tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74482202024-03-13T11:38:18.804-04:00Right Theory, Wrong UniverseAn exploration of the different variants of reality. Your reality, my reality, realities that don't make sense in this universe (there are a lot of those), and the alternate realities that lurk about waiting to jump out and scare people.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-63934298061874050682023-03-08T21:53:00.000-05:002023-03-08T21:53:02.481-05:00So... 2023Wow. A lot happenned last year. Not all of it fun. Actually, a whole lot of it wasn't fun.
I understand now why it is that the only people for whom a hospital is a happy place are the people who aren't parents when they went in but are parents when they leave. I don't recommend the experience of an unplanned visit, particularly not an extended stay. The food wasn't as bad as it's cracked up to be, and the service staff was generally pleasant, but it's a really expensive way to pass the time.
So, yeah, that happened. I guess I should be thankful and all, but I wasn't really afraid of the possibility of not coming back from the experience still vertical. Not really sure I can explain it, just the concept of dying doesn't really bother me as the possibility of living a life I wouldn't recognize.
Sure, there's people who would be sad, and making other people sad isn't all that high on my bucket list.
I'm told I'm lucky that things worked out like they did. Maybe I am. Or maybe there's something that I'm supposed to do that I haven't done yet. If it is the latter, I wish I knew what that was.
Believe it or not, I've done a lot of writing over the past year. Just not on here. Maybe someday the things I've been writing will see the light of day. Time will tell.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-82769173056508752252022-01-01T19:46:00.005-05:002022-01-01T19:46:55.736-05:00Another New Year, another blog post to an almost entirely inactive blog...So...2021. Yeah. Glad to see it in the rear-view mirror, much as I was glad to see 2020 as past-tense.
But if I'm honest, 2021 wasn't all bad. Got promoted at work, likely the last one I'll ever see unless I get tapped for a position that falls into a "willing to do it if that's what the company thinks is the best use of my talents, but not going to seek out that role" category... Love our new pastor and am excited to see what the parish will evolve into under his leadership, even if I do still miss his predecessor. 'course I think that way about the Pope, too...
There's a lot of things that could have gone worse than they did, and there will always be things that could have gone better, so it is what it is. Again, if I'm honest...I'm pretty blessed. Got kids that are surviving the adulting game without needing to be bailed out or to move back in, and have a pretty good relationship with even if we could do a better job of staying in touch. That's as much my fault as theirs, which means they got it from me...
Hit 31 years of marriage. Wow. There was a time I couldn't have guaranteed you that I'd hit 31 years of age, much less marriage. Took a do-over marriage to get that far. Can't say that if you would have asked me at any point along the way what a 30+ year marriage would look like with me in it that I would have described what we have now, but it's been a good run and I hope it lasts another...well, however many years I have. Had planned to celebrate 31 years on a river cruise, just as we had planned to celebrate 30 years. Didn't happen this year either. "Next year in Jerusalem" as they say, except will be next year on the Danube. Unless it gets canceled again, but that's a topic for next year's blog post.
Could write a lot more, but not really feelin' it. All the theories in this universe seem to be on autopilot.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-10044331568037990222021-01-01T19:48:00.004-05:002021-01-01T19:48:54.298-05:00Farewell and good riddance 2020, here's hoping 2021 will be better...Just as I was being a little hopeful about 2021 being better, except for being reminded (once again) that God doesn't pay attention to college football, came the news that our beloved pastor had passed away, perhaps being spared the same realization about God not paying attention to college football.
May he rest in peace...not sure what to think right now. He's the only pastor I've had since truly embracing my faith.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-34645592953781966472020-12-25T21:02:00.000-05:002020-12-25T21:02:04.238-05:00Some housecleaning...Not sure if I'll post here any more frequently than over the past three years, but did decide to remove some crap that I didn't necessarily want to ever see again.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-86349160605136938792008-12-22T00:35:00.004-05:002008-12-22T00:41:46.719-05:00Anniversary Gift FTW!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx21OstBU6V60gxMtzXwWSuUA_vqSheCZPxVAMegm4O4ByyRvQjm8RiIhc3o7MTyYE3nAW6brxlj3QLKeywH_dmu10DKnrkfmhiE-yIcugXr1pCrU90ItwUOZAG9T7GMX_QrYfxA/s1600-h/DracoAsbellaeSmallRedacted.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282484155459353282" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 236px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx21OstBU6V60gxMtzXwWSuUA_vqSheCZPxVAMegm4O4ByyRvQjm8RiIhc3o7MTyYE3nAW6brxlj3QLKeywH_dmu10DKnrkfmhiE-yIcugXr1pCrU90ItwUOZAG9T7GMX_QrYfxA/s320/DracoAsbellaeSmallRedacted.JPG" border="0" /></a> I think this choice was inspired...<br /><br /><br />My lovely bride of 18 years was trying to guess what I'd gotten her while we were talking with some friends, and somehow the topic of diamond ads came up.<br /><br />She said "you didn't get me diamonds, did you?"<br /><br />I could only respond, "Well, it is kind of sparkly..."<br /><br /><br />I got an 18-year old single-malt Scotch, that I'm sipping as I compose this...<br /><br /><br />All in all, a good anniversary so far.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-29435055102722790152008-09-20T02:43:00.004-04:002008-09-20T02:53:15.677-04:00And now a word from our sponsor...Lest it be misunderstood, I must admit that I do know, love, respect, and even admire, some people in my life who are, despite otherwise being wonderful people, well, liberals.<br /><br />And despite that, I love them anyway. It isn't a fatal flaw for some people.<br /><br />In fact, there are many otherwise wonderful people who are liberals. Individually, they're capable of being fairly normal and having otherwise normal lives as long as they aren't discussing politics or voting. Unfortuantely, when you get liberals in a group, this groupthink thing happens that creates a special kind of evil insanity. Of course, that insane groupthink happens with conservatives, too, it just manifests itself in ways that aren't <u>quite</u> so evil, and are sometimes accidentally beneficial.<br /><br /><br /><br />There's just this lobotomy thing that happens when someone becomes an organizational liberal. You know, joins the club and drinks the Kool-Aid. Too much of that and you get itty-bitty Pelosis and Reids and Kennedys running around, peeing on the sidewalk and wiping their bottoms with the Constitution.<br /><br /><br /><br />Maybe it is one of those things where there are exceptions that end up reinforcing the stereotype. Well, of course, this person isn't evil and insane, but...him and her and him and him and him...<br /><br /><br /><br />Sort of like that saying that 98% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />So if you read my blog, and you think you know me. Yes, I still love you. Anyway.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-77612091401168353922007-11-15T03:47:00.001-05:002007-11-15T04:01:16.499-05:00Four ThingsSo my eldest daughter sent me this...<br /><blockquote><p><u>Four Jobs I have had in my life<br /></u>Self-employed computer consultant, computer technician, system admin/network manager, software/systems engineer</p><p><u>Four Places I have lived</u><br />Melbourne/Palm Bay area, FL; Atlanta area, GA; Rock Island Arsenal, IL; Columbus, GA</p><p><u>Four Places I have gone on vacation</u><br />Wales, Scotland, England, Umbria</p><p><u>Four Places I have gone on business</u><br />Norway, Spain, Germany, The Netherlands</p><p><u>Four Places I'd like to visit: (I'm assuming places I haven't already been) </u><br />Ireland, Australia, Austria (I've been to Salzburg, but only for part of one day), Greece</p><p><u>Four of my favourite foods<br /></u>sushi, wild game, BBQ, lamb</p><p><u>Four places I would rather be right now</u><br />Home (it's currently day 6 of 7-day business trip), outside having a walk in the woods and hills around Lillehammer instead of in this meeting, Rome (Italy), Munich (Germany)</p><p><u>Four friends or relatives I think will respond first<br /></u>Since this is a blog, I have no idea...</p></blockquote>Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-49298389253450813822007-11-14T08:26:00.000-05:002007-11-14T08:33:32.803-05:00A Mother's PerspectiveThis isn't original by me, and I don't know who the original author was, but I like it...<br /><blockquote><p>A mother asked President Bush, "Why did my son have to die in Iraq?"</p><p>Another mother asked President Kennedy, "Why did my son have to die in Viet Nam?"</p><p>Another mother asked President Truman, "Why did my son have to die in Korea?</p><p>Another mother asked President F.D. Roosevelt, "Why did my son have to die at Iwo Jima?"</p><p>Another mother asked President W. Wilson, "Why did my son have to die on the battlefield of France?"</p><p>Yet another mother asked President Lincoln, "Why did my son have to die at Gettysburg?"</p><p>And yet another mother asked President G. Washington, "Why did my son have to die near Valley Forge?"</p><p>Then long, long ago, a mother asked... "Heavenly Father, why did my Son have to die on a cross outside of Jerusalem?"</p><p>The answers to all these are similar --"So that others may have life and dwell in peace, happiness and freedom."</p></blockquote>The moral of this story is simple: If you are unwilling to stand behind the troops, then you are cordially invited to stand in front of them.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-9216757539322811122007-06-24T11:25:00.000-04:002007-06-24T11:26:46.512-04:00At long last, an overdue reflection...So I was reflecting on something a while back and alluded to this in an earlier post...When Jesus was conceived and born into this world, at what point did the first miracle occur? At what point did God become man and dwell among us? What do these things tell us about life?<br /><br />Setting aside the many miracles that took place in Jewish history that prefigured the culmination of the plan for salvation, let's look at the candidates for the first miracle of Christ's time on earth.<br /><br />The majority of Christians believe that the first miracle was the purification of the Ark of the New Covenant, the human vessel that would bear the symbol of the New Covenant just as the Jewish Ark of the Covenant purified and sanctified so that it could bear the symbols of the "old" Covenant. I refer, of course, to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Mother. Most Christians believe, and have done so since the early years of Christianity, that Mary, the mother of Christ, was blessed by grace from God through the Son that she would someday bear to preserve her from the taint of original sin, and blessed by graces to permit her to choose a life of obedience and free from sin that she might someday say "I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me". Since her womb would bear the Son who would become the New Covenant, she was the Ark of that Covenant, and must have been kept as pure as the Ark of the earlier Covenant. This is not, of course, a "reward" that was given to Mary because she was special or because she merited it, but unmerited grace that was poured out upon her to prepare her to fulfill the Divine plan for her. Thinking about this, I look upon it simply: If I were God, and I had chosen to become a man, and I had chosen to be conceived and born and life and die as a man rather than just materializing as an adult, then I would have to decide at some point who my human mother would be. And once I had chosen that woman, and particularly once I had decided that I wanted that woman to still be a virgin when I was conceived in her, then if I could bless that woman with divine graces that would help her to choose a life without sin and therefore be a pure and untainted vessel for my conception and birth, then why would I not do so? We believe in the Immaculate Conception because of what we believe about Christ, not because of a special veneration of Mary.<br /><br />Another early miracle was the Annunciation, the visitation of Mary by St. Gabriel Archangel, where she was told that she would conceive and bear a son who would be the Savior of mankind. Somehow, this teenage bride was able to understand the significance of the words of the angel and express her fiat. As an aside, this event reaffirms a number of other things that most Christians believe about the Blessed Mother. When she was visited by St. Gabriel, Mary and Joseph were already engaged. When the archangel told her that she would conceive and bear a son, her response was "How can this be?" The response of any other wife-to-be would have been "Wonderful! My husband and I will have a child soon!" And yet Mary was puzzled. This indicates that she and Joseph must not have intended to consummate their relationship, which supports the belief that she remained a virgin for the rest of her life. (The back story for this may be found in a number of early Christian writings, including the Protoevangelion of James.) In any event, Mary must have been terrified of the idea that she would become, in a sense, the Bride of the Almighty and Mother of the Second Person of the Trinity. And yet, through grace, she consented.<br /><br />However, these two miracles occurred before the Emmanuel event, the event after which it could truly be said "God is with us". When was that point?<br /><br />It must certainly be agreed that Jesus' conception within Mary was a miracle, and must also be agreed that Jesus' birth is celebrated as an event of momentous import. At which of these points did God become Man and dwell among us? Did the Divine live and dwell among men while he was in the womb? Certainly, John the Baptist recognized the coming Savior while both were still in the womb, when Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth. This seems to imply that God became Man at conception. If so, should this not inform our moral conscience when we consider the unborn human? If God dwelt among us while still in the womb, then life in the womb is already life, already human, already sacred.<br /><br />Or, did God not truly enter the world of men until the birth that we celebrate? This does not seem to make sense. If only the birth was important, then God could have entered Mary's womb the day before the birth. There would have been no need for conception and gestation, and yet we know through Scripture that it did not happen this way. Theologically, for Christ to save humanity, then He must enter into the whole human experience. So we can conclude, then, that it was important for the Son of Man to experience conception and life in the womb in order to have a complete experience of human-ness. This leads again to the conclusion that life in the womb is already human, already sacred. This conclusion may also be affirmed by the reality that we are fairly certain that the date we celebrate, December 25, has no correlation to the actual day that Christ was born (theologians and religious historians largely agree that it must have been in March, and are beginning to approach consensus on a year). Yes, the birth was important, but not so important as to assure that it was celebrated on the anniversary of the event.<br /><br />So when we form our moral conscience for issues such as abortion, contraception, and stem-cell research or other research on human embryos, should we not be informed by the theological reality that two extremely important events in the plan of salvation both occurred at conception?Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1156649764573040552006-08-26T23:22:00.000-04:002006-08-26T23:36:04.596-04:00Things I think I think<ul><li>No amount of additional mistakes can ever make things come full circle.</li><li>No good deed goes unpunished.</li><li>It is <u>usually</u> easier to get forgiveness than permission, as long as you avoid things that are difficult to forgive.</li><li>Holding the moral high ground may feel good, but it can be dreadfully lonely.</li><li>The two most destructive forces in the universe are the human imagination and puberty.</li><li>The hardest answers to prayer to accept are "no", "not yet", and "nice try".</li><li>You can't protect someone from their own mistakes.</li><li>Sometimes, the only way to learn is to screw up.</li></ul>Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1149519312515404482006-06-05T10:09:00.000-04:002006-06-05T10:55:12.556-04:00Can evolution be proven by the degradation of a species as well as its improvement?I was just wondering about this...<br /><br />If evolution is the adaptation of a species as influenced by its environment, is this always a positive thing, or an improvement? There's evidence to suggest that many species have become extinct through overspecialization - changing to take advantage of a environmental condition and then being unable to survive when that condition was proven to be temporary.<br /><br />The human species has changed so much since our days as nomadic hunter-gatherers. And not always for the better. Indeed, I wonder whether modern humans could survive if conditions reverted to those more like the not-so-distant past, because we've lost so many traits that we must have had in order to be able to survive.<br /><br />Let's look at what we, as a species, have lost:<br /><ul><li>We've lost the ability to listen. Yes, it seems that this manifests most severely in the adolescents of the species, but I believe we no longer have the sense (in both meanings of the word) that would have been necessary to be effective hunters.</li><li>We've lost the ability to think in the long term. The thing that truly distinguishes the intelligence of the human species is the ability to recognize the difference between past, present, and future. Today, we see reports of some animals demonstrating surprising abilities of planning ahead, while humans devolve further and further into a "now" mentality. We don't consider the potential, or even the probable, results of our decisions and actions. We don't even consider the lessons learned of those who came before us.</li><li>We've lost the ability to think of the welfare of the group, and sometimes even lost the ability to think of anyone other than self. Many modern humans might be able to be the beaters that drove the mammoth into the trap, or the hunters that threw the spears from cover and made the kill, but how many could or would fill the often-suicidal role of closing off the avenue of escape for that soon-to-be enraged creature? How many could or would stand as the Spartans did at Thermopylae under the stinging hail of darts and arrows of the Persians, because their sacrifice might protect others? How many could or would stand in a Napoleonic (or American Civil War) line of battle, because it was better to die than to abandon your friends and relations? How many could or would take a particular career, or take a particular spouse, because their family would benefit? We're so absorbed in "me" that we rarely, if ever, consider the many definitions of "us" that each "me" is a part of.</li><li>We've lost our sense of direction. Christianity and Islam initially grew and flourished as religions because they both had the positive goal, accepted by their believers, of making people into better people, of making the quality of existence better for those who believed. Both religions sidetracked (as all do) at times when the negative goal of claiming a higher percentage of Divine truth got in the way of the positive goal. The USA and USSR went to space because they had a vision of doing so, a positive goal - even if it was tempered a little by the negative goal of competing rather than cooperating to get there. But in these examples, even though the negative goals always mitigated against the effects of reaching the positive goals, they were still goals nonetheless. Today, we no longer set the goals and direction we once did. Do we today have the vision to see the unknown parts of Africa, Asia, and South America (or even parts of Canada) as we once had a vision to tame the "New World"? (No.) Do we have the drive to cure cancer as we once had the drive to eradicate polio? (No.) Do the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny operate only in the negative now? (It seems likely.)</li><li>We've lost our faith. Not just in a religious sense, either. We've lost faith in God, absolutely, but also lost faith in ourselves, both individually and collectively.</li></ul><p>All these things we've lost were originally traits that allowed the human species to survive even though the other species that we competed with were stronger, faster, and had many other physical advantages. There's evidence that the other species are catching on and developing some of these traits we've lost. Give another few million years and maybe the parrots or the dolphins or the bees will be writing books about the poor dumb humans that couldn't adapt well enough to survive, and thanking their Divine Maker for blessing them with more longevity.</p>Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1149467018766806762006-06-04T20:17:00.000-04:002006-06-04T20:25:07.496-04:00Things that help, even when they're for someone elseHad a prayer/healing service after Mass today for a good friend whose child is going through some really life-changing and life-threatening stuff. Bad enough that part of the prayer was for the serenity to let go.<br /><br />Letting go and letting God is a good prayer for parents a lot of the time. It hurts so much to see a life that you care about being destroyed, or destroying itself. But sometimes all you can do is step back and hope that you've made it clear that you love enough to pick up the pieces.<br /><br />God knows I've prayed for wisdom often enough to believe that if there was anything different for me to see, that He'd have shown me. So my lesson here, hard as it is to accept, is not wisdom or acceptance, but simply understanding that all I can do is let whatever is going to happen, happen.<br /><br />Not nearly as bad as the Blessed Mother experienced, but I think I can catch a glimpse of what it must have been like for her. Except she had the solace of knowing that God's will was being done, and I don't believe that's the case for me...<br /><br /><br />But for all that, this helped, if for no other reason than knowing that all parents suffer at some point, and knowing that there are worse things that could be happening but aren't.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1128880382195253772005-10-09T13:29:00.000-04:002020-12-25T20:07:34.773-05:00Minor clarificationIt is possible to be emotionally unsettled about something and still concede it is right or it is wrong.
While I firmly support a woman's right to serve her country in any way for which she is qualified, that doesn't mean I would encourage my daughter to seek combat or be particularly happy about that if it did happen. While I firmly believe that homosexuality is a moral challenge that those who feel tendencies in that direction are charged by God to resist and avoid, I also believe that the freedom America proclaims to stand for should entitle freedom of legal association for the purposes of insurance, survivorship, and so forth. (Which forms of legal associations are recognized as "marriages" is best left up to religions.)
Racism and other forms of bigotry are not prevented through legislation, because the legislation that has been enacted has only created a different form of discrimination. They are prevented in the homes, schools, and churches of this nation by teaching children as they grow up the difference between right and wrong, and by individuals choosing not to associate with those people who do discriminate. If I learn that a business discriminates against others for service, then I will deny that business my patronage. If I learn that a coworker discriminates against others, then I will reconsider whether or not I want that person on my project team because their discrimination is prejudicial against the team spirit I try to establish as a leader. (I will tell the person why I don't believe they are a good fit for my team, so that they can choose whether or not to try to amend their negative behaviors.) We end discrimination by teaching the next generation that it is morally wrong.
There's a good line from Michael Shaara's <u>The Killer Angels</u> about where I am with this. It is spoken by Buster Kilrain, an aide to Lt. Col. Joshua Chamberlain:
<blockquote>No two things on earth are equal or have an equal chance, not a leaf nor a tree. There's many a man worse than me, and some better, but I don't think race or country matters a damn. What matters is justice. 'Tis why I'm here. I'll be treated as I deserve, not as my father deserved.</blockquote>And so I misused the word "equality" earlier. I should have made more clear that I believe in treating everyone fairly and with justice in accordance to the merits that they earn through their choices and actions, and not through some arbitrary demographic.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1128444820211611782005-10-04T12:45:00.000-04:002005-10-04T12:53:40.216-04:00A Small History LessonAs a historian, I look for historical trends and what-not. Partly because those who do not study history and learn from it are doomed to repeat it.<br /><br />And this came to me - we've forgotten an important lesson from our forefathers.<br /><br />When you find youself in the situation that you don't like the country you're in because it is politically or culturally unsatisfying, or because there's a famine or whatever, then <u><strong>you leave and go find a different country, or found a new country, where you will fit in better</strong></u>. And sometimes that will require some adaptation, and if that's the case, then you adapt to fit in.<br /><br />This is the legacy of our forefathers. It is not that we should try to change the country we are in to fit our desires, but that we should change ourselves to fit in, or leave.<br /><br />I don't know about you, but I got a long list of people I'd love to invite to go live someplace else to form their liberal atheistic utopia instead of destroying this country for the majority of us who think it was just fine before they started messing with it.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1124508579733712662005-08-19T23:26:00.000-04:002005-08-19T23:29:39.740-04:00Never thought of this before...Was reading the writings of St. Ignatius Loyola, who had something fairly serious to say about gossip...<br /><br />If you reveal the hidden sin of another, then you commit a sin equal in severity to the one that was hidden.<br /><br />Someone else's sin is between them and God. Yeah, I get that, just hadn't thought of it in that light before.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1123085667670699722005-08-03T12:03:00.000-04:002005-08-03T12:14:27.676-04:00Gettysburg reflectionWent to Gettysburg Battlefield yesterday. I've been before, so this won't be a massive rant. Reflections this time:<br /><ol><li>James Longstreet has never really gotten the honor or respect he deserved. He was one of the few Confederate generals who saw the "big picture" that the so-called government did not, and even Gen. Lee did not. He saw early on that the Confederacy was fighting a war they were destined to lose unless they managed to tire the North of fighting, and saw that this would only be possible by only fighting when it was possible to win a decisive victory. He correctly predicted that Gettysburg was not the place for such a victory, and since the loss at Gettysburg was seen as so devastating to Southern hopes, and therefore so tarnishing on Robert E. Lee's reputation, the South has never forgiven him for it. And for that, Southerners should be ashamed.</li><li>E. Porter Alexander should have been shot after the war. He was unique among Confederate officers in that he did not have the honor or ethics to resign at the start of hostilities. His other classmates at in the West Point Class of 1861 who planned to serve the South resigned before graduation. Not Alexander. He finished, graduated, accepted his commission (which included swearing an oath of allegiance to the United States of America <u>after</u> hostilities with the Confederacy had already begun), and accepted a posting in the Signal Corps. <u>Then</u> he went AWOL with all the code books. When the decision wa made after the war not to prosecute former officers for treason, an exception should have been made for him that allowed him to still be prosecuted and executed.</li><li>If you're ever in Gettysburg, check out <a href="http://www.dobbinhouse.com/">Dobbin House</a> for dinner. Very nice.</li></ol>Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1121969749074965292005-07-21T13:59:00.000-04:002005-07-21T14:17:01.590-04:00More on Creation...So we had an interesting discussion Monday night in my men's group about the nature of God creating humankind in God's own image. Then I read a collection of homilies given by Pope Benedict XVI when he was Archbishop of Munich & Freising during Lent of 1981 that were based upon Genesis; these were published in book form in 1985 and were recently republished.<br /><br />The Holy Father taught that our creation in the image of God means that, like God, we exist in relationality. God, as Trinity, is a relationship. God created us to be in relationship with God and with each other, to be able to love and receive love in a different way than other creations. The Holy Father's teaching, consistent with the theology of Vatican II that he formed with Karl Rahner and Hans Kung as a recovery of the earliest patristic expressions of faith, was that God created the universe in order to ultimately create mankind so that God could express Godself to us.<br /><br />An important part of this (important because it is something upon which Catholic and Orthodox theologians agree but many Protestants don't understand or embrace) is that in order to fully receive and express love from and to God, we have a will that enables us to choose whether to accept God's love and to choose how we respond to that love. Along a similar vein, St. Thomas Aquinas posited that natural creations cannot choose whether or not to love their Creator - that it was a part of their nature. As natural creatures, we do therefore have an innate tendency to love God. But we also have a sinful nature that manifests as a tendency to love Self and to place the desiresof Self first. This sinful nature is a part of our very being but was not created in us by God. Through our reason and intellect, with assistance of God's grace, we choose which of these aspects of our nature to respond to.<br /><br />In my own theological studies, I have seen it posited that each of us is created with an emptiness inside us, like a doughnut with a hole, and we have a deep longing for that emptiness to be filled. God's plan is to fill that emptiness with Godself, if we are open to receive that. If we choose not to be open to the experience of receiving Godself, then we may choose to try to fill our emptiness with other things. Our sinful nature leads us to consider other ways than God of filling the emptiness within us, but the choice is ours (with the assistance of grace).<br /><br />Where the Fundamentalist model is flawed, and fatally so, is that it allows for a sinner to continue to choose Self with no commitment or response to God other than a single profession of faith. Yes, we do have the example of St. Dismas, who experienced conversion while suffering on his own cross alongside Christ. The proper view of that example is that St. Dismas had a conversion experience and lived a life of conversion for the rest of the short time that he had.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1121794586577720222005-07-19T12:59:00.000-04:002005-07-19T13:36:26.603-04:00Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start<p>I can't help but think of Sr. Maria's instruction in music to the Von Trapp children whenever I think about Protestant theology, particularly regarding creation. If a few Fundamentalists would sit at the feet of the truly wise as the children that they are, Christianity would be much better for it.</p><p>There has been some hoopla lately over teachings on evolution by Cardinals Schonborn and McCarrick where the Cardinals have (rightly) indicated that there is no contradiction between the science of evolution and the sacred story of Genesis provided that we avoid the traps of Darwinian and neo-Darwinian evolution that presume random chance as the actor in evolution rather than a divine intelligence.</p>Catholics are taught that God created mankind with an emptiness that only God can fill. Part of that emptiness manifests in a desire to open that which is closed and illuminate that which is in darkness. Because of that we strive to understand and explain the universe that God created for us. The evidence that we obtain through science is evidence toward revelation of a sacred mystery. The evidence itself is neither good nor evil, but the conclusions that we draw from that evidence may be. The evidence is what it is, revelation of individual pieces of a divine puzzle.<br /><p>Let's review the important messages from Genesis:</p><ol><li>God created the universe and everything in it</li><li>God created mankind to be special and different from His other creations</li><li>A sinful nature is a key aspect of the human makeup; however, God did not create sin or that aspect of our nature</li><li>The sacred story of creation foreshadows the Divine Plan</li></ol><p>Specific details of creation in the sacred story reflect the cosmological and ecological understanding of the time period in which the sacred story was written. The scientific accuracy of the sacred story is not important to the theological message.</p><p>So Catholics are taught that we must believe that God created the universe and everything in it. How that creation took place is a mystery. How we attempt to explain that mystery reflects our understanding at the time we choose to attempt the explanation. The writers of sacred scripture in antiquity had a very limited understanding of science, and their attempt at explanation of the mystery reflects that. Accepting this limitation of the scripture authors is in no way a denial of sacred scripture, but rather indicative of a deeper and more mature understanding of what sacred scripture is and what it isn't.</p>Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1121181597790192442005-07-12T11:15:00.000-04:002005-07-12T11:19:57.790-04:00Another thing I know about loveLove is not about what you can or desire to give the other person. Love is about what you are willing to give up for the sake of the other person - a willingness to reform yourself to better fit into the open spaces in their life.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1121148030384196052005-07-12T01:22:00.000-04:002005-07-12T02:00:30.413-04:00An Open Letter to my WifeSince it is after 1am, this will probably be rambling, but I think I'll get the main drift...<br /><br /><p>Some things I know:</p><ul><li>How you look is not nearly as important to me as who you are</li><li>Who you think I am and who you want me to be is more important to me than who I think I am</li><li>How long we've been together is not as important to me as how much time we have left</li><li>If I had the opportunity to live my entire life over again, I wouldn't change anything that might compromise later meeting you</li><li>"Us" is far more important than "me"</li></ul><p>Some things I want:</p><ul><li>I want to be able to demonstrate to you all of the things that I know so that you will know them too</li><li>I want to measure our lives by our dreams for the future rather than our accomplishments of the past</li><li>I want never ever to hurt you</li><li>If a part of me distresses you, then I want to have the courage to despise that part until I can remove it, even though I know that you love me enough that it isn't necessary</li><li>When we disagree, I want to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume I'm the one who is wrong because I know I handle being right in the face of uncertainty more gracefully than being wrong in the face of unwelcome evidence</li><li>I want to be one of those old couples who have grown so close over time that they don't even need to talk anymore but just sit and be together</li><li>I know this is selfish, but I want to die first; besides, no matter when I go, you're going to be waiting in Heaven for me to get out of Purgatory anyway</li><li>I want to live long enough to see one of our children or grandchildren take holy orders</li><li>I want to measure my success in this relationship not by what I give you, where I take you, or what I say, but by how I demonstrate to you that I spend more time thinking about you and us than I do thinking about myself</li><li>I want to be reasonably successful at pulling off at least some of these "wants"</li><li>I want those of my children who are destined to have spouses to find spouses that are at least as devoted to them as I am to you</li></ul><p>And since I ran you off from reading over my shoulder while I was writing this, I hope it was worth the wait.</p>Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1121084975961855852005-07-11T08:15:00.000-04:002005-07-12T11:01:33.580-04:00Nothing is easySo I was doing my theology homework and reflecting on the faithjustice aspects of my personal spirituality. And I realized that it is never easy.<br /><br />For example, look at this: <a href="http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,druck-363663,00.html">The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.</a> He makes a lot of good points, and it dovetails right into a couple points in a theology essay that I recently read.<br /><ul><li><u>All social justice action should not lose sight of the reality that the human condition is fundamentally sinful.</u> There will always be "haves" and "have nots" but this does not mean that we should perpetuate that situation. In the case of Africa, I think the old axiom about fish should work: give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. By simply sending aid, all we are doing is perpetuating the current situation of helplessness. By forgiving debt, all we are doing allowing more debt to be generated.</li><li><u>When pursuing social justice, we should be careful not to let hidden biases affect our thoughts and actions.</u> Has anyone considered the possibility that we may feel the need to help Africa because deep down we don't believe that Africa can help itself? Are we guilty again in this century of thinking the African people are not as good as the rest of us? Rather than treating them like children and do for them, why do we not treat them like adults and encourage them to do for themselves? Could it be that a <em>hand up</em> is better than a <em>hand out</em>?</li></ul>Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1120673793987312342005-07-06T14:13:00.000-04:002005-07-06T14:16:33.993-04:00Now that's just spookyLook at what I wrote yesterday.<br /><br />London just defeated Paris for the 2012 Summer Olympics.<br /><br />Having the Olympics in Paris would have been one of the worst things that could possibly happen to the world, short of a worldwide epidemic of Scientology. You think the French are insufferable for no good reason now, think about giving them the Olympics to hold over everyone's heads...Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1120610265046486792005-07-05T20:32:00.000-04:002005-07-05T20:37:45.050-04:00Something only a historian would think...So I was just musing today about world travel, and I couldn't help but wonder how much better off the world would be if one of the many conquerors who have attempted to add France to their empires had been more successful.<br /><br />Any of them. Well, maybe not Hitler.<br /><br />I blame the Lancastrians. If Henry V had only taken better care of his health, then France would be part of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, and France. Belgium probably wouldn't be a separate country, but that wouldn't be a bad thing as long as they still made good chocolate and beer.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1119875799059871792005-06-27T08:33:00.000-04:002005-06-27T08:37:18.953-04:00Reflection on Refraction...I was thinking about yesterday's post in the car this morning and had an epiphany...<br /><br />Protestantism is like a prism. The light that passes through a prism is separated into its component colors, but it is the same light as before. Protestantism shines the light of Christ, but only a part of it. The pure and original white (perhaps "uncolored" would be a better term) is found in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448220.post-1119813006996958532005-06-26T14:08:00.000-04:002005-06-26T15:10:07.026-04:00Is Truth really one-size-fits-all?So I've had several discussions with friends and coworkers lately on a topic that came up a few weeks ago in my theology class, one that I had to write on in the reflection paper for the last course.<br /><br />It comes down to how we should view people of other denominations and other religions.<br /><br />Bottom line is, no one has a monopoly on truth. I guess you could look at it as even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then, but that's making light of a serious thing.<br /><br />Thoughtful and prayerful study of history and sacred Scripture teaches that, for all the problems men have brought forth, the Catholic Church most closely approaches the faith of the earliest Christians. But there are sinful men in every faith - if it weren't for the actions of sinful men, there would not be nearly as many denominations of Christianity as there are now. Indeed, if it weren't for the actions of sinful men, there would still be unity. For over 1000 years, there was virtually complete unity. Not without disagreements, but there was unity. For the next 500 years after that, there was theological unity but not organizational unity. In the 500 years since then, Christianity has fractured both organizationally and theologically, and the rule of the day for a sizeable fraction of Christianity is that organizational unity is impossible and even theological unity is not even a goal worth pursuing - if you don't like what the church you're in teaches, just leave it and find another church...as if we can dictate to God what is and is not Truth.<br /><br />But I digress...the subject of the discussion was how we should view others who aren't Catholic. The short version is that theologically, it is inconsistent for a loving and merciful God not to desire salvation for all people. Therefore, it doesn't really make sense for God to limit salvation by criteria that are not available to all. In short, it is possible for anyone to obtain salvation who lives their life open to God and open to experience and respond to God's grace. This means non-Catholics and even non-Christians. The theologians of the Vatican II Council (one of whom has now become Pope Benedict XVI) expressed this concept as "anonymous Christianity" - the open response to salvific Grace through Christ, even if the recipient of that Grace does not know Christ by name.<br /><br />Some people have incorrectly viewed this as meaning that our faith tradition selection is merely a personal choice, and one is just as good as another, since all can lead to salvation. Yes, it is true that all <u>can</u> lead to salvation, but only Christianity contains the truth that salvation occurs through Christ, and only Catholic Christianity preserves the Christian faith in its most original and fullest form. This is not to say that other Christian denominations are <u>wrong</u>, merely incomplete.<br /><br />But then I get to me, and a conversation I had with another former Protestant Catholic. Her position was that we focus too much on the things that divide us rather than the things that we believe in common. And I agree with that. But I can't take it to the point of believing that any is as good as another. Because it is true that Catholic Christianity alone preserves the history, traditions, and beliefs of the earliest Christians, the beliefs that Christ and the Apostles passed on to their earliest followers, I believe that all Christians deserve the blessings of full unity in that truth rather than some variant of that truth that has been amended by men.<br /><br />And there's one thing more in my case. My family hasn't exactly welcomed my decision to become Catholic, even though I was unchurched (or worse) for years before that decision. It seemed to that the extended family's thinking is that a lapsed Baptist living the Devil's life is better than an active Catholic living a life in Christ. Some folks even expressed condolences to my parents, saying they knew how disappointed they must be. Although my immediate family was more supportive, it still hasn't been possible to really share my faith with them - the things that divide us, at least between the Catholic faith and the Southern Baptist faith, are just too far apart to avoid, and so we can't really even discuss things without coming across differences.<br /><br />And so I'm left with a conundrum...if there truly is no real difference between the denominations and one is just as good as any other, then I have made a choice that it appears will distance me from my family forever, for no real gain. If that's the case, then I'd have been better off Episcopalian, because in the words of another family member "at least that's still Protestant." But as a historian, and now as a theologian, I am a seeker of truth, and I know the truth. I can't live a lie, and so I can't be anything but Catholic and be true to myself and true to the truth of Christ.<br /><br />And if that's the case, then it simply must be true that there is something <u>better</u> about Catholicism, to justify my separation from those that I love. Not that there is anything <u>wrong</u> with choosing to be Christian but not Catholic, just that making that choice is to choose to live a reflected or refracted image of the original faith that Christ and the Apostles taught.Lord Wotziznutz, 1st Duke of Westmelbournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07515621345631576406noreply@blogger.com