And in this corner
I’ve been thinking about writing this piece for a while, but I’ve also been reluctant to let it all out. But given the current political climate in the nation, the state of the church and the fact that it’s an election year, I might as well step into the fray.
Let’s start with the Obama administration, I have never seen more idealistic, deaf and frankly out of touch administration than this one. The Constitution seems to have no meaning, they will do anything to push their socialist agenda. So why anyone is surprised that they have used the HHS to push their contraceptive mandates on to church run organizations, is beyond me. All the signs were there during the election, all one had to do was do a little digging, and yet people voted with their emotions rather than their mind. The part that angers me the most is Catholics who voted for Obama, in my opinion they got what they deserved. We attended a meeting on Catholic ethics at our parish, and got a lecture from a bunch of old anti-war hippies about their anti war stances. These are the same people who still have Obama stickers on their cars, I simply can’t understand how you could still support someone whose goal is to restrict your religious freedoms, and still go to Mass.
But the Catholic church that exists in the United States is a shell of what it once was, we have been overtaken with the current psychology of the modern age, and are more concerned about not offending our laity than we are with the truth. We don’t even teach real orthodoxy any more, its all a mixture of light theology and emotionalism. As I’ve stated before, I’ve learned more about the Catholic faith from Orthodox writers than I have more Catholic ones. I’ve been reading the council of Trent, and found it interesting that there is a section devoted to Catechesis and it’s administration. Why are we not following that today?, why are we not back to the Sunday School model and taking the time to make sure the laity are instructed in the elements of our faith? Instead of praise bands, and coffee hours, let’s push instruction and education. We should not be afraid to teach people the basics of philosophy and apologetics, how else are we going to reach the world unless we have laity who are confident and KNOWLEDGEABLE about their faith?
I may disagree with certain points of Catholic Orthodoxy, but I love the Catholic church. It has brought stability to my faith and my life, but because I love it, I can see the faults and want to make it better. However I never became Catholic with the idea that I would mindlessly agree with every point the church teaches, I know there are some who would admonish me for that. But God gave me a mind for a reason, and when I see something I can’t agree with, I’m not going to lie to say otherwise, to do so would be to lose any self respect I have. I can’t stomach believers who become robots, echoing back everything the church teaches them without thought.
We are in the process of dumbing down the population of this country, I don’t know how to put it any other way, or even be polite about it anymore. I work for a utility, on any given week I am submitted to the most mind numbing, paradoxical thinking I’ve ever seen in my life. Everything is spoon fed to the workforce, the company spends an enormous amount of resources selling their agenda to their own employees. After a while people just go numb, you can’t win, you can’t argue, so you just have to suffer through it. And they wonder why people are apathetic, maybe it’s because instead of treating them like the professionals they are, you treat them all as if they are the lowest common denominator. A case in point is that we as employees had to sit through a week long class on performance in our culture, for me the experience bordered on a new age religion, we where bombarded with pop psychology, told to take the material home and have our family’s evaluate us ( request I refused and ultimately won, but only after getting the ‘it changed my life’ lecture from the instructor). We got the special privilege to hear managers tell us how this program changed their lives, their marriages and their family’s. It was so much like a religion that one gentlemen extolled the virtues by reciting the Evangelical mantra of reading your book everyday and practicing what it taught, it was honestly the same EXACT speech I heard for years in the baptist faith. The difference was this was a company mandated program. The ultimate goal was to make people accountable, but when it came time to do yearly goals, instead of practicing the very system they spent millions on. They spoon fed it the workforce, and wasted time making sure everyone was ‘aligned’. The irony is that had the program worked, simply stating what the goals where and that you are expected to meet them this year, would have been enough. Which is how it used to be done.
The next day two friends and I walked to a new restaurant to get lunch, they had a greeter who’s job as far as I can tell, was to tell us how get in line to order the food. It made me sad that something like that was even needed, the place had good food and a great layout. But if I need someone to show me the obvious then, I shouldn’t be out wondering on my own. I despise restaurants that feel the need to ‘educate’ diners on how their menu works, listen… If your menu is so complicated that I can’t just order the food I want, then I’m going to go eat somewhere else. I don’t need a speech on how to order my frigging food, you have a menu, I order what looks good. What’s so difficult about that? Am I missing something?, are people really that clueless? I may not want to know the answer to that anymore…
So about this election, let me go out on a limb here and say that I would like to see a good old fashion AGNOSTIC run for president for once. I’m sick and tired of being subjected to the candidates weird religious beliefs and statements. Romney’s a mormon, which has it’s own set of special issues (though I’m told by mormon friends, that he’s a jack mormon at that). The others are all various faiths, but when we get into areas of faith and politics people just say and do stupid things. The media love to find those little tidbits and make mountains out of them, and when you have people like Santorum’s wife commenting that his winning is ordained by God, I just want to go hide somewhere. I’m not actually enthused about any of the current crop, I don’t know where the real conservatives have gone, but boy do I miss them. This whole faith and politics things is such a mess anyway, I argued with a baptist minister one time about single issue voters. He stated that he would never, based on principle vote for someone who supported abortion. I told him that you where never going to find someone to agree with every single thing you believe, these are men, you take the good with the bad. I don’t support abortion, but in reality the President can only effect the issue by creating an activist supreme court. Roe vs Wade, I don’t think, could stand up to a good honest analysis at that level. So I would in fact vote for someone who is soft on the issue, as long as they elect constitutional judges, and not activists to the bench. You can’t think single issue with politics, it’s never that simple. Given the current crop of clowns, I don’t see this country turning around for a long time.
Apple released new products this week, the new iPad is cool and all. But honestly there’s nothing there that would cause me to leave my current iPad2 and upgrade. They really needed something more than just the retina display, I’m wondering if they are still floundering from the loss of Steve Jobs?. I sure hope they can recover. I love my Apple T.V. and MIGHT buy a new one for 1080p, but until the movie industry pulls their heads out of their hind ends and realizes that we now live in a digital content age, I’m reticent to support any format. Everything’s so fragmented, Hulu only shows certain shows on the computer, but not a console. Apple won’t support Hulu, and half the studio’s won’t even release shows to a digital format. I would PAY to see Lost Girl on iTunes, but for some unknown reason SyFy has refused to do so. I don’t get it. Then they go after the internet, using the guise of stopping piracy. Piracy’s not the issue, the industry is filled with dinosaurs who at every technological turn have resisted change, and then once forced have benefited financially from that change. Instead they keep pushing systems where they can control their content and greedily charge you for every viewing, remember DivX, well now they have ultraviolet, which is worse in many ways. I predict that what is going to happen, is the same thing that happened with CD’s, the industry is going to dig in and the rest of the world will simply start producing media through digital outlets, leaving the traditional industry in the dust.
John Piper, the voice of the reformed mindset, and all around narsisistic know it all. Has once again attempted Theodicy regarding the Tornado’s in the midwest. For those who don’t know Theodicy is the attempt to explain how evil can exist with an Omniscient and all loving creator. As usual Pat Robertson opened his big mouth and blathered about it as well, it’s not enough that we live in a fallen world where bad things happen. But these self appointed morons run out and do their best to make the rest of us look like a bunch of nut cases. In Pipers case, his reformed theology means that God is in control of EVERYTHING (this is known as a determinism) and free will is an illusion. So he has to justify the tornadoes, you can read his latest blather here: Fierce Tornadoes and the Fingers of God I don’t understand why it’s not enough that people lost their lives, their homes, and entire towns where wiped from the face of the earth, on top of that you have to tell that God did it. Here’s an idea, maybe the WEATHER caused the Tornado and because people live in a area PRONE to tornadoes, they had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bad things happen, if we are to represent the love of God then we should mobilize support, physical and moral to help those in need. Not blather on about some theological point that no one cares about.
It looks like spring is early this year, we ventured out twice this weekend to go to the driving range, I’m still as bad as ever. Some things never change, but I still enjoy playing Golf, so the love hate relationship will continue unabated. I’m hoping it says nice, and that spring comes early so I can get out more often, it’s been a dismal winter for some reason and I’m ready for some warmth and outdoor activities.
Time to go play… I feel better now 
Peace
-Paul-
Now this is how you do it!!!
I’ve been interested for some time in the Orthodox faith, we considered the Orthodox church while still looking but at the time didn’t know any local parishes. One thing that has always bothered me is that if the Catholic (West or Latin) Church, had the same deposit of truth as the Orthodox or Eastern Church, then why the big split? They disagree on a number of theological and ecclesiological (study of the Christian Church) issues, especially around the Papacy.
Having read Steven Ray’s book on the papacy (Upon This Rock) I thought the issue was settled, at least it was for me. That is until I read the Apostolic Fathers for myself, and then started reading a book called “His Broken Body: Understanding and Healing the Schism Between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches” by Laurent Cleenewerck. Two things happened to my theology:
1. I did not find anywhere in the Apostolic Fathers a direct mention of the papal seat as we know it today, which was surprising to me given how much I have read from Apologists that the Church Fathers fully supported the divine and universal aspect of the see of Peter.
2. I started to question what I actually thought I knew, and began to realize that I really hadn’t done a good job in my study of the Catholic church orthodoxy, my RCIA class was so light on the topic that I was shocked to learn that papal infallibility was made Dogma in 1870 at the Vatican I council (I thought it was declared long before 1870, which is like yesterday for a church with 2000 years history).
I’ve been working my way through Cleenewercks book (he has the coolest name ever!), and what I have found is the RARE and I do mean RARE, apologist who actually presents and irenic argument to make his case. Michael Patton at Reclaiming the Mind taught me well that being irenic in arguing a point was always a much better option. The other night I picked up the book of a very famous Catholic Apologist and thumbed over the section on the pope, I was curious to see how he handled the issue when challenged. What I found surprised me, he quoted the writing of one of the church fathers, and the quote on it’s own would make anyone think that the father fully supported the universal power of the papal office. But the truth is that this church father actually challenged the universal and divine power of the roman bishop, but still held that the papacy was indeed founded by Christ through Peter. It’s a subtle point, but it makes a world of difference, because in the Catholic faith, the Papacy has been handed the keys the kingdom and has both divine and universal power over the Christian faith.
St. Augustine was famous for saying ‘Let the reader decide’, that is the irenic approach. Give a good accounting of both sides of the issue, and then leave it to the reader to make the right choice. But in today’s world of hack apologists, theologians with an axe to grind, there are few who are brave enough to follow that path. Instead they quote selectively and leave out any piece that would weaken their position, they do it both with Scripture and now as I’m finding out with the church fathers.
This is why I always look for apologists who are not afraid to say that their position in one area is weak, or that we just don’t know for sure. And I do everything in my power to avoid the current trend of learning scripture and orthodoxy through ‘feelings’, this morning after Mass, a couple was taking applications for a small group study, so we stopped by to see what they had to offer. It was a little workbook, that had you read some scriptures. Then you joined your small group and talked about how the scripture affected you…
REALLY!!
That’s what is passing for church approved study material?, I got my fill of that in the RCIA classes, where the last 45 minutes of each class was a question and answer session that allowed people to express their feelings! Because we all know that actually studying what the church believes is not nearly as important as how something moves me emotionally! What a pile of horse droppings, IF we are to be Catholic, then we should be TEACHING orthodox material. We should be instructing people in their faith, not asking if they feel all warm and fuzzy inside!
An interesting side note, we had a lady approach us today after service and introduce herself, she said she had noticed us attending for a while. She also commented that and her husband noticed that during the Our Father prayer we don’t hold hands, we told her that basically the GIRM (General Instruction for the Roman Missal, the rules of the liturgy) does NOT state that holding hands is part of the service, so we don’t do it. She said she and her husband do the same thing!, it was good to know that we are not alone in sticking the traditions as they are written…
Anyway…
So I’d like to give a huge Clink of the glass to Laurent Cleenewerck, who had the guts to write a book that seeks out the truth rather his opinion. I’m not Orthodox yet, but his book really has me going back and rethinking what I thought I knew, and THAT my friends is what good apologetics should do…
-Paul-
How I Find Authors I Trust
Before we started our journey to the Catholic faith, I had begun to study the origins of the Bible. Moving for a while into apologetics, then theology. Last year in an unintentional attempt to do it all wrong I started studying Philosophy.
At each stage I’ve consumed a large number of books on various topics, along the the way I’ve learned a number of very important lessons that may seem common sense to some, but I thought I would share regardless. One question I’ve often been asked is who can I trust when reading books on church history, theology or apologetics? I would love to give a simple answer, but nothing is ever that easy. When I’m looking to study a specific topic, I use a number of things to figure out if the author is going to be worth my time:
1. I try to match the authors expertise to the topic being written about, for instance when I wanted to study the Catholic Catechism, I looked for someone who others felt was influential in the area. In my case it Fr John Hardon, who is considered one of the great Catholic Theologians of the last century was the perfect choice.
2. I use Amazon and the internet to read reviews about the authors books, in particular I look for reviews where people with opposing views (and they are always out there), give fair comments about the author. I shy away from books where it sounds like the local fan club wrote all the articles, I want someone who has the guts to make at least ONE person upset!!
3. When possible I look to see what viewpoint the author is coming from, for instance Neil R. Lightfoot has a very good book on how we got the bible, but Neil is from the Church of Christ and his theology effects the context and tone of his book. Especially in the area of the Catholic Church. It’s not that I would never read anything from Neil, but if I know that Neil has a bias against Catholics that will help put into context the voice of his writing.
4. I look for authors who are not afraid to call a spade a spade, especially on their own faith. I don’t believe that ANY faith, including the Catholic church has EVERY issue right, and I’m not interested in reading someone who is more interested in pushing their faiths position, than telling the truth as they see it. This is really important to me, I don’t want to listen to a cheerleader, I want someone with critical thinking skills, who hasn’t been brainwashed or deluded themselves into thinking that everything is peachy.
5. Finally I stay away from polishers, these are people who use antiquated language or spend more time telling you everything is rosy and perfect in their world, than talking about real issues. I read a book one time about how to study the bible and I finally had to put it down, because I don’t know what world the author was living in, but I’m pretty sure it had unicorns, rainbows and cotton candy clouds. I despise condescending language, especially in books.
I have a list of favorite authors, which I will share in another post. I try when possible to stick with the ones I’ve come to trust and will sometimes give other authors a shot, if they are referenced by someone I trust. I have a very short list of authors who I trust, and a larger list of those who I will read, but I’m still very cautious in choosing reading material.
One more thing to note, for topics like the history of the early church, I have found that going directly to the source has been the best way to learn it, that removes any outside influence and allows me to decide for myself what is being said. You can find almost all the church fathers directly translated (and many of them are free if you have a Kindle), it’s eye opening when you actually read what Clement or Ignatius actually wrote, it’s sometimes very different from what others will tell you they said 😉
Happy Reading.
Blessings
Paul
Book Review: Why Catholic Bibles Are Bigger – Gary Michuta
I bought this book while at the local Catholic trinket shop, I call it that, because even though it has books, it has way more statues, icons and other trinkets than anything else. I mean who really needs 20 choices of bottles to hold Holy water?, but I digress. The title intrigued me, having read Neil Lightfoots book on ‘How we got the Bible’, I never got a good answer on the deuterocanonicals. So I felt like something was missing, as well Lightfoot, whether intentionally or not, makes the Catholic Church sound like an Ogre when it comes to the spread of the Bible in the protestant era.
I started this book a couple of times, but it wasn’t until I started a morning routine of reading someone with Apologetic or Theological content to increase my understanding, did I really dig into it. A couple of comments right out the of gate…
- The book really needs an introduction, that explains where Michuta is going and how he intends to get there. Without any fanfare the book dives right into the heart of the matter, which threw me a bit.
- The content needs a good once over by a good editor and proof reader, there are some grammatical issues in various places, and missing words (which bug me when I’m deeply reading something).
- The content is very good, but the footnotes can get a little out of control, spanning multiple pages, with footnotes that good, they should be part of the books content. Leave the footnotes for shorter items.
That being said, I found Michuta’s arguments to be incredibly well done. The only area that I felt was a little out of place, was the discussion of Luther and how he changed his mind on what was canonical and what was not. It was a good part of the argument, but if you are going to make claims that Luther changed his mind because certain books didn’t fit his theology (which I’ve read before in many other sources), then you really need to devote a whole chapter to Luther and his character. Otherwise you run the risk of leaving the door wide open for Luther apologists to eat away at the foundation of your argument. Because after all, your maligning the character of one of the great hero’s of the reformation, you really do need to spell it out. Tt’s the same with Calvin, I like what he has to say about Calvin, but there really needed to more on who and what Calvin was.
I only mention these things to be clear and honest, I found Michuta’s style and prose to be very enjoyable. And when he got to Jerome, I had to stop and re-read it to make sure I understood where he was headed. I’ve read through selected works of the early fathers, but have not had time yet to do a full on study of all their writings. So I knew of Jerome, but I knew nothing of his theory of ‘Hebrew Verity’. Once Michuta laid that out, I knew where he was headed and how we ended up where we are today, and the book came alive. I looked forward to digging into it each morning.
While this is definitely a book by a Catholic apologist, I would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand more about the bible, it’s creation and why there are so many different versions. The history on the Bible society’s was very enlightening, and filled a number of gaps in that I could never figure out. There was such a radical departure between the late 18th century and what we have today, and it didn’t make any sense, until he explained the role of the bible society’s in shaping the protestant canon.
This book is a must read for anyone who wants to know more about the history of the bible, how it fit into the early church and why its so radically different today, from what the Church used for 1500 years. And Mr Michuta gets an extra gold star for being honest and calling out truth above polemics apologetics, even noting that some Catholic apologists make claims that are not fully true.
For me the only kind of apologist I trust anymore are the ones who are not afraid to point out a truth, even if it means that their side takes a hit.
Good book, good read, and a great resource. My only real complaint is that I wish there was a kindle version, so I could more easily look up information and quote from from it as a source.
You can find the book on Amazon at this link: Why Catholic Bibles Are Bigger
-Paul-
It’s been a long busy winter…
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, not because I haven’t wanted too. Rather I’ve been so busy with work, kids, life, church and everything else that I simply have not had time. So I’m doing a quick check-in to let everyone know that I’m still around, just heads down with everything going on.
So here’s a quick pass on what I’ve been up to…
I read Thomas Merton’s the Seven Story Mountain over Christmas, every morning I would read a couple of chapters, and the more I read the more I found that I liked Thomas. I struggled when he waxed poetic about the monastic lifestyle, but other than his gushing platitudes about the romance of being a monk, the book was fabulous.
I also just finished reading through the early Church Fathers, it was eye opening and not at all what I expected. After reading so much apologetic work about the early Fathers, it was good to read it on my own without any external input.
I’m currently reading a book called “Why the Catholic Bible is Bigger” by Gary Machuta, I’m very split on this book. It started off very slowly for me, but as I’ve continued to read through it the story and the history has begun to become alive. I can get hung up on grammatical errors, and I loathe apologist who put a gloss on everything, Machuta does a good job of presenting his material. It’s a recommended read, just stick out the first two chapters and I promise you will be hooked.
Another birthday came and went, I’m a year older, but not much wiser. Some days I feel my age, and others I forget concerns like age and just enjoy being me…
In other news from around the Globe….
So Obama is finally showing his true colors, his take on forcing contraception onto health providers is just the tip of the iceberg. While I don’t fully agree with the Catholic Church’s position on contraception (I believe it should be allowed in some cases, much like the Orthodox church teaches), I find it draconian for our government to force it’s secular views onto religious organizations.
I know this is not a popular opinion, but I really like Newt Gingrich, he has his faults like all of us do. But he has experience, strength, and the intelligence we need so badly in our leadership at this point in our history.
Other things I’m up too…
We have been watching lots of T.V. lately, Alcatraz, Fringe, Grimm and Once Upon A Time are favorites. And as superficial as this sounds, we are very much enjoying American Idol and The Voice this year. We use T.V. as way to blow off steam after long and stressful days.
We have been working on building an area in the garage to grow food for the fish, that’s taken a few weekends. It feels good to be back out and working with my hands again, the more I have to think critically at work, the more I find that WoodWorking gives me a great release.
That’s all for now, dinner is calling…
I’ll update when I can.
Blessings
-Paul-
A trip down memory lane…
Good music stands the test of time, Great music gets better with age…
In the early 80’s at the height of the Christian music era, there was one artist who stood out among the rest, and while today I still listen to some of the older songs (some I would just like to forget). Not all of them have stood the test of time, many came and went like the passing of a cloud.
To this day I still find great pleasure in listening to Phil Keaggy’s work, especially his earlier material.
For the last time
Tomorrow morning, I get the honor of being a lector for the final mass, before the church moves to the new translation. I also found out today that I get to lector on Christmas day, I’m very honored to get the chance to serve, and give something back, when so much has been given to me.
Tomorrow will be a historic day, the current translation was implemented in 1973, and the church in its wisdom has updated it to be more literally accurate based on the original text.
It’s going to be a big day!!!
Giving?
I’ve been overwhelmed, it happens every year about this time…
Michelle and I elected to support a family for thanksgiving this year, we are buying the entire meal so they can have a proper thanksgiving, we are more than happy to share what we have been blessed with. In fact we have enough store credits that we are getting a second bird for another family, it’s a small thing but hopefully will help someone in need and brighten their lives. We also give clothes and other items when we can to the local charities, and I love shopping there to give back. We very much believe in giving and sharing to those who truly need it.
But with all the sharing that goes on this time of year, there is a darker side that no one talks about…
I work for a company who pushes community involvement in all it’s forms, on the outside it’s all about helping the community, and a great effort. But the inside reason that no one talks about is that to be quite frank, it’s good and cheap PR. I’m OK with the communal aspect, I just wish they would be honest about the PR portion, instead of spinning it as if it’s something different. I’m quite sure there are people who are gullible enough to buy into each glossy advert and declare it’s purest intentions, and there are those who understand what is going on and join anyway . I’m actually OK with that, what I’m not OK with is tweaking the corporate culture to make anyone who does not participate to be guilty of apathy.
Charities and corporations have become experts at playing the guilt card, I recently saw a message that basically told managers to make sure their people got involved in the giving. The implication was that anyone who wasn’t participating, somehow didn’t care and should be singled out. There is a simple reason that they take this tactic, it works. Guilt is a strong motivator in our society, anyone remember carbon credits? the idea was that you gave money to offset your carbon production habits, and the offsetting would make the world a better place. Never mind that the money actually didn’t go to any other purpose than to line someones pocket, and fleece those unwitting enough to actually pay for their guilty conscience.
In the past few months, I have been solicited for just about everything anyone could possibly want:
- I’ve been asked to bring in a meal for needy families at work
- I’ve been asked to help rake up leaves all over the community, including ones that are not my own (and my own kids won’t do our lawn, but will do the neighbors)
- I’m supposed to bring in canned goods
- I’ve been asked to help paint houses
- Give Blood
- Join in causes for green gardening
- Carpooling with other employees
- Riding my bike to work
- Use energy efficient light bulbs
- Attending meetings on green energy
- Giving to multiple funds for multiple people
- Walking for a cure to multiple causes
- Give to multiple political causes
- Donate my car for a cause
- Bell ringers at each storefront
- The pet store wants me to give for the humane society
- Girl scout cookies (even to the point of setting up a cheering section at the corner of an intersection, to bring people in)
- Stores now solicit charity from me for extra $$$ on every purchase
Then at my front door (I have a sign that says ‘No Soliciting’ by the way):
- Magazines
- Insurance
- Meat from a truck at my front door (seriously!, I had to tell him to leave finally)
- Mormomism
- Watchtower
- Baptist
- Cookies (ok they always get money)
- School events
Every place I turn, no matter where, I get asked to give something (usually money). I’m not saying these are bad things (however the Girl scouts should sell gym memberships with their cookies, cause I eat too many every year), but it is completely overwhelming. When I worked in San Francisco, they started the idea of ATM machines that would advertise while you waited, gladly that one hasn’t gone viral.
It’s all reaching a saturation point, and each year I feel a little less sympathy towards these causes. And I get honestly rude over some of the more esoteric ones, like giving from my paycheck to save the whales!. Its all so aggressive and over the top that its hard to even figure out which ones are valid, and which are just a front to line someones pocket.
When the kids where younger I had a showdown with their school over their fundraising, they wanted to kids to sell what I will call Christmas crap, bobbles and other worthless items. And they wanted the kids to canvas the neighborhood, I told them no. If you need money, I’ll write a check, because I would rather you have the money than have 200 kids pestering a neighborhood so they can win a worthless prize (trust me this stuff was all junk). And I’m not sending my kids to school so they can graduate and become door to door salesman!!. They where shocked!, they didn’t understand. How could someone be so, so, heartless. I wondered how someone could be so dense as to think this was a good idea?, if the school needs money then there are better ways to actually help the community, and teach kids to be responsible than sending them out to knock on doors armed with a magazine full of stuff that only carnivals would be able to dump.
Another good example is in our community the firemen do a bi-annual event where they ask you to fill a boot for charity, it’s a great cause! But the way they do it is that they take over EVERY stop light in and out of town. They walk up and down the line of cars begging for money. So not only do you have to wait an extra long time at the light (sometimes making you late), but you get to feel guilty at the same time, Yay Charity!! I give some every year, and two weeks later every year I end up with a sticker that I have to scrape off my window (my reward I suppose). Because if I don’t give them something, they won’t leave me alone. I guess they feel the need to go commando and force people to notice them by taking over the traffic for a day…
If if gave to every effort that we came across we would need to join the programs so we could feed ourselves!! It’s like being locked in a hotel with a bunch of starving Fuller Brush salesmen, no matter where you go, you can’t get away. After a while you just go numb…
Haven’t we taken this whole community thing a little too far? One problem I have always had with charities and programs is that in many cases they make the needy more dependent. I’ve known people who are happy to live off of people too dense to make sure that the person they are giving to is actually needy, they have no shame and figure they system owes them something, and the world is full of people who spend all their time giving what they have to make themselves feel less guilty.
Giving is about blessing someone, it should come from a desire to help your fellow man, not to assuage the guilt some marketing dweeb is heaping on you. The world will always have zealots who pick a cause, and do everything in their power to make you feel guilty. Look at any animal shelter or PETA commercial, you get pictures of soft puppy eyes, terrible situations involving animals, a moving and sad dialog, moving music. And some dweeb celebrity who feels guilty because they make more money in a day, than most of us see in a lifetime. I especially despise the ones who talk about animal adoption, aren’t human children worth more to these people? Why not adopt a child?, or help with programs that help children? (to be clear some do). I love animals, we raise fish, have cats, dogs, and chickens. But animals are easy, you can objectify them, children take real commitment. You can leave your pet while you go out and live your life, but a child requires around the clock care, no wonder so many shallow celebrities choose that as their star cause. It feeds their neurosis and doesn’t require a life change.
So here’s my advice:
If your not giving freely and cheerfully, then don’t give. Certainly don’t let someone swindle you out of money because they can make you feel guilty.
If you are unsure of where your money is going, ask before you give.
Give because others needs it, and because you feel compelled.
Be responsible, make sure your efforts are not going to waste. Give to established organizations who make the most of what they get, beware of corporate organizations, some actually use their money wisely, some don’t. Find out before you give.
If you really feel bad because that bell ringer is getting on your nerves, and the guilt is killing you (just ask the girl scouts how many cases we have purchased). Then set aside a small fund and keep it on hand. That way you can give a little, make them happy and make you feel better.
And never give money directly to someone unless you know them, money given to the homeless many times gets used in ways you would not be happy with. Responsible charities have this all worked out, and make sure that the truly needy are getting much needed supplies.
Now get off my lawn!!!
-Paul-
New Toy Alert!!!
When the first iPhone came out I was working on a new corporate website, I tried scheming my way into getting the company to buy one so we could test the site with a mobile device. No deal on that little idea, but hey I tried
We did buy a Mac so we could test all the permutations of browsers that are available, and finally did get to do some iPhone and mobile device testing. But I didn’t buy an iPhone, mostly because I had a company phone at the time and didn’t want two of them. Later when they finally (and gladly from my point of view) took back my company phone, I purchased a Droid Incredible for a number of reasons. It’s been a good phone, but Google dropped the ball. I find Android to be highly fragmented, and it seems like they have been asleep in regards to tablets.
Earlier this year I bought an iPad 2, which I use every single day and is almost always with me. I also keep my Incredible on my hip, but I only use it for texting and phone calls, and checking the weather. But let me be brutally honest here, the Android is a geeks phone, the programs are just not as good as they are on iOS. There are some that shine, but most are too technical in nature and many require a good understanding of how the phone works. It’s far from a seamless experience.
Contrast that with the iPad, Michelle’s office got her one, and once I showed her the basics she does everything on it, except text and phone calls…
Tomorrow my Droid contract is up and I’m eligible for an upgrade, I’ve been watching the iPhone 4s with great interest. Especially Siri, about 5 years ago I spent more money than I should say, to update my bimmer to have voice control. I use it almost everyday for hands free dialing, but if I want to play music from my iPad or Incredible, that requires some pretty scary gymnastics…
So you guess where I will be tomorrow morning!!!
I’ve got everything picked out..
iPhone 4s, 64Gb, White…
InCase clear case..
A car mount is on the way so I access the phone with fiddling with it in the car…
And I can’t wait, I want to say “Play the Beatles Sgt Pepper”, and have it actually start…
So tomorrow I’ll be in complete geek heaven!!!
I’ve been saving up for a long time for this…. WOOT!!!
Oh and my daughter gets the Droid, I hope Verizon has more Texting servers they can bring online. Boy are they going to need it once she gets going…
-Paul-
About today…
I for one appreciate with all my being, the men and women who serve this country with honor. Peace is a dangerous proposition in a world filled with evil, and it takes men and women willing to sacrifice their very lives if needed, to keep it at bay. I have friends and family who have served, and if I could salute you I would.
All I can say is thank you…
-Paul-
