Rampage Football



My son Curt and I went to an Arena Football League game yesterday, for free, courtesy of a pair of tickets given to me by a co-worker whose wife had been given some by her employer. It was nice to be able to check out one of these events from a spectator's point of view, since I've worked the counter at the Van Andel Arena a few times when the Grand Rapids Rampage are in action.

We had a fun time, especially since the Rampage won the game, the first time they'd done so in front of the home crowd since April of 2003. It was a close contest, with some dramatic lead changes, some big plays, some boneheaded blunders and a lot of flash and razzle-dazzle with all the dancers, fountains of fire, acrobats, t-shirts launched into the crowd, blimps flying around inside the arena, and so on.

You can read coverage of the game here, if you want to know more about the game action. Up until yesterday, I didn't have much care or interest in our local pro football franchise - mainly because the team has been so bad the past couple of years. (They were league champs in 2001 but even then, I never really got all that engaged. Our local minor league baseball team has also won a few titles at the A ball level, but by the time they get around to the Midwest League playoffs, it's getting kind of cold around here and I'm more interested in the major leagues anyway.) But now that I've been in on the fun and saw them win a game, I feel just a smidge more curiousity about this franchise. I think about these guys who go out and play on a field half the size of the college/NFL turf who are getting hit just about as hard as anyone who plays football ever does, but for a lot less money and glory. Now that I know their names and a bit more of their on-field personalities, the stake I have in how well they do (and how it influences our town's civic morale) has increased. I guess there's a point in them giving out the free tickets...

George Strait



I had the chance to see a country music legend on Thursday night. Even though I've been vaguely aware of George Strait for a number of years, his status within the genre didn't really become apparent to me until just recently as I approached the date of his appearance (and my working) at the Van Andel Arena. Since I wasn't familiar with any of his hit songs, I went to the local library last week to check out a few of his CDs. Browsing through the country music section that I don't normally visit, I saw a whole host of discs, and from the looks of them, I figured that Mr. Strait is a prolific and consistent entertainer. His albums all seemed produced according to formula. They each had 10 songs on them, and each cover had one close up shot of his head (topped each time with a big ol' cowboy hat) and one midrange body shot, usually from just above the knees, where the focal point was an impressively large and ornate belt buckle. One didn't need to presume too hard to figure that there were cowboy boots on the feet. The variety in the packaging came in whether the close up was on the front or the back of the CD case.

So I went over to the music book section and found an encyclopedia of country music and found out that George Strait is basically The Man in country music these days, especially among those who like the pure traditional stuff. He's been the CMA Entertainer of the Year winner and recently released a "50 #1 Hits" collection which if you think about it is quite an impressive achievement, even if those #1's registered on the Billboard Country rather than the Hot 100 charts. He's been at this for a long time.

So I returned to the CD section and picked out 5 discs - three from his "Strait Out of the Box" retrospective collection that was released 10 years ago, and two more - "Blue Clear Sky" from 1996 which is considered one of his very best albums ever, and "Honkytonkville" which is his most recent release of new material, from 2003. And you know what? I love his music!

Now I am no Texas shit-kicker, never have been or aspired to be, but there is something within me that appreciates old-school country music. I have a fair sampling of old Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson on my computer, and there's room for more as time goes on. George Strait, it seems to me, is the legitimate heir to that tradition, and he is rock steady and smooth in his execution of the craft. There's a bit of twang but it's not over-the-top corny, and he's not one of these "new country" types that seems desperate to integrate rock riffs and heavy metal flourishes into his music in order to crossover or prove his relevance. Of course by now, he's kind of old for that sort of thing, but you get the feeling that he wouldn't be going in that direction even if he were starting out new today.

So over the past week or so I've had a little of that Western swing music playing around the house and going through my head. It's probably not much more than a little mini-phase of interest for the time being. I'm not going to get all deep into this music now. But I do feel like in having discovered George Strait, I have found a great source of dependably high-quality music whenever I get the urge to envision myself out in the wide open spaces, with a little fiddle and steel guitar accompaniment.

As for the concert itself, I got my usual customary peek at a couple of performances and they were good ones. I got to see him sing two of his more recent hits, "Check Yes or No" and (my favorite) "Honk if you Honkytonk" which raised a few whoops and hollers among the crowd. His stage presence is straight Texas cool. He pretty much just stands there strumming his guitar, crooning his perfectly modulated vocals, gazing out into the crowd, just a sly grin or earnest seriousness of expression on his face, depending on the lyrical content of the song, looking like the top-notch professional that he is. He has a polished band behind him, upwards of ten musicians and backing vocalists, a stage in the round where he takes turns stepping from one microphone to another facing one section of the crowd for a few tunes before switching over to a different side. The songs I saw were facing me, so I figured that was about as good as it was going to get and I was plenty satisfied.

The opening act, Dierks Bentley, is an emerging star, a handsome hunky fellow which is prerequisite for popularity these days it seems. But his music kind of bugged me, especially when the lead guitarist pulled out a note-for-note simulation of Van Halen's "Eruption" which is basically a squawking screeching feedback squealing blitzkrieg of 32nd-notes and fret-noodling. That's all fine for what it is, but it just seems contrived and out-of-place, given the purity-of-essence epitomized by George Strait and his band. Still, one has to assume that Strait picked Bentley and has no problem with the metal touches that younger country performers are incorporating in their performance and image these days. Given my own affinity for mix 'n match eclecticism, I suppose it's not really my place to knock people who want to cross genres as they see fit. Still, if I want metal, I know where to look for it.

For instance, Motley Crue. They'll be coming to Van Andel later in April and I'll be there. And here, to tell you all about it. But first, I have Josh Groban coming up on Tuesday. And Kenny Chesney on March 30, and John Mellencamp on April 14. And I'm still waiting to hear if we get the Sting and Green Day concerts!

Picture of Me

Running the Race Together

I was asked to write up a devotional message for work. We are celebrating a "Jubilee Week" that aims to promote an appreciation of cultural diversity from a Christian perspective. Kind of an interesting project, since the two "attitudes" don't always seem to co-exist so easily, especially as one gets into what you might consider more "purist" applications of either doctrine. Yet it's also kind of sad to think that this is the state of things...

Anyway, here's what I wrote, using the week's theme of "Running the Race Together" as my starting point:

For today's devotion in the series on "running the race together," I'd like to consider the other meaning of that word, "race."

I'm not sure how far back the English language began using the same word to describe both a competitive pursuit and the broad ethnic distinctions that we observe in humanity. But it is interesting to think about the interplay between these two definitions of the term.

In popular usage, we often think of foot races, or in more recent decades, auto races, as "win-lose" propositions, where just one champion emerges followed by a pack of "losers." Unfortunately, we
have also inherited a cultural legacy that has sought to define "the human race" in similar terms, implying and sometimes declaring unwarranted claims of superiority for one group (or skin color) over the others.

Given the difficulty and pain that surround the topic of racism, it's easy to understand why a direct approach to dealing with the problem is so uncomfortable for many and so often avoided. And yet, we who work in Christian ministry and social services recognize that until a problem is identified and honestly confronted, the work of healing and reconciliation can hardly begin.

So it is that Wedgwood has for several years taken intentional steps to heighten our awareness and deepen our understanding of the wounds that racism has inflicted on our society and within Christ's church. Today, we will have a ceremony to honor some in our community who have exemplified courage and integrity in bridging the gaps caused by prejudice, bigotry and mistrust. It's good to take this occasion to encourage each other and to move more fully into an attitude of appreciation and rejoicing for the great blessing that God has bestowed upon our lives through the richness and diversity of our multihued world.

Let us run this race together, and reflect on just how vast a company of souls around the world and throughout time are part of that "together." Even as we press ourselves to new personal bests of
discipleship, excellence and integrity, we can discover that there is no reason to see "race" as a win-lose proposition, in either sense of the word. Through Christ, we can each press on in the hope that his victory will someday be ours, and we can be confident that the human race, beloved by our heavenly Father, will fulfill the good purposes for which He called us into existence in the beginning. Take a few moments this morning to praise God for the part He has given you to play in his magnificent tapestry of life, and thank Him for the ability to see beyond the barriers that sin and ignorance had once imposed on us all.

"I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb." - Revelation 7:9

Sick Day

I called in sick to work today. Woke up with a pretty rough voice and sore throat. I am getting somewhere close to 200 hours of ETO so I figured I had an unscheduled day off coming and it would be better to get through the illness today rather than letting it linger through the week. Usually I take no more than one or two sick days per year, and I've gone some years without calling in at all. But I let myself take it easy, which helped. I will be heading to bed early tonight too, just to take the extra measure.

So what I did was basically relax and take it easy, even though I did do some work-related stuff at home on my computer which I emailed to my assistant so she could carry forth on the project we're working on, which is a leadership retreat for staff on our team coming this Wednesday. So I didn't totally slack off...

Got some laundry and household stuff taken care of. Did a bit of reading and reflecting - continuing to work my way through Brueggemann's "Intro to the Old Testament" which I will need to post on to the PoMoXian list soon. I'm also reading an illustrated "Introducing Christianity" book which is part of the same series as that Kierkegaard book I mentioned awhile back.



I also watched the Fellini classic "8 1/2" which was actually a wonderful movie for a 43-year old guy to watch by himself on a day given to personal reflection on where he is at in life, since that's a lot of what the film is about. Of course, the life of Guido, the lead character, is a lot more colorful and complicated than mine, he being a celebrated genius working in the Italian cinema juggling affairs with various women as well as his wife and dealing with pressures that I can only vaguely approximate in my own simpler, relatively streamlined existence. But there's still a lot going on in the movie for a guy to relate to, and I enjoyed entering into that world. It's the kind of movie one could watch a number of times and appreciate more as one picks up on all the subtleties and textures that Fellini throws in. I can see why it's considered a "masterpiece." The DVD is from the Criterion collection which is the best way to watch these venerable milestones of motion picture art. Great commentaries, special features, background information and nice pamphlets that really open up the films to a fuller understanding and appreciation.

I also tinkered with my old Intrepid and got it running better this afternoon, which felt good. It turns out that the thermostat I bought in Albion before the car broke down wasn't doing its job properly, so I put the old one back in and now it's heating up as it should and the engine is running a lot more efficiently.

It feels good to fix things that aren't working.

My back yard, buried in thick snow and waiting for another thaw.

Aiming down the street, focusing on my neighbor's tree.

Pictures from my neighborhood on a dreary Sunday afternoon. Across the street looking out my front door.

Utterly Dismal Weather

I just have to vent here a bit. This weekend and especially today has featured the most grossly depressing weather that I've had to endure in quite awhile. Probably because I had harbored some hopes that the worst of winter was behind us, I'm appalled to report that we are going through a snowstorm that will probably result in 5+ inches of accumulation by the morning. I know there are a few snowboarders and cold-temp outdoor enthusiasts who are happy to get another fresh dose of the white stuff but I'm close to being seriously angry about it. I don't know why. It just bothers me to have to deal with more of this grey freezing miserable bitter sludge-inducing window-frosting heat-absorbing oppression when really I am just in the mood for more sunshine, longer days and signs of life emerging from the earth around me. I want to walk around outside again and I am stubbornly resistant to the idea that I have to bundle up in layers in order to do so.

Ugh.

This is a picture of the assembled cast and crew (all in black) along with a few of their friends who had been invited to join them for an aftershow party that they refered to as the "SMORG." In order to attend the all-nighter, they were required to tear down the set, clean everything up and get on a bus by 11:00 pm. Director Jeremy Schnotala can be seen hollering and gesturing at his troops as they are all lined up, execution-style, awaiting his commands. 

Really, it's just my camera's flash going off in Brandon's face, but he actually was kind of glowing after he emerged from backstage. He seems to enjoy the excitement and adrenaline rush of live theater. 

Yes, Derek is lovable but this is ridiculous! I guess there's a tradition of cast and crew laying lots of smooches on each other when the production completes its final performance. 

Julie and Curt feeling good, basking in the warmth of a job well done. 

"The Egg & I" Ends its Theatrical Run

After months of preparation and dedicated effort, the Wyoming Park Theater Company production of "The Egg and I" closed after three performances (as scheduled.) Julie and I went to see it again last night and it was as much fun, if not more, than the first time we saw it on Wednesday. We didn't go on Thursday, which by our boys' accounts was the best of the three. But I'm pretty satisfied with what we saw. I'm going to post some photos of the frenzy that took place after the final curtain came down - photos of the actual performances weren't allowed, but we'll be getting some stills that were taken during dress rehearsals soon and I will post a few of the best shots here on my blog.

Brandon and Curt, being seniors, may not get around to doing theater any more, but Derek, a freshman, says he's going to be on the production company at least in the future. Will he take on the part of an actor? I'm not thinking that's very likely - he's on the quiet and reserved side - but who knows? I wasn't expecting my twins to try this but they did and they did it well. Now our family gets to return to something closer to our normal routine. Julie had to cover their paper routes quite a bit when rehearsals filled their afternoons over the past several weeks. And with this behind them now, Brandon and Curt tell me they are going to start looking for "real jobs" (as opposed to their paper routes, which are good for supplying a couple hundred bucks per month, but tie them down in many ways because of the daily delivery deadlines that they're expected to meet.) So onward we go...

Family Wedding

I went to a wedding last night, one of my nephews on my wife's side of the family. Joe and Catie are a nice young couple - he's 25, a five-year member of the Michigan Air National Guard who's trained as a fire fighter and has a country-western style modeled somewhat after Garth Brooks at his prime - known for his "dinner plate" belt buckles, cowboy hats and boots when he decides to get dressed up. Catie is only 19 - my daughter's age, which gives me pause since Alyssa is in college now, nowhere near getting married or even dating anyone at this time. I get the impression that her main ambition after high school has been to get married, and she picked a pretty good guy, from what I can tell. Joe is a nice, soft-spoken guy. He's of moderate stature, but strong - he had a job awhile back hauling livestock cross country, and he's done a bit of amateur rodeo, some roping and riding mainly. A solid All-American guy.

The wedding itself was very traditional. The most distinguishing feature was an honor guard presentation at the end where the bride got playfully smacked on her rear end by the broadside of the commander's sword, and the couple walked away from the altar under a canopy of blades. As for the ceremony itself, I could almost roll it off the top of my head as far as the script went. Starting with Adam and Eve in Genesis, the first man in need of a helpmate so God took a rib and made woman, moving on from there to Jesus blessing the institution of marriage by performing his first miracle at the wedding in Cana, and then Paul's discussion of marriage in Ephesians 5, pointing out that marriage is a picture of the relationship that the Church has to its head, Christ. And then a lot of heavy emphasis on how building on that foundation is the only way to have a satisfying, successful marriage, over and over again. The service was conducted in a "United Reformed Church" which is actually a denomination that broke away from the "Christian Reformed Church" around 10 or 15 years ago, the CRC itself being a breakaway from the "Reformed Church in America" from sometime back in the 1800s or early 1900s... Basically, a very Calvinistic, traditional, no-frills wedding which is pretty much the way folks do things on Julie's side of the family and the community they all live in.

Which leaves me feeling kind of odd and also curious as to what my own children's weddings will be like when or if that day finally comes. I think there will be more diversity in the proceedings - my kids all have allowed the Asian influence to become a part of their basic self concept and presentation to the world. Marrying off any of my kids seems like it's still off in the distant future, but it's probably not that far away. With my own family being such a mish-mash of traditional and postmodern tastes and attitudes, it genuinely puzzles me to think of what approach my children will take upon their entry into adulthood and domesticity on their own terms.

For Joe and Catie and their siblings, they have the benefit of being happily born into and in basic acceptance of a way of life that in some ways seems foreign and inexplicable to me (even though I have found my own way of adapting and settling in, and feel well-enough accepted by my in-laws, who know that I am more citified and liberal, but we mostly just don't open up those cans of worms...) These folks are great, solid, upright, genuinely caring and compassionate people. I have a lot of admiration for them - still, there are a lot of differences in our worlds, on the micro level at least, and I wonder what kind of an uphill fight it is going to be for them to try and pass this set of cultural values on to another generation. At the wedding, I felt like I was in a bit of a time warp - I know that this isn't exactly the case, but that sensation of living inside a bubble is never all that far away when I'm in that environment.

Last night was kind of big for our family. My three sons (Curt, Derek and Brandon) were involved in a play titled "The Egg and I" at Wyoming Park High School. Brandon and Curt are twins and they acted a dual role where they spoke in sync with each other most of the time (it was originally one part that the director split in two - not a lead but a supporting role.) Curt also played a banjo (air-guitar style - he's actually a percussionist) in a jug band that came on during the scene breaks. I'll post more pics from the play when we get them - there are some great shots of the twins that were taken during dress rehearsals - no photos allowed during the performance! Derek worked on the backstage crew. This shot was taken right after they emerged from backstage in the euphoria following their opening night performance. What fun to see my kids out there hamming it up and entertaining an auditorium full of our neighbors! 

The Grammys? Oh, yeah, they were on last night.

Supposedly the "biggest night in music," I've never been a big fan of this major award ceremony. Music to me is too idiosyncratic and personal to easily lend itself to some kind of universal recognition that a certain song or album or performance was "the" best of the year. Movies, that doesn't bother me so much for some reason. But my musical tastes have mellowed and grown more magnanimous over the years, so I tried to be nice and watch the festivities a bit last night. If U2 performed live, then I missed them. But I did see a bit of the Lynyrd Skynyrd "Sweet Home Alabama" tribute which didn't do all that much for me, and I saw a portion of the Melissa Etheridge/Joss Stone tribute to Janis Joplin which seemed more interesting, especially now that Etheridge is a bald-headed cancer survivor. She made a fashion statement of sorts by abandoning the pretense of a wig. And I saw the underwhelming performance of "Across The Universe" by the Bono/Stevie Wonder/Steven Tyler/Billy Joe/Velvet Revolver/Alicia Keys/Brian Wilson and whoever I left out All-Star Cameo Band. Sorry, but that song was never intended by Lennon to be a 21st-century "world anthem." It's too much of a hippy-dippy crash-pad comedown strum the guitar stream of consciousness meander to ever catch on as a big time singalong "Up With People" number. "Nothing's gonna change my world" chanted over and over again like it's supposed to be some kind of inspirational uplift? Heh, did anybody actually read the lyrics before they finalized this plan? And then they had to go and change it to "Something's gonna change our world?" And this is what they are using to raise money for the tsunami survivors?

Well it's a noble gesture, and perhaps a convenient tax write-off not to mention good P.R.

And then there was Usher and James Brown at the end. That was kind of funny, funky and cool.

We didn't watch much of the other stuff, the Ray Charles bits. I like Ray Charles and all but I think it was just wrong that his album beat out all of the contemporary competition. I would have given Album of the Year to Usher, 'cause the dude just ruled the pop music scene this year. But then I'm contradicting myself I suppose. It's their ceremony, I guess they know what they are listening for better than I do. Let 'em hand out their trophies to whoever. But all the awards for Ray Charles just reinforced my bias that the Grammys are kind of lame and continue to miss the mark when it comes to getting an accurate read on what's currently really happening at the pulse/heartbeat level of popular music, the stuff that moves us and gets us going. Ray Charles should have got his little trophies back in the 1960's when it would have meant more than just sentimentality.

"On Bullshit"

From today's New York Times, an essay that, despite being nearly 20 years old, still speaks poignantly to one of the crucial issues of our day...

February 14, 2005

Between Truth and Lies, An Unprintable Ubiquity

By PETER EDIDIN

Harry G. Frankfurt, 76, is a moral philosopher of international reputation and a professor emeritus at Princeton. He is also the author of a book recently published by the Princeton University Press that is the first in the publishing house's distinguished history to carry a title most newspapers, including this one, would find unfit to print. The work is called "On Bull - - - - ."

The opening paragraph of the 67-page essay is a model of reason and composition, repeatedly disrupted by that single obscenity:

"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much [bull]. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize [bull] and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, nor attracted much sustained inquiry."

The essay goes on to lament that lack of inquiry, despite the universality of the phenomenon. "Even the most basic and preliminary questions about [bull] remain, after all," Mr. Frankfurt writes, "not only unanswered but unasked."

The balance of the work tries, with the help of Wittgenstein, Pound, St. Augustine and the spy novelist Eric Ambler, among others, to ask some of the preliminary questions - to define the nature of a thing recognized by all but understood by none.

What is [bull], after all? Mr. Frankfurt points out it is neither fish nor fowl. Those who produce it certainly aren't honest, but neither are they liars, given that the liar and the honest man are linked in their common, if not identical, regard for the truth.

"It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth," Mr. Frankfurt writes. "A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it."

The bull artist, on the other hand, cares nothing for truth or falsehood. The only thing that matters to him is "getting away with what he says," Mr. Frankfurt writes. An advertiser or a politician or talk show host given to [bull] "does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it," he writes. "He pays no attention to it at all."

And this makes him, Mr. Frankfurt says, potentially more harmful than any liar, because any culture and he means this culture rife with [bull] is one in danger of rejecting "the possibility of knowing how things truly are." It follows that any form of political argument or intellectual analysis or commercial appeal is only as legitimate, and true, as it is persuasive. There is no other court of appeal.

The reader is left to imagine a culture in which institutions, leaders, events, ethics feel improvised and lacking in substance. "All that is solid," as Marx once wrote, "melts into air."

Mr. Frankfurt is an unlikely slinger of barnyard expletives. He is a courtly man, with a broad smile and a philosophic beard, and he lives in apparently decorous retirement with his wife, Joan Gilbert, in a lovely old house near the university.

On a visit there earlier this month, there was Heifetz was on the stereo, good food and wine on the table.

But appearances, in this case, are somewhat misleading. Mr. Frankfurt spent much of his childhood in Brooklyn, and still sees himself as a disputatious Brooklynite - one who still speaks of the Dodgers as "having betrayed us." And, in any event, Mr. Frankfurt is not particularly academic in the way he views his calling.

"I got interested in philosophy because of two things," he said. "One is that I was never satisfied with the answers that were given to questions, and it seemed to me that philosophy was an attempt to get down to the bottom of things."

"The other thing," he added, "was that I could never make up my mind what I was interested in, and philosophy enabled you to be interested in anything."

Those interests found expression in a small and scrupulous body of work that tries to make sense of free will, desire and love in closely reasoned but jargon-free prose, illustrated by examples of behavior (philosophers speak of the "Frankfurt example") that anyone would recognize.

"He's dealing with very abstract matters," said Sarah Buss, who teaches philosophy at the University of Iowa, "but trying not to lose touch with the human condition. His work keeps faith with that condition."

Mr. Frankfurt's teaching shares with his prose a spirit Ms. Buss, who was once his graduate student, defines as, "Come in and let's struggle with something."

"He was very willing," she added, "to say, 'I just don't understand this.' "

The essay on [bull] arose from that kind of struggle. In 1986, Mr. Frankfurt was teaching at Yale, where he took part in a weekly seminar. The idea was to get people of various disciplines to listen to a paper written by one of their number, after which everyone would talk about it over lunch.

Mr. Frankfurt decided his contribution would be a paper on [bull]. "I had always been concerned about the importance of truth," he recalled, "the way in which truth is foundational to civilization and the various deformities of it that were current."

"I'd been concerned about the prevalence" of [bull], he continued, "and the lack of concern for truth and respect for truth that it represented."

"I used the title I did," he added, "because I wanted to talk about [bull] without any [bull], so I didn't use 'humbug' or 'bunkum.' "

Research was a problem. The closest analogue came from Socrates.

"He called it rhetoric or sophistry," Mr. Frankfurt said, "and regarded philosophy as the great enemy of rhetoric and sophistry."

"These were opposite, incompatible ways of persuading people," he added. "You could persuade them with rhetoric" - or [bull] - "with sophistic arguments that weren't really sound but that you could put over on people, or you could persuade them by philosophical arguments which were dedicated to rigor and clarity of thought."

Mr. Frankfurt recalled that it took him about a month to write the essay, after which he delivered it to the humanities group. "I guess I should say it was received enthusiastically," he said, "but they didn't know whether to laugh or to take it seriously."

Some months after the reading, the essay, title intact, was published by The Raritan Review, a journal then edited by Richard Poirier, a distinguished literary critic. In 1988, Mr. Frankfurt included it in "The Importance of What We Care About," a collection of his essays.

The audience for academic journals and collections of philosophical essays is limited, however, and so the essay tended to be passed along, samizdat style, from one aficionado to another.

"In the 20 years since it was published," Mr. Frankfurt said, "I don't think a year has passed in which I haven't gotten one or two letters or e-mails from people about it."

One man from Wales set some of the text to music; another who worked in the financial industry wanted to create an annual award for the worst piece of analysis published in his field (an idea apparently rejected by his superiors). G. A. Cohen, the Chichele professor of social and political theory at All Souls College, Oxford University, has written two papers on the subject.

"Harry has a unique capacity to take a simple truth and draw from it very consequential implications," Mr. Cohen said. "He is very good at identifying the potent elementary fact."

It was Ian Malcolm, the Princeton University Press editor responsible for philosophy, who approached Mr. Frankfurt about publishing the essay as a stand-alone volume. "The only way the essay would get the audience it deserved was to publish it as a small book," he said. "I had a feeling it would sell, but we weren't quite prepared for the interest it got."

For Mr. Frankfurt, who says it has always been his ambition to move philosophy "back to what most people think of as philosophy, which is a concern with the problems of life and with understanding the world," the book might be considered a successful achievement. But he finds he is still trying to get to the bottom of things, and hasn't arrived.

"When I reread it recently," he said at home, "I was sort of disappointed. It wasn't as good as I'd thought it was. It was a fairly superficial and incomplete treatment of the subject."

"Why," he wondered, "do we respond to [bull] in such a different way than we respond to lies? When we find somebody lying, we get angry, we feel we've been betrayed or violated or insulted in some way, and the liar is regarded as deceptive, deficient, morally at fault."

Why we are more tolerant of [bull] than lying is something Mr. Frankfurt believes would be worth considering.

"Why is lying regarded almost as a criminal act?" he asked, while bull "is sort of cuddly and warm? It's outside the realm of serious moral criticism. Why is that?"

(I published the text here since the link will expire in another week or two - DB)

February Chill

It's a grey Sunday here in Michigan. Winter is gradually loosening its tyrannical grip on us, but not without squeezing back every now and then. A lot of the snow is off the ground - exposing brown dormant grass, hardened mud patches, the dregs of last autumn's leaves that never got raked up. Big piles pushed up by snowplows still dominate the margins of parking lots. A hard, bitter wind sweeps across the open spaces, rushing us from building to car as quickly as we can move ourselves along. Just reaching from my car window to the drive up ATM this afternoon proved to be startlingly unpleasant, and I felt bad for a few folks stuck outside waiting for busses.

Still, tomorrow marks the halfway point of February and it's getting better all the time. We may have more snowy days before it's time to till up the garden again, but the worst of winter is behind us, no matter what. The energy level is still low, and we're still pumping in heat pretty regularly throughout the day, especially when we're hangin' out at home on the weekends. But I'm just beginning to feel the stirrings of new life, and looking forward to getting into what will certainly be the more memorable stretches of the still-young year of 2005.

Baseball training camps are going to open soon, and I am happy for that. The steroid controversy does not bother me nearly as much as the sports commentators seem intent on making us feel. I am willing to leave it up to those closer to the situation to regulate the problem and leave it at that. Maybe it's just me, but I have a hard time listening to the derision of the so-called purists out there who seem to just want to make their living mouthing the old cliches and truisms about how the game has been tainted and how awful it is that we can't look to ball players as heroes and role models any more. Myself, I outgrew the need to admire "heroes" a long time ago and I never put much of a priority trying to instill that quality in my kids. It's kind of setting them up for eventual disappointment, as I see it. The truth about our celebrity superstars comes out, eventually, and pretty much shatters whatever idealistic illusions their publicists and fans try to pander to the rest of us.

So let the guys throw, hit and catch the ball. I am not completely oblivious to the risks that steroids present, but I am pretty far from being a pro athlete myself and I lack any personal familiarity with the risks and benefits of their use. So I figure it's not really my place to pontificate on the subject.

Saturday Afternoon Ketchup

We got our Intrepid back late yesterday afternoon. It cost us a good chunka change, but at least we are back to having two vehicles and I can be a little less urgent about getting a replacement. Brandon is eager to get the car for his own, which I anticipate we'll give him a good deal on when that time comes.

I spent some time this afternoon working on our income taxes. FAFSA deadline is coming up soon too. Gotta get that financial aid - we would shrivel up, die and blow away without it if we had to come up with college money on our own, I hate to say!

Julie worked on flowers all day - Valentine's is coming up, you know.

I continue to enjoy the new Chemical Brothers CD immensely. I was listening to "Marvo Ging" (track 10) this morning at breakfast time. Wonderful collection of music - many moods on the disc but it all fits together so well. It really may be their best work... but I will try not to overplug it here.

Got an email from my dad, and it looks like he might be coming up here from the Caribbean in the next couple of months, which would be really cool.

Jim Wallis continues to promote his God's Politics book, which I haven't bought yet and may not for awhile since I have yet to ingest so much of the other reading material currently sitting around my house (and getting a whole internet's worth pumped in whenever my Firefox browser is open.)

Some continued rumblings about a revived military draft found their way into my Inbox.

And I'll finish up today's entry with a link that will introduce you, if you're not already familiar, to the sleazy little controversy that's recently erupted around one "Jeff Gannon."

Fiddler on the Roof



I watched the first part of this movie last night. I grew up with my mom playing the soundtrack countless times over the course of several years, so I know all the tunes and most of the lyrics by heart, but I only saw the film once in the theaters, when it was first released. (I've also seen snips of it on TV at various times.)

It's a great musical, for those who like that sort of thing. I am not a huge musical fan but there are a few that I enjoy for sentimentality's sake, and sometimes the mood just seems right.

The lead character Tevye carries on this dialogue with God and the audience all throughout the film, which tends to get me thinking about the current thread on the PoMoXian email list, debating the purpose and effectiveness of prayer, and by extension, the notion of an interventionist God. I won't even begin to sum up the thread, which is now somewhere around 80 posts long, but it does offer a well-rounded variety of opinions and reflections on the subject. In "Fiddler on the Roof," God is assumed to be involved and listening, but it's not taken too seriously and besides that, it's a musical comedy, for crying out loud! We are talking about real life here (on the email list, that is.) But sometimes it's hard for us to separate the reality we live in from the wishful thinking, fantasizing and ingrained metaphysical indoctrination that we've used in various ways to shelter our minds from the rude shock that probably awaits us all when we finally encounter Ultimate Reality As It Truly and Actually Is.


Kung to Pope: Quit!

This headline caught my eye... Interesting that the story was published on a website based in Bahrain. Where's the European or American media on this one?

My interest in the Catholic church is strictly that of an "innocent bystander" but if I had a personal stake in the matter, I'd agree with Hans Kung. In any case, this story has the potential of becoming something rather big and attention-grabbing in the very near future.

My Day Today

Got dropped off early at work because I'm still down to one car.

Caught up with staff and basic unit business for most of the morning. Also had a chance to play my new Chemical Brothers CD with a friend at work who likes that kind of music.

Met with our new intern who is still just getting oriented to the work we do in secure residential.

Lots of catching up on various emails, some scheduling work, lining up staff coverage for several open overnight shifts over the next couple of weeks.

Worked on an employee evaluation that is about three weeks overdue.

Dealt with a number of very frustrated girls who got sent back to the unit from school - they are blaming it on a teacher who they think is losing her composure and provoking them with her own frustrated response to their behavior. Got ready to deal with this concern at a campus-wide school meeting that just happened to be scheduled for this afternoon. Went to that meeting and had to put up with a fair amount of defensiveness and denial from some of the teachers in question who, regardless of all that, still have a very challenging task before them of keeping these mixed up kids on track to learn despite all the distractions they stir up. We were able to work through some of the problems in the meeting but, wow, there is a long way to go and some of this dysfunction just seems to be built into the system. Ugh. But we will find our way...

After that, I had to hitch a ride over to Calvin College to sit on a panel of practicum instructors as their Social Work program is going through accreditation review. I went basically to give my old alma mater a good word. They send us great interns and I enjoy that teaching role very much, so it's my pleasure to endorse the program to the academics who had a bunch of questions for us about how Calvin does at running their educational program. While there, I saw my old spiritual director, Larry, which was a nice bonus. We didn't get deep in our conversation compared to where we used to go, but then again, this was just a social bump up and I've moved on from where I was when we used to meet regularly!

Then Julie picked me up and I found out that she's going to be on the early edition local TV news on Friday and Monday as the channel does a feature on flowers for Valentine's Day.

Now I'm home, checking out more emails and updating my blog. From here, off to get some dinner, do some exercise, and spend the evening either watching a movie or reading more from Brueggeman's "Introduction to the Old Testament" which I'll have to cover here pretty soon.

Jeff Gannon

Anyone interested in tracking a strange tale of intrigue and possible impropriety at the interface between the Bush White House and propaganda in the American mediastream is advised to follow this link.

It offers a summary of the story of one "Jeff Gannon," who recently drew some attention to himself by tossing some absurd "softball" questions to Scott McLellan at various news conferences. (The one that got a lot of this going was his characterization of Democrats who oppose Bush policies as being "divorced from reality." The idea that a credentialed press reporter would ask questions in such a blatantly partisan manner drew the attention of bloggers who understand that not just any reporter is able to get into these events.

When they began looking into this Jeff Gannon, reporter for the Talon News Service, what they uncovered grew increasingly sordid and bizarre. Caught in the web are such elements as false identities, shadow corporations, explicit gay sex websites, possible involvement in male prostitution escort services and a potentially explosive connection to the Valerie Plame affair, where the wife of a dissenting Bush admin. official was exposed as an undercover CIA agent by conservative columnist Robert Novak.

So if this grabs your attention, hold your nose and plunge in!

Super Bowl Wrap-up

In a word: perfunctory.

Patriots get another 3-point win, crowned as a dynasty, most of USA feels little emotion about the thing. If Philadelphia had won, it would have been a much different sensation, I think.

Though some found it bland, I enjoyed Paul McCartney's performance. I'm glad he didn't do medleys, and he sounded pretty good. Hey Jude got cut short. I would have been just as happy if they'd called off the second half of the game and let him do a full concert.

One of our contestants at work picked the final outcome exactly, Patriots 24 - Eagles 21, so we know who our "Genius of Football" is for this year.

That's 'bout it.

Did somebody say "Super Bowl?"



I guess there will be a game played for the NFL championship a bit later on today. I haven't really gotten all that caught up in the hype. There's a lot of other stuff on my mind lately, but you know, I will carve out a few hours to watch the event and stay current with this relatively huge cultural happening.

Probably if we were living in the Northeastern USA it would be a bigger deal, but even among my football fan friends (and I myself am a longtime football watcher and fantasy-sports playin' dude) there doesn't seem to be much palpable excitement about the whole affair. As I have for the past six years now, I'm running a contest where I work for people to make their picks about all kinds of various statistical outcomes of tonight's game. That's a tradition. We'll have about 40 or so contestants this year - it's been bigger than that in years past - but not much water-cooler buzz.

Most of the people I know who have an opinion on this matter pick New England, but I'm going with Philly. Not with much bravado, but this seems like it could be a good set-up for an underdog to pull out a win. I had a similar hunch when the Patriots beat the Rams a few years ago, so we'll see what happens. If New England decimates the Eagles, I won't be at all surprised by that either.

But the real significance of the game will probably hover closer to the advertising and halftime show, so after all that plays out, I may return to this blog with commentary on that part of the festivities.

Iraq Elections from an Anti-War Perspective

Just came across this fine editorial from YumaSun.com that offers a constructive response to the recent elections in Iraq by an activist who (like myself) believes that even this positive development doesn't serve to significantly validate the war or its enormous expense.

Introducing Kierkegaard



This is the book I'm reading at the moment. The "Introducing..." series is a fun way of getting acquainted with philosophical heavyweights. They have humorous, evocative and insightful illustrations that give another take on the lofty concepts bandied about on each page.

I also picked up a copy of Bruegemann's "Introduction to the Old Testament" that I will try to get into later. Just thought I'd mention it.

Iraq Vets Against War visit Boston area high school

I wouldn't mind setting up something like this here in Grand Rapids!

Million Dollar Baby

Last night, Julie and I went to go see the much-talked-about, highly acclaimed, "must see" movie. Some controversy has been generated by disparaging comments made by Rush Limbaugh and Michael Medved because they object to the turn taken by the story, presumably its conclusion... I won't say anymore about that, but my response to the movie is this: Well produced and directed, Hillary Swank is very impressive in her role, a compelling story, but I would be very disappointed if the movie won the Oscar for Best Picture. I just don't think the film deserves that kind of honor. It felt too contrived and manipulative for my tastes. Thought provoking, sure, but I walked out more numbed than moved. Julie, on the other hand, had a very emotional response.

I still need to see the other Oscar contenders before I can have an informed opinion on the Best Picture question. But I'm disappointed that "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" wasn't even nominated. I think that this will probably go down as my favorite movie of 2004. I suppose it's just too "out there" for the Academy to give it serious consideration. But it has a much more profound message, IMO, than "Million Dollar Baby."

Moore Snipes at Gibson?!?




I found this pretty amusing...

Hat-eater likes Chem Bros.

LA Times review gives Push the Button 3 1/2 stars.

South Asian perspective on Borg



Here's an excellent review of Marcus Borg's "Heart of Christianity."

This building hangs out over the river. I guess that real estate must have been kind of expensive in downtown Albion, once upon a time. Back when Coca-Cola sold for a nickel a bottle... 

The view due north on Superior St., Albion MI 

The view due south on Superior St., Albion MI 

The shabby old run down organ, no longer functional, but still the pride and jewel of the Bohm Theater, in Albion MI. 

Small Town USA

When I was away at training last week, I got to spend time in Albion MI, which happens to have a respectable small college as it's cultural center of gravity (aptly named Albion College.) I was interested in seeing what the town of Albion was all about, but most of the time spent there was occupied with eating lunch and driving around a bit.

I was actually depressed a bit with the run-down condition of Albion's main strip, Superior Street. The buildings there had traces of a lost grandeur and respectability. What were once banks, law offices and other thriving businesses had now been converted into tanning salons, second hand rummage stores and a few franchise operations (like a Subway sandwhich shop.) There was a forlorn, ramshackle atmosphere about the place that left me feeling kind of blue about the prospects for the town. It's built on a nice location - the Kalamazoo River runs through the center of town, and there's even a building that has one corner of its foundation resting on a concrete pillar located right in the middle of the stream. But from all appearances, and the reports of a couple of my training participants, the local economy has hit the skids now that the manufacturers have all up and left the area. Of course, the grey frigid January weather didn't help alleviate the gloomy impressions at all.

Living as I do in Grand Rapids, a thriving and prosperous mid-range metropolitan area, it's easy for me to lose touch with what is happening in towns like Albion. Besides the college, and the fairly large Starr Commonwealth campus, I didn't get the impression of any substantial employers pumping significant money into the economy. And I feel kind of bad for the college students. There ain't a whole lot to do around those parts. On Wednesday, I went to see the new Samuel L. Jackson film "Coach Carter" in the Bohm Theater, the only cinema within miles that I could locate. I originally meant to go see "Meet The Fockers" but I found out that the theater had been divided into a three-screen complex by putting a wall at the front of the old balcony and subdividing the upstairs area into two small screening rooms. Since "Coach Carter" was showing on the big screen, and because the subject matter was urban youth dealing with poverty, crime and other types of adversity, I chose to see the more socially conscious flick. Plus I'd just been watching "There's Something About Mary" on the hotel TV and figured that was enough Ben Stiller for one night.

The Bohm Theater offers the perfect metaphor for a town living in the twilight of a fading glory. The place was obviously once a classy and opulent showcase for cultural and entertainment events. In the theater, there's an old organ that must have been used for live accompaniment to either movies or some kind of funky old vaudeville programs. Who knows? But I took a picture of it just to get an impression of how the place had declined.

So I'll post a few pix of Albion that I took here. While I'm mentioning the town, I have to give props to the Phoenix Restaurant which did a nice job of feeding me and making me feel welcome when I dropped in for lunch on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I never caught the waitress' name but she was nice and friendly and called me "Hon." :o)

So here's to you Albion. May a brighter day dawn for you and your children's children's children...