Geoff's Miscellany

I finally quit school. I won’t say I left teaching.

Callings stick with us forever. Every dad is a teacher.

I taught for a long time, even became an administrator.

I taught Biblical studies, Latin, Greek, Geometry, Statistics, Algebra 2, Pre-Algebra, Logic, Public Speaking, Introduction to Computer Programming, and Strength and Conditioning. In college I taught introduction to systematic theology and the history of Christianity in the United States.

I had fun.

One of my dreams used to be to open a small seminary that helped ministers (Sunday school teachers, preachers, parents, etc) learn more fully the skills of the calling. I got my idea from this list in like 2006. It takes something of a vocational school approach. I’ve put the most interesting ones in bold.

I found them in “Charles Spurgeon: His Faith and Works” pp 154-155.

This is funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29jdVA8fBfw

NN Taleb delineates some features of true wealth. What do you think, is anything missing?

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Warning, the quote below has bad language, the misspellings are the authors.

If you focus on them, you’re missing his point. @Aja_Cortes, a fitness bro on Twitter explained what he thinks the problem with conservatives is:

There are some songs that stick in your head forever. This is one for me. I don’t even know how I came across this album in high school, but I did. Anyway, I think Reese Roper really got articulated something profound in this brief and fairly unpoetic song. Here’s my favorite bit (it starts at 00:59):

Limping through the world There's a knowing look or two Is it just the cripples here Who understand the truth? Why is love so painful Why do we always lose Paving pathways for the lost The bitter, and recluse? He said "Love endures all things" And it hurt to think it’s true did it nail Him on a cross did it crucify Him too?

Around this time, I get a bit somber during the days the birthday of a friend who died a few years ago. He was an unusual guy in a good way. And while I feel I’ve never struggled to be clear, I have struggled to be understood as a person (and who hasn’t?). Anyway, my friend [we’ll called him Bradley] understood me and I think I understood him. Many of his life struggles mirrored mind and a great deal of his personal suffering and demons surpassed mine by a long way. While some of his life struggles made it difficult for us to hang out, we saw each other regularly until he disappeared, which led to his untimely death.

When in Berlin the writer often attended Schleiermacher’s church. The hymns to be sung were printed on slips of paper and distributed at the doors. They were always evangelical and spiritual in an eminent degree, filled with praise and gratitude to our Redeemer. Tholuck said that Schleiermacher, when sitting in the evening with his family, would often say, “Hush, children; let us sing a hymn of praise to Christ.” Can we doubt that he is singing those praises now? To whomsoever Christ is God, St. John assures us, Christ is a Saviour. Hodge, Charles. Systematic Theology. Vol 2, 400 n1.

Few read this blog and fewer likely read it for theology. And fewer who read it care about Schleiermacher. But it’s grand to see Hodge put the Scriptures first in his assessment of another’s faith rather than the systematic accuracy of that person’s writings or utterances.

Vox Day’s new comment policy is based on hope:

Hope, whether it is based on a sound foundation of truth and reason or not, is to be vastly preferred to the incessant pessimism of those who are afraid to hope because they fear being disappointed more than they fear being defeated. Those who always ask of every possible positive interpretation "but could it be a trap?" are narcissistic cravens driven primarily by fear and self-absorption.

Things may not always turn out as well as we hope. They almost certainly will not do so. The world is fallen, after all, it is ruled by an immortal and malignant narcissist, and our vision of the future is very far from perfect. But the one and only way to absolutely ensure defeat is to refuse to enter the ring. It is better, by far, to enter the ring full of false confidence and go down fighting than to refuse to enter it at all for fear of being beaten.

Ancient philosophy was characterized by the philosopher’s burden to help individuals and city-states overcome their slavery to the passions through mental and physical exercises designed to strengthen the will’s resolve and aim it in the direction of the good.

To Philosophers like Musonius Rufus, Philo of Alexandria, Epicurus, or Clement of Alexandria, a spiritual exercise was some thought process, physical habit, or specific activity that was designed to aim the practitioner in the appropriate life direction, either by changing bad ideas, removing bad habits, or adding good habits.