Too Many Emotions: Part of the Saturday Soundtrack Series

A few days ago learned that my second oldest son proposed to his girlfriend. (I discovered today that I have a reader in Paso Robles. Son, if that is you, I'd love to hear from you.)

Yesterday my third son told me that he is going to marry a girl in our parish. Knowing the family, I think he could do worse.

Both of these events reminded me of listening to my mother's cassette tape of Fiddler on the Roof over and over again when I was a little boy. At the time I didn't understand the feelings in the words of Sunrise, Sunset. Now I do.

If I didn't need to make a buck

I came across a fascinating Master's degree program that is being offered "distance" by the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at the Ukranian Catholic University. It is three semesters in length and only costs US$3,000. I'd love to do it but what would I do with it?

I Rode This Thing

In my entire life I have only done one thing more frightening than the NOE helicopter rides I experienced in the Army. That thing was 8 years ago when I rode the Big Shot on top of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. If you have never been to the Stratosphere, let me tell you, it is a trip. You look down on skyscrapers. You look down on helicopters. You are so high up that the people don't look like ants, they look like dust mites. Then you go outside on top of the building and get strapped into this thing that looks like it was designed to hurl WMDs at the invading Martians.

What brings this to mind? I had to do some research on the decline of manufacturing in Mountain View, CA and came across the website of the company that built the Big Shot. You need to CLICK HERE and watch the movie of Sue Murphy talking about her experience of the Big Shot.

For Ian: More Orson Welles Commercial Difficulties (not as funny as frozen peas)

This Day in the Santa Cruz Mountains

Well, we are all feeling well for the first time in a while. No sniffles,no puking, no fever. Bless the Lord! His mercy endures forever!

Plumber had to come today. I tried and tried with scary chemicals and a drum auger to clear a shower drain but I failed. So the boys and I took it as an excuse for a field trip.

We went to Big Basin State Park and went for a hike. We ID'd some more birds to check off in our field guide, and saw some really cool trees. There was a cross section of tree that had the rings labeled with various events such as the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, Columbus's first voyage, The Norman Invasion, Rise of the Mongol Empire, and others great happenings in history. Right at the very center of the the tree it said, "Reign of Emperor Justinian - This Tree Sprouted".

One of the living trees we saw was a several centuries old hollow tree called a "chimeny tree". It had survived several forest fires but the heart would was completely burnt out. It was about 200 feet tall and from the outside it looked like any other tree. But but when one steps into the hollow area in the base of the tree and looks up one sees straight up the inside of the tree and into the blue sky.

After our hike we went to Felton to our fave grocery store for a late lunch and to the Orthodox Bookstore to buy Ascencion and Pentecost presents for my goddaughters. We used to go to the bookstore at Conciliar Press in Ben Lomond, just a couple of miles up the road, but they have scaled back their retail operation. Kind of sad. That bookstore was where I first learned about Holy Orthodoxy.

After that we went to the covered bridge park and to the boarding stables. Basil had a horrifying fall head first from about 5 and a half or 6ft off the ground. As he was falling I really thought he was going to die. But he lived, and as far as I can tell no bones were broken. His face is pretty bruised up though. One hug and a sign of the cross and he was right back at it. Though he did say tonight that his head was hurting.

We came home via Hwy 17 to get a look at the Lexington Resevoir. I've never seen it so low; and it is only May! I predict water rationing in the south bay by the end of June.

Well, my summer session (6 semester units in 6 weeks) started on yesterday so I should better stop this blogging stuff and get to work on school stuff.

I'll Have to Remember This

Once in a while I am in a discussion (usually for school) when someone uses the word "progressive" to describe their leftist policy fantasies. Usually usually respond by saying, "I see nothing progressive about resurrecting the failed policies of Dracon, Robbespierre, and Mao." But I just read this in the Wall Street Journal and it is so much better.

It seems to have escaped the authors' notice that the most formidable totalitarian movement of the 20th century – communism – was, by its own lights, "progressive." It seems to have escaped their notice that the essence of a totalitarian system is the denial of liberty (often in the name of progress). It seems to have escaped their notice that "progress" is a word that signifies nothing. Exactly what is one progressing to?

The article from which it is taken isn't about progressive politics. It is about government NewSpeak in the Department of Homeland Security. (I hate that name. It makes me feel like there are cameras watching, like I need to be careful about what books I buy, like I live in east Germany in the 1960s. It really give me the creeps.)

A Very Enjoyable Story

Watch this to the end and hear the story about going to Bamboo Island abord the yacht of the wife of the dictator.

Decisions Decsions

I have a few years before Basil will go to school (After kindergarten with Anselm we have decided that we are not a good home school family.) which means i have a few years before I go back to work. So, what to do in those career-less years? Well, I'll be finished with a BA in December (after 7 schools, 5 majors, and almost 400 semester units, yes that is enough for three degrees) and am thinking about graduate school. I've narrowed it down to three programs:

A. 36 unit Master of Public Administration (same degree as my wife but from a less prestigious school) for $14,400

B. 30 unit Master of arts program in h
umanities for $12,000

C. 43 unit Master of Library and Information Science for $13,459

In addition to those three programs, which are all "distance" programs offered by various state universities, there is a 48 unit Master of Urban Planning program that is only offered "in-residence" by San Jose State University. This is the program I really want to do, but I can not figure out how to do it. Just the getting to and from class would take more than two hours each day. Why or why can't this program be a distance program, too? And I am so good at Sim City!!!

May Their Memories Be Eternal

I visit cemeteries often. About once a month I go and pray for my parents. Usually, I look for the graves of Orthodox Christians and pray the Trisagion for them. There aren't many Orthodox in the cemeteries I visit. But there are always war dead. I always pray for them, too. The things they did and saw and had to do were horrible. God, be merciful to them.



I think we all know this picture. At each changing of the guard the commander of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns salutes his fallen comrades from the two World Wars and the Korean War. (The crypt that once housed the body from the Vietnam war is now vacant.)

In Philadelphia is a less famous but no less important Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. In the stone below are carved these words: "Beneath this stone rests a soldier of Washington's army who died to give you liberty."

Just a reminder

“This true faith of the Orthodox Church, which I now voluntarily confess and truly hold, that same I will firmly maintain and confess, whole and unchanged, even until my last breath, God helping me…. In witness to this, my true and pure-hearted confession, I kiss the Word and Cross of my Savior, Amen.”

Just One More Reason to Hate the Great Schism

I used to beg my parents to send me to boarding school. I really wanted to go to one of those old "brick and ivy" schools in New England but I knew my parents wouldn't go for that because of the distance (we lived in Tampa). So I tried persistently to get them to send me to Admiral Farragut Academy, also known as Old Fairy Guts. They said no to that, too. Now I am a parent and understand their reluctance to send me to boarding school. But I just came across a really cool school's website and it very much made me wish the Latins would be a bit more willing to admit that Pius IX was wrong, and that the Orthodox would be a bit more forgiving. Are there any schools like this (and you should really watch the promo movie.) that are run by Orthodox?

A Word from the Fathers

"But those who cleave asunder, and separate the unity of the Church, [shall] receive from God the same punishment as Jeroboam did." St Irenaeus of Lyons in Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter 26:2

Rumor of even more schism in North American Church has reached our ears and has brought darkness and sorrow over our hearts. Let us pray to St. Irenaeus that the little bit of unity the Orthodox Church in America has left will not be destroyed, that he will guide us in the Orthodox Faith, and that our King's request of his Father concerning us, which is that we may be as one, will be fulfilled in our lifetime.

"Thou hast shown thyself, O God inspired Irenaeus as a guide to the Orthodox Faith, a teacher of true worship and purity, O star of the universe and companion of Bishops, O wise one. Through thy light thou hast enlightened all, O harp of the Spirit. Therefore, intercede with Christ God to save our souls." Troparion (Tone 4)

This Day's Good and Bad ( according to the eyes of the flesh)

The Good: The repair of the broken tooth is covered (mostly) by insurance! HOORAY!!!

The Bad: I've lost my hearing again.

The Good: Anselm Samuel really enjoyed his lesson on heraldry. He mad a cool personal coat of arms that in heraldry-code identified him as a third son and a Christian. He also correctly identified the badges and stars of various orders of knighthood and pointed out similar looking devices that are not emblems of knighthood because they are awarded by republics.

The Bad: Anselm Samuel says he hates writing and reading and only wants to learn by watching "Magic School Bus" videos and "Peep and the Big Wide World" videos.

The Good: The director of Stanford's "Big HR" told my wife's boss that my wife is very talented and very valuable and Stanford needs to not lose my wife.

The Bad: My wife did not get a job at Stanford that she had hoped she would get and which would have given her a about 15% raise.

Mid-life crisis? HA! I say again, HA! I laugh in your face!

Golly! Wouldn't you think that my family has had enough sickness this year? Apparantly our cup still has some room in it because three of us have colds. Cyndi and I each have pussy green goo coming out of our eyes. (WOW! Never experienced that before. Yuck!) Thankfully, Basil is spared that disgusting symptom. Basil was the first to get sick on Monday. I started feeling poorly on Tuesday. Cyndi on Wednesday. I think Basil and I are over the worst of it. But the cough and stuffy nose linger. The headache was miserable.

I bring this up not so much to make you all feel sorry for us (Did i mention that I broke a tooth, too?) but to write a little about getting older. (My health makes me think a lot about getting older.)

I'll be 40 next February. I always thought I would like being 40. Seriously. Even when I was 14 my favorite outfit was grey flannel slacks, a white shirt, a navy blazer, and a conservative tie. When I was 20 used to think of 40 as my dream age. I figured by 40 I'd be established in a career, have 2 grown sons, a house (full of American Empire furniture, Art Deco accents, and with my yet to be bought collection of Wedgwood jasperware plates on one wall.) 1/2 paid for, and vacations in places such as Venice, London, Barcelona, New York, Hong Kong, etc., have one or two books published, have a couple of graduate degrees. And I thought I would always be hale and hearty. That was my fantasy when I was 20. I was a slightly odd 20 year old.

Now I am 39, and what I am noticing is that I am a very long way away from that fantasy 40-year old I thought I would be. Iam actually farther away from that 40 year old now than I was when I was 20. I have achieved none of the stuff I thought I would, and none of it seems likely. Well, I do have two grown sons. I love them very much and am very proud of them but they do not talk to me. (God hates divorce for a reason, you know?) I suppose that isn't just a zero, but is a negative value, huh?

But I have three things that I never expected, and those three things more than make up for all the things that 20-year old wanted but never got. (And of course, I realize about 1/4 of 20 year olds who were alive with me when I was 20 are dead now. It is probable that they never got what they wanted either.)

The first thing is the Orthodox Christian faith. It is not possible for me to describe how happy it makes me to have all the different threads that I thought were true tied up in one beautiful rope. The second thing is a wife I can trust and who loves me. As late as 32 I had doubts about ever having that. The third thing is two little boys to watch grow up. This last is almost more fun than a man can handle. Some of the things they say and do just about make me burst open with happiness. I have vast amounts of beauty and love in my life, and that seems to be better than the things I wanted when I was 20.

But I'd still rather not have pussy green slime coming out of my eye. And a an American Empire highboy could certaily be put to good use.

All Is Not One. Non-A Is Not Equal To A.

ABC News reports the following:

"Despite his call for the U.S. to win the "hearts and minds of the Islamic world," Sen. John McCain recruited the support of an evangelical minister who describes Islam as "anti-Christ" and Mohammed as "the mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil."" (Read whole story here.)

The Orthodox Church teaches the following:
Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is antichrist (1 John 2:22),
Anyone who says Jesus is merely a man is antichrist (1 John 4:3)

Islam teaches the following:
1.God (Allah in Arabic) is a monad, there are no Father and Son. (Quaran 4:171)
2.Islam teaches that Jesus (Isa in Arabic) is a created being, created exactly like Adam, thus a mere human being. (Quaran 3:5-9)

Therefore, Mohammad and all Muslims are antichrist.

I hate to be pedantic, but, come on ABC. This is a simple syllogism. Orthodox Christians, indeed, all people who believe the New Testament, have to reach the same conclusion about Islam and Muslims: They are antichrist. This should not be a surprise. The surprise would be finding a Christian who says otherwise.

Paisley, "McCain's spiritual advisor" did say some other things that I am not so sure about, such as America being founded, in-part, to defeat Islam. I don't know what his source is for that, and it is something I have never read or heard before, so I am doubtful.

As for the threat posed by Islam, it is evident in history, the Quaran (the book allegedly revealed to Mohamed), the Hadditha (the sayings of Mohamed), and current events. Islam is murderous. About that Paisley is correct. But, honestly, I don't know the best course of action. But I do know that the course of action the Orthodox Church takes should be different from the course of action the various worldly powers take. It is not the Church's business to kill Muslims, though any state that wants to remain free ought to do exactly that. But why even have a two pronged approach? Why should the Church and the worldly powers both act against Islam?

Well, the worldly powers, the states of the world, have a duty to self-defense and defense of their people. Islam is a military and political agenda as much as it is a religion. As a military and political agenda it is a threat to all non-Muslim powers. But that military and political struggle is not the Church's job should not be forefront in any Christian's mind, unless that particular Christian is an officer of a state trying to protect itself from Islam.

The Church, as a rescue operation, the Ark of God's Salvation, is charged with fishing for men. Our vocation is saving men from the abyss of wrong belief and enmity with God, and bringing them onto the dry land of right belief and peace with God. It is not our job as Christians to oppose Islam, per se. It is our job, as we work with our bishops, to live and preach Christ. Which means, it is our job to say Islam, Buddhism, and Unitarianism, Hinduism, Mormonism, Materialist-Atheism and every other religion are anti-Christ. All is not one. Non-A is not equal to A. We say that because it is true. And we invite people, always in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, to be baptized into Christ, who is the Truth.

As for McCain, well I don't know if I can vote for him. I don't think he is quite pro-life enough for me. I need to find out more about his position on stem-cell research. (I've never voted for a pro-abort. I never shall.)

A Personal Relationship with Jesus

Fr. Stephen has something very much worth reading on his blog. Here is how it starts.

A priest friend sent me an article from Franklin Graham’s website, describing a revival in the Ukraine. Like others who have gone to Eastern Europe to preach the gospel, there is frequently a mistaken assessment of the Orthodox Church. Graham’s article recognized a holiness present in the Church’s there, but described it as “Old Testament,” and generally likened the Church to “religion” and not the same thing as “personal relationship.”

But you should read the whole article called The Orthodox Church And Personal Salvation.

My Wife

Have I mentioned that last Saturday the President of the Jesuit University of San Francisco bade my wife "welcome into the community of scholars" as a Master of Public Administration? This picture was take outside the library about 5 minutes after the ceremony. The little boy is Anselm Samuel.
Speakers at the ceremony included Willie Brown and Charlotte Mailliard Swig Schulz. There were other speakers but these were the two best.

My Vine

“The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the Universe to do.” - Galileo Galilei


Three years ago I planted a grape vine. It did remarkably well. Until snails ate all the leaves in a single night. It recovered, but was not healthy. Then I had to dig it up and put it in a pot, well, half a wine cask, actually. Then, when I moved to my current apartment I tried to lift the cask but almost gave up the ghost in the attempt. It must have been 500 lbs of cask, dirt, water, and vine. So I did the only think I could do. I grabbed hold of the vine near the dirt and pulled, freeing the vine but leaving more than half the roots in the cask.

In February 2007 I put it in the ground outside my new apartment - scrunched into a tiny space betwen blue star rosemary and some other ornamental plants - (No, I didn't ask the landlord.) and hoped, and watered. In May there were leaves. I waited all summer to see grapes but there were none. Then the leaves fell off and the vine might as well have been dead. But it wasn't.

A few weeks ago leaves began to appear again. And as of today there are fourteen of these...

ABCs

I saw this on Iconic Books (see sidebar). The boys and I watched it several times.

Hmmmm! I'll have a slice of Stinking Bishop, please.

Would you look at this? I had no idea there was a cheese school located so close to where I live. As soon as I have some free time I think I'll have to enroll. Maybe, they even teach their students to make < stinking bishop?