What Would Jimmy Do?

I was in a meeting the other day and the term “maintenance philosophy” was used. That got me to thinking about philosophy in general. I remember taking a philosophy course in school and I remember it didn’t make much sense to me. I also remember taking a course on the history of science and it seems that there often wasn’t a clear cut line between the early philosophers and scientists — maybe there still isn’t. Seems like all the great minds, both scientists and philosophers, have always grappled with questions like, Who am I? Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where am I going?

Actually, these questions are all part of a bigger question — how is the best way to live? All sorts of people have pondered the best way to live just about forever, but recently the amount of information available to us has made it difficult to even think about it, much less philosophize about it.

Whether we realize it or not, we all have our own personal philosophy or our own “rules of life.” These rules, and we all have them, are based on our environment, our upbringing, and our own personal beliefs. Every day we make decisions based on our own set of rules. We decide what to wear, what to eat, what jobs to do, whether to take an umbrella when we go out — all sorts of things. These decisions are are determined by your rules of life — your personal philosophy.

Your personal philosophy, whether you can articulate it or not, is what it is. Your beliefs have been formed and some of them can and do change and co-exist with all your other beliefs within that philosophy. A philosophy is a way of life. I noted earlier that the amount of information readily available to us has changed the way we approach things. Today, it’s so much easier to just google it than to think about it. Maybe should all do a little less googling and a little more thinking….
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Here I go wading in on something I don’t have all the facts about and I know it’s a sensitive subject that most or all people have an opinion. Freddie Gray died under mysterious circumstances while in police custody. During, or just after his funeral, “protestors” set fires, and attacked merchants, journalists and police — looted and burned. These “protesters” are in fact thugs and hooligans, according to the Mayor of Baltimore. Gray’s mother, Gloria Darden, said, “Don’t tear up the whole city just for him. That’s wrong.”

I think we all agree that a lot of questions surround the man’s death. It’s not really clear why he was arrested in the first place. Apparently he wasn’t committing a crime and was not wanted by police.
Just about the time of Gray’s funeral, Loretta Lynch was being sworn in as the nation’s first black female attorney general. She immediately said that the Justice Department stood ready to provide any assistance that might be helpful. Of course a Justice Department probe will not necessarily result in conclusions that support the suspicions of the “protesters.”

Rev. Martin Luther King said, “A riot is the language of the unheard.” Riots are, and have always been, a method that the oppressed use to make their frustration known — apparently hoping that their actions will convince those in power to respond to their needs/frustrations. Some believe that the inability to articulate their frustration results in the throwing of rocks, looting and setting fires. To me, and lots of other people, these actions make no logical sense and are self-defeating.

As I indicated previously, I obviously don’t know all the facts about Gray’s arrest and death and I don’t know all the facts that led to the disruptions in Baltimore. I’m not even sure the events were related in some instances. I believe in the American right to express one’s opinion and to protest, but I have little use for thugs and vandals that use peaceful protests as an excuse for violence.

President Obama said that those responsible for the Baltimore violence “need to be treated as criminals.” Treating them as criminals seems to be right on target to me — that’s what they are.
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We went to a party yesterday — Emily was excited that we were going, but when she found out it wasn’t a “Frozen” party, she lost her enthusiasm. Anyhow, the party was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of our pastor, Fr. Mat Rowgh, being ordained as a priest.

Religion is a personal thing and how, when and where you choose to worship is a personal choice. I’ve talked to people that don’t go to a particular church because they don’t like the building or there isn’t enough parking or the services aren’t held at a convenient time — or some other reason. A church, like other organizations — only more so, isn’t the brick or siding, paved or unpaved parking, or location — it’s the people — and — it’s leaders.

When we moved to West Virginia, we looked around to decide where we thought we wanted to go to church. From our house, we had several obvious choices but when we visited St. Agnes the choice was obvious — and easy.

I read somewhere that the first 12 minutes in a church dramatically influences whether you’re coming back or not. It didn’t take anywhere close to 12 minutes for us — Fr. Mat made the decision easy.

It occurred to me that as everyone in that crowded room yesterday was (rightfully) congratulating Fr. Mat, we probably all should have been offering him an apology, or at the very least feeling a little guilty. I’m afraid most of us only think of Fr. Mat as the true Shepherd that he is. We forget that he has his own problems — probably because he is so good at putting his own situations aside and making us feel as though we matter more to him than anything else. When we call when he’s busy (he always is) he never tells us to call back. When we suffer the loss of a loved one, when we have trouble in our lives or homes, when we are sick…. he’s always there.

So I think I speak for the entire St. Agnes community when I say, Congratulations, Fr. Mat but, more importantly, Thank You! And thank God for His gift that we have in you.
Happy Anniversary!!
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Today, April 24th is a very significant day. Well yea, you probably say, thinking that today you can buy an Apple Watch. The release of Apple Watches is significant, but that’s not what I was thinking of.

Twenty five years ago today, April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched on the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Long, long ago, man looked at the heavens with the naked eye, and even with only his eyes, figured out a lot about the stars and planets and their movements. Galileo came along and invented the telescope, and the search for knowledge about outer space was on. They were able to figure out how many planets make up our solar system, which ones have moons, see the rings around Saturn and map galaxies like the Milky Way.

The telescopes got better with time being built larger and more sophisticated and accurate. In the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble used the largest telescope at the Mt. Wilson Observatory in California to search for galaxies, planets and stars within our Solar System. To honor his significant contribution to the field os astronomy, the Hubble Space Telescope was named after him.

Since its launch, Hubble has circled the Earth along a circular low earth orbit 340 miles in altitude and traveled more than 3 billion miles. It has made more than 1 million observations since its mission began in 1990. The telescope has the accuracy of .007 arc seconds, which is like being able to shine a laser beam on a dime 200 miles away and operating outside the haze of our atmosphere, it can see astronomical objects with an angular size of 0.05 arc seconds — that’s like seeing a pair of fireflies in Tokyo from Washington D.C. Hubble weighs 24,500 pounds (as much as two full-grown elephants) and is 43.5 feet long — the length of a large school bus.

Hubble has peered back into the very distant past, to locations more than 13.4 billion light years from Earth. Let’s see the Apple Watch do that. Happy Birthday, Hubble!!
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I personally think just about every day is a good day to celebrate with wine, but today, April 17, is a day we should all celebrate by tipping a glass.

Today is Malbec World Day. I’m not sure why it’s not World Malbec Day, but there’s probably a good reason for it — maybe it’s an Argentinean thing, since they’re the ones that came up with it.

In the last couple of years, Malbec has become our wine of choice. Apparently, we’re not alone because it has become one of the more popular and best selling wines recently. A lot, if not most, Malbec comes from Argentina and it’s popularity seemed to rise just about the time the first Argentine Pope, Pope Francis, came along.

Even after extensive research I wasn’t able to determine why April 17 is Malbec World Day and not World Malbec Day, but I did discover that on April 17 in 1853 the 7th President of Argentina, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento decided to make it his mission to transform the Argentinian wine industry. He asked Michel Aime Pouget, a soil expert from France, to import grape vines for him. In the selection of vines was Malbec. It turns out that the Malbec grape thrived in the Argentine climate.

Even though Malbec was growing in popularity, Malbec World Day didn’t come into being until 2011. Apparently the first one was a huge success and this, the fifth one, promises to be even more successful as this will be the first officially celebrated by us. Luckily, April 17 was free on our calendar for such an important holiday — I have a feeling this may move right up my list of favorite days, maybe even getting close to Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Cheers and Happy Malbec World Day!
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I get a message from NASA when the International Space Station is going to be visible from our house. Often, especially in good weather, I go out and watch it. The other night after it had passed, I was looking at the sky and started thinking about the stars and how when we lived in the Philippines we saw the Souther Cross — something we can’t see in the northern hemisphere. I can identify and find some starts and constellations, but really not too many. The sky seems to change with the stars moving around, but of course this is because we’re standing on the earth that is spinning and it appears that the sky is revolving around us.

But one star doesn’t appear to move — the North Star. The North Star, known as Polaris, looks like it’s glued in place. If you can locate Polaris, it’s always in the north. If you happen to be lost, you can always at least know which direction to head by finding Polaris. (Again, this only works if you’re in the northern hemisphere.)

The North Star is easy to find if you can locate the Little Dipper. The North Star is located at the end of the handle in the Little Dipper. Most people think Polaris is a very bright star —it’s not. It’s only about “average” in brightness. In fact, it’s usually hard to see from our house and we don’t have a lot of ambient light out where we live. It seems like such an important star that’s been used for navigation for so long should be bright — but it’s not.

I guess we should all strive to be more like Polaris — if you think about it, it teaches some valuable lessons. There’s a lot to be said for being dependable and always there when needed. And you don’t have to be the brightest to be important. In any given situation, it’s usually an “average” person that’s the most important….
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Both you long-time readers know that I often wonder about things and do my fair share of pondering. I guess I now have something else to add to my ponder list.

Some time back, I was asked to look at one of the bathroom stall doors at our church. Something, or someone, had broken a bracket that anchored the door to the wall. The bracket was cast aluminum about a quarter of an inch thick, so it took some amount of force, but the bracket was broken. While attempting to remove the broken bracket from the wall, it dawned on me that the stall partitions in most public bathrooms are assembled using tamperproof hardware. Obviously, removing the old and installing the new bracket without special tools was a challenge, but I got to wondering — is there really such a big demand for these partitions that people are stealing them?

So now instead of wondering about more important things, I have to wonder about this. I suppose if they didn’t use this type of hardware, some jerk would whip out their Swiss Army Knife and take everything apart just as a joke on the next guy. Or, maybe they’re used just to make life more complicated and interesting for people like me. Then some people have the attitude that if it’s not bolted down, it’s free for the taking — and, if it can be unbolted, it’s not bolted down.

Just another one of the strange things I observe — maybe it’s to prevent vandalism or something like that, but my pondering has led me to believe there may be more to it than that. I’m thinking that it may be part of the Patriot Act implemented by Homeland Security. If you think about it, easily removable bathroom partitions in public buildings give terrorists a clear advantage.
Another thought is that in certain decors, they make great room dividers. By the way, if anyone is interested in some slightly used bathroom stall doors, give me a call….
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Easter or Eostre is the Old English word for which Christian celebration? That’s right — Easter
Lihavotted is the Estonian name for? Yep — Easter
Curtis City, Nebraska holds an annual pageant on Palm Sunday and is known as Nebraska’s ‘what” city”? — Right again, Easter City.
You may have guessed, but this blog is going to be about Easter. Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, but often times, Easter brings thoughts of the Easter Bunny and eggs.

When our kids were small, Claire took them to the White House egg roll at least a few times, and they always seemed to have some sort of a rabbit associated with the holiday. So today, while Easter is the most important religious holiday for Christians, a lot, or most, people associate it with a bunny who brings eggs. That’s always seemed a little strange to me, since rabbits don’t lay eggs — or, deliver gifts.

Easter is an especially attractive day for candy makers — the only other holiday that beats it for candy sales is Halloween. The most popular candy is chocolate eggs. The jelly bean, another egg-shaped candy became associated with Easter in the 1930s. The best selling non-chocolate candy is  Peeps — a marshmallow, sugary concoction shaped like a chick, or maybe a duck — I forget.

Easter actually began as a pagan holiday, but as it migrated to a Christian occasion, Easter eggs came to represent Jesus’ emergence from the tomb and resurrection. The decoration of eggs dates back to at least the 13th century. One explanation for the custom is that eggs were formerly a forbidden food during the Lenten season, so people would paint and decorate them to mark the end of the period of penance and fasting and then eat them on Easter as a celebration.

Today, the the Easter Bunny is considered a sort of springtime Santa Claus. There is an obvious religious connection between the two holidays — Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ and Easter celebrates His resurrection. And both Santa and the Bunny reward children with candy and treats for good behavior. So the association is there and there would be no Christmas if there was no Easter.

We’re especially looking forward to this Easter — it’ll be the first one we get to spend with both Emily and Locke — oh, and their parents. Happy Easter, everyone.
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This is no joke. It’s April Fools’ Day. If you get any amount of satisfaction from fooling others, this day is for you. If you’re one of those gullible people that fall for most anything — well, maybe you should just stay in today.
On my calendar, this is actually two holidays — April Fools’ Day and Fun at Work Day. Again, no joke. This is International Fun at Work Day. I suppose work should always be fun, but for (probably) most people, it’s not. So today is your chance. Think of things and ways to make your job more fun and exciting. Of course remember that no matter how  much fun you have today at work, you have to go to work tomorrow — so use your own judgement as to how much fun is too much….

But back to April Fools’ Day — like a lot of our holidays, no one really knows why we started, and continue, to celebrate a dastardly day like this. But there are a lot of theories.
Most of the explanations revolve around when Pope Gregory XIII (in 1582) adopted the Gregorian Calendar, effectively moving New Years’ Day from the end of March to the first of January. Even though the change was widely publicized, just like today, some people didn’t get the memo, and some just resisted the change and continued to celebrate the New Year at the end of March. Those that didn’t make the change were called “April Fools.” There are lots of other theories, but the fact that some April Fools’ Day origin stories are pranks in and of themselves just adds to the confusion.

April Fools’ Day is celebrated pretty much worldwide, but in most countries, it has its own “twist.”
The day is known as Poisson d’Avril in France, which means “April Fish” in English. Children tape a picture of a fish on the backs of a classmate and wait until they discover it. Taily Day (Scotland) is all about pranks involving people’s behinds and may have inspired the “Kick Me” sign.

In recent years, corporate america has gotten into the spirit of April Fools’ and and released fake ads and promoted fake products. One that I thought was particularly good was in 1996. Taco Bell took out a full page ad in a number major newspapers saying that the fast food chain had purchased the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. I think I read in the paper this morning that you can now get your tax refund in iTunes cards….

Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time. Maybe today is the day you can come closer to fooling all the people all the time…. Everybody else has their day, so why not fools?
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Nine years ago today, we moved into our house in West Virginia — Almost Heaven!!