Downhill slide

Today the newspaper reported the death of the son of a local minister. At work, the morning meeting took 2 1/2 hours and the intent was to spell the death of the way budget matters are currently operating. This afternoon, the 3 1/2 hour meeting was to spell the death of a particular committee that had been operating as a rather maverick entity. The meeting around lunch was a meeting to repair what had been done earlier in the day while I was attending the morning meeting. Today has been a day of reporting death and doom and despair. Tomorrow's a new day. Maybe it will be one of refreshment.

Asking way too much?

The book of Hosea is astonishing to me. I really don't know what to do with it. In many ways it fits the words of the Great Teacher in answer to the question, "How many times should a person forgive another person?" His answer was 70X7. In Hosea, the analogy is given of a husband having to go get an adulterous wife 3 different times. Most of the book is a tirade of God against the northern kingdom of Israel. It is venomous and talks of how adulterous the chosen people have been against their Maker. However, in 3 sections that aren't really long, God tells how he will take back his chosen people. That's astonishing, and I don't really know what to make of it. Humans don't really work at that level of forgiveness naturally. And, maybe it's a statement just about the Creator and not meant for humans to try to copy. Unless, of course, one couples it with Jesus' words about forgiveness. Then, it's for everybody to do. I'm still pondering the application.

Bipolar noise

Some days are just filled with noise. Some of the noise is good, some bad. I have heard over the last two days much that was good. People were wearing smiles and laughing. People were getting welcome relief. I have also heard over the last two days much ill. People were pensive and doubtful. People were giving in instead of plodding forward. Over the last two days, I too, have been smiling and laughing, but mainly out of courtesy. My mind dictated much anger because of malicioius behavior aimed at those I care about.

Charles Dickens knew well this dual feeling that faces us every day. His book A Tale of Two Cities begins with this opening paragraph:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

So, I leave the noise in my mind for the time being. I will sort out the noise that gets left behind because the noise that didn't disappear has a root somewhere that I must deal with.

Iron on iron

Jack struggled all the way through the book with the living habits he had developed. His early philosophy of "Blow it off" worked for him until he had to show up for a paternity test and later when he fell in love with Jan. Then he had to grow up some. But he never grasped what Damon kept telling him—that there was a "big picture" to life. Some people think the big picture is a particular plan of the Creator for his creation or least for those who believe in him. Even at the end, in Jack's posthumous letter, Jack never bought into the Creator plan for his life. Instead, he wanted the big picture to be that a Creator existed and that his life had meant something instead of nothing.

Damon, too, seemed to be confused at times about the role of the Creator. He wrote several letters discussing either the idea of prayer or the idea that a Creator would care for Jack if he would come around to accepting the idea of a Creator. But, even then, Damon did not have well defined ideas.

But, in this arena of Life in which late adolescents are defining their values and trying to place individual values into an overall value system, most people would not fault Jack or Damon. Some people get worried that young people wait too late in life to select certain moral values and they become evangelistic in their behavior, wanting others to accept the values they themselves have selected. But, I think the real beauty of the two young men is that they really learned from each other over time during the days of their topsy-turvy world of late adolescence. Damon needed to loosen up and enjoy life. Jack needed to tighten up and take on basic morality.

When iron sharpens iron, the result is a sharp blade, one that is useful for removing what needs to be removed when cutting. Iron that is not struck against another piece of iron results in a dull blade, one that tries to remove what needs to be removed but it can't or it takes longer or it butchers the job.

Therefore, the book had a happy ending. Jack dies to be sure. But, through the process of sharpening himself against a friend's opposite belief system, he worked out a satisfactory morality before dying. And Damon learned that friends who live life more fully actually enjoy the events life has to offer. So, the old Hebrew proverb still has a universal truth at its heart. As iron sharpens iron, so one friend affects another. So-o-o true!

The development of ethics

The book is really about the development of ethical awareness. At the beginning, Jack and Damon date every skirt that walks. They switch dates, they make up their own rules as to how to treat dates, they banter with each other in a denigrating way, yet still remain friends. When they put themselves in a different setting from high school, they act the same way because there was no reason to change. But, in college there was no protection. They did not go home to their parent's house at night. They lived outside their familiar bubbles and found that others had rules that had to be observed. Sherry learns these ethical rules and has a reaction against Jack and fiercely takes him to task for his previous behavior.

When Jack contracted AIDS, he went into denial, but came out of it once he understood about violating some ethical rules that lead to "cleaner" living. He still did not learn his lesson, though, as was evidenced by his attitude toward Joni. And leading Jan on even after learning of his disease was unconscionable. Damon reasoned with him and finally experienced breakthrough because Jack opened up to Jan.

Damon seemed to have a better sense about ethics. How did he get his? Why did he stick to his ethics in a high school environment that was not conducive to maintaining the ethics Damon had developed? How did Jack develop a conscience after all? Can someone influence another to have different ethics, or is experience the only teacher?

Stuck in that everliving present

Teenagers can't seem to help themselves. They have blinders when it comes to seeing the future of themselves. Life is simple in some regards. If a person puts in nothing into Life, (s)he gets nothing in return. There is more than a single moment in the present along Life's time continuum. What a person sows, a person reaps.

As one breaks into adulthood, this realization becomes stronger. But, it's usually an ex post facto realization for most teens. That means that living in the moment carries with it some of the consequences of actions taken into a future moment. Jack had a severe case of living blind. Damon seems to have been a little better, but it was based on his faith rather than his experience or good teaching in public schools. Shaughnessy's and blondes become such a great symbol for teens who cannot think past the old motto, "If it feels good, do it." There's a lesson learned from the rocks of nature. Even though time is enduring, what happens today affects the rock's future. A rock is a mountain today, but with erosion over time, a rock becomes merely a shrunken chunk on a plain that any human can raise and look at.

Does it really take a top 10 academic geek to understand one of Life's simplest principles? Getting stuck in the moment should be the behavior of a child, not a late adolescent. Damon, try as he might, could never lead Jack into a realization that a different existence from Shaughnessy's and blondes could be experienced. I guess teens are really so egocentric that they cannot get past their immature selves. So be it. Amor omnia vincit leads down a path of one night stands, literally and figuratively. So be it.

Typical teenage life

The book As Iron Sharpens Iron is a book about the development of ethical behavior. It pits two opposite characters in terms of morality against each other in some instances and for each other in other instances. Typically, later adolescence is characterized by the start of the extremely egocentric phase in a person's life. The college years are the center of the phase. But, in high school the youth in his or her late teens begins seeing that life is not merely lived by all human beings the way that mom and dad has said that life should be lived.

Jack and Damon are polar opposites in their views about sexuality. They are also competitive. They also believe in partaking of what life has to offer a teenager. Prom, basketball, dating, writing notes in class, making comments about teachers and coaches are all a part of the typical landscape surrounding the high school experience.

Another part of the experience of high school is the way Jack and Damon try to maintain their relationship. It's a back and forth style, an up and down experience, a hot and cold way of reacting to the other. Late adolescence is also characterized by that type of relationship maintenance. Due to lack of experience in social interaction, later-year teens experiment with selfishness and caring, giving and withholding, controling and succumbing. It's a roller-coaster approach even though teenagers are too close to their experimentation to see that they are experimenting with relationships.

In the book, switching dates and trying to relate to great number of young ladies are activities that represent this very typical stage in life. Fortunately, youth mature past this stage. As obnoxious a stage as this might be to adults, missing it seems to retard a young adult when relating to people in the workplace in the mid-twenties.

A clue to people's intentions

Some languages use tone to distinguish meanings of words while others use tone to add to the semantic domain of a word. I used to have to deal with someone who would drink to get drunk. Always, the tone of voice would get louder and the denials that any loudness was happening accompanied any commentary that this was the truth. Loud tones are obnoxious to the sensibilities, but they do show where someone is placing the bulk of their intentions with a statement.



It works somewhat like people who would like to project an image of themselves through added accoutrements to their clothing. In the picture above, the wings and the halo make all the difference. Without them, the picture would convey a whole other idea.

It's no different with words and tone. Placement of tone arranges one's idea of what has just been said. For example, I don't need any of your advice can have several meanings. Watch the change in italicized words for a shift in the meaning.

I don't need any of your advice.
I don't need any of your advice.
I don't need any of your advice.
I don't need any of your advice.

All of the above tonal changes show where the emphasis is. So whenever, two people speak, it is always important to note the tonal nature of a statement. The person speaking will probably deny whatever tonal qualities one may point out to him or her. But, the listener will always know where speaker stands.

Tone placement is only a part of the prosody of a language. But, it is an important part of a language because tone carries meaning in addition to the meanings of the words used. It hints at intentions, which people will and can lie about frequently. A person has to stay on his toes sometimes to remember to listen to the prosody of the language being used. But it's worth the extra alertness. He will always be aware of others' intentions and act accordingly.

He's waiting on us

As people look at their lives, they supposedly have the capacity to reflect on their accomplishments and on their failures. The longer they live, perhaps it gets harder. The failures are many times bigger than they like. They seem to outweigh, or at least offset, the accomplishments. What was an accomplishment at age 30 is mere child's play at age 50. I guess it gets down to the point of whether people can look at themselves in the mirror or not.

That's where rationalization steps in. People can also put out of their minds this reflective capacity. They go on with their lives in a "rum dumb" manner. Nothing changes. I think that's why in Revelation, when the Christians were looking to God for a preemptive military-style strike to wipe out the Romans who were persecuting them so severely, God instead answered,

Whoever is evil must go on doing evil, and whoever is filthy must go on being filthy; whoever is good must go on doing good, and whoever is holy must go on being holy (22.11).

Wake-up calls happen to people who want to reflect. The rest of the people just can live their "rum dumb, hum-drum" lives. That's the way I feel about it, too. I guess the wish to God this evening is for more people to desire the will to reflect—look in the mirror and realize the consequences of their actions no matter how dire they may be. God can do something once that happens.

Rays for shadows

Watching the darkness of the night fade into the hints of light at dawn is something special to behold. I guess if one lives long enough, it's like that with spirituality. One slowly grows over the course of the years.

The darkness of ignorance gradually dissipates as the light of wisdom grows ever stronger.

And what is revealed by the light is beautiful compared to what is masked by shadows and blackness. Night is the symbol of what hides evil and wrong. Day is the symbol of what is good and right. So, I cheer those who live with the goal of shedding darkness and allowing rays of delightful sunlight to engulf their spiritual journeys.

A walk in the park

Much of reaching any goal is to take one step at a time. Putting one foot in front of the other is not hard, it's just slower than what people want to do when they need to climb out of a hole. Patience is required. I should know this because every morning I walk. I get through with my 1.2 mile walk by putting one foot in front of the other—everyday. So, the image of a walk through life is probably the best one. From the last valley to the next mountain top is simply made by taking one step, then another, even if one has to rest along the way. The next mountain top is still reached. The last valley was a lot farther from the mountain top than this one, so this one should be a breeze. The next step starts tomorrow at 6:30 AM. I'll be there.

Whatever

Times get rough once in a while. Times seem good once in a while. Then, there's the mixed bag—the good with the bad. Maybe life follows the thermodynamic rule: for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. Whatever.

It's hard to wax philosophical when chips are down. But, I guess the Maker can reverse chips when it is due time. I wish I could determine the due time. That's not the case, however. In the meantime, life goes on. Maybe not in the same fashion as before, but in some fashion nonetheless. Whatever.

Inside every dark cloud is a silver lining. A crock, of course, but it encourages people just the same. Then there's the story of the Chinese farmer whose son fell off of a horse. People said that's bad. But, as a result the son did not have to go to war because of his broken leg. People said that's good. But, the son's leg was not set right, so it became malformed. Now that was bad, except that he contracted a disease in the leg that doctors had to heal and refracture and reset the leg as a result. That was good. But not so... ad infinitum. That story is more like the roller coaster of life, but fictitious and a crock nonetheless. Whatever.

I hate the twisting turns of life. A country-western song a few years back had the title, Life is like a river. I hate not being able to see around the bends ahead. It wears a person out and otherwise keeps one from enjoying life. Whatever.