Matching Tracksuits

Month: January 2022

Barron’s Response

Monday 31 January 2022

On Bishop Robert Barron’s minstry’s YouTube channel — Word on Fire — he had a conversation with staff member Brandon Vogt after Barron’s interview with Alex O’Connor in which they promised to go a little deeper in the responses.

Vogt points out that Barron and O’Connor went back and forth for a long time on faith, and invited Barron to elucidate a little. Instead, he just gave the same analogy, changing it from getting to know his interlocutors to getting to one one’s spouse:

The analogy which I think is very illuminating there I often use is come to know a person. So you’re coming to know another human being. Of course, reason is involved all the time. I mean, reason understands all sorts of things, but there is a moment when that person, if you’re coming to real intimacy with that person, reveals something about herself that you could not in principle know no matter how many google searches and how much analysis and how much how clever you. There’s no way you’d get what’s in that person’s heart unless she chooses to reveal it, at which point you have to make a decision: do I believe it or not. Now is it credible what she’s saying, and you might say, “Yeah it is because it’s congruent with everything else I know about her.” At the same time, is it reducible to what I know about her? No, otherwise it wouldn’t be a revelation. So that’s why it’s a false dichotomy to say reason or faith. No, it’s reason that has reached a kind of limit, but reason has opened a door. Reason has poised you for the self-manifestation of another.

Well, that’s not just with God; that happens all the time. When two people are married and deeply in love, I’m sure you could point to those moments when [your wife] revealed something to you that you would never ever have known otherwise. You revealed something about yourself to her and then the two of you, because you’re in love with each other, I imagine said, “Yeah, I believe that.”

Now, can I reduce that to an argument? No, you never can. In a way it remains always mysterious to you yet your will, in that case, has commanded your intellect. That’s exactly what Thomas Aquinas says about faith. It’s a rare instance when the will commands the intellect. Normally, it moves the other way right? The intellect kind of leads the will. The intellect understands the good and then it leads the will, but in the case of faith, the will leads the intellect. It says, “No this is worthy of belief. This person who’s speaking to me is worthy of belief, and what the person is telling me is congruent with reason yet beyond it, and so I choose to believe.” That’s the relationship between faith and reason it seems to me so.

In the debate with O’Connor, Barron defined faith as “the response to a revealing God.” That makes very little sense in terms of how most people use faith. “You just have to have faith that God’s plan, which involves this horrendous suffering, will result in good,” someone might say. Let’s switch those out: “You just have to have [the response to a revealing God] that God’s plan, which involves this horrendous suffering, will result in good.” Clearly, this definition of “faith” is not the same as the original sentence’s sense of “faith.” This might work for “the Christian faith” — “the Christian response to a revealing God.” That works. That’s fine. You’d also have “the Muslim response to a revealing God,” and so on — but this “faith” just means “belief system” or even “religion.”

Furthermore, the faith that Barron gives in this example is not faith — it’s trust. It’s a trust that is based on experiential evidence. I believe my wife because she’s shown herself to be trustworthy. I wouldn’t make this same move (to use a favorite Barron term) with a stranger. The only time such a move (there it is again) is conceivable is if the revelation the stranger gives you is utterly trivial: “I have a dog.”

This faith/trust often moves into faith/trust in Jesus, that we’re to get to know Jesus and then we’ll have faith in him. Or trust in him. But that is utterly different from the situation with my wife. My wife is physically present with me. She’s not some hypothetical spiritual being out there but a real person that I can observe and talk to.

“You can get to know Jesus,” comes the rejoinder. But how? Directly? No.

I can get to know him through the Bible, but that’s problematic for obvious reasons that I’ve discussed numerous times here. It’s filled with contradictions. The image of God presented in the Old Testament is positively barbaric. It’s packed with immorality commanded from God — it’s just not a good example of a good supposedly written by an omnipotent being.

I can get to know him through what the church teaches about him, and here the Catholic church has a leg up on Protestants because they don’t restrain themselves to the Bible. The magisterium has equal footing — or nearly-equal footing. So if the Pope says it ex-cathedra, it’s an article of faith. Still, that’s just the same as relying on the Bible — it’s a product of humans.

Finally, I can get to know him in that way that Evangelicals and Mormons are especially fond of: that sense we have in our heart (it’s telling that religions insist on using that metaphor when we’ve known for ages that the seat of our intellect is not our hearts but our brains — it’s an attempt, I suspect, to move the whole experience away from the intellect) that God is involved in our lives. That warm feeling in their hearts that Christians attribute to the Holy Spirit. I don’t doubt the experience of that warm feeling, but to attribute it to anything outside one’s own mind is itself an act of faith, an act not based on evidence. “It’s the Holy Spirit!” the Bible proclaims and our pastors echo, and so Christians accept that explanation. Muslims have the same experiences but attribute that not to the Holy Spirit (that would be blaspheme, for God is one!) but to Allah. Hindus would make the same move. (It’s rubbing off on me.)

So all three ways we get to know God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit are questionable: they’re all open to interpretation; none are firmly grounded on rational reasoning based on evidence. That is what we skeptics mean when we say that faith is not reason, that it does not work in a similar way, and that it is separate from (sometimes anathema to) evidence.

Bishop Barron on Faith

Sunday 30 January 2022

I was listening to a debate between Alex O’Connor and Bishop Robert Barron on YouTube during my run this evening, and they got to talking about the nature of faith. I wanted to respond to it, but I didn’t want to take the time to transcribe large portions of the video, so I tried my first-ever response video…

The original debate is here:

Pinewood Derby 2022

Saturday 29 January 2022

For this year’s car, we decided to get a little silly.

Post-race damage evident

“I can’t believe we didn’t make a single cut on the car this year!” was the Boy’s refrain.

We drilled a couple of holes to put in some weight; we sanded a lot; and we painted a bit. However, not a single cut.

We haven’t had a lot of success in the pinewood derby. I don’t think the Boy has even placed in his den let alone the pack.

Still, we kept trying. Last year, we employed a number of tricks:

  • polishing the axels;
  • bending the axles to make the wheels point outward at the bottom to minimize friction;
  • mounting one front wheel high so that it didn’t touch the track;
  • making sure we’d put the weight in the perfect location relative to the car’s center of gravity.

None of that really helped.

I think this year we were both hopeful that if we didn’t place in the actual race we might get some recognition for originality. After all, we entered a stick of butter.

“I can’t believe we didn’t make a single cut on the car this year!”

It did about as well as our fine-tuned, finely-balanced car from last year in the race. And in the superlatives?

The Boy’s expression says it all.

“I was hoping to win something today,” he said quietly afterward.

Building

Thursday 27 January 2022

Somehow, I didn’t publish these pictures from a couple of months ago…

Some of My Kiddos

Wednesday 26 January 2022

A gaggle of girls came to the basketball game tonight to watch their friends play — all of them my students.

What a sweet bunch of girls. They’re like that in class, too.

It’s a pleasure working with kids like this.

Our Neighbors (Sort Of)

Tuesday 25 January 2022

Out for a walk with Clover, and I find myself wondering if that guy up the street — a near-neighbor, I suppose, who lives about half-a-dozen houses up the street — has finally taken down his Halloween decorations. He puts on such a show that he starts putting crap in his yard sometime in mid-September. Surely, I think, surely he’s taken the last of the decorations down — huge skeletons that have remained in his yard long after everything else disappeared.

But no — no such luck.

“He can just put hearts in their hands and he’ll have Valentine’s decorations,” K laughs when we’re talking about it later in the evening. “And then an Easter egg!” she adds.

“Maybe a flag for Independence Day,” I suggest.

We come to a few simple conclusion, though:

  1. We’re glad this guy lives up over the hill, and we don’t see this unless we go for a walk.
  2. We’re glad the neighbors around us have, well, taste.
  3. And we finally see a positive use for a HOA…

Shed

Monday 24 January 2022

It finally arrived.

Extra storage!

A new home for the lawnmower, bikes, and gardening nonsense.

Sevierville Volleyball

Saturday 22 January 2022

The girls spent the day in Tennessee playing volleyball — well, one playing, one watching.

The boys woke to the promised dusting of snow,

and ended the day with a dinner of chili, corn chips, and ice cream.

“That was a pretty good day,” the Boy concluded.

Snow Days 2022 — Day 6: No-Snow Snow Day

Friday 21 January 2022

There was no snow on the ground to speak of where we live; no snow on the roads at all. Yet we had another e-learning day today.

The Boy took all the cushions from the couch and made a little study corner for his work. The Girl remained in her hobbit-hole room.

After lunch, the girls headed to Tennessee for a volleyball tournament; the boys began the countdown to a boys’-night-out dinner: Mexican.

As I was putting the Boy to bed tonight, I realized I hadn’t checked to see if the forecast had been correct — the cause for all the worry today, I guess. Sure enough, there was a dusting of fresh snow. If tomorrow weren’t Saturday, I’m sure it’d be another e-learning day…

Snow Days 2022 — Day 5: What We Thought Was Our Last Day

Thursday 20 January 2022

The snow is disappearing. We thought today would be the last e-learning day with everyone at home, but apparently, the threat of snow tonight was enough to make tomorrow another e-learning day. A whole week spent at home. That’s a blessing in many ways, but tough on some kids, no doubt.

Not our kids, though.

Snow Days 2022 — Day 4: Instructions about the Rapture

Wednesday 19 January 2022

An acquaintance posted a video on social media about the rapture — one of the most bizarre ideas in all of Evangalicism.

He begins thusly:

The rapture of the church is when Jesus comes for his church the second coming is when Jesus comes with his church. The rapture of the church happens when he appears in the clouds of heaven he does not come to earth we go up to meet him. The dead in Christ rise first we which are alive and reign shall be instantly caught up to be with the lord in the air and we go to heaven.

The first thing that happens is the judgment seat of Christ. Paul said we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of the deeds that have been done in our body whether they are good or whether they are bad. Our works are going to be tried by fire so that our lives in its essence will be given purity as we enter our eternal life. Every person is going to stand here people say well uh you’re already in heaven it’s not a matter of if you’re going to be in heaven and on it’s a matter that you are going to give an account to God for what you have done and what you fail to do. The gap that exists between what you could have been and not were not because you did not use the opportunities god blessed you. You are still going to be in heaven but you are going to receive a reward in heaven based on what you did on this earth where there are going to be five different crowns that you can receive. You’ll receive a white robe and we are going to receive the mansions. We are going to be there for a period of seven years and there will be the marriage supper of the lamb.

While we’re in heaven seven years there will appear on this earth the antichrist and he’s going to set up a government of ten — ten men who will lead groups of nations — that will be complete dictators on the face of the earth. Every commercial exchange shall be recorded. You cannot do anything without his permission. He will start out making a treaty with the state of Israel that’s for seven years. He will break that treaty in three and a half years.

In this seven-year period there will be six seals, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven vials: 21 supernatural acts of judgment that are coming on this earth. Just one of those acts will be whenever angels are released to destroy a third of the earth’s population in a day what’s going to happen on this earth will be hell on
earth and we the bride of christ are going to be in heaven.

People teaching that we are going to go through that just simply biblically misinformed.

This claim that dissenters of this view are “simply biblically misinformed” would carry a lot more weight if there was anything in the Bible that actually explained things like he does in the video. If we could turn to Hypothetical Book of the Bible chapter x beginning in verse y and find what is quoted above, perhaps in more flowery language, perhaps a little more poetic, I might think the guy has a point here. However, the Bible says nothing about this. Instead, we find passages describing hallucinations of multi-headed beasts rising from the sea and then these people interpret it to mean this silliness. They explain it as if they are simply describing something they see in front of them or the process by which uranium-238 gets processed into uranium-235 (i.e., observable, confirmable, testable facts in our reality), but in fact, it’s just wild conjecture.

And then there are all the competing interpretations. The Catholics, for example, have their own interpretation, strangely (for such a superstitious belief system) less based in wild conjecture:

The aim of the Apocalypse, the most difficult book of the Bible to interpret, is eminently practical. It contains a series of warnings addressed to people of all epochs, for it views from an eternal perspective the dangers, internal and external, which affect the Church in all epochs.

It’s sort of a handbook for spiritual growth, I guess. It’s not for the future, in other words; it’s for all time. That’s less crazy than suggesting that beasts coming out of the sea somehow represent contemporary events.

And there’s a meme that perfectly illustrates a central problem with this interpretation:

Snow Days 2022 — Day 3

Tuesday 18 January 2022

Today was an e-learning day — the first would-be snow day that transmuted into a strange school day spent sitting in front of a computer. For an English teacher, a math teacher — for numerous subjects, it’s a fairly straightforward thing. But how do band teachers do e-learning days? What assignments do PE teachers give? “Go play in the snow until you’re out of breath!”

In the afternoon, I finally left the house — the first time since Saturday. I found shelves mostly empty in the poultry section. There’s probably some metaphor here, but I’m going to leave that for you to construct.

Snow Days 2022 — Day 2

Monday 17 January 2022

I start to head upstairs to get the Boy to put his guitar away and get to bed when I look down and see he didn’t clean up his cars. I nudge the boxes out of the main walkway and head upstairs, thinking that there will come a time that do something like that — push his toys out of the way — for the last time, and I likely won’t even know it when it happens.

When the Boy finally gets into bed, I lie down with him to snuggle a little. He’s been putting himself to bed lately, and a couple of nights ago, it broke my heart when I realized that he’d gone to bed without even getting a goodnight from anyone. The day will come, I know, when he’ll be too big for a cuddle like that. There will be no more plaintive requests to “rub my back, please!” Those days kind of slipped by with the Girl — she was suddenly just getting herself to bed without a single minute of reading or cuddling, and now they’re long in the past.

As the Boy gets his bedtime music going — a mix of softer Beatles songs — “Let It Be” comes on.

“Hold on!” I cry, grabbing his phone to load the album itself. We’ve been watching Get Back this weekend, a little here, a little there, and like most fans, I’ve found it fascinating to watch the songs evolve from little snippets to the masterpieces we grew up listening to. It doesn’t have as much of an impact on everyone else in the family because they don’t know the songs as well as I do, so it occurred to me that they should at least listen to Let It Be a few times as we watch over the next little bit.

As I’m lying there with him, “Across the Universe” comes on.

It is, without a doubt, far and away my favorite Beatles song. Not even a close contest to any other song, in my top 5 all-time favorite songs. Period. As perfect a song as ever created.

Suddenly I’m transported back to the late eighties, sitting in my best friend’s basement listening to records, when he puts on Let It Be. The first two tracks are great because, well, it’s the Beatles — and then “Across the Universe” comes on, and I’m flattened. From the first time I hear the opening chiming guitar I know it’s going to be a favorite song for the rest of my life.

Those magical days listening to music and eventually playing music with a guy I still and will always consider my best friend are now over thirty years ago. My daughter is the age we were; his children are all older than we were.

It’s a constant theme in my thoughts and writing, I know — how quickly time passes, the transitory nature of it all — but it comes into sharper focus today, the second of our snow days here in the south. Snow is so rare and rarified here in the south that each day with snow on the ground sparkles like the snow itself does when clouds pass and the sun begins melting it all.

“Nothing’s going to change my world,” John sings in the chorus “Across the Universe,” and the key to maintaining that attitude must be the skill of living in the moment and not worrying that it’s going to pass before we really realize what it’s worth. It’s pushing that box of toys out of the way with a certain tenderness at the thought that it won’t always be in the way instead frustration that the kid left the toys out yet again. It’s treating the quirkiness of teen behavior with patience and tenderness because even those frustrating moments will haunt us once they’re gone.

And of course, it means going out to play in the snow as often as possible when you’re in the south.

Addendum

January 17 must be the magical day for snow here in the south. We had a snow day on that date in 2008

Snow Day!

and then again ten years later!

Snow Days 2018: Day 1

 

Snow Days 2022 — Day 1

Sunday 16 January 2022

Take 1

I could hear the ice striking our windows in the early morning. “It’s not supposed to start until early tomorrow afternoon,” I thought. Still, I got up and checked.

We had about three inches on the ground already, and it was still snowing.

The Boy had only one thing on his mind: “Daddy, when can we go out? When can we go out?” Since it hasn’t really snowed since about 2018, this is the first snow he’s experienced since being in kindergarten.

He certainly made the most of it during our morning session.

Take 2

In the afternoon, the girls finally joined us.

And the dog had a chance to play.

Take 3

Evening — one must take a walk in snow in the evening.

Snow Approaching?

Saturday 15 January 2022

Heavy snowfall is nothing new to K — she grew up with sights like this:

March 2004, Jablonka

Snowfall after snowfall all packed up, settled, and repacked to show just how much snow has fallen in the last few days.

We never get snow like that here, but rumor has it, we could get significant snow beginning tomorrow afternoon:

A winter storm warning and an ice storm warning for parts of our area is in effect until Monday morning.

  • A winter storm warning indicates that heavy snow of at least 6 inches in 12 hours, or at least 8 inches in 24 hours, is expected. It can also be issued if sleet accumulation will be at least half an inch.
  • An ice storm warning indicates that ice accumulation of at least 1/4 inch is expected. (Source)

It’s been years since we had any significant snow here. Last year’s snow didn’t even last a day:

Snowfall 2021

In 2020, we had a dusting of snow after the major flooding of our basement, but it was gone by the end of the day, I think:

And then snow

Earlier in 2020, we had a snowfall that lasted all morning and amounted to nothing — not even an early dismissal.

Snow and a Change

We have to go all the way back to 2018 to find significant snowfall:

Snow

So we’re all hopeful, but cautiously so.

“I flushed some ice cubes down the toilet,” L informed us?

“Huh?”

“Yeah, and I’m going to sleep with a spoon under my pillow — superstitions for snow!”

We all do what we can.

Trees

Friday 14 January 2022

We finally finished our last bit of Christmas un-decorating today. The lights came down from gutters and the Christmas tree got some Sawz-all attention.

Afterward, instead of destroying trees, the Boy decided he wanted to try climbing one — a magnolia in the backyard that was just a little sapling when we bought the house.

And what better way to end this day off of school than with a little bonfire, burning the tree that was just in our living room.

49

Thursday 13 January 2022

Nana as a Girl

Wednesday 12 January 2022

Sometimes, I just get to thinking about Nana…