Politics of Halloween

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At a vote of the class, I cancelled my night lecture today so that class members could participate in the day’s festivities. Having no other plans per se, I came home, rode my bike for an hour, and then I went out to pick up some dinner. When I left for dinner, I left lights on upstairs that are visible from the street, and when I returned home I neglected to turn them off. A few minutes ago, I heard some pelting noises against the front of the house and emerged to find that some neighborhood teenagers have decorated my house with complimentary raw omelets.

I don’t celebrate Halloween by my own choice. I know it means a lot to many of you, and that’s fine. I choose to abstain. I see in the behavior of Halloween something that says much about the political climate today and the focus of the electorate. We’ll leave discussion of the attire and the premise for private conversations.

Following some thought, I think I realized why the teenagers did what they did. You see, they think they are entitled to candy because it’s Halloween and I am home (or at least the lights made them think I was). Nevermind that Trick or Treat is for children (which they insist that they are not unless it plays to their advantage) and that when these shenanigans occur it’s vandalism. I personally don’t feel like supporting by participation in a festival that encourages us to garb our children like servants of the adversary and send them to extort candy from strangers under veiled threats of vandalism. If I gave out candy, that would be my choice, my prerogative. They however see it as my duty to give and their honor to receive.

Hence Halloween reflects in its participants the entitlement attitude of the rising generation. They are not special because they exist, and they do not have a right to anything in my house because they knock on the door. I read stories today about looting on Long Island after Sandy cleared out, with people taking from stores and homes because those people have been robbing them. That is not civilized behavior, and so I refuse to join in let alone endorse it. They are teenagers. They are too old to trick or treat. They ought to be out helping other children have fun rather than selfishly insisting the fun must continue for them whatever the cost and whatever my attitude about it.

Most of the Halloween focus I see is self-adulation, self-aggrandizement, and selfishness. It is about parties and candy and frolic, which are fine, but some people are at work, and quite frankly that’s where I would rather be. Tomorrow, the internet will be plastered with pictures in an attempt to one-up everyone else on how much fun they had tonight. Some of the males I know will oogle the pictures of women dressed with far less clothing than is wise or normal. It’s an excuse for people to behave and dress as they wish they were, and I don’t like some of what I see. Meanwhile, I’ll be cleaning off the egg. Thank goodness my car is in the garage.

As we think about an election and a natural disaster, I do not think we can long survive a phony civilization such as is presently constituted. We have people who act presidential and act like they care and act like they are wise, but it’s all an act. They think they are special, that they deserve things, and worst of all that they can right something they perceive in my as wrong by committing another wrong. You cannot make things right by committing a crime. You cannot make civilization out of people who do not regard the law. I feel sad for these kids. They may never grow up, and we will all be poorer because of it. We’ll spend all of our lives taking care of them.

People Find a Way

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I have several unpopular theories, mostly because they do not validate the way people are. Rather, I expect people to rise to the occasion. The reason for this is that I view them differently. As most of my peers look at the behavior of people, I look at their being. Indeed, I have said many places at many times just how much I agree with CS Lewis- if you take away all that is good in man, you are not left with a bad man; you are left with nothing at all.

People find time and money for the things and people that matter to them. For years now a woman I know keeps indicating how much she wants to take me to Oatman, AZ, blah blah. What she doesn't know that I know is that the other person to whom she made this promise went with her. She hasn't taken me or told me that she and he already went; I'm not important enough for her to go out of her way. When she comes to Vegas, I am supposed to drop everything to meet with her on her schedule; she has no obligation to bend for me, and so I have not seen her for months. I know a woman whose father has money to buy a gun but not to pay his mortgage, who will drive her around but not teach her to drive. He tells her he wants her to be ready for adulthood while he holds her back.

There are plenty of obstacles to our progress without us standing in each other's way or in our own ways. Things arise unexpectedly all the time. I know this storm ripping through New York wasn't something we expected to happen, and the devastation will extend far beyond what we anticipate in a modern era. Not that we're ignorant of nature's power; out west we see it in fires, in earthquakes, etc., but we don't expect it in our major cities. After all, other people are our largest obstacles.

No matter what people build or the earth heaps up against us, people find a way to overcome whatever obstacles they face when they truly desire to achieve. I love this picture because I know what came after it and that in less than a year from the time when this picture was taken the military power that sits on the beach was not only overcome but completely ceased to exist.

Once we have overcome the ocean, the mountains, the earth's gravitational pull, and the shell of an atom, we can overcome any obstacle built by man. People will find a way to achieve anything they truly desire to achieve.

Value for the Money

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This week, I took an accounting of student retention in my three sections. I find it interesting, although I cannot say exactly what it means, that I still have 74 of the 87 students with whom I started the semester. Last night in lab, one of them asked me if I try to make it fun and funny and relevant to keep people, because they found out that if a section drops below a certain enrollment the instructor's pay is cut (I have heard that happens if there are fewer than 10 students). What I actually aim to accomplish is to give them a good value for the money.

Education is not cheap, and it certainly isn't free. There is a great price to be paid by someone, particularly the student, and when the student does not pay, frequently the money spent is wasted. A few semesters ago, I asked one troublesome section to prove to whomever it was who paid the bill that it was worth the cost. There are a few students every term who think that they can do extra work when they don't do the work already available for them to do. So, their time and mine ends up being largely a waste, but I try to salvage it with life lessons when I can. Oddly enough there is only one complaint against me in the 3.5 years I have been teaching at the collegiate level.

My retention level is good for everyone. What this means is that there is continuity to their education. The administration gets the best price possible for hiring me since I earn the absolute minimum, and the taxpayers get the best value possible since I have exceedingly high retention (85% this term). Other professors earn higher wages to teach smaller courses, and so the per student price rises. That culminates in higher tuition, higher property taxes, and higher dropout rates.

Beyond that, I try very hard to tender a course that shows them how the material actually matters to them. Chemistry is a difficult course to teach, because most of them are in the class against their will. I try very hard to show them why they care about what I have to say, where I have used it in life, and where they might expect to have need of the data or skills or principles. In fact, I center the course around three or four core principles and relate the chapters to those principles, and I figure if they only remember the principles at least they come away with something.

Unbeknownst to them, I am actually on their side. For those who stay the course and finish the race, I am interested in them showing dedication and learning. If you can evince a desire to be better and eek out a few steps, then I know learning has occurred and I am more inclined to leniency. You see, you can receive a good grade without learning anything just as much as you can learn a ton without receiving a good grade. Grades are not necessarily synonymous with learning.

The biggest value a college education can give you in my opinion is to show you how to learn. Most professors seem more interested in showing you what to learn than how, but after you graduate, learning can and should continue to occur. I told an older gentleman in my class last night that my philosophy is simply this: "Improve when you can. Hold your ground when you get there." Every little bit helps, and other professors who see my students know which ones are mine. They know what they know, and they are equipped to learn more when they get there, and that makes me feel like I offer something of value.

Beattitudes, Behaviors, and Civilization

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I hear a lot of criticism about people of my Faith and people of faith in general for their "lack of tolerance". The fact of the matter is that we are actually far more tolerant than the people who argue that we need to tolerate them more. In a less civilized age, and among less civilized peoples, aberrant and abhorrent behavior is greeted with violent, immediate, and punitive correction, up to and including death. Life has ever been so, because governments like religions regulate behaviors that threaten to undermine the civilized society.

When people attack me for my views on Abortion, Marriage, Gun ownership, Taxes, Education, ad infinitum, I realize it is because they do not value what I value. Despite their claims to the contrary, they value behaviors and outcomes more than they value people. Contrary to their suppositions, I care far more about people than I do about outcomes. Read about my students, read about my political views, and you will see that I am for the freedom and growth of an individual. I do not believe that I have any right to impose my beliefs on other people. Let them live how they choose, and let them embrace and shoulder the consequences of their own choices.

My beliefs originate with the Beattitudes. Most irreligious or anti-religious people who attack me incorrectly assume that my beliefs originate with the commandments, which punish people for their behavior. The Old Testament was a violent time, when men could be stoned to death for adultery or simply for walking too many steps on the Sabbath. In the New Testament, Christ makes clear that why we do a thing matters at least as much as what we do. It is praiseworthy to help people on the Sabbath; it's not work, and it's not about how many paces you take. It's about the steps you will take to contribute to a civilized society. Too many Christians invite this kind of rabid reactionary behavior because they focus on what a man does. We are interested actually in what a man is, and that is why Christ changed the focus to the heart of man rather than his hand.

Christ invites man to change his nature rather than attempting to correct his behavior. Our detractors claim we are judgmental and do not accept others. On the contrary, we do. It is not people but rather behaviors that are not tolerated, because those behaviors undermine civil society. In the Faith, we do not drive the people out. We continue to minister unto them, inviting them to repent and change their nature to conform with what ought to be. Eventually, through the Atonement of Christ, the behavior goes away while the people may remain. Christ asks us not to change that we are but WHAT we are. Changing who we are automatically alters our behavior. Being always leads to doing.

As they attack us for linking our beliefs to politics, those who advocate for "alternatives" show their disdain for civil society. James Madison, who authored much of the Constitutional Law that allows them to do what they like as long as they accept the consequences, pointed out that "The Constitution was written for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." What these people advocate is not tolerance but immorality, and the Constitution cannot survive that "fundamental transformation".

The perpetuation and stabilization of society requires that we tolerate only the behaviors of citizens that are neutral to or supportive of civil society. I do not hear arguments for why alternative behaviors help, only arguments for the weaknesses of the traditional methods. We of course stand ready to assist the man at all times, in all circumstances, even if he be a Samaritan, because who he is matters more than what he does. What he does matters in terms of how it affects what we can do.

They attack traditional marriage because they claim they desire equality. They are already equal. Every adult in America may marry a member of the opposite sex, and as such they are equal under the law. The people are equal, but the behaviors are not, and that is why the behaviors are not treated equally. Only traditional marriage can biologically create children, and only children created in a traditional marriage have the best odds at becoming law-abiding adults who respect not only what the law is but why those laws are extant. Alternative marriages obtain children from traditional marriage partners or from people who engage in the behaviors that belong in marriage without themselves being married. Only traditional marriage rightly looks after the marriage partners. It protects women who surrender their opportunity to excel to raise offspring and encourages men to take responsibility for the children they sire. In turn, these two prior conditions mean that only traditional marriage has the associated reductions in government spending that come from law-abiding, industrious, cooperative family units. Even people who do not marry or multiply benefit from that arrangement. Alternative marriage is inherently selfish. Rather than raising children to become good citizens, alternative marriage only validates sexual relationships. Marriage is about more than intercourse.

Likewise, Faith treats all people the same while it prescribes and proscribes acceptable behaviors. A homosexual friend of mine once asked me if he could join my faith. I told him that the Law of Chastity requires that I only have sexual relationships with my legal and lawful partner. If he agrees to that law, he ceases to behave as a homosexual and becomes compliant with the requirements, just like, when you travel to Great Britain, you cease to drive on the right and drive on the left like Britains, because that's civil society. It is not acceptable in any way to force your beliefs on others, and yet that is precisely what they propose to do to me. I invite and entice. As soon as you compel you lose the high ground.

The behaviors we advocate are behaviors that support and sustain the civil society. We tolerate behaviors that do not affect the livelihood of the society, and we forbid those that undermine its foundations. I have no argument with the man, only with his behavior, and that is consistent with my beliefs, values, norms, and dogma. Just because you believe a thing does not make it true, and even if it's true that does not make it right. We concern ourselves far too much with what we would like to be rather than with what ought to be.

Learn to See

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For many years, I have relied on instruments to help me see the world as you do. As a nearsighted individual, it has been longer than I can recall since I awoke and could see anything before fumbling for my glasses at the bedside. Once at an optometrist, after he took my glasses and asked me to read the smallest line I could, I smiled and said, “I cannot read it, but I know it’s a large capital E”. I am very grateful that I have corrective lenses and that I was born in a time when they are not only available but also affordable, because I realize that if I had been born a few centuries ago, there is no way I would be a college professor, if I had survived to adulthood at all. I haven’t always felt that way. Many days it’s a pain to put in or take out contac lenses, and my glasses fog up, fume up, or smudge, and after long days they wear heavy on my nose. However, I have learned to look at them as a tool that makes life possible, and they have certainly enriched mine. Sometimes, I think we can’t see things because we don’t know how to look at them.

Sometimes the tools haven’t been invented by which we can see things. Last spring I taught microbiology for the first time, and we discussed Van Loewenhoek’s invention of the first microscope. This allowed people to visualize for the first time the smallest building blocks of life- living cells, and it provided evidence that microbes or microscopic organisms were responsible for maladies heretofore attributed to black magic, wickedness, or bad jujube. In more recent history, new technological achievements have helped us see macroscopic objects far beyond our ability to detect them. The Hubble Space telescope showed us that the darkest part of our sky is actually full of galaxies whose light has simply not yet reached the visible spectrum of our eyes. You see, we see things by bouncing light off of them, which is why we can’t see black holes or anything in the dark, because there’s no light by which our eyes can detect it.

At other times, perspective is what helps us to see. While running this morning, I noticed a younger gentleman also running at least some of the same route I take. Initially, I realized he was running faster than I, but then I noticed a curious thing that he would stop and walk at every half mile waypoint (intersection), which allowed me to catch up with him after following him for a half mile. By the mile point, he could no longer catch up with me because of his hiatus to a lower speed despite the fact that I ran more slowly than he, and by 1.5 miles, he was far in my wake. Similarly, a few weeks ago, I went with a friend of mine who is in far better physical shape in terms of weight, muscle to fat ratio, etc., and we hiked the East Rim at Zion National Park. This hike is 8.2 miles round trip and involves a steep ascent to a spot 2100 feet above the trailhead. He was completely bushed. I never really considered myself to be in good shape, but I realize now that what I have is stamina- an ability to keep going and go the distance even if over the short haul I cannot go as fast as others. Indeed, a few years ago, another fellow I know told me on one of the rare occasions people visit me at home, “Your discipline is your strength”. As I ran today, these words came to mind: “The race doesn’t go always to the swift or the strong but to those who push through to the end.” I don’t consider myself that fit, and I’m not technically an athlete, but I can endure what others cannot.

With all of our personal realizations and technological innovations, some things remain beyond our ability to see them well. Some things are beyond our poor power to see them. Just as an ant cannot actually tell what you are when you step across its path, there are forces in this world more powerful than you can possibly imagine. I have not and probably cannot see God because I have not learned how to look at Him. While it is true that sometimes I see glimmers of Him in the face of a child, the colors of a sunset, the majesty of a hummingbird in flight, or the intricacies of hypercoiled DNA molecules, I have never actually met God or seen Him in person. I do not feel that I need to in order to know He exists. Like CS Lewis says, “I believe in God as I believe in the noonday sun- not that I can see it, but that by it I can see everything.” In fact, if you look directly at the sun, it will blind you, and no manner of corrective lenses can restore that. Yet, many people do not seem to desire to see God or to have Him show them anything. They are those who are wise in their own minds and blind in their own eyes, who having eyes see not, because they are not interested in learning how to see. Like children who resist parental help accomplishing a task, we insist we do not need help and soldier on however inexpertly often towards disastrous results. I love the following cartoon that shows our ignorance (from the webcomic XKCD called “The Search”):

Just because we have tried all that we know does not mean we have found all there is to find. “Science never proves anything,” I tell my students. “It removes all other possibilities until only the truth remains.” Sometimes we cannot see because we don’t know how to look.

In truth, we are all blind. There is so much beyond our sight, beyond our vision, beyond our ability to understand. There was once a time when everyone 'knew' that the world was flat, that everyone 'knew' that Nevada would never reach the NCAA basketball tournament, and when everyone 'knew' that housing investments were always a wise way to get rich. Imagine what we’ll 'know' tomorrow. I feel sorry for people with no room to learn. As a professor, I see a few of these every year, people who already know everything, people who are the star of their own Truman Show, in which all the rest of us are relegated to roles as supporting cast. We have nothing to contribute. We are there for comic relief or to serve them. They do not see because they do not wish to see, and that is sad. In truth, CS Lewis is correct again when his character Screwtape says that humans do not desire true nakedness in prayer as much as they claim. How much more cursed is he that knows God’s will and ignores him than he that only believes or only has cause to believe, and falls into transgression? I challenge you to acknowledge that, wherever you are in your progression, you are still a student and can still learn. I challenge you to ask God for wisdom, for training, for tips and pointers on how to become a true “seer”. I promise you that if you do so with real intent that He will teach you as He has me how to see, even if it’s while you jog or during a sucrose sublimation in science lab. I testify that as you turn the microscope of your spiritual eye to a higher powered lens it will make things resolve in clarity and that the God of Heaven and Earth will show you what He has in store for you, what He has done, and what you can do to be in tune with His will. I testify that this awareness will give you stamina to finish the race, to ascend the heights, from which you can see what normally only the eagles who dare ever do, which is a glorious and wonderful sight to behold.

Dangers of Cycling

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As is customary twice per week, I rolled out of bed early this morning, donned bright colors to increase visibility, grabbed my headlamp, and hit the streets on my bicycle. Contrary to normal experience, during the 10 miles I rode, I was almost hit by cars three times. I don't think drivers look for cyclists. In the past, I have seen drivers look "at" me and then go anyway almost as if they didn't register that a bicycle was there. It's kind of dangerous.

Each of the cases was unique, but each of them had a common theme. The drivers were in a hurry, and I was in their way. In the case of the first, I came up on a blind corner and slowed as I normally do, just as the car pulled out across my path of travel. I was already slow, and the brakes stopped me from hitting the car. In the case of the second, I was passing a street with a stop sign, and I heard the car sliding to a stop; I don't think the driver (who was a white male in a Mustang) actually intended to stop, because he stopped a good 10 feet beyond the stop sign. Finally, I was waiting to cross the street at a corner. Rather than yield or do anything to help me cross (I was 1/8 mile from home), he changed lanes without signalling, and if I had started across, he would have hit me.

I cycle because it's good aerobic exercise and because it allows me to save money on short trips to the store. I do not do it for the environment. In fact, it's dangerous to my personal environment for me to ride a bike. There is still debris in the bike lanes from the huge rain two weeks ago, the cars do not yield to me even if I'm at the corner, and the protection afforded by a bicycle if I were hit is little to none, with little walking out the door. Sometimes I ride my bicycle to work on Fridays, but it's because I choose to as a way to save money and work out at the same time, not out of any conscious effort for the planet. I don't do this much in summer because it's not very easy or wise to ride a bicycle in Vegas during the summer.

Despite the dangers, for some reason the government wants us on bikes. They want us out of our cars, out of the suburbs, crammed together so we're easier to control. Cars mean freedom, including the freedom to be stupid or to kill someone else. Driving is a privilege, but it's a good one in my opinion. Oh sure, they throw us a bone by putting in bike lanes and such, but if they don't keep them clear or educate drivers to watch for us, then what's the point? Cars end up using them as ersatz turn lanes and get in my way.

Until cycling becomes more common, it will continue to be dangerous. Very few people in my neighborhood go outside; my neighbor still runs his AC during the day (yesterday's high was 83F). They don't get out of their cars, and so cars are the only form of transportation they recognize if they recognize one at all. Not enough people ride bicycles in Vegas for the people to be aware or inclined, and not enough days are good weather for the novice cyclist. Then again, when I'm out there are throngs of young children out who stand to be hit by inattentive drivers. Interesting. I know when I see them I register that they seem completely unaware of the cars or the dangers or of traffic, and I wonder if I was so completely unaware as a child. I hope they stay safe.

Biden's Bully Pulpit

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I didn't watch the VP debate for two reasons. First, the Vice President debate rarely affects the outcome unless the Presidential candidate is pathetic, ala McCain-Palin. Secondly, I didn't expect it to have much substance knowing Biden as I do. Partly, I expected Biden to be an idiot, because he comes across as rather stupid, but the rest I knew would come from the only way Biden knows how to debate.

Biden is schooled in one thing only- the art of rhetoric. In debate, the person who argues the best wins, regardless of the facts, and so I expected Biden to try to take charge and pepper Ryan with half truths and whole lies as quickly as possible, which he did. I find it odd that the Democrats are so critical of Sherman's battle strategy while they also slash and burn through people with Southern Values. So, Biden can win the debate by attacking his opponent rather than attacking his opponent's ideas. This is what most people hate about politics, except for Democrats when Democrat candidates for office engage in it.

Carpet-bombing Ryan’s character, Joe Biden opened up as I expected him to. The tactic is simple- hit him with so many things that he cannot respond to all of them well if at all, not to mention the interruptions by the moderator. Biden the attack dog was completely and openly contemptuous and disrespectful, but DEMs loved it. He interrupted Ryan 82 times while the moderator was complicit to this unfair attack, although DEMs go on and on about fairness. What they really mean by "fairness" is to have things their way, but I digress. The Moderator was the third wheel, chiming in and two-timing Ryan in a cage match. Next time, maybe she should just step in the ring and smash Ryan over the head with a chair.

People looking for a reason to hate Ryan found one, nevermind the notion that Biden has been lying in the Senate longer than I have been alive. People who liked Biden did so not because he was smart but because they emotionally hate the GOP. Biden was not nice, and if he did that to them, they would, rightly so, think he was an odious man, which he is. All the while, they forget that Biden was the one who called people who don't pay taxes "unpatriotic". I guess they don't want to be patriots.

Biden lies more on the record than any other politician. He lied about his resume and still does. He has more gaffes than any other politician of which I am aware. The problem with his gaffe’s is that they’re usually true. While he talks about fighting the system, he hopes you won’t notice that he IS the system. Some people at least rightly recognized that he was a rude and cranky old man or a condescending prick. You’re a great guy, Paul Ryan, but… (incidentally that’s very similar to the title of my autobiography)

From his bully pulpit, Joe Biden attempted to beat up Paul Ryan. With the assistance of the media, the moderator, and "the masses", the message will go out that Biden did Obama a service when he really cheapened the process more than anything. Democrats would rather be witty than wise, crafty than craftsmen, fair than free. Biden showed all of that last night, but most Democrats won't care. They are that troublesome third.

Reliant on Representations?

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As another episode in our "don't believe everything you hear" campaign, I decided to tell you about a scientific experiment I did a few years back with my students. I did this to teach them a lesson about first sources, primary sources, the reliability of the internet, and doing their own homework. Upset though they were at first, I know they were all grateful it didn't turn out to be a grade, and I decided to share it after telling my best friend I had done this.

For this particular assignment, I first had to do quite a bit of preparation. During the weeks immediately prior, I registered an account with wikipedia and spent time modifying the articles so that they were factually inaccurate. In at least two cases, I even linked to sources, one of which was unrelated, and the other of which was contradictory just to expose the process. Then, I gave the research assignment and waited for the responses.

Consistent with expectations, students turned in their work replete with plagiarism. Some of them hadn't even bothered to change the formatting from wikipedia or other internet resources. I took the most egregious of errors and made powerpoint slides of them to show the hazards on relying on the representations of others. In this particular case, someone had purposely and maliciously spun the information to deceive- and I was that person!

The fact of the matter is that many people purposely and maliciously spin information to deceive. Some of them do it innocently, and a rare few do it by accident, but by and large, people do what they do with an agenda. God forbid they do so with an ulterior motive! I have seen people change data, hide results, omit things, and add things that are not there, as I did in this experiment. They do this to protect data for further research, to protect their reputations, to advance their careers, to embarrass their opponents, and to destroy their enemies. In my case, I discovered that we began our research in graduate school based on half truths and whole lies, which resulted only in a waste of time, money, effort, and hope. At least nobody was hurt.

Sometimes people are not so lucky and lose something precious to them. However, as I wrote before, we rely too much on second hand information and what other people tell us is so. In many cases we justify this because the people have titles. Are their titles legitimate? Are the processes by which men get titles good ones? Shoot, I can forge patents of nobility, but calling me a cantaloupe makes me not a melon. I tell my students that everyone has an agenda. God is the only one who acts without any ulterior motives.

I know we are taught to be trusting. I have learned that people may mean what they say, and they also mean other things. We let ourselves hear what we like. We pass on things that validate us. We support people who make us feel important. We look to whom is right rather than what is right. Then we rely on what people represent to us without looking to what they represent by the way they live.

You can say anything you like and post whatever you like to the internet. The number of people who pass it on indicates less so how valid it is as much as it indicates how popular it is. The popularity of something is a poor measurement of something's quality or value.

The "Lesser" Light

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I have long been fascinated with lighthouses and celestial navigation. One of the most expensive framed prints I have in my house is of a wave crashing against a lighthouse, and one of the most expensive pieces of scrimshaw I own is a 1:85 scale model of the USS Constitution. Over the past several weeks, they have come up in conversation for several reasons as I watched “Pete’s Dragon” discussed my next trip to the Jersey shore to see old lighthouses, and as we talked about the moon and stars guiding struggling seamen.

Away from the shore in the dark of the night, the seaman relies on the “lesser light”. It is enough to steer him along the course that leads him safely home, allows him to make the turns, and warns him against the dangers to his seafaring journey. In that moment, being a “lesser light” does not make it less important or useful or valuable; it refers to the ability of that light to counter the darkness.

The moon casts a powerful light on many nights. I have hiked in the desert when the moon was so clear and so bright and so full that I could see insects scatter on the path around me. It is after all a reflection of the Sun, the same original and perfectly bright source, bounced back as the best approximation of which the moon is capable. Just like the moon reflects the sun, God invites our lives to reflect the light of the Son to those that sit in darkness. He knows we are not perfect, and He also knows that the full strength of His light might be too much just as the noon-day sun is after you’ve watched “Return of the King” in the dark cinema. It is enough to invite people to come to the light, to look forward to the light, and to embrace it when it comes to its full. Our example can be enough to encourage men to repentance.

Perhaps you feel as I do that you are a “lesser light”. Maybe you wonder, as I do, if the mistakes of your life have caked too much dirt onto the lens so as to obfuscate the beam. Maybe the storm of doubt is so strong that you cannot pull up enough fire to light the wick of testimony.  Maybe you don’t think that your light matters or that anyone is out there or that they’ll be able to see you when other people seem to be much better lights. Maybe the world has cried so loudly about your humanity that you can only see that you are less than you ought to be. To the lost, the lonely, and the looking, your light will be bright enough. To them, no matter how it flickers or falters or fails, it is a glorious and wonderful sight. If God wanted all men to have a perfect guide across the shoals and in the storms of life, He would guide them all Himself in the perfect light of day. However, He invites us to help Him and be the miracle in the lives of other people.

I love the words of a hymn all but forgotten that I used to sing in college:

Brightly beams our Father’s mercy from His lighthouse evermore, But to us He gives the keeping of the lights along the shore. Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave! Some poor struggling, sinking sailor you may rescue, you may save.
Dark the night of sin has settled, loud the angry billows roar; Eager eyes are watching, longing, for the lights, along the shore. Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave! Eager eyes are watching, longing, for the lights, along the shore.
Trim your feeble lamp, my brother, some poor sailor tempest tossed, Trying now to make the harbor, in the darkness may be lost. Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave! Trying now to make the harbor, some poor sailor may be lost.

God’s light is perfect. It is always enough and to spare. Sometimes, we set out to worlds unknown and places far from the safety of the shore. In those times, we rely on people to set a light on the shore and keep it to guide us home when we are ready to return. In those times, God invites us to help Him save men, inviting us to trust that if we provide the best approximation of His light of which we are capable that He will make it useful work.  When that time comes, the seekers do, as the poet wrote, eagerly watch the shore for whatever lesser light they may be able to spot. I know that you are not perfect, because I know my weaknesses more intimately than any other mortal, but to the lost, the lonely, and the longing, your feeble lamp may save a soul.

Fear not if your lamp be feeble or dark as long as you can manage a spark.
Away from the shore in the dark of the night, the seaman relies on the “lesser light”. -me

Family on Purpose

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I know a lot of people, unfortunately, who were conceived 'on accident' or who have conceived 'on accident'. I confess I don't really know how that's possible. How do you accidentally go through the motions that lead to conception of a child? More to the point, how does that make the children feel?

One of my close acquaintances discovered a few years ago that he was 'an accident'. His father confessed one night when he was drunk that they never intended to have any children. This devastated my friend. He has since turned to me, so much that when he met his current wife, dated her, and got engaged, I knew before his family. His parents are dead to him, and I have become sort of an ersatz-father to whom he turns for advice and conversation. He even asked my advice on joining the navy before he ever discussed it with his parents.

This does a huge heap of damage to the child. Imagine how devastated you would be to discover your parents never meant to have you, that you were an inconvenience to their life, and that you shook up their plans. Aside from being very selfish, that revelation is exceptionally harmful. If it's true, make sure your children NEVER find out. Twice in the past week, I have encountered students who have children who view them as a burden. They didn't intend to have any, and one of them is now expecting a second. I fear for those children, and I wonder how much of what I see in education comes because the parents resent their children albeit subconsciously.

How do you accidentally have a child? It's very easy to stay away from situations that lead to childbirth or to 'prevent' it if you 'rehearse'. They knew what they were doing. What they resent is the consequences. Even worse, some people 'fix' what they do and terminate that life because they weren't ready. If you weren't ready to do the time, don't commit the crime (not that children are a crime or punishment). You know where the road can lead. Don't assume you're the exception to the rule. Don't act surprised.

Far too many of us think that we can engage in things that we know can harm us without any negative consequences. Some of us have escaped them and take past as prologue. History tells us otherwise.

We know of what sex is a kind. We will not be special, no matter the beautiful markings with which we are tempted. You cannot do something dangerous and expect to escape consequences. With the freedom to choose comes the responsibility to accept the consequences. Freedom is not to do what we like; it is power to do what we OUGHT. Perhaps that's why so many people seem to prefer tyranny.

With great power comes great responsibility. Too many people in this world want the benefits without having to pay the price. Too many want to arrive in the West without crossing the plains. Too many want wealth without work, knowledge without study, and exaltation without sacrifice. Yet, they will buy their Lexus, their iPhone, and subscribe to Cable, in which case they are willing to pay the price. That's all about money, and so the price is actually small even if the price tag is large.

Children take more than money. Family is about time. Family must be made on purpose. Any idiot can sire a child, but it takes a real man to be a dad. I had a real father, and I consider it one of the greatest blessings in my life to have good parents who had me on purpose. Ok, so maybe they didn't pick me specifically, but I came as consequence of a conscious choice. I was on purpose, and because my parents planned with purpose, I have done well despite the proclivities of the world.

I am scared out of my wits to be a father. I think I'll do okay, but I don't know, and that scares me. I want to be a good father, which is why I do not regularly engage in any behavior that might lead to that event until it's on purpose for the right purpose. I worry that I might be selfish, that I might not communicate well, that I might spoil them too much or not trust them enough or leave out something in their preparation. When the time comes, if it comes, I intend to be a good father. If I have children, they will always be on purpose. They are the purpose anyway, even for those who degrade family to "perpetuation of the species". It's time we kept that in mind.

October Surprises

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As is usual in politics, I expect there to be a whole slieu of October surprises. Most of these things have proven in past years to be untrue. As such, my advice is to ignore new things about which you have heard nothing prior to October.

Both campaigns have enough money that if it was true in September, they could have found it and publicized it. In 2004, I fell victim to an ad in the last few weeks and changed my vote on a rumor, and I have never regretted any cast vote more than that (not that my vote was the only one that made a difference). I believed a story without anything to back it up other than what I heard on the news. The news is frequently wrong.

I intend, and I advise you to do the same, to look only at things that have already been reported. Either they are what they claim they are and history will support it or they are demagogues. There may be some interesting developments in the last moments, but most people are pretty much already decided.

This week's debate didn't change my mind. I don't really think it changed the minds of many people. Most of the new information will just be emotional (Obama Phone!) or a bribe (Obama Phone!), and so is based as far from reason as possible.

Wait until November, then go vote. It will be interesting to see if November is a surprise.

Secondhand Knowledge

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In all honesty, sometimes I am afraid of my students. Most of them have just emerged from their teenage years, and a few of them seem to me to be "terrible teens". However, the teenage years are a great time: a time of learning, by study and also by application. Some of the lessons are painful. Some of them are spectacular. All of them build our youth into the people they will eventually become. I feel blessed as well as burdened to play a part in that process.

Teaching is challenging for me because I am frequently there for a different reason than the students. Since I teach chemistry, most of my students are there to mark off a box on their degree requirements rather than learn about chemistry. Mostly, despite my best efforts to the contrary, they still worry about grades more than about knowledge. I wish they were interested in the search for truth as much as they are interested in the search for answers. Rather than care about learning, they care about what they can do to obtain grades.

Proper scientific investigation is supposed to be the search for truth. However, most scientists go at the research with an agenda- hoping to prove what they already believe. We're a rather arrogant lot, more concerned with getting our name in scientific papers than we are in getting into our work to teach students as we once were. In truth, most people are not searching for the truth. They secretly hope the truth will corroborate what they already happen to believe.

The problem comes from how we begin the search for truth. Although all the students know that scientific method begins with an observation, most of the research begins based on the biased observations reported by others. Rather than seeing something ourself, we piggy back on what someone else saw, sometimes beginning with a false premise. We rely far too much on secondhand knowledge. One of my students wrote in answer to a question on the exam that a thing was so when the instructor tells us that it is. We do not know anything about a subject by our own investigation. We sit there and let other people tell us. We do it with the news, with schooling, and even in church. That's because it's easier and doesn't cost us as much as it does to go and actually read something. I cannot tell you how much time I spend online proving that famous people did not say the things people attribute to them.

Things have changed since I was a student only a decade ago. Much of what we learned was only true from a certain point of view or in certain circumstances. Now we have access to more information at a more rapid pace, and yet we do less reading and less research than ever. I warn my students about the internet, about what people write and say, and about what they hear without the rest of the story to back it up. As Arthur Conan Doyle warned us, "It is useless to theorize without the facts...you begin to bend facts to fit your theories."

Knowledge and truth are related, but they require us to actively look and learn. Effort is required, but it is effort that is worth the price. We can learn more about gravity in a year than Newton learned in his lifetime, but the way in which Newton learned made it real firsthand accounts. In a court of law, hearsay is inadmissible, but in the court of public opinion and public research, secondhand knowledge is primary and in many cases preferred.

Reliance on secondhand knowledge lays a sandy foundation. If you begin with a false premise, logic dictates that false cannot lead to truth. We waste enormous amounts of time and money attaching emotions like hope to a particular bit of information and calling it irrefutable truth when it's an editorial masquerading as fact. In this season of political accusations, we hear that a particular candidate wants seniors to go without healthcare, doesn't care about his garbage man, and killed a steel worker's wife. When you look into it, you find that even if true, it's coincidental, but that's not sensational and not important to "the story". Moreover, the education system is complicit with this deficit of truth. Nobody loses his PhD when his thesis is refuted.

When he is called before Pilate, Jesus sets an interesting example. Pilate hauls in Jesus on the word of other men. When he sees Jesus, he probably couldn't believe that an unassuming man could possibly rouse the rabble to their fervor, and so he asks Jesus if he is the king of the Jews. Jesus answers: "Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?" Pilate then refuses to do anything other than rely on what others tell him.

Reliance on secondhand knowledge enslaves us to other men. When we rely on what others tell us, we in essence do their will. When we rest on what others tell us, what we claim as our personal knowledge is their opinion. When we rely on men, who never have all the facts, we leave ourselves with an incomplete picture and miss often the most salient points. Learn it for yourself. Go research it. Don't let others tell you what to do or think or be. Do your own homework. That's always good advice.

Ringtone as Reminder

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Due to circumstances beyond my control, I arrived a few minutes late to my 2PM class yesterday afternoon. Consequently, some other things happened that usually don't fall between the cracks, and I ended up forgetting to turn off my cell phone. It's my class policy to have no cell phones in class, and so I unceremoniously removed the battery and continued on, but not before some students heard my ringtone.

After class, one of them asked me if they had heard what they thought they had heard. My ringtone is Darth Vader saying "I find your lack of faith disturbing", and it's been that for a long time on purpose.

Very often in my life, I lose heart without any reason to other than I fear things might not go well. I have no evidence that I'm the problem, that I'm the target, or that my fears will even come to pass. Perhaps it's because the media seems more concerned with what a GOP candidate MIGHT do than they are with what their incumbent already did, but I digress. We may be conditioned to expect and anticipate bad news, partially because it's not acceptable to celebrate our own successes. In these times, sometimes my phone will ring, and Darth Vader will actually call me to repentance.

I know that was not Vader's intent. He's not actually talking about the same kind of faith, but when I hear the phone ring, I ask myself if I am following the path of fear or faith. When my faith is lacking, it disturbs me enough. Over the past several years, as I have prayed and shared my concerns with my Maker, I have felt impressed that if there was a reason to worry, He would tell me directly and not through some supposed surrogate or superstitious supposition.

The ringtone reminds me to look to first sources. We rely far too much on secondhand information. I may have already cited this verse, but it's still prescient: "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man...and answer thou me (Job 38:2-3)." When I worry needlessly, I ask myself whether I have reason to believe this and what message the information I actually possess conveys. Sometimes the information I have isn't accurate or sufficient, but if you make the best decision you have with the information available, that really is the best you can do, and you can sleep easy.

I keep the ringtone as a reminder. Without faith it is impossible to please God. By faith Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea. By faith, Peter left his net and became an Apostle. By faith, Elijah called down fire from heaven. By faith, Joshua defeated Jericho without swinging a single sword or shooting a single arrow. Faith precedes the miracle, and so I use this to remind me to find or foster or forage for faith amongst the information and experiences I possess.

During the immediate instance, it may be difficult to choose faith. When surrounded or beset, the troubles loom large and the blessings fade into the background of our lives and memories. At those times, sometimes my phone literally rings, and a smile crosses my face as I choose faith, and that disturbs my enemies.