Halloween 2021
Month: October 2021
Our Tent Last Week
I forgot about the pictures we took in and of the new little tent we used last week.
To call it “cozy” is quite an understatement.
We had to store the gear in the cabin in which some of the other boys slept.
Hero
We all dream of being a hero. We can say we don't, but we all have those little fantasies that at least once, we save the day. E is no exception, and for that reason, this fall's soccer season has been disappointing for him. It's not that he hasn't felt like a hero; he has positively felt like he's added very little to his team. In one game, an attacker beat him when he was a defender to score the first goal of the game, and I could see from his expression afterward that he felt horrible about it.
It certainly doesn't help that his team has won only one game this season, and that was only by forfeit because the other team didn't know about the game time change somehow and no one showed up. They've been beaten and they've been positively trounced.
"We're never going to win," has been the Boy's refrain as we head back to the car. The other boys feel the same, I think.
Last week, for example, while we were camping, only five of the players showed up. They played anyway, and the asshole coach of the opposing team played all seven positions against our five boys, so the poor boys got beaten, though not as badly as one might expect (7-4).
Today, too, we were shorthanded, but a boy from the other team joined our team, and we played at even strength. (That coach showed class unlike the classless individual from last week.) We began relatively unremarkably, with neither team really dominating. Then, about ten minutes into the first half, E broke free with the ball and headed straight to the goal, firing a rocket that went right by the goalie and sank into the back corner of the net.
"E just scored!!!!!!!!!!" I texted K with probably the biggest grin smeared across my face. Last season, his first with CESA (the local soccer league), he hadn't scored a single goal all season.
By the end of the first half the red team had equalized and then pulled ahead, so we went into break under a bit of pressure.
"I was sure we were going to lose," E explained later. When red scored a third time, E was convinced that they were going to experience their next inevitable loss. But shortly after that, the Boy broke through the defenses again and scored his second goal, pulling his team to within one. Just a few minutes after that, he was through again, but he stumbled a bit and sent the ball well wide of the goal.
"How amazing that would have been!" I thought.
Just moments later, the Boy broke through, outran two defenders, and shot a lovely looping curve into the net. Three goals in one game -- a coveted hat-trick. To top it all off, I finally had my camera up while he scored -- in the other two, I'd dropped it to my side and just cheered him on, but the final one, I kept firing away.
But of all the shots from today, my favorite is the one just after his first goal when he'd just gotten a big congratulatory low-five from a teammate. Head slightly down, a little spring in his step, he walked back to his position. I look at the image and wonder what exactly he was thinking, wonder just how much it might help his confidence, wonder if it might not be the best thing that's happened to him in ages.
Eve and Misogyny
It certainly does.
New Lightroom
Messing with the new Lightroom mask feature — it’s like Photoshop in Lightroom.
Martial Law
I have vague memories of this as a child — hearing about it on the news — but only vague. So strange to be able to watch this now, nearly forty years later.
“Great is the burden of responsibility that falls to me” — the question has always been just how great. Had Jaruzelski not imposed martial law, would the Soviets have intervened?
The Run
It's a slow pace -- just over 10 minutes a mile -- but it's the first time I've run five miles in thirty years.
Evening Walk
Took the dog for a walk — it was foggy.
Spent the rest of the evening resetting passwords in LastPass to improve my security scores and peace of cyber-mind.
Weebos Woods 2021
The idea is simple: to get Cub Scouts ready for being Boy Scouts, they spend a weekend as a small patrol as for-the-weekend Boy Scouts with an actual scout leading them through the weekend's activities.
"Parents, you will only see your children in the morning at breakfast, in the afternoon at lunch, in the evening at dinner, and when it's time to go to bed. We want to begin building a sense of independence in these kids," the camp leader explained Friday night.
So as to what the Boy actually did, I'm a little clueless. Which is not to say I don't know what activities he did. He shot a pellet gun, learned how to make a fire, cooked cobbler over a campfire, went on a hike, and a few other things. But as to what that actually looked like, I really don't know. I saw him here and there throughout the day, but mostly, I left him alone with his patrol and its Boy Scout leader.
And this is why I have no pictures of him doing these things: I was out hiking or reading or grading papers.
In the evening, as with all scout camps, there was a variety show of sorts. The kids put on various skits, including the scout classic "Important Papers."
"Do you have my important papers?" Scout hands the boy papers. "No! Not these!" The next scout comes up and the main actor asks again, "Do you have my important papers?" Scout hands the boy papers. "No! Not these!" Repeat for as many times as necessary until there's one scout who comes with a roll of toilet paper. "Yes! These are my important papers!" We've seen it done every camp, which is probably one of the reasons why the leaders have to approve each skit -- to prevent every patrol from doing the "Important Papers" favorite.
The upshot -- we got little sleep but E had a fantastic time and was eager to go again.
Catholic “Humor”
The group that is putting out the Bible in a Year podcast that I’ve been listening to on and off (mainly off, I must admit) has a social media page for podcast participants. Someone posted a joke about one of the most horrific stories in the Bible, when God commands Abraham to sacrifice his own son Isaac.
“Wait,” Isaac asks in the meme, “don’t we need a ram?’
The original passage reads,
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” (Genesis 22.7, 8)
It’s the initial confusion of a boy who’s probably beginning to suspect what’s up but can’t possibly accept it. It’s the confusion of a boy about to experience such trauma that I’m not sure multiple lifetimes of therapy and counseling could heal. It is, in short, the beginning of one of the most horrifying stories in the Bible, a story that non-believers point to as strong evidence of the immorality of the god portrayed in the Old Testament.
In the meme, Abraham answers Isaac’s confusion flippantly, “Not when you’ve got family.”
It’s a screenshot from some film or TV show with which I’m completely unfamiliar, so I’m likely missing something as memes depend often on the disconnect between the visual and the verbal. A quick search reveals the line is from the Fast and the Furious film franchise, something I know absolutely nothing about and have no interest in. Apparently, references to the importance of family in memes stem from these films.
I found the humor disturbing, though. Here’s a man joking about the fact that he’s about to kill his own son. That he was willing to do so in the first place is striking; that the Abraham in the meme is being flippant about it is obscene. So of course I called them on it with a single-word comment: “Disturbing.”
The administrator, though, didn’t like my comment and removed it.
Apparently, I wasn’t being respectful and courteous. They want “all members to feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and opinions about the Word of God” as long as those opinions don’t actually criticize the “Word of God.”
Was the comment disrespectful? I wasn’t criticizing the person, just the idea of the meme, so I don’t see how it was disrespectful.
Did I demean anyone with the comment? Not that I can see.
Did my comment include foul language? No, not at all.
Indeed, it was the meme itself that was disrespectful and demeaning. In making light of such a brutal and barbaric act that a supposed man of God was about to comment, it trivializes the trauma of the story and demeans victims of abuse at the hands of those who are supposed to be protecting them.
I’m sure the common response would be, “Come on, man — it’s just a joke! Relax.” But it makes me wonder how they would react were the roles reversed. Let’s say I share a joke I encountered on Twitter: “When the Holy Ghost impregnated Mary with Jesus, was he shouting ‘Oh me! Oh me! Yes! Yes! Oh me!’?” I don’t think they would be willing to accept the “Come on, man — it’s just a joke! Relax!” argument.
Of course, this “joke” (it’s really not even funny at all) is problematic to believers for two reasons. Most obviously, It’s very disrespectful of one of the central tenants of Christianity, turning it into a crude sex joke. The virgin birth of Jesus is, for some strange reason, very important in traditional Christian theology, and the way this happens is with God himself (in the form of the Holy Ghost) performing the actual impregnation. In no way would this really be thought of as a sexual act. It was a miracle according to Christians. To juxtapose this miracle with the crude image of a sex act demeans the nature of the supposed miracle and makes a mockery of the claim that Jesus was born to a virgin. In truth, it’s not a joke as much as a crude attempt at humor. But that leads to the second reason it’s problematic for believers: It highlights the illogical nature of that central tenant in a way that’s hard to ignore. Due to the dogma of the Trinity, God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are all just God. So God impregnated Mary with God. That makes Mary both God’s spiritual spouse and God’s mother. That’s illogical and disturbing, and the joke gets at that around the edges by pointing out that the Holy Ghost is also God, so instead of saying “Oh God!” he/it would be declaring “Oh me!” It’s a very unrefined way of making a basic observation: the idea of the Trinity is illogical and makes the incarnation of Jesus a weirdly incestuous act.
In short, believers don’t like having their beliefs mocked, and that joke does that. But what it’s mocking cuts close to the theological bone: it takes a basic tenant of Christianity and says, “Okay, let’s look at it from a purely logical, material point of view.” But in telling this “joke,” I would essentially be mocking Christian teaching and by proxy Christians themselves.
But doesn’t the original meme do that to victims of domestic abuse? Doesn’t it make light of one of the most tragically common and inexcusable crimes humans across all cultures have historically committed? Certainly. But because it’s wrapped in the cloak of religious dogma, many believers are blind to it.