God is not an engineer

When I was a boy I read lots and lots of apologetical books; defenseses of Creationism, mainly, that attempted to show that only God could have made the world. I believed, and still believe most of those arguments. But most of them came down to this: Only an amazing engineer could have made the universe. So, when I heard this joke I immedeately laughed hard and loud.

Three engineers got into an argument about what kind of engineer God is.
The first, says, "God is a mechanical engineer. Look at how we manipulate our arms, legs, lungs, and how blood flows through our bodies. God is a mechanical engineer."
The second says, "No. God is an electrical engineer. Our nervous system, heart, brain. Everything is run by electrical impulses. God is an electrical engineer."
The third says, "Your both wrong. God is a civil engineer. Who else would route the sewage system through the recreation area?"

But I don't think God is an engineer. I think he is an artist expressing different ideas in a theme. Just look at the primates! We are all so similar to each other. How many versions of primates did God make? Only one is man but those that are not man are still amazing. Look at the eye! Insect, fish, reptiles, birds, and mamals all have eyes and all the eyes are different. Among humans, many women have an ability to see more colors than any man. All normal human eyes see more colors that canines can see. But the mnts shrimp sees more colors and kinds of light than any other creature we know about. It's like god said, "Hey, I know what I'll do. I'll put the best eyes in the universe in a little shrimp and let human beings try to figure out why. That'll be fun!"

It was when I saw Linnea in Monet's Garden (It came as part of an eductional program I got when I was homeschooling Anselm Samuel for kindergarten.) that I first began to think about God being an artist. Specificaaly, it was Monet's paintings of the Charring Cross bridge that got me thinking about it. Its just a bridge but Monet painted it over and over again, each time higlinting something in the bridge that he thought was important. Likewise, God has made millions and millions and millions of eyes. And each eye perceives light differently from all other eyes. Maybe, like Monet wanted us to understand that the bridge is not just a means for crossing water, God wants us not to be content with using eyes to see but wants us to understand something about light.

Movies

In the last couple of years it has come to my attention that people rarely go to the cinema to see movies anymore. I know I don't, I can count on one hand the number of movies I've seem in the last two years. It is a strange change in my life, and I guess I am thinking about it because David Lynch died three days ago. But several years before I saw my first David Lynch Film (I986, Blue Velvet, the only movie I saw after reading a review in a newspaper) I used to watch Siskel and Ebert on KQED chanel 9 out of San Francisco. It was my favotite show on the teevee. I don't think I missed a week. But my movie going memories really started years before I started watching Siskel and Ebert. The first three movies I remember seeing were Fantastic Planet at theMountain View Theather in Mountain View, California with my Brother-in-Law Dan, The Gumball Rally with my brother Mark at the Moffat Drive-in in Mountain View California, and the Swashbuckler at the Century 21 cinema in San Jose, California. All of those cinemas, the Mountain View, the Moffet Drive-in, and the Century 21 are gone now. The 1980s and early 1990s were to me the golden age of cimema for me. A Room with a View, Out of Africa, Big Trouble in Little China, Leaving Las Vegas, Remains of the Day, Romancing the Stone, Stand by Me, Howards End, Platoon, Glory, Nuch Ado about Nothing, Body Heat, and Gump were some of the best movies I ever saw. Hmmmm. Nostalgia might not be a good thing.

I love the holidays.

Thanksgiving I met my son's in-laws. On the way down to Oceanside, where they live, we passed several things I had never seen before and some things I hadn't seen since I was 8 years old. I saw Biola University, my teenage dream school. We passed by Mission San Juan Capistrano, Which I read about when I was in the fourth grade, but remember mostly from watching this cartoon. At one point I saw an exit from the freemay that said Basilone Dr. I was like, No Way! so I googled it to see if I was right. Yes, it was named for John Basilone. Almost as exciting was a few minutes later when I saw Camp Pendleton off to my left; the place where Gomer Pyle lived.

When we got to our destination I immediately loved my son's in-laws. My daughter-in-law's grandmother lives there. She is a widow and has an intese prayer rule. She prays the Caplet of Divine Mercy (Which I learned many years ago from watching Mother Angelica's TV network, 50 rosaries and a bunch of other prayers every day. Her daughter, my son's mother-in-law is Mexican so the food was out of this world: Tamales, birria, chocolate mole served over shredded chicken, plus the ham, turkey, tortilla, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pies (including my cranberry walnut pie and pecan pie), cheese cake, and so much other stuff I didn't even taste it all. They had me pray at so many meals I was starting to feel like a priest!

The funeral of my sister's father-in-law was two days ago. He was a sailor; a tail-gunner who flew off of the U.S.S. Hornet at the Battle of Miday and several other battles. After the war he became a pastor and a Christian school administrator. Even in his 90s he was active in helping organize Christian colleges. He is an amazing man. Sadly, I could not be at the funeral so I could only send flowers, But, maybe, you can jon me in praying for Charles.

I think I might have mentinoed that I have about 20 different Christmas theme ties. I wear a different one every day and kids who aren,t even in my classes come in to see the tie of the day. One of my favorite things is that I play a Christmas Carol at the start of each period. So far they have heard O Tannenbaum (One of my Vietnamese students asked "Mr. Karnes, what do Christmas Trees Mean" Wow! What an opening! In 3 minutes I told them about St. Bonifice, an ancient Icon depicting Mary, Jesus, and a pine tree decorated with litte loaves of bread, and martin luther using a pine tree to represent the tree of life in plays he staged at Christmas.), The Holly and the Ivy (Not the sermon but only the music starting at about 5:30), Today they heard Il est ne, le divin Enfant. A student of mine from Romania asked me to play a Romanian Cristmas song tomorrow, so we'll all hear Open the Door, Christian. Also, I bought a Christmas tree for my classroom today and invited all the students to bring an ornament to hang on it.

Tonight I drove the chocolate coins and a fruit cake to my godchildren in San Francisco; tomorrow is St. Nicholas day. On the way to their hous I saw a woman step into traffic and get run over by a pick up truck. The driver of the pick up truck leaped out of his truck and went to the womans aid. Her leg was bent in the wrong direction and she was screaming. I pulled over and called 911, told them what I saw, and waited for the paramdeics and police. When the police got there I told them what happened, then went on to deliver the chocolate and the fruitcake. The woman was taken away in an ambulance. It has been an eventful day. Good night.

Late January and Early February

Anselm, San Francisco Bay

Duck season Don Edwards ended on January 31.  Before the end of the season my son Anslem and I went out shooting a couple of times.  I lost my license and federal duck stamp so the last couple of times I didn't shoot.  But Anselm did and he had fun.  He cooked one pintail breast but but didn't like it.

duck breast

My birthday was fun.  Kathleen, her kids, and my kids threw me a surprise party with liver from Original Joe's and  carrot cake from Nothing Bund't Cakes.

Work is still not great.  Because of the government's covid response I am getting very few hours at Bass Pro Shops and I've only had one substitute assignment since October.  I've been applying for other jobs but not getting them.  So, I've gone back to school. I think I mentioned taking a waste water management class from Evergreen Valley College this time last year.  This year I decided to jump in with both feet and enroll at Gavilan College full-time.  Their waste water program is much better than Evergreen's and it is, because of Covid, all on online.  

The green houses Kathleen put on the front porch are doing amazing.  We will have to start transplanting soon.

Good Little Monkeys

Another cartoon I've liked ever since the first time I saw it is Good Little Monkeys, also dating from the 1930s.  My mother had a little ceramic statue of the Goodie Goodie Monkeys that I always liked. (You can find them for sale on eBay.)   Gosh, I don't think I've seen it since I was 7 or 8 years old.

Anyway, when I was a kid I used to walk around singing to myself "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, No. We're the goodie goodie monkeys everywhere we go."

The concept comes from the teachings of Confucious which when translated into Japanese is "Mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru" ("don't see, don't hear, don't say").  And since "-zaru" sounds like "saru" (Eng. monkey) the Japanese made these little statues and called them The Three Wise Monkeys.

I don't know how the monkeys became popular in the United States.  Perhaps, they were brought over the ocean by immigrants. 

Of course, all three of the monkey behaviors are presaged in the Bible:

See no evil -  "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes"  Psalm 101:3

Hear no evil - "A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue." Proverbs 17:4

Speak no evil - "Let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth..." Ephesians 4:29
One of the things I really like about this cartoon is the role played by books.  The books step in to rescue the monkeys from the Devil.  There is a lesson there.



Happy Harmony*** Good Little Monkeys (1935... by andythebeagle

Bottles

Even when I was a little kid  i noticed the difference between cartoons made in the 1930s through the 1940s and the cartoons being made when I was a kid in the 1970s.  It seems that cartoons made in that earlier time were made for adults, or a least for kids who aren't utter dullards and are able to get a joke.   One of the reasons I like this cartoon so much is that it has references to stuff I saw in my house or in my grandmothers house.  It changed forever how I would think of a bottle of Witch Hazel.