Matching Tracksuits

Month: March 2023

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Friday 31 March 2023

I wanted to let you know that I had to sign —-‘s ROCK card today because he was talking excessively and disrupting class. I saw, too, that another teacher had to sign his ROCK card today as well.

I know you are following —-‘s behavior on Class Dojo, but I wanted to let you know about the ROCK step since that’s not immediately obvious on Class Dojo. Right now he has two for the quarter, which means he’s nearing the point at which ROCK steps become referrals (on the 5th step). I know —- doesn’t do these things maliciously, but it is still a problem for classroom management. Please help me encourage —- to make better choices that more accurately reflect his potential.

The Shift: Initial Thoughts

Thursday 30 March 2023

I’ve begun reading The Shift: Surviving and Thriving After Moving from Conservative to Progressive Christianity by Colby Martin. I’ve read a number of books and articles about people who start doubting traditional Christianity and end up leaving it altogether, but I’d never read anything about taking that first step but ending up still in some form of Christianity. The idea intrigued me. Not because I’m interested in finding a place for myself in progressive Christianity but rather because I like reading about different people’s experiences of faith.

I don’t enjoy reading shitty writing, and I’m afraid that’s what this is. The ideas might be good, but the writing so far is awful. Take a look at this passage from the introduction:

Not to brag, but I’m pretty good at sleeping. Normally, it welcomes me like a freshly hired Walmart greeter. But one evening, just before finishing this book, it treated me more like the Costco exit guard who scans your receipt, glances with unprovoked judgment toward your cart, and won’t let you go until you acquire the Sharpie swipe of victory. Frustrated, I stared into the darkness, scanning the receipt of my brain for what held me back from passing to the void. I tossed and turned on my Casper mattress. I fluffed and re-fluffed my Tuft & Needle pillow. Maybe my issue is that I fall prey to too many Facebook ads? Nah, that’s ridiculous, I thought as I unclasped my MVMT watch.

Dear Lord, why do people who have no idea how to construct compelling figurative language insist on doing it anyway? I know there’s tone-deafness; is there metaphor-deafness as well?

And what is the point of all this brand name dropping? His “Casper mattress”? His “Tuft & Needle pillow”? His “MVMT watch”? Did he read somewhere that good writing includes details and so he’s going to include the brand of every damn thing he mentions?

New Beginnings

Tuesday 28 March 2023

The Boy is no longer a Cub Scout. That’s over — a whole phase of his life behind him. Tonight was his first meeting as a Boy Scout.

There was the requisite paperwork — which he filled out. “This is all you, little man,” I told him with a smile.

They started the meeting with introductions to the troop: “We’d like to invite our newest scouts to introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about them.” E stepped forward, shyly as always, and said, “I’m E. I like soccer and guitar.” After introductions, the new scouts went out with some of the older boys to learn the ropes, so to speak.

So different than Cub Scouts. Boy-run, boy-planned, boy-approved. “We’re just there to make sure they do everything safely,” the scoutmaster told us when we first visited back in December.

We parents didn’t see the kids until they were done, wrapping everything up with their circle. In fact, tonight is likely the only night we’ll stay through the whole thing. “Most parents just drop them off and then pick them up later,” the assistant scoutmaster told us new parents.

“This is going to do the Boy so much good,” I told K.

Changes

Monday 27 March 2023

Changes are visible every time we head back to Poland. This summer was no exception, but I didn’t notice a significant change until long after we returned.

At the corner of the rynek in Nowy Targ stood a strange building that seemed more like a house that had been renovated into a business. It always stood out.

2013

What I didn’t notice in the summer of 2022 (and thus did not photograph, relying instead now on Google Street View) was that the entire building has been completely renovated.

2021

And yet I recall looking at the bank to the left, the bank I visited countless times, and thinking that something just didn’t look right.

Vertical

Sunday 26 March 2023

This week, the Girl got what we hope was the first of several emails from college coaches who’ve seen her play at a tournament and are interested in recruiting her. Unfortunately, it’s a liberal arts school and so doesn’t fit into her plans to go into genetic engineering. But still, interest is interest.

One thing the Girl is lacking, though, is current stats, so we worked on that today. What is her blocking vertical? What is her hitting vertical? We had last year’s numbers, but we needed current numbers.

Let’s just say she’s improved…

Saturday Evening Downtown

Saturday 25 March 2023

We spent the evening downtown, the five of us — the two kids and the dog. It’s so rare that everyone’s schedules work out to let us do something like this. We’ll take every opportunity we have.

Our stroll eventually led us down to the river and the new Grand Bohemian hotel which is the latest highlight of the ever-developing downtown Greenville.

Eventually we made it down the the rocky area of the river just at the edge of the main downtown park, the place both of our kids loved to run about on the rocks as little kids.

“Those days are long gone” K and I constantly remind ourselves. And yet, every now and then, the stars align,

the kids are both fascinated with the same thing, and for a brief moment, we pop back a few years in the past.

First Day Out

Thursday 23 March 2023

We had our first day out on mountain bikes today. It was a beautiful spring day with temperatures in the sixties.

It had rained a bit yesterday, so the trails were a bit muddy at times, but nothing too awful.

Overall, we did 11.59km.

A Long Letter

Tuesday 21 March 2023

@ 11:51 And here’s where the email gets to be tough to hear. And I hope it deeply sobers every person in the room. “I had four members in a PM tell me just last week how confused they are about prophecy. I directly asked brethren if they were keeping up and understanding what is being taught in the Series. Their frank responses are sometimes sobering. Many brethren are excited about the Series. But I would not be surprised if at least 10 to 20 percent of brethren in my area are confused to the point where they do not even listen to the Series anymore.They just blow it off.” Astounding. And then he talks about a recent trip to a place that he visited, and that confirmed it.

@ 13:26 I very much appreciate this letter. “The reasons they are confused may be many, but I think there are three common issues. Number One: They don’t have literature and reference points they access to review, which outline the basic elements of prophecy. Think of all the charts and booklets we had to explain the Big T.” You know, the Millennium and the Seven Seals we thought preceded it. “And when I was a new member, I thought it was rather complex. Many changes in our understanding is Number Two. This caused many to stop taking notes to prevent the current understanding to get ingrained into their thinking because it will change again.”So they just stop taking notes.

@ 14:14 “Some have even said that it helped them.” Not taking notes anymore. Depends on how you mean that. They could listen better, or they could just tune it out better. I don’t know, maybe both. “The effect is that when an easy part or basic truth is explained, unrelated to prophecy, they don’t take notes, causing the understanding to slip easier. New brethren have zero background and have to,” so this is Number Three. “You have to sorta just figure out how to learn on the fly unless someone takes several hours to bring them up to speed. And in this context, I think sometimes the sermons come so thick and fast that it sometimes just goes over the head of not only new brethren, but also some existing members.”

@ 15:21 “Now, I referred all brethren to the ‘How God’s Kingdom Will Come—Not What You Think!’ World to Come video to help them solidify the different comings of Christ. I have and will refer them to your recent sermon if they’ve not studied it yet. If you know of other material we can refer them to, please let me know. I’ve mentioned this to the Headquarters Ministry in the past, but I find brethren who struggle with the Series difficult to pastor. Several refuse to talk about the Series and will even walk away from a conversation or fellowship containing it.” Astonishing. But there are such people.

@ 16:25 “I started to mention the issues in pastorate reports from more than two years ago, and sometimes I feel like it’s getting worse. Sometimes not.”

@ 16:35 “We all have found some elements of the Series hard to follow, too. But I never want to give brethren the impression that I am in any way undermining the Series or our father in the gospel. Yet at the same time, I fully appreciate the obligation I have towards the sheep God has put in my care. I just try my best to communicate what I see on the ground back to Headquarters. It’s been a challenging task to keep many of the sheep glued to it and excited. It remains awkward to balance. If Friday comes and goes,” Well, it did, fortunately. And it went. It came and went, and I get to give this sermon. “I look forward to exploring (rather urgently) ways to help those who are not actively following the Series anymore. Any ideas will be welcomed. Recently, I mentioned to the Headquarters Ministry how I may want to give a sermon on the Series one day. Maybe two parts just to help their understanding of basic elements. The three iterations, the Seventh and Eighth Head, timing of resurrections, et cetera. You already covered several parts of it. Thanks again.” And how I love reading the last part of that. That’s a proactive pastor.

Window

Monday 20 March 2023

Homes with windows like this used to be ubiquitous in southern Poland.

High Jump

Saturday 18 March 2023

The Girl won first place in the high jump today.

Clerical Education

Wednesday 15 March 2023

I’m currently reading The Dark Box: A Secret History of Confession by John Cornwell, and it’s enlightening and depressing, as one might imagine. The crux of the argument is that confession has been damaging in a lot of ways throughout history, but it has been most damaging in the last 100 years to children. When Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto (Pope Pius X), at the start of the twentieth century, mandated that first communion and first confession shouldn’t happen at age fourteen but rather age seven, he opened a door to the potential emotional abuse of children. Seven year olds don’t really have a good conception of what “sin” might be, and they get conflicting ideas from various people. Therefore, we’ve had several generations of cradle Catholics who have grown up suffering from guilt over the silliest thing, tormenting themselves mentally about “sinning.” For instance, one young boy was terrified that he was going to hell for breaking the pre-communion fast because he’d opened his mouth to catch some raindrops in his mouth on the way to church.

“But wouldn’t these priests hearing these confessions realize this and apply the child psychology they’d learned in seminary to help teach these kids what the church considers sin to be and how to deal with guilt constructively?” one might ask.

Child psychology classes? What are you thinking? That’s not what the pre-Vatican II seminarians learned.

What did they learn?

It was taught that to break the fast and receive the Blessed Sacrament, as we have seen, was a mortal sin. The textbooks enlarged on the circumstances in which the fast might or might not be broken. The rule admitted, it was pointed out, of no exception, and it extended to the smallest quantity of food or drink taken as such’.

So what does it mean to ‘eat’ or ‘drink? The thing consumed must be ‘taken exteriorly. So it is not a violation of the fast, for example, ‘to swallow blood from the gums, or teeth, or tongue, or nasal cavities’, although it would be a violation of the fast to swallow blood flowing externally from the exterior parts of the lips, or from a cut finger, or from the nose, or to swallow tears, unless in each case only a few drops entered the mouth and were mingled with the saliva.’ To violate the fast, moreover, requires that a substance ‘must pass from the mouth into the stomach, so that the fast is not broken if liquid is taken into the mouth, as an antiseptic or for gargling, and is not swallowed. A third condition insists that violation of the fast occurs by the action of eating and drinking, and inadvertence ‘has no bearing on the matter even if it is a ‘drink given to a patient during sleep?

Davis declares that the ‘divines are still disagreeing whether a ‘nutritive injection’ is food, but certainly the introduction of soup or milk through a stomach pump is not allowed, whether the injected liquid be intended to nourish or merely to flush.’ Turning to the vexed question of nail-biting, Davis reports that he believes that this does not affect the fast, but biting off and swallowing pieces of finger skin might do so, if the particles were more than the smallest and not mixed with saliva.’

Such useful information.

My hope is that in the sixty years since Vatican II there has been a change. Surely there’s been a realization that some basic psychology might be necessary. When I look at a seminary’s course offerings at random, though, I don’t see that. I see courses like this:

  • CHUR 501 The First Millennium: Patrology (3)
  • LITY 501 Introduction to the Liturgy (3)
  • MORL 501 Fundamental Moral Theology (3)
  • SCRP 501 Introduction to Biblical Studies: Wisdom & Psalms (3)
  • SYST 501 Revelation, Faith, & Theology (3)
  • ORDN 501 1T Formation Seminar: Celibate Witness (0)
  • PAMU 501 Pastoral Music I (0.5)
  • PFED 502 1T Field Ed Placement: Catechetics & Teaching Ministry (1)
  • PFED 599 Pedagogy seminar (0)

Or like this

  • CANL 601 Code of Canon Law (3)
  • CHUR 601 Modern & Contemporary Church History (3)
  • SCRP 601 The Prophets (3)
  • SYST 605 Protology & Anthropology (3)
  • ORDN 601 2T Formation Seminar: Personal Conduct/Character of Priest (0)
  • PAMU 601 Pastoral Music II (0.5)
  • PFED 601 2T Field Ed Placement: Health Care or Social Justice Ministry (1)

Or this:

  • HOML 701 Models of Preaching (3)
  • LITY 701 Deacon Practicum (1)
  • SCRP 701 Luke & Acts of the Apostles (3)
  • SYST 707 Ecclesiology (1)
  • SYST 709 Ecumenism (1)
  • SYST 711 Mariology (1)
  • ORDN 701 3T Formation Seminar: Parish Admin/Human Resources (0)
  • PAMU 701 Pastoral Music III (0.5)
  • PFED 701 3T Field Ed Placement: Evangelization or Parish Ministry (1)

All very practical. All very helpful. All a bunch of lofty-sounding nonsense.

With each passing year, my disgust at the Catholic church grows.

Soccer Walk

Tuesday 14 March 2023

Tuesdays are long: first school, then chess club, then a rush to the soccer field to switch cars with K so she can give L my car for her to drive to volleyball while I wait with the Boy at soccer practice. I usually talk a walk and/or run. And since my knees have been troubling me again, it’s more likely the former than the latter.

As the last few soccer seasons have progressed, so has the area around the soccer complex.

Walking Around During Practice

The red line is the route of my walk.

The central shaded area is now apartments — it has been for a couple of years. The large shaded area to the right is now completely bare, stripped of all trees with sewage lines and curbs ready for a new housing or apartment development. The triangle to the left is the latest development victim: it’s only been cleared in the last few weeks.

But still on that walk/run, one can find views like this.

Evening Run