Olio

Lately it seems I start to post about something I am pondering, but either get busy or get snagged by my need to write something "worthy" of posting. To hurdle this blockage, I will just toss out some topics that have been near-blogs.

1. "No Country for Old Men"
A dream job for me would be Literary Critic. To read books and then write about them, not much would be more satisfying. My intellectual hero Christopher Hitchens is a great one, deftly dissecting the works of a range of authors from Salman Rushdie to J.K. Rowling.

I finished the book a couple weeks ago and really wish I had something profound to say about it, I feel like I do but just haven't had the time to unpack it. On Spring Break I read No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. I don't have a single favorite author, I have favorites by category, but Cormac McCarthy is my favorite Literary Fiction writer. His Border Trilogy is a masterpiece (When John Grady Cole went back for his horse, I threw the book onto the ground yelling, "NOOOOOO!").

No Country for Old Men is similar to the Trilogy but not as densely written. I think No Country will have a broader audience appeal. What makes his writing great for me are the deep inner lives of a few central characters. Death (and thus life) is usually meditated. I also greatly appreciate the way McCarthy makes nature practically a character herself, and just as richly described and often with a deep inner life of her own. He writes as he wants you to read it, not as grammar would parse him.

I recommend the book, it is a quick read. I highly recommend his Border Trilogy this summer.

2. Obama's "bitter" comment
My first exposure to Obama's now famous discussion of voter frustration was in a radio newscast. Not surprisingly, the comment was miscast (and this was NPR, not Fox News). I thought it sounded interesting but certainly must be more than the claimed "Obama said people cling to God and guns because they are bitter about life." I read the transcript of the discussion for myself. The setting was a private donor event. Obama was discussing the frustration of people in economic hardship and their skepticism of any politician's ability to help. He said he could ride through with the usual talking points, but:

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Frankly, I think it is correct, but before you brand me elitist and tune out, let me address my biggest frustration about the hyped reaction to this. Nowhere does Obama say that everyone who clings to guns or religion is doing so out of bitterness over something. Yet I cannot count how many times I have heard this fallacious argument made by "outraged" people (who most likely have never actually read or heard what Obama said). I firmly believe that some people cling to guns, religion or xenophobia out of frustration and bitterness. That seems hard to dispute, actually. However, I do not read here that Obama was saying that everyone voting God-Guns-Immigrants is bitter. If you have a thought about what is elitist about this discussion, please let me know.

3. Earth Day
Yesterday was Earth Day. I love nature, always have. My earliest memories are of digging in a creek bed with a spoon and marveling at roly-poly bugs. Most of my favorite moments of life include part of nature: the location or weather or scenery. Sunshine makes me happy, breezes refresh my soul, mountains meet an inner need. So appreciating Earth is something that comes easily, and not just because as The Tick once said, "It's where I keep all my stuff." But appreciating Earth or being re-energized by nature is not enough. The best way I know how to describe what I am growing to understand and struggling to integrate: how to live nonviolently.

Too much there to discuss now, so the usual Earth Day focus is sufficient. In fact, these are some good starting points to living nonviolently: reduce, reuse, recycle. Simple enough and I like that these principles coincide with my struggle against consumerism. When I must buy new (okay, when I choose to buy new; like I said, it's a start) I try to use these principles: low energy to manufacture, durable, efficient.

There are some topics, maybe mini-blogs. Please unpack as you see fit.

You Become A Monster So The Monster Will Not Break You

My feelings on the war in Iraq are complex. In many ways it is a topic I cannot discuss unless we have a lot of time. That is the main reason I have not written anything about the war.

I am still not going to get into too much but on Tuesday I watched the Medal of Honor Ceremony for a 26 year old Navy Seal who died saving the lives of 2 comrades. Last night I watched the Frontline special I had recorded called "Bad Voodoo's War" - a documentary made from the video cameras of a National Guard platoon out of Mississippi stationed in Iraq.

These events hit squarely on the contradiction of my feelings. On one hand, I immediately react, “Bring them home.” I am not sure if any person can listen without that reaction to the Bad Voodoo platoon sergeant tell his men (dads, brothers, sons, friends) as they were getting ready to climb into their Humvees, “Put the tourniquet on your door-side leg now, above your knee and close to your hip. The faster we get that tourniquet cranked down when you get hit the higher the chance you’ll survive and the better quality of life you will have when we get you to safety.” Similarly, after watching the grieving parents receive the posthumous Medal of Honor, it is hard to imagine the war is worth this cost.

However, I worry about what will happen when we leave. If in fact our presence there is preventing civil war and even worse corruption and oppression, is it acceptable for me to say preventing that is not worth the cost for Americans? But at some point every person, or in this case nation, exhausts its capabilities of helping. It seems we are near that point.

I wish I had more time to develop these thoughts here, but this is what I have been thinking about this week. There is a family crouching in their cement block house in Sadr City just hoping and praying that the gunfire and the brutality stays outside their walls. If we say, “Enough, no more Americans,” what happens to that family? Or the better question is probably whether using violence to stop violence is ever the best option…

We ate the food, we drank the wine. We didn’t know it was the end of the world.

Passion Week: The week that started with a parade and celebration, and ends in betrayals, horror and murder. On Sunday, Jesus was welcomed as a king by thousands, yet by the end of the week he would be dead and his followers scattered and demoralized. With hindsight, we can go through Palm Sunday and the early events of the week with a sense of foreboding, and feel the portending evil during the Last Supper. But for those surrounding Jesus, for those in the moment, it must have been a grand start to the week!

On Saturday, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and spends a celebrating evening with his friends. Jesus enters on Sunday to palm-waving throngs who seem to believe and worship him. On Monday Jesus clears the temple of people perverting religion and oppressing the poor. He spends the next couple days teaching of grace. By Thursday evening it must have been an exhilarating, even powerful, week, seeming to culminate for them in the intimacy of the Last Supper with their friend and Lord.

We probably know the story from there, or at least have heard the story; what starts late Thursday night in Gethsemane and seems to end on Friday evening on a cross. I find it beneficial this week to remind myself of the realness – the physicalness – of his sacrifice; to read the accounts of this week from the Gospels; to read them without concern for the contradictions or the translator’s agenda or religion’s abuse of the story; to simply read them as a narrative of a man who lived and loved and felt passion and pain. But to be really beneficial, I find I have to make room for these stories to penetrate my being. That means setting aside distractions: TV, radio, alcohol, comforting foods. Things that are not wrong, things that Jesus enjoyed on Saturday with his friends before his week of destiny. But noise, media, clutter – all things that occupy me and distract me. I find that in this space I may be anxious, scrambling for other thoughts. But it is my intent this week to create that space and let him fill it. Perhaps with peace and sadness. To resist the urge to jump ahead in the story, to say, “But on Sunday …!” To live in the sorrow and longing for peace that makes joy real.

Jesus Can You Take The Time To Throw A Drowning Man A Line?

"Do I believe God is going to take away my illness when he turned an entirely deaf ear to the six million Jews who went into the gas chambers?" - Karen Armstrong

I think I am a good father. If it were within my power to prevent the starvation, torture and murder of my boys, I am certain I would. So did their Abba hear their cries? If yes, did he anguish? If yes, how could he not intervene?

I’ve been listening to a series of talks by Greg Boyd about prayer. Boyd does a good job exposing the fallacies and theological holes in the theory that somehow the systematic torture and murder of millions of people is a “good” that we humans simply cannot understand. Personally, I find this viewpoint repulsive so I don’t care to spend any time on it. Greg’s excellent talks can be heard here: http://www.whchurch.org/content/page_855.htm Look for “Scorpions, Eggs and Prayer” Parts 1 and 2.

In light of the reality of my world, how can I harmonize these beliefs: Yahweh is all good, is all powerful, and loves us like children, and sickness and sorrow are not “good”?

The critical premise for Boyd’s thinking on this is God’s choice to grant Free Will to human and angelic beings. To this Free Will, Boyd adds several credible theological factors including God’s will (God is not a cosmic Santa Claus), the laws of Nature, and strength and numbers of spiritual actors (both human and angelic). Boyd also addresses at length – and rejects - the idea that the faith of the people involved in a tragedy did not fit some formula that would have brought God’s intervention. However, Boyd does conclude that faith is a factor.

I’m in complete agreement about Yahweh’s choice to give Free Will and establish predictability through Nature. I squirm, however, under the notion that anyone’s faith is a factor, or that anyone’s asking is even considered. Let’s take an extreme example to make for a bright test. If I know of the rape of my baby, do I need my baby to cry out for me? Or will I waste every ounce of energy and rip every cell from my body to get to my baby and save him? Of course! It is ludicrous to think otherwise. Love is my motivation and his actions are irrelevant.

Abba, how is this possible? I do not put forward that I am better than Abba, so how can this be possible? I think choice and faith are the keystones. I must choose freely and with faith. So at the beginning, Yahweh chose this arrangement on a complex scale, he chose Free Will for us. It is inherent in faith that I have Free Will. If every time I prayed for healing, the person was healed, how much faith would it take to believe? If I ask for a sign and get it, how free is my choice to believe? Doesn’t every obvious “reveal” further erode my ability to choose on my own?

When talking about my Free Will to choose God and how he will not impose upon or change that Free Will, it’s cool coffee shop talk. But when it’s Jeffrey Dahmer’s Free Will choice to rape and murder men and boys, and God still won't impose upon or change that, it hurts. But the Free Will concept is the same! We move through this world surrounded by the ricocheting choices of billions of beings and the laws of Nature. We are helped or are hurt, we help or hurt.

I believe in Grace and I believe in Redemption, but I do not believe in miracles.

Let me append, I believe Grace and Redemption ARE miracles, why must I insist that he also perform some further act of miracle? Yahweh promises peace that is internal, and that together he and I can turn something evil into a good result – something that can lead to Grace and Redemption in us and others. Is that not miraculous enough?

So what good is prayer? My Abba does want to stop evil, but for complex reasons of true faith he has chosen to do so through us. Abba is crying out for someone (me) to look around and act, to provide resources to affect change. My prayer is part of what brings me closer to acting as he would here. People are changed, killers are stopped, people are fed as we become like him. Yahweh will not reach from the sky and stop the sword.

I want divine help in keeping my family safe? Then, Abba, help me act with wisdom and responsibility. I want divine help in improving your health? Then, Abba, help me show you care and love. I want divine help in eliminating poverty? Then, Abba, help me live responsibly and give dramatically. I want divine help in my boys’ future? Then, Abba, help me show unconditional love and give them tools for the future. Now that I think about it, it would be easier if I could just pray and God would do these things himself…..

Where You Live Should Not Decide Whether You Live or Whether You Die

Back to the election dialogue. Other issues in this election that illuminate Compassion a great deal, and frankly get the attention this election, are immigration, health care, minimum wage, trade, and the war in Iraq (I would add global poverty and sickness). I'm writing this while listening to Obama and Hillary debate their health care plans in Austin. I usually think of the refrain "Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether die" applying to other parts of the world, but the reality is much closer to home. Where you live in these United States, where you live in my state, even where you live in my city does impact whether you live or die. It's a human travesty I cannot excuse because someone should work harder or smarter or spend less or whatever economic argument I try. Who am I to judge their opportunity or their circumstances? I don't know. Even if a person is in desperate need as a result of choices, how does that excuse my ignoring or inaction? If karma is the rule, I'm screwed.

Exasperating to me to hear arguments over details of "my plan does this and your plan does that." The truth is no President's plan will get through as it is. More important to me is the effort, the direction, the goal. Where do you want us to go, and if I agree with that direction are you capable of getting it done in today's bitter political environment? Universal health care has more traction than ever, the leadership will be critical. It has the potential to save many lives and improve the quality of millions more.

The cost matters, certainly. I had an interesting conversation with a Republican friend who was lamenting the inevitable huge cost of universal health coverage (someone who has coverage, of course), and I asked if he knew cost estimates? And did he know how much Bush had increased spending? From his 2001 budget to this 2008 budget, Bush's increased spending, increase only, was 1.1 trillion dollars (proposed 2 trillion in spending in 2001, proposed 3.1 trillion in 2008). Hillary's plan, accepted as the most expensive, would be 100 billion or so a year. Only 1 trillion to go to match Bush's spending increase! My only point with this is to say we are spending the money and we are increasing our spending - it's a choice we make to spend it on things other than caring for the medical needs of people who need help.

It’s a complicated issue, but it is an outrage that my brother dies in sight of a building full of technology and people that could have saved him, it’s unacceptable that my little sister cripples without the prevention and care that was within literal, but not economic, reach.

His Hair, His Choice?

I get my hair cut by a barber. I've had my hair cut by a barber who was so old he used my ear to keep himself from falling, a barber who maintained a complete shop in his basement, a barber that offered me a free beer while I was in the chair (and then carefully avoided getting any clipped hair into the cup, a true artist), a barber in Coldwater, Mississippi that kept Klan literature available for reading, and even a woman barber (though she was tougher than many men). But always a barber.

For Valentines Day this year, Casey decided I should try something more fashionable. So she made an appointment for me with a stylist. I arrived and told the girl at the counter I was there for my appointment. She checked me in and then asked to take my coat. It's already a different experience. She said Deborah would be with me, I looked around and it didn't seem apparent to me where to wait, so I asked. Casey had suggested I look through hairstyle magazines while waiting and take the stylist a suggested style from the magazine. The only hairstyle magazine was for women and I wasn't feeling like asking for a man’s one. I was the only man in the place. Before I can finish my Vibe magazine article, Deborah escorts me to a rather unsubstantial chair. It has a foot rest, but I don't see any way to pump her foot and raise this thing up. Maybe she's short enough she doesn't need one.

Deborah: "Let's talk about your hair."

Me: blank stare.

Deborah is kind enough to rephrase and even has her own pictures, so that settles that. Next she says. "Okay let's go to the shampoo wall." What? I follow. I figure out she will be washing my hair first. Interesting. No one other than me has washed my hair since I was probably 4. Soon I think, "She’s really serious about that shampoo, my head will certainly be clean after this." I realize shortly that she is likely massaging my head, the oils after that confirm my suspicion. Another interesting twist, as I have not had a massage since physical therapy after breaking my neck. I have to make myself relax, and I have to admit it's pretty nice. Back to the wimpy chair.

Deborah does a nice job cutting and she sure does it differently than any barber ever has. But it takes much longer, my barber could show her how to speed things up with clippers, apparently Deborah doesn't own clippers. Speaking of clippers, where is Deborah's tall glass bottle of combs floating in blue barbicide? Making a bit of conversation, Deborah asks me if my new hair style is a surprise for my wife. I told her, "She made the appointment, gave me a gift certificate, and wrote detailed instructions on the back."

After cutting, it's back to the shampoo wall. This time I can walk confidently, I know where we're going. Dry, style, a quick lesson with "clay" and that's it! Deborah asks me if I brought a coat and what it looks like so she can bring it out to me. I told her it should be easy, it's probably the only Carhartt back there.

I am happy with my experience and new style; we'll have to see about the future. I feel guilty about Rob, my barber; as if I should mail him a check every month if I stop going there. And I don't want to pay for that AND these new expensive hair cuts!

Super Monday

It was a Super Weekend, but now I do not have enough time to review the candidates who are in tomorrow's Super Tuesday primary. It took me most of Super Saturday to recover from Super Friday Night. Then Super Sunday I lolled about all morning, went for a run, then it was game time before I knew it. Actually, that's a typical weekend for me.

Regardless, now I am without time to fully review even the remaining top 4 candidates. Instead, maybe I can parse a few important issues and compare the candidates that way.

I am not a one-issue voter. There is no particular topic that would prohibit me from voting for a person because of their position. I am more interested in the total leadership that would be provided. The best indicators I have for the kind of leadership I want for the country are indicators of the person's core beliefs about their fellow Men and Women, their Compassion. The twist, or difficulty, is demonstrating this Compassion within the rule of law, the Constitution. And, of course, with common sense.

Issues that would concern me then would be the poor, the sick, the security of people, equality of race and opportunity, and our role in the world with these same issues. An issue that directly confronts both Compassion and the Constitution is the issue of taking a life. If you thought I meant abortion, you are half right. You and I cannot know when life begins, but we both know for certain that the person on death row is alive, is a life. I, for one, feel no authority to take another person's life in that situation. I can find no compelling reason in revenge or retribution or prevention, not even in the most heinous situations. If I believe that people can change and that Yahweh is pursuing everyone, how can I be responsible for taking away Saddam Hussein's chance of redemption? Sadly, there is no viable candidate who will stand for life and oppose the death penalty. Clinton, Obama, McCain and Romney all support the death penalty in at least some situations. Of them, Obama has done the most to at least reduce the death penalty while he was in the Illinois state senate. Obama worked hard to pass legislation in Illinois requiring videotaping of interrogations and confessions in capital cases and other limited reform of the death penalty court procedures. Ron Paul opposes the death penalty. Huckabee, who is practically running on Jesus' back even supports the death penalty (not sure who he thinks Jesus would execute, but I digress).

A similar issue, of course, is abortion. As I said earlier, I believe we cannot know when life begins. However, if I value life, would I not rather err on the side of caution? Would I not protect a potential life instead of disregarding the chances that this life exists? Before I get too pious, though, I still have to answer "how far will I err on the side of protecting life?" If a fertilized egg "could" be life, will I oppose its destruction? Many contraceptives work by preventing an egg from attaching to the uterine wall. Is that abortion? What if the known life is in danger and ending the possible life will save the known life? Fortunately, I do not have to get that deep in reviewing the candidates' positions.

The legal definition of abortion is terminating a nonviable fetus (choosing the touchstone of viability rather than life). In the first 3 months of pregnancy, this can be done basically at will. During months 4 through 6, states are allowed to put restrictions on the termination but cannot prohibit it. After 6 months, the fetus is considered viable and is treated nearly like a person. Clinton is the strongest proponent of abortion rights, even criticizing the ban on partial-birth abortions that was supported by many in both parties. It seems apparent to me that she would support any abortion rights the Supreme Court would possibly grant. Obama talks pretty well about the issue, seeming to appreciate the value of life and the difficulty that "a fetus is not just an appendage, it's potential life" (his words). However, his voting record clearly casts a vote for appendage, not life.

McCain has a solid record of voting on the side of life in this area. He has allowed for exceptions related to a woman's health, rape and incest. Romney says he believes these things now, but it will be up to you to determine whether you believe him as he has not had opportunity to demonstrate his new beliefs. I do not understand the exception for rape and incest, from a logical point of view. Once you have made the call that it is a life, if there is no harm to another life at stake, I cannot see the evaluation of the circumstances of the birth. Huckabee and Ron Paul have voting records and documented positions that solidly err on the side of protecing the potential of life.

One quick add-on to the abortion issue is a candidate's view on abortion also illuminates their view of the Constitution. Almost always, a candidate that believes abortion should be protected believes the Constitution requires protection of abortion. I will spare the lengthy Constitutional discussion, but I have studied this extensively and I am in firm belief that no protection of abortion exists in the Constitution. Conversely, ending the growth of something not a life is not prohibited by the Constitution. Which brings you back to defining what is a life, but my point in this paragraph is the person's view of the Constitution. I am disappointed when lawyers like Clinton or Obama argue that the Constitution contains this right. I believe they are mistaken but I also believe they do not "need" abortion rights to exist in the Constitution to protect abortion rights.

Last bit of discussion from me on these 2 issues of life: Every one of these candidates except Ron Paul hold an inconsistent view on life. The abortion opponents believe it is okay to kill a known life. The ones that want to protect as much as possible the known guilty life, are willing to err in killing inoccent life. I find both contradictions logically inconsistent and cruel.

I could go into much more discussion on this frustrating inconsistencies, but I have clearly gone on too long already. If I was a one-issue voter, it appears Ron Paul would be my candidate. Alas, his Compassion has been severely marred by some terribly racist, homophobic and otherwise bigoted newsletters he published. I read several of these for myself, and he certainly lost any chance of my vote through them.

I guess I will not have time to discuss with you any other issues before my vote. At this writing, McCain leads my state polls with a 4 to 8 percent margin, depending on the poll. Clinton and Obama are in a statistical dead heat. It would appear that my vote would matter more on the Democratic ballot. I will decide for certain tomorrow, stay tuned...