and only then are you completely free. I am convinced that the government likes expanding student loans to make more people dependent on and beholden to them. They do not like that you are free, but that is exactly what America is supposed to represent- freedom. Remember that as you plan your educational financing.

The Waaaambulence

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Within two hours of waking, I had heard from two people already commenting on how crappy their lives are. Another friend pointed out that people frequently equate things with happiness that don't make it so. Just because you have money or gadgets or love doesn't mean you are happy. Some things aren't real.

Society is in many ways a fraud. They are trying to sell you a Ming Dynastic Vase, telling you that will make you happy. Assuming it's something you really want, what they're not telling you is that although it was made according to Ming Dynasty specifications and on location, it was also manufactured last week. When you oppose, it's somehow your fault that you won't accept the premise and swallow the lie. Money and stuff is really only useful if you have something on or for which you wish to spend it.

Many of the popular people in society paint a dishonest picture too. Although they tell us that all you need is love, I frequently hear from people who have love or married the person they love who then opine the fact that they have no friends and no life. How can that be? So many people think the only thing I lack for happiness is someone to love. Shoot, even I think that some times. Yet, so many people I know are only experiencing moderate happiness because they look at what they lack instead on what they have.

We are a piratical society. We sometimes don't care how much swag we have as long as there's swag in someone else's ship. Lewis wrote that it's about our pride, that pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. Look at the Occupy Wall Street protestors. Their lives are better than others in many ways. They have jobs, they have clothes, they have their health, they have education, ad infinitum, all things for which an average modern Ethiopian or Jew from a 1940s ghetto would sell their soul. They are focused on what they lack and the disparity with other people.

Call the waaaambulence. I forget in which movie I heard this (maybe Bruce Willis in "The Kid"), but it's an interesting image. We are so whiney sometimes. We remember our riches, but not to thank our Maker from whom all blessings flow. We are ingrateful, and it shows. Without gratitude, I do not think it's possible to be truly happy.

Lots of people experience hard times. Most of them don't complain. No matter where you find yourself, it is likely that you will always know someone who has more of something than you do. It will always appear to be unfair in a free society. Rather than opine the disparity, we ought to applaud those who correctly apply their freedom. Rather than praising those who achieve, people view your success as an impediment to their own and complain bitterly. We hear the complainers because they shrilly cry their tales of woe from the rooftops. Some of them prosper because some of us feel bad for them. Why should we? Most people buckle down and put their shoulders to the wheel. These days, the Waaambulence is pretty busy because so many people think their sob story is a unique tale of misery and woe. It might take a long time for it to swing by and pick you up. By that time, maybe you can lift yourself and find an opportunity to lift someone else.

We are all of us richly blessed. We can think, reason, read, travel where the itch suits us, speak as we feel, eat what we can afford, and do what we like for a wage we consider fair enough. This is unique among the peoples and the ages of the earth. It is a time of great opportunity. These are the days, and I am determined to live them. God is good to me.

Will Ye Also Go Away?

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I am actually rather fortunate. I have a good friend and a best friend, someone who knows about what's going on and someone who's also gone through things with me. I have very few associations. While at the surface that sounds lonely, it also means there is no deadweight. A few of the people who are gone are people I'm glad to see go. A few are ones I miss and miss dearly.

There are competing schools of thought on who actually does the leaving and what that means about the one who does. Frequently, people will stay in bad circumstances to avoid being lonely or to avoid being labeled the villain. Some of my friends are still married legally although their spouses gave up on the marriage long ago. It's hard because of hope and love and known circumstances. I don't really know what's the best course of action.

Over the last few weeks, I have heard some general thoughts that sound true. Of course, general counsel doesn't apply to all circumstances. Men are easily villified by women and vice versa. I have never actually dumped a girl, and the relationships have not ended by mutual consent. I was still invested when the fund collapsed, just like I was with my WaMu stock before Joe Biden created a run on the bank that wiped me out. He'll eventually get a bill from me.

In the case of relationships, there's emotion involved. Eventually I do give up on people, not because I no longer care, but because the evidence available indicates that they no longer do. I have walked away when it was clear that I could say nothing to change a person's mind, that it wasn't up for negotiation. I wasn't trying to be mean. I accepted what they tol me, and if it was a game to see if I'd stay, well, they are the ones who lost. Ultimatums amount to emotional blackmail, and I find that a weak foundation for something that matters a great deal to me. Their part in my life is over. I am sad, but I am submissive. God knew this was coming, and he will still lead me to a fair shore and land of promise.

When you face the troubled times in life, you frequently discover who means it. Lots of us have fair weather friends. These remind me of Job's neighbors who blamed him for his circumstance and make me wonder with friends like that who needs enemies? Maybe they say things you don't want to hear, but they don't just blame you, and they don't leave you. They help you recover if they can. That's what God does too.

About a year ago, a friend who has since cut off all contact with me recently told me that I reminded her that there is no finding God. He is always there. We are the ones who move. We flit off to Pleasure Island or fall behind and then complain that God has abandoned us. We abandon Him.

After He finished feeding the multitude, Jesus was sad that the people went away. They came for the refreshments and not for His message. Turning to His disciples, the master asked, "Will ye also go away?" The disciples responded, where else would we go? If you're interested in bread, you can find that anywhere. There are bars and pubs and eateries and grocers aplenty from whom you can get those things. If you're interested in pleasure, the sources are likewise apenty. If you're interested in truth, there really is only One Source. Where else would we go? Even as the standards and morays and morals of the world change, God and His laws and promises stand resolute against the waves of popular sentiment. When we walk away, it's because we don't care. He always does, which is why you know how to find Him and how you will find Him when you get there.

Sometimes I wonder if He allows me these experiences so that I will understand. I begin to see a little bit of His sorrow and pain as I see people for and about whom I care choose to wander down paths that will not lead to lasting happiness. What they find might be a substitute or have the semblance, but they lack the substance. I know that, and I hope they don't realize it because I don't want them to suffer. I'm sure some of the people who have left me or who think I left them weep. I weep for them likewise. I know who and what I thought I lost. How much more painful must it be for God, who knows more than what He thinks- He knows exactly what is lost in a poor decision and what might be gained by hearkening to Him.

In the end, the most important thing for me is to keep my relationship with my Maker strong. I believe that as long as I honestly focus on strengthening my relationship with Him, He will help me take care of the rest. Some people are jealous and don't like this, thinking I should focus on them first. None of them are still around. God is. And so, I am faithful.

They Are Not the 99%

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President Obama and the Democrat Party are mistaken to embrace the Occupy movement and project it as representative of the country. They are not as random of a sampling of the population as the media would like us to believe. They are a representative random sampling of the type of kooks who typically support monarchists in a Representative Republic. They also project things onto regular folks at sidewalk level that they do, and they will not make any significant strides to increase liberty or prosperity in this nation. People like them cannot and will not advocate the policies that lead to it.

While they argue that they're for opportunity equality, there's a fundamental problem with their premise. They claim they are there to make things better for the people, but their solution requires that they first hurt some of the people in order to help others. At the same time they rail against government, they demand more of it. The government will not whither away. What was the last time a government actually withered away and left a protracted power vacuum? Each time that happens, another government comes in and conquers the previous one. Ironically enough, the protestors claim that other elements, like the TEA party, demand freedom from government. That's not the TEA party; that's anarchy. What most Americans actually seek is freedom under a government. We are smart enough to realize that we "must surrender a portion of our substance to furnish protection for the rest" but that the form of government that provides the greatest security at the lowest cost "is preferrable to all others".

One thing that frustrates me most is how leadership in the GOP echoes the phraseology of their opponents. Romney and Christie have both tried to connect with these people. At the same time, research I have seen shows they are not like us at all. A comedian I know personally who lives in New York did a mockumentary that was fascinating. So maybe it wasn't a scientific selection of those to whom he spoke or whose interviews he showed, but they are telling. Seriously? "Jews are the new Nazis". Have these people ever met a real Nazi?  I have.  That notion is absurd.

More scientific analyses have been done. Until I read Doug Schoen's analysis this morning, I wasn't ready to admit my knee jerk reactions towards the protests might hold water. I am not there, and the only person I know who has been there is a comedian. What I have posted so far questions their motives and methods, but Mr. Schoen is able to illustrate their mentality. His conclusions mirror my suspicions. Although his sample size is not terribly large, it's large enough to be a start.

Here is a summary of his findings:

-the Occupy movement is full of radicals and miscreants. The man in Brian Havig's video is not the only one who has brought up racist remarks about the Jews. In fact, "Wall Street Bankers" is a code phrase used by many people who are anti-Semetic.

-they preach hate and destruction of our society. They believe in the redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience, and violence. Mr. Schoen found that 52% have protested before, that 98% would resort to civil disobedience, and that 31% would resort to violence. When the police tried to enforce the law last Friday and some protestors were hurt, they railed against the cops. They are against law and order. They hate cops while they argue for a police state.

-although they claim solidarity with those on hard times, most of the protestors have jobs, although I can't imagine why their employers haven't fired them. That's not the kind of employee for which most companies are looking- someone who whines and moans when they don't get their way. If that were the case, we'd all hire children and teenagers.

-most of them are Monarchists/Statists/Socialists/Liberal in terms of the policies they represent. No matter how many are disaffected with Obama, some of them are upset he hasn't done enough. They still share a fascination with universal health care and a deep commitment to left-wing policies like: opposition to free-market capitalism and support for radical redistribution of wealth, intense regulation of the private sector, and protectionist policies to keep American jobs from going overseas. They think the rich should pay more taxes despite the fact that the rich already pay most of the taxes and some of them pay no taxes at all.

-they demand higher taxes for everyone else and bigger government as if those were magical beans that lead to a land of milk and honey.

-they have a flagrant double standard. If Steve Jobs were still alive, would they march on his house armed with their iPhones and iPads and MacBooks? Not likely. He's ok. It's only the other wealthy people with whose products and activities they take personal exception who are greedy.

If you believe in smaller government and more freedom, you are actually in the majority. Remember that news outlets show today at least what they want you to believe. Television is, after all, showmanship. As I have been saying for a year or more, most of what you see is a play. They want you to think that the Occupy movement is a plurality of America. Most Americans are not there. They are at work, earning money, paying taxes, and helping companies keep the jobs they have. Contrary to conventional wisdom, business does not exist to provide jobs. Jobs exist to support company goals. The Occupy movement is full of thieves and miscreants. It is not a mark of maturity to say "give me what I want or I will be a miscreant". That's exactly what they seem to be about.

Should forthcoming research illustrate them to be otherwise, I will alter my opinion. Meanwhile, at TEA party events, they cannot find criminals, miscreants, or anarchists, despite the media's best efforts to single out the weirdest people they can find. They claim the TEA party wants no government at all, which is not true. Most of them want the Constitution to apply even as Obama talks about everything he'd like to do to circumvent our governing document. The President even has the gall to say everything he's done has been the right decision even as he claims solidarity with people who are upset with the results of his choices.  Keep your eye on the truth. Just because the protestors claim they want the same things as you doesn't make it truth. What they want is something completely alien to America. They are the fringe, the exception; you are the rule, and thank God for that.

My Opposition to Obamacare

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It has fascinated me to hear that Obama insisted, despite widespread popular opposition to Obamacare, that Obamacare was good for the people. What he never mentioned however is which ones will benefit most from it. Like so many other Monarchist machintions, it is garbed in clothing to be beneficial to the people. Although that might be true, that is not the reason why they press it; it is coincidental thereunto.

For the first time since leaving my parents' house, I have a job that gives me healthcare. Well, I pay for it. I pay more every year for less coverage. I would rather they give me in cash the $560/month they claim it's worth in my benefits. I could probably get a better deal for that amount of money. Likely, I'd just save it for that rainy day and pay the bill in cash. I have found you frequently get a better deal that way.

Health care touches many people in powerful ways. I know individuals who suffer from horrible diseases. A good college friend has two sons who will eventually die of DMD; my banker needs a very expensive medication just to stay alive; a former student has a virulent disease; several coworkers have cancer. Many people depend on health care for continuation of life. Health care is not the answer.

By the time you need to go to the doctor, whatever your problem is, you have already lost the front line. They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure, and frequently the way we live and eat and interact is more the problem. Instead of curing it only once something manifests symptoms, why don't we start fighting things before they become deleterious to health? Well, that requires work and responsibility. The health care system under Obama however requires exactly the same thing. It relies on people to keep working and be responsible so they can be taxed. The same people they claim can't be trusted up front to make good decisions on health are expected to make good decisions elswhere so they can be taxed. That's just silly.

Although I do not personally put much stock into insurance, I leave that choice up to you. What I really oppose is that a government, any government, tells me what I must buy, when I must buy it, how much I must pay, and from whom I am allowed to buy anything. That is not in the benefit of the people; that is in the benefit of the government.

Obamacare is about Obama and the party apparatus that put him in power. They care nothing for you. They will use you to get power. They will foment class warfare, greed, envy, and personal pride in order to pit you against 'the rich'. They will, if they can, render it deleterious to be successful. In my opinion, the best way to make the lives of people better is to make things better for everyone. If your proposed method to make things better for everyone is to first hurt some, you have negated the premise. Yet, when they talk about redistribution of wealth, that is exactly what they propose- to hurt some people. Every physician knows the first part of Hippocratus' oath is to do no harm. Yet, that's always their first idea- cut you open and take a look.

Fundascopic examination is not revealing in most cases. Cutting holes in the economy isn't the answer. The process must be repaired. We must stop hemorraging good money chasing after bad money, even as Reid proposes more stimulous spending. If it has not worked before on a larger scale, what makes them think it will help now on a smaller one? They are not interested in truth or health or equality- they are interested in power.

It is the sad state of almost all men that as soon as they get a little power as it were that they will begin immediately to exercise unrighteous dominion. They will talk of Christian values, not because they practice them, but because they know you do. They forget that Christ was interested in a kingdom and reward that was not to be realized necessarily in this world. Obama and his ilk think they can use the Adversary's Method to enforce the Father's Plan. They keep trying to make earth, which is fallen, the utopia that heaven alone can sustain. They're very vain, as are their efforts. Let us now apply liberty.

People Who Get Out of Their Cars

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I completed one of the longest hikes at Red Rock NCA on Saturday morning. For the last mile or so of the hike, rather than take the trail that parallels the road, my friend and I walked along the road. Suddenly, he turned around and shook my hand, thanking me for being one of those people who get out of their cars. It kind of took me back.

Truly, lots of people see only that part of life they can see without getting off the couch or out of their car. I remember going around a car so as to get out of the way of a woman snapping pictures through her window and seeing at least one woman snapping pictures with her iPAD. At the final parking area, we noticed lots of folks debark their cars, take a few steps down a trail, but only as far as it was clear that men had encroached on nature, before they turned back to the climate controlled comfort of their cars. It was 67F in the park at the time.

As a consequence of this attachment, very few people see or experience some of the things I do. Frequently, people will look at my pictures, declare their interest to see what I have seen in vivo, and then not actually show up because it requires a hike or a drive or some money. It's a little unfortunate because there's more to life than being among the living.

I realize some people can't get out of their cars. I realize some people have to drive their cars a long way to see some of the scenic beauty that's essentially out my back door. What I find kind of silly is how many people who come to Vegas and stay in Vegas, when the beauty of the desert and its historic relevance can be easily seen by renting a car and driving an hour. Even two years ago when I went to Boston, because I rented a car and stayed outside of town I was able to see Cape Cod, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Salem, Lexington, and lots of pretty countryside, and the car rental and gas cost me the same as I saved by staying in a hotel outside Boston Proper.

There are many great things one can do at home. I consider raising and rearing children to be the noblest profession and greatest endeavor in which a person can invest his time. Beyond that, as children quickly discover, there is much to please the eye and gladden the heart. Some of my best photos and fondest memories and greatest discoveries have been because I was in the right place at the right time. I have seen things other people will not, because some of the places I have been no longer exist. I have experienced things other people have not, because I have met people who no longer live and gone places others will not go. Maybe in some ways I'm timid, but because I have gone today where others will not, I have experienced things others never can.

I thank my parents, who encouraged us to get out of the car and off the couch, for many of the things I have been able to do. For all of you who also get out of your cars, it's a pleasure. For the rest, I hope I don't appear in your pictures or videos. I don't go to Red Rock so that people can post it to YouTube. I go there to reconnect with nature and to measure my individual health, and sometimes I get to share my discoveries with those who come along. For that, you'll have to get out of your car.

Normal and Good

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I know so many people who are told they are not normal. Sometimes this is done to affirm them, but sometimes it is done to discourage them. It is frequently assumed that normal is synonymous with good, which is not necessarily true. For example, in prison it is normal to have committed a crime, which is not good.

Two of my favorite books are prescient to this discussion. The first comes from Stephen Douglas' Hitchhiker books. He introduces a character named Wonko the Sane who never enters the asylum. Wonko lives in a cave and believes he is the only sane and normal person on the planet, and near the entrance to the door of the cave he has a sign announcing you are about to enter the asylum. Now, the people on his planet naturally think he's bonkers. What if he's right?

The other book to which I wish to make reference is GK Chesterton's "What's Wrong With the World". In this book, he lays out his argument that what's wrong is that we do not ask what is right. We ask what is trendy, easy, fashionable, expedient, advantageous, or normal. Nobody bothers to ask what ought to be. Everyone wants what they want to be truth.

Too many people on our planet are in the business of trying to boss God about the heavens. They tell Him what they want and what they demand and try to blackmail Him to bless them by promising things contingent on miracles. We assume we know what's best for us, but how many people really do and how many of us even really know what we want?

What we see today is nothing more than a bunch of people acting like they have their act together. A professor asked me today what it was about people who seem to be able to have things fall into place. It's easy. Either they're pretending or they're blind. Remember that most of what you see is a play. People group together to fit in, because they know that even though the squeaky wheel may get the grease, sometimes it gets replaced.

People ought to be more concerned with what is right. We ought to care more about what's right than what's popular or normal. Who's to say that those of us who think we're normal aren't the ones with the problem? What if Wonko the Sane is correct?

You see, people equate normalcy with goodness. They think if they're like others they're ok. Sometimes, however, it is the people who are not normal who are right. Patton, More, Moses, Steve Jobs...none of these people were normal, but they were validated as being right. The world would be a better place if right were normal, if good were normal. The world would be better if more people were concerned about what they ought to do rather than what they elect to do. Even if it is not normal to be good, it is always good to be good.

Sharing Good News

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Tuesday, when I posted some good news to the internet, I did not expect someone to accuse me of bragging. I had a lot of good news in a short period to report, and people who know me well know that I usually report little because it's either blase or bad, and so it was high time I did this. However, I began to think about this duplicitous standard and the envy of those angry with my good fortune.

From what I gather, it's never ok for you to share good news. That's bragging. It's only ok for you to post bad news. Other people can post good things all they like, rejoice in the small and large, ad infinitum, but if you do it, it's bad. Why? I believe it has its roots in envy- that other people are jealous things are well for you because they're not well for them. After all, that's really what the Occupy Wall Street protest is about- jealousy.

Ironically enough, I don't usually post bad news. Lots of other people I know regularly and constantly opine their sad state of affairs. When those people post something good, I don't see other people load up on them and tell them they shouldn't brag. People must just assume that my life is a panacea where I fart rainbows and eat skittles and laugh while falling in a swimsuit with my rippling abs into a pool full of liquid chocolate, all without weight gain. They envy me my life, ironically enough, despite the fact that they are the ones who have everything that's supposed to make people happy.

A friend of mine put forth the notion that people who do not like you do not really like themselves. They are jealous that you do like yourself, that you're comfortable with yourself, and that you take joy in small things like sunsets, inchworms, and cactus flowers. Perhaps this is why there isn't more good news in general. People don't like to feel like they're the only ones having a rough time. If the news is bad, they feel as if they have commisserators and thank God things are worse or at least just as bad for someone else.

Share good news. There is a completely different energy to good news. It reminds us that good wins in the end, that good things come after patience and faith, and that there are good people and good events in the world. For those who care, it allows them to share in the joy. It is a perfectly natural thing to want to share good news, not to brag, but because it excites you, and you want to share that feeling with others. The more we continue to accentuate the negative, the more we come to believe it to be the norm, when it is actually exceptional to the rule. Good things happen all the time. We are not continually reminded of them, and therefore we lose sight of the bright moments in life.

Sometimes when I consider the past, I feel sad. Many of the people with whom I shared my life no longer acknowledge they even know me. Lately, I have taken to expressions of gratitude to God that I was able because of those associations to do things I might not otherwise have done and meet people I might otherwise not have met and share things with people I might otherwise have done alone. Under the guise of sharing and equality, the protestors are demanding that other people share against their will. That is contrary to positive energy. People who are forced to come along rarely make the experience a positive one.

They say that smiles can uplift other people. Your positive energy can exert powerful effects on the people around you. Share it with people and at times that will uplift, inspire, and encourage other people around you. Life is richer when you share it.

Balkanized by Religion

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Over the last several months, I have become aware of how we blast people with stereotypes. We hear about how Walmart discriminates, how the rich are greedy, how protestors are miscreants and how women mature faster than men. Honestly, if you look around, you may find that some people you know fit those stereotypes, but it's very difficult to find any group to which the terms "always" or "never" really apply. Always is a very difficult standard to meet. Yesterday, the topic was on who exactly Christians are, as if everyone who says they are a Christian is and that only they can say who else is one.

In one of my classes this semester, I have a muslim student. We have had a few lengthy discussions about some of the practices of her religion since we are in the middle of Ramadan. She pointed out that she takes exception to Christians who think that every muslim is actively engaged raising his sons to be suicide bombers. I can understand her position since everyone who knows my Faith assumes that I have multiple wives or don't believe in television or that all of us drink Dr Pepper when none of that is true. Then again, I have been pointing out for some time that not everyone who worships with you shares your faith. There are some who try to project their interpretations on others.

What particularly disturbs me is how people who are not members of a Faith or members in good standing are considered experts on something that is foreign to them. Just as not every muslim is a terrorist, not everyone who claims to be a Christian is. Who gets to define what it means? Is being a Christian really about where you worship or how or who? Yesterday, Mark Davis said that what matters about whether a person is a Christian is whether other people think you are one. What about what Christ thinks? What about people who consider themselves Christians but who do not act like it? People who say this strike me as people who are not looking for truth; they are looking to have their version of truth certified. For a long time I have maintained that membership in the Kingdom of Christ depends more on who has your hearts than who has your records. Having the surname Christian no more makes you a disciple than having the forname Jesus makes you the Messiah.

Usually, when you are absolutely sure of something, you are wrong. I am constantly unsure of my own state of grace. If I knew I were guaranteed an eternal reward today, what would be my incentive to continue to follow Christ? Just as a lifetime of good deeds isn't ablated by one major mistake, a lifetime of evil cannot be cancelled out by a single magnanimous gesture just before death. Our reward is not based on what we do. It is based on what we ARE, and God is not fooled by pretended, half-hearted efforts in the twilight of life. Christ taught that where our treasure is our heart will follow.

We are too quick to condemn. While judgment is a natural part of life, important for decision-making, it does not license us to condemn or exalt other people. We know very little about the details of their particular Gethsemane or what has happened exigent to that snapshot of time during which we know them. I am confident that God considers the difficulty of the trial in His calculations of our state of grace, because "where much is given, much is required, and he who sins against the greater light receives the greater condemnation". As a consequence, I am fairsure that many of those with whom I worship will be surprised where they find themselves at judgement day as well as next to whom they find themselves.

Groups do not generally do things. People do. Walmart doesn't descriminate; some of its employees do. Corporations are not greedy; some of the members of management are. Students are not lazy; some of them are. There is an exception to every rule except for this one. People are people. When we stereotype we draw attention to minor differences and lose sight of the wide range of things that draw us together. It is an attempt by our enemies to render us weaker by driving us apart. As Ben Franklin so famously said, we must all hang together or most assuredly we will hang separately.

This morning, I read a post that answered all of my questions of faith in politics. Furthermore, it could be contended that our opponents, blinded by science, follow the Religion of the Scientific Method and are led by people who themselves are poor practicers of the method they proscribe.

I miss the days immediately after 9/11 when Americans came together and vowed a unity that really mattered inspite of differences. While America might not be a Judeo-Christian nation, it is a nation of morals and values. Monarchists among us push diversity and outreach and compassion at the expense of what is right.

GK Chesterton was prescient. He spoke of how what's wrong with the world is that we do not ask what is right. We worry too much about who is right, or what is right for us. Our new morality is the service of expediency. People make decisions with a selfish and self-centered world view even as they clothe that naked villainy with odd old ends stolen forth from holy writ. The new morality today is a reflection of our society. Like our gas stations, our lives have become self-service. New Morality teaches "You only live once, so live it up" instead of "You only live once, so live well". Freedom and Faith are not license; they are concerned with truth and justice, about with what is right. Liberty like true worship means we discipline oursleves suc that even when we would like to do something we instead do what we ought. Freedom and faith are right. True religion is the fertile soil in which morality can grow if the seed of faith is a good seed. By their fruits you shall know them.

Misdirected Efforts

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I haven't really taken the Occupy Protestors very seriously. Especially today, when I discovered people are showing up just for the free food or for comedy skit insertions, I wondered at the effectiveness of this particular method to create the intended response. Imagine my surprise to discover over the weekend that they haven't really got a message yet. Normally people get together to work out their major purpose and then go out prepared with a theme.

There are plenty of things on which I disagree with Hermann Cain. However, I do agree that they're probably doing one of the less effective things they can do. Why are they in these cities? Why are they gathered around reciting the same chants and parroting things others in the group say? Can they speak for themselves? Imagine if they were calling and writing and visiting the elected officials or the captains of industry from whom they demand action. Imagine what they might accomplish.

I've been a missionary, and I learned that it accomplishes very little to speak to people who believe as you do. Mostly, all that does is make you more confident that you're not alone, but those people already agree with you, and you have accomplished nothing. If you want to proselytize people to your point of view, you cannot go to the homes of people who already agree with you. You must go out and speak with those who do not share your views until they convert. So far, most of the protests appear to me nothing more than staging areas to attract like-minded individuals for whatever reason they share the opinion. They don't have a specific target or complaint, only that someone else has stuff they don't.

Most class-envy is not based on a desire for true equality but rather on pride. We are not satisfied with what we have. We do not care how much swag we have amidships. All we care is that someone else has swag in their ship, and if it's not ours yet, it should be. Pride is the attitude of a servant of Mammon. It is well that we should be upset with mammon, but it is unwise that we should employ mammon's attitude and action plan in order to bring him down. People don’t really want equality. They want things to be better for them, and some of them want things to be better for them at the expense of others. They think it's unfair that they don't have as much, nevermind how much more any of these Americans has compared to the average Ethiopian. The very notion that we should take down those greedy people in itself is greedy.

The easiest way to get money from rich people is to provide them a service at a reasonable price they cannot or will not do for themselves. Last school year, I worked as a private tutor for high school students. Given that chemistry is difficult to teach, I charged what some people might consider a confiscatory rate. However, the parents for whom I worked, who were all independently wealthy, gladly traded the cash for my time because they trusted that I could accomplish something they could not. When I met the students, they all had scores under 50%. When the semester ended, they all had grades of 'B' or better.

If you want more money, go out and earn it. Convince someone to value what you offer enough that they will trade their money for what you have (this is one of my favorite joke images of late regarding this notion). Show the rich that they need what you have, that they need you to do something that benefits them. They, like you, will take a win-win scenario any day. They resist, like you do, if you offer them a win-lose from your perspective. Clearly the protestors do not value what else they could be doing with their time as much as this effort to equate themselves with the rich. Nevermind that if they were rich they would never consider themselves evil. Only the other guy is greedy. If their jobs are not satisfactorily delivering what they think they deserve, they should go out and find another employ that will. There is an opportunity cost for everything of value.

The same old arguments are targeted at the same straw men. If they think government should do something, then appeal to government. The people on Wall Street don't have time for them or ears for their pleas. However, if you have something to offer, they will let you into their homes, into their lives and into their budgets, no matter what car you drive, clothes you wear, or address at which you live. The 'rich' for whom I worked discovered that they needed me, and I was handsomely rewarded.

ALL the Colors Of the Wind

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One of my favorite random memories of Austria involves their Museum of Fine Arts. Elder Dodge and I were more interested in the paintings than some of the others with us and ended up on our own in an outlying gallery. Dressed in suits, fluent in other languages besides English, and confident in our gait, people would stop and ask us questions. I guess they thought we worked there.

What makes a great work of art? Well, that depends a lot on the education and taste of the critic, but there are some common themes. Art is generally a mixture of elements. You won't, for example, find much in the way of pieces with names like "Arrangement in Red and Grey" that are simply a couple of colors on canvas. Most of the great painters did much more than that.

Like the art critic, we look for meaning in what we see. Frequently, we see out of a situation only the part that we wish to see. We focus on the negative elements of the situations in which we find ourselves while we idealize the good parts of a situation that is held from us. The troubles of our present loom real and large because they are ever present, and that other world looks so much more appealing. Young people do not understand that life, like the creation of art, takes work, repetitive and boring work. Much of that minutiae is boring, but at least it's a new boring, and they think that would be more fun.

Some among us think that life would be so much better if it was only filled with pleasant pictures. They would have perpetual spring, only bright happy warm hues, and a steady state of bliss. People want the canvas of their lives painted only with the happy, garish colors, and let all the rest stay on the painter's pallete. What they forget is that great works of art, like life, are best built with shadows, contrast, and depth some of which only come when the canvas is touched by the dark.

The good times in our lives come into their proper light when we go through tougher times. We appreciate our health when we come down with a severe sickness. We appreciate our wealth best when we fall on hard economic times. We appreciate family when our friends, coworkers, or even romantic partners forsake or betray us. It is easy to take for granted what has never been taken from you.

I wrote earlier this week about gold and God. I quote Brigham Young again because his words are prescient:

When this people are blessed so much that they consider their blessings a burden and a drudge to them, you may always calculate on a cricket war,a grasshopper war, a drought, too much rain, or something else to make the scales preponderate the other way. This people have been blessed too much,so that they have not known what to do with their blessings.

Frequently we do not notice our blessings. We become used to them. Only then do we sometimes recognize and appreciate them and see through the contrast and shadow that there are good things on our canvas too.


The life of the Savior was one of privation and struggle. Even before he was born, his parents struggled to find a place of sufficient conditions to comfort his mother for the delivery. His father was a carpenter, and his friends were fishermen. He was hated because of what he said, taken before an illegal tribunal, tried, convicted, and crucified, but not until after he was flogged with faggots. In the end, he gave men new life, new hope, and a new testament that God loves the world, a picture and portrait that inspires millions today. If we would follow him, we must expect to trod the path he trod and face at least some of the same scourges. In order to paint a life that makes of us a Christian, dark colors make the difference. It is by them that we recognize the value and perspective of pretty pictures.

Repost: Courtesy in Communication

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I have a meeting with the new department Chair on Friday. I am a little nervous. When people have good things to discuss with you, they usually will volunteer that it's good information or a formality or something like that. The department chair for whom I teach told me a week ago about how my evaluation as a new professor in their department was 'good stuff' and not to worry, and so I'm at peace. In this particular pending instance, I have no idea what the topic or timbre of the discussion might be.

Almost two years ago, someone I knew tried to spring something on me for which I was unprepared. We agreed, I thought, to talk about it at a specific and later time. However, the other individual started to pester me with text messages trying to force the conversation on their terms and timetable. I wrote the following response:

When you come to me to discuss something, it means you have already given it some thought. Please do me the favor and allow me time to rationally and prayerfully consider my own thoughts and feelings on the matter before I respond. If you rudely attempt to force a response, I will simply shut off my phone and ignore you, especially if I am tired or in a bad mood. Phones are a privilege, and instant gratification is the business of fast food companies, not mine.

If you were tired or irate, how would you like me to regard you?

If we have already agreed to discuss it in person, how do you think I will respond if you try to force the conversation earlier?

Cell phones are not a tether by which you can keep me in check, and if you insist on regarding them as such, I will assume you do not trust me. I am one of the best men I know, and if you cannot trust me, you do not deserve me as a friend, let alone anything else.

As of today, I will no longer respond to texts or voicemail or emails immediately, unless you are a blood relative or my wife/child, of which I currently have none. Please make a note for personal reference. If I choose to, I will respond, but that discretion lies as always with me.

Oh, and while we're on the subject, don't drop by uninvited. That's rude too, especially if I am in the middle of something and otherwise engaged. It is not that I don't care or am involved in something bad, it is that I am already involved in something that deserves my attention because it was there before you came. Furthermore, if you force it at work, you in effect rob my employer of my contribution and attention, for which he pays me great sums of money.

If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 911...

To my great surprise, this person still talks to me today. Apparently, some people are mature enough to not take a reasoned but slightly emotional reaction to an emotional attack personally.

When you are ambushed by something unexpected, it is well within your right to ask for time to logically and prayerfully work out a response. In preparation for this meeting, I asked my close friend what he would do. He told me that he always asks for time to consider what has been presented, to prepare a wise response, to consider what lessons can be learned, and to prepare an appropriate plan of action to correct the issue. After all, as I told this other individual in December 2009, it is unfair to expect me to respond in five minutes to something you have taken five hours, five days, or five months to develop in your own mind.

Sometimes things aren't really up for discussion. I have been the recipient of several conversations over the last few years that were mostly informative monologues. The outcome was decided before I even knew the conversation would take place, but at least some had the courage to tell me to my face. I hope they understand why I said nothing and let it be. When there is nothing to say, the best thing is to hold your tongue and press forward. I will do that whatever the outcome of this meeting might be.

Why I Resist Buying Gold

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I'm not sure who decided that gold was valuable. To some people, it really isn't. Last night, I spoke with a student who told her that she inherited gold jewelry from her mother in law. She kept only one piece as a sentimental momento and traded the rest for things she valued more. Yet, hardly a day goes by during which I don't hear an advertisement encouraging us to buy gold with the prediction that it will still raise 50% in value. Why must it? How do they know? If they really can see the future, why not tell me about other things about which I care? They're guessing. They are in the business to sell a product.

There are many different products. I really enjoyed Ludwig von Mises' book Human Action because he talks about values and what people value. This same student told me last night that girls stopped really desiring guys like me about the time I was born. Well, I'll still push for it. It is not that people who choose virtue do so in spite of what it doesn't pay. We value virtue more than any advantage the alternative affords. It's a matter of preference.

However, some things always have value. Yes, in the ads they say gold has never been worth zero. There may always be someone who wants it. However, if those people are your enemies, they may wage war on you to take it by force, and if those people are too far away, you may not be able to trade it for what you need when your need is great.

In previous posts, I talked about how things hung on refridgerators influenced me. For several years, and for some inexplicable reason, my mother has had a quote on her fridge. I looked up the full excerpt last night and found this (original part I knew is in bold):

Gold is assigned a value by men. Its value changes with the laws and whims of men. It was arbitrarily selected. Students of Adam Smith know that there was once a Silver Standard. I know. I read all about it.

Suppose you had millions of bushels [of wheat] to sell, and could sell it for twenty dollars per bushel, or for a million dollars per bushel, no matter what amount, so that you sell all your wheat,and transport it out of the country, and you are left with nothing more than a pile of gold, what good would it do you? You could not eat it, drink it, wear it, or carry it off where you could have something to eat. The time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a bushel of wheat. Gold is not to be compared with it in value. Why would it [wheat] be precious to you now? Simply because you could get gold for it? Gold is good for nothing, only as men value it. It is no better than a piece of iron, a piece of limestone, or a piece of sandstone, and it is not half so good as the soil from which we raise our wheat, and other necessaries of life. The children of men love it, they lust after it, are greedy for it, and are ready to destroy themselves,and those around them, over whom they have any influence, to gain it. (Journal of Discourses 1 pg 250, June 5th 1853)

For some reason, there's a big rush on gold. Usually when everyone is into something, my natural reaction is to go the opposite direction. When everyone says you should do a thing, usually they are wrong, and you would be wise to consider the source and ask yourself what they have to gain.

The problem is one of gain. We think we need money to find happiness. Happiness is a state of being. It comes from gratitude, from recognition of all the great things you have. Just this morning, I spoke with a close acquaintance who told me her husband caught her severe cold and solicited my prayers. At the end of our conversation, she pointed out the profound truth about how this small change made her more grateful for her health. We so rarely appreciate what is, bewailing only what might be. In the same excert, Brigham Young continues:

When this people are blessed so much that they consider their blessings a burden and a drudge to them, you may always calculate on a cricket war,a grasshopper war, a drought, too much rain, or something else to make the scales preponderate the other way. This people have been blessed too much,so that they have not known what to do with their blessings.

It sounds a lot like Lincoln who, only a decade later, would talk of how Americans were bound by unbroken success and became to proud to pray to the God who made them. At that time, a war broke out to make things they took for granted more dear, and that has typically been the cycle.


In our pride, we talk too much about what we deserve, what we lack, and how other people have it better. We are greedy for better circumstances, better times, and better opportunities. Without a proper perspective of how things might otherwise be, we covet things we do not have and discount what we do. I told this same student with whom I spoke last night that my several years of living outside the United States made me appreciate and understand more the advantages we have here. Poor people and their advocates often forget that in older times, they would not be poor, not because times were better, but because of disease or famine or war those same poor would be dead. Sick people and their advocates complain because they suffer forgetting that without our technology they would not be alive to complain at all. Even I, blind as I am, might never have made it to adulthood, let alone work in academia.

Our world values things that are worthless and considers as dross and refuse things that really matter. In the end, gold makes a really expensive paperweight. Land can provide shelter, grow food, and at least give you a place to live, and if the land is nondescript enough, you won't have to fight anyone to defend a field of empty holes. I know your values might be different. If you choose to buy gold, that's fine by me. When you have the gold and I have the wheat, don't be surprised when I decide against trading for something for which I have no use. Bon appetit. 

Unjust Stewards

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There once was a very powerful man in a powerful and wonderful country who was given a great stewardship. Despite his lack of experience and young age, the people of that country entrusted him to look after their money and to ensure their work. He had great plans and made great promises, and as his power and influence grew, he came to believe that he was steward of all.

After a few years, the burden of the people became grievous. Although the steward had not been directly involved in the decisions that hastened this plight, he knew those who had been rather well. True to his word, he made decisions to help manage their debts. Part of this involved that the steward incurred debts of his own, not personally, but against the account of the steward who hired him. He used this debt to secure that of the people, to whom he had said he was actually going to forgive the debts. In honesty, he kept track of them.

Shortly thereafter, the Master took an accounting of his stewards. He realized the debt incurred by this steward. He confronted him. The steward explained that his ideas should work given enough time. "Oh my boy," the Master shook his head, "if thou wert older, thou wouldst know that these efforts have been tried before and led to the same result. Now, the law requires that I treat you as a thief and cast you into prison. The steward panicked and begged for forgiveness. If he had a little more time, a little more help, and a little higher salary, he assured the master he could do the job. The Master reluctantly agreed.

One day in the weeks immediately following, the steward was out among his people. Desperate to keep his promise to the Master, he visited his vassals and called in their debts. Those who could pay did. Some fled the land when they caught word the steward was coming. Many complained. The steward had promised that he would make things alright.

When the steward came to one particular protestor, he faced a dilemma. This was the particular vassal to whom he had made the greatest promises and one who had made great personal sacrifice to help him rise to this stewardship. However, the steward insisted that said vassal owed him and called in the debt. As he sent out swarms of officers to harass the vassal and take all of his worldly goods, word came to the Master.

The Master called the steward before him. He asked about what he had heard. Eventually the steward confessed. The Master freed the vassal and laid that same punishment on the unjust steward.

Sounds like one of Jesus' parables, right? It is, but it's also about the Obama administration. They insist that we owe them. For their unjust stewardship, whether in this life or the next, the Master will balance the books and send out justice. Our world needs justice more than it needs compassion. Obama would do well to listen to the words of the man he ostensibly worships as King of King, Lord of Lords, and Master of Stewards who holds men accountable for the dispensation of their duties.

Every Life Needs an Anchor

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At the end of the Floridsdorf Subway line in Vienna, there is a bakery. I stopped at this bakery often whenever my journeys in the 21st district took me past it at a time that coincided with freshly baked wares. Before I left the area, I had a companion photograph me sitting out front, to remember the memories and to remember their slogan. "Every life needs an anchor", the banner proudly proclaimed. The name of the bakery was Anchor Bread.

This weekend, as we thought and spoke about Christ, I remembered why I loved this bakery so much. Christ is often thought of as the Bread of Life. He is also the Anchor to which we hold fast in the stormy seas of life. He is the living bread, a bread from which when we sup we may no longer hunger because we are filled with sustenance. Every life needs THIS anchor.

I brood sometimes about the rising generation. They seem so obsessed with 'living life' that they run the risk of not living at all. In their haste to feel and experience and get involved in everything, they run the risk of losing the ability to feel at all. They indulge in whatever they like whenever the mood strikes and for whatever reason they imagine. They know no restraint. They know no discipline. They have not learned to distinguish the bread that gives life from breads that ultimately take it.

Anchors keep things from drifting or being cast about on waves of popular opinion or fashion. The bread consumed by our youth is generally only that which is vogue in the moment. They are living in the moment and for the moment, ignorant of, whether purposely or through accident, the true relevance of life. We are not living for the moment. We are living for things much further down the line.

Last week, I gave my first organic chemistry exam. One particular person left after only twenty minutes. When I looked at the exam, I discovered that most of it was blank. I happen to know a bit about this person's personal life, and the energies invested by this person are not into organic chemistry. Sure, this person hopes to be a medical professional, but the priorities and way in which this person uses energy tell me a completely different story. When the storms rage, medicine takes a back seat. This will hurt this person professionally going forward.

Christ keeps us grounded. His bread gives us quality of life. The Master Physician isn't just interested in extending the duration of life but also in giving to men the greatest quality of life possible, now and in eternity. He realizes that minor choices in the moment greatly impact things far removed in space and in time from our present position. Just as when a stone is dropped in still waters, the ripples of each decision echo across the entire surface of our lives. He keeps us grounded. He keeps us fed. He keeps us centered. Every life needs this anchor, especially the people who do not know or do not like the Savior. He died to save them too.