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It's WORSE than I thought

Oh man, Facebook. It's like the frakkin' pod people. They're everywhere. Does this mean I have to give up my first born child (some days not a bad idea)? Supply a genetic sample (Ohhhh, honey. . . !). I shall swear in French now--Merde!

Inauguration Fatigue

According to a Google search, only one other listing shows up for this topic. Am I the only one tired of hearing how G.W. Bush is the WORST PRESIDENT EVER and Barack Obama will be one of the GREATEST PRESIDENTS EVER? Please don't say I'm a sore loser--I wrote in Wendell Berry in symbolic protest to the binary choices offered me. I tired soon after the beginning of the longest presidential campaign ever and I'm not interested in all the brouhaha surrounding the "anointed one." I don't want Obama to fail because that only makes our mess worse, but given his choice for Ag. Secretary and his commitment to FOCA, I can't help but hold back a "hurrah" for this--yes--historic inauguration. Perhaps I'm just feeling burned after thinking G.W. Bush would be a good choice, but besides a few exceptions, I really don't like his policies. Why would a Democrat do any better? I expect too much and thus need to work on what can I do to make thi...

It's a Miraculous Life

So says Wendell Berry as he gives the metaphorical finger to E.O. Wilson and all philosophical materialists. In the pictured book, Berry takes Wilson and his reductionistic tendencies to the whipping post: ". . .[H]e cannot suspect, the possibility that relgious faith may be a way of knowing things that cannot otherwise be known." J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis said the same thing of myth. Wilson, in his book, Consilience , wants to make every human endeavor subservient to science and conform to the scientific method as a way of understanding all things. A minor problem, perhaps, is the tendency of materialism to objectify the world, dividing it from the "objective observer" who studies it. The world thus becomes "the environment," a word which Mr. Wilson uses repeatedly when speaking of conservation, and which means "surroundings," a place that one is in but not of . The question raised by this objectifying procedure and its vocabulary is w...

Snow

I can't think of anything more wonderful in the winter than virginal snow. Especially at night when your ears absorb the swoosh as your steps kick the powder out and the rubbery scrunch as the sole of your boot packs it underneath. Too many people complain about snow, but there's something magical about those white flakes dripping from the heavens.

Farewell Christmas

Today, by some reckoning (ours included), is the 12th day of Christmas. The chillen opened their last few gifts, the tree will become a bird shelter on Saturday. Life resumes a less sparkling pace. Epiphany is today too. I find the build up to Christmas (Advent) usually more enjoyable than the great feast itself (like Holy week is more "exciting" than Easter Monday and so on). I don't know if that's a personal failing or just a human thing. As I continue to grow up, I do take comfort and pleasure in the rhythms of the liturgical calendar, and I must admit that 12 days of Christmas completely beats the orgasm of one day, one hour of Christmas that I grew up with. Still. . . the anticpation somehow is sweeter than the honey itself. Now, how to celebrate Epiphany? Perhaps flashing?

Greed, thy name is Martin.

That title is perhaps overstating things a bit--perhaps ignorance should be substituted for greed. In reviewing the family finances, we found, unfortunately, that we only give about 3.5 percent of our income to charity. Rounding down, (and guessing at the same time)unscientifically to after tax dollars the percentage only increases to 3.9%. So, we resolved to finagle numbers to move that up to 5% this year, if not more. That is still less than a "tithe" and frankly disappointing, but it is best not to make gigantic moves. The idea is to get to the magic 10 (or even 9) percent within the next few years. Providentially (perhaps) today, I picked up the November/December issue of Books and Culture and read "A Lot of Lattes" by Ron Sider, his review of Passing the Plate , a sociological study of why American Christians aren't all that generous. He says there would be an extra $46 billion a year available for "kingdom work" if "committed Chr...