Farenheit 451

Just finished reading it upon the recommendation of one of my children.

 

Never too much a fan of science fiction (although I did try. In graduate school I lived in a family's attic. There was a bookcase full of science fiction. Over two years I read most, maybe 75-100 books, most of it science fiction. I confirmed without a doubt-not much of a fan.)

 

F-451 is not so much science fiction as a cautionary tale, like 1984 and Brave New World. (I read one of the latter, maybe both. I just can't remember which one.)

 

I had never read Ray Bradbury before (I don't think). I wouldn't say it great literature, but an engaging story. I wasn't crazy about F-451 as I thought the ending was pretty vague and not too satisfying in any particular way (endings are important to me). However, I did enjoy reading it, and was glad it did.

 

It is funny how today in some sense mindless social media curbs ones time and appetite from literature. The schools (we are having some experience with public schools now - but that is a different story) have joined the electronic revolution and even when books are read and assigned, the selections are not classic, but tend to be depressing studies of teenage tragedy. (And we wonder why teenagers are in crisis? This is all we give them to read.)

So in many senses, the first stage of F-451 is actually taking place. Colleges and Universities no longer want to educate the mind and create creative independent thinkers. Great literature almost seems banned from most levels of our education system.

 

Schools and Colleges are at the service of both social, politically correct agenda, and big business. Turn us out politically correct (and amoral) but submissive workers-no independent thinkers, please.

The great works are not read and explored except for at a few colleges.

Oremus pro invicem!

 

Missing in action - the holiday/Holy Day

The irony of Labor Day just past has been gnawing at me. As I understand it, Labor Day was achieved by the labor movement to celebrate the achievements of the American worker. Part of the motivation was to make the American worker appreciated in order to push for higher wages and better working conditions.

However, we recall that at that time, (early 20^th century) the target for this holiday were some of the lowest paid workers who were pushing the industrial machine.

Now many of our manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas.

Today the lowest paid American workers are in service and retail jobs … and they don’t get a holiday on Labor Day.

In the drive to make more and more money, we have lost the meaning of holidays.

Holidays have become opportunities for business to make more money, not to relax and enjoy our family, not to appreciate our country and our heritage, and most definitely not to worship our God.

Especially as Catholics, how many of our Holy Days have been moved to Sundays so we can celebrate with the Holy Sacrifice?

I listened to a talk the other day about how St. John Paul II viewed keeping Sunday holy as a key component of "the new evangelization" - a sign to the culture. But to be a sign, we need to actually practice this gift from God.

Oremus pro invicem!

What is old is new again

I didn't think I would see one of these in our driveway again (with us as the drivers), but with a few more people staying with us, the minivan-pickup combo just wasn't doing the job.

I pick it up tomorrow - the return of the 'big van'.

 

Mrs. Curley didn't want white, but it was the better deal for us than the tannish one.

 

Last year we spent our wedding anniversary moving pigs and I injured my wife by tossing a pallet her way. The year before we slaughtered a hog. I guess shopping for a 12-passenger van on our anniversary may be considered an improvement, but for who?

Oremus pro invicem! 

We saw this fellow yesterday. He is in the overflow pipe of our kitchen drain. How he got there I don't know.

I am not sure the picture captures his "green-ness".

Oremus pro invicem!

Robots: Love and Destruction

These comments are a long time coming. I haven't had much time for thoughtful posts of late. But I am on a 2-week vacation from my Adjunct teaching (really not that much time, as I have to spend a bunch of it getting ready for the Fall semester, and I do have other work), but I have a little.

The articles I am commenting on come from a mainstream, widely circulated, professional engineering magazine - not some sci-fi rag.

 

First: Apparently there was an article (I didn't read the article itself) in the online edition of the magazine pertaining to humans forming romantic relationships with robots. Okay, I think there have been sci-fi movies over the years exploring this, but in IEEE Spectrum? Here are some excerpts from comments on the article:

Exhibit A: One thing is sure: A company that sells good-looking "male" and "female" robots complete with humanlike anatomy will make more money than Apple, Google, and Microsoft combined. ... future people will see it as normal, just as normal as smartphones are now.

 

Exhibit B: Another problem is that people might become so enamored with their robot mates that they abandon human relationships. (just like they do with smartphones now? - JC)

 

Exhibit C: Since we don't know how human consciousness really works, we can't comment on whether consciousness could be simulated acceptably (in robots). If we believe that when humans fall in love, the brain is just implementing some algorithm, why shouldn't a machine be able to implement it too?

So, there you have it: everything comes down to utility, money, and sex. What was stunningly absent was any concern about morality. There could have been, of course- more comments online. However, the magazine only printed ones with the tone of the Exhibits above. This is the world we live in.

The same magazine had a cover article in the June issue about the role of robots in the future, i.e. can we trust them in the operating room, on the road, and on the battlefield.

The section on autonomous weapons was particularly interesting. All those quoted assured us that a human would have a final say on targeting. I have several concerns-even if this is the case.

 

First, we shouldn't want to make war easier to conduct. Along these same lines, will the technology populations care so much about what foreign adventures conduct if all the killing (on our side) is done by remote control?  

 

Second, the interviewees claim we would be saving lives-but whose? Our soldiers, sure, but innocent civilians? Does the warfare today with all our targeting technology really protect civilian?

 

Thirdly, who will get their hands on these remote control destructors? The Cold War and its aftermath have armed every population and tens of thousands of terrorists around the world. Do we really think the arms trade will stop here?

 

Once again, get out your rosaries!

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Finished ... The Brothers Karamazov

I have been slogging through The Brothers Karamazov since early May. The back cover claims three of its chapters "rank among the greatest pages of Western literature."

 

Who am I to dispute that? I would agree that "The Grand Inquisitor" was immensely thought provoking.

 

I did enjoy it, but wanted it to end after a while. And certainly the claim that Dostoevsky planned a trilogy is borne out by the ending (and by a stray sentence on the first page) which leaves a few major plot lines in the air.

 

I broke with The Gulag ... to read The Brothers. So I stay in Russia. UPDATE: Just noticed that I first ordered The Gulag interlibrary loan in 2008. Now I have my own copies-but talk about taking a long time to finish a book!

 

I do have one question to research. Several times in the book, the Orthodox worship was referred to as: "the Mass." I thought the Orthodox referred to "The Divine Liturgy" as opposed to "the Mass", which is, to my understanding a Anglo-version of the Latin dismissal-thus doesn't make sense for an Orthodox liturgy. Maybe it was a Roman translator?

 

Ah, these loose ends.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

A song

Update: I suddenly realized that I posted this video a couple years ago. Not that I tire of it, but instead I will post a different video below of Nick, Matt, and Connor doing one of Nick's songs.  Again .... enjoy.

I hope I am allowed a little latitude as a father proud of his children. Someone was watching my son Matthew's YouTube channel today, and I just can't help posting this video of a song he wrote for and performed at my 50th birthday party a couple years ago.

It makes me cry-especially because I wish the words of the song really reflected my fatherhood.

Enjoy.

 

 Oremus pro invicem!

Genderless animals

I was at the library the other day with a young boy who is staying with us. I haven’t been in the children’s section for quite a while, so I decided to stick with something safe: Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. It was billed as a modern retelling, but really there was only one modification from the classic tale: no gender was assigned to the 3 bears. We had a large bear, a medium-sized bear, and a small bear.

At a doctor’s office with the same young boy a few days later, I read another fairly recently issued children’s book about a young character with a fairly generic plot:  child having a bad day; decides to run away; but then returns after missing sounds and sights of home (as well as meals.) All the characters in the book were talking animals-although the type of animal was not clear from the illustrations. As with “the 3 bears”, there were no specific gender references to either the child character or to the adult figure (note that the household had only 1 adult figure.)  Gender specific pronouns were absent.

Now this is just an anecdotal finding, but I won’t object so much in the future to Mrs. Curley’s insistence on saving boxes and boxes of children’s books for our grandchildren and/or other child visitors to our little homestead.

Up until now (homeschooling and all), we have been somewhat insulated (by design) from the cultural revolution against our children. I have read numerous articles and warnings about what is being taught in public schools; I do worry about nieces and nephews. But truly we haven’t experienced some of these things firsthand.

So what’s so devastating about genderless bears? First there are no genderless bears living in the woods! (Farm kids will know this-but we have less and less of these.) Secondly, the 3 bears are representative of a family. One book doesn’t make a cultural revolution, and in the absence of the 2^nd book, I would have thought it stupid but uninteresting. But if this is a trend, it has an agenda to destroy the family and indoctrinate our children-especially because it isn’t “in your face”, but subtle as the case builds, book after book.

And, by the way, in both cases, the young boy doesn’t read yet, so I did insert gender (Papa Bear an Mama Bear) into both books.

Oremus pro invicem!

cantaloupes and cats

Last year our cantaloupe crop was lousy to non-existent. This made me nervous because I didn't have too many seeds left from 2014. Here is what I said about the cantaloupes in 2014:

 

A friend of ours saved some cantaloupe seeds from his dad's garden in Nebraska 30 odd years ago. Last year he planted them and 5 plants came up and fruited with some of the sweetest cantaloupe I have ever tasted. My friend gave us one of these treasured cantaloupes. I saved these seeds and planted them this spring. We harvested the first ones this week. Boy are they good. The best I have ever tasted. Guaranteed we are saving more seeds!

 

This year it looks like we will have a good crop. I picked two this morning. (pic)

 

 

However we have lost 4 big ones, not quite ready for picking. I think its the cats clawing at them and taking a few bites. This really annoys me. These cats don't do their share in catching mice. We overfeed them, and how they are wrecking my cantaloupe crop! But I need proof!

 

And here's a view of our modest sunflower patch.

Oremus pro invicem! 

Course Evaluations

About midway through a semester I get the previous semester course evaluations. Sometimes the comments are helpful, but there is always something I get a kick out of.

Take this one for example:

I’d cut out the quizzes, they were utterly unnecessary. The quizzes would pertain to the most simplistic things, usually making students overthink their answers. Aren’t the purposes of quizzes to boost grades? Not hand out free 0’s?

Besides the fact that quizzes are not given to "boost grades", does the student even understand the irony of his own complaint?

 

Another complaint was that the test questions were not the same as problems we worked in class or on the homework. I always try to impress upon the students that we don’t want simple regurgitation. We teach the concepts and then work examples which apply those concepts. Working test problems correctly will show that the student understands the concept and can apply the concept. It is not a matter of just memorization of problems. It is matter of learning and understanding. But that is not what they (some of them) want.

****************

After Mass on Sunday, Father asked us to pray with him a Hail Mary and the St. Michael prayer due to all the violence going on. I am thinking that this will become a weekly thing....

Oremus pro invicem!

A contrast, but not a contradiction

A contrast, but not a contradiction .....

Oremus pro invicem!

On our own ....

Mrs. Curley wasn't home this evening to cook dinner, so I stepped up to the plate and hit at least a double with the fried chicken, okra, and salad. Here's what was left after the 7th inning stretch:

 

 

 

Now to the shower to wash of the dust from our neighbor's corn field which he graciously let us gleam for leftover corn before he disks it. Then, maybe some cribbage?

Oremus pro invicem!

Voting again

My point is not to dispute particularly with anyone, including my friend, neighbor, and better writer than I who lives not too far away, but ........

A vote for Hilary is a vote for Hilary. A vote for Trump is a vote for Trump. And a vote for Darrell Castle (WHO?)  is a vote for Darrell Castle.

To say that my vote for Darrell Castle (WHO?) is a defacto vote for Hilary Clinton tries to deny me the right to vote for the best person running for president.

 

Why do we have legal same-sex marriage, absurd gender issues, women in combat, women poised to be required to register for the draft, continued abortion on the demand, and host of other problems, both economic, moral and financial?

I could make a good case that it is precisely because men and women of good conscience continue to vote against that conscience, election cycle after election cycle. And because of that the Republican party knows it can ignore moral and social issues and give us the likes of McCain and Romney as nominees, and now Trump. These guys lose anyway, so why not vote for someone better?

 

The question has been asked: Are you better off than 8 years ago? Financially, most definitely yes. (I give the credit to God, however, not Obama!)

 

When asked the question, most people think of the financial aspect.

 

Culturally and morally we are much worse off - and it effects everyone regardless of financial well-being. There is more moral desperation than ever before, more confusion, and more hurting, more poverty of soul.

 

I know that neither of our major party candidates can make this better because they are either immoral or amoral.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Big

I read an article the other day praising the interstate project of 60 years ago and claiming we need another such project now.

My initial reaction was that the interstate project destroyed many local economies, communities, cultures.

Big business certainly benefitted as now they could truck their goods more efficiently across country on the taxpayers back.

Individuals may seem to have benefitted with easier travel and mobility, but communities not on the interstate routes died. (Think the movie "Cars", or the story of my town, Bethune, SC which used to be on the route to Florida from the Northeast.)

On the other hand, towns along the interstate now boomed, just like the days of old for communities on the major rivers.

So, some folks gained, and some folks lost.

And by the way, America has always been about mobility: Go West Young Man!

I still think that the loss is greater than the gain. After all families and communities are made up of individuals and the apparent short term benefit is a long-term cultural loss.

The interstate was one of the early steps which killed the family farm. (Need I say more?) We need tasteless tomatoes from California; bland cantaloupe from (who knows where) in the middle of winter; watermelon which tastes so-so, but can sure be stacked (Bradford).

 

As far as another BIG project now? Isn't everything the government does BIG now? They take over everything: BIG education for one. Now they are regulating bathrooms and marriage licenses!

 

We need "small is beautiful" not big is beautiful. (or: Local is lovely-Distant is disaster?)

 

Ah.........

Oremus pro invicem!

still here ....

but been busy.

 

Am on summer break from technical college next week so may be I will have time to say some things then.

Oremus pro invicem!

Becky's first litter

So here it is. She looked ready to farrow for about a week now. Becky had 11 live births. Of course thy all look like their sire, Thor.

Put up more corn over the weekend. Sorghum is up strong. We've been blessed with enough rain. This is the first summer I can remember it raining so late in many years. Thank God.

Oremus pro invicem!

The Three Greates Cinematic Love Stories (of those I have seen)

Many people would consider a great love story one where a couple falls in love, undergoes misunderstandings, tragedy, and/or hardships, (possibly being separated) and then come together and get married: TheEend. (Alternately, i.e. Romeo and Juliet, death separates the lovers.)

But “the end” is the beginning of the love story. That is why I believe the greatest love stories involve couples who are already married.

My three picks: The Scarlett Pimpernel (1934 Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon); Random Harvest (1942 Ronald Coleman, Greer Garson); and Make Way for Tomorrow (1937 Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi).

The first two I wrote about in this very context 11 years ago in this space: http://bethunecatholic.blogspot.com/2005/01/love-stories.html

The last I mentioned briefly about just a year ago.

We watched Make Way for Tomorrow again last night. Orson Welles said about it: “Oh my God, that’s the saddest movie ever made! It would make a stone cry!”

It is the story of a couple married for 50 years who have fallen on hard times and have to go live “temporarily”, but separately 300 miles apart, with two of their children. Of course all things temporary become permanent if there is no plan.

Near the end, they reunite for a few hours and go on a date-reliving the happiness and failures of their 50 years of marriage. The “date” is captivating.

One particularly memorial reminisce is when Bark (the husband) recalls that Lucy (his wife) chose him over another she had been dating. The other became a banker and had foreclosed on their house at the beginning of the movie. Bark says, “He got my house, but I got his girl.”

One of the best scenes of acting I have ever watched without dialog occurs at the end, performed by Beulah Bondi – who was in her 40’s at the time playing a 70 year-old woman.

It was reissued on DVD a few years ago. We borrowed it from the library. Roger Ebert gives it a 4/4. The Criterion Collection calls it: "one of the great unsung Hollywood masterpieces". The director of MWfT,  Leo McCarey, won his first Oscar that same year for The Awful Truth (Cary Grant, Irene Dunne). However, he commented that he got the Oscar for the wrong movie. I agree. 

Do see it.

Oremus pro invicem!

Couldn't say it better myself

This voting guide is an invaluable source of reasoning and mirrors my thoughts exactly.


Here are a couple of the gems included:

When people use variants of the “lesser of two evils” argument, keep in mind that this is only a partial statement of the actual principle of reason. The actual principle is, “If one cannot avoid doing one of two acts, from both of which will follow an evil effect, one is obligated to choose the lesser of the two evils.”  Note that the premise here, which is fundamental to the entire principle, is that you cannot avoid doing one of the two acts. For this to apply in the context of an election, you would have to be constrained to only choose one of two candidates and have no other option – you must vote and you must vote for one of the only two candidates presented to you. Is this the actual case in our elections?

AND

Your actual responsibility in an election is to vote for the candidate or position you think should win. What you vote for represents what you choose regardless of the outcome. You are not to blame for the votes of others.

I urge you to read the whole thing.

Oremus pro invicem!

Green Tint

Mrs. Curley asked me to buy some Bennings Green Tint squash seeds-not knowing what it was. So when I started picking them, no one knew what they were (I don't label my rows). We had to google it.

Here are the funny guys. Raw, they taste great! We'll see in an hour or so how they tasted cooked.

Oremus pro invicem!

Sweet!

We have been eating sweet corn with supper for a few days now. Today we picked all that was ready and put up 8+ quarts of blanched corn. There is nothing like eating sweet corn on the day it was picked. I could never get tired of it.

 

Here is Connor today, taking delight in what he sees as he husks the first ear.

 

 

It seems quite unpenitential that we are having more tonight with tuna/egg salad.

 

If the rain keeps coming, sweet corn should remain on the menu most of the summer as I staggered my plantings. I even have a small batch that could theoretically be harvested in September. But all this is being overly optimistic.

But for now .... joy!

Oremus pro invicem!

Updated: The nature of male and female

Update: I have written to both of my US Senators (Graham and Scott) regarding the FY17 NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), which I believe is up for a vote in the Senate later this week. It contains a provision requiring our daughters to register for selective service. I have urged them to reject any amendment to this effect and/or the entire bill if it contains this provision.

****

As with the authors of this piece at Crisis Magazine I haven't read much, if anything, about this in the Catholic press (however, maybe I am reading in the wrong places?).

 

Some time ago, (I can't find it) I wrote in this space about my responsibility to my daughters if they were a) required to register for the draft, and b) if the draft was actually instituted. What if (a) happens - which appears likely, but (b) never happens? What then?

 

I think (b) is not going to happen unless we are attacked. The American people are okay with foreign military adventures of dubious merit when we are using an all-volunteer armed service. However, if their sons (and daughters) are being drafted for these ventures, I think many in congress will be running scared.

 

However, I am finding my predictions are more wrong than right in recent years (That could never happen! yet it does with alarming regularity.) So maybe I am all wet.

 

The last few years have done nothing if not demonstrate how confused man is about the nature of male and female. Things that seem (are) so obvious from observation, science, and personal experience are the subject to mass confusion.  The Emperor's new clothes?

 

Oremus pro invicem!

In and Up; Here and Gone (Updated)

Update: Regarding my final comment below about the presidential election, I feel the way this guy thinks , excepting the last two paragraphs. (And by the way, we are eating our sweet corn!)

So we finally planted the sweet sorghum this morning. The peanuts are in and up. The pumpkins are in and up. We will be picking at least a dozen ears of sweet corn for supper on Saturday. Still picking peas, broccoli and spinach, although these three are petering out fast.
 

God is good to us. We've had plenty of rain and just enough sun to plow and plant.

 

It just turned to hotter this week. While we've had a few 90 degree days, it was still getting cool at night. But with this week, the coolness has ended. Too bad. I have 2-3 hogs to put down and would rather have done it before this turn of weather. Oh well, we will still get it down.

 

Matthew, the seminarian, was here for a week before going back to Texas to work at a Catholic summer camp.

 

Connor (NE Catholic) has been here for 2 weeks. He's been working hard helping me get this place in shape for the summer and next fall. He will be heading back North for work at the college for the summer in a couple weeks. He is a counselor at the high school summer program at NCC.

 

Nicholas (Wyoming) came home last weekend after a 10-day mission trip in Nicaragua. He will be here for almost 2 months before heading back to Wyoming to work for the summer. Nick helps lead the freshman outdoor trips at WCC.

 

So we are enjoying having, playing and working with the boys while they are home.

 

We are fostering a young boy this summer, so it really is a full house once again - for a while.

 

I meant to link to this several weeks ago, because it is so telling and true. I don't need to comment; it speaks for itself.

 

Finally-what about this election coming up? Maybe The Constitution Party? Of course I still have some bumper stickers left from the '012 campaign:).

Oremus pro invicem!

Goings on ...

So, the peanuts are planted. Hoping to plant sorghum and pumpkins in the next week.

 

We are harvesting peas, spinach, Swiss chard, lettuce. I think we will be picking corn in a couple weeks.

 

We inherited about 20 chickens in eggs this week, so supplement our 3-year old 1/2 dozen layers who are definitely on the downside of laying.

 

Our game hen hatched a small clutch, so meat birds are on the way.

 

I am back to work teaching Physics for the summer session at York Tech. I had 10 days off and visited my mother in Massachusetts and picked up number 2 son (Northeast Catholic College) for his final summer college break. He will be with us for a few weeks before heading back north to work.

 

I listened to (via www.Librivox.org ) The Black Arrow and The Master of Ballantrae both by Robert Louis Stevenson on the trip North. Right now I am listening to The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper.

 

Number 3 son (seminarian) is with us for only one week before he goes to work a Catholic summer camp in Texas for the rest of the summer.

 

Number 1 son (Wyoming Catholic) is on mission trip, building a church in Nicaragua and will be home for a month or two for his final summer college break.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

Peanuts

We didn't plant peanuts last year due to a perceived lack of manpower. But this year we are attempting it. The past few days we have been harrowing and plowing the small plot where the peanuts will go. I think one more session with the horse and we can have it done. (Because he doesn't plow much, the horse is out of shape and thus we need to work him slowly.)

 

 

 Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

  

Sam's pigs

Sam farrowed today, and it was a long process. Her first was born around noon. The last around 4:15 PM.

She had 14 born alive and 5 dead. Will have to see if she can handle the 14. In the past she has had trouble managing that many. But we will see.

Here she is:

 

It has been an exciting day! We started plowing the field for peanuts, and Old Man did just fine. A grand litter of piglets, rain over the weekend (bringing up beans, and squash, and etc.)  Thank God for His bounty!

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Finally!

Polly dropped her pigs sometime last night. They all take after their daddy.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Uncertainty

I teach Physics as an adjunct at a "local" technical college. Last night I showed 2.5 minutes of a video in which Newtonian gravitation is maligned in favor of Einstein's bending space.

 

Of course I am teaching Newtonian Physics. It called to mind a recent quote I had never read before which I found at the Northeast Catholic Student Blog:

...Werner Heisenberg, who begins his work by saying: “Science is made by men, a self-evident fact that is far too often forgotten.”

 

It is an interesting quote, especially noting (ironically) it is by the author of the Uncertainty Principle - (that a particle's position and momentum can not known be simultaneously-or that the more closely you know the position, the less accurately you know the momentum.)

 

In any event, what followed in the last lecture of the semester, was the most interesting one as we discussed how scientific theories, even accepted ones, change as we acquire new knowledge; going through Ptolemy to Copernicus and Galileo, etc.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

The work weekend on the homestead

Got a lot done this weekend. Friday it was drizzling so I decide to put in our tomato plants. No sooner were we started then it started to rain hard. No matter. We were already wet.

We tilled up the patch where the cantaloupes will go. We cultivated the corn. We tilled another garden section where pigs and turkeys used to live. This will be our main summer garden.

I picked and ate our first two pea pods of the spring.

And ... we finished building a small, temporary pen among some tree-killing vines and relocated the runt from the last litter there (picture below). She will eat the greenery and dig out the roots of these vines. When I took this picture, some 4 hours after the move, she had already put a noticeable dent in the vines. Sometime soon she will then hit the bbq pit, being about 110-120 pounds. We have a good feel for her weight because we carried her from her old pen to her new digs. (Well I use the term "we" sort of loosely. A friend and son Thomas did most of the lifting while I "organized".)

Oremus pro invicem!

Communism and Freedom

I noted below that I have read The Soul and the Wire from The Gulag. Now I am back to reading the rest of Part III of the same, which I had put off to read Part IV. Reading about the women in the work camps has to be one of the most depressing things I have ever read. The total loss of humanity that these women experienced may not be the worst atrocity in history, but it is still most difficult to read.

************

My children are reading Animal Farm together (school) and listening in, I think it surely relates to what is happening today or at least what may be starting to happen in our own "land of the free" country. Our freedom to speak and even think about what we believe is surely going the way of the wild buffalo.

************

Related in a way is this article  about some comments Ted Cruz made about who should legislate same-sex adoption. Not particularly to pick on Ted Cruz, but the article addresses the conservative/libertarian notion that only states (as opposed to the Federal government) should legislate moral issues. Here is the essence of the article:

Cruz may take for granted that states have rights to legislate on every issue. He and his followers might disagree with such a characterization, but if the legalization of homosexual adoption of children is not outside the authority of individual states, then one cannot possibly know what else is. One should seriously question the idea that states contain within themselves some innate right to weigh-in on every issue. Questions relating to the Natural Law should be considered outside the scope and competency of state legislatures, at least in a non-defensive sense. In other words, states only have the duty to defend the Natural Law, not make positive laws to destroy it.

For example, most reasonable people would agree that states should outlaw rape, while at the same time agree that they do not have the right to legalize murder. States have the duty to use their power to defend these moral concepts, but not to violate them.

 All things to consider .....

Oremus pro invicem!

Pigs are coming!

We have 3 litters of pigs due in the next few weeks. Polly is first-due any day now as you can see.

 

 
 

Thor (below) is the sire. Becky (not shown) is due in a few weeks. We are interested in seeing the coloring in the offspring. Often the boar's coloring will dominate, but sometimes you can get red piglets with the white stripe. We will know in a few days.

Sam (right) is due 26 April. The sire is Red who we sold some weeks ago. This will be the last litter Sam gives us as she isn’t that great of a mother. She drops 10-12 piglets consistently, but only weans ½ dozen.

Oremus pro invicem!

I was just thinking ...

... that I hadn't seen anything from Anthony Esolen in a while, but then this appears; setting things straight .....

No, there is no comparison. Rock stars are far more important than pastry bakers, in the same way that school principals are more important than parents, inside traders are more important than truck drivers, journalists are more important than people who read books to find the truth, and politicians are more important than everybody. They are more important because they hold the hammer.

Oremus pro invicem!

Repent!

From The Gulag .... (Solzhenitsyn)

Here is a rewarding and inexhaustible direction for your thoughts: Reconsider all your previous life. Remember everything you did that was bad and shameful and take thought-can't you possibly correct it now?

Yes, you have been imprisoned for nothing. You have nothing to repent of before the state and its laws.

But..... before your own conscience?

I don't have the Gulag for a purgation on earth. Is it a pity or a blessing when considering eternity?

Oremus pro invicem!

Does anyone else think this first statement is strange?

For example, would you think potatoes come from anywhere else? a laboratory????

Is this a ploy to make you think they are healthy? (Whether they are or not, you can see the made it to my table!)

I remember that my son Nick used to make some really good potato chips. Too bad they grow up and go to college. It would be nice if they were ours and not God's and we could just keep them.

But back to potatoes. We don't grow them usually because we can buy them so cheaply - sometimes 50 lbs for $8 at the farmers market.

Oremus pro invicem!

In passing (literally)

Sometimes you feel a special kinship with something or someone you really no nothing about …..

One day a week I usually travel to Lexington, SC for one of my several jobs. As I pass through Lugoff, I always see a middle-aged woman (Funny how “middle-age” gets older as one does. I would say I am middle-aged and yet I am surely past this point by some years. I don’t really expect to reach 104 + a few years. And surely this woman is 5-15 years older than I, but I digress….) walking to or from a job (I suppose). I pass her about the same spot every time, but can tell if I am running late (or early) by where I pass her. I can also estimate the weather by her attire.

I usually wave, but have never have seen her see my wave. But in some sense, I feel an acquaintance with her. If one morning she is absent, I will wonder if she is sick, retired, or on vacation.

I venture we should feel at least the same kinship with everyone we see or meet-greeting their Guardian Angels as we pass.

Oremus pro invicem!

The result is what counts!

Am reading The Soul and the Barbed Wire from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago.

In some sense, yes, it is the result than counts, ultimately - whether we have run the race faithfully and reached our eternal reward.

 

In daily life however, we need to make sure that "the result" is aimed towards the ultimate result discussed above or is directed at an earthly goal-and oh how we can get lost from the true direction!

 

What should the result be, for example, our little homestead? Is it the neatest garden? The most productive garden? The fattest hogs? The sweetest corn? The creamiest milk?

 

If these are the results that count, this homestead has failed!

Oremus pro invicem!

Best Laid Plans ....

C.S. Lewis writes (via Marcus Grodi):

 

The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own' or 'real life'. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life-the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one's 'real life' is a phantom of one's own imagination.

 

Of course this has always been precisely one of my greatest struggles. I live by "the plan", thrive by "the plan" - only it is always my plan - not God's.

 

Since being married (read into this what you will!) I am getting slowly better (day by day, decade by decade) at being able to deviate from the "the plan" without throwing a fit.

 

But still I struggle - some of those struggles being recorded in these spaces.

 

Homestead life is also a good leveler. You can never plan for the pigs getting out, for instance.

Oremus pro invicem!

Hooray!

After countless (actually, I counted them) $, and countless hours, and two years, we have finally been licensed by SC for foster care.

Oremus pro invicem!

Backpacking Log

So, son Thomas and I went backpacking/camping this weekend up to Jones Gap State Park. I hadn't been there in over 12-14 years. Thomas had never been there.

 

We left here early on Friday and returned Saturday afternoon. We got to Jones Gap at 11:00 AM and headed into the woods at 11:45 AM .

 

We arrived at the campsite at 12:15 PM. After setting up camp, including a new 1-man tent for Thomas, in which we both were determined to sleep, we left for a hike.

 

Jones Gap trail (5.3 miles) runs along the Middle Saluda River. There are several falls along the trail or on spurs. We had already backpacked in 1.1 miles, so we decide to walk the rest of the trail and back.

 



Thomas at Jones Gap Falls



We went up to see Jones Gap Falls on a spur. The we stopped for 30 minutes or so at a rock formation in the river. We soaked our feet (coooooooold water); Thomas waded around.

 



Then we took off again. Just shy of the 4 mile mark I took a spill. Not hurt, but somehow this spill started a blister on one of my toes. Instead of chancing it, we turned around at 4 miles and got back to camp. (3:45 PM)

 

We gathered some firewood and got a fire going. For supper I wrapped a potato in foil and tossed it in the coals. I grilled some fish fillets. When the fillets were 80% done and I figured the potato was about done also, I removed both from the heat. I cut up the potato, the fish, and added okra in a saucepan. With a bit of water, salt and pepper, I put the mixture back on the fire til it boiled for a bit.

 

Then we ate.

Me at Jones Gap Falls

 

It is good that we were very hungry! Not even the amount of salt and pepper I put on could make it good. But it was hearty and we ate it all.

 

After supper we played cards, prayed the rosary, and talked. Retired at 9:30.

 

We both squeezed into the tent. It rained cats and dogs from 2:00 to 2:30 AM.  When we rose, we decided that instead of coaxing a fire with all the wet would and kindling (which we COULD do if we had a mind to), we would break camp and find some breakfast back in civilization.

 

Just part of the scenary!

 We were in the car heading out by 9:00 AM. Great trip.

Oremus pro invicem!

Exclusion

I have been planning an upcoming backpacking trip with my son at a state park. In order to make a campsite reservation, (unless making it for less than 24 hours in advance) I had to make the reservation online with a credit card.

It occurred to me that this is an entry barrier to some (many?) who either don’t have internet access or, more likely, a credit card.

Now, there may be a way around this (I didn’t spend the time to explore all avenues), but on the face of it, here is a case of government efficiency (is there such a thing?) excluding a class of citizens.

**************************

Thinking of exclusionary policies, I have been musing a bit on immigration policy. I don’t contest the right of a nation from protecting and/or controlling its borders for at least some reasons.

On the other hand, we have historically contested the right of the American Indians to protect their borders. Because we were more numerous and had better technology, we consistently drove them off their land, made treaties giving them other land, and repeatedly broke those treaties to take their land again.

I am not so naïve to think the situations heretofore mentioned have don’t have nuances, especially regarding lands of plenty and justice, but in generality, this is something to ponder when considering immigration policy today.

Might makes right? Or is it Manifest Destiny-or these days: American Exceptionalism - that we don’t have to respect borders, lands and treaties because we are God’s people? But others (I guess those who aren't God's people?) need to respect our borders, lands and treaties?

We are able (potentially at least) to stop immigration from Latin America with our technology, but how is the Latin immigrant seeking a better life and/or freedom (at least to the limited extent the USA offers) different from the earlier settlers and pioneers?

No doubt we have a right and duty to our citizens to exclude violent invaders, criminals, and terrorists. This goes to controlling our borders. How about the others? Have we really run out of room and resources?

An economic situation where food and jobs are scarce enough for US citizens may justify limits to immigration, but is this even real? Note that in the recent poor economic downturn the net flow of peoples was to Mexico, rather than to the US.

I have written as if all these things are simple, yet I understand they are not. Not everything is considered in my analysis. It is just something to consider among all the other factors.

Oremus pro invicem!

Some years ago, my then 90+ year old neighbor, told me how the generation after his became enamored of "things" and so left the farm for the city.

I read similar sentiments in Marcus Grodi's Life From Our Land:

As long as they (the rural family - JC) lived untouched by the obsession of the outside world for lesser material goods, the simple contented farm family lived happily, content with their food, drink, clothing, shelter, and the spiritual enrichment of their local parish.

 

However, when the simplicity of the rural farm family was shattered by the lure of the city, when farm children were lured away to work in factories, or to train in college for leadership roles in factories, trading houses or investment firms, not for the procurement of more bodily goods or spiritual enrichment, but for "wealth and what it will buy" their lives became limitlessly driven.

 

There is a lot in here. But first, I remind myself of my post below where Pope Benedict (in Spes Salvi) notes that technology and progress are good with virtuous guidance.

Secondly, rural life can be hard. There is no sugar-coating this.

But, I will say this: the satisfaction I gain from a day or a week of hard work on the farm is totally different than the satisfaction I get when I complete a patent case and submit an invoice. I am not sure, but I think the difference is that on the farm the thing I have worked for is direct. In other words, I planted a vegetable garden and that food will be on my table. (as opposed to, I wrote a patent and got money so we could go to the store and buy food to put on the table.)

The connection between the work and the result is definite (as opposed to: the money could be spent on anything).

 

I think this may be something worth exploring more.

 

It is not simply instant gratification as the work you do may take months to harvest.

 

It may be that man was meant both for intellectual labor and manual labor, yet most of us get so little of the manual these days.

 

It may be that our work, whether intellectual labor or manual is meant to have a definite connection with the fruits of the labor and not an indirect or remote connection.

 

Something to ponder on. Maybe someone will write a book on it, and I can find out what the answers are....

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

Homestead update

Corn is up! Peas and radishes have been up.

Unexpected rain Monday night.

Still waiting for the Swiss chard, spinach and broccoli to come up.

Spinach plants not looking so hot.

Broccoli plants doing okay.

More corn to plant as well as other things. Seems like not enough time, but we'll make it.

Oremus pro invicem!

Who wrote these lines?

I hesitate to post this, but it struck me. I am not taking sides, as I am not on a side. I am no theologian. I don't usually go around trying to explain what this Pope "really said" or "really meant". I can be upset at times. Sometimes I am confused.

 

All that being said, sometimes this Pope says some good things too. Very good things. But some can't separate the confusing from the good. I usually don't try to parse these things publically.

 

And sometimes I read things in other places. For example, I have heard choruses of criticism of Pope Francis for making statements very much like the following:

 

Jesus identifies himself with those in need, with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison. “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). Love of God and love of neighbour have become one: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God.

 

.....

 

Love of God and love of neighbour are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment.

However, both of these are from Deus Caritas Est (Pope Benedict XVI).

Oremus pro invicem!

Just had a great week with "my" seminarian and 3 others. Here are 3 of the 4 here, just before departing. We need many young men like these who are open to God's will.

 

 

Godspeed to them on their trip back to seminary and in their larger (and longer) journey!

 

Oremus pro invicem!

I've heard the story before (heard it again last night in a new light): on October 2, 1928, while in prayer St. Josemaria Escriva "saw" Opus Dei.

I have always wondered if this was a mystical experience, a visionary experience, or simply an idea or inspiration which came in prayer.

The last has always seemed impossible to me-but now I am not so sure.

Action should always be rooted in prayer (I read point in The Way not too long ago making this very point.)

So if you do spend this time with our Lord daily and inspiration comes, you need to act upon it. I did that once .... I did that once...

That is the (one of many) difference(s) between myself and the saint. I recall some inspirations from prayer, but my response has been, "I am not the man to do this!"; "I can't do this by myself."; "This is a good idea for someone else to try."

But I forget: God did communicate to someone else-He talked to me! And wants a leap of faith. He wants us to rely on Him-He doesn't leave us out in the cold on our own.

It is good it is Lent ....

*****************************

 

I did take a leap of faith in one thing: I planted sweet corn this week. I planted this early once before and was richly rewarded.

 

Corn can take a light frost, but not a heavy frost. The problem with waiting until April is that the rain here usually quits around the first of June, which leaves the critical weeks for corn dry. Year after year we lose much of the crop to lack of rain.

 

However, if you plant early and there is no hard frost, you may get the best looking and tasting, and bountiful sweet corn.

 

************************

Finally, finished The Deerslayer. Such an enjoyable saga.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

"God's First Book"

If you have every spent much time looking at  Wyoming Catholic College you might be familiar with the phrase and concept of "studying God's first book".

 

I think I have found what should be their cornerstone book with regard to this saying.

 

Here's a short excerpt from The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper:

 

My edication has been altogether in the woods; the only book I read, or care about reading, is the one which God has opened afore all his creatur's in the noble forests, broad lakes, rolling rivers, blue skies, and the winds and tempests, and sunshine, and other glorious marvels of the land! This book I can read, and I find it full of wisdom and knowledge. (Hawkeye to Judith in The Deerslayer, Chapter 24)

Now Hawkeye is surely no Catholic, but just as surely identifies himself as a Christian and exhibits many Christian virtues.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

Pick the guy who doesn't care ...

So I have seen parts of some of the debates. I have read the literature in the mail. I have seen cuts of speeches by various candidates here and there.

 

Here is my (long sought and highly paid for) impressions. To almost every candidate running, the most important issue is themselves-whether they can be elected or not.

 

The exception would seem to be Bernie Sanders. I don't think he cares whether he is elected or not as long as the problems are fixed.

 

Bernie Sanders also seems to be the only candidate that has a clue to what our problems are as a nation. Of course his solutions are not nearly mine, but he should get some points for recognizing some of the problems which are so hidden from the minds of all the others.

 

That being said, his stands on life issues and marriage are so abhorrent, one couldn't vote for him in a general election, even if one could hold their nose on the socialism.

 

We are in a sorry state when the only guy running worthy of the presidency is a Socialist from Vermont. (Nothing against Vermont, I have very fond memories of summers in Vermont at Opus Dei camps during my high school years.)

 

Oremus pro invicem!