This is some information that...oh, look! A lizard!
"How to Rebuild Your Attention Span and Focus"--headline, LifeHacker.com, July 27
Just reportin'
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July 2010
July 28, 2010
July 26, 2010
The Church Report (continued)
Who Is Your Audience? Part Quatre
There is one undeniable fact that can be drawn from the words of Matthew six. The Jesus that Matthew knew, believed that there was a father in heaven in front of whom one could live his life.
Imagine an actor being chosen for the lead role in a play that would eventually win her a Tony Award as best actress. She credits in her acceptance speech the experience of having the playwright present during all the rehearsals. He was a constant provider of information about the character that had been created by his mind. He had brought her to life on paper and now was able to describe and inform the shaping of a performance on the stage.
The actress reveals that at the end of the performance, the playwright said to her, "You have played that role exactly as I imagined when I created it."
For those who believe in a creator/God, there is a powerful ethical motivation to live into the role that was in mind when they were chosen to exist. Imagine that creator/God saying, "You have lived exactly what I had in mind when you came into being."
Places everybody. The audience is in the house. The curtain is about to go up...
July 25, 2010
Baseball
The Game Most Like Life
Holyagnostic has been a follower of the Texas Rangers baseball team since the franchise was moved to Texas from Washington in the early 70's. The admiration has been mostly from a distance. He attended a lot of games each season until he moved from Texas in 1975.
Season ticket buyers were sparse during the early years at old Turnpike Stadium. By picking the games that he wanted to see several weeks in advance, it was possible to get a seat in the front row at the end of the curve of the backstop on the third base side of the stands. The choice of that seat was made because it was just about perfect for watching the game without any obstructions.
The seat came with a premium. When a foul ball was hit on the ground back toward the backstop, it would bounce and roll slowly to where Holy was sitting. All he had to do was reach over and pick it up like the baseball was an apple that had just fallen from a nearby tree.
It was too good to last. The interest in the team grew and the season ticket sellers were able to move these choice seats to the corporate cats. And Holy moved across the country.
From a distance, contact with the team continued. The radio broadcasts of Ranger games were on one of those blowing and going 50,000 watt country stations, WBAP, out of Ft. Worth. After dark, even from 700 miles away if the atmospherics were just right, the play by play reached into Holy's life. It would be a struggle to listen at twilight, but when darkness fell, the signal with brief fades in and out was fairly strong on clear weather nights.
These days there is only an occasional game caught when they are on TV. Saturday night, July 24th was one of those times. The Major League Baseball Network carried the Rangers as their featured game. With a seven game lead against the recent winner of their division, the LA Angels, there was the hope that the Rangers would push it to eight before the night was over. Holy settled in for a baseball diversion. Instead, there was another lesson in why baseball is most like life.
The schooling began as the first pitch was thrown. It would have nothing to do with what was happening between the foul lines or even in the dugout. Holyagnostic's teachers were in the stands.
Four adults, two men and two women, trooped into seats on the third row behind home plate. They were always in view during that most popular of baseball TV shots--the one that makes you feel like you are watching from shallow left center field over the pitcher's right shoulder. As you would look into the stands from that vantage point, the two men were paired on the right with their female companions on the left.
The women immediately turned toward each other and began to talk. They were almost nose to nose in animated conversation. The woman on the right was a hand talker. Ms. left was fighting against the Texas still 94 degree early evening heat with a funeral parlor fan.
"They must be catching up on their day or week", Holy said to himself.
Three innings and one hour later they had not stopped. Popcorn and water intake occasionally interrupted the flow of their conversation. A sellout, standing room only crowd mattered not. The action on the field mattered not. They NEVER looked to see a single pitch, hit, or run. They were completely oblivious to their surroundings.
"How much did these front and center action seats cost?" Holy asked himself.
One of the really great things about the game of baseball is that it is a social game. The action is momentary with many a pause between pitches, innings, and occasional crotch scratching. In those spaces, extensive conversations can take place while the conversationalists are able to stay in the game. These two women were not interested in breaks in the action. They had things to say and absolutely nothing was going to interfere.
Where were they? At work? Attending to their children? Were they gossiping about a mutual acquaintance? What was it that took them away from the event that neither cared what was happening all around them? If only we could eavesdrop to know for sure.
Holy kept thinking that there would be a bathroom break. Nope. There were important communications that could not be bridged by any thing as unimportant as a pitch, an out, a hit, a spectacular catch or elimination need.
Tight 0-0 tie at the end of the fourth and the blabbering continued. 3-1 by the end of the 6th and still the word fuselage went on and on. The Angels broke away to a five run lead that was reduced to four at the end of seven. There was no reduction in the animated women. They still faced each other instead of the field. When a foul ball rocketed toward them, everyone else in the section around them would flinch as the ball hit the protective fence. No response except more talking, fanning, and drinking of bottled water from Ms. Right and Left.
The game was a relatively short one, only a few minutes above three hours. The four left in the middle of the eighth, probably to beat the crowd to the freeway. In the nearly three hours that they occupied some of the most expensive seats in the stadium, Holy NEVER saw even a glance to the field.
At church the next day, or at work on Monday, if someone were to ask these two what they did Saturday night, what would they say?
"We went to the Texas Rangers game," they might respond.
Did they really?
We began this journey saying that there were life lessons in this story. Holy has found several, but he is going to let you decide if there are any here for you.
Well?
July 24, 2010
The Church Report (continued)
Who Is Your Audience? (Part Trois)
Hang on to your seat. It looks like we have moved to a completely different movie theater.
"I thought we were exploring the question, 'Who gives you your grade?'"
The question and the image that it inspires is different, but the conclusions that we can draw about living are exactly the same. The Bard of Avon was powerfully on target when he said, "All the world's a stage". The picture that we see in our minds when Jesus is teaching about Jewish piety can easily be seen as a drama with "the hypocrites" staging their actions to an audience in the synagogue.
Living one's life with others as the audience in Jesus' example is a no-no according to Matthew. But there are times outside the temple in which it not only is appropriate, but necessary.
An employer can make us dance for our supper, but at least there is the thank you note that comes in the form of a paycheck. The owner of a restaurant or business must play to the audience of his customers or she will soon join the ranks of failed and unemployed.
But blessed is that person who works in a situation where there is freedom to act in a way that pleases you. You are able to set your own goals and ways of achieving them rather than having them come from on high. Only a person who is interested in escaping from freedom would chafe in such an environment.
I know a person who worked for himself in the brokerage business. He had spent twenty years working that way, but decided he wanted to join a monster brokerage house to play with the big boys.
My friend said that the company gave him about a dozen different objectives that he was expected to meet. When he had reviews by the manager he discovered another set of expectations that were related to the goals that the brokerage had set for the manager.
The friend quickly learned that he was used to playing for an audience of one, himself. The lesson for him was that high performance was achieved by having the goals chosen from the depths of who HE was rather than coming from some complex heartless bureaucracy that knew little of what motivated him.
But there is another audience brought to our view in the images described by Jesus.
To be continued...
July 22, 2010
July 21, 2010
Quote of the Day
"Spare me from unloving critics and uncritical lovers."--The Right Reverend Doctor Tweedle, D. D. (while adroitly converting an 8-10 split).
July 20, 2010
The Church Report (continued)
Who Gives You Your Grade? (Part deux)
The words of Jesus in Matthew six are obviously telling us that in the realm of Jewish piety there ARE some persons to whom we should not give the powers of evaluation. I discovered that the lesson can be applied elsewhere in life.
Sometimes one cannot escape the gravitational pull of those who gave us our grades in school. I had a friend who had a pastorate near a seminary. The church over the years had learned the economic lesson that seminary students will work for "sweat shop" wages. They had acted accordingly by hiring staff members from the the abundant pool of want-a-be-ministers who were studying at the seminary. My friend had only recently been able to break them of this habit. The church had hired one who had graduated seven years before as their minister of music.
My friend told me that at one of the church's staff meetings, a secretary casually commented that the dean of the seminary music school had been by the church that morning and had picked up one of the order of worship folders from the previous Sunday's services. A dark expression appeared on the face of the music minister. He reached for a copy of the worship folder that was on a table behind him. He became lost in pouring over the content.
Later, the pastor asked about the music minister's actions. The staff member confirmed that when he heard that his old teacher had been at the church and carried with him the worship folder, he had panicked and wanted to see again what he had helped plan. He was fixated on the content with such questions in his mind as, "What will my teacher think of my work? Would he have chosen this hymn for that part of the service? Did the anthem appropriately work with the theme of the service?" In other words, he was still giving the power of evaluation of his work to his teacher, who was years away from occupying that kind of place in the minister's life.
The exchange and the honesty of looking at his behaviors allowed the staff member to see that even though years had passed since his school work, his teacher was still "giving him his grade". It's possible to get stuck in academics long after the bell has rung telling you that school is out.
To be continued...
July 19, 2010
The Church Report
Who Gives You Your Grade?
That question was first asked of me through the words of two sermons. I was coming to the end of work on a terminal degree and was beginning to realize that the grades of teachers had controlled much of my life for twenty one years. Tests, papers, homework, lectures, research, reading, and writing had been a major priority for a very long time. My teachers were the answer to the the question asked by the preachers. Now all that was coming to an end. I was entering a world in which a new answer would have to be written. Who will give me my grade in this new universe?
Years have passed since that initial discovery, but the question about the grade giver is one that I have concluded is foundational for each of us. Our answer is pivotal in the behaviors of our lives.
Jesus, too, must have realized the importance of that question. Listen to these words in the light of finding grade givers for our lives.
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
The picture in Jesus' painting is of those who depend upon the opinion that others have of them in the realm of giving to the poor. In his day the depository of those gifts were brass shaped trumpet flares. When coins were tossed into the receptacle it would cause a crash whose volume could give the audience an idea of the monetary size of the gift. You can almost hear the intake of breath of the worshipers as one of them dropped a bag full of heavy coins into the brass holder.
Jesus said that those exhibitionists had decided that the grade givers were the ones who were in awe of their generosity and that their grade (reward) was the acclaim of those who recognized their public acts.
There was a member of the No Trees congregation of The Church of Transcendental Hesitation who gave the church what he bragged to anyone who would listen was an oil well. It became his mantra whenever the oil man would introduce me to someone, "Why, did you know that I gave one of my oil wells to Bro. Tweedle's church."
I suppose by any literal definition of the transaction, that is indeed what he did. But in reality the well that he had transferred to our use was a "stripper" well. That is jargon for a well that is nearing the end of its economically useful life. It kicked out about 25 dollars a month instead of the thousands that his brag implied. His grade (reward) was the warmth of the regard that others had for his pseudo philanthropy.
By continuing to read in this chapter of Matthew, you can see Jesus move to the other two ritual activities of the synagogue. In addition to alms, prayer and fasting are also mentioned as acts of piety that can have the wrong “grader”
I think that what is true in these religious observations, can be carried into the realm of other relationships in life. It is just as defective and ineffective for living if you are allowing the wrong party to decide the value of your efforts.
As I came to the end of an academic journey and even today the question is, "Who WILL give us our grade?"
To be continued...
July 18, 2010
Which Came First
One of the little slices of pleasure in Holyagnostic's life has been recently blemished. Scientist have announced that they now know the answer to one of the most prominent of the unanswered questions of life: "Which came first, the chicken or the egg."
Holy doesn't know much about the science involved, but here is the way the conclusions were described in the New York Daily News.
"It had long been suspected that the egg came first, but now we have the scientific proof that shows that in fact the chicken came first," said Dr. Colin Freeman, of Sheffield University's Department of Engineering Materials.
Researchers wrote in a recently published report that it all comes down to one protein - ovocledidin-17 - which helps in the formation of the egg's hard shell.
This essential ingredient in the formation of the egg can only be produced inside a chicken, scientists from universities in Sheffield and Warwick concluded.
The fun for Holy came from walking up to information booths at malls, interstate rest stops, or office towers and asking the age old question. The looks he gets!
Holy thinks he will change the interrogatory to, "Which came first, the chicken or the eggplant?"
July 15, 2010
The Bullfighter
Sometimes Holy's journey on the internet river leads to self discovery. He is convinced that in another life or planted in his DNA is the skill set of a bullfighter.
The self awareness began when Holy realized that there is a lot of BS being spread on the net. A little sniffing around and the source of the stuff can be found. The origin often is the net's proxy for the bull: The Cyber Bully
Manipulation has always had a bad reputation in his mind, but when Holyagnostic reaches for the red cape of the matador, he realizes that he is about to mesmerize and control the actions of the bull.
Here is a verbatim exchange. Listen carefully. You may be able to hear the swish of the matador's cape.
The picador readies the bull for the matador's work.
"I believe that Garry wouldn't call someone a liar unless he knew it to be true. I have read several of your posts on here and also on other forums, Mr. Bull, and I have seen a lot of anger from you directed towards Garry. Why the anger? He is entitled to run for office as well as his opinion. Why the hateful criticism of him? I'm speaking of the "Moonbat Morgan" phrases. Can't you try to get along?"
The bull
Why the anger? He called me a liar. Any more questions?
The Matador:
Yes, Holy has a question, Mr. Bull.
If the accusation that you are a liar is not true, why do you allow it to control your emotions? To you, Mr. Morgan is no more than print on a computer screen. Why do you allow WORDS to hook you up so easily?
Just askin'
I don't like being falsely accused , Do you?
Holy Did Not ask you if you liked being falsely accused. He asked:
"If the accusation that you are a liar is not true, why do you allow it to control your emotions?"
Wanna take another run at it?
Just askin'
Holy also asked:
"Why do you allow WORDS to hook you up so easily?"
Holy has already been told that the value of your Auburn education is the skill of only having to read something once. Is it wearing off?
Just askin'
LOL, That little game isn't going to work.
You may be a wimp, but I certainly am not.
And the pattern continues. Now you shift to a one up position and attempt to disparage the questioner rather than answer his question.
Could it be that you are the wimp who is hiding behind his self created wall of importance, afraid to be confronted with his inadequacies?
You can dish it out, but you can't take it, can you?
Just askin'
Holiagnostic added, We can now put the issue to rest about whether of not (the Bull) is a liar. There is now irrefutable proof that he is indeed a prevaricator.
(On an earlier date), the bull wrote:
"That is the value of an Auburn education we only have to read something once."
He has now read several posts from Holy in this thread and hasn't figured out what they say yet. Will he now go all blustery and anger driven again?
Just sayin' and askin'
I just call a spade a spade, if it hurts your feelings, so be it.
Mr. Bull, the whole point is that it DOESN'T hurt Holy's feelings, isn't it?
Just askin'
I could care less whether it does or not. I don't have to live in your skin.
Mr. Bull, you are now a proven liar. Are you angry about that fact? Your anger IS the matter under discussion here, isn't it.
Just askin'
Coming from a proven liar like you, it means nothing
The prosecution rests.
Holy's work here is done. :)
Just sayin'
