Anthropic Coincidences.

"It has been found that many features of the laws of physics seem to coincide exactly with what is required for the emergence of life to be possible. This is what is meant by the term anthropic coincidences."

-Barr, Stephen M., Modern Physics and Ancient Faith. (U. of Notre Dame Press 2003), p 118.

See Stephen M. Barr's article in First Things entitled "Anthropic Coincidences".

Retail! This weekend, Walter and I will set up our first three Despair Carts (pat. pending) at three different malls in San Antonio. This whole enterprise has been a just-in-time exercise, which makes things interesting. Every other day is kind of like a Dukes of Hazzard cliff hanger: at the end of the day I can hear the voice-over, "Well, let's see if the boys will get out of this one tomorrow. Will they have enough inventory? Will the liability insurance arrive in time? Will they finish the Cart Operations Manual in time? Tune in tomorrow!"

This Sunday at Noon the NorthStar Mall Despair Cart opens, Monday at 10am the Despair Carts at Ingram Park Mall and Rolling Oaks Mall will open. Ready or not.

Huckabee's Ark. The name of an opinion piece in the WSJ on how Arkansas has dealt so well with the hurricane refugees, and does so with little help from the US government and lots of help from churches, scout camps and small towns.

No more delay on DeLay? Sean wins.

Don't Date Him, Girl! As the saying goes, "Hell hath no fury . . ." A new website, hatched in Miami (where else?) outs cheating husbands and boyfriends. This is testimony to how the systems the community once had for vetting prospective dates have completely broken down, and women are jumping blind into relationships. I wonder if the defamation lawyers will see an uptick in their market?

Vera Drake. This is the name of a movie from Britain that Carol and I viewed on DVD this past weekend. Its one of the "Critic's Choice for 2004" from the Christianitytoday.com's movie review page. Its an interesting choice for CT, because its about abortion by a producer who is not anti-abortion. The film is sympathetic to all sides (even the police are treated with dignity), but I won't go into much detail here. It is so good, and its worth watching it unfold without knowing exactly what to expect.

I would like everyone to watch it, so that we can blog about it and the issues it raises. If you are a died in the world pro-lifer, this movie will be good for you. It won't change your mind, but it will help you approach the subject with more respect for the difficulties and inequities that this fallen world presents to the truth of the sanctity of human life, whether in the womb or without.

A new word: cicerone.

"Years later he [George Otto Trevelyan, the great British Historian] acted as cicerone to his talented son George Macaulay Trevelyan."

From the "Editor's Introduction" by Richard B. Morris of The American Revolution by George Otto Trevelyan, "a condensation into one volume of the original six-volume work." (David McKay Company, Inc. New York 1964.)

cicerone: A guide who conducts sight-seers to places or objects of interests, as museums or antiquities; hence, loosely, a guide.

Morris refers to the elder Trevelyan's travel with the younger through Italy.

Curses! Duck of Doom!

Aidan should have known better than to pick up a duck in a dungeon!




(For all those who've ever played Munchkin with us.)

Self-Defense Update. I get ready for work in the AM: wallet, keys, change, watch, Palm Pilot, DayTimer, cell phone, brief-case, S&W .38 in its pocket holster, bullet strip. I collect the latter two items when Carol is not in the bed-room, because it still upsets her. But I am very nearly (but not quite completely) used to having the gun in my pocket as I go to and fro to work. One thing about the baggy suit pants that is part of the lawyer's uniform, I can stick the gun in its holster in my right front pocket, and no one has the slightest idea that a guy looking like a sheep is, ahem, a sheepdog. (I don't take it to the court-house, of course, which may be the most dangerous place I go during the month.) When I'm at work, the revolver, unholstered, and the bullet strip, goes in a drawer in my desk, a drawer reserved just for this equipment, a drawer about knee high and just to my right as I sit there and work.

Makes me think of Gary Busey, who played Eddie Lomax, the investigator in "The Firm". Except that Eddie didn't quite make it alive through the entire movie. But he went down swinging.

Worrying and Seeking. At TWT Wednesday night, we finally had "small group" sessions with the high-schoolers. Our group consisted of five ninth grade boys and one boy-crazy tenth grade girl. We read together Matthew 6: 25 - 34. (One of the boys was Justin Hume, of the famous Virginia Gardens Humes, whose older siblings played soccer with all our kids. And Justin is not the last Hume of his generation - there is a younger one than he! I really liked what I saw of Justin. For that matter, I liked what I saw of all of them.)

The passage you should read in its entirety. As usual, I learned something I didn't quite get in the past. Usually I have read this passage in pieces - or at least have thought of the pieces separately. The pieces are (a) Don't worry, God loves you, etc. and (b) Seek first his kingdom. What I didn't really get until Wednesday night is that the way to avoid worry is to get busy with God's kingdom. This is so obvious! What else have I missed in scripture? (Lots. But I have only been reading the Bible or having it read to me for about 59 years.) A corollary is that one is not of much use in God's kingdom if he is going around worrying about things.

How the kingdom is to be "sought" is an issue, of course. But that's for further consideration and prayer. The point is that we don't not worry because worry is not good for us, we don't not worry because we have other, more important things to do.

Alias season premiere - Thursday, Sept 29, 8/7C. Oh, yeah.

Austinites-can you get in the "mood" at 7?

You know I have gone over the edge when . . .
This column appeals to me.

I especially like the part of the "Code" dealing with Daddy.

Where Does Fantasy Come From? And why? It is God-given. I guess that is an obvious answer for a Christian. Our imagination gives rise to fantasy and to its perhaps more legitimate cousin, art.

Then the question is, "Why would we be given this gift of imagination?" I would think that imagination allows us to behold mystery in a way that gives us joy and assurance.

The other day a young man I know who stubbornly asserts that he is an atheist said to me that the Trinity is simply unbelievable, because how can one thing be three things at once. How can Jesus be on the Cross, speaking to the Father, if the two of them are one? Putting aside my suspicion that the young man is being a little perverse to draw attention to himself, I don't see how you can begin to grasp the Trinity without the imagination, without the same sort of faculty that produced the Fellowship of the Rings and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

So, when I visit Macon and Kellsey and see their collection of fantasy/science fiction novels, I think I understand what is going on. They have lively imaginations, God given ones. They embrace mystery at a very serious and profound level. They exercise that gift in play when they read those books and watch those tv shows.

Rita, Hello, Good-bye. Hurricane warnings went up yesterday morning, and so we closed the office at 1:00 PM, having learned a thing or two after Katrina's surprise visit. (I should say "relearn" a thing or two.) Came home, pulled the shutters out, and up they went. (Carol did a yeoman's job. Pioneer woman material.) I also took down the two vertical antennas I had left up during Katrina. Stuffed everything in the garage.

Some pretty stiff winds came by, but we got only the northern edge of the storm. Instead of the center passing over our house, it passed below Key West, threading the needle between that island and the island of Cuba through the Florida Straits. By the time it was about due south of Key West it had cranked up to a category two storm - Katrina had been barely a category one when it toured Miami Springs. So Rita is serious business.

About 3 this afternoon I went out and took down the shutters. We never lost power. No trees blew over or branches broke off - I think because Katrina had already done the pruning. So we were fortunate.

Now, however, Rita is breaking out into the Gulf of Mexico, with a track that could take it up to Texas and LA. We pray that it will simply blow itself out before it makes it that far.

"Narnia on Tour". Something with this title is having a lecture on C.S. Lewis in Austin on October 9.

The primary goal of the tour is to foster informed, local conversation about Lewis, his faith, imagination, and writing.

It appears in Charlotte on October 22. For a city near you, see the list of tour dates.

What is with these "Republicans"? Bush gives an open-ended promise to reconstruct the ravaged Gulf-coast, certain Republicans in Congress fall all over themselves to second him. If I want the federal government to play God, I don't need the Republicans - that's a Democrat skill-set. Makes me glad I haven't changed my registration.

Democratic Fantasies in Iraq? I sure hope this guy's wrong, but I have this uneasy feeling he is on target.

Dependent "Adults". Three times this week I have run into situations with grown-up people, people in their thirties, forties and even early sixties, who arranged their lives according to the wealth they expected to inherit from their parents. These people are neither happy nor competent in living well. For them, family wealth, either actual or imagined, has been a curse.

(I know what you are thinking: Sour grapes.)

My Man, Cornelius. Our pastor, Van Lahmeyer, is taking us through the book of Acts. (Its a great trip with such a driver.) Recently, we looked at Cornelius in chapter 10, the Roman centurian whom God used to instruct Peter on the Gospel being meant for all people, not just the Jews. There are lots of things to say about this fascinating chapter, but one thing particularly struck me.

Cornelius is introduced as follows in verse 2:

He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.

Cornelius was both pious and generous to those in need. He was a two legged man of God.

In the church in which I was raised, it was all about piety, all about "coming to Christ", daily Bible reading, and sending out missionaries. I don't remember much of anything about giving generously to those in need. The only thing that I heard along those lines was the work of medical missionaries, a not inconsequential work, to be sure, but one that was presented as sort of "bait" to get people to come to Christ, not something that stood on its own feet that Christians should do.) I would describe that as "one legged Christianity". We just sort of hopped around at our church. Its hard to prevail against the gates of Hades with an army of one-legged warriors.

(Obviously, Cornelius' generosity to those in need was not about getting those people to "come to Christ", because Cornelius had probably not himself "prayed the prayer", poor man.)

I am aware that "a text without a context is a pretext", but don't you think that the Cornelius story points us in the direction of ministering to the poor simply for the sake of their need and our plenty?

More Amalekite Lessons. I think it is instructive to think about the Amalekites as a sort of business entity. What they did was raid unprotected towns in Palestine, carry off the women and children to sell in the Egyptian slave markets (see Joseph and his brothers) and liquidate the rest of the booty. With many towns unprotected because the warriors were off fighting the Philistine/Hebrew wars, it was high cotton.

Other lessons include the very obvious one of not anticipating that David and his warriors might come home early. The question should have been "What can go wrong? What can go wrong?" They forgot to keep asking that question. I think a business that doesn't keep asking that question will finally fail.

This has a family dimension as well. I often see clients who "cash in" too early and point themselves at a life of leisure. In fact, I think I see an entire "demographic", the one that I am in, the aging yuppies, who are ready to do that and, if they cannot, are pretty upset. (The favorite retirement goal of South Florida, non-Latin white yuppies seems to be to retire to the mountains of North Carolina and play golf or tennis for the rest of their lives.)

That generation may ask: "What can go wrong?" All kinds of things. Stock market crash. Hyperinflation. Serious illness. Sudden single-ness for those who are married, brought about by death or total disability of the other spouse or by a broken marriage. Unanticipated and dramatic need among the younger generations that you believed were "set" and for whom you thought you had no further responsibility.