I don't understand New Year's eve. It's just another day isn't it? So why save self-betterment until them? Seems to me you could make a resolution on November 14th, or March 23rd just as good as December 31st. And why stay up till 12:00? The sun is going to rise the next day just like it does every other day, except your going to be tired.
This is the 100th post of the ambiguously titled blog that I write. I can't decide what to call it. I never liked Maria's Music, and "i thank You God", while being a great poem is not a good name for a blog. Pretty uneventful post for #100. So here is a poem by E.E. Cummings!
i am a little church(no great cathedral)
far from the splendor and squalor of hurrying cities
--i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,
i am not sorry when sun and rain make april
my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;
my prayers are prayers of earth's own clumsily striving
(finding and losing and laughing and crying)children
whose any sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness
around me surges a miracle of unceasing
birth and glory and death and resurrection:
over my sleeping self float flaming symbols
of hope,and i wake to a perfect patience of mountains
i am a little church(far from the frantic
world with its rapture and anguish)at peace with nature
--i do not worry if longer nights grow longest;
i am not sorry when silence becomes singing
winter by spring,i lift my diminutive spire to
merciful Him Whose only now is forever:
standing erect in the deathless truth of His presence
(welcoming humbly His light and proudly His darkness)
Happy New Years
December 31, 2008 | |
Frederick Dewayne Hubbard, RIP
December 30, 2008 | |
Unfortunately he will be mentioned most when telling kids to warm up. That's the show business for you.
Information Received
December 27, 2008 | |
I always liked the D(o)T(he)M(ath) "Information Received" posts so maybe an aspiring young philosopher will enjoy knowing the information I received lately. I got a few good books for Christmas, which prompted me to spend a little too much money at Borders. Knowledge is expensive. I wish I never had to attend to all the pedantry of highschool education again. But I still have half a year of teachers showing up 20 minutes late for class and 15 minute bitch sessions and watered down math classes and YouTube videos and showing movies because you don't want to teach and all of it! I wouldn't be able to recognize that my time was being wasted if I didn't attend the school I do though. Oh well... nothing human is perfect.
Christmas week 2008:
The Blue Castle - Lucy Maud Montgomery (I read it purly because it was recomended to me (it isn't exactly my normal genre), but all in all it is a good read. I'll post a essay on it at The College Blog later this week)
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (I listened to the beggining of the audio book, but I'm going to give the whole book a chance)
Sence and Sensibility - Jane Austen (It was really cheap. How can you turn down paper back books under $7. And I figured if I can't stand it I might be in a better disposition later on in life. I think I might have bought it for the same reason right people listen to Mozart)
Persuasion - Jane Austen (The first of the three I chose to read. So far it's captivating! I refuse to discredit it, even though it is Jane Austen)
Selected Poems - E.E. Cummings (Richard S. Kennedy) (To properly address my obsession. I didn't know he was a painter - that explains it all! His poetry is so artistic!)
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (I threw away the copy I read in 8th grade (oh how stupid!) so in the course of re-reading all those old books I didn't pay attention to, I needed to actually obtain a copy.)
This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald (I have never went wrong with Fitzgerald (The Penguine "Jazz Age Stories" is excellent)
The Rest is Noise - Alex Ross (popular aclaim and a love of Alex's blog (when he used to write on it!) propelled this purchase)
The Imitation of Christ - Thomes a Kempis (I've been thinking about obedience and suffering with respect to Christ lately)
Story of a Soul - St. Therese of Lisieux (recomended to me by a good friend)
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (probobly an important read for the next 4/8 years)
The Problem of Pain - C.S. Lewis (you can't go wrong with C.S. Lewis)
The Great Divorce - C. S. Lewis
The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles (also appropriate given the next president)
This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel J. Levitin (recomended by a sales clerk)
The Dialogues - Catherine of Siena (recomended by my fortunate peers who were taught this book)
The Divine Comedy - Dante Alghieri (John Ciardi) (I have read (for the purpose of attending class, not understanding) the Inferno, but when I have a long time I'm going to go through the whole Comedy slowly so I can actually learn from it!)
The Collected Works - St. John of the Cross (I have read some of his poems in Spanish (the translation doesn't do it justice. You would be well served learning Spanish for the soul purpose of reading "El Noche Oscura" properly) and I've always been fond of collected work type volumes)
I don't have room for all of them on my book shelves; all of my wonderful books are stacked in a leaning pile. I am a very lucky young man. Now I just need to time and energy to go through it all.
The Word became Flesh!
December 25, 2008 | |
(I love the next one! Check out the CHAOS)
Nativity - Martin de Vos
Mystic Nativity - Alessandro Botticelli
December 8th only, all items 50% off! No interest until 2010!
December 23, 2008 | |
One thing I can't get over is how disgusting the Christmas season has become. The birth of Jesus isn't even necessary for the holiday anymore; you could name December 25th President's day and people would carry on in their mindless, addicted ways. I spent last Christmas in Mexico and the one thing that surprised me was how understated it all was. On Christmas eve everyone was saying "Feliz Navidad!", and then Christmas day came, and it could have been any other day, and by dinner time all the shops were opened. Christmas was treated like every other important day in the church: no shops advertize Immaculate Conception sales! I just want "the holiday season" (could you find a more clinical name!) to be done with so I can concentrate on Jesus. The Advent painting of the day helped.
"Adoration of the Child" -Antonio Allegri da Correggio
Our bud Leo
December 21, 2008 | |
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
December 20, 2008 | |
My self-importance has been boiling over lately, so I created a second blog, Apolgus De Colegio. Actually the real purpose of "The College Blog" is so that when (if) I am in college my family will be able to read about all my humorous, fun-loving exploits. In other words a line has been drawn between the heavy (stay tuned here) and the lightweight (the other blog). So I was faced with a dillema today when I was diciding where to post a new post: I submitted my denunciation of resumes in the "tell us why your great" essay slot. I decided on Apologus De Colegio. Somehow I think keeping the two seperate is going to be very difficult. Which is a flatering statement about myself I think: not much comes that you can't comment on intelligently.
And today's depiction of Mary and Jesus!
Le Sommeil de l'Enfant Jésus
December 19, 2008 | |
The 1949 Grammy Awards
| |
I wish I lived in 1949. When do us moderns have two songs as great as this competing for the Academy award?!?
"Baby It's Cold Outside" - Frank Loesser
Unfortunately that is all to real of a reality right now. And the runner up:
"My Foolish Heart" - Victor Young and Ned Washington
I hate versions of this song in 6/8. It's a 4/4 ballad!
Bill Evans got it right:
Virgin Mary - Raphael
December 18, 2008 | |
Christmas day is next Thursday, so to lead up to it I will post a painting with Mary and baby Jesus in it each day until Christmas morning when the big time, adore God by gazing into the eyes of a perfectly drawn Mary and marveling at the perfectly humble baby post will come. But in the mean time we will lead up to that. Unfortunately the orthodox blogger didn't let me have huge pictures, and I was fed up, so I went this new route. I once again reaffirmed how ignorant of HTML and the times I live in I actually am.
JESUS!
| |
I go to the best high school ever. Maybe the best educational institution ever. I'll hold judgment until I spend a few years in college. But nobody likes admitting their ignorant of the future, even though it's the most ridiculous thing to be confident of, so maybe I will claim it's the best educational institution ever. But that's why I wonder: how confident was God that Jesus would be taken care of on Earth. Of course God knew, but would Jesus be fully human if his life wasn't subjected to the mundainity of human existance? See, this all started when my amazing, stupendous, I want to grow up to be like him headmaster (I LOVE having a headmaster!) said that Jesus' coming (Christmas, however odd that is to our modern minds) was a great act of humility. And of course it doesn't take much in the way of a spiritual life to realize that Jesus came down and died for people that hated him. You'd be the nicest person in the world if you lived like that. It might only take a day to understand when people love you so much they do stuff you hate, but when people you hate do stuff you hate you have to try to be like Jesus, which takes a lifetime. And some people never do it. I digress. So Jesus' coming was an act of humility in a different way, because he made himself vulnerable. Jesus scraped his knee (and bled real, red, juicy, gushing blood, not ambrosia) and other boys picked on him! And he was TEMPTED. So you can either say that this is proof God is rediculous and organized religion is foolish, and that is (it pains me to say this) a fair read of this story. But as Aristotle (I think?) said "it behooves the learner to believe", and as Augustine says over and over (paraphrased) "you can't get to God if your proud", so for all the humble, believing souls out there: JESUS LOVED YOU SO MUCH THAT HE SCRAPED HIS KNEE FOR YOU.
GOD IS GOOD! GOD IS GREAT! GOD IS EXCELLENT!
It's not nearly as mundane as you might think! It's miraculous. It's complete mystery. It's incredible!
After I spend a few years in college I think I will also stop using excessive capital letters, but hopefully not, because sometimes God is so good to you the least you can do is give him capital letters. It's like giving God the double highfive instead of the one handed variety. It's not fair how good God is to us. God is always watching over you, and if you want to do something stupid, he's there to stop you! I wish I truly loved God and all his little schemes.
More of Edward Estlin
| |
It's neat even more so because it uses some choice language. Early on in my blogging history I made the claim that choice language has a purpose, when used with discretion, as a conscious choice, and I'm no flip flopper (for life is no parenthesis). And how else could you address a disgusting problem than with disgusting language? Proccede with caution:
the boys i mean are not refined
the boys i mean are not refined
they go with girls who buck and bite
they do not give a fuck for luck
they hump them thirteen times a night
one hangs a hat upon her tit
one carves a cross on her behind
they do not give a shit for wit
the boys i mean are not refined
they come with girls who bite and buck
who cannot read and cannot write
who laugh like they would fall apart
and masturbate with dynamite
the boys i mean are not refined
they cannot chat of that and this
they do not give a fart for art
they kill like you would take a piss
they speak whatever's on their mind
they do whatever's in their pants
the boys i mean are not refined
they shake the mountains when they dance
Some people just don't capitalize
December 17, 2008 | |
E.E. Cummings didn't. I wish I knew definitively if Cummings wrote cynically. I'd guess not, but he should have. Auden got it better I think. The first:
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are a far better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says
we are for eachother: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis
you shall above all things be glad and young
For if you're young,whatever life you wear
it will become you;and if you are glad
whatever's living will yourself become.
Girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need:
i can entirely her only love
whose any mystery makes every man's
flesh put space on;and his mind take off time
that you should ever think,may god forbid
and (in his mercy) your true lover spare:
for that way knowledge lies,the foetal grave
called progress,and negation's dead undoom.
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
And the second:
(From Prospero to Ariel)
Will a Miranda who is
No longer a silly lovesick little goose,
When Ferdinand and his brave world are her profession,
Go into raptures over existing at all?
Probably I over-estimate their difficulties;
Just the same, I am very glad I shall never
Be twenty and have to go through that business again,
The hours of fuss and fury, the conceit, the expense.
Links Galore!
December 14, 2008 | |
I know I'm two days late for a link post, but all those traditionalist "Friday Link Post" bloggers can eat it!
----
The intelligent and thoughtful Good Thunder graciously corrected my errant post about The Feast of The Immaculate Conception.
But the scientists out there didn't lose the battle yet! According to our friend Franz Karl Naegele you calculate the estimated date of birth by taking the last menstrual period , add a year, subtract three months and add seven days to that date. So it'd all look something like:
March 25
- 3 months = December 25
+7 days = January 1
But then again Jesus could be born 7 days early...
-----
I saw two comercials on Nickelodian that I couldn't help but laugh at:
There was a time when little girls took care of real babies. How laughabal is it that the little girls of our generation take care of virtual kids!
Don't skip out... watch it all, it only gets better in the last 3/4ths. Nick actually made a game where kids go around shooting toxic chemicals. The youngins can even reduce their CO2 emmissions, as if they had any in the first place. Dennis Prager argues that "the war against tobacco is a symptom and cause of a shallower society. It has done far more harm to America than tobacco." We'll have a generation that thinks driving a car is worse than lieing pretty soon.
----
I have never thought of what biblical figure I'd want to be, but Good Thunder chose John the Baptist. I might want to be Solomon. Reading Augustine's Confessions I stumbled on this proverb today: Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee (Proverbs 9:8). You'd have to be pretty wise to deal with 1000 wives/concubines, especially in a time when half of the men out there can't stick with one.
I love how ragged he looks! Give up all your worldly convinces, bath in rivers, eat bugs for dinner and do the work of God! Amen!
----
President Bush got a shoe thrown at him! Pretty good reaction time huh?
I guess it's not too odd of a choice.
----
Do The Math brought some interesting stuff to light!I'm fond of "don't listen to me, I'm supposed to be accompanying you". Monk had to be the most humble piano player ever to grace the keys. Or foolish.
And "they tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along and spoil it." Most people can hate someone they know. Sometimes a good guilt trip does my soul good: I remember that Jesus died for people who hated him.
----
I want to remind the world that Obama isn't President yet, and in fact he won't be the President-Elect until tommorrow (December 15th).
And I continualy laugh at the close-to-home Coleman v. Franken escapade. This year my excellent, amazing, incredible highschool bought a shinny Scantron machine, and there have been no mishaps filling out the forms yet. And if there were, we'd get the question wrong. Now why can't America be as smart as highschool students?
And why would you alight Mrs. Palin's church? I'm glad they held service elsewhere today! Stick it to 'em.
----
The favorite, Miss. Russia, won it all. I'm glad we can judge young woman's beauty in a time when we refuse to judge people based on how they dress, speak or act. But even this messed up reality is proof of the existance of God. Don't think I can do it? Watch! (After this brief picture)
(Miss Russia herself)
Despite national differences, tastes in beauty differ little.
And why is this? Not because of nurture. It's because of nature!
Certain parts of the female anatomy have instinctual draws, sure, but what primitive man would comment on the beauty of Miss. Bosnia-Herzegovina's (my personal favorite, only because of her country of origin) face. Nope... it's bigger than instinct.
And what is part of man's nature, yet more distinctivly human than instinct?!? THE MORAL LAW! God is GOOD, God is GREAT, God is EXCELLENT!
Miss America's greatest achievement "is being accepted as a member of the Entertainment Revue"
----
John Cage's Indeterminacy.
" However, to come back to my story. A girl in the college there came back backstage afterward
and told me that something marvelous had happened. I said, “What?” She said, “One of the music majors is thinking for the first time in her life.” Then at dinner (it had been an afternoon concert), the Head of the Music Department told me that as he was leaving the concert hall, three of his students called, saying, “Come over here.” He went over. “What is it?” he said. One of the girls said, “Listen.” "
Advent!
December 10, 2008 | |
I love celebrating seasons of the church. Not because they mark historical dates but because they remind us of themes we can forget in our faith life. Think of how ridiculous celebrating dates as historical markers is? The Feast of The Immaculate Conception didn't even exist until 1476. The room for historical error, especially considering the historical accuracy of the times was plainly high. And even beyond that, the rediculously short pregnancy, or rather long pregnancy, considering that Christmas is less than a month away, would be odd indeed. Even more, why would it be at all important to your faith life to believe that Mary concieved on the 8th of December? Some people look at this and use it as evidence for why all of us religions types are crazy but they forget it's all about reminding us of themes.
On December 8th we celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception. A teacher of mine had us sing Happy Birthday. Being a man much consumed in the significance of actions he didn't tell us why we were singing, but my guess is we were reiterating the point that life begins at conception and that celebrating Jesus' coming. Most folks would sing Happy Birthday to Jesus of December 25th, but not at my school! But when I got beyond the pithy humor I was glad to be reminded of the theme of the day: The Virgin Mary. It struck me that she was perfect, without any sin. I can't go a day without sinning, and when ever I think I do I know my conscience has grown lax. And think of how lucky a guy Joseph was to marry a perfect women! There was a new post up at Modestly Yours that day and it became plain to me that The Virgin Mother cares about those women and how they act and dress. That she would even care about us is miraculous: God at least made us... you could (hubristicly and probobly hereticly) say he has a vested intrest in our success but what does Mary care about us? And if Mary cares about us so much and has so little reason to how can man care so little about his fellow man when he has all the reason in the world?
Free Jazz
December 07, 2008 | |
I wrote this as part of a larger speech I am going to deliver on Jazz. I thought it came out pretty well:
The term free-jazz is frightening to most because we have been taught to believe that banging on cans with spoons can be legitimized under the term “free-jazz” but like all music free-jazz can be looked at objectively. You need to distinguish between good music and bad music, and then good music you like and bad music you like. The free-jazz of Ornette Coleman may repulse your ears but to say that it is bad music I would argue is ignorant. To say that banging on cans is good music is ridiculous. Free-jazz is only slightly different than what we have been calling jazz all along. Free jazz eliminates all structure to the music. But jazz has little structure in reality. The most structured jazz song will have a written melody and written chord changes that are strictly adhered to. Jazz musicians had been improvising melodic lines in their solos since it’s inception and Miles Davis almost eliminated chord changes for jazz with his modal expeditions in Kind of Blue. It was not a great leap to decide to compose the melody of the tune on the spot and establish the tonality as the solo saw fit. Really the free-jazz musician is doing what any classical composer does, but while it took Beethoven 6 years to write his 9th symphony free jazz musicians compose instantly. It may seem like I’m downplaying free-jazz but in reality this was a huge step in jazz. You could play whatever you wanted to, whatever you heard going on in your head instantly. The freedom from convention that John Coltrane sought came to complete fruition. Yet this didn’t come without flaws as every great innovation does. The folks who were still listening to jazz lost the ability to say what was good and what wasn’t. Bad music was hailed as revolutionary because it was new. Even more distressing, iconic figures enjoyed instant popularity of every work they put their name on, no matter what it’s quality. Once again jazz became comic this time through Ornette Coleman. No doubt his music was revolutionary. His “The Shape Of Jazz To Come” is a landmark album in jazz. But unfortunately after that everything he layed his name to was hailed as genius. The Bad Plus, a popular jazz group today posted a piece about an Ornette Coleman chord change that encompassed all 12 musical notes, but in reality there was no A; only 11 notes were there. This lead to the response, “maybe this is a sly commentary on Ornette's essence - like, he doesn't need all 12 tones to actually have 12 tones?”. When Ornette decided to pick up a trumpet and violin and do what any parent of a 5 year old would call make noise but what jazz critics called genius one has to wonder. In another humorous yet ridiculous plot Ornette threatened the admittedly promiscuous women who hung out in jazz clubs at the time saying he would castrate himself if they did not leave him alone. He never did, but to seriously make such a claim necessitates mental instability.
Bratz Dolls
December 06, 2008 | |
You go Barbie!
Dakota Combo
December 04, 2008 | |
They say in church communities that without youths the community will die, and that with them it flourishes. The music scene is the same way, especially because of the connection between youth and advances and music. I have no doubt that the Minneapolis music scene (which is surprisingly strong for such an otherwise dull state) will thrive for years to come. I sometimes wonder how I ended up playing with such great players. So come to the Dakota and support live music (I feel like I've made it now that I've had an opportunity to throw out the cliche musicians phrase!).
Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known
December 03, 2008 | |
I'm writing a Symphony for Chorus in short to try and get money for college. I should have started 5 months ago but yesterday I embarked, and since I long ago said I'd never write lyrics again I needed to find some poetry. I decided on William Wordsworth's 5 "Lucy Poems". One nice thing about putting the poetry to music is that you memorize the poetry by accident. Check this out:
Strange fits of passion have I known:
And I will dare to tell,
But in the Lover's ear alone,
What once to me befell.
My initial thought was that Billy Wordsworth was wispering sweet nothings in his lover's ear about the shiver's she sends up his spine. But I'd contend that it is really much deeper than that. "Strange fits of passion" can be read as the moments when love of God overwhelms the soul and all you can do is shout "God is awesome". And "the Lover" can also be thought of as God, who unceasingly loves perfectly. So you have 4 things he can be saying then (pardon the ineloquent language):
1) I tell her how great she is
2) I tell God she is great
3) I tell her how great God is
4) I tell God how great God is
I think the 4 lines encompass all 4 interpretations. Wordsworth and Lucy (if she ever existed) aren't just a lustful grouping. To Wordsworth (and probobly only in Wordsworth's at this point slightly irrational mind), Lucy parallels the divine. The passionate response to God that comes in private prayer is paralleled with the response that company with Lucy brings. And Wordsworth is seemingly humbled (and embarrassed) by both. He only says how perfect the Lucy/God parallel is in life to one of them, and in the poem only under the ambiguous term "Lover".
I'm semi-neglecting the other 6/7ths of the poem right now. But can words even describe how incredibly better a Lucy that parallels the divine is than a Lucy that parallels a English Romantic wench?
Trees and Loves
December 02, 2008 | |
I've been negligent in my commitment to mention a few things I will miss about my high school on a more regular basis. I just wrote a college essay about how awesome my high school was, so I'm well prepared to submit two today:
I will miss attending a school that puts up, count 'em, 4 (big, full, tall) Christmas trees with lights and all. And there is none of this "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" or "Festive (insert religious/belief/thought neutral statement here)" but it's "MERRY CHRISTMAS!".
I will also miss attending the high school that has the best religion classes ever. Actually that a high school even has religion as a (real) class is pretty cool in my book. Today's religion class at Providence Academy was especially cool. First we discussed the liberal arts, and in an almost telepathic fashion my teacher gave me the perfect apology for my favorite liberal arts college, Thomas Aquinas College. I was using, "learning about the created world brings us closer to God, and so any study of that, whether in math, literature, music or any other pursuit, is worthwhile and noble" but I like his "the liberal arts allow you to and actually think" better. Much more direct.
And then we got into talking about real friendship. The class's vihament opinion that evil people can have friends, and that beliefs have nothing to do with friendship held up the whole thing. I contend that Stalin had no friends ( he killed whatever you could call a friend) and the devout Nazi and Jew were never friends.
But it caused this great need in me to spend too much time rereading C.S. Lewis' The 4 Loves and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (Bks. 8 and 9). I have been slowly finding time for Lewis over the past 3 weeks, and I was actually just nearing the chapter on Friendship. And I had read The Ethics during a particularly gruesome part of philosophy class, so it was done pretty shabbily. I took my time and found a lot that I missed! Oh if only I could do homework to actually learn.
And in addition to finding stuff I missed, I actually knew what it was all talking about! It was such an awesome feeling. I could puke it out on a test last year, but now I actually know what it's all saying. I could have wrote out "Eros thinks that a woman being herself is infinitely more important than that she is a woman" a year ago, but re-reading it today I know that it's true.
And that is why half of me wishes I could go to Providence Academy for another 4 years. And the other half of me wishes I could skip the next 10 years of life.
Tradition for Tradition's Sake
November 30, 2008 | |
I got this email today,
let's add this tune to our list as a "just in case"All Of Me, trad. jazz style, group improv on head, gutbucket bone, ect.. (everyone find Louis' versions)
and I was dismayed. I think we all have a few standards we really dislike playing and All Of Me in a "trad. jazz style" is 3-10 minutes of boredom for me. It's one of those songs where the ride cymbal sounds like Ben Stein at his worst. The tempo is bad. The melody is mad. The harmony is interesting, but the harmonic movement is pitiful. And no doubt the lyrics are worthy of a better tune. In short All of Me strikes me as a gray-haired octogenarian musician, 5 people in the club on a Tuesday night kind of tune.
But then I listened to Louis:
Aside from the obnoxious Freddie Green comping it amazed me how much they had figured out back then, that his recording was more interesting than recordings 50 years later. I think the tune still stinks, but what Louis did with it was great. He takes out all the boring stuff! It's genius. His trumpet playing is magnetic, so why bother focusing on anything else! It makes me think a ballad, block-chord solo piano method might be a good way of presenting this tune. Sometimes Louis made so much sense... and that's why tradition for tradition's sake makes young jazzers dread All of Me.
The Golden Proportion
November 29, 2008 | |
I had a literature/philosophy teacher who claimed that the golden proportion unlocked the meaning to the universe. And the kids who didn't care thought he was nuts and the kids who cared tried to mathmaticly disprove his golden callipers. I've come around though. Maybe I can provoke a blog post on the whole subject out of him, but here is my rather poor presentation.
So the golden ratio is about 1.618:1. See it exactly here (if your much smarter than I can can understand wikipedia articles about math...). And you can make golden calippers that maintain that proportion:
And then really cool stuff happens (I like the fig leaf. Mathematicians are always so modest. It's great!):
And shells:
And flowers:
And coffee (from the movie Pi. I've never watched it because supposedly it ends with the guy drilling a hole through his head). The golden ratio bit is at the end:
And in the human body! And face!
It goes on forever. The Marquardt website (the "face" link) is awesome! I really hope young girls aren't running out to get their face shaped to the golden proportion but I suppose that's at least marginally better than getting it shaped to be like Paris Hilton.
Grace is free
November 28, 2008 | |
I was on the treadmill when I remembered a scene from my 10th grade literature class. One of the students completed her quiz and asked (in that brown nosing kind of tone that only serves to make the teacher-student relationship less amicable) "what should I do", now that she was done with her quiz, and without warranting her even a quick glance my teacher responded, "sit quietly and contemplate your sins". So then I figured it would be an opportune time for me to run quietly (I am one of those hopelessly loud treadmill users) and contemplate my sins. But because the devil is so witty and cunning I quickly started thinking about popular culture's sins, which soon turned to the trampling at the Wal-Mart today, which soon turned to pondering what has become a complete commercialization of Christmas. But since God is more witty and more cunning than the devil he reminded me that grace is free!
And from that I realized that grace will get any human farther than something from Wal-Mart. I was about to say that Jesus being born was the best gift any man could receive but then I remembered another story from school. One of the first days of history class the teacher asked in his intellectual British accent what the most important historical event was and somebody said "the birth of Jesus". He commended them in his across-the-pond way of commending students and then asked what the second most important historical event was. Nobody raised their hand so I figured I'd start off the year strong and be the only one to answer, so I said "the death of Christ" and the whole class stared at the teacher, who was unjustly faced with the theological decision of which aspect of Christ's life was most important. Apparently the correct answer was much simpler: the agricultural revolution.
But remember that this Christmas season. If you don't have any money to buy somebody a gift, pray for God to give them grace! It's a big paradox: it is priceless and costs nothing! It's something so much better, so much cooler, so much awesomer than anything that can be wrapped up. And praying for somebody else helps you too. Sometimes when it snows my family wakes up early and my mom makes breakfast while the rest of us go shovel the neighbors driveways, and my dad used to always say that we were doing it because of the maxim do good things for others, but me and my sister always knew that 2 of the neighbors were going to pay us very handsomely, and if we tried to give it back they would have none of it. Praying for somebody is kind of the same way. You do it because it's really good to pray for other people, but in the back of your head you know that it will help you too.
That's how I know God exists: only somebody who created this world and continues to govern it could be the overarching theme to three completely unrelated stories about post-quiz time, history and shoveling.
I can't stand it!
| |
I've never been angry a Do The Math blog post, but I just don't get it (the stereotypical 1800's German is Karl Marx). Hasn't history pretty well shown that once you drink the socialist stew your country has about a 30 year life span before it collapses? And I'll remind you that American GDP is 60 times Venezuela's. It's be a hard case to make that those 30 years are really fruitful years. And hasn't human reason pretty well ironed out that private property is good and necessary. I repeat: PRIVATE PROPERTY IS GOOD AND NECESSARY! If any of my readers really despise private property I invite you to share your favorite jazz CDs with my high school band room. Coltrane would be much appreciated. The address is here.
I have an uncle who champions Marx and out of love I can't help but try to convert him at Thanksgiving dinner. I try to remember that Jesus tried to help everybody out of love and they killed him so I suppose that's why you don't talk about politics with relatives. But seriously! I can't even get my mind around the idea of championing out right socialism. If you rejected original sin the argument would work easier, but the story they cite is a prime example of original sin. I can at least comprehend those who just want a little socialism here and there under the title "advanced capitalism".
I find the historical evolution funny: Somehow we go from bartering to legal tender to abolishing the whole system as if abolishing the system makes man smarter. It's like a little kid who is given a spoon to eat his food with but decides that the environment would be saved the metal to make the spoon so he will use his fingers. Abolishing age old systems does not make you better. I can just imagine how eloquently C.S. Lewis would have given the last 3 lines... I suppose economic insanity was a bit before his time. I wish I was a genius sometimes. And rich so that I could help people intellectually and economically. I could be the ultimate good samaritan if original sin didn't make me greedy and self-loving. God loves us so much he doesn't give us money.
Tradition to Relativism
November 26, 2008 | |
It's become strikingly clear to me that in the last 5 centuries a striking pattern from rigid tradition to relativism has occurred in Western classical music, philosophy, jazz, art, politics and more.
Western classical music moved from Palestrina and Bach to Shoenburg and Berg
Philosophy moved from St. Thomas Aquinas to Nietzsche
Jazz moved from Louis Armstrong to Ornette Coleman
Art moved from Leonardo DaVinci to Jackson Pollock
Politics moved chivalry and the rule of Christendom to the current American political scene
I don't wish to blatantly criticize any of the latter parties, but it certainly is apparent that this trend occurs. And it is seemingly not cyclical. It would be incredible if not impossible for music to return to the sounds of Palestrina, or for jazz to sound like Louis Armstrong.
I'd say I'll write a more comprehensive post later, but all that'd mean is that I don't have the time or knowledge to do it now so I need to research and find time, both of which have rarely happened in the history of my saying "I'll write more later" on this blog.
Homosexuals
| |
I think I might have hit on something somewhat unwittingly a while back. I said
"As if these guys are smarter than this guy."And it has now become more apparent to me that the sheer ridiculousnesses of some of the members of the homosexual movement isn't helping it any. Look at all the leaders of social change in history who acted with honor, dignity and class. Rosa Parks was wearing a business suit when she was arrested. Martin Luther King was in a suit when he was shot. What do you think Susan B. Anthony showed up to the Syracuse Convention in? Not like this!
Maybe this is just another example of my outdated traditional western ideals coming out, but I for one could take homosexuals more seriously if they found some way to fit in with the rest of society in dress and decorum. And if that would in any way defeat the purpose of the movement I think we have conclusive evidence that the gay rights movement has little to do with homosexual marriage.
I see no reason why gays couldn't lobby for rights the same way blacks and women did if they are searching for the same kind of rights blacks and women did.
Yikes
November 25, 2008 | |
Amid all of the Minnesota election controversy I can't help but wonder why it is that we want those why can't even fill out the ballot correctly to be able to vote. What kind of knowledge do they have of the candidates or the issues if they can't fill in a clearly defined circle? I don't find any reason to rejoice over high voter turn out either. Every other election has been important enough to vote in and if it took the media hype or some other special element of this election to get you to the polling place, I don't want you voting!
This could never be implemented (and I'm glad) because just as soon as we require voters to know about the candidates we can all to easily impose other restrictions. But wouldn't it be nice if they only people who showed up on voting day really knew about who they were voting for? I would be much more at ease with the process if I knew that the guy who can't read directions wasn't going to vote.
When I was in 1st grade I thought I was pretty smart and I would rush ahead and do the worksheets in record time and inevitably I would miss some pedantic detail that had no didactic purpose and I would get half a point taken off on every problem and my teacher would look down on me with her reading glasses on the tip of her nose and say "you need to read the directions young man". I figured it out by the 2nd grade, and if by then I had figured out that I had to do what the directions said, regardless of how inane they were I think it should be a bare minimum that anybody who partakes in one of the greatest freedoms given to any man living today have figured that out too.
I can't resist, which is actually the big problem in society.
November 18, 2008 | |
A really old family was found... which is more important than it seems.
If from the time of cavemen until about the 20th century marriage was between a guy and a gal (and they had kids) I have to question the folks that came along and reinvented the wheel... I don't doubt that there are examples of homosexuality in the past but I don't think you could find a society that endorsed the practice.
I at least like to think I'm a humble man, which only lends evidence to my pride, but if there was a humble person in America, don't you think they might defer to all of the people who were smarter than them (and there had to be a few, especially considering American education these days) that condemned many of the things popular society champions.
For all his immense intelligence (I put down his books because I knew he's wrong, but he was too convincing... I'm not there yet) and philosophical searching for the truth (though the comment that he was fueled by a need to be different holds some merit), I think we have to acknowledge something wrong with Nietzschean Philosophy (1, 2, 3)...
Man just can't resist the temptation to think he's on to something that the rest of the rest of the world neglected. As if these guys are smarter than this guy. Or the guy who did this.
Then again it all comes apart when somebody has the guts to say I am smarter than everybody else and God doesn't exist. It's just those holier than though Catholics who think gay marriage is wrong.
Oddly enough, for all the stereotypes surrounding Catholics they recognize the sin of pride and try to eradicate it. In an odd way other religions put their founders above Jesus, who founded the Catholic Church. Lutherans either have to say that Jesus didn't found the Catholic Church (which seems false, according to the bible) or that Martin Luther was on to something that Jesus wasn't. Somehow I find it hard to believe that by the 1520s man was smart enough to tell Jesus what he meant to say.
But now it's just become a long babble... I should have ended this three times already.
November 11, 2008 | |
I never understood why bloggers announce periods of inactivity, or apologize after the fact. It is as if they believe that there are readers hanging on their every post. It is as if they think people actually care what they have to say, that they are somehow important, so they waste hours on end writing everything they think they have to offer the world. Of course this doesn't happen here at Maria's Music where days are looking good, with readership skyrocketing and a flood of insightful comments; no doubt millions of readers really are hanging on my every keystroke. But even with that in mind I formally announce a period of intense blogging scarcity, until the new year. If you were stranded in the desert and my posts were glasses of water, you will surely die. The quantity of my posts will closely resemble the number of plausible economic policies of our President-Elect. If you take the number of readers of this blog and divide it by the population of the civilized world you get (π^2)/10 (≈ .9869604), which is very close to the quantity (in bits) that I will contribute to the incredible waste of electronic storage we euphorically title the blogsphere.
It is common to become addicted to euphoric, epiphanic, euphonious, enlightening, and generally exciting blog writing. If you suffer from this ailment I recommend a brand new medicine, Let The Children Come to Me (pending FDA approval).
Schoenberg
November 09, 2008 | |
The man of the hour was a pretty smart guy:
For 'education' means today: to know something of everything without understanding anything at all.
Here we can see most distinctly what the prerequisite of comfort is: superficiality. It is thus easy to have a 'philosophy', if one contemplates only what is peasant and gives no heed to the rest.
Curiously enough, people of our time who formulate new laws of morality (or, even more to their liking, overthrow old ones) cannot live without guilt.
All in a preface to a book about music theory...
You can see a good portion of the book here (maybe the whole thing). Some of the later chorales make my spine tingle. I love Bach but Schoenberg is so much cooler. Bach's harmony is amazing, but he didn't have 500 years of harmonic evolution to work with. Nobody rags on Louis Armstrong because he wasn't playing like Wynton Marsalis. Schoenberg was able to dig himself the most beautiful of holes and construct an equally beautiful way of getting out of them, somehow going from a C major triad to a V-I in F# in less that 16 chords... you can't help but smile.
Schoenburg for the Soul
November 04, 2008 | |
When ever I'm posting on this blog (or really everywhere in life) I try to not sound like an angry teenager. It's ability to be discredit any idea and the general annoyance it causes is legendary. I'd rather wake up tomorrow 30 years old, but I'm stuck being a teenager in body at least. I really hope what I see as a real problem isn't seen as some kind of "nobody understands me" rant that you can find all over the internet these days. See, I like my atonal music. I say tonality is dead and even if your in C it is not only possible, but it behooves you to dispense with the idea of harmonic and non-harmonic tones. I was a bit angered today at a certain discussion in class.
It started by a student asking what type of music the teacher listened too. He discussed his appreciation of 70's rock in his teens, and his move, as he got older, to exclusively classical music, which (and here's the problem) "is
But it continued. He continued to say that atonal music was "bad for your soul". Now I thought that this could have been a fluke; he didn't really mean that, he was joking, his mind was clouded. Hopefully. But I raised my hand a clarified the statement. With a solemn face and grave words he repeated "yes, atonal music is bad for your soul." I was incensed! Worst of all, his argument revolved around the idea that atonal music is featured in horror films. It's a bad argument for a host of reasons that you can supply on your own. Simply bad logic.
I don't really mind that he doesn't like atonal music or that he even thinks it's bad for his soul. What bothers me is that he is telling a class of kids that atonal music is bad for your soul; essentially that listening to atonal music is a sin. Most of these kids don't know about classical music aside from their CKC Music class in middle school. And he is telling them that this kind of music, which is in some ways the culmination of over 5 centuries of harmonic evolution is bad for their souls. Any desire they may of had to listen to atonal music, or really anything written after 1800 is going to be called into question.
I cannot believe that atonal music is, in and of itself, bad for the soul. In fact I think it is good for the soul. If any music is going to bring me closer to God it is going to be Shostakovitch, not Bach or (please no!) Vivaldi. Maybe the aging classical audience is, maybe just among these 20 kids, due to the belief that their soul will be harmed by Schoenberg. Then again maybe I'm no different than the kid who will ardently defend My Chemical Romance as a real addition to the musical archives. I will comment my teacher on at least one front in this article. He said, "I don't understand how upper class white boys have a desire to emulate lower class black boys." Speakt da trut daug.
The Education System (The Cram And Forget Philosophy)
November 03, 2008 | |
Over at ScribbleBibble, Abecedarius choses his words well. He said:
As I walked out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the school this afternoon, the warm southern breeze blew a scent from the south that was instantly recognizable.
S.E. Hinton said in her "Outsiders":
When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house
And other than a point of departure (it was too good to resist) I want to wipe Mr. Rex clear from this whole discussion. These are my views, and as his occupation is "education of youngsters" I don't want to criticize his chosen profession and more importantly the way he goes about it, but rather the way that educators as a stereotypical group go about it. I'm going to speak of educators as homogeneous individuals but everybody has that favorite English teacher, or horrible science teacher that makes the stereotype a stereotype.
With these disclaimers in place (I feel as if I need to end with my approval of this message) I'll take my first jabs. American education seems a lot like a movie. Only a movie with a test at the end of it. The dark movie theater provides a great piece of art, but as time passes unless the movie is re-watched frequently, the viewer is left with a vague plot line, not a great piece of art. The education system of today is no different. When your average kid studies trigonometry he is going to learn the formulas by making flashcards, remembering it all for the test and in a year they couldn't recall it. I don't think we can blame the student for this. The cram and flush mentality is almost forced on a student. They learn those trig formulas in a 2 week long unit, and don't see them again for another year. Their education isn't nailing them into their brains. But shouldn't the student take charge of his education! Absolutly! But how can they? New material is flooded over them. It's only trig for 2 weeks and then it's conic sections. Not to mention that we expect students to excel in reading, righting and rhythmatic!
The next generation isn't going to be able to tell you who the founding fathers were and what they were about but they will have a vague understanding of what they did. They won't remember geometry or Euclid, but they might keep some of the logic skills they gained. They won't know the facts, just the outline. Which is unfortunate. In essence the education system gives individuals great ideas but allows them to forget the facts that prove to those ideas. Kids are sitting in a movie theater, grabbing the general premise of the plot, but forgetting all the intricacies that make a character, or the lighting that makes the scene, and for that I'm deeply troubled. While I'm never a fan of presenting a problem without a solution I need to sleep otherwise I might fall asleep for the movie entirely.
It'd be difficult to make a convincing case that money is at the root of any schooling woes we are experiencing. There is a philosophical problem with the education system. Teachers can denounce the cram and forget mentality all they want, but until they allow the student the ability to do otherwise their exhortations are shallow to say the least. And lest it be thought that this philosophical problem only concerns students remember that students cease to attend school and begin to attend office buildings and voting booths.
Comic Relief
November 01, 2008 | |
Bill Cosby makes a lot more sense than God sometimes.
Jazz tends to be almost equally confusing though:
(Eddie Davis)
(Jackie McLean and Phil Woods)
Fairness
| |
I was going to write about adults who go trick-or-treating and how that is evidence of the entitlement philosophy that is prevalent in America, but I stumbled upon something much more interesting, at least in my mind.
Heres the predicament: Person A finds God, only because of His grace, fights the spiritual combat with the greatest zeal and bravery and, as far as any human can tell, defeats his enemy and reaches heaven. Now Person B doesn't find God, and lives his life ignorant of God's truths and, as far as any human can tell, does not merit eternal salvation. If we believe that the only way we can truly come to God in faith is through his grace then how is it that Person A receives this grace and Person B doesn't. The knee jerk reaction would be to say that Person B rejects God's grace, but that doesn't completely solve the problem. Original sin consisted in rejecting God and his commands, so isn't every human that is subject to original sin going to reject God unless they receive God's grace. It becomes apparent that God doles out grace in unequal ways. But that is kind of hard to grapple with. How could God do that?
I don't know that human reason can know. Seems to me that since God is all-powerful he could save everybody. Or that he'd just eliminate temptation. God doles out grace unequally. It makes sense in a way... we understand God through the world he created, in an effect=>cause way, taking things that the human mind can understand and applying it to something we can't. And when I look in the world I see great injustice, and how couldn't we. The world isn't fair, as this presidential election has pointed out. So then God isn't fair? What a horrible thought, that God doesn't, at least as evidenced in his actions, seem to really will the salvation of every single person he creates.
From time to time it's seemed pertinent to think of God like a parent. When I was 7 or so my dad was doing some yard work and I wanted to help him. He loaded up the wheelbarrow, which was probobly bigger than I was and I wanted to move it. Now he could have said, "thats way to heavy for you" and I wouldn't have lifted it, but he said "go ahead" and I tried lifting it and the episode ended with me lifting and pushing in vain. It didn't budge. My dad let me fail so that I could learn a lesson. Apparently I was a very self-confidant 7 year old. Even if God helps us by letting us fail, why is it that some seemingly fail and learn, and others fail and... well, they just fail.
The most frustrating line I've every run into as a student is "wisdom begins in bewilderment", because it lends absolutely no help to understanding the topic at hand. But that is the juncture I'm left at. God loves all of his creation with an infinitely perfect and unselfish love that man can never return. And it is clear that love is shown most convincingly and surely in action. So why wouldn't God give everybody the grace to be saved? I understand that he did in Adam and Eve and that they were allowed to reject God because of their free wills, which are a great gift, but why doesn't God give everybody such a clear opportunity to reject him? If Mother Teresa were to think of murdering somebody she would be overcome by a tremendous moral dichotomy, but a young gang member doesn't seem to have such a incredibly grave dilemma presented him. And yet he is culpable for it all, even though he didn't really make the same kind of choice Mother Teresa did.
It's just not fair that the kids get Halloween candy, and when your 32 you don't get it! But is even less fair that some people seemingly have better odds at salvation than others.
Live Blogging
October 31, 2008 | |
I'm really a pretty boring person. I don't go to political conventions or rallies, or any of the normal places to live blog. But over the years I have seen interesting trends in who trick-or-treats around the neighborhood, and as the official candy-hander-outer I have decided to live blog my encounters this evening (in a hopefully not-to-monotonous way). For some reason the "word-word-word" construction is really intriguing tonight.
6:30- I light the candle inside the pumpkin and begin practicing long tones on the flute while waiting for the first kid of the evening to arrive. I see Ethan's post at DTM about Ambrose Bierce horror stories. I don't have any of his horror stories, but I have a copy of his civil war stories, which have equally chilling realities. When my poor right pinky can't take any more flute, a nice cup of hot tea and Mr. Bierce will take up my evening.
7:00 - 15 kids have come to the door. A Jeckle & Hyde like devil/angel came, as did a very courteous princess. A foul smell is noticed outside. Unfortunately the candle is a bit too high and is burning to top of the pumpkin. Burning pumpkin is not a pleasant smell. The doorbell's pitch is a G.
7:30 - It's going slow. Only 20 kids so far. Another courteous princess comes to the door (holding hands with her younger PowerRanger brother) and while she is running to the next house says "have a good day", then, remembering it's night, stumbles to correct herself but "have a good holiday" came out. She leaves in a bit of a hurried confusion. Her dad suggests "have a good night" but it just doesn't want to out. I wonder how a child could ever be an infliction and not a gift.
8:00 - About 35 kids so far. I am becoming particularly fond of the one-piece full body suits that are popular among the PowerRangers and Spidermen. Especially the ones with built in muscles. I was beginning to brew my tea and start reading but then two teenagers came to the door. They were the first teenagers of the night. Two other young boys come up without costumes on. Remember those 4 people. I have a grand theory I'm working on.
8:30 - Things pick up. 75 kids have come so far. Another princess (must be a popular costume) asks me if I'm baking anything. I originaly thought that she preferred baked goods to the generic candy (which is understandable), but she was apparently more receptive to the smoldering pumpkin than I was. 8 teenagers and 3 parents have requested candy. 4 car loads have come. I'm enjoying my tea and "The Son of the Gods", which is beginning to inspire a post over at dooHICKEY, is just getting good: the young captain is about to die. My theory has solidified a bit more.
9:00 - A few older kids who should have something better to do come to the door, but not any sizable number; were at 80. The costumes are increasingly less interesting, though a former Petter's group employee earns a chuckle. Bierce makes me think a bit more. See, Abecedarius Rex (who started dooHICKEY) was my literature/philosophy teacher. Needless to say, it is daunting to take a book he put in your hands and talk about it, as if it is somehow equal to anything he can say on his own blog.
The light is officially turned off. Stay tuned for "The Entitlement Theory of Halloween" at this blog and "Paris Hilton and Ambrose Bierce" at dooHICKEY.
Down with genres!
October 29, 2008 | |
Sorry for the bad YouTube video. I hate them as much as you do.
Of late I've been really into this sort of trance like chant music. Check it out here (and here). When I first sang this type of music I thought it was a lot like some of the later vamping experiments in jazz that have so much soul in them. When I brought a chart like this to a rehersal I quickly learned that my fellow jazz musicians didn't see the same similarity, but it's not the first time I've gone out on a limb.
I was listening the Shostakovitch String Quartets lately. It surprised me how applicable to jazz some of his lines were. Of course jazzers have studied Bach forever, but Shostie has got some really outside stuff going on. If you think that Bird was listening to Stravinsky just to be cultured, or know what was going on around him, or because he genuinly liked it, think again. Bird wanted to use that stuff in his own music.
Among other things I'll never forget about Eric Gravatt, I'll always remember when he told us he used to skip school to listen to Stravinsky because he heard Bird listened to him. But then his mom caught him and he couldn't play the drums for a year. Now think about that: here is a drummer, of all instrumentalists, who is so interested in playing the drums (actually, music) that he's skipping school to listen to Stravinsky. And then his punishment is getting those drums taken away. Any other kid would be grounded, but Eric wouldn't have cared. That'd just force him to be around his drums, which would be a blessing. Truly inspirational.
---
And with 121 days left of school, I am overjoyed that for another 121 days I will attend a school that teaches Latin, even though I don't take the language.
Purpose of Goverment
October 25, 2008 | |
I start with the premise that government should protect it's citizen's rights and help those who cannot help themselves. If we accept that we get:
- Furnish an army for the protection of the country
- Establish laws that protect it's citizens and enforce those laws
- By way of protecting it's citizens, allow that citizen's rights not be violated
- Assist the mentally retarded or ill, the severely handicapped and any other citizens who are unable to provide for themselves by working
- Provide necessary services that the private sector cannot supply. What these services are is subject to debate, but education, public transit and other infrastructure requirements would be likely candidates.
- Artificially alter the free market only when the private sector fails, and this failure precipitates the failure of the society.
- Establishing laws that take away from the citizen's freedoms or that endanger the welfare of the society
- Elevate matters of courtesy or respect to the level of right
- Impose restrictions on one citizen's rights in the effort of giving a right to another citizen
- Assisting those that can assist themselves, such as those who make poor choices, those who are lazy, and those who are unjust.
- Provide services that the private sector can provide or provide services are unnecessary for the functioning of a well received society.
- Artificially alter the free market when the private sector has not failed in order to help the less fortunate, to harm the most fortunate or to in any way favor or harm a select group.
- Artificially alter the free market when the private sector has failed, but this failure does not pose the threat of failure to the society.
Maybe my logic is flawed, but if you accept the first premise as both true and complete, the first and second conclusion seems inevitable. I'm not sure how you would alter the premise, or more likely add to it but I would love to hear how others would, because the conclusions admittedly espouse a conservative approach to government.
On God's Existance
October 23, 2008 | |
There are plenty of proofs for God out there. With lots of lamentably bad ones. In fact I'm going to posit, for this at least, that you can't prove that God exists. For now, no syllogisms can prove one God who created the world and cares about it's inhabitants.
Now a few things you have to just buy:
The Catholic Church (the original Christian Church, remember. It is a flawed human body, but I think any human has realized that human bodies are flawed. Who has a perfect marriage, or has no complaints about their boss or coworkers) teaches that grace is a supernatural gift of sorts that gives man help from God. For instance, I am really mad and I say "God help me not to throttle my friend" and God will give me strength (beyond my own ability, or maybe it just makes the choice easier, even though I could have done it without God's Grace) to not throttle my friend. But if I don't ask for it, God isn't going to give it to me. It's out there and plenty of ridiculous cartoon bubbles come to mind. But buy that there is this thing called Grace, that it helps man do (virtuous) things and that you have to ask to receive it.
Now it is impossible to prove that God doesn't exist. I'm not saying you can prove his does exist, because remember for this article that you cannot prove he does. But you cannot prove that he doesn't exist. So the odds that the "God Exists" camp have it right are infinitely better than the odds that the "God Doesn't Exist" camp have it right. It's dividing a 1 and 1 million chance by a 0 and 1 million chance. With the odds stacked against you and the knowledge that if you asked God for help he will help you why wouldn't you give it a whirl? The promises are pretty immense if it's true. In fact they are infinite!
And when you do give it a whirl (as I did), you would say something like "God, if you exist, help me to understand how you exist. Give me some sign of your existence" and while your at it you could even spill all and say "God, I was really a jerk to the check out lady at Cub today. Help me to be a better person" and maybe even end with the Hail Mary or the manly St. Michael The Arch Angel prayer. And I guarantee you that if it is all done with sincerity of heart God will answer your prayers.
This is a very selfish way of coming to God, because it puts your pleasure (good promises) as the prime reason for seeking God. So realize that I don't condone this type of religion as a continuing practice, because (and I'm no where close) we should love God because he's God. It's a mystery, I agree. But it's not easy to fall off your horse and see God. Figure out that God exists, and then learn about God, and pray that you might seek him unselfishly and your well on your way.
It's not convincing proof, but remember that we said no convincing proof exists on the matter. But your odds are certainly better.
Insanity
October 21, 2008 | |
I have to admit that I first heard this song on Michael Savage's radio show. He (at least as part of his shtick) plays doo-wop music when politics start repeating themselves in a depressing loop. I have kind of fallen into the same state of late. There is something about a mundane life that gets really depressing at a point, and every year about this time I reach that point. This year doo-wop music is getting me through it. Go figure... I wish they dispensed with the disgusting tenor/bari solos though. I have 3 completely irrational ideas in life: 1) that getting a hair cut is lazy, 2) the sounds of people chewing (with mouth closed and all that etiquette stuff) is spine chillingly annoying and 3) the stereotypical bari sound (that thankfully some escape) is absolutely repulsive. Makes me feel good about my playing though.
I was recently talking about insanity with one of my teachers. My mom is studying to be a nurse, and in her mind one brain cell goes bad and your crazy, and medication can be used to treat you. I'm not too sure why I disagree with her, maybe it is because reason is a facility of the soul, not the brain. I don't think you can really treat insanity with medication, and I tend to think anybody can become insane. My teacher voiced it better than my cloudy thoughts did: he said that insanity comes from being stuck in a self-made loop that you can't escape. I'm not exactly sure how that all works yet but it seems to make sense.
Maybe I'll open my "Basic Psychology" text one of these days and figure all this out. Though I suppose it will revolve around the kind of teaching my mom has gotten.
You know your in an odd state of mind when your really interested in reading about insanity.
--
I will miss attending a school where students (and teachers) takes a stand for the worst atrocity of our generation.
I've long been looking for an accurate, unbiased number of abortions that have taken place in the last 40 years, and I wouldn't completely trust this website and it's 50 million number. But I wouldn't completely ignore data that say 1/3 of babies are aborted either, even if the number is biased. I doubt the out and out lie, and you can only effect bias so much. Even if the number was 1/6 there are very serious social consequences (disregarding any moral consequences). Among other problems, think if John Coltrane or Miles Davis were aborted. Or more importantly, what if Winston Churchill was aborted, or George Washington. The number of great men that history is indebted to that aren't being born frightens me.
And I don't buy the idea that the government can do many things better than I can (I don't buy that whole "give to the poor" idea of governing, for many reasons), and I therefor don't support many of the laws that come about in this day and age that protect us from ourselves. I know many that think that abortion is horrible, that that it's not the government's place to outlaw it, but I think it's a matter of national security. I know I'm throwing out buzz words that immediately evoke opinions, but think about it: how many kids are aborted in Pakistan? How many working women aren't ready for a child yet in China? We have the best army in the world, but at a certain point if you don't have any soldiers your in trouble.
I will also miss attending a school where the math teacher makes a better band director than the band director. Actually I can think of a handful of teachers that know more about music than she does... more proof that a degree means almost nothing.