(A tall tale to tell children)
When I was in college in Houston, we used to take road trips down to Nuevo Laredo in Mexico. We'd shop for Mexican blankets, ugly pottery, and bullwhips.*
One day, I was down there wandering around through touristy shops looking for tchotchokes, when I looked out the door of the shop, and I saw some robbers coming out of a bank across the street. They had masks on and in one hand, they had a revolver. In the other hand, they had big sacks with large dollar signs on them. I'd seen this in cartoons, so I knew it was a real robbery.
As they ran out, I decided to follow them. I kept about a block behind, as they weaved in an out of alleys. After a while, they came to a police car parked in the shadows. They put the money in the trunk, took off their masks,** and put on their police uniforms. They were real, Mexican policemen!
Needless to say, I was outraged. I went up to them and said, "Hey! You guys are supposed to be the good guys - take that back right now!" Also needless to say, I didn't always think before I spoke. There might be a lesson there.
The leader said (use your best Mexican villain accent here), "Ay, stupid Gringo! No one will believe you over us. You are under arrest for loitering, vagrancy, and resisting arrest."
And they put me in jail.
Mexican jail is pretty boring. I didn't have money for bail - just 15 cents in my pocket (you must particularly remember the 15 cents, Best Beloved)***- so I sat there for a week. Each day for three meals a day, they gave me tortillas and re-fried beans. After the first day, I was tired of it, so I put the leftovers under my bunk.
Then, I had an idea. I took the tortillas and re-fried beans, and made a false wall on the back of my cell. I hid behind it, and when the guard brought the next meal, he thought I'd escaped. It was a beautiful false wall.
The guard shouted, "Hey, I think the Gringo has escaped!"
They all ran out to look for me. I waited until it was quiet, then I ate my way out. I went down the main street back to the bridge to Laredo. Heh. They thought I'd sneak down alleys.
The turnstile to get back into the US cost 15 cents, and I went home.
* The bullwhip plays a major part in other, true stories for another time.
** I advocate Oxford commas. Despite what the definition says, it's not optional.
*** Read Kipling's Just So Stories to your kids, too.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Tales to tell children
When my children and I were younger, we lived in Fairbanks, Alaska. One of the features of Fairbanks at that time was that there were not many activities available for children in the winter outside the house. So I lied to them a lot. People more inclined to blush than I call that telling stories.
We had many of the children's books that were available then, but the perennial darkness of the Alaskan night meant we also had lots of time. Frankly, I got tired of those books*, so I began to make up stories of my own to break the monotony. Some of them were moralizing stories exemplifying the effects of bad behavior. Some of them were outrageous tall tales, just for the joy of them. Some were adventure stories. Some were a bit of all three.
Sometimes the stories were very short and interspersed into the events of daily life as opposed to just being told at story time. Eventually, I realized that they may not always know that I was telling a story, so I had to tell them that they could always just ask, "Are you lying?" and I'd tell them if I were. Actually, that rule still holds.
In terms of popular culture, I live under a pretty big rock, but some things inevitably make their way into my consciousness. I'm sure that some of these stories resemble to an embarrassing degree things I've read or seen elsewhere. I was striving for entertainment for my young children rather than for originality. If I remember what influenced me, I'll try to credit that source. If you see a similarity that I don't note, I'll claim that it's an homage. Writers get away with that all the time, don't they?
I'm an engineer by training and by temperament, but according to my observations (and the painfully blunt comments of others), I'm not a standard engineer. People on each side of that line frequently look at me and say, "What the heck are you talking about?" So, you, Gentle Reader, won't be the only one to react that way. Just saying.
I never believed in talking down to my kids, "treating them like children" as they say. I like vocabulary; there's so much of it, it seems a shame to waste it. So I always tried to use words just a bit over their heads so they'd stretch for those words and learn them. They seemed to revel in that, and their friends did and still do ask why they use such big words. Oddly, one of those words was "apt" - not even big; just expressive. They've expanded their friends' vocabularies, too, so I count that as a win.
Words are the tools we use to build thoughts. If you were building a house and only had an adjustable wrench, you couldn't do as good a job as if you had a contractor's job box. Words give the same ease to building thoughts. Give your kids good tools.
Some of my kids have expressed an interest in my capturing those stories so they can tell them to their kids. I hope I do better finishing this project better than I did completing the trim in my wife's closet remodel.
I reserve the right to edit these stories as time goes on and as I remember better details.
* Except for Richard Scarry's I Am A Bunny. Whenever I come across that book somewhere, I look for a little kid to read it to. Not in a creepy way, though - no restraining orders to date.**
** First cultural credit: I shamelessly stole the asterisk footnote motif from 'Puter Gormogon. Go read his stuff. Srlsly. But you might not want to let the kids read it. He's salty.
We had many of the children's books that were available then, but the perennial darkness of the Alaskan night meant we also had lots of time. Frankly, I got tired of those books*, so I began to make up stories of my own to break the monotony. Some of them were moralizing stories exemplifying the effects of bad behavior. Some of them were outrageous tall tales, just for the joy of them. Some were adventure stories. Some were a bit of all three.
Sometimes the stories were very short and interspersed into the events of daily life as opposed to just being told at story time. Eventually, I realized that they may not always know that I was telling a story, so I had to tell them that they could always just ask, "Are you lying?" and I'd tell them if I were. Actually, that rule still holds.
In terms of popular culture, I live under a pretty big rock, but some things inevitably make their way into my consciousness. I'm sure that some of these stories resemble to an embarrassing degree things I've read or seen elsewhere. I was striving for entertainment for my young children rather than for originality. If I remember what influenced me, I'll try to credit that source. If you see a similarity that I don't note, I'll claim that it's an homage. Writers get away with that all the time, don't they?
I'm an engineer by training and by temperament, but according to my observations (and the painfully blunt comments of others), I'm not a standard engineer. People on each side of that line frequently look at me and say, "What the heck are you talking about?" So, you, Gentle Reader, won't be the only one to react that way. Just saying.
I never believed in talking down to my kids, "treating them like children" as they say. I like vocabulary; there's so much of it, it seems a shame to waste it. So I always tried to use words just a bit over their heads so they'd stretch for those words and learn them. They seemed to revel in that, and their friends did and still do ask why they use such big words. Oddly, one of those words was "apt" - not even big; just expressive. They've expanded their friends' vocabularies, too, so I count that as a win.
Words are the tools we use to build thoughts. If you were building a house and only had an adjustable wrench, you couldn't do as good a job as if you had a contractor's job box. Words give the same ease to building thoughts. Give your kids good tools.
Some of my kids have expressed an interest in my capturing those stories so they can tell them to their kids. I hope I do better finishing this project better than I did completing the trim in my wife's closet remodel.
I reserve the right to edit these stories as time goes on and as I remember better details.
* Except for Richard Scarry's I Am A Bunny. Whenever I come across that book somewhere, I look for a little kid to read it to. Not in a creepy way, though - no restraining orders to date.**
** First cultural credit: I shamelessly stole the asterisk footnote motif from 'Puter Gormogon. Go read his stuff. Srlsly. But you might not want to let the kids read it. He's salty.
Monday, February 9, 2015
Work: valuable, good, and suitable
Sometimes a discussion of work can be a bit confusing because several concepts become conflated. What is valuable work? What is good work? What is suitable work?
Valuable Work
Most work has value. I exclude most bureaucracy and NGO work, obviously (but that's a different post). People tend to have less respect for work that they consider "beneath them" - picking up garbage, sweeping floors, mowing lawns, and what have you. For some reason, many people consider manual labor to have less value than mental labor. Those people are misguided. Consider what life or your physical environment would be like if no one would do those jobs. Their value lies in meeting a specific need.
Unglamorous manual labor can be drudgery, but like most things, you get out of it what you put into it. Its personal value to you depends on how you approach it. It can offer an opportunity to build character and to build valuable work habits that will pay dividends for the rest of your life. I credit my time in a pizza restaurant bussing tables and washing dishes with teaching me to approach a task in a fairly organized and efficient manner that lets me do it better and more quickly. Drudge work needs to be done. You don't have to enjoy the mechanics of it, but the approach to it and the completed effort can be immensely satisfying and personally profitable. Don't waste those opportunities because the only one you're shorting is yourself.
Take mowing lawns*. You could just sweat, push a mower, and end the day tired and dirty. Or you could learn to maintain small engines, interact professionally with customers, learn to schedule work efficiently, learn to schedule a maintenance logistics stream, and develop an attitude impermeable to the vicissitudes of weather. Like anything, you get out what you put in.
Good Work
Good work means doing a job at least to a minimum acceptable standard. Some people complain that someone did the bare minimum. I've never quite understood that. Whoever specified the bare minimum decided ahead of time just how much needed to be done to be acceptable. But that minimum needs to be done and needs to be done correctly.
My kids probably recall fondly my directions on sweeping the kitchen floor: I would tell them to sweep however many times they thought was necessary** so that when I swept after them, I couldn't get a 1/4 cup of material in the dustpan. I set that minimum standard, given their age, the nooks and crannies in our kitchen, and the uneven texture of our floor. So when they met it, I was satisfied, even if I got just barely less than 1/4 cup.
On the other hand, sometimes the minimum standards are obviously too low. At that point, pride in your ability to work well should take over, and you should meet your minimum standards. Experience, honesty with yourself, and observation will help you develop those over time. Are you easily capable of doing more without costing someone else? Do it. However, for example, if you spend all your time polishing a bathroom sink so you can see yourself in it, but the floor is still messy, you have not met the minimum standards for a bathroom.
Suitable Work
Suitable work for you, challenges you, provides you an opportunity to give value to others, is something you can do well enough to meet its minimum standards, meets your financial needs***, and leaves you enough energy at the end of the day to fulfill your other obligations to your family, your church, your community, and yourself.
You should not choose work that lets you coast. Someone with lesser skills than you needs that job, and you will probably not be adding enough value to the world to cover what you use.
You should not choose work that uses you up, either. We've all heard that people on their death beds never say, "I wish I'd spent more time at the office." I frequently fail on this one. Having been through tough financial times - layoffs, medical problems, etc - I don't want to have them again, and I have a hard time saying no to paid work. I personally need to work on this one.
Work is necessary and commanded****. Work well, young Padawans.
Parenthetical and asteriskical notes:
* Please!
** I think it's at least two.
*** Remember - needs and wants are not the same thing, and the world will try to induce spurious wants in you to make you work for them instead of working for yourself, your family, and people you value. Also, some extremely valuable work receives no direct remuneration: motherhood, teaching homeschool, making a home, etc. Remember - needs and wants are not the same thing!
****Genesis 3:19 - "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return."
Valuable Work
Most work has value. I exclude most bureaucracy and NGO work, obviously (but that's a different post). People tend to have less respect for work that they consider "beneath them" - picking up garbage, sweeping floors, mowing lawns, and what have you. For some reason, many people consider manual labor to have less value than mental labor. Those people are misguided. Consider what life or your physical environment would be like if no one would do those jobs. Their value lies in meeting a specific need.
Unglamorous manual labor can be drudgery, but like most things, you get out of it what you put into it. Its personal value to you depends on how you approach it. It can offer an opportunity to build character and to build valuable work habits that will pay dividends for the rest of your life. I credit my time in a pizza restaurant bussing tables and washing dishes with teaching me to approach a task in a fairly organized and efficient manner that lets me do it better and more quickly. Drudge work needs to be done. You don't have to enjoy the mechanics of it, but the approach to it and the completed effort can be immensely satisfying and personally profitable. Don't waste those opportunities because the only one you're shorting is yourself.
Take mowing lawns*. You could just sweat, push a mower, and end the day tired and dirty. Or you could learn to maintain small engines, interact professionally with customers, learn to schedule work efficiently, learn to schedule a maintenance logistics stream, and develop an attitude impermeable to the vicissitudes of weather. Like anything, you get out what you put in.
Good Work
Good work means doing a job at least to a minimum acceptable standard. Some people complain that someone did the bare minimum. I've never quite understood that. Whoever specified the bare minimum decided ahead of time just how much needed to be done to be acceptable. But that minimum needs to be done and needs to be done correctly.
My kids probably recall fondly my directions on sweeping the kitchen floor: I would tell them to sweep however many times they thought was necessary** so that when I swept after them, I couldn't get a 1/4 cup of material in the dustpan. I set that minimum standard, given their age, the nooks and crannies in our kitchen, and the uneven texture of our floor. So when they met it, I was satisfied, even if I got just barely less than 1/4 cup.
On the other hand, sometimes the minimum standards are obviously too low. At that point, pride in your ability to work well should take over, and you should meet your minimum standards. Experience, honesty with yourself, and observation will help you develop those over time. Are you easily capable of doing more without costing someone else? Do it. However, for example, if you spend all your time polishing a bathroom sink so you can see yourself in it, but the floor is still messy, you have not met the minimum standards for a bathroom.
Suitable Work
Suitable work for you, challenges you, provides you an opportunity to give value to others, is something you can do well enough to meet its minimum standards, meets your financial needs***, and leaves you enough energy at the end of the day to fulfill your other obligations to your family, your church, your community, and yourself.
You should not choose work that lets you coast. Someone with lesser skills than you needs that job, and you will probably not be adding enough value to the world to cover what you use.
You should not choose work that uses you up, either. We've all heard that people on their death beds never say, "I wish I'd spent more time at the office." I frequently fail on this one. Having been through tough financial times - layoffs, medical problems, etc - I don't want to have them again, and I have a hard time saying no to paid work. I personally need to work on this one.
Work is necessary and commanded****. Work well, young Padawans.
Parenthetical and asteriskical notes:
* Please!
** I think it's at least two.
*** Remember - needs and wants are not the same thing, and the world will try to induce spurious wants in you to make you work for them instead of working for yourself, your family, and people you value. Also, some extremely valuable work receives no direct remuneration: motherhood, teaching homeschool, making a home, etc. Remember - needs and wants are not the same thing!
****Genesis 3:19 - "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return."
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Catholic Apologetics - some assumptions
Before I begin to attempt to explain and defend my faith, I must state a few principles. Here are some things I believe:
Common ground: Christians share the majority of their beliefs with each other, while we differ on a few others. It's tragic that those fewer differences cause so much discord. We should keep firmly in mind the very many truths we all confess.
Scriptural interpretation: When we try to interpret scripture, we have to be very careful. It can be tempting to interpret it to mean something we want it to mean rather than what God means. Peter warned against this:
[16] As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction. [17] You therefore, brethren, knowing these things before, take heed, lest being led aside by the error of the unwise, you fall from your own steadfastness. (2 Peter 16-17)
It seems to me that we have to be careful when we interpret scripture that we do not come up with an interpretation of one verse that requirse some other verse to be discarded because it does not agree with our interpretation of the first. I would bet that most of us can find some other denomination whose interpretation of a verse we disagree with. We must keep in mind that they disagree with our interpretation, too. One interpretation must be correct, and conflicting interpretations cannot all be correct. Our goal should not be to prove that our interpretation is correct, but to find the correct interpretation and make it our own. If we try to "prove" that our interpretation is correct, discarding other verses that disagree, are we not pitting our will against God's? That's a dangerous place that I don't want to go.
Another thought: sometimes, maybe, a verse just means what it says.
Charity: Remember that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are discussing these issues because they are important, essential even. We love each other as Christ commanded us to, and we are working not to defeat or to vanquish, but to save.
Common ground: Christians share the majority of their beliefs with each other, while we differ on a few others. It's tragic that those fewer differences cause so much discord. We should keep firmly in mind the very many truths we all confess.
Scriptural interpretation: When we try to interpret scripture, we have to be very careful. It can be tempting to interpret it to mean something we want it to mean rather than what God means. Peter warned against this:
[16] As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction. [17] You therefore, brethren, knowing these things before, take heed, lest being led aside by the error of the unwise, you fall from your own steadfastness. (2 Peter 16-17)
It seems to me that we have to be careful when we interpret scripture that we do not come up with an interpretation of one verse that requirse some other verse to be discarded because it does not agree with our interpretation of the first. I would bet that most of us can find some other denomination whose interpretation of a verse we disagree with. We must keep in mind that they disagree with our interpretation, too. One interpretation must be correct, and conflicting interpretations cannot all be correct. Our goal should not be to prove that our interpretation is correct, but to find the correct interpretation and make it our own. If we try to "prove" that our interpretation is correct, discarding other verses that disagree, are we not pitting our will against God's? That's a dangerous place that I don't want to go.
Another thought: sometimes, maybe, a verse just means what it says.
Charity: Remember that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are discussing these issues because they are important, essential even. We love each other as Christ commanded us to, and we are working not to defeat or to vanquish, but to save.
Questions about the Catholic faith
A young gentleman of my acquaintance has asked me several questions about my faith. They are serious questions, and they deserve thoughtful consideration.
I am Catholic. He is a member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He lent my family a book, The Five Points of Calvinism, to explain some of his faith.
In asking his questions, he did clarify to say that when he asks what I believe, he is asking what the Church teaches. I should state at the outset that I'll do my best, but that I am imperfectly catechized at best. I plan to refer to the Bible and the Catechism, as well as to some sites and publications that I feel comfortable with. If anything I write raises an eyebrow, please ask about it in the comments and, of course, feel free to research it yourself. I don't hold myself out as an authority; I'm just doing my best.
In attempting to answer his questions, I will need to distinguish between explaining and defending my faith. Explanations will refer to sources I accept but that he may not accept. When I attempt to defend, I will try to refer to sources that both he and I accept.
As I told him once, I imagine that if we sat down side by side and started quite at the beginning ("In the beginning God created heaven, and earth...") and moved forward from there, 95% of our beliefs would be congruent.
Here are some of his questions:
I am Catholic. He is a member of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He lent my family a book, The Five Points of Calvinism, to explain some of his faith.
In asking his questions, he did clarify to say that when he asks what I believe, he is asking what the Church teaches. I should state at the outset that I'll do my best, but that I am imperfectly catechized at best. I plan to refer to the Bible and the Catechism, as well as to some sites and publications that I feel comfortable with. If anything I write raises an eyebrow, please ask about it in the comments and, of course, feel free to research it yourself. I don't hold myself out as an authority; I'm just doing my best.
In attempting to answer his questions, I will need to distinguish between explaining and defending my faith. Explanations will refer to sources I accept but that he may not accept. When I attempt to defend, I will try to refer to sources that both he and I accept.
As I told him once, I imagine that if we sat down side by side and started quite at the beginning ("In the beginning God created heaven, and earth...") and moved forward from there, 95% of our beliefs would be congruent.
Here are some of his questions:
"Mary- Do you
believe she is perfect? Did she stay a virgin or have other children?
Do you believe that she should be prayed to?"
"The Pope- Do you
believe when he is speaking from the “chair” that his words are
without fault? If so, how would you explain that?"
"Do you view
Priests as mediators between us and God? Or is Christ the only one
who can fill that role?"
"Do you believe
that our faith is justified only by Gods grace or are works a part of
that justification? I understand that “By our works shall we be
known” but are those works saving works or just the fruit of being
saved?"
Shortly, I'll work on addressing them as best I can.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
First Thing
"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted." - Bertrand Russell
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