kc bob

What Suffering Does

We live in a culture awash in talk about happiness. In one three-month period last year, more than 1,000 books were released on Amazon on that subject. But notice this phenomenon. When people remember the past, they don’t only talk about happiness. It is often the ordeals that seem most significant. People shoot for happiness but feel formed through suffering. But notice this phenomenon. When people remember the past, they don’t only talk about happiness. It is often the ordeals that seem most significant. People shoot for happiness but feel formed through suffering.

Now, of course, it should be said that there is nothing intrinsically ennobling about suffering. Just as failure is sometimes just failure (and not your path to becoming the next Steve Jobs) suffering is sometimes just destructive, to be exited as quickly as possible. But some people are clearly ennobled by it. Think of the way Franklin Roosevelt came back deeper and more empathetic after being struck with polio. Often, physical or social suffering can give people an outsider’s perspective, an attuned awareness of what other outsiders are enduring. But the big thing that suffering does is it takes you outside of precisely that logic that the happiness mentality encourages. Happiness wants you to think about maximizing your benefits. Difficulty and suffering sends you on a different course.
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Then, suffering gives people a more accurate sense of their own limitations, what they can control and cannot control. When people are thrust down into these deeper zones, they are forced to confront the fact they can’t determine what goes on there. Try as they might, they just can’t tell themselves to stop feeling pain, or to stop missing the one who has died or gone. And even when tranquillity begins to come back, or in those moments when grief eases, it is not clear where the relief comes from. The healing process, too, feels as though it’s part of some natural or divine process beyond individual control.

... from an editorial by David Brooks. Click here to read more.

This is not a way of life at all ...

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

... taken from a speech by President Eisenhower to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in April 1953

Anyone surprised that this biker was stereotyped?

"To the family in the red SUV at Tim Horton’s today.

Yes I am a big 280 lbs guy with motorcycles and a full of tattoos, I am a welder, I am loud, I drink beer, I swear and I look like I would eat your soul if you stare at me wrong.

What you don’t know is that I have been happily married for 11 years, my kids call me daddy, I am a college graduate, my mother is proud of me and tells everyone how lucky she is to have such a wonderful son, my nieces and nephews are always happy to see there m’nonci Luc, when my daughter broke her arm I cried more than she did. I read books, I help people, I go out of my way to thank war veterans and I even cried at Armageddon…

So next time I smile and say hi to your little girl and you grab her and tell her “No no dear we don’t talk to dirty bikers” remember that even tho you hurt my feelings this “dirty biker” would be the first person to run into your burning house to save your little girls gold fish so she wouldn’t be sad!!!!"

Thoughts on a few Oscar Nominated Movies

Have not seen all of the nominated films but thought I might share a few thoughts on the ones that Ann and I have seen.

American Hustle | ★★★★★★★★★ | This was tied for the best of the five on this list. It was edgy, intriguing and funny. Christian Bale and Amy Adams were outstanding in the lead role. Had me guessing until the end.
Captain Phillips | ★★★★★★★ | This movie surprised me in that it was much better than I expected.
Tom Hanks played a great part in the titled role and Barkhad Abdi was simply brilliant as the pirates leader.
But I think that it suffered from a lack of editing and was about 20 minutes too long.
Gravity | ★★★ | I was amazed that this snoozer got an Oscar nomination. It was a movie about nothing. Apart from the theme of getting back to earth it had no story line and was a waste of great acting talent.
Nebraska | ★★★★★★★★★ | This was tied for the best of the five on this list. I mean who doesn't love a story about a son who loved his dad so much that he would drive him so long for such a hopeless cause. I loved Bruce Dern in the lead role and Will Forte did a credible job playing his son.
12 Years a Slave | ★★★★★★★ | I so wanted to like this movie but found it to be very predictable. The movie was more about Edwin Epps, the evil plantation owner, than Solomon Northup. I wanted to know more about Solomon's story before and after his kidnapping but those parts of the book were omitted in the screenplay.
The Wolf of Wall Street | ★★★ | How did this long and pointless movie get nominated for an Oscar? I found the movie to be: WAY too long (3 hours); have WAY too much sexual content; and WAY too repetitive.

Some of you probably disagree with me. If so I would love to know what you really liked or disliked about these movies.

On Sale? Really? Am I that much of a Sucker?

Got an email from Starbucks regaling me with dreams of big savings if I would just go to their website or to one of their stores. So I went to their website and found this "on sale" box of Sumatra k-cups which regularly sells for less at Walmart. Ugh!! Why am I always drawn to these ad scams? Is it just my quest for cheaper prices or is it something else? Do I really think that companies like Starbucks really want to help me out? Am I that much of a sucker? Perhaps I am? I did click on the link in the email. I am such a sucker!

Does God have a Dark Side?

In the previous post, I argued that we ought to allow the incarnate and crucified Christ to redefine God for us rather than assume we know God ahead of time and then attempt to superimpose this understanding of God onto Christ. When we do this, I’ve argued, we arrive at the understanding that the essence of God— viz. what makes God God—is his unsurpassable, self-sacrificial, love. With Kreeft, I submit that all other attributes of God should be understood as expressions of this love, perceived and/or experienced from different angles.
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As we also noted in the previous post, this conception of God is foolish and scandalous to many. And this, I believe, is why the scandal of the cross has often been minimized in the church’s theological tradition by being blended with pre-understandings of what God is like. ... The crucified Christ was thus embraced as revealing God’s loving and merciful side, but the portraits of God (say) sending the flood, commanding the extermination of the Canaanites or destroying Sodom and Gomorrah were said to reveal God’s “wrathful” side. As a result, we’ve often been given a rather schizophrenic portrait of God: Jesus is loving, but the Father is terrifying.
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Against this composite portrait of God, I have argued that the revelation of Jesus on the cross should be understood as culminating and superseding all previous revelations. All previous revelations should be interpreted through the cross rather than placed alongside the cross. This means that we should never envision a non-Christlike, “dark” aspect of God lurking behind the revelation of God on the cross, such as Luther did. The self-sacrificial love of God revealed on the cross rather defines God down to his very essence.

... excerpted from a post by Pastor Greg Boyd. Suggest you read the whole post here.

The Rocket Man

Growing up in the 1950s and 60s I was fascinated by America's space program. One name that seemed to regularly surface was Wernher von Braun. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun (March 23, 1912 – June 16, 1977) was a German rocket engineer and space architect. He was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany during World War II and, subsequently, in the United States. He is credited as being the "Father of Rocket Science". ... According to one NASA source, he is "without doubt, the greatest rocket scientist in history". His crowning achievement was to lead the development of the Saturn V booster rocket that helped land the first men on the Moon in July 1969. In 1975 he received the National Medal of Science.

I love how a man who worked against us in World War II came to America and helped us go to the moon. I worked on missiles when I was in the Army and was so impressed with the folks who imagined, designed and built them. Sad that NASA's budget has been cut so much. Maybe the moon is the limit? Or maybe we will dream of Space again?

Fonzi Scheme

Seems like every time that I turn the TV on I catch Fonzi or the guy from Law and Order doing commercials for Reverse Mortgages. So I thought that I might share a few thoughts on the topic from a post by Laura Agadoni:

What It Is: A reverse mortgage takes the equity in the home once someone owns it or almost owns it and converts that equity back to cash given to the homeowner in various ways. The homeowner can choose to receive monthly payments, get money through an equity line that she can tap whenever she needs to, receive a one-time lump sum payment or some type of combination.
Rip Offs: The FDIC warns that it’s not uncommon to enter rip-off territory with a reverse mortgage and that some unscrupulous companies charge the borrower for unnecessary services.
High Costs: Lenders like to do reverse mortgages because the upfront costs are high, making the loans profitable in the short term. All mortgages involve closing costs, which are various fees and expenses above the cost of the property, such as deed filing and title searches. However, these costs are significantly higher with a reverse mortgage compared to closing costs of a traditional mortgage.
When Not To Use: The FDIC does not advise people to take out a reverse mortgage if they plan to leave the home in less than five years. It’s not the answer to cover small monthly expenses, either. The fees associated with the reverse mortgage process, which could be thousands of dollars, are too high to justify unless you plan to stay in your home for years to come, and you need the money to live on
No Home Left: Your mom or dad has to pay mortgage insurance with a reverse mortgage. This is to protect the lender in case the value of the home should drop during the course of the reverse mortgage or if the reverse mortgage is held for such a long time that the interest exceeds the home’s value. Of course, if that happens, that is bad news for any heirs, as well, because there will be no or little house left to inherit.

I recommend that you check out more of what Laura writes about Reverse Mortgages here.

About Time | ★★★★★★★★☆☆

I had not heard of this movie when Netflix recommended it to me. I am so glad that they did. The plot revolves around the idea of being able to go back in your personal timeline and make changes to the things that you did. The writers do a great job of blending time travel into a movie that really has little to do with going back in time.

The movie is first and foremost one about love and romance. The romance between the leads (played by Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams) is central to the plot but the relationship between a father and son is so endearing. And the love of a brother for his sister is also a strong theme. Overall I really like this movie, found the story to be creative, the characters to be endearing and the acting genuine.

I recommend it to you and, on a scale of ten, give it ★★★★★★★★☆☆.

Catch my other mini-reviews by selecting the Movies link in the menu bar above.

Tragedy, Mediocrity and Praise

A bit of mid-week wisdom from noted author W. Somerset Maugham ...

“The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.”

“People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.”

“You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences.”

“There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.”

“The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.”

“The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.”

“I always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don't.”

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”

“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.”

“When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character.”

“Unfortunately sometimes one can't do what one thinks is right without making someone else unhappy.”

Why did the religious chicken cross the road?

He was unconditionally elected to cross that road.

The Devil made him do it.

God said it, I believe it, that settles it!

All things happen for a reason.

God brought him to it. He will bring him through it.

No one but God can know!

... feel free to add your answer to the question in the comments. ツ

Tuesday with Greasy Pancakes

Shrove Tuesday is the day before Lent begins when people historically have eaten pancakes to use up their perishable food like eggs and milk before the Lenten fast. It comes from the word shrive, which means to "confess" - as in confessing one's sins.

Another name for the day is Mardi Gras which is French for Fat Tuesday. This refers to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season. However (or if) you celebrate it, I hope it is a good one where you are!

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Albert Einstein: The chicken did not cross the road. The road passed beneath the chicken.

Isaac Newton: Chickens at rest tend to stay at rest. Chickens in motion tend to cross roads.

Marie Curie: Good question. And one that is much less hazardous to one’s health.

John David Jackson: You’ll find out after you complete this 37-page calculation.

Archimedes: I was running through the streets yelling and screaming, and it was only afterward that I realized I was carrying a chicken.

Blaise Pascal: The chicken felt pressure on this side of the road. However, when it arrived on the other side it still felt the same pressure.

Stephen Hawking: Chicken fluctuations will inevitably create a scenario where a chicken ends up on the other side of the yellow line, in which case there is a nonzero probability that it will escape to the other side.

Carl Sagan: There are billions and billions of such chickens, crossing roads just like this one, all across the universe. [Apologies for perpetuating the misquote.]

Robert Oppenheimer: Although it was deemed appropriate at the time, people will forever question whether it was correct for the chicken to cross the road.

... find more answers from the Harvard Physics Department.

Rare Disease Day

Today is Rare Disease Day. According to the website:

A disease or disorder is defined as rare in the USA if it affects
fewer than 200,000 Americans at any given time.

My wife Ann has a rare disease called Neuromyelitis Optica.

Do you know anyone with a rare disease?

... thought I would republish this post from a few years ago.

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