Two Good Questions

Jessie and I have been looking for a used stackable washer dryer combo lately, as we are getting very tired of bumming off our friends (thanks to everyone who has offered or let us use their machines). I talked to a guy who runs a shop who said to be very careful when buying used stackables, because if they break they're a pain to fix and much more expensive than regular side-by-sides. Yikes! We found one the other night for a really good price, took a look at it, and it looked ok. We decided not to make any decisions until the next day, and we went home. I prayed for wisdom in the decision, something that I don't do nearly as much as I should, and went to bed.

That night, I dreamt a dream. In the dream, Andy (my former roommate) and I were planning to buy a car. We really wanted one that wouldn't break down any time soon. We went to the best guy in the area for reliable cars, and he told us we could get one that would never break down, but it would cost $90,000. And if we went to anyone else the same car would cost $120,000. Agast, I told him that we didn't need a perfect car if the price was going to be as much as a small house.

The next morning I got up, and after some reflection realized the dream was about the stackable. It might not be perfect, but getting perfection would just be far too costly. As soon as we can borrow a truck to move it, we are going to pick up the stackable we looked at.

Does God give us wisdom through dreams?

--------------------------------------------------

In other news, on Tuesday night Jessie and I went to the dollar theater to see Accepted. It may not be the most original movie ever, but I laughed throughout most of it. I recommend it (unless you are highly offended by the word 'shit.' They probably say it 150 times.). I love the fact that the assumption "you'll never get a good job/be happy if you don't go to college" is ridiculed, because of course this is an absurd statement. In the movie, the students start their own college and the students decide what to study. They ask great question: "What do you want to learn?" And people come up with long lists of things they want to understand or be able to do that aren't part of the standard "gen ed" coursework. Jessie wrote this question on my chalkboard when we got back, and we've got lists going.

Jessie wants to learn-
Welding/soldering, tea making, stained glass making, figure skating, carpentry, spreenprinting, vegetable gardening, canning/pickling, tailoring (as in making and mending clothes, not her maiden name), acoustic guitar, pottery, reading Russian (but not speaking), and more ballet.

I'm still working on mine, but I want to learn-
pyrotechnics (as in making fireworks, not "how to blow shit up with my mind" as mentioned in the movie), Judo, voice acting, comic book writing, and the classic strategy games of chess, checkers, othello, and go.

What do you want to learn?

COMMODE!!!!!

For the past few weekends, my wife and I have gone out on Friday evening and Saturday mornings to search through the piles of old and unwanted items along the streets of Norman. You would be amazed at what you can find out there; case in point, this is a picture of the sixth commode we saw last weekend. Every time we saw another one I would shout of "Commode!" Trust me, it gets funnier if you keep doing it.


You know you live in a wealthy society when you can look through other people's trash and find things you would still want and use; even more so when you realize that many of these people are not much more wealthy than those searching through the trash.

I would encourage all of you to take advantage of the prosperity around us. Who knows, you might save time, money, the environment, and the cost of a date all at once. They say one man's trash is another man's treasure, and during the next couple of weekends you'll be able to find pretty much anything but the proverbial kitchen sink. As to the actual kitchen sink,...

I Cannot Believe we'd ever Die for these Sins,...

...we were merely Freshmen." -- The Verve Pipe

I wonder if anyone remembers this song. I was not old enough to understand it when it came out, and there are tons of interpretations of every line. Maybe it's about Romeo and Juliet, or getting your girlfriend pregnant, her having an abortion and then commiting suicide. "I can't be held responsible... I won't be held responsible...", and yet we are. I think this song is about brokenness, and fearing that our passive failures and our active evils can never be escaped. "I cannot believe we'd ever die for these sins,..." but we know in the end we will, perhaps we think we already have. Sin has taken our lives.

The Freshman is a good title for this song, because I think freshmen come face to face with this more than a lot of people. The Freshman was a good kid, mostly followed the rules in highschool, and now has been rewarded with the warm breath of freedom. But what he does with that freedom. "Now I'm guilt stricken, sobbing, with my head on the floor..." He didn't mean for everything to go so wrong; but he is broken, and none can put him back together again. Perhaps for the first time, freshmen come to college and feel the crushing grip of sin, and guilt will not go away.

Or maybe The Freshman was a good kid, and still is. Maybe The Freshman is following the rules as if her life depended on it, because in her heart she is sure that it does. One slip will send her off the precipice, and who can tell how far she will fall? And after all that care, could it ever be enough? "For the life of me, I cannot remember what made us think that we were wise and we'd never compromise...." Perhaps for the first time, freshmen come to college and feel the crushing weight of law, the necessity of perfect wisdom to avoid a dark oblivion.

Freshmen are in a hard place. They need to hear the Gospel. Rev. Ricky Jones spoke at the RUF regional conference about a week ago, discussing the power of glorification. He spoke of a girl who, after many tortured nights, chose to have an abortion. In speaking to him the girl said, weeping, "No Christian boy is ever going to want me now." But, as Ricky taught to RUF's many freshmen, that Jesus Christ makes us complete, that He fixes our unfixable brokenness. 'Jesus Christ is risen' means those who are in Him partake of His risen life, and the most horrible sin or fear of this earth cannot overcome His command of our lives at this very instant. No abortion, drug use, homosexuality, arrogance, hatred, or theft can destroy our lives because Jesus has them. If we remember that, if we believe that, then Sin has not taken our lives, Christ has. And Christ is good.

I wonder if those of us who are not freshmen will remember this when we meet someone who is so broken. Will our men shun this girl who has had an abortion, as she feared? Could you bow down and call your king a boy who surrendered you to death at the hands of a tyrant, just for sweeties? Would I still love my friend when I am falsely placed on trial and he denies he ever knew me? There is a song like this for those of us who are a bit older, too. "What have I become, my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end. And you could have it all, my empire of dirt. I will let you down; I will make you hurt." -- Johnny Cash

The freshmen need us. And maybe I need them too.

Gravy

-noun-

1.	the fat and juices that drip from cooking meat, often thickened, seasoned, flavored, etc., and used as a sauce for meat, potatoes, rice, etc.

2.	Slang. a. profit or money easily obtained or received unexpectedly. b. money illegally or dishonestly acquired, esp. through graft.

3.	something advantageous or valuable that is received or obtained as a benefit beyond what is due or expected.

I'm not sure if what I'm about to mention is valuable, but it is certainly unexpected. When I went to Oxford, England for three weeks with a summer study program, some of the girls from our group decided that I was "ubiquitous," rather more a force of nature than a mortal human. To this day I have no idea why, but the idea stuck (that, and using my Christian name as a verb meaning roughly "to wander about in an unbounded way, with one's purposes unknown to any other"). Well, just recently one of the girls, an art history student, came across this:

Maurice Denis. Homage to Cezanne. 1900. Oil on canvas. 180 x 240 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France.



Time travel, my friends?

POW!

If you were about to be stranded on a desert island, but could choose one book to take with you, what would it be?

I would choose Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. This seems an unremarkable claim until I mention the truth: Watchmen is a comic book.

Comic books are a wonderful way to tell a story. They can be read with a surface appreciation in scarcely any time at all, yet to fully appreciate them can take dozens of close and contemplative readings. For my estimation, the narrative of a good comic flows better than nearly any novel, with the imagery being captured in a glance rather than dragged out. As the old saying goes, it takes a thousand words to be worth a picture. One panel may have dialogue, facial expressions, and religious markers in the background, with a recurring motif beside it. The linearity of pure text does not capture in time and layers what a well-written and drawn comic can.

Not that there aren't drawbacks. Comics would not be my first choice for communicating technical information, not do they usually demonstrate the utter mastery of a language that is possible in novel form.

But what they can capture is an utter mastery of a culture. Watchmen is remarkable because it taps into the deep concerns and fears of its time (the 1980s) and any time: Atomic weaponry, genetic manipulation, abuse of governing power, determinism, homosexuality, justice vs. mercy, conservatism vs. liberality, ethical paradox, child abuse, fetishism, thermodynamic miracles, and the teleology of human history. The story is different from many comics in that no character is pure good or pure evil, the characters thoughts are shown through expression rather than thought bubbles, and there is a balance between the fears of ambiguity and inevitability. The images and words are seemlessly of a piece. A remarkably well written piece which I can read again and again, still finding new connections and contrasts which I had not noticed before. I have never had such an experience from a book, as once it is fully read I cannot re-read it (despite my best efforts).

I have loved comic book characters since I was a child making up my own stories for the gallant adventurers. Vigilantism fascinates me, as does the post script quotation to Watchmen (which after all is just another word for vigilantees): "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes." I think deep down I'd like to write a graphic novel one day, if I knew an artist agreeable to my ideas and mythology. The term 'graphic novel' is silly, I know, but think of it this way: graphic novel is to serial comic book as movie is to television series.

But of course, the communication of narrative in pictures, like all stories, departs from the real world eventually. As Elijah Price said, "It's allright to be afraid, David, because this part won't be like a comic book. Real life doesn't fit into little boxes that were drawn for it. "

Christian Scientists?

Within the bounds of my esteemed field, I find myself drawn to the foundations upon which it is built. I am developing plenty of thoughts and impressions about the real meat and potatoes of economics (If there are some who wish to hear about this, I shall begin building more regularly on my academic blog, http://subliminallyunemployed.blogspot.com), but I still want to know about where the methodology of economics comes from, and the philosophy behind it.

A friend of mine, a professor in the biological sciences, has said that naturalism is the all-pervasive beginning place for his field. Economics is founded in this plus the additional pillar of pragmatism. We assume every decision-making person knows what is best for himself, or at least knows better than we can. De gustibus non est disputandum (I'll let Annie translate this for you all). But as a Christian, can I ascribe to these philosophies? Must I divorce myself from a Christian philosophy in order to practice my vocation? Is there an way of doing economics that uniquely coincides with what Christians believe regarding the nature of the world and human beings?

I shall in short order prepare comments on comic books, gravy, and freshmen. However, before I venture to these lands, I would like to hear about how your various vocations tend to either conflict with Christ or support him. Many will do both (in which case you can mention either or both), but I believe there is no vocation that does neither, so don't throw that card in.