The 'Right' to Privacy

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You will hear a lot this election cycle about the so-called right to privacy. It's something that was invented. I have heard journalists refer to it as part of the Constitution, even though in all the times I have ever read it I have never seen it mentioned. Monarchists do not care about privacy, unless it's keeping aberrant and abhorrent activities from the public eye. Don't believe me? Let me show you.

You think that you have a private life and a private home and a private demeanor. If you're on Facebook, think again. Everything out there that you send over the internet anywhere or receive from anywhere on the internet is funneled through the ECHELON computer database. Echelon was established under the Clinton Administration to sift through information looking for references to terrorism, sedition, etc. It is highly likely that because I have mentioned ECHELON that this post and everyone who reads it will be monitored specifically to see if we have ulterior motives. They're paranoid.

Think of all the ways in which the Government is in your business. They tell you what toilet bowls you must buy, which light bulbs you are allowed to own, that you can't talk on a cell phone while driving (but other people can put on makeup, eat, or do other things without a $250 fine), etc. They watch what websites we visit, restrict our access to apple juice for its alleged arsenic content (nevermind the uranium, boron, lead, etc. in Lake Mead), and tell us we can't eat trans fats. Then they go out and gorge themselves on whatever food they like. You see, they are better than we are. They are in our homes and in our heads, and they haven't the right. They do not like liberty. They like control.

The right to privacy exists to ensconce aberrant and abhorrent behaviors. When an Idaho Senator made a gesture in a restroom, it was public news. When the president engaged in lewd acts in the oval office, we were told his personal life was off limits. When Bristol Palin gave birth to an illegitimate child, it was all over the news. The president however insists that his children are none of the media's business, and the media complies. The right of privacy exists to establish the behaviors, values, and norms lived by Sodom and Gomorrah: abortion, sexual deviancy, and other rites of paganism.

Need more evidence? Look at your tax forms and every file you complete for any reason. You have to put your blazing social security number on everything. The IRS demands to know what you donate to whom and what it's worth, and you sign the document under penalty of purgery. Fear has become a tool of this government.

Monarchists and elitists do not believe in privacy. They will tell you that they do, but they will always back up the efforts of the police to barge into your home and confiscate your stuff looking for something to substantiate the warrant, if they even bother to get one. They believe in control. If they really believed in privacy, they would back out of control of things that might harm you, institute a flat tax, and let parents deal with their children. The fact of the matter is that they do not trust you.

With great power comes great responsibility. If you would be free, govern yourselves, and elect those who do likewise.

Faith, Football and Tim Tebow

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I was going to start this post by saying I'm not one to put my faith on parade, but if you pay attention to my posts, the fact is that I am a man of faith. Tim Tebow displays his in a much more obvious way, and that is the truth behind the attacks on him.

People who are not sure what they believe are annoyed by people who have some confidence in their own convictions. Of course, there are non-Christians who are annoyed by the specific display, but those whose religion is irreligion as well as those who are not sure what they believe are offended because it's clear that Tebow is sure. Now, I haven't heard Tim Tebow claim that God is on his side or wants him to win or any of that other nonsense. God, quite frankly, isn't really all that interested in that sort of contest for the scoreboard. What he cares about is individual growth as a person by consequence of each play and player.

The truth is that there's far more anti-Christian bigorty out there than the other way around. People even of other Christian faiths attack me for mine even after people they know and trust defend my faith. Of course, we're also not the ones out there slaughtering people because they are infidels of faith (at least not today and not as a group). Shoot, there's really no such thing as "Christians" as a whole.

When you attend your worship services, remember that not everyone who worships with you shares your Faith. As President Obama likes to point out, he 'does not agree' with Jeremiah Wright's black liberation theology. There are lots of people who attend services to be seen in attendance, to check outfits, to socialize, to get a date, ad infinitum. Some will seek any excuse to avoid actually talking about Christ. They "draw near to Him with their lips while their hearts are far from Him". I have been saying for years that membership in the Kingdom of Christ depends far more on who has your heart than who has your records.

In his foundational work "Mere Christianity", CS Lewis says that: “The world does not consist of 100 percent Christians and 100 percent non-Christians. There are people (a great many of them) who are slowly ceasing to be Christians but who still call themselves by that name: some of them are clergymen. There are other people who are slowly becoming Christians though they do not yet call themselves so." Just because someone self-identifies with some group or ideology doesn't mean that it's true any more than every criminal denies being at the scene of the crime means they weren't there. You tell on yourself by what you do.

Tebow tells us that God matters to him. Ok, so maybe on Sunday he was atwitter about the church social on Saturday night, but the preponderance of his behavior points to a higher purpose than Church Taco Night or a championship ring. He knows that the fact that he lives and breathes and has his being is by the grace of God and power of Christ. The media do not like that, because they are an arm of government. You see, "there is God and then there is government; God is bigger than government, and government doesn't like that (Inga Barks)".

People who believe that Tebow is polarizing are people who feel threatened by his beliefs. Tebow is not going out there thumping his bible or quoting scriptures or crying repentance. He is acknowledging the source of his talents, that our lives and our abilities are all on loan from God until He calls us home. It's far more offensive to me to watch people roast Tebow for his beliefs than it is that he bows his knee after every touchdown. Apparently, it's ok to be religious in America unless you are a Jew or a Christian. Be you. Do what you do. We still have the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience.

I've been praying publicly privately since 1994, and nobody who has even been bothered by that has amounted to a hill of beans in my life. Live what you believe, whatever that is, and if it is of good report and praiseworthy, it will exalt others and lead you together to greater truth, peace, and joy.

To Be Seen of God

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Today, I found out that Zooey Deschanel donates $1500/month to charity. Compared to her $95,000 monthly salary, that's a relative pittance, but it was illuminating. I remember that in the 2008 election we discovered that Joe Biden had donated $3000 in his ENTIRE LIFE to charity at that point. Of course, it's not really any of our business, and it's not really about how much or what we do but why.

While on my mission in Austria in 1998, we got involved with this clothing donation service. A woman organized donations that were shipped over to Tibet to refugees from the Chinese government, which has occupied Tibet basically forever. After a while in Vienna, we were also invited to join some others to help sort a particularly large clothing donation before it was sent over. As a consequence, I was able to obtain a free souvenier hat, since the woman told us that Tibetan monks wouldn't wear it. However, there was something far more nefarious afoot.

This woman did not tell the people from whence the clothing originated. In essence, when she arrived, she told people that she had given these clothes to them. While technically true, she was really only the broker; to my knowledge, none of the items ever donated were from her wardrobe. Consequently, she had been relegated to the status of demigod among the people; she would arrive 'from heaven' on a jet to the unsuspecting people who then worshipped and even prayed to her. And people think I am arrogant...

I know a lot of people who do things, not because they're right, but for the accolades. They set up businesses so they can give away money, not to help the people anonymously, but so they can get credit. They donate their time and talents to strangers for recognition while they neglect responsibilities at home. They waste the sustenance earned by loving spouses to earn respect and honor from strangers. They have their reward.

Yesterday, I had a chat with a close friend of mine. He told me "I do not need a mandate to serve. There are things I can do and opportunities I can take advantage of without being told to act". What I really esteem about this man is that he does so quietly and clandestinely. He does not want people to know.

People who do right things for the right reasons don't usually want people to know. They donate anonymously and surreptitously, circumspectly doing things for people who stand in need, even if the needs are small an unglamorous. If identified, they are usually embarassed; it is not in their nature to be praised for doing what they feel they ought. It is in their nature to serve others regardless of circumstance, regardless of consequence.

Most of us who do these things do them to be seen of God. Some of us do them because we hope God will reward us. Some of us do them because we like to participate in the work of God. Some of us do it even when there is no reward, and some few do so even when it seems like an exercise in futility. We do not know what the circumstances will elicit; from bad circumstances, some of the best people have arisen. Some of God's best children have been through deeper and longer troughs than any others. It's because they are willing to pay the price.

A member of my congregation made a surprisingly honest confession. He admitted he wasn't sure he wanted to stand in God's presence again. He wasn't sure he wanted to return. Humans do not desire true nakedness before God as much as they claim; being seen of God in our true selves somtimes means more than that for which we bargain.

On the hat to which I linked, there is a special plume called a "Gam's Bart" in Austria. It is given as a special award to expert hunters. I was given mine as a thank you from a farmer after many hours of work without remuneration because he knew I was looking for one and had an extra. I was never really a hunter, but people in that nation who see it know what it means.

It's a special kind of person who is really seen of God. They're not like normal people. They're a new kind of man, not because of what they do, but because of what they are. The rich people who cast in their money did well; the woman who cast in her mite did more. What costs us little, we esteem very lightly.

I respect people like Zooey for what they do do. I respect the New Men for what they are. I close with some words from CS Lewis:

Already the new men are dotted here and there all over the earth. Some, as I have admitted, are still hardly recognisable: but others can be recognised. Every now and then one meets them. Their very voices and faces are different from ours: stronger, quieter, happier, more radiant. They begin where most of us leave off. They are, I say, recognisable; but you must know what to look for. They will not be very like the idea of ‘religious people’ which you have formed from your general reading. They do not draw attention to themselves. You tend to think that you are being kind to them when they are really being kind to you. They love you more than other men do, but they need you less. (We must get over wanting to be needed: in some goodish people, specially women, that is the hardest of all temptations to resist.) They will usually seem to have a lot of time: you will wonder where it comes from. When you have recognised one of them, you will recognise the next one much more easily. And I strongly suspect (but how should I know?) that they recognise one another immediately and infallibly, across every barrier of colour, sex, class, age, and even of creeds. In that way, to become holy is rather like joining a secret society. To put it at the very lowest, it must be great fun.

These are the men who are seen of God.

What it Takes

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Years ago, after I left graduate school, it was difficult to get a job in my field. For some reason, I found it difficult to get any job, but I eventually obtained one doing manual labor for about $10/hour starting pay. I remember when I went in for the interview the person asked me why, with a graduate degree in biochemistry, I would want to work there. I told them that I was unemployed and they were hiring, and that sounded like a win-win to me.

While working for that organization, I met a lot of very interesting people who changed my perspective on people who work in other fields. Although they were not people I would likely have befriended otherwise, I found them to be good people, wholesome people, and people with whom I was glad to be associated. Many of them were people who did their duty and worked multiple jobs to pay the bills.

I still remember Shawn, who was my trainer. Shawn was this very typical grungy-looking guy whose appearance screamed at my eyes every justification for being judgmental towards people in this type of work. He had several tatoos and piercings and wore his hair long and matted like a rock band member. Later I discovered that he had indeed started a rock band, which was his passion, but that he worked both for us as well as at a paint warehouse for a total of 70 hour weeks. He had two kids, and he told me he had realized he needed to man up and be a father.

Sometimes I wonder about the people who work at fast food joints, supermarkets, and other places I have occassion to visit. I know from personal experience with former coworkers that many of them are doing what they love. I also know that some of them are doing what duty requires. They have obligations and responsibilities. Just last night, there was a woman in line behind me at Wal-mart who told her daughter they couldn't buy checkout candy because she needed the money to pay rent. I could have hugged her. What a great lesson she's teaching her daughter! Some of these people work very hard at low-paying jobs to make the rent, buy food, and keep their cars from being repossessed.

I respect those who are willing to do what it takes to provide for themselves. Some of them have dirty jobs. Some of them have menial jobs. However, we have far too many people who are unwilling to take a job they view as 'beneath them'. Maybe that's why we are importing so many workers, that or maybe because when some Americans take the jobs, they are surly to customers because they resent having to take a job they don't like at a wage less than they think they 'deserve'.

Responsible people do what it takes. Sometimes, they scrape by and sacrifice now so they can reap bigger benefits later. Disciplining ourselves to delay gratification helps us better weather the storm. A few years back when they announced an official 2.5% pay cut, I remember dozens of complaints via email about how they weren't going to be able to pay the bills. Obviously, these people's expenditures expand in step with their incomes. I wasn't happy, but all it did was reduce the amount of money I saved every month.

One fundamental precept of Christianity is to care for one's own. With great power to create life comes the great responsibility to care for those one sires. Paul wrote to Timothy: “If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim 5:8). I have been thinking about Elijah and the widow for years now and telling people that God can only multiply your oil and meal if you have some in the first place. As such, when I moved in last year, I endeavored to lay up in store what I could as a sign to God that I was willing to comply with preparedness, even if they were things I could not easily use or did not usually eat, and that He would give me wisdom or opportunities in how to use them wisely.

Over the last few years, we have seen the economy of the western world flounder. Led largely by the housing boom, people got caught up in flipping houses for money to become easy millionaires. A close acquaintence of mine was actually caught with three houses at the height and ended up working as a radiologist at two firms to pay the bills (I have no idea what eventually happened to him or the houses). As he looked at the plight of the people, Thomas S. Monson spoke of how “Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their year’s supply of food … and were debt-free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reverse: they have at least a year’s supply of debt and are food-free.” Like those who work at McDonalds or Del Taco or whatever, if we do small things and gradually build to something more reasonable and comprehensive, things will be manageable.

I testify that God helps those who help themselves. I testify that preparedness brings courage and faith. As a missionary in Austria in 1998, one month, I worried because of external viccisitudes too lengthy to mention here that I would run out of money. On my bookshelf at home to this day there is a single Austrian Shilling (about US $0.08 at the time) that constitutes all that remained after everything else I paid. I keep it as a reminder that God has multiplied my oil and meal many times over and enabled me to reach out to those who, like the widow and her son, are hungry, destitute and cold and granted me wisdom sufficient as a consequence that enabled me to live comfortably within my means. God will do what it takes as you do your duty. Wrote the poet: Do your duty; that is best; leave unto the Lord the rest.

In the Absence of Success

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The more I give positive feedback to folks about how they have influenced my life for the good, the more convinced I am that most people think they make very little difference. Some people get periodic feedback, and some small unfortunate portion of us may never know what we did to make a positive difference in the lives of other people. No matter how frustrating it might be when our efforts don't bear the fruit for which we really hope, the formula for a successful life is much simpler than we think.

Consequently I've thought a lot about how to encourage people when it seems like you're tilting at windmills. For New Years, a friend of mine posted to her blog a quote I really liked:

"Count no day lost in which you waited your turn, took only your share and sought advantage over no one." ~Robert Brault

Common decency in a world that expects little from people and offers them less is a great mark of humanity. Many people are homo sapiens, but very few are actually human beings. Brault seems to indicate the life well lived, the one in which you actually demonstrate respect and honesty, and fairness, is one in which you do these things by choice. Notice that all the words he uses are action words: wait, take, and seek. Actively deciding to be a good person makes the days worth living.

To some, life might seem as if we never existed. Perhaps you feel like an ant or a grasshopper, which is one of many trillions and so small compared to the universe that you feel it makes very little difference that you even exist. If your view of existence is that after this life there is nothing, then I understand your plight. If there really is nothing, then nothing we do matters, if it even happens. What would be the point to sentient life if it's that transitory?

However, there is a purpose to life. You see, our detractors tell us that life is a series of marathons at the end of which there's not so much as a ribbon for finishing let alone a cash prize. When I think of this, I think of James Kirk climbing El Capitan in Star Trek VI. Spock asks him why he's bothering, and Kirk says because it's there. He gets a sense of accomplishment from reaching the top. You see, sometimes the reward is in what we become as we work to arrive at a destination. Although I can't cite the source as such, I remember that Heber Grant, after returning from Japan from his service as a Christian missionary in 1903, was told that "his success was that he continued in the absence of success".

In one of his sermons that I've already mentioned on my blog some time before he competed to be part of Britain's contingent to the 1924 Paris Olympics, Eric Liddel said the following:

You came to see a race today. To see someone win. It happened to be me. But I want you to do more than just watch a race. I want you to take part in it. I want to compare faith to running in a race. It's hard. It requires concentration of will, energy of soul. You experience elation when the winner breaks the tape - especially if you've got a bet on it. But how long does that last? You go home. Maybe you're dinner's burnt. Maybe you haven't got a job. So who am I to say, "Believe, have faith," in the face of life's realities? I would like to give you something more permanent, but I can only point the way. I have no formula for winning the race. Everyone runs in her own way, or his own way. And where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within. Jesus said, "Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. If with all your hearts, you truly seek me, you shall ever surely find me." If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race.

The race is not about who crosses first. The human race is a test to see who will pay the price to concentrate their will and focus the energy of the soul to finish the race. It is hard, because it demands of us something more than we're naturally inclined to give.

This is how your success can be in the absence of success. You see, most equate success with some kind of prize, some kind of medal, and although Liddel did medal in 1924, his biggest victory was in staying true to his principles and telling the future King of England that he would not run on the Sabbath. However, everyone who finishes the race finishes the race. That is an amazing accomplishment.

A few years back, I tried to run a marathon. I thought it would be cool to say I had or do it many times, or whatever. After I ran the half marathon, I decided that if I wanted to use my knees past the age of 50 it was not wise for me, but I finished the race. Some people never do. They run fast and burn out or they are ill prepared or they get sick. I will always remember the olympics in Beijing a few years back where the putative front runner for the marathon got sick about 1km from the finish and never completed the race, even though she was in the front up until then. I felt bad for her.

Seeing the race to the end and running a straight race are the point of our existence. DH Groberg wrote a poem about this. For a slightly overly melodramatic reading, you can watch below:

There is a reason we praise runners. They have learned to go the distance.

"Extreme" Conservativism

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Especially today after the Iowa caucus, but also throughout the time during which I've paid attention to politics, I've heard much ado about how 'extreme' certain candidates are. However, the comparisons made are meant to create an emotional response rather than actually being extreme, and they never bother to explain to what they compare it to make it extreme. Apparently, these people lack historical perspective.

At the time, although few I know alive now think this, what the Founding Fathers did was extreme. They committed high treason. We accept it as normal because we largely buy into the notion that the tyranny under which George III kept his empire was widely known and understood. However, it's really only extreme when you ask for a matter of comparison. For us, under the current situation and with our thus far pathetic attempts at redress of grievances, to take up arms, secede, or otherwise establish any kind of sedition or rebellion would be extreme. Remember that they went far further and waited far more patiently as Lobsterbacks shot colonists before the Continental Congress reluctantly declared independence.

Conservativism is wise. People who are monarchists, like George III, call conservativism extreme because it is a far cry from what they would like. Some people like to equate it with Naziism or Nationalism, when Conservativism is neither of those. Conservativism is Individualism. Conservativism is Freedom. The Facism of Nazi Germany was just as oppressive a tyranny as any monarchy or any Monarchist 'ism'. Ask any Jew who lived in a ghetto or escaped from a 'work camp' to explain how they were treated. While the Nazis were also Nationalists, Conservativism isn't nationalistic. It says you may do as you like within the confines of your own home, your own business, and your own personal relationships as long as it does not impinge on the rights of others to do what they like.

Big Government, no matter what form it takes, is what is actually extreme. They are in our homes and in our heads, meddling in every tiny minutea, from toilet flushing to light bulbs, and they haven't the right. They try to define what is good for everyone, in an alleged attempt to make life 'fair' or 'equal' without telling you that the only way for that to be possible is to treat us all like cattle. Big Government doesn't have to be government of politicians. It also has triplet forms as Big Business and Big Religion where other men, who are also mortal and ordinary just like you, attempt to run your life for you and tell you what you may do, must do, and might one day do if you follow along like shrupshire sheep.

When they attack conservativism, they attack the core of life. Conservativism revolves around the notion that every man might be an agent unto himself. Attacks on conservativism are attacks on your ability to think and decide for yourself; it is an assault on opportunity and choice. Whenever they try to remove any risk from life, they also restrict your choices.

Oddly enough, this is an old ploy. In the following Cold War Cartoon, originally released in 1948, they address the attack on Conservatism, Capitalism, and Americanism.

You do not need to blush. That is what made America great- because it was the land of opportunity. Here was the only place on the earth where it was likely, let alone possible, for you to be judged for who you are and what you do, not for who your father was. Here was the place to make a life, to make a home, to raise a family, to live according to the dictates of conscience. Yet, they want to establish the State as Conscience of the people or to establish things that are contrary to conscience as not only acceptable but normal behaviors. Just because something aberrant or abhorrent is legal does not make it right or good or true. Just because you do good things doesn't make you a good person; remember that Mousollini made the trains run on time.

Even the Monarchists, at least for now, endorse conservativism by proxy. They laud the virtues of democracy- which is the right of the people to govern themselves. The problem is that most people do not govern themselves, and so they cannot possibly govern anyone else. What they really fear, which is a fear I share, is that someone who is mostly conservative but doesn't really understand it will attempt to impose their conscience on everyone else. Funny thing is, that's exactly what the Monarchists intend to do to us.

There is much to fear from extremes. We are taught from a young age to avoid extremes in dress and appearance, in spending and shopping, in what we say and how we say it, etc. The Radical Right or Radical Religious are no less a danger than Radical Monarchists who also seek to impose their will on everyone. You see, the Monarchist claims he's doing it for your good or for your neighbor. How can he know? Does he know you? Does he know your neighbor?

While the Monarchist talks about how everyone ought to have a chance, Conservativism is the political philosophy that actually allows for it. You might make mistakes, but as long as you don't let your mistakes make you, then Conservativism is the way to go. Monarchism prevents failure, but it also prevents excellence as well as ultimately success. When a Monarchist talks of 'extreme' what he really means is that whatever he mentions is a far cry from what he happens to believe.

I'm not a big Rick Perry fan, but he handled something very well. Some reporter referred to an annonymous staffer who said disparaging remarks about Perry, and Perry asked for a name. Without corroboration or explanation or definition, it's a setup. When they call you extreme or arrogant or whatever the negative connotation might be, ask them for details about why they think that and compared to what. Chances are, they're just looking for an emotional contumely, which will only benefit them.

Plain and Precious Things

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Last night after work, I brought home two new pieces of furniture. I finally bought a dining set, which is the first real table I've had since I was divorced, and a couch, which is the first couch I've actually ever bought. Over the weekend, I got everything moved and cleaned in preparation, and while I think they look nice and will make the house feel more like a home, I'm not really about things. I'm more excited about the few pieces of collectable scrimshaw that adorn the bookshelf in the living room and a particular picture that hangs in the 'family room'.

I've had this picture for a very long time, at least since high school, and it is precious to me.

Now some people might think differently about it, and that's ok. Everyone can have their own opinions; they can also keep them to themselves if they like. The button was worn by my high school chemistry instructor on the first day of my senior year because teachers were supposed to help new students find their way (which is what teachers are supposed to do with all students, but I digress), and he didn't want to help anyone, so when I asked him for the button, he gave it to me.

Over this Christmas holiday season, I was able to reflect and discuss our morbid fascination with 'stuff'. I love this illustration of all the consumerism of the holidays when we go around telling ourselves that "all you need is lots more stuff":

I do own a lot of stuff. The things I keep mean something to me. I have a single lone shoe on the bookshelf, some lapel pins, an hourglass, a lump of coal, and a few other pieces of scrimshaw nobody else understands or would ever want. They are things I keep to remind me of events, experiences or people that mean something to me. They are precious to me.

For Christmas, my paternal grandmother, whose husband died in April 2011, gave us all books from grandpa's personal library. It was on that occasion that I told my father that I had grandpa's personal serviceman's editions of the Scriptures, which I have had since we ended up with his serviceman's trunk back when I was in high school and they liquidated stuff to sell their house and move into something smaller. Since they mean something to me, he told me to keep them, which was a small kindness. I actually do read them from time to time, as they fit nicely into the inside pockets of my suit.

In the end, the plain and precious things to me actually end up being things people can't take from me. Sure, they can take my books, my pictures, and my souveniers, but they cannot take my knowledge, my memories, or my faith. While my decor and furnishing accurately reflects my interests and activities (as well as the fact that I'm a single male who lives by himself), some of the items also indicate what matters most to me. I suppose those values were cemented at an early age when, as a scout, I learned to love God, Country, Family and Self. Those are really all the things about which I care and the order in which they matter to me.

For those of you who earned a way into my heart and memory, thank you for your company and contribution to my life. Even if you think you are plain, know that you are precious to me too.

Brings Me Great Joy

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The day after my paternal grandfather passed away, I paid my paternal grandmother a visit. Despite being over 400 miles from her, since I was headed up at the time anyway, I had planned on a visit before hearing of my grandfather's passing. We talked of many things, well, mostly she did the talking, and during the course of our conversation, she came up with a phrase I really liked.

For many years, I have been thinking about the concept of 'righteous pride' and wrestling with the notion. Years ago, I read this treatise on pride and decided that I wasn't comfortable with the concept that pride could be a virtue. Certain of my friends and relatives have their own opinions, which I grant them because I know they differ on how we define words. For my own part, I took to the word 'pleased' instead as a substitute.

My grandmother gave me an upgrade. In the wake of a new realization for what really matters, she turned to me then, as she has on every subsequent visit, and told me that my life, my choices, and my presence brought her great joy. I liked how she said that. It had an interesting energy about it.

I saw a post from a friend on her blog today and thought about how to respond. As I did, I thought about the commandment that exhorts us to honor our father and our mother. Over the past few evenings, I have been rereading Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics about honor and virtue, and I see how we can, by our choices, bring honor to the name of our forbearers. Aristotle's focus seems to be on doing what we ought rather than what we'd like.

There is a difference between bringing honor and being completely obedient. I know that my grandmother wishes that my father or I had made some choices differently in our lives. However, with the benefit of her experience weighed against our life thus far, she sees things in our choices that brought us to high ground that bring her joy.

Perhaps the greatest irony of my grandfather's passing is that I have somehow managed to, of my own free will and choice, lived his dream. It was only a few years before his death, as he returned to college, determined to graduate with a college degree, that he decided that if he had it to do again he would be a teacher. When I heard that, I had to laugh a bit, as one of my favorite movie exchanges is where Thomas More tells Richard Rich to become a teacher in "A Man For All Seasons". When I was in graduate school, I never thought I'd be a teacher, but I love it, and I think my paternal grandparents respect my choice the most because it's something they value. No matter how much they teased me, I know that they know what makes a good teacher and what strengths I have, and to see me in that capacity, especially if I could have been their teacher, was something that would bring them great joy.

I think the best way to bring joy is to do what you ought. Even if other people are unjust and irresponsible, the nice thing about people who are honest, earnest, and sincere, is that I know exactly how to handle them. With other people who misrepresent themselves, I react to the fake image they give, which means anything I do will be ineffective in general. It means I waste my time, my means, and my effort in catch-22 after catch-22. This way, everyone ends up doing what ought to be done given the truth, and even if things don't turn out happily after happily, at least I can rest easy knowing I did the best I could.

In the end, the best we can do is to repent. Every one of us will make mistakes; the trick is to not let our mistakes make us. As we learn and grow and become better, it will bring honor to our progenitors and bring them great joy.

PS: Bless the Food

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As part of our Christmas libations, we of course sat down to pray several times. In customary fashion, we ended the evening with a refreshment, and my sister took pains to mention it specifically in her prayer with the phrase “P.S. Bless the Food”. I found this interesting as I thought about prayers I have heard all my life. Too many people get caught up in fancy words, covering all the bases, that they sometimes forget the literal reason for which we pray- to talk to God.

Many people go through the motions of prayer. They talk at or to God without talking with Him. In too many cases, it becomes something akin to a visit to Santa where the petitioner presents his wish list to God and promises to obey if he gets what he demands. That’s not how it works, and it will not reap the benefits for which they hope. A burglar might well pray before breaking into a series of homes that “we’ll be protected and travel home in safety” with the kind of lowbrow hypocrisy that establishes in them a sense of entitlement to things they have not learned.

While our times for prayer have an ultimate and immediate goal, the reason for prayer is really to put us in touch with the truth. The fact of the matter is that God is greater than we are, and we petition Him in times of need and thank Him in times of plenty. It shows who serves whom. Perhaps that’s why so many people don’t really pray or don’t even pretend to pray. They don’t really want to talk to their Heavenly Father; that would require them to bring Him up to date honestly about the status of their affairs.

Did you think to pray? Do you think about what you say when you pray? Do you consider the real audience of your prayer? When you pray, you are talking with a God, who is willing to give you audience despite how puny you really are. That illuminates the entire experience. He delights to bless you. I don’t know why; I just know that’s true. If it’s important to you, it’s important to Him because YOU are important to Him. Pray to Him often. Tell Him how you feel, what you think what worries you, what you’ve done, where you’re stuck, about your troubles, your joys, your adventures, and your triumphs, and then thank Him for the role He played. He loves to hear from you. Our joy increases His.

PS, Bless the food.

They Made Haste

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While reading the Christmas story in Luke this year, I noticed a phrase I had not seen before. Although I have read this section many times, the phrase had not registered like other small snippets have from other sections of holy writ. Luke tells us that the Shepherds “came with haste” to see the sight proclaimed by the angel, and that got me to thinking.

When I receive commandments or inspiration from God, do I “go with haste”? All of us in the Christian world talk as if Christ is important to us, but sometimes, even the best among us drag their feet to come to the Master or to do or become what he requires of us. After all, it’s not a request or a suggesting or even an expectation; the Lord requires something of us, our hearts and a willing mind.

Several weeks before Christmas, my mother told me about some of the things that make the season special for her. She told me that for her Christmas begins with the Messiah. What she meant was the music of Handel’s Messiah, but I liked how the phrase had other meanings. In our festivities, we hasten for gifts, for food, and even to spend time with loved ones, but we sometimes brush by that page in Luke that talks about why this is special compared to any other day.

Jesus was more than a man. Some people, including many Christians sadly, consider him a great teacher, a lesser prophet, or a good moralist. That is not possible. Either he was a stark raving lunatic, or he was exactly what he said he was- the Son of the Living God. He did not leave that open to interpretation. He did not intend to.

I think that sometimes we don’t hasten to Christ because we’re afraid. We’re afraid of the Herods or the dangers along the road or what exactly Christ will do. Men do not desire true nakedness before God as much as they like us to think. When you stand naked before God, He sees all your flaws, all your deceptions, and all of your sins. The true miracle of Christmas is that “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth would not perish but have everlasting life.” When we yield to temptation, which was inevitable, we find there is a way back.

People who are released from bondage run together and celebrate. Whether it be after our Revolution, outside the Bastille, once a man is paroled, it’s a time where we hasten together. Perhaps the shepherds understood it that way. When He read before the Sanhedrin, Jesus told them that the scripture from Isaiah had been fulfilled in their ears that day that He was come to proclaim liberty to the captive and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Let earth receive her king.