Remembering: Part 1
Every year, around the anniversary of his death, I sit and think about a friend. I’ve done this for several July’s in a row. This year I did not. My daughter had been born and I was utterly distracted from my normal habits.
In high school he was an atheist. We often argued about God's existence (despite being in debate class I found political debates boring). In college, he had a break from reality connected to several bad habits he'd developed in high school.
National Men's Day: A Stream of Consciousness about Masculinity
To be a man is first to be human:
- To be a man is to seek virtue.
- To seek virtue, a man must seek adventure. Courage requires risk.
- To be a man is to build.
- To build is to restore the past or to create the future.
- To be a man is to destroy and incorporate that which opposes building. The fur of the predator becomes the pelt of the hunter. The cave of monsters becomes a home. The fire becomes a tool.
- To build is to reason. To be a man is, therefore to seek truth.
- To be a man is to love women.
- To be a man is to find a woman.
- To be a man is to be desirable to women.
- To be a man is to be desirable, in particular, to the woman.
- To be a man is to not be a woman.
- To be a man is to be strong, durable, and steady.
- To be a man is to fight. Man builds and destroys, woman builds and sustains.
- To be a man is to need the company of men apart from women.
- If a man needs the company of other men, then their families become a tribe.
- To have a tribe is to have honor.
- To have honor is to know shame. Men shame other men when their behavior is unbecoming of their status, family, the group norms, or the truth.
- To have a tribe is to be wary of danger.
- To be a man, then, is to preserve the old ways. For just as to be human is to build the future, to be a man is to ensure that the progress of the past is not lost.
Thomas Sowell and Our Ridiculous Culture
Thomas Sowell observes:
The real war — which is being waged in our schools, in the media, and among the intelligentsia — is the war on achievement. When President Obama told business owners, “You didn’t build that!” this was just one passing skirmish in the war on achievement.The very word “achievement” has been replaced by the word “privilege” in many writings of our times. Individuals or groups that have achieved more than others are called “privileged” individuals or groups, who are to be resented rather than emulated.
For those who actually read this
For anybody who still reads this, any topics you’re interested in?
Are you really better?
Stephanie, at Girl with the Dragonfly Tattoo, criticizes a blogger for her reasoning that outrage over actions like pedophilia is improper due to our own moral failures. Here is her main thought:
She “laughs” at the incongruity of normal people daring to judge a child molester when calling for justice to be done.Why would a Christian laugh at a situation dealing with something so clearly evil, and something we are supposed to view with soberness and yes, we are called to judge and expose evil (Eph 5).
Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil
Thou shalt not take up a false report: put not thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to wrest justice: neither shalt thou favor a poor man in his cause. (Exodus 23:1-3 ASV)In ancient cultures, conformity to the majority was near the top of the hierarchy of values. In fact, the Old Testament takes great pains to enforce conformity to social norms through various and elaborate status rituals and harsh legal penalties. But, the Old Testament vision of social conformity is not conformity to society as such. Instead, the vision is of society conforming to the good, rather than the individual becoming a microcosm of society. The expectation of breaking rank when the rank and file turn to evil is an implicit demand to contemplate social norms and reason whether they be good or evil. This passage also calls for a rejection of social naivete which implies gaining some degree of contemplative virtue. And as a strange conclusion, the passage also proscribes allowing pity to substitute for truth. A conservative error is to equate poverty with vice. The liberal error is to equate poverty with virtue. The Biblical middle-ground is to pursue the good generally and legal justice particularly. The following passages from Proverbs illustrate the same principles in aphoristic format:
A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies. (Proverbs 14:5)The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving. (Proverbs 14:8)
Don’t Switch The Blade
This song is just perfect. Incidentally, somebody combined it with Roddy Piper’s best film:
Your Calling as a Teacher
One of my favorite lines from classical literature is this brief quote from Socrate’s Apology:
For I tried to persuade each of you to care for himself and his own perfection in goodness and wisdom rather than for any of his belongings, and for the state itself rather than for its interests, and to follow the same method in his care for other things. Pl., Apologia 36cI think that if you’re a teacher of any subject, at any level, this is your calling. Even in the sciences, teaching somebody to be the best rather than to make money, is your calling. This is not always easy and school has almost no connection to the concept of schole (σχολῇ) which constitutes the etymology and the alleged philosophical foundation of our education system.
Anyway, getting students to know things is one thing, but challenging them to think seriously about taking the reigns of their lives is another entirely. You partly do this precisely by making them learn your material. But also by taking personal interest in their development.
A Recipe for Link Sauce
A few years ago I read this horrifying article: Males can lactate. A recent event, which does not include me lactating occurred which reminded me of it. Enjoy this unsettling series of anecdotes: “Among them was a South American man, observed by Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who subbed as wet nurse after his wife fell ill as well as male missionaries in Brazil that were the sole milk supply for their children because their wives had shriveled breasts. More recently, Agence France-Presse reported a short piece in 2002 on a 38-year-old man in Sri Lanka who nursed his two daughters through their infancy after his wife died during the birth of her second child.”
Love Your Neighbor and Marus Aurelius
In the passage below, the word “as” can mean ‘as though’ or ‘while.’ This is so in the Hebrew and Greek Old Testament:
“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:17-18)Most interpreters take the word 'as' to mean 'as though.' So 'love your neighbor as though he were yourself.' But it might be a useful thought experiment to think of it this way, 'love [seek the well-being of] your neighbor as you love [seek the well-being] of yourself.' I'm not saying that's what the passage means. I'm just saying that it's suggestive. Below is a paragraph from Marcus Aurelius about doing good by others in such a way that it benefits more than just them:
This will be clearer to you if you remind yourself: I am a single limb (melos) of a larger body— a rational one. Or you could say “a part” (meros)— only a letter’s difference. But then you’re not really embracing other people. Helping them isn’t yet its own reward. You’re still seeing it only as The Right Thing To Do. You don’t yet realize who you’re really helping.Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library) (Kindle Locations 1657-1661). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.