The Lost Symbol is … October 19, 2009
Posted by Alien Drums in Books.add a comment
(I promise not to spoil the story.)
Today, I finished Dan Brown’s newest book, The Lost Symbol. This story is not as engaging as The Da Vinci Code, but it’s a fun read that causes the reader to think.
Brown slapped easily offended Christians in the face with his fiction about Jesus and Mary and such in The Da Vinci Code; now he will be loved by many of them. On second thought, he will not. While some characters express some warm fuzzies about Christianity, some readers are not going to like. …
Oh, I almost forgot I promised not to spoil the story.
I can say this: While the story has some flaws as a story (that “national security” line doesn’t work), it may provoke many to think about some things they have not thought about before. And I’m in favor of thinking.
Credit card stupidity October 14, 2009
Posted by Alien Drums in Finances.Tags: banks, Chase, credit cards, greed, personal finances
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Credit card dept is stupid, and I have way too much of it. I can defend myself by saying very little of it went for consumer purchases; there were medical bills, house repairs, a child’s college education. Also, I have great interest rates that are locked in because I transferred balances back when credit card companies were clamoring for our money. Also, I always pay my monthly payment on time and am bringing down the balances. But, still, it’s stupid of me to have so much.
Big banks who back these credit cards can also be stupid. Take Chase Bank for example. I have three Chase cards, and if they dug into their detailed numbers they would say this Drums guy is a great customer. He always pays on time, so while we’re not making the big bucks off of him, he’s still making us a fair return on investment.
But Chase is looking at a much bigger picture than Mr. Drums’ accounts, and they must need money badly or just don’t like making little bucks off of me. They couldn’t raise the interest rate, so they decided I would have to pay 5 percent of the balance each month, thus more than doubling my payment amounts.
My wife called; they didn’t care. I paid the greater amount a couple of months, but then our property tax bill came and I realized I couldn’t keep up with all of it.
So, goodbye, Chase Bank. I have moved my money elsewhere. You would never get the big bucks from me, and now you will not get the little ones either. And, unless I get really desperate, I don’t plan on you ever getting any of my money again.
You think these guys who are getting paid so much would have more sense. It’s just greed. I can understand that, but I will not reward it.
The best life October 14, 2009
Posted by Alien Drums in Contemplation.Tags: Contemplation, Prayer, Richard Rohr
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A college professor got my attention more than 30 years ago in an Introduction to Political Science course. He used the word, “contemplative.”
I had, of course, heard the word before, but he spoke in a way that arrested my attention. Rather than putting the accent on the “-pla-” syllable, he put it on “-tem-”. Now that seems a rather minor distinction, one supported by my dictionary, but that simple change woke me from my classroom slumber and made me listen.
The professor said the contemplative life was the best life, according to the ancient Greeks. I forgot most of what I heard in college, but I never forgot that and it has proved true in my own life. Life is best when contemplation is central part of it.
Now, it seems, there is a lot of talk about contemplation. That may seem to be the case because I’ve been reading Richard Rohr a good bit. Then comes this e-note from Richard’s Center for Action and Contemplation this morning:
“The contemplative mind is really just the mind that emerges when you pray instead of think first. Praying opens the field and moves beyond fear and judgment and agenda and analysis, and just lets the moment be what it is—as it is.”
I think I’m not alone when I confess that praying before thinking is very counterintuitive. Thinking is what I tend to do most. My wife has even accused me of over-thinking; and I grudgingly concur. So how can I pray first. I don’t know.
Richard says this:
“We really have to be taught that mind. We now are pretty sure that it was systematically taught—mostly in the monasteries—as late as the 13th and even into the 14th century. But once we got into the oppositional mind of the Reformation and the rational mind of the Enlightenment, the contemplative mind pretty much fell by the wayside. The wonderful thing is that it is now being rediscovered across denominations, and there is no select group that holds it or that teaches it. Catholics still use the word ‘contemplation,’ but usually have not been taught the practice, even monks and nuns and priests.”
Adapted from the CAC webcast, Nov. 8, 2008:
“What is The Emerging Church?”
So, there’s some food for thought, for contemplation.
Let’s fill in the swamp October 13, 2009
Posted by Alien Drums in Ethics.Tags: Charles Rangel, Congress, Ethics, Nancy Pelosi, Rushworth Kidder
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Rushworth Kidder had a good piece yesterday on congressional ethics. He hearkened back to Nancy Pelosi’s 2006 commitment to “drain the swamp” of Congress and clean up ethics violations. Republicans were the primary sleeze merchants in the news then. Now that Democrat Charles Rangel is sleeze news, Pelosi has slowed the draining.
But criticizing Pelosi is not what I liked about Kidder’s column; it is the three points he makes.
“First, politics on either side of the aisle isn’t a dismal swamp. It’s a set of interpersonal relationships. If a few are putrid, many are not. To broad-brush the opposition so contemptuously may win you high-fives from fellow polarizers, but it sets you up for a fierce attack when next they see you compromising — as they saw Pelosi doing in the Rangel affair.
“Second, as homebuilders know, it’s often harder to change a landscape by draining it than by filling it with the rock, gravel, and sand that eventually displaces the mud. Real change, topographically as well as politically, often comes by addition, not subtraction.
“Third, in the age of environmentalists who recognize marshes, bogs, and wetlands as vital to our ecology, this is a startlingly unpropitious metaphor. There’s little argument, these days, that wetlands are not something to exploit but to protect.”
Great words. I especially like the positive direction of the second point — change by addition. We can all add some integrity to this world in our interpersonal relationships and in exercising our responsibilities.
Breathing life into dry bones October 11, 2009
Posted by Alien Drums in Holy Spirit.Tags: Ezekiel, Holy Spirit, Jesus, John Shelby Spong
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“I saw a great many bones that were very dry,” Ezekiel wrote. And the Spirit of the Lord asked him, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
He was not talking about the church of recent years, of course, but he could have been.
Those who know the Ezekiel story, know that the answer to the question was a resounding “yes.” The prophet did as the Lord commanded and said, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.” The result: “… breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet–a vast army.”
John Shelby Spong has something special to say about the breath of God, the wind of God, the Holy Spirit — though he would not say it thus.
“The task of spirit was always to give life,” Spong writes. “In this ancient understanding, the spiritual person was not the pious person or the religious person, but the vital, alive, whole, and real person.” (Why Christianity Must Change or Die, p.105)
“Jesus was a ’spirit person’,” Spong says. “He was alive. He gave life to others. His life was expansive. It was not bound by traditional limits. Thus those who were touched by his spirit also came alive and began the expanding process of entering the limitless dimensions of their own lives. That was the experience to which the word spirit pointed.” (p. 106)
Spong is pushing for a God-less understanding of reality. I don’t know about that, but I think he’s right about spirit and Jesus — and therefore us in relation to them.
The breath of life is upon us to give life in a new and profound way. If we do not understand it completely, and I do not; that’s OK. Experience it as best we can.
