Matching Tracksuits

g

More Pack Nonsense

Tuesday 4 October 2022

You’d think a man would eventually learn. After setting the date for Jesus’s return at least five times that I know of, David Pack has set yet another date just days after his latest failure. Jesus was supposed to come back a little over a week ago, on 26 September. This last Saturday, Pack explained he’d learned a lot of new things in the previous week. God had blinded him before; now he can see.

If you listen to him talk about the prophetic world he’s created for himself and his followers, it’s easy to see how far from reality the man has strayed.

The 1,335 days, the ten-day period, the fifteen-day kingdom — all his followers know exactly what he’s talking about (well, perhaps not exactly as those who have recently left point out that Pack has been changing these doctrines on a whim over the last few years) but no one else knows. It might as well be gibberish. It might as well sound like this:

But like all good cult leaders, he’s not afraid ultimately to tell his followers where their place is:

“Shut up and learn.” That’s their job.

Monday Evening Thoughts

Monday 3 October 2022

A couple of hours after dinner as the Girl went to do homework and relax after volleyball practice, the Boy, K, and I along with a good friend of the Boy’s went to the local YMCA for some swimming. It’s an outdoor pool but we’re in South Carolina: it’s chilly but only at first. After a bit of movement, the water is fine.

We’ve been trying to go to the Y like this regularly, but Monday night is just about the only night lately that we can definitely make it — that we can schedule it well ahead of time. And so we go and swim some laps, then the Boy frolics about in the water as we swim a bit more, then we head home. At this point, some thirty years after I last swam regularly, I can manage for an entire workout what I used to do for a warm-up. It’s discouraging in a way, but when we began doing this a few weeks ago, I couldn’t even do that. So there’s progress.

Tonight, as I was swimming backstroke for a change, I noticed that the moon is almost full. A full moon in early October can only mean one thing for me: it’s almost time for the Feast of Tabernacles, the eight-day festival I grew up celebrating in the sect in which I was raised. It’s been nearly thirty years since I last attended that ridiculously warped version of a Jewish festival I grew up attending annually. Nearly thirty years and the realization that it’s about time (its first day was always a full moon in mid-September to mid-October) still creeps up somewhat unawares. Certainly, I still keep up with a few of the little groups that try to cling to those old cultic ways, but it’s not something I think about regularly.

I do find myself wondering how things might have turned out if Tkach, the leader of the organization after its founder died, had not made the changes in the early nineties that led the sect to abandon all its heretical teachings and embrace plain vanilla Evangelical Christianity. Would my parents have remained in the group? Would I have remained for some period? Would I have become the skeptic I now am? Would I now be getting together lesson plans for a substitute teacher to fill in while I headed off for my religious conference (as it would have likely been seen)? Would I have gone to Poland after college and met K? Would I have enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University in the philosophy of religion (only to drop out after a year)? Questions without answers.

I am, of course, very glad I’m out of such a warped religion, but there is a certain nostalgia that accompanies this. The Feast was the greatest week of the year. It was Christmas and a beach vacation combined. How could one not miss that in some way?

Sunday Selling

Sunday 2 October 2022

It’s that time of year again — popcorn sales. I don’t really like it; the Boy doesn’t enjoy it; K puts up with it to help. But today, we took a two-hour shift with a friend at the booth in front of a local Cabella’s outdoor shop.

We shocked ourselves with what we sold: over $850 in sales and donations.

It was really a learning experience for the Boy: like me, he doesn’t like talking to strangers all that much, so to come out of that a bit and approach shoppers with the proposition of spending more money — I was proud of how well he did.

In the evening, we went to our favorite park for a walk.

And the Girl? She had a sleepover at a friend’s last night, came home in time for a late lunch, then headed to work.

Collateral Damage

Friday 30 September 2022

One advantage for our neighbors: all this wind has blown down the excessive Halloween decorations of one of our friendly neighbors.

Volleyball Tuesday

Tuesday 27 September 2022

The Girl’s team played Woodmont High today — where three of her former teammates play. Mauldin is the team to beat right now, and when the home team went up four points on us, the crowd was going wild.

Then our girls got their act together and won by four points.

There’s always a bit of an advantage, I think, being the underdog on the home court. You really have nothing to lose, and if you hype yourself up enough (and you actually have the skills), you can convince yourself you can win. And then when you are winning, when it looks like you might pull off an upset (at least one set), your confidence soars. Until you start making mistakes, the favorites start coming back, and you start doubting yourself.

So Mauldin came from behind to win the first set 25-21, and in the second set, they did what I believe they felt they’d do the first set: they won 25-15. The third set was 25-18 or something like that, but they came close to losing the first set due to underestimating the opposition.

“Plus,” the Girl explained, “everyone thinks we’re the team to beat, so they play their best against us.”

After a tough club season last year, it’s good to see the Girl winning again.

Evening Swim Plus

Monday 26 September 2022

Monday for us is YMCA night — swimming. The outdoor pool is still open, and while the air is cool, the water is surprisingly warm. Sometimes we go as a family (minus the Girl, who’s always doing something else), and sometimes it’s just the boys, along with a friend from time to time.

I try to swim some laps, but I usually get to about 500 yards, and I’m exhausted. My arms burn; my pulse is racing; my legs hurt.

What gives me a sickening feeling is the thought that when I swam competitively in high school, we used to do 600-yard swim/kick/pull (200 yards of each) as the first part of our warm-up.

Still Off

My favorite cult leader predicted a specific date for Jesus’s return yet again. It was supposed to happen today. That’s at least 5 days I know of that David Pack has predicted Jesus will return. He’s batting a solid 000. Why anyone still supports the hack is a mystery to me.

Evening Walk

Sunday 25 September 2022

We’ve overseeded our front yard and seeded our backyard. Not “overseeded” because after we started having our yard sprayed for weeks regularly, everything in the backyard died. Because it was all weeds.

This means, though, that our dear Clover is an inside dog for the next month or so as everything takes root and grows. So we take her on a lot more walks, which means we get to see lovely fall scenes like this.

Thoughts on Tomorrow

Sunday 25 September 2022

“I don’t want to be recorded.” I looked up and saw Thompson and thought at first she was joking, that she was sort of pretending to be a student. A sort of inside joke: “We both know that’s coming.” But I know her well enough to realize she doesn’t have that kind of deftness. I don’t think she even knows how to make a joke. I can’t remember what I said — I was standing by the computer, working to get everything ready for the class as they entered, and my attention was not focused on what she was doing.

“I don’t want to be recorded,” she said again, confirming what I’d suspected: she wasn’t joking.

“Okay, we can talk about this in just a moment. I’m trying to get things ready for class.” That’s what I said; what I thought was, “What in the hell is she talking about? Is she serious? How does she function in the school? Does she not realize that she’s recorded all the time? In stores. In homes possibly. Everywhere.” I kept trying to get things going and again I hear it.

“I don’t want to be recorded.”

At this point, I was thinking that we’d have an issue about this in the future, but I was slowly realizing that she wanted me to comply then. “Oh, I’m so sorry. Let me turn that off,” is what she was expecting to hear. She wasn’t letting me know that she wanted this to be taken into consideration in the future. She wanted it then.

“Well, I’m sorry,” I responded, still trying to get the materials ready for the next class, most of whom were in the room at that point.

By this time, she was getting noticeably upset. “I don’t want to be recorded,” she said again, at which point I almost said, “Jesus, lady — you’re as bad as the kids.”

In the end, she said she was going to go to the library, and I could send some kids there. By this time, the class was spiraling out of control because I was dealing with a teacher acting like a four-year-old instead of applying the same routine I’ve used daily. Once I got everything under control, the phone rang. It was Allison in the front office.

“Mrs. Thompson won’t be with you today,” she began, and I thought, “Jesus — I know this. You don’t have to tell me she’s in the library.” Instead, she continued, “She’s gone home.”

I’ve been thinking on and off all weekend about tomorrow and what that might be like. I have no idea what Thompson is going to be like; I have no clue what she’s going to say to me, to Davis, to Finley. She’s not the most reasonable person I’ve ever met, and she’s certainly not the sharpest person I’ve ever encountered, so I have this not-so-latent fear that it will be a disaster tomorrow.

Best-case scenario: I apologize and say I could have handled it better, and she says she was perhaps a little unreasonable. I volunteer to limit recording of the class in the future, and she suggests that it shouldn’t be too big of a deal, that it’s something she could get used to. I don’t see that kind of introspection in the woman, though, so I doubt that will happen.

Worst-case scenario 1: she quits, and the whole Special Ed program gets thrown into disarray. Four teachers (Haenlein, Hinner, presumably Woodard, and I) would all lose our inclusion teacher, and I have no idea the legal repercussions of that. Truth be told, the woman is more of a hindrance than help in class with her continual tendency to begin talking to students privately while I’m addressing the whole class. (Bringing that up will now be tiresome.) So not having her in class would not be a problem for me at all. But there’s the legal issue with compliance for the IEP.

Worst-case scenario 2: she becomes passively-aggressively disruptive in class. I don’t know if that is realistic: she doesn’t seem like she’s sharp enough to pull that off, truth be told.

Worst-case scenario 3: I get in trouble for what happened. That’s unlikely: I’ve already spoken to Davis about it, and her reaction reassured me, as did Haenlein’s and Rutzer’s.

What will actually happen will likely be something I’ve not foreseen, something completely unexpected. And I’ll deal with it like an adult.

Friday

Friday 23 September 2022

Some days are so weird, so unexpected, so strange, so off-kilter that when everything finally calms down, when everything finally slows enough that you can take stock of the day, that you can take a breath and exhale slowly, that you can reflect on the oddities of the last 14 hours — those days reach that celestial moment, and you can only smile and ask, “What the hell was that?”

More Predictions

Wednesday 21 September 2022

Dave Pack is at it again. He’s predicting Jesus’s return within the next nineteen hours:

19 Hours

In case that’s not clear, that’s tomorrow:

2 Choices (Tomorrow)

We can forgive him for not having figured it out sooner — after all, no one else has figured this out:

Figured it out

He’s figured out lots of other things, so we should be grateful for that.

Tickle

He’d predicted this earlier, and it didn’t come to pass, but in the end, he was just a day off. A day and nine years:

9 Years off

Still, it’s a relief to know the return of Jesus is happening tomorrow.

At least, that’s what he said on 17 September…

Serve

Tuesday 20 September 2022

Middle School Volleyball

Monday 19 September 2022

I try to support my students by attending one of their sporting events. Tonight, I watched the girls play a volleyball game.

So very different from the volleyball I’ve become accustomed to. Beginners are fun to watch, but they can be sadly predictable with the occasional lack of skill. It’s all part of the learning curve, no doubt.

Exchange

Sunday 18 September 2022

But God is NOT a commanding officer, now is He??

Of course, he is.

Who made him commanding office? One of higher authority had to do so. So who was it?

Don’t be silly with semantics. You know what I meant.

As you do mine. God IS and IS in command. So why do you rebel against your commander? And don’t pull this crap that He’s not YOUR commander.

But he’s not. Sorry — had to pull it.

What any rebel should say. Any treasonous rebel. Any delusional, treasonous rebel.

I’ll bet you just can’t wait to be in heaven watching me writhe in hell, right?

But what about YOU??? Evidently you wrote and then deleted. Afraid of your own lie? Yeah it’s hard work figuring new ways to ignore truth. Why are you avoiding the issue?

I originally said that there’s no hate like Christian love. You’re a great example of that. Then I thought you’d probably say something like, “I look forward to watching you roast,” or some such nonsense. I’m not afraid of anything; I’m not ignoring the truth; I’m not avoiding any issues. I just don’t believe. But I’m not dripping with only slightly concealed hatred like you are.

Why is it “hatred” to say you are a rebel against God? Or why is EVERYTHING that is a contrary view labeled “hatred” by you people?? It’s like the only verb you know.

So many Christians can’t see themselves as others see them. It’s a form of hatred because it’s a judgment made on a personal standard that insinuates that joy I suggested you feel when you contemplate me in hell. It suggests that you will stand in judgment alongside your god and say with mock sadness, “Lord, you know best, but of course, I can’t say anything about this miserable wretch other than to say he’s rebelled against you — which of course you already know, Lord,” all the while anticipating getting watch me get my dues. “I told you so!” you can say. So on second thought, perhaps it’s not hatred as much as childishness.

And how others see is always right and correct, huh? So we must cater to what YOU think? How bout non-Christians can’t see themselves the way God sees them? And once again, the unbeliever makes a shambles of Christian doctrine while congratulating himself in his mockery. Dude…we were ALL rebels. We say nothing about you that we couldn’t say of ourselves.

“How bout non Christians can’t see themselves the way God sees them?” — See? You’re speaking for your god, standing by his side and passing judgment, eager to see your so-called enemy cast into the flames. As for “And once again, the unbeliever makes a shambles of Christian doctrine while congratulating himself in his mockery.” — I don’t even see where that came from. I watched a couple of your videoes, so I know you have a real persecution complex like so many Christians, and you’ll read into things persecution that’s not even there, but I wasn’t even talking about any Christian doctrine. I was talking about your attitude. This whole thing started with me making an off-hand comment about the Christian god being a sort of commander-in-chief (You know, like “Onward Christian Soldiers”?), and you’ve blown this up into — I don’t even know what. I’m just shaking my head in disbelief: I don’t get you or your attitude. I never said anything derogatory about Christians or Christian beliefs. I just made a silly comment. Calm down, man. This has gotten way out of hand: you’re frothing at the mouth.

No I’m nailing you to the wall for bring so flippant. You make it sound like you’re not even referring to Christianity. Liar. Persecution complex? Not here, bud. You don’t know what that is anymore more than you understand rebellion.

I read that imagining John Wayne was saying it. Very effective.

Please identify this “hate”. You make reference to it but do not state what you consider hateful.

I did. A few comments ago. (That comment didn’t sound so great in a John Wayne voice. I was hoping for more “nail you to the wall” kind of bravado.)

Champions

Saturday 17 September 2022

L’s high school team won a local tournament with about 12 teams competing.