A Fundraiser

I am raising money for my class. My students need so much stuff! Books, maps, a pencil sharper, etc. Most of the parents of the kids I teach are not wealthy and are stuggling just to pay the tuition. I've been using books from my own library but the students really need access to classroom sets of several important history, philosophy, and econoomics texts. For that reason I have started a GoFundMe page. If you think you can help, please click here.

A Joyful Day!

Today Basil Wenceslas, who has been suffereing from Long Covid, was well enough to return to Church. It was his first time to be in Church since Holy Week. He was exhausted by the end of Communion and we left before the Prayers of Thanksgiving but he was there. I am much relieved and very happy.

Planning Classes

All day Friday, all Day Saturday, and all night to this very moment all I have been doing is planning my World History Class. From Sargon of Akkad to the Global Communist Conspiracy I think I have covered all the highlights. Oh, my poor students. They had better be good readers. Now I have to get in bed and get a sleep before I get up for church in three hours.

Update on my children

My son, Anselm Samuel has been on a couple of short training missions, each one only a few days, aboard the U.S.S. Hampton. They were just off the coast of California for the short missions and all they did was test equipment and run through some drills. Today he told me they are leaving for a real mission (I didn't ask what it is because I know he can't tell me.) in a couple of weeks and will be gone until after Christmas.

My son, Basil Wenceslas is doing better. Last night he went out of the house with some friends for the first time in months. When I called him about 11 p.m. to read Exodus together he was whiped out and feeling exhausted by the exertion of going to a movie but I am just so happy he was able to get out of bed and go outside!!!

Truth Is Truth No Matter Who Says It

I wish this were an Orthodox preacher but like a bee I'll take nectar where I can find it. From minute 9 through minute 20 is the best explanation of the reality of the bread and wine truly being the Body and Blood of Jesus. Following that he goes down list of some of the Church Fathers of the first 3 centuries, including Ss. Ignatius, Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom.

On a personal note, I remember when I was about 11 or 12 years old hearing, as though for the first time, my Dad do a communion service in Ukiah, California. Like most of the pastors in that denomination at that time, he read St. Paul's words from I Corinthinans 11:23-26, and when I heard the words I was astounded. And I was confused when I tried to reconcile those words with that denomination's teaching that the bread and grape juice are not really the Body and Blood of Jesus. I mean, we were Protestants and our whole religion was supposed to be based on the Bible (I first learned the Five Solas when I was 10 years old at Sunnyvale Christian School.), and we weren't just Protestants, we were Pentecostals who believed miracles and in the literal interpretation of the Bible. Why would we not interpret "this is my body" and "this is my blood" literally? Why would we think God couldn't do this miracle? The disagreement between the words I heard from St. Paul and the teaching of my denomination made no sense to me. It is no wonder I became Orthodox when Orthodoxy found me.

David McCullough, Dead

I was just looking up something for work (I'm dealing with the close of the western frontier right now) and saw this very sad news. David McCullough was one of the most important historians of America who ever lived. I mentioned on this blog one time that there are different schools of history. In the late 20th and early 21st Centuries there was no more powerful proponent - all the more powerful because he was quiet about it - of the proviential school of historiography, that idea held by some historians that Providence guides history. We are richer for the work he did. We are poorer because of his death. Memory Eternal!

I do not often post sermons on my blog but when I do...

So Excited!

For the past few days I've been writing syllabi and planning my classes. Tonight I made it up to Thanksgiving week in my U.S. History courses. And guess what I am going to do. I am going to have my students read Thanksgiving proclamations from Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and Reagan, and then write a comparitive essay. I can not begin to tell you how excited I am about this assignment!

What We Call Fun at Our House

Fun thing #1: Basil was feeling well enough to get out of bed yesterday. We sat at the table and played three games of 7 Wonders and two games of Go. (I am a 30th degree white belt. The boys laugh every time I remind them of that.) He is paying for it today, however. He has not been able to get out of bed at all today.

Fun thing #2: Kathleen and I are both history, government, and economics teachers, and we have been sitting in the living room most of the day with computers on and surrounded by books as we plan out our courses, share sources, write syllabi, and refine lectures.

A Day Off

Until today all I'd been doing since Friday was reading textbooks and preparing for the coming school year. While reading the McClay history textbook (mentioned in my post) I came accross a small error so I looked up McClay's email and sent him the information he needs so he can fix the error in the second edition. He wrote back. It turns out he is a really neat guy. We are getting together later this year.

Today, Kathleen and I went to the Pigeon Point Lighthouse and Scott Creek Beach. I think it was the first time I've been to that beach since my boys were little. Scott Creek Beach, Waddell Creek Beach, and Bonny Doon Beach were the beaches I used to take them to all the time. It was Kathleen's first time at Scott Creek Beach.

There were lots of kite surfers today. Just before we came home the dog dug up a large crab, shook it ferrociosly, ripped it to pieces, and rolled in it. The smell in the car was horrible. We stopped at dog wash and got him all cleaned up before we let him in the house.

It was fun reading about Righteous Gamaleil today. As I was reading about him today I learned that he was a famous rabbi and the Jews still cite some of his decisions. I wonder how many secret Christians there are today. My guess is many.

This is thesecond day of the Dormition Fast. I am always surpised about hw good the food is. Also, meal prep and clean up is much easier when there is no meat, fish, dairy, or oil. I did make some vegan pesto for Katleen yesterday (Yesterday was an oil day. I don't know why.) I don't like pesto but she does so I made it for her.
A normal pesto recipe has five ingredients: fresh basil, Pamagiano Regiano, olive oil, fresh garlic, and pine nuts. To make it vegan, and thereby fast-friendly, all you have to do is leave out the cheese, add a little salt and, bingo, you have vegan pesto.

Oh, no, I said it.

The other day, because 98% of the Monkey Pox cases in the U.S. are in men who have sex with other men, I said the spread of Monkey Pox could be halted if men would stop having sex with men. I was astounded by the reaction. People were quick call me a bigot, to inform me that the disease is spread easily between people and not just by sodomy, that it is possible for non-homosexual men to be immoral, and more. It was just astounding to me. All one has to do is look at the SCIENTIFIC FACTS to see that what I said is true. But it seems that the Overton Window has shifted and we are no longer able to say what is true about the link between homosexual behavior and disease. But I am going to say it anyway because it is not love to not warn people when they are in danger or, even worse, to encourage them to engage in the behavior that will kill them. Just like my parents who used to warn me to lose weight, like my sister who used to tell me to not drive too fast, like the Church that warned me not to commit suicide (because sucides are separated from God forever) when I was suffering from depression, like the U.S. government that warns people not to smoke cigarettes, love also demands that we warn the homosexuals that what they are doing is deadly.

Here are some facts about homosexual behavior and disease.

Only about 4.5% of the U.S. population (male and female) engages in homosexual activity but just the men in that 4.5% account for:
83% of primary and seconday syphillis cases
10% and 20% of hepatitis A and B cases
Between 64% and 72% of the people who have HIV

Those are facts. But what should be done about them? In the early days of the HIV epidemic the mayor of San Francisco closed all the bath houses (it's a euphemism for orgy club) in the city. (I'm not arguing that the closure stopped the spreead of HIV.) In 2020 the whole country was shut down to halt the spread of Covid-19. (I'm not arguing that the shutdown stopped the spread of Covid-19.) What I am arguing is that if we could shut down private sex clubs and even the whole country, we should be free to say what is obvious. We have laws that forbid the sale of tobacco to minors but it is the social and moral approrbium that have really cut the percentage of cigarette smokers to historic lows. Maybe, a good first step to reducing HIV, syphillis, monkey pox, and hepetitis infections is to speak the truth about homosexual behavior leading to disease instead of celebrating their behavor in Pride Parades and Up Your Alley street orgies.