What will our time be remembered for?

By reflecting on my coming death, I realized that my life would be remembered by the attitudes that characterized it. My fancy for snazzy/super-comfortable clothes may prevail in memories over my grotesque logorrhea. Pause there for a moment.

Just to be gross...
How many of you have heard that word? Logorrhea. Pronounce it. Logo - Ree - Ah. Disgusting syllables together that mean the excessive use of words. The entymology is just waiting there for someone with some imagination to pick it up. Thus, comes my duty. Logo - for every good Christian/Greek fanatic, meaning word(s)... and -rrhea. From the famous "diarrhea." I imagine logorrheic writers, pounding away at old typewriters, having to pause and grab the garbage can to... hear the bilious sound (someone told me it sounded like the name Ralph) ... of logorrhea.

This particular period of human history seems characterized by entertainment of various forms. Depending on whatever passes us into the next period, I postulate we will be remembered as a time of great movie-rrhea.

Everyone has a story

Youssef and I just had a long conversation that opened my eyes to understanding other people. Understanding might not be the right word… being aware of another persons story, and also how my story can bump against other peoples or how I can learn to align myself with another person’s story. I am admittedly very deficient in the area of communicating, listening, and especially conversing with people that I don’t know very well. I don’t take cues very well… they aren’t interested in what I’m talking about and inevitably when I’m with people that don’t know me very well I tend to panic and continue talking about the thing that they aren’t really wanting to hear. I’m like the commercial… or telemart that interrupts dinner or a favorite movie in other peoples story. Now if you happen to be one of the very few who aren’t annoyed when I talk to you (or are actually interested in what ever I happen to post on this blog) that is most likely not because I’M good at communicating, but rather you are one of those generous people who can align your story with someone else’s and in this case have aligned yours with mine for the moment.
Youssef on the other hand has a great gift in seeing another persons story, communicating, listening, and so forth. Not that he didn’t work at it of course. Ever since we were first married I felt… I don’t know how to put it… a freedom. All of a sudden I wasn’t made to feel like I was needing to be a certain way to fit in with the story that my parents had for me, or the story my friends saw me in. Think of this, have you ever been around an old time friend and even though you are many years older and have changed a lot you find yourself acting like the same stupid kid they knew you as? I have to a certain extent, and I think it’s because that’s what they expected. It sounds sort of dumb, but if you aren’t clear about the story that you yourself are in then their stronger sense of you as a character can change how you might act.
How much harder is it for a parent to realize that God has a certain story for their child… that their child is the hero or heroin in their own story that might not (most likely doesn’t) fit in with the story their parents have mapped out. Even if they don’t realize they are expecting something from their child… they say that he or she can be what ever they want to be, but all growing up they saw him trying to do certain things and failing. When she was 13 she wanted to be a famous swimmer and almost drowned after that the parents discouraged her from swimming (I hate to swim by-the-way I’m just making this part up). I have some ideas of what Lily might like to do… mostly because I think about what I wished I had of done when I was young, but I need to keep reminding myself that she is the heroin in her own story and I can be the bad guy that discourages her from her dream or maybe pushes her into my dream… or I could be a good guy in her story and teach her to be independent from me, to trust God with her life, and encourage her to reach for the desires of her heart.

When I was thinking of people in their own stories and how that might look I noticed something, you can’t really judge them the same way. Your evaluation of that person was based on your own story before… they were mean to you so they were marked with an X and labeled a “bad guy” in your story. They disciplined their children in a way that you wouldn’t have chosen to do. But… I can no longer judge them according to my story when I realize that they are in their own. My rules don’t apply to them. God’s rules still do, yes, and another person might be sinning in a certain way, BUT according to God’s story we are ALL in sin until He makes us part of His story. How can we judge another person when we realize that?

I’ve been wondering something for a while… about different Christian denominations… how can any one totally be perfectly correct in it’s interpretation of scripture? Each one might say that they are the closest to perfect that they can come, but how do we know that? How could any person be that close to perfectly understanding what the Bible says? Isn’t it sad that more Christians from different denominations can’t come together and discuss the Bible and learn from each other? Not to try and agree about miner things and hash out each verse, but to get different perspectives and actually listen to what other people say so that they all can come to know God better.

How do you align yourself with another persons story? Courtesy. Old fashioned, but true. Opening a door for someone. Saying please and thank you. Smiling at that barrista and actually tipping him (for us, our grocery list was based on Youssef tips for the week, it really can be a big deal to tip someone… though Youssef said that they never minded when someone didn’t tip them. It was annoying when people made excuses about why they couldn’t tip them or especially if they were just rude.) It makes sense that courtesy and kindness would align us with another persons story when you think of the “good guy” and “bad guy” in stories. If a cashier is rude to you, might you tend to label them in your mind as a bad guy? It makes sense to me anyway. And listening… wow.. Such a big thing to actually listen to what someone says and not be thinking about what you are going to say next to promote your own story, but to actually listen to theirs… to try to align yours with them… then help them go forward in their own plot (so to speak).

I realized tonight while Youssef and I were talking that the times when I’ve been annoyed at him are mostly because I’m expecting something from him. I see him as the husband of the heroin in my story and when he doesn’t do something that I assume he should know to do or whatever then it irritates me because my story got a bit messed up. The marriages that are the strongest are those that share parts of their stories… where the husband and wife let their plots weave in and out of each other, and later allow their children’s stories to weave and move in and out along side theirs.

We do get so upset when our story takes a turn that we don’t expect don’t we? God really likes to do that to us too. Just when we know where we want to be He changes our course, but… that’s not a bad thing. All really good stories have some sort of twist or change. Bilbo wouldn’t have wanted to be next to a dragon when we first meet him in the Hobbit, but if Gandalf hadn’t introduced him to the dwarfs and changed his life there wouldn’t have been a story at all.

What to Do If You Accidentally Create Artificial Intelligence

Having been in the situation only a couple of tomes, I am a limited expert at
what to do if one accidentally creates artificial intelligence. However, seeing
as the Swedish would prefer to remain anonymous, the task of imparting knowledge
falls to me. This is a picture of a jaguar. Jaguars mean trouble. There are a lot of
jaguars that inventors can avoid by exercising some common sense in the face of
discovery. Since I see a number-formatting button, l am going to press it and
deliver this message by number.

1. The first jaguar you should think of when you first see that once-inanimate
   hunk-a-junk start to sit up on your lab's table is "Does it have enough energy
   to sustain it for the afternoon?" This may seem an insignificant detail, but let
   me tell you why it may save you time, resources, and ammunition in the long run.
   Many evil robots have tried to take over the world over a misunderstanding.
   Those misunderstandings usually stem from a traumatic incident early in the
   being's inception. The evil in those robots could have been avoided if the
   scientist, good fairy, or CEO of the responsible corporation had only spent some
   quality time with their new creations. Make sure your artificial intelligence
   knows that, in spite of being an accident, it is loved. If you are unsure
   whether your creature feels love, then perhaps You should make sure that it is
   well-informed.
   Imagine how disastrous it would be if, when halfway though
   your explanation of "the way things are," your robot runs out of juice cid it
   took weeks -- months even -- before you found a suitable battery. All that time,
   year robot has sat silent and resentful. Then, when you turn it on , the
   friendly green eye-lights you remember are gone. It looks at you with narrow,
   red, angry slits because -- even though the power was off -- it was still
   thinking about "the way things just are," and who wouldn't feel angry after
   weeks of thinking about how if your silly creator had just plugged you in
   instead of relying on some cheap 9-Volt you might have been able to run around
   and drink WD-40 with the cool people. What a jaguar. Just avoid it.
2. Plug in the weapons last. 'Nuff said.

This has been an except from a collection of essays. Let me know if the subject matter interests you, my readers. Other topics covered are "Common Foibles of Superhero's Secret Identities," "Boundaries in myself: How to know when your cybernetics exercise undue influence over Your decisions," and "Why Math is the last language you want to talk to aliens in."

Sunday Reflections, Again

I heard Kevin Costner say in an interview that "everyone prostitutes himselfno matter what you are doing. It's convenient that actors most seem like prostitutes, selling their behavior for money. The truth is, however we all do that on some level."

The rain is falling outside. Medieval philosophers said that everything in this world is composed of a form, an essence, and a purpose. The form of the rain is what? The very water perhaps. The shape of the thing we see is the form. So, the clouds warn us of rain coming. The rain falls on our gardens and our rose beds.
What is the essence of the rain? Perhaps it is the sort before and after? Perhaps it is the sullen peace that accompanies rainy days. The essence is not what we see of the thing, but it is the thing without being seen. The rainy day is the diminishment of the sun, the accumulation of moisture in the clouds-- the scientists call it "precipitation," a precipitous word in itself. Dan Peterson would find it fitting that the "essence explanation" is incomplete.
Then, there is its purpose. To make green our yards, to color our gardens, to swell the rivers-that is what the rain causes. Are those its purpose ? Why does the rain fall? We parents know that the explanation "Because God Said so" is incomplete, an evasion from details. Why does the rain fall? The scientists believe that if we knew it, we would be as God. Philotheologians know better: we are not the Rainmakers.

I wrote Friday night until 6:00 a.m. on Saturday. I composed pieces to other pieces, starts to stories, and even a couple of endings to stories not yet begun.
Am I a writer because I do things like that? I don't think that is why. I'm beginning to wonder if

Time to stop. You know why.

Sunday Afternoon Reflections

Lynné and I (Youssef) are planning Thanksgiving to be a triplex-oriented event. I cannot remember who extended the invitation, the tenants or landlords, but I know that whoever received it embraced it. We will cook turkey together, play Monopoly together, and perhaps the following day observe the shopping madness together. What fascinates me is how communal the idea is. It might not observe some of the traditional boundaries--family first, 'over the river and through the woods'-- but it at the same time institutes something that might not have existed prior. Heart and hearth.

Now, I'm observing a church that may be having growing pains. (I say "may" because I don't know since I'm not a veteran member.) The inspiring talk referred to the command to love thy neighbor, and how "forbearance is not love - although forbearance comes from God's mercy." The struggle in the church comes from the implimentation of the idea that you don't want to simply be spiritual on Sunday. The idea includes such things as "We must remain believers in every aspect of our lives. It is in this way that the light within us draws non-believers to us." Include in that, too, the line "I preach the gospel all day long--and I only sometimes use words."

Here are my thoughts, synthesized from the two events outlined above.
- I can believe we are called to be Christians in all areas of our lives. It would be very difficult to convince me otherwise.

- Christians realize their faith through worship, fellowship, and discipleship with other believers. Even Bonhoffer, who described in "Living Together" the non-essentiality of Christian fellowship, recognized the luxury and the benefits of Christians being a part of a church. The Church, I am asserting, is an essential part of the Christian's life. Not only do we share in Christ's light burden, we are part of Christ's body.

- There is a paradoxical trend happening in my present days. The first half is towards distancing. Reference urban sprawl, reference children leaving their homes at 17 or 16 to live with roommates, reference the unknown impetus behind American children to disassociate themselves from their families as quickly as possible. The second half is towards connectivity. Cellphones, transit systems, the perseverance of the automobile (despite its fuel costs), and the believe in a "smaller world" all contribute towards that sense of connectivity. Now, I believe these two "movements," if I can use that term loosely to describe something without plans, I believe these two movements happen in conjunction. They are related in the same way that a dog-on-a-leash's distance from its grounding peg is related to the tautness of the rope.

- If we are called to be Christians in all areas of our lives, and being a Christian entails being a church-member, then we are called to be churchmembers in all areas of our lives. That sentence sounds a little silly, (and I wrote it hopefully so that I avoid the logical fallacy of "post hoc proctor hoc.") but I'm thinking about all of the things that come with being a churchmember: the doctrinal statements (I kinda have to say that), the most recent Biblical assertions (that is an observation, not an experience of mine), even the Church's identity... "We meet in a house." "We have an excellent worship team." "I sign for our congregation." "Our church is upgrading buildings." "We're orchestrating a ban of Harry Potter books." These are some base examples.

- The commandment of "Love thy neighbor" has not been interpreted to mean exclusively non-believers, last I heard. "Thy neighbor" could be sitting in the pew next to you, not just the guy who lives beside you. Yet we are called to love both of them, showing them the deepest kinds of love: "that which gives its life for his friend."

- I am leading to a point. Just let me get there...

- The paradoxical trend I outlined above has the effect of superficializing and compartmentalizing relationships. Both of those "-izings" are contradictory to the Christian ideas I outlined earlier: That Christian-hood should spread to all areas of one's life and that loving one's neighbor means giving one's life to save one's friend. Let me say that again, but in a different way. Superficializing a relationship is opposed to developing a love for a friend, a friend whom you would die to save. Compartmentalizing your relationships contradicts the Holy Spirit's goal of spreading the yeast of the gospel through one's life.

- Knowing two things about one's velocity (a: that you are heading south, b: that you are wanting to go north) should inspire some form of action, like turning around.

- We can conceive of opposites to the two sides of the paradoxical trend. First, a culture could exist that teaches the necessity of other community members. That culture would believe that one's youth and one's assent and one's age need not be spent in different places. The other opposite is that a culture could exist that believes in face-to-face communication. This culture could believe that men grow together when they participate together... as iron sharpens iron, one might say.

- I've tipped my hand with that last phrase. The cultures I described are one and the same as the Christian culture. Not just the apparent Christian sub-culture we have. I've described the Christian culture that we read about in the letters of Paul and Peter and that we envision when we say we want to go to church.

- ... oh, I'm tired of the bullet points. I believed at one point that the bullet points would help people organize my words as they read them. Maybe that's so, but I'm so sick and tired of having to mince my words so that the average reader could pick apart and understand my ideas. No more, I write. Here, at this point, my form has broken down because I am tired. I will nap soon.

We should choose to live near our church and its congregation. If we Christians truly want to attract people's interest in what has changed our lives, then we should try to live our lives together, allowing the open invitation. What I believe we will find by creating a spatial community of believers is that people will be drawn simply by virtue of the "in-crowd" principle. Imagine that snotty group in high school, the cool people, who would not let you in.. but you so badly wanted in. What if that group had been excited about letting you in, showed you the secrets to their happiness and success? The key of deep relationships lies in the Trinity, says John Eldridge in Wild at Heart. The Trinity wanted man to join its perfect harmony, not because something was missing, but because perfect harmony welcomes and desires others to join its peace.

I conclude this unpolished post with my poorly paraphrased bit of Scripture. Jesus came so that we could live a more abundant life.