A History of Tomorrow

A day in the life of a cub reporter

2007-06-13T22:10:00.000-04:00

The most interesting parts of being a reporter are frequently those which do not end up in the paper. On Monday I was covering a small town council and chastised for wearing a tie by three separate people. The lack of proper governmental procedure was actually quite funny and council members made light of their lack of knowledge of Robert's Rules of Order. At one point one of the members suggested that they change the way council members are elected and they were on the verge of taking a vote on it when they decided to wait and talk to the Town Attorney who was out umpiring a little league game. I am pretty sure a change like that might even require a town charter change...

On my way back from the meeting I happened to pass by River Preserve County Park. I decided to stop. I was blown away by the amount of wildlife in the park. In the short time I was there I saw two blue heron, a velvety buck, a northern water snake and carp trying to jump a dam. I have lived in Elkhart County most of my life and I had never visited the park. I was so inspired by my visit that I decided to to write a profile story on it which is currently in the works.

While working on the story I had the pleasure of interviewing the park manager. He was quite the character and I enjoyed spending a few ours with him. I always love meeting interesting people. He started out in the oil industry and in now a naturalist. He plays in a rock band called the Tsunami Salamis. He said his next move will be totally off the grid where he thinks he will have a better chance of shifting dimensions. He was formally a catholic who now believes in something akin to the power of positive thinking. Enthusiastically gesturing in the air to his right he told me to tap into the positive energies. "We are all gods," he said. Jesus came to show us how to tap into these energies and break free from the "controller."
The man could quote Scripture. "The Jehovah's Witnesses finally stopped coming around," he said. He said the problem with Christianity is that it encourages people to rely on something other than themselves, which was giving into the controller. This is classic Gnosticism and it always amazes me how these old heresies keep cropping up.

A proper pint of Guinness

2007-06-08T21:10:00.000-04:00

Ever since hanging out at the Kings Arms and the Eagle and Child in Oxford, I have been looking for a proper pint of Guinness. I don't like guzzling my beer, I want something to nurse for as long as possible and the heavy tasting Guinness is perfect for that. I tried it out of the bottle and it was terrible. Then I want to the Fiddlers Hearth in South Bend near the College Football Hall of Fame. While it costs $5, its worth every penny. The atmosphere is perfect as well. The place has a nice old world feel to it and apparently they have live music on a regular basis. I must give credit for this discovery to Pastor Peter Wallace of Michiana Covenant. Wallace has a weekly time called "Pastor at the Pub" where he hangs out at the Hearth during Thursday afternoons. While this might seem a strange place for a pastor to hang out, after going there myself it makes perfect sense.

Families begin four-day trek to Michigan

2007-06-08T20:28:00.000-04:00

By DAVID LANDOW
Goshen News Staff Writer

Carson City or bust! With umbrellas for shade and seated comfortably in collapsible camp chairs on top of their homemade wagon, two Amish families from the Goshen and Nappanee area are trekking north to Carson City, Mich.

The trip will take the nine men, women and children four days and will cover more than 150 miles.

“We hope we will make it there safely,” Everett Martin said. “If the horses can survive it, we can survive it.”

Everett Martin and Ernest Martin, who are cousins, have been planning this trip for over a year to visit Everett Martin’s brothers as well as other friends and family in Carson City, which is in central Michigan north of Lansing.

The cousins saw a wagon they liked at an auction but decided that building one themselves would be cheaper than buying one. Since Everett works in construction and Ernest is a welder, they had the necessary skills between them to build it. Construction took about two weeks.

In addition to the wagon, they also had to condition their two standard bred horses by driving them for a couple of miles every day.

With the wagon, food and people, the horses are pulling around 2,000 pounds.

The Martins picked a route along less-traveled county roads since they have to walk the horses most of the way because trotting them would wear them out very quickly. They plan on stopping every three hours or so to give the horses a rest.

The current plan is to camp along the road on the way up and to stay in Carson City for a couple of days, but that all depends on whether the horses will be recovered in time for the trip back.

“That we will find out,” Everett Martin said. “We don’t know yet.”

Even though they were only 10 miles on their way, Ernest said they were already talking about their next trip.

Ernest said to tell their friends and family that they are already feeling lonely.

Civil Religion

2007-05-15T16:06:00.000-04:00

In the modern political climate being a Christian implies a desire to spread democracy and ban flag burning. Throw in a "In "God" We Trust" licence plate to solidify allegiance to the anonymous god civil religion and you are set. This god is certainly not the trinitarian God of the holy scriptures. Why Christians are so obsessed with making sure a bland vanilla higher power is acknowledged on their mud caked bumper is shocking to me. Watching Mit Romney try to come to terms with his Mormonism in this election illustrates the difficulties of the civil religion. On Fox News today a member of his campaign said that it does not matter where he goes to Church but only that he has faith in god. The emphasis is on faith, not god. All we need is some sort of amorphous faith. That Christians will nod in agreement is shocking. Better to have no God in the civil sphere at all then Christians stripping their faith to accommodate themselves to this world in which they are pilgrims and wanderers.

I guess taking swipes at the civil religion is in poor taste right now. The Rev. Fallwell died today. He did more than anyone to try to restore religion to the public sphere. His motives were pure. Whether his theology of the mundane was constructive or destructive to Christianity is another matter. But this is known: He was a man who loved God (the trinitarian one).

Don't immanentize the eschaton!

2007-02-14T13:23:00.000-05:00

Friends don't let friends immanentize the eschaton.

Evil

2007-01-18T08:16:00.000-05:00

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Let the error begin

2007-01-17T21:16:00.001-05:00

My first day classes this year just goes to show how much learning is a life long process.

The first reading for my class on the “American Identity” is an essay by Herbert Butterfield called “The Whig Interpretation of History” and it directly contradicts what I said in yesterdays post. Butterfield argues that taking on the role of God in passing judgment on people and events and trying to relate them to modern times tends oversimplify history. History, or him, is much more complicated and should be approached with a sympathy to all parties and not just the Whig “protestant gentleman” interpretation.

In the past I have hesitated to post much since my thought is in constant flux and anything I wrote would fail to be systematic and might downright contradict something I wrote earlier. This is still the case, but I have realized that it is a fallacy to wait for complete assurance to commit thoughts to the written word for fear of future contradiction. After all, St. Augustine wrote a book at the end of his life where he went through his previous works and renounced all that he no longer stood by. Learning is a life long process of trial and error. Let the error begin!

34,000 killed in Iraq this year (NYT pic)

2007-01-16T16:06:00.000-05:00

A History of My Tomorrow

2007-01-16T12:00:00.000-05:00

A history of tomorrow. While on the surface this might seem a silly and pointless title for a blog it conveys exactly what I mean to say. Human nature is a fixed thing. The wants, needs and sins of the Persian, Greek, Roman, American and trans-AsianEuropean are/will be the same. The choices I made yesterday determine who I will be tomorrow.

In fact, on a deeper level, the choices my parents made 23 years ago shape my tomorrow as well. It is vain to speak of my “self” in the abstract. I am my parent’s child and grandparents grandchild whether I like it or not.

So, when I say that today is the history of tomorrow I mean that what happened in the past forms tomorrow. The future is an open history book.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It has been already in the ages before us.

(Ecc 1:9-10)

Note: My new years resolution is to post every day. I hold no illusions of posting great or even readable stuff. I want to write purely for my own benefit since the more I write the clearer my thinking is. Comments are more than welcome.