Disciples and Multitudes. I consider the "second mile" injunction in Matthew 5:41 in the entire context of the Sermon on the Mount ("SOM"), as of course we must. (One of my favorite interpretive aphorisms is "A text without a context is a pretext".) Several scholars believe it crucial to note the introductory verses of the SOM, Matthew 5:1 and 2. These verses show that there are two possible categories of listeners, (a) "the multitudes [KJV]" or "the crowds" [NIV] and (b) "his disciples".

Notwithstanding the films we have seen that show Jesus standing on a hillside speaking to people standing and sitting about, up and down the hill like listeners in an amphitheater, Matthew 5:1 and 2 make it plain that Jesus went "up on a mountainside" to get away from the crowds. Up on that mountainside "his disciples came to him, and he began to teach them . . . " So the SOM is not for everyone. It is for those who choose to follow Jesus.

I guess that's obvious, but over my lifetime I have heard parts of the SOM presented as a sort of ethical prescription for everyone. But why should one do any of the things that Jesus asks in the SOM if he is not a disciple? Love my enemy? I, a young Jewish male brought up in the traditions, go a second mile with a Roman soldier, carrying his armor, his weapons, his shield? You have to be kidding. "The multitudes" are not ready to hear this. Let's get away from them and talk.

Museums: Why Should We Care? For the study and understanding of mankind.

So reads the title and by-line for an editorial yesterday at OpinionJournal.com by Philippe de Montebello, the curator at the Met in NY. Rachelle and I just returned from a Memorial Day weekend in NYC, visiting several museums, including the Met. I had even wondered, "Why do I want to go to a museum?" (The museum trip, at the time, balanced our cultural experience at the Yankees/Red Sox baseball game.)

For me, the article does articulate the anthropological draw of museums: For the study and understanding of mankind, and I might add, our cultures and shared history (including His-story). However, the editorial ends on a blatantly humanistic note:

My question is: Who made these things? The answer: We did, our species did. Isn't that reason enough to maintain our faith in humankind? ...What we learn is that no matter the degree of chaos and adversity surrounding him, man has shown his capability to excel, to surpass. That is the ultimate assurance of renewal and survival. And it is one of the great lessons of the art museum.

Our visit at the Met was enjoyable, both from a historical and cultural perspective.

That experience contrasted greatly with our trip the International Center of Photography, who has a current exhibit by Larry Clark. Here's a brief from ICP curator Brian Wallis:

To address...issues Clark often uses sexually explicit imagery, as well as scenes of overt drug use and violence, actions that are addressed casually by his subjects but which are often shocking to his audiences.

That exhibit disgusted us and we left after a relativly short perusal. Mr. Clark was "documenting" the underworld in Tulsa with utterly repulsive and explicit photographs. Even art critics differed on whether Mr. Clark's work was even "art." His "autobiography" seemed nothing more than a reliving of his youth vicariously through other's drug use and sexual acts. Urgh!

Rah-Rah for mankind, indeed! Take me out to the ball game.

The Roman Soldier, Flannery O'Connor, Hyperbole. Here's an image of the Roman soldier, and here's an article that talks about the Roman army in Britain. According to the article, the armor and kit of the Roman soldier weighed 90 pounds. This is the burden we carry for our enemy beyond the first mile and into the endless second.

Read in the article what it says about the derivation of our word "decimate". I begin to admire the Roman soldier after reading this.

There was definitely something for a Palestinian Jew in Jesus time to learn from the Roman soldier on that burdensome journey to which Jesus refers, if hyperbolically, a Palestinian Jew who probably had not traveled beyond 20 miles of his home during his lifetime (unless to Jerusalem), but who, of course, knew everything.

The matter of hyperbole puts in mind the introductory paragraph of Richard John Neuhaus article "Kierkegaard for Grownups" in the October 2004 issue of First Things:

"That extraordinary writer of stories about the 'Christ-haunted' American South, Flannery O'Connor, was frequently asked why her people and plots were so often outlandish, even grotesque. She answered, 'To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you have to draw large and startling figures.'"

So it is with Jesus in the SOM. He uses hyperbole - he shouts at the hard of hearing, he draws large and startling figures for the near-blind. We will do anything not to hear, anything not to see. We will do, for example, theology.

Attention Sean! and others who want to parley this hobby into a lucrative career.
As Blogging Goes Corporate, It Becomes a Full-Time Job

In its short lifespan, blogging has largely been a freewheeling exercise in online self-expression. Now it is also becoming a corporate job.

Sex and it's meaning.
Ever insightful and eloquent, Frederica Mathewes-Green wrote an article in the latest Touchstone magazine titled Bodies of Evidence where she explores the meaning of sex.

Whether we attribute extra meaning to humans or not, we are at least animals, sharing this planet with many other kinds of creatures. . . .From that perspective, the “meaning” of sex is pretty obvious. It’s reproduction. . . .But there are some interesting ways that humans are different from other mammals, even from other primates. For us, sex feels good at any time in the fertility cycle. Other mammals mate only during fertile periods. . . .What’s more, researchers suspect that only among humans is the female capable of orgasm. . . .It looks like the “meaning of sex” for humans is something broader than simply reproduction. . . .You can see the same analogy with food. . . .We don’t eat solely for nutrition. Likewise, we don’t have sex solely for reproduction. . . . another way humans are unique. We’re one of the very, very few mammals able to have sex face-to-face. Seeing each other’s faces means something—not just during sex, but all the time. . . .Sex is, if nothing else, about making a connection with another person, and that seems to be something that humans have trouble with.

I recommend reading the whole article. She makes some great insights about sex and at the same time you'll see someone doing really great Natural Theology. At the end, she has a couple of sidebars, one of which is on "Old Married Sex". My favorite lines from there (she's writing about her and her cohorts views as young 60s radicals):

We made fun of old married people, the ones who got hitched, settled down, had kids, had mortgages, and thirty years later were having old-married-people sex with each other. It turns out that, even if you make fun of people like that, you still get old anyway. The alternative is not staying young forever; the alternative is being just as old, and not having formed any lasting relationship, and going to bed most nights by yourself. You’re not having old-married-people sex; you’re not having sex with anybody.

Movie Links
This originally was written after Episode II came out, which was when I read it the first time, but Jaquandor linked it recently and I re-read it. I find it to be an interesting and thoughtful apologia for why we should root for the Empire and not the Rebel Alliance.

Jaq also writes a review of two of Dad's favorite movies, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Dad gave Before Sunrise to Kellsey and I a while ago, but we hadn't gotten around to it yet. After reading Jaq's post, I think we'll watch them as soon as we move to Austin (and are re-united with our DVD player and DVD collection). I wonder, those of you who've seen them (Mom, Dad, Mary?), do you like them for the same reasons as Jaq?

Art of Demotivation review in The Financial Times

"The Art of Demotivation is the most daring, funny, and subversive management book ever written."

Read more here.

I went to our now-local Starbucks coffee shop to pick up drinks for Kellsey, Robert and me for our weekly 8:30am coffee time. (Our reliable and well used french press has already taken up residence in Austin.) Sbux was full of folks on their morning commute to work and I thought of an update to a Nita-ism: "Busier than a one-armed barista." As it was, the barista had two fully functioning arms, and was barely keeping up.

Dumbgunowners.com. I think I will start a blog on this subject. This will be my first post.

King James Version and the Second Mile. When I was growing up, the KJV was the translation of choice. The RSV came out in 1952, when I was 6 years old, but it never took in our Baptist church. Among other things, the RSV translated "virgin" as "young woman" in Isaiah 7:14, although the translators conceded in a footnote that the Hebrew word could also mean "virgin". That wouldn't do. Besides, if the KJV was good enough for Paul and Silas, it was surely good enough for us. (Just kidding, we weren't that ignorant.)

Anyway, it was very confusing to a six-year old to hear our minister, Dr. C. Roy Angell, preach on the second-mile, as he often and even famously did, using the KJV text: "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain."

I knew all about twains. There was a big station just a few blocks from the church. But I couldn't figure out just what was the point of these sermons.

The Roman Soldier in Your Life. Tom points out that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes a standard of behavior that is impossible. And it's true. Jesus sums up what he has to say in Matthew 5:48: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect."

Right, Jesus.

What do we do with this?

If we are theologians, maybe we think up a period of history not the present, and assign that sort of talk to that period.

If we are a parish minister, maybe we just preach from some other text.

But maybe not.

I like what the editors of the NIV Study Bible say in their introductory note at Matthew 5:1. They say, in part:

"The SOM's call to moral and ethical living is so high that some have dismissed it as being completely unrealistic or have projected its fulfilliment to the future kingdom. There is no doubt, however, that Jesus (and Matthew) gave the Sermon as a standard for all Christians, realizing that its demands cannot be met in our own power. It is also true that Jesus occasionally used hyperbole . . . "

Hyperbole. I can deal with that. We don't, for example, gouge out our right eye and cut off our right hand, as "commanded" in 5:29 and 30. (That's a good thing too, given what there is to see on the internet.) But in this case, hyperbole is not a thing to be recognized as such and then dismissed. It is to be recognized for what it says about where we are on our journey and where we need to go. There are deep meanings in this hyperbole that are worth addressing.

What is hyperbolic about the second mile statement? It is surely not always impossible to go a second mile, carrying someone else's burden. What is hyperbolic about this statement is the person for whom the Jew is carrying the burden a second mile, the Roman Soldier. We probably cannot begin to appreciate how outrageous this must have been to the young Jew who was listening in the crowd. Of all the relationships that were the most dangerous, resented, and aggravating, it must have been the day to day relationship between the common Roman soldier and the common Jew.

I think Mel Gibson probably got it right about the Roman soldier.

Is there a Roman soldier in your life? I hope not.

But if we are to afford second-mile treatment to the Roman soldiers in our life, how about those relationships in our lives where it is not so full of danger, resentment, and aggravation. In many of these, second-mile behavior is completely attainable. In the relationships we have with our friends, our employers, people who serve us, our spouses, our parents, our children, it is not outrageous to command that we move beyond obligation to something like grace and even love. Let's not worry about doing the impossible while there plenty of possible things to do in response to Jesus' love-one-another injunction.

(Thanks for letting me try these thoughts out on you.)

Fruits and Vegetables. As one embraces middle age, one is rewarded by insights that surprise, ideas that one never had before, ideas that clarify. Suddenly the fog lifts, and there is truth. As I was putting a tomato back into the fridge after slicing off a piece for a Memorial Day sandwich, I realized that I was placing it into the vegetable drawer from which I had removed it to do the surgery.

The vegetable drawer.

It popped into my head that the tomato is not a vegetable, it is a fruit. I had always known that intellectually, but never in my heart. We have a fruit drawer in the fridge and have had one since the beginning of our marriage. "Carol! Do you realize that we have been putting our tomatoes in the vegetable drawer when a tomato is a fruit? We have a fruit drawer."

Carol immediately grasped this epiphany-like insight. And she said what daughters always say when they are confronted with an uncomfortable truth about their behavior. "Well, my mother always put the tomatoes in the vegetable drawer."

"And we always treat tomatoes like vegetables, " she continued, defensively.

How do you treat a tomato like a vegetable?

You put it in the vegetable drawer.

"If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles." The note to Matthew 5:41 in my NIV Study Bible says that the word for "forces" means "pressed into service" and that the same verb is used in Matthew 27:32, where the Roman soldiers press Simon into service to carry Jesus' cross. This idea reminds me of what Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30:

"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest upon your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Is there some connection between not simply doing what you have to do, but doing that obligatory thing beyond its obligation, and finding rest? Going the second mile sounds a lot like extra work to me, not rest. But not so, according to the physics of the Kingdom of Heaven.

I read where, during Jesus time, people would mark with stakes from their doorstep or the village limit the beginning and the end of a mile. That way, if one is "pressed into service", he and the soldier know just how far the civilian need carry the soldier's burden. The Roman soldier's own command structure forbade his forcing anyone further. So there would be no second mile mile-marker. The second mile was endless, infinite. Or, at least, the second mile was whatever the relationship seemed to require. It was a complete journey. Like forgiving "seven times seventy". The injunction to forgive doesn't mean we stop forgiving at 490 times, it means we stop forgiving when there is nothing further to forgive.

We put our burden down, then, when we reach with that "other", whose burden we assumed under obligation but then carried further out of a sort of love, the end of the journey. Perhaps by then it is no longer a burden. The rest Jesus promises does not begin at the end of the journey, but some time during the journey. Probably it begins to develop at the beginning of the second mile, when the relationship with the one to whom we are obligated starts to be transformed by our service.

The Mapes

Here's an article on Milton Mapes from this month's issue of No Depression:

NO DEPRESSION MAGAZINE | May-June 2005
MILTON MAPES: A Little Bug Music
by Scott Brodeur

There is a shadowy cloak to the music of Milton Mapes. It’s the kind of dark, seductive veil that invites guesses about the people behind it, especially after you listen to The Blacklight Trap (undertow), the group’s cryptic and captivations third release, which happens to be named for a device that attracts and captures insects.

But be forewarned: trying to read into this band’s music can be as alluring and as precarious for the curious as, say, approaching that bug-zapper.

For instance, the band is named for singer Greg Vanderpool’s grandfather, who is exactly 51 years his senior. So you figure Milton Mapes was an inspuirational musician, someone who introduced Greg and his family to the joy and splendor of music.

Good guess. Wrong, thought, Zap.

“No, my grandfather’s not a musicians. He’s not musical at all,” say Vanderpool, the band’s songwriter and chief architect, chuckling at the mere thought. “During the period for a band where every word said is a potential band name, his name came up. We were all kind of laughing about it. Then it stuck. Nothing else ever topped it. He likes it. And I still get a kick out of seeing his name all over the place. Not too long ago, we were opening a show for Willie Nelson, and there were posters all over with Willie Nelson and my grandfather’s name side by side. The was just great.”

Describing the band musically can be like a game of pint-the-antecedent-on-the-artist. Most often, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Pedro The Lion, Uncle Tupelo, and Sun Kil Moon come up. But there have also been comparisons to Bruce Springsteen, Counting Crows, Richard Buckner, and Damien Jurardo. “I’m pretty much fans of a lot of these people we’ve been compared to,” says Vanderpool. “And sometime, if a name comes up enough and I don’t know them, I can check out their stuff. This happened with Mark Kozelek [Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon]. I check it out and really like it. I don’t hear us sounding too much alike, but maybe we have the same set of influences or something.”

Ah, influences. That means even though grandpappy Milton Mapes, the World War II Marines veteran, wasn’t’ musical, the Vanderpool home was still brimming with good tunes, exposing Greg to an eclectic but sturdy foundation of sounds to build on.

Hope. Zap.

“I didn’t grow up in a real musical household,” Vanderpool says, “Christmas music was big in my house. That was the time of year when we listened to a lot of music. Church music was big, too. So it was traditional hymns and Christmas songs.

“My dad used to listen to the Kingston Trio and the Everly Brothers and stuff like that, some country & western tunes. He also used to sing that song ‘Tom Dooley’ to me all the time. It’s kin of funny. Here I was, 3 years old, and my dad was singing to me about some guy getting hanged. I guess the darkness was already seeping in.”

OK, now we’re getting places. There is plenty of darkness on The Blacklight Trap. There’s the deadly tale of substance abuse on the title track, told in both the second and third person from a brother’s point of view. There’s the wounded lover refusing to let anyone get too close in “Waiting for Love to Fail.” There’s the bloody carnage of war on “”Underneath The River Runs.” Any there is the apocalyptic allusion to Rudyard Kipling’s poem “L’Envoi,” which Vanderpool expands and set to music under the title, “When The Earth’s Last Picture is Painted.”

This is a bleak but powerful landscape painted by Vanderpool and band, which includes Roberto Sanchez on drums, Britton Beisenherz on bass and piano, Cliff Brown Jr. on organ, keys, guitars and background vocals, and Jim Fredley on guitars, mandolin, and background vocals. Vanderpool’s vulnerable vocals are set amidst layers of acoustic guitar, raunchy electric guitar, swirling keys and thunderous drums.

Dark, dark stuff, it would seem. Well, not really, say Vanderpool. Zap.

“I don’t consider myself a morose person or anything,” he counters. “This album is a little darker than our others. But it’s not dark without a light at the end of the tunnel. The Blacklight Trap is a metaphor for society or for anything that is feeding us a lie. As a species, we’re inherently flawed. But we’re also capable of doing good. Right now, I’d say we’re set to self-destruct without some intervention from somewhere. But you look at the glass as half empty or half full. Sure, much of the album paints a dark picture. But the other message on here, the more spiritual message, is that not all hope is lost.

Living the Good Life

Why move to Austin? Because we're all fashion models here and you should want to associate with us.


Morgan and Jim celebrating Bob Schneider's new shirt designs.

Coming soon, my debut, living strong, as a shorts model. Thank you kettlebells.

toothache

I was chewing some ice back in that hot summer of 2000 and chewed a bit too hard.
I spent a few days having a root canal. Then I moved to Dallas before the permanent crown was ready, so I had a dentist in Dallas put the porcelin crown on.

A few years passed. I married and settled down in the UT student housing. Halloween came, and I sat on the couch to chew some Now and Laters and soon was chewing Now and Laters and loose porcelin crown.

So then I went to my man, Dr. Sonier, and he set me up with the gold bling.

I've been sporting the precious metal for about 2.5 years now, but now it's hurting again. I think the tooth beneath the shine has reabcessed.

The good doctor called in some antibiotics and pain meds for me this morning. I'll go in to see him on Tuesday.

I might be going from solid gold to toothless.

Like so many before me....

And I still don't have Tom's address for the mix CD.

Jackson's Junction. Here's a neat site that has video clips of politicians, journalists, and other celebrities saying very interesting and, sometimes, outrageous things.

Reflections on the last day of school.

In my masters program last year, reflections were big. We had to reflect on our course work; we had to reflect on our student teaching; we had to reflect on what kind of teacher we wanted to become; we had to reflect on what we still wanted to learn and know. As you might imagine, I came to rather loathe this prescribed reflection. It became as meaningful an activity as those role plays we had to do back in girl scouts. I'll reflect on what I want to, when I want to, and maybe not ever, thank you very much. I process things as they happen and want to move forward; please don't make me pause to think about what has transpired when I'm ready for the next thing.

But here I am on the last day of school, and I suppose I can't help but reflect on these last 10 months of English teaching. I am so excited that school will be out this afternoon, but it really doesn't feel as if anything will be over. I think that's because life is not over for the 100 students I had this year--they will, I hope, go right on living through the summer and into the next year and into the future. And I probably won't see many of them again. And so the questions begin: did they learn anything this year? Will they remember anything good from our class? What if they failed--will they make it next year? What if I was too easy on them, and they fail next year when a real teacher gets a hold of them?

I feel as if God blanketed me in protection this year. I did not have any problem students, though my students certainly had their share of problems. More significantly, I did not have any problem parents. Maybe that is because I was teaching standard-level students, and their parents are just generally less involved. But probably it was because God was protecting me in my first year of teaching, and he provided such great support from my fellow teachers and encouraging feed back from my superiors. He provided a community of friends outside of school and a wonderful home to return to at night.

At the start of the school year and during several sleepless nights, I meditated on the following challenging and encouraging verses from Isaiah 58; I return to them now at the end:

6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD's holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Net-Based To-Do Lists. Yesterday's "Personal Technology" column in the WSJ addresses the subject. I have already signed up for Backpack, just to see how it works.

I mean, really, I should figure out how I can spend more time on the Internet.

The column also refers to a number of personal organizer websites and blogs, even a couple that deal with David Allen's GTD. The sites that the column identifies are:

Lifehacker

43 Folders

To-Done!

So Now I'm Back (from outer space)
Two weeks is a long time to go without reading Kith&Kin! But now I'm back from InterVarsity Chapter Camp, and a weekend at the beach with the McClintocks and am all caught up on my K&K reading. (And Interact, too!) (Oh, and National Mustard & Crawford House, too.)

Now there are only 3.5 weeks left before we move to Austin, TX. What a strange thought.

Changing the subject, here's an article about a computer security professional switching to Mac.

In the coming weeks I'm going to keep a diary of an experiment my company began at 6 p.m. April 29, 2005 - an experiment predicated on the hypothesis that the WinTel platform represents the greatest violation of the basic tenets of information security and has become a national economic security risk. I do not say this lightly, and I have never been a Microsoft basher, either. I never criticize a company without a fair bit of explanation, justification and supportive evidence.

He and his company also have a blog ("Security Awareness for Ma, Pa and the Corporate Clueless," what a great name) where, among other things they'll be documenting their Switching journey.

And speaking of way cool Mac functionality, I figured out today how to use the new Tiger Safari browser to aggregate RSS feeds. It's as straightforward as clicking the "RSS" button that appears whenever I visit a site with such a feed, then bookmarking the RSS page that appears. Now I have a Toolbar Bookmark that constantly updates whenever one of my beloved sites updates. Below are pictures that demonstrate the ease of this. (Yes, I know that I could have used Bloglines, or 3rd party program to aggregate these, but that always seemed clunky to me. I really apprecate the elegance that the Mac powers-that-be built into the system. I'm sure that the other browsers won't be far behind.)


The blue "rss" is the button that appears when there's a feed.


This is what the feed looks like. Note that Safari has built in the controls to adjust how much detail you see in the feed.


Gather them all up in a bookmarks folder. Note that the parenthesis indicate the number of new posts.


Drop the folder in the toolbar and, voila, you can quickly check if Sean's updated Interact!

More "Second Mile" Thoughts.

As a rule, to the obligor the marginal cost of the second mile is far less than the cost of the first mile.

As a rule, the benefit to the obligor of the second mile exceeds the marginal cost and, probably, the cost of the entire distance. The combined benefit of the second mile to the obligor and the obligee is exponential.

Matthew 5:41.

Matthew 5:5.

Question Authority. Instapundit pointed me to this article in Wired about the people who survived the World Trade Center disaster.

I especially liked this statement:

This is the real source of homeland security: not authoritarian schemes of surveillance and punishment, but multichannel networks of advice, information, and mutual aid.

Sounds downright Christian.

Good Times

Today, I've bene married 3 years(EST).

I would recommend this way of doing things to whomever should ask.

Jud and I were sitting in the hot tub here at the complex on Saturday evening heckling the Morgan and Eugenie, who were in the pool. We offered them some Tecate, also.

Some goon bystanding thought we were pitiful. Little did he know, we had those ladies spoken for. It's a good way to be.

Is my face red

Some of you may recall my post last month where I confessed my inability to locate the OK Corral in Dodge City, KS.

Well, it turns out that I was in the wrong state. There's a reason that movie is called Tombstone as in Tombstone, AZ.

I did see a pretty wicked wolf, though, walking along a fence in the middle of [nowhere] Kansas.

Allow me also to confess that I paid a dollar to go see Abba - The Movie on Monday night at the Alamo Drafthouse. I paid $2.75 for a root beer float at the aforementioned event.

Juan's Blog. My colleague, Juan Antunez, has put up a blog that connects to our firm website. Check it out.

Latin, the Undead. Book review on Christianity Today talks about Latin and Greek. Our Classics majors will appreciate it for sure.

Mark Your Calendars

Headphones w/ Milton Mapes

June 6
The Parish
Austin, TX

New Antenna for Camping. Father's Day, Birthday, Anniversary: all in one gift, the "buddi-pole". Came in the mail today! Another picture.

Leaving the Left...

INSTAPUNDIT links to a column by Keith Thompson in the San Francisco Chronicle. It's an excellent presentation on how his views have diverged over the last 30+ years from those he agreed with back in the 60's. Because my political views have changed significantly since those days, too, I found it very compelling.

(This post is from Carol, not Paul.)

More on the "Exceedingly Seedy" Man and Friday's non-incident. Coming in to work today, I got off the MetroMover at the Second Street station, came down the steps, and there, fast asleep at the base of one of the columns on which the MetroMover track perches, was the "exceedingly seedy" man on whom I reported Friday. He did not awaken as I passed by.

The point of Friday's report was, at least in part, to demonstrate that, regardless of one's self-defense preparation, one avoids confrontation. Florida's new law, the one that seems to provide that one need not back down from a deadly confrontation, is of no interest to me.

Over the weekend I again read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, looking toward a Sunday soon when I am supposed to deliver a sermon of my own in the pastor's absence. What does one do about exceedingly seedy men and Matthew 5:42, not that this particular man has asked me for anything. One dispensationalist I knew said that the Sermon's imperatives do not apply to "this age". What a relief.

(For a discussion of the Sermon on the Mount, Dispensationalism, and the Mennonites, see this link.)

Defrauding Subway. A sign at the Subway I frequent announced that the company had terminated the coupon program that I have enjoyed for years. The owner, a Pakastani who mans the cash register and who could not be a more effective salesman for Subway, told me that ebay fraud had resulted in the termination of the program, but that Subway is establishing some sort of internet substitute. Here is an article on the fraud. If one has Subway coupons, one can redeem them through a date in August of this year. Defrauding Subway? That is really a shot at middle America.

Because I knew you would want to know. There is an active amateur radio club in Winston. They have a hamfest coming up. Go for it.

Cheap Gas! Over on Sean's blog, he put me on to this site to locate a gas station with cheap gas near you.

Where's the Calvary? Here's another blog that reports on citizens defending themselves and related matters. I like this graphic to which the blog links. Here's a story on that blog about Hurricane Andrew.

Being Watchful and Alert. Carol and I climbed up the stairs to the platform of the Bayfront MetroMover station coming home Friday about the time an exceedingly seedy man walked out of the elevator onto the platform. (I had seen him enter the elevator at the ground level as we started up the steps, and he concerned me a little bit, so I was looking for him when we got to the top.) He walked onto the platform ahead of us, and I saw that he had some sort of sharp instrument in his left hand.

Two MetroMover cars soon rolled up, and Carol and I walked into the second car. We prefer the second car, when there are two, because, when a two car train reaches the MetroRail station, the rear door opens exactly where we need to be to catch the stairs to the MetroRail platform at the end of our ride on the MetroMover. (When you ride public transportation like this day after day, you learn precisely where to position yourself at every step of the way to maximize convenience. Or maybe its just Carol and me. Who really knows.)

(Are you getting this? The MetroMover is a little elevated train that makes a loop in Downtown Miami. It has no operator. It usually has just one car, but sometimes two. The MetroRail is Miami's idea of a rapid transit. It is also elevated, but it is more like a real train - several cars, an operator. It has a stop about a mile from our house. We ride the MetroMover from a station near our office to the station where MetroMover and MetroRail link.)

The seedy man had walked onto that car in front of us. By force of habit, we followed him. Inside the car, I reconsidered that decision. I took Carol by the arm and we walked out of the second car and got on the first. As we got on the first and the doors were closing, two security guards came across the platform to enter the second car, the one with the seedy man. It appeared that they were going after him. But the doors closed before they got there and the train left. They didn't get him.

At the next station, Knight Center, we stopped, the doors to both cars opened, and I saw a woman walk across the platform toward the second car. I almost stepped out of our car and suggested she get on ours, but I didn't. But in just a moment, before the doors shut and the MetroMover resumed rolling, she hurried out of the second car and into our car. She said that there was a man in there with a razor blade in his hand - our seedy man.

It was hard to see into the second car from the first car, because the glass is tinted, but I keep an eye on the car anyway, as I had been doing. When we got to the next station, the seedy man got out. He glanced over at our car - its doors were open - we made eye contact, but he just continued moving to the exit turnstiles.

I wasn't alarmed. I was just very watchful.

Store Wars. Playing at a Publix near you.

Wal-Mart to Sell Out to Netflix. I couldn't stand being without the mail-order DVD service at Wal-Mart, and rejoined several months ago. Now Wal-Mart is selling out to Netflix. Ah, capitalism!

Letter from Dr. Kuykendall. The Davidson website has a letter from Dr. Kuykendall to Bobby concerning the recent action of the Board of Trustees. The letter supports the action of the board.

Psalm 15

1 LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?

2 He whose walk is blameless
and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart

3 and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman,

4 who despises a vile man
but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath
even when it hurts,

5 who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
will never be shaken.

We considered this scripture last night at our session meeting. Its a challenging passage. I focused on verse 4. Who may dwell with the Lord in his sanctuary? "He . . . who keeps his oath even when it hurts." The KJV says, "He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." And the NASB, "He swears to his own hurt and does not change".

But if I hurt, don't I get to do something about it? If I hurt, that can't be right, can it? God is a good God, he wouldn't want me to hurt. I am entitled to a hurt free life, to a hurt free law practice, to a hurt free marriage, to hurt free parenthood and hurt free sonship. What good is an oath that works to my hurt? I am about pleasure, my pleasure.

But others with whom I desire a relationship want my oath, they want my committment, they want to know that I will be there, even when it starts to hurt. And why shouldn't they?

I begin to see where the Cross fits into all of this.

"Thank heaven . . . for little girls". Recent study confirms something I began to suspect in Mrs. Peavey's nursery school.

"An Armed Society is a Polite Society". Miami, as an intensely urban place, is not particularly friendly. But I have noticed something about the gun ranges that I have visited over the last several months, following my 2nd Amendment "conversion". People are very polite at gun ranges.

The gun ranges to which I refer are establishments connected to a gun shop. (I haven't been to a range that is part of the county park system.) The shooting range is not out in the open, but inside a building, usually in an industrial area. The people there are predominantly men, younger men, but some middle aged and older. If there is a woman there, she is with a man and is usually a younger woman. There may be professionals among these people, but none of them look it. Some of them look pretty tough, but most look pretty normal. Everyone is serious about what he is doing. Everyone is polite. No one ignores anyone; you are definitely noticed and appraised; people deal with each other with respect, they speak, they move aside, they are patient with one another, they are careful to clean up their spent shells and their empty ammo boxes when they finish. This kind of polite behavior is not what you see day to day on the streets of Miami - or even of Miami Springs.

This columnist will not last long in the Knight-Ridder Empire.

What a surprise to read this article on Florida's recent "Stand Your Ground" legislation in a newspaper published by Knight-Ridder, which publishes our beloved Miami Herald.

I found particularly interesting the columnist's suggestions for further legislation.

Another Nita-ism.

Juanita, about a friend of hers at Epworth Retirement Village:

"She could talk the horns off a billy-goat."

More on Family.

Egerton (sometimes "Edgerton"). Carol's maternal grandmother was an Egerton.

Gross. Barbara Gross married Young Stokes. (see below)

Dykes. Virginia Ann Dykes married Greenberry Jefferson Stokes. (see below)

Aidan's male ancestors down to him on the Stokes side: Young Stokes (b ca. 1811), the father of Greenberry Jefferson (1839-1912), the father of Walter Levi (1877-1949), the father of Walter Johnson (1912-1996), the father of Paul Mason (b, 1946) , the father of Walter Ashley, Mary Juanita, and Macon Lanford, the father of Aidan Walter.

Greenberry Jefferson Stokes, according to a family history, was born in Tennessee [on a mountain top?]. "He enlisted in Company D, 6th Regiment, Alabama Infantry, April 25, 1861, and was a member of the famous "Raccoon Roughs"; the Company organized by the late General John B. Gordon and served with distinction throughout the Civil War as a Confederate soldier. He was wounded in Sharpsburg, Maryland (Battle of Antietam) September 17, 1862, and was captured September 21, 1863. Sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, to Rock Island, Illinois, and then to Louisville, Kentucky to be exchanged."

(For more on General Gordon and the Raccoon Roughs go to this webpage. It not only has a photo of Gordon, it also has a photo of a reunion of veterans. Among them is Greenberry Jefferson. The reunion photo, according to the webpage, was supplied by Shirley Denny of Akron, Ohio. Shirley is my second cousin. She is a daughter of my dad's first cousin, Judson Walker Stokes, who went by "JW".)

Young Stokes married Virginia Ann Dykes, who would be Aidan's great, great grandmother, on his father's side. Barbara Gross on that side would be his great, great, great grandmother.

Ulysses

"--Thank you, sir, Stephen said, gathering the money together with shy haste and putting it all in a pocket of his trousers.

--No thanks at all, Mr Deasy said. You have earned it.

Stephen's hand, free again, went back to the hollow shells. Symbols too of beauty and of power. A lump in my pocket. Symbols soiled by greed and misery.

--Don't carry it like that, Mr Deasy said. You'll pull it out somewhere and lose it. You just buy one of those machines. You'll find them very handy.

Answer something.

--Mine would be often empty, Stephen said.

The same room and hour, the same wisdom: and I the same. Three times now. Three nooses round me here. Well. I can break them this instant if I will.

--Because you don't save, Mr Deasy said, pointing his finger. You don't know what money is. Money is power, when you have lived as long as I have, I know, I know. If youth but knew. But what does Shakespeare say? Put but money in thy purse.

--Iago, Stephen murmured.

He lifted his gaze from the idle shells to the old man's stare.

--He knew what money was, Mr Deasy said. He made money. A poet but an Englishman too. Do you know what is the pride of the English? Do you know what is the proudest word you will ever hear from an Englishman's mouth?

The seas' ruler. His seacold eyes looked on the empty bay: history is to blame: on me and on my words, unhating.

--That on his empire, Stephen said, the sun never sets.

--Ba! Mr Deasy cried. That's not English. A French Celt said that. He tapped his savingsbox against his thumbnail.

--I will tell you, he said solemnly, what is his proudest boast. I paid my way.

Good man, good man.

--I paid my way. I never borrowed a shilling in my life. Can you feel that? I owe nothing. Can you?

Mulligan, nine pounds, three pairs of socks, one pair brogues, ties. Curran, ten guineas. McCann, one guinea. Fred Ryan, two shillings. Temple, two lunches. Russell, one guinea, Cousins, ten shillings, Bob Reynolds, half a guinea, Kohler, three guineas, Mrs McKernan, five weeks' bard. The lump I have is useless.

--For the moment, no, Stephen answered.

Mr Deasy laughed with rich delight, putting back his savingsbox.

--I new you couldn't, he said joyously. But one day you must feel it. We are a generous people but we must also be just.

--I fear those big words, Stephen said, which make us so unhappy.

-James Joyce

Kung Fu Hustle

Morgan and I saw Kung Fu Hustle this afternoon. It was so good.

Obviously, these guys have been working out with some kettlebells.

More 'Nita. I took Juanita to breakfast this morning (busy morning), and listened hard for more Nita-isms. I got no metaphorical gems. But I picked up things she says that are uncommon these days:

"Not hardly". This is an ironic way of saying "no". As in, "Mom, are you going to run in the Orange Bowl Marathon with Mary in January?"

"Over yonder". Pronounced "O-vah Yahn-duh". Could mean "over there", where "there" is usually some distance away, and that's the way she uses it. But it could mean "beyond the grave", which locus may not be as far away as we think, so that the use of "yonder" is a hopeful reference: we hope that beyond the grave for ourselves is quite some distance away, unless we are the Apostle Paul.

I have never heard her use "over yonder" to refer to the place where we go after death, but she certainly would understand that meaning because it occurs in many old Southern hymns.

She knows I'm posting this, so I am not betraying any confidences.

Ready. Concealed Weapon or Firearm License, State of Florida, No. W 2506050. Smith & Wesson 38 Special ("Airweight") Model 642, SKU 163810. Uncle Mike's pocket holster. Federal Premium Hydra-Shok JHP ("jacketed hollow point") 38 Special (+P) 129 grain ammo. Bianchi speed strips. Still registered Democrat.

Went to the range today with Jack, and for the first time shot 100 rounds with the Airweight. Tough on the hands and not all that easy to shoot. For relief, I shot a clip's worth with Jack's Glock (Jack is a policeman), and it was like riding a Cadillac on the Florida Turnpike as compared to a pick-up truck over a dirt road. But that's what you get with a small, lightweight revolver. Its really not suppose to be fun. It isn't. All of this is, obviously, is very serious business.

Family Names. While we are on names, here are some of our family names. As I think of more, I will post them. Do we have some family names common with any of yours?

Stokes (English)

Crocker

Johnson (Scots-Irish)

Hemperley (from "Hemple", a German family. It got "Southernized" into "Hemperley", because it sounded like "Hemplee")

Travis (yes, that Travis, my Texas friends) (Norman -English)

Jordan (pronounced "Jurdin")

Lanford

Whiteside

Macon (Huguenot)

Michaux (Huguenot)

'Nita-isms. In celebration of Mother's Day, I am initiating an occasional series of posts on 'Nita-isms. 'Nita is the diminutive of Juanita, my dear mother's name. Her father, Carlos, named her "Juanita" when she was born in Atlanta in 1920. Not an ounce of Latin blood there. I have no idea from whence the name "Carlos" came for my grandfather. "Juanita", my mom tells me, was the title of a song popular at the time she came into this world.

A 'Nita-ism is something that my mom is fond of saying. I can think of two of them right now, but other's will come to me and I'll post them when they do.

"Busier than a one-armed paper hanger." This -ism has a pretty obvious meaning, though politically incorrect.

"Lower than a snake's belly". This refers to a state of melancholy.

Another testimonial to the superiority of WordPerfect

I was interested to see that Glenn Reynolds at InstaPundit is also a WordPerfect fan:

"I'LL GIVE UP WORDPERFECT when they pry it from my cold, dead hard drive. Randy Barnett seems to agree."

(This post is from Carol, not Paul.)

Oh, Dad! The Atlantic Monthly for June is a treasure-trove, and I recommend that you pick it up. The cover story "How We Would Fight China" is fascinating. Sean would particularly like it, but it would be very useful for those of us who think that we did the right thing when we went into Iraq.

I read that article yesterday, and then Carol and I went to TWT last night, which is the weekly, community youth group event that our church sponors. We are volunteers. About half way through the event the "large group" breaks up into "small groups", and we lead a small group. The topic was "the future": where will you be in ten years? where would you like to be? God has a plan for you, do you want that plan and, if so, how can you be sure to live within it? (Jeremiah 29:11 is the key verse; it is scripture to which I seem to return again and again.) As I thought about where I would like to be in ten years, I thought about the article on China.

Maybe I would like to be in China in ten years. I am pretty sure that when the current lease runs out (which will be in 9 years), I will want to do something else. (That assumes that the firm will continue to enjoy its moderate success until then.) Why not go to China and teach something? Having just finished teaching the seminar at the UM Law School, I discovered again how much I enjoy teaching.

I'm not sure Carol sees herself in China in 10 years. But, then again, she didn't see herself in Miami either or helping run a small law firm or moderating the Board of Deacons or dozens of other things with which God has challenged her. She is amazingly adaptive, patient, and smart.

But maybe this is just another of the enthusiasms that seem to afflict me periodically. I am, however, looking into Mandarin studies. Check out this student's essay on his first year learning Mandarin.

More deep thoughts from English III.
Ms. Stokes: "So William Faulkner..."
Student:"hehe, William Fokker, like Meet the Fokkers?"
Ms. Stokes:"FauLkNer...William FauLkNer is best known for his novels: As I Lay Dying, the Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom..."
Another student: "Those sound like names of emo bands!"

"Runaway Bride" Confusion. I know I am old fashioned, but maybe someone can explain this to me. The young Georgia woman, the one who got on the bus and left town before her 14 attendant wedding, was living with her fiancee, right? This is a Baptist church where they were to marry, correct? And people in that church, including the pastor quite prominently, are saying all sorts of Christian things about the situation. So what is this pre-marital, living together business? No one seems to have mentioned this.

And if you been living with a guy like that anyway, what exactly are you running away from?

*GASP!* After over a week (a week!) of being without broadband, I'm back online. (Switched providers, and our old dsl modem didn't work with the new provider, even though their sales people told us it would, nach. We had to wait while they sent us a new modem.) I've gotta say, dial-up is. not. fun.

What is fun: Tiger, iLife05, iWork05. That's what I've been playing with while I waited hours (hours people!) for my data to go hither and yon in the Ether.

Crazy Cuban Blog. Adrya Acosta Kustra is our IP genius at the firm. She started a blog and I have listed it on the blogroll. God blessed us with Adrya not long after we started our firm. So, Adrya, welcome to the blog world! We'll enjoy keeping up with your family.

The new digs.
We moved this weekend; here are some shots of the new place. Notice the brand new bookshelf, housing what was once in stacks. Please come and visit.

"Professor Stokes". I'm teaching a four session course this week entitled "Ethical and Practical Aspects of Estate Planning" in the Graduate Program of Estate Planning at the University of Miami Law School. Back in the early 90s I taught a course called "The Estate Planning Process" in this program, and this is my first time back to the program since then. The students are all graduates of law school who are taking one more year to prepare for the specialty in which I practice. (UM will confer a "Master of Laws" on them.) About a third of the 23 students in the class went right from law school into this program; the rest have been practicing for some period of time, some only a few years, others for over twenty.

Over the last two decades, "ethics" has become a big item in both law school curricula and in the "continuing legal education" (CLE) aspect of the practice of law. There was no ethics course when I went to law school and the topic did not appear in CLE courses during the first decade of my practice. There were, however, "Canons of Ethics" that the state bars published at the time I started practicing, and they had been around for quite a long time. When we were sworn in as lawyers, we pledged to be faithful to the Canons. The bar always had a mechanism for enforcing compliance. Yet it did not seem to be a big item when I began. I think most of the principles that the Canons reflected were thought to be fairly well internalized anyway.

But things began to shake apart as we over indulged baby boomers, the Woodstock, Playboy philosophy, Vietnam generation, moved into the profession. This generation treated the law differently. If something was not expressly forbidden, then it was probably permitted, even required. And even if something were forbidden, could we narrow the scope of its prohibition, could we test the thin ice and not break through, could we get away with it? As a result, the profession felt the need to raise the profile of the Canons, to bulk up enforcement, to inject ethics into law school curricula, and to make ethics courses a required part of CLE.

Now there is an ethics industry in the law profession. There are specialists in the law schools who teach and publish text books; there is a chattering and writing class among the practitioners for which there is a subclass of ethics experts; there is a subspecialty of lawyers who defend other lawyers charged with ethics violations, a subclass of prosecutors employed by the bar to bring those cases; there is a growing body of legal malpractice plaintiff's lawyers who seek to make an ethical violation the basis of liability, and so there are insurance defense lawyers who defend the alleged ethics violator. Thus, there is this course I am teaching.

I am using the materials that the "real" professor employed for this course over the last several years developed. He is one of the specialists and the program flew him in from the University of Washington every year for this particular week. I'm a lot cheaper, so there I am. His materials have a set of 16 hypotheticals, and I am using them as the backbone of the course.

The students are strangely (to me) passive. I talk and talk, ask questions, try to get them to respond, and mostly they sit there. Only last night (the third night) did I start to get some feed back. (My strategy is to make more and more outrageous statements until someone just has to raise his hand and argue with me.) As I listened to the feedback and argued with the students, yes, I see that there is a need for this course.

I have more things to say about this experience, but let me close this lengthy post with one interesting point. Its about one of the "Model Rules of Professional Conduct", which are a set of rules that the ABA publishes as a model for states to adopt as their Canons of Ethics. The rule to which I refer is Rule 4.1, entitled "Truthfulness in Statements to Others." In pertinent part it provides: "In the course of representing a client a lawyer shall not knowingly . . . make a false statement of material fact or law to a third person . . . "

In other words, Lawyer, tell the truth.

Wow! Interesting! Novel! Let's study that idea for a week. What does that really mean? How can we use that in our practice to advance our client's cause? What are its limits and exceptions? How can we work that rule to get where we want to go? How can we use that as a lever to move our little piece of the world?

Under the Circumstances, Maybe not so Bad.

"The Christian tradition to which Davidson remains committed recognizes God as the source of all truth, and believes that Jesus Christ is the revelation of that God, a God bound by no church or creed. The loyalty of the college thus extends beyond the Christian community to the whole of humanity and necessarily includes openness to and respect for the world’s various religious traditions. Davidson dedicates itself to the quest for truth and encourages teachers and students to explore the whole of reality, whether physical or spiritual, with unlimited employment of their intellectual powers. At Davidson, faith and reason work together in mutual respect and benefit toward growth in learning, understanding, and wisdom."

-From the Statement of Purpose as recently amended. (See link below in the "Standard Equivocation" post at "Christian Tradition".)

“Give me my leg!” I'm reading Good Country People with the kids these days--a Flannery O'Connor classic. If you haven't read it, you really should. The characters' names are especially fun in this one.

Art of Demotivation

Here's an article about the book in FastCompany.

"The Standard Equivocation." Davidson College these days is careful not to describe itself as "Christian" or "Presbyterian". Rather, it prefers to describe itself as a place of learning within "the Christian tradition" or "the Reformed tradition".

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, in the May 2005 issue of First Things, writes of two colleges in New York, St. John Fisher College and Nazareth College, founded by Roman Catholics, but which the Diocese of Rochester no longer recognizes as Catholic. They were "decertified by the Church" at some point. Lately the two schools sponsored a performance of The Vagina Monologues, something Davidson College foisted on its students last year. Proceeds from the performance at St. John Fisher went to Planned Parenthood, Neuhaus writes. Apparently, the colleges are among those that misrepresent their religious affiliation. Quoting Neuhaus:

"The standard equivocation employed by dubiously Catholic or definitely not Catholic schools is 'in the Catholic Tradition' or 'in the Jesuit tradition'."

Leave it to Neuhaus to come up with just the right phrase that we can borrow to describe Davidson's religous sense of itself: the standard equivocation.

Roaming in Kansas

I'm holding down the fort in Dodge City, Kansas this weekend. Morgan and I arrived here at the Dodge House this afternoon. The Dodge House is no longer a Day's Inn apparently. The Day's Inn sign is leaning up against the side of the building.

Not much to do here in old Dodge City. Not so much a killer spot anymore.

We drove around for a little bit (didn't take long) looking for Boot Hill but couldn't find it. I found the Boot Hill visitor's center, Boot Hill museum ($7 a pop), Boot Hill barber, both Doc Holliday's and Wyatt Earp's Liquors, but no decrepit gravestones.

I couldn't find the OK Corral, either. This better be a good wedding.

Amazing Story

I just read the most amazing story about 4 undocumented Mexican high school students from Phoenix who beat out a team from MIT to win an underwater robotics competition. Be sure to read about it! (By the way, I think this post will say it's from Paul, but it's really from Carol.) This was linked on InstaPundit.

More Problems for Bobby. Naturally, a Texas source.

Living Wills. Some important information.

Attention Shoppers! The Daily Business Review reports today that IKEA will be building a store and distribution center in Broward, possibly across the street from Sawgrass Mills. (I would link you to the article, except that the Review charges for access.) As a result of this news, our rental rates for the spare bedrooms are increasing by 15%.

They're just bad people.
From Dre, Period 3: "Miss Stokes, did you know they made a pope coin? But they haven't done anything for Johnny Cochran. That's messed up."

Dare I ask again...

First period is probably my weakest class--with 17 boys, a majority of them country (read redneck), and only 3 girls, the odds were already favoring a slower class (you've read all the studies about girls generally being better students, I'm sure). The time in the morning and the late bus issue just compound the tendencies. Add to this that I'm teaching things for the first time and haven't worked out the kinks in the lesson.

Anyway, I do have some good kids in the class, and even the bad ones have won my sympathy and concern. Two of them have particulalry earned that this past week.

Students generally come in just before or well after the bell and we begin class promplty, so there's not much time for casual chatter before school begins. Occassionally, though, a tired student wanders in a few minutes before the classmates, and I'll ask how things are going.

Last week Mike came in early and sat in his front row seat. Mike was a C student first semester, but failed third quarter and is on his way to doing that again this last quarter. I asked Mike why this had happened, and he answered, "Do you really want to know?" I offered a tentative yes, with some idea of what was to come. My suspicions were confirmed: "Drugs," he replied. "Nothing worse than marijuana, I hope," I hopefully offered; "Nah, and I got caught by my parents last week, too, so I've got to stop." We discussed for a bit the problems with this habit and the bad effect it has had on him. I think he gets it; whether he actually quits remains to be seen. He was suspended today, I'm not sure why.

This morning Elaine arrived early, looking a bit down. I asked how her weekend was, she said it sucked, then I asked why. I was not expecting her reply, which she offered accross the room as she sat down (there was one other boy in the class, sitting two seats down from her, trying to do some homework, I think). "Well, when I got my birth control shot on Friday they didn't know I was pregnant and they killed the baby." Huh. I didn't know what to say. "Well, are you OK?" "Yeah, I'm fine." OK. "I'm really sorry, Elaine, that's really, really terrible." The bell rings, students trickle in, conversation ends.

So pray for these two. They're hurting.

Compassion, Not Compulsion
Want to fight a war on poverty? A volunteer army will do a better job than conscripts.
By John Fund.

From the WSJ's Opinion Journal. Marvin Olasky, contributor to World, is quoted.

Avian Flu Blog. Avian flu is 70% lethal in humans! Instapundit points us to an Avian Flu Blog. I'm thinking this is important enough to create a permanent link here at K&K.

Go Ted! Real Hard Core.

Why is NY shrinking and FL and TX are growing? A kind of friendship, actually.

Stacks: a retrospective

My stacks of CDs have been growing for years now, though I haven't cared to document their precise composition until recently. Each new CD introduced to a stack should not be considered in isolation from the CDs below it. How much is the new, irresistable CD determined by its predecessors and how much by all of the outside, social influences? I cannot say.

Toward a better knowledge of myself and my collection's/society's influence on me, I've put together a list of some of those albums that affected me a great deal.

(Note: I did not purchase all of these albums, and those that I did purchase, not necessarily did I purchase them in the same year their influence came to bear on me.)

1989

Petra - On Fire
Petra - This Means War
Skid Row - S/T
Bon Jovi - New Jersey
Warrant - Dirty, Rotten, Filthy, Stinking Rich

"listen to this!" Macon so introduced distortion into my life in 1989. Our paths diverged in '89, also. I never was a fan of White Lion.

1990

Deliverance - Weapons of our Warfare
Cinderella - Long Cold Winter
Living Colour - Vivid
Faith No More - The Real Thing
Petra - Beyond Belief

Thanks to Darren Lee via Macon for the Deliverance tip.

1991

Queensryche - Empire
Holy Soldier - S/T

1992

Sacrament - Testimony of the Apocalypse
The Lead - Burn This Record
Megadeth - Rust In Peace

Thanks to Darryl Nelson for the Megadeth hookup on the bus to Night of Joy.

1993

Bride - Kinetic Faith
Bride - Snakes in the Playground
Deliverance - Stay of Execution
Mortal - Fathom
The Crucified - Pillars of Humanity

1994

Circle of Dust - S/T
Tourniquet - Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance
Focused - Bow
The Crucified - S/T
Veni Domine - Fall Babylon Fall
P.O.D. - Snuff the Punk
Mortal - Wake
Precious Death - Southpaw
Randy Rose - Healing
Dakoda Motor Co. - Into The Son

1995

The Prayer Chain - Mercury
Circle of Dust - S/T
Circle of Dust - Brainchild
Strongarm - Atonement
Six Feet Deep - Struggle
Crashdog - Cashists, Fascists, and other Fungus
Havalina Rail Co. - S/T
Luxury - Amazing and Thank you
Poor Old Lu - Sin
Stavesacre - Demo

1996

Focused - The Hope That Lies Within
Unashamed - Reflection
Bloodshed - S/T
The Blamed - Frail
P.O.D. - Brown
Strife - One Truth
Stavesacre - Friction
Orange 9mm - Driver Not Included
Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary
....

**UPDATE**
Mary purchased the S/T Havalina tape for me back in '95 after I sat through 3 hours of unairconditioned exhibition of DCPS's finer middle school science projects; her project came up somewhere around hour 2.5, I think. My folks had fled town and left the duty to me.

Nothing could be finer.
I went for a 10-mile jog yesterday through the streets of Winston-Salem, which are currently canopied with a beautiful array of spring foliage. The temperature hovered near 60, there was not a cloud in the sky, the i-pod provided an excellent soundtrack...it was perfect. I went back out on my bike later in the day to take some photos of the route to share with you all. Enjoy.

"Why Me?" Indeed. Here's a story from the Miami Herald (to which you may have to register) about the son of a lawyer who works in the firm across the hall from where we office. I never knew about this situation until I read about it in the Herald this morning. I have had a friendly acquaintance relationship with the father for many years, and knew nothing about this. What does this say about modern (post-modern?) relationships? In any event, here is a family to pray for.

Blueprint vs. Warfare Theology. Just saw a program on the PAX network that featured a debate between a Southern Baptist seminary professor and Gregory Boyd, a minister at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, over the question of God's sovereignty. Boyd, who has written a book entitled Is God to Blame published by IVP, believes that the future is partially open and that men and angels have a sort of free will that can change the future. As I understand what little I heard, God has a contingency plan for every possibility so that, in the end, he will achieve what he wants. But there are infinite "meanwhiles" that are affected by our prayers and decisions. I must say that I found what he said to be intelligent and attractive. The seminary professor was overmatched.

Update. Tom's comment prompts me to find the link to this article from CT. To read more articles on this theological issue, go to the CT website and search under "Pinnock" and/or "Sanders".

The PAX program to which I refer is Faith under Fire, hosted by Lee Strobel of "The Case for . . . " series of books.

And how about IVP publshing into this issue?! That takes courage.

Free Book. Girls Only. Carol recently finished leading a Bible Study for which the study guide was Cynthia Head's Becoming a Woman of Freedom. NavPress is the publisher. She has two copies left over, so let us know if you would like to have one, and we'll send it to you. Carol recommends it.

Sin City

hopeful and life-affirming

This is good.
Given the audience, I'm surprised no one identified my Karl Barth Church Dogmatics: A Selection in one of the stacks; but it was there. And for your further edification, here's a selection from it:

No sentence is more dangerous or revolutionary than that God is One and there is no other like Him. All the permanencies of the world draw their life from ideologies and mythologies, from open or disguised religions, and to this extent from all possible forms of deity and divinity. It was on the truth of the sentence that God is One that the "Third Reich" of Adolf Hitler made shipwreck. Let this sentence be uttered in such a way that it is heard and grasped, and at once 450 prophets of Baal are always in fear of their lives. There is no room now for what the recent past has called toleration. Beside God there are only His creatures or false gods, and beside faith in Him there are religions only as religions of superstition, error and finally irreligion.

Because I can't sleep and it's so great and really is the winner, and for Tom, too.
The Hollow Men
Thomas Stearns Eliot

I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer --

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Stacks Mix

I'm working on my mix for those who identified cds in the stacks I posted a couple of weeks ago. (i.e. mary and sean)

Right now, in no particular order, I've got

"Lost Ones" - Lauryn Hill
"Underneath" - Starflyer 59
"Zero" - Smashing Pumpkins
"Rocky Racoon" - The Beatles
"Blinded" - Focused
"Violence of Love" - Crashdog
"Waiting Room" - Poor Old Lu
"Which Side Are You On" - Dropkick Murphys
"The Needle Lies" - Queensryche
"The Rookie Year" - Brandtson
"Struggleville" - V.O.L.
"Get On" - Third Day
"Vial" - Mortal
"Everything Goes To Hell" - Tom Waits
"Another Morning Stoner" - ...Trail of Dead
"Po' Boy" - Bob Dylan
"Heaven Sent" - Cush
"Bendy Line" - The Prayer Chain
"The Ballad of The Blamed" - The Blamed

I'll send a copy to whoever might want one. Let me know.

The organizing principle here is one song per cd. A band may only appear once. (some bands, though identified correctly, failed to pass muster with me this Sunday afternoon) First priority given to those cds correctly identified, 2nd priority given to those that should have been identified, 3rd given to those that would have been identified had I posted a higher-res photo.

**UPDATE**
I've published the final order above. In honor of Tom's stellar performance tonight, I've included The Ballad of The Blamed as the closing track. Unfortunately, I needed room and removed Bill Mallonee's "High...and Lonesome". My thinking is that Bill is already representing on the VOL track, and if you really want that track, then you should support him and buy his new album. Not to mention that Greg Minier plays my all time favorite guitar solo on TBOTB.

yo!

Latino and proud.
When I was home in Miami several weeks ago, and was out driving the bullet, I discovered that the face of Miami's airwaves had changed significantly since my last visit at Christmas. The third or fourth pre-set station, somewhere behind WMCU, NPR, and maybe Y-100, had always been Zeta--Miami's Rock station. That has all changed. Now, 94.9 is Mega Miami--Miami's voice for Latin hip-hop and reggaeton. Perhaps you can envision what is Latin hip-hop: just take the latest hip-hop hits, anything from Ludacris to Jay-z, and then mix it with some samples of latin beats. I can't explain reggaeton quite as well, so I recommend that everyone just start listening; For those of us who are currently displaced and living outside of Miami, this is our chance to get up on the latest, greatest beats before the reggaeton craze sweeps the nation and the world and all the rock and roll stations get switched. You heard it here first.

And the winner is...
I am sure you have all been waiting with bated breath for the results of the career center poetry tournament. I apologize for the delay. Your wait is over.

In both first and third periods, it came down to Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise" and Shel Silverstein's "Sick"; "Sick" proved to be the stronger competitor in both matches, though "Still I Rise" played a tough game. Students had to write a 1-page response to their choice for winner, and most students seemed to prefer "Sick" because of first-hand experience with what it relates. The students who got behind "Still I Rise" fought hard to the end, and wrote good responses in defense of their position; for the most part, they found the poem inspiring, with good rhythm and a clear message.

Fourth period is a bit more mature than the morning classes, and "Sick" actually fell out of the tournament in the first round. The poems which made it the furthest were "Still I Rise" and Langston Hughes' "Theme for English B" (which has a line that says "Born in Winston-Salem," which pulls the kids in from the start). It was very close, but "Still I Rise" edged out the competition to rise to the top. A few students elected to write reponses for some contenders that washed out early, including Plath's "Daddy" and Robinson's "Richard Cory". I did play the Simon and Garfunkel rendition of that latter poem, which garnered it a few extra points in the end, I believe. Perhaps that wasn't entirely fair, since I did not have songs to go with every poem; however, I felt that Richard needed a little help and didn't think that it would significantly alter the course of the tournament.

In sixth period, the championship game was interesting: the familiar "Still I Rise" had predictably made it; but we had a surprise appearance by Arlene Tribbia's "Sure"--a new face to the eleventh grade poetry world for many. It did not finally pull the upset, though, and "Still I Rise" once again pulled out on top.

Here are some highlights from the tournament:
from Tiffany: "'Still I Rise' to me was the best. There was no competition with this poem. It was something that I could relate to because you are always confronted with so much jealousy and hatred most of the time for no reason."
From Jess: "'Still I Rise' was an awesomely good poem."

Don't make Floridians Mad!

Florida eyes allowing residents to open fire whenever they see threat

Hattip: Drudge.

Toolicious

I just deleted a post about the Maynard James Keenan (singer for Tool) becoming a Christian. It can't be true. That's too crazy. It must be a practical joke to hype a new album.

thanks to Tom for the tip

**UPDATE**
April fools. Who's the tool now? Thanks again to Tom.

Collateral. Saw this movie last night on DVD. It stars Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. Michael Mann directed it, so it had to be distinctive, and it is. Violent, surreal, smart. A guy movie. Cruise is the devil himself. He pushes Foxx to an act of self-sacrifice in which Foxx finds redemption, emerging from the tomb-like wreck of his cab to become a new man, ready to save the damsel in distress and destroy the personification of evil who, up to that point, seemed omnipotent. Maybe that's what Satan is here for - to push us out of our tendency to safety, push us to make risky choices for the good of others.

Toward the end, when Cruise is chasing Foxx and damsel, the sound track explodes with drum beats - straight from the Last of the Mohicans. A fascinating movie, even with a certified Hollywood ending.

A Modern Tracker Pipe Organ. I found this website for Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, MN, that describes its modern tracker organ. I was pretty close on the general description of a tracker.

Organs and their Music. Walter sent me the program from an organ concert given on March 16, by Elaine Dykstra at West Hills Presbyterian Church. I wish I could have been there to hear it!

As I grew up at Central Baptist Church in Downtown Miami, I heard its wonderful pipe organ at least twice a week. I thought it natural that when you went to church, there was a pipe organ. Off I went to Duke in 1964, but in the early 1970s, when we moved back to Miami, we attended Central for awhile, and about that time they were installing a new one and raising the money for it. (The old one had several ranks of wooden pipes, and the termites had done their vandalist work.)

Duke Chapel had a huge pipe organ, a "tracker" organ. That means that it used old technology to connect the keys to the mechanism that opened the airways to a particular pipe to make the sound. That old technology was mechanical - the key on the organ console was somehow mechanically connected all the way to the box where the airway was opened. Among other things, it meant a delay between the piont where the organist pressed the key and the time when the music rang out. So, when the choir was singing and the director gave a down beat, the organist, anticipating because of the tracker delay, had already pressed the keys.

(The Duke Chapel organist's name was Mildred Hendrix. Two weeks ago, a group from John Thatcher's prep school, Darlington School at Rome, GA, came down to see him and they met at my office. The group included the president of the school, Jim Hendrix, a Davidson grad who had been raised in Durham and whose mother was Mildred Hendrix. She was a marvelous artist, and Jim told me she had been a pianist early in her life and one day had been asked to fill in on the Duke Organ. She taught herself the instrument, and there she was about 30 years later when I showed up.)

Another feature of the tracker organ is the initial sound it makes when the air is first released into the pipe. It makes a "shoosh" sound or so I was told at a lecture I heard at Duke given by the organistE.Power Biggs. He said that the "shoosh" differs from the initial sound that the electronically actuated pipe organs make at that point. Biggs said that this initial, almost imperceptible sound, makes a significant difference in the beauty of the music that follows it. (I think I hear that "shoosh" when I hear a tracker.)

He saw the tracker organ not as just beautiful but as a sort of metaphor for beauty.

I would be interested in knowing whether the WHPC organ is a tracker. (If it were not, it would not mean that it is not a beautfiul organ. I have heard it, and it is beautiful.) Has any of you heard a tracker?

"Court-imposed Homicide." That's what Ralph Nader calls the Schiavo death in this interview worth reading.

"Odd Felos". Michael's strange lawyer.

Where is Judge Sirica when we sorely need him? Too bad the judge who accepted the Sandy Berger plea bargain lacked the will, intelligence, integrity or whatever to refuse it and require a full disclosure of what in the world was going on.

Diversity on Campus?

Instapundit had a link on Thursday to some thoughts by Todd Zywicki on "Why Campus Intellectual Diversity Matters." I think it's well worth reading his analysis.

Poetry Tournament
March Madness comes on strong here in North Carolina. To capitalize on the energy, I planned a tournament of sorts for my four eleventh grade English classes. Rather than basketball teams competing, however, we've got modern American poems playing games. We skipped ahead in the tournament to the sweet-sixteen round (I don't think my students could handle 64 poems all at once). Over spring break last week, I selected the lucky 16, some by well known poets, others by poets I had never heard of but found on a website called "Poetry 180", complied by former poet-laureate Billy Collins. I tried to get a good mix of poems to appeal to a diverse group of students. The sixteen poems, in no particular order, are as follows:
1. "Out, Out--" by Robert Frost
2. "I Rise" by Maya Angelou
3. "Hate Poem" by Julie Sheehan
4. "Ballplayer" by Evie Shockley
5. "Fastbreak" by Edward Hirsch
6. "Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes
7. "Death of Santa Claus" by Charles Webb
8. "The Grammar Lesson" by Steve Kowit
9. "somerewhere I have never travelled" by ee cummings
10. "Wheels" by Jim Daniels
11. "What I Would Do" by Marc Peterson
12. "Sick" by Shel Silverstein
13. "Sure" by Adriana Tribia
14. "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath
15. "Richard Cory" by Edward Arlington Robinson
16. "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke

We've made it through round 1, and will complete round 2 on Monday.

Some observations:

I picked "Out, Out--" by Frost thinking that my students would like the story of a boy getting his hand chopped off by a saw and then dying. I was wrong. They did, however, like Richard Cory shooting himself in the head and the whiskey on papa's breath.

"Daddy" got mixed reviews--some students were engaged by the longish poem; some students only looked up when I got to the end and said "Daddy, you bastard." Many took the poem literally--as in her dad really was a nazi. Most became more interested when I told them that Plath really was crazy, and she killed herself at the age of 30.

Everyone liked "Sick" by Silverstein. So much for trying to teach a little literary sophistication.

No one liked "The Grammar Lesson". They never do.

My African-American students (as well as quite a few others) really liked "Still I Rise" and "Theme for English B". My redneck country boys, however, did not. I am hoping that things will not turn ugly come the championship game.

Students were generally not impressed by ee cummings, even when I explained that like many of them, he did not use capital letters or traditional punctuation.

Both "Ballplayer" and "Fastbreak" were about basketball, but only students who liked basketball gave them high scores, so they didn't last too long. The more universal the poem's appeal, the better it fared.

I'll let you know which poem wins.