Alcinous's Banquet

A Hermeneutic of Discontinuity: Life as a Traditional Catholic in a Post-Christian World

2011-05-22T18:53:00.005-05:00

Having survived -- so far as I can tell -- The Rapture this weekend, I'm struck by a couple of things I experienced.

The first was a discussion with an old friend who does not attend the Latin Mass, but who is increasingly dissatisfied with what passes for suburban post-modern Catholicism of the "I'm-OK-You're-OK-Anything-Goes--Except-Pre-Vatican-II-Catholicism" variety.

He's less than satisfied with the atrocious level of Catholic teaching at his parish, and pretty much most parishes he's visited. I happened to speak with his wife in a separate conversation, and she echoed the same sentiment about the lack of Catholics who seem to practice Catholicism. Specifically she was complaining about the lack of decency in dress at Sunday Mass -- halter tops and short-shorts and the like. When she wondered aloud whether there were any parishes where such things were not occurring, I responded "Well that doesn't happen in our [Latin Mass] parish." "But we're freaks, of course," I quickly added.

And then today on the way to Mass (across town to the ghetto where they keep us Traditional freaks -- for reasons unknown, it's pretty standard that the Latin Masses are relegated to the worst-possible areas of town all across America) we passed one of the local parishes, where I noticed several parishioners doing yard work around the parish sign, apparently oblivious of the 3rd Commandment's strictures against menial or servile physical labor on the Sabbath day. (Yes, I know they were undoubtedly well-intentioned, but couldn't someone have proposed doing this work on a Saturday instead?)

Everywhere you look, it seems that Catholicism is observed more in the breach than in actuality.

I really try to refrain from this sort of fuddy-duddy harumph-harumphing. Really I do. For one thing, there are seemingly no end of faults of my own to concentrate upon (Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.)

But it's getting more and more difficult to view Catholicism as it's preached and practiced in the Novus Ordo Missae (New Order of the Mass - the Ordinary Form) and as it's preached and practiced in the Traditionalist parishes and chapels around the country and pretend that the two versions are really one and the same Church.

In the one, you have a complete breakdown of traditional practices and devotions like Friday abstinence and the sacrament of Penance ("Confession"), and pathetically weak homilies about being nice. In the other, you have homilies about reality of Hell, and the need for sacrifice and penance from the laity, and reinforcement of the age-old Catholic teachings against contraception and divorce and the Commandments.

Don't know what to do about it, other than the old ever-necessary tools of prayer and penance. In today's homily my priest was railing about the need to be bold examples of the Church Militant in the world, rather than meekly observing the political-correctness which requires us to hide our Catholicism from the world.

I'll guess we should try both prayer-penance and militancy. Jesus does not require that we be successful, but He does require that we preach the Good News to all the world -- which would I suppose include the Catholics at the parish down the street, as well as the non-Catholics and the rest of the world.

Apple Customer Service Rocks!

2010-05-18T20:30:00.001-05:00

I've been reading about the importance of customer service lately. Patricia Seybold makes the case in "The Customer Service Revolution" that we're currently undergoing a business revolution that is more profound and long-lasting than even the rise of ubiquitous internet access, and this is the rising influence of the customer on businesses.

In these days of instant world-wide communication using Twitter and Facebook, one customer's bad experience suddenly becomes known by millions of people around the world. Last year United Airlines experienced the bite of bad customer service when its baggage handlers broke a passenger's $3000 Taylor guitar, and United arrogantly refused to replace. (Google "United Breaks Guitars" for the YouTube video record of United customer service nightmare.) Estimates of the cost of United's customer service FAIL are in the hundred's a millions of dollars. All over a $3000 guitar that their employees smashed.

Despite decades of corporate blowhards telling us how customer service is "job one", now it really is becoming true. I'm currently reading "Flip the Funnel" by e-marketing whizkid Joseph Jaffe (http://www.amazon.com/Flip-Funnel-Existing-Customers-Gain/dp/0470487852). In it, Jaffe makes the point that companies have been doing marketing "wrong" for years -- instead of sweeping in mass quantities of consumers by making them aware of your product, they ought to be using those who have actually used the product to market it for them to their friends, relatives and associates.

Which brings me to Apple and my iPhone. I think Apple has been on to this marketing secret for years. Over the past several years, their market share has grown steadily from people who first bought an iPod, then moved on to bigger and more expensive products like the iPhone and now iPad. Apple's customers almost invariably become "Apple fanboys" or fanatically supportive of the company and its products.

I oughta know, since prior to the purchase of my first iPod I'd never owned anything made by Apple -- despite being an avid technology buff and a former IT professional. My first iPod Shuffle, led to my buying an Apple Mini, followed closely by an Apple MacBook and finally last Christmas, the iPhone 3GS. Within the space of just about 3 or 4 years, I've moved from someone who was completely indifferent to Apple's products, to a fanatic. I love the company and I love their products.

Today, I dropped my beloved iPhone. (Really -- these things are the greatest inventions I've ever used. No kidding.) Although I didn't notice it right away, later I noticed that the touch screen was making an almost imperceptible click when I pressed it. A closer inspection revealed that the case had separated just slightly from the phone's bezel.

Stricken, I immediately called my local Apple Store and made an appointment to have them look at my phone -- within the hour. Upon arriving, the Apple Genius (that's what they call their support staff) looked at it and said, "I can try to put it back together, or I can replace it. Which would you prefer?" Honestly, I hadn't even considered that they might replace the thing. Having quickly realized that my phone was backed up only 3 hours earlier, I chose the "replacement" option. Literally 5 minutes later, I walked out of the Apple Store with a brand-spankin' new iPhone 32 GB 3GS phone. Cost: zero. Took it home, plugged it in to my MacBook and restored the entire phone -- apps, music, settings and all. No problem.

As a gadget nerd, I have to say that I've seen the HTC Droid Incredible phone (the latest in a long string of putative "iPhone-killers") and it's nice. Shiny, even. But customer service is the reason that these "iPhone-killers" will never succeed.

Apple, you definitely rock!

Posted via email from fbcallicoat's posterous

Marriage Encounter Weekend: a Review

2010-04-25T23:30:00.001-05:00

Back from OKC where Tracy and I spent the weekend at a Marriage Encounter weekend. It was a mixed bag, I think.

On the one hand I do think it is good to stop and focus on the the reason you got married to your spouse in the first place. ME does a really good job of helping couples reconnect and rekindle. And you know that can't be bad, to quote the Beatles.

Another salutary practice is the recommended daily practice of "Dialoging" -- where a married couple each write each other a "love letter" on a specific topic. I cannot help but think doing something like that would have a wonderful effect on a couple's intimacy and connectedness. In these days where marrieds barely find the time to say hello and goodbye each evening and morning, the effect of a daily exchange of love letters between them could not help to revolutionize any marriage.

But it wasn't all wine and roses, either. Or if it was, it was like ripple cut with sugar, and Bette Midler's sappy song, The Rose -- which they actually played at one point to set the mood or something. (Seriously -- they did that.)

Much too much time was spent on finding weird ways if describing your feelings, e.g., "When you bounced that check dear, I felt angry and my anger was the color of winter sunset in the Rust Belt after there's been a big layoff at the Caterpillar plant. It left a bitter taste like Brussel Sprouts that have been reheated in a microwave oven once too many times." Yeah, I kid you not. It was just like that for hour after droning hour.

I've written before about the feminization of the Roman Catholic Church, and here's another example. Worldwide Marriage Encounter fairly screams of the feminine worldview and the all important topic of one's feelings. A huge portion of the weekend was given over to how to discuss, analyze and describe precisely how something makes you feel. The materials have an entire appendix devoted to suggested similes and adjectives to be used to describe feelings.

I'm a Roman Catholic too, but one adhering to a different rite -- the Extraordinary form of the Latin rite, also known as the traditional Latin Mass. Our liturgy, our sacrments and our practices harken back to the way the Church was before the revolution imposed by the aftermath of Vatican II. The difference between the two liturgies is as far as the East from the West. One of the things that jumps out at you is the masculinity of the pre-Vatican II rite when compared to the way Mass is celebrated today at most parishes each Sunday.

The new Mass is feminine in so many ways. Long gone are the controversies over whether girls should be allowed to serve as altar boys, and the typical Novus Ordo (trans. "new order") Mass is shot through with lay women serving in every possible role except that of the priest -- the alter Christus. There are women cantors, women reading Scripture, and women assisting at the altar, and even women handing out the Body and Blood of Christ, Himself -- all of which was completely unknown and actually prohibited for the 1,935 year history of the Mass prior to Vatican II.

So too, the feminine touch is evident in nearly everything the Catholic Church does these days. From marriage prep to offices of the chancery -- if you removed women from the day to day management of the Church, virtually every chancery in America would be a ghost town of empty desks not to mention ringing telephones. Though Marriage Encounter is put on and run by married couples, the feminine touch of the program is unmistakable and for me, off putting.

Ben Callicoat
(918) 409-2462

They're making a movie of your life story, here: http://www.catholicscomehome.org/epic/movie.phtml

Bonum, Verum, Pulcrum.

What you do every day matters more than what you do once in awhile.

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Easter, 2010

2010-04-04T14:33:00.009-05:00

The tomb is empty and Our Lord is Truly Risen!

We attended Easter Vigil last night at the Parish of St. Peter with Fr. Angelo Van der Putten, Fr. Eric Flood, and Deacon Rhone Lillard -- all FSSP. Wow.

I feel so incredibly blessed and fortunate to have been led into the Traditional Catholic movement, where the Latin epigram "Bonum, Verum, Pulchrum" (The Good, the True and the Beautiful) have such significance and impact.

After a Parish rosary a little after 10 p.m., the Easter celebrations at our Traditional Latin Mass began with the New Fire ceremony outside the doors of St. Augustine Catholic Church in North Tulsa.

It begins with the congregation surrounding a wood fire outside the doors of the church, where the year's Paschal Candle is blessed and inscribed with the Alpha and Omega and the year, and then blessed grains of incense are inserted into the candle in cruciform. The Paschal Candle will be burned during the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the liturgical year.

Once it is blessed, the candle is lit from the fire and the entire congregation processes into the darkened church, pausing three times -- once at the entrance, then in the middle, and finally at the sanctuary -- for the traditional sung chant "Lumen Christi!" (The Light of Christ!) and response from the congregation "Deo Gratias!" (Thanks be to God!)

Arriving at the sanctuary, the holy fire is passed to the acolytes who then pass the fire to the congregation's candles and the entire church fills with the warm glow of the holy light of Christ.

From there the Easter Vigil begins and the next two hours are filled with the sounds of the Holy Prophecies -- readings beginning from Genesis and throughout the Old Testament, prophesying the Birth, Passion and Resurrection of Christ.

During the liturgy the lights of the church remain off and the only light is that of the Paschal candle and the candles held by the parishioners as they worship in reverence and attentiveness (excepting the little ones, who invariably fall fast asleep in the pews.)

The culmination is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the reception of Communion. But for some reason I particularly love the Litany of Saints -- which dates from approximately 590 A.D. The litany is done in call and response with a cantor intoning for example "Sancte Michael" and the congregation responding "Ora pro nobis".

Here's a link to a YouTube video containing the litany: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiM9uJIN64g

A blessed and wonderful Easter to all! Remember that Easter began today, but lasts for the next 40 days. Let us go forth and transform the world through the light of Jesus Christ, who loved us so much that he willingly endured the pains of torture and death to rescue us from Hell.

Year in Review: Smart phones - with apps - rule

2009-12-27T23:35:00.001-06:00

Led by the iPhone and the BlackBerry family of devices, the smart phone market expanded beyond its roots as a corporate tool or early-adopter plaything.

A ChangeWave Research survey of consumers in September found that 39 percent owned a smart phone and 11 percent were planning to buy one in the next 90 days. Another study by the NPD Group found that smart phones represented 28 percent of all cell phone purchases in the second quarter, up from 12 percent at the end of 2007.

For many cell phone users now, the issue is not if they will upgrade to a smart phone but when.

"Smart phones were just a gee-whiz gadget a few years ago, but now you have a herding situation where people are asking each other, 'What kind of smart phone do you have?' " said J. Gerry Purdy, chief mobile analyst for research firm Frost & Sullivan.

This shift has touched off a frenzy among mobile software developers, hardware manufacturers and cellular carriers, all eager to cash in.

Computer manufacturers such as Dell and Acer joined the fray, releasing smart phones in 2009. U.S. market leader Research in Motion Ltd. cranked out even more BlackBerry devices, including its second touch-screen model, the Storm 2.

Established players made aggressive bids to turn around their businesses using flashy handsets sporting new operating systems. Palm released its webOS operating system with the Palm Pre in June. Motorola produced the Cliq and the Droid, which both run on Google's Android operating system.

Google on board

Android had one of the largest growth spurts this year, going from one device in 2008 to eight handsets available in the United States this year. A Google-branded device, the Nexus One, is reportedly set to hit the market in early January. Google's Matt Waddell, chief of staff for mobile and developer products, said Google developed Android because the smart phone has become a key access point for Web information.

But he said smart phones - with their array of sensors and tools like GPS, a compass, a camera and Internet connections - enable a new way of interacting with and searching your environment.

"The smart phone is the most personal of computers," Waddell said. "When you combine that with a rich set of sensors on the device, you can do things that you couldn't do on the phone before."

Cell phone operators also are on board with smart phones, expanding the number of devices they carry. Verizon Wireless joined T-Mobile and Sprint in supporting Android, which is fast becoming a contender in the smart phone race.

AT&T, which boasts the most smart phones of any carrier, said about 42 percent of its subscribers in the third quarter owned smart phones, up from 13 percent at the end of 2007 and 27 percent at the end of last year.

Terry Stenzel, AT&T vice president and general manager for Northern California/Reno, said users have embraced the ease of use and utility of smart phones. He credits Apple for leading users into the smart phone market and convincing them they have the power of a computer in their pocket.

"Apple took the fear away from the device, and when you take the fear away, people want to use it and they will use it," Stenzel said.

Stenzel said AT&T's network has experienced a 5,000 percent increase in data usage in the past two years. And as of the third quarter, 60 percent of connections to AT&T's Wi-Fi network are made via smart phones instead of laptops as they traditionally have been.

New hardware was only part of the equation for smart phones in 2009. A key factor was also the rise of mobile applications, made popular through Apple's App Store.

Though the App Store opened in July of last year, it was in 2009 when the store - and the whole notion of buying apps for phones - gained critical momentum, fueled by Apple's ubiquitous "There's an app for that" advertising campaign.

By mid-January, there were 15,000 apps with 500 million downloads recorded. In September, Apple posted its 2 billionth download, and by November, there were more than 100,000 apps in the store.

"The iPhone was a great device, but it was the store and the software development kit that really changed things," said Cassidy Lackey, vice president of mobile app developer Handmark. "Now everyone is playing catch-up with the store experience, and they're all fighting for developers."

Most competing platforms rolled out their answer to the App Store in 2009. BlackBerry created App World, while Microsoft introduced Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Nokia opened its Ovi store, joining the Android Market, which started in October 2008.

Huge market

The stores have united hardware and software in a way that's never been done before, giving customers easy access to a wealth of programs for their phones. It's also helped softwaremakers boost their revenue. Gamemaker Tapulous of Palo Alto reported recently that it's making nearly $1 million a month from sales of its iPhone applications.

Smart phones also got a boost from the rise of social networking. According to Forrester Research, 65 million people now access Facebook via a mobile device, compared with 8 million a year ago.

"Social media and texting require a smart phone," said Jack Gold, an analyst with J. Gold Associates. "You can't do that on dumb phone. And because people are so dependent on those things, that's why people have moved to these smart devices."

Stenzel, the AT&T executive, said it will be only a matter of time before people stop calling them smart phones altogether.

"There won't be anything else, because it will be what everyone wants and needs," he said. "If you don't have a smart phone, you won't be in the mainstream."

E-mail Ryan Kim at rkim@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page DC - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

via sfgate.com

I feel I should sub-title this post "Ben Got An iPhone for Xmas"

Posted via web from fbcallicoat's posterous

Bankruptcy | Why Does My Attorney Want The Bankruptcy Judge To Reject The Car Reaffirmation That I Want? (And Why Won’t My Attorney Sign It?) | Bankruptcy Law Network

2009-12-27T22:10:00.001-06:00

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Why Does My Attorney Want The Bankruptcy Judge To Reject The Car Reaffirmation That I Want? (And Why Won’t My Attorney Sign It?)

By Karen Oakes, Southern Oregon Bankruptcy Attorney on Dec 27, 2009 in Bankruptcy Cases & Legislation, Bankruptcy Practice and Procedure, Benefits of Bankruptcy, Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, General Bankruptcy Information, Your Bankruptcy Attorney & You

Most clients get a displeased shocked look when I tell them that I won’t sign a reaffirmation agreement for their car during their Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. A reaffirmation agreement is, in effect, a new contract where the debtor (my client) agrees with the creditor (not my c lient) that the debtor will be financially responsible for the debt after their bankruptcy case is over.   My colleague Wayne Novick of Ohio recent explained reaffirmations in a series of blogs – including one entitled, “Reaffirmations: Cars Trucks Things with Wheels”.   If there is no reaffirmation agreement, the personal liability is gone but the vehicle still secures the debt. Before 2005, if the debtor continued to pay the debt, the creditor just took the money.   Post-2005 and the adoption of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, most of the time, car creditors have threatened to come and get the vehicle if there is no reaffirmation agreement, even if the debtor continues to make timely payments.   However, if the debtor signs the reaffirmation and it is approved by the bankruptcy judge, if the debtor stops paying the debt, months or years later, the creditor can then sue the debtor.   This is why most attorneys do not sign reaffirmations–it puts our clients back into personal liability for debt and creates a risk of being sued.

Judges across the country, faced with the dilemna of folks needing their cars–which generally have no equity–and these reaffirmation agreements–which are generally bad for the debtors, but very good for the creditors, have refused to approve the reaffirmation agreements.   In Missouri, one of the judges outlined what he felt were the requirements for him to sign a reaffirmation agreement, according to my colleague, Rachel Foley.   In Oregon, there is the case of In re Bower, 07-60126-fra7 (Bankr.Or. 7/26/2007) (Bankr.Or., 2007), where the judge refused to approve the reaffirmation because it did not help the debtor’s fresh start.   Recently, another district court judge in Delaware ruled that when the bankruptcy judge rejected the reaffirmation agreement that if the creditor repossessed the car when there had been timely payments, that the repossession was unlawful (Ford Motor Credit v. Baker, 400 B.R. 136 (2009)).

The attorney does not want the judge to approve the reaffirmation–having it rejected is a good thing, as explained further by California consumer bankruptcy attorney, Cathy Moran.   The debtor gets to keep the car as long as they pay for it and the creditor gets paid.   When the creditor stops getting paid, the creditor has the right to repossess the car, but NOT sue the debtor.

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via bankruptcylawnetwork.com

Excellent article on why keeping your car in bantuptcy might not be the smart thing to do

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Madonna of Sorrows, pray for us!

2009-12-27T17:25:00.001-06:00

via secret-harbor.blogspot.com

In memory of Darrell Goddard, husband and father. RIP

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Robert P. George, Slaying Dragons and Defeating Invincible Ignorance

2009-12-20T02:01:00.001-06:00

Robert P. George, the Conservative-Christian Big Thinker - NYTimes.com

On a September afternoon, about 60 prominent Christians assembled in the library of the Metropolitan Club on the east side of Central Park. It was a gathering of unusual diversity and power. Many in attendance were conservative evangelicals like the born-again Watergate felon Chuck Colson, who helped initiate the meeting. Metropolitan Jonah, the primate of the Orthodox Church in America, was there as well. And so were more than half a dozen of this country’s most influential Roman Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, Archbishop John Myers of Newark and Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia.

At the center of the event was Robert P. George, a Princeton University professor of jurisprudence and a Roman Catholic who is this country’s most influential conservative Christian thinker. Dressed in his usual uniform of three-piece suit, New College, Oxford cuff links and rimless glasses, George convened the meeting with a note of thanks and a reminder of its purpose. Alarmed at the liberal takeover of Washington and an apparent leadership vacuum among the Christian right, the group had come together to warn the country’s secular powers that the culture wars had not ended. As a starting point, George had drafted a 4,700-word manifesto that promised resistance to the point of civil disobedience against any legislation that might implicate their churches or charities in abortion, embryo-destructive research or same-sex marriage.
Two months later, at a Washington press conference to present the group’s “Manhattan Declaration,” George stepped aside to let Cardinal Rigali sum up just what made the statement, and much of George’s work, distinctive. These principles did not belong to the Christian faith alone, the cardinal declared; they rested on a foundation of universal reason. “They are principles that can be known and honored by men and women of good will even apart from divine revelation,” Rigali said. “They are principles of right reason and natural law.”
Even marriage between a man and a woman, Rigali continued, was grounded not just in religion and tradition but in logic. “The true great goods of marriage — the unitive and the procreative goods — are inextricably bound together such that the complementarity of husband and wife is of the very essence of marital communion,” the cardinal continued, ascending into philosophical abstractions surely lost on most in the room. “Sexual relations outside the marital bond are contrary not only to the will of God but to the good of man. Indeed, they are contrary to the will of God precisely because they are against the good of man.”
George looked on with arms crossed and lips sealed. But he was obviously pleased. To anyone who knew George’s work, the cardinal’s words sounded very much as if George had written them, and when I asked him about it later, he acknowledged providing assistance. Rigali’s remarks were a summation of the distinctive moral philosophy that is the foundation of George’s power.
He has parlayed a 13th-century Catholic philosophy into real political influence. Glenn Beck, the Fox News talker and a big George fan, likes to introduce him as “one of the biggest brains in America,” or, on one broadcast, “Superman of the Earth.” Karl Rove told me he considers George a rising star on the right and a leading voice in persuading President George W. Bush to restrict embryonic stem-cell research. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told me he numbers George among the most-talked-about thinkers in conservative legal circles. And Newt Gingrich called him “an important and growing influence” on the conservative movement, especially on matters like abortion and marriage.
“If there really is a vast right-wing conspiracy,” the conservative Catholic journal Crisis concluded a few years ago, “its leaders probably meet in George’s kitchen.”
FOR 20 YEARS, George has operated largely out of public view at the intersection of academia, religion and politics. In the past 12 months, however, he has stepped into a more prominent role. With the death of the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, a Lutheran minister turned Roman Catholic priest who helped bring evangelicals and Catholics together into a political movement, George has assumed his mantle as the reigning brain of the Christian right. And he is in many ways the public face of the conservative side in the most urgent culture-war battle of the day. The National Organization for Marriage, the advocacy group fighting same-sex marriage in Albany and Trenton, Maine and California, has made him its chairman. Before the 2004 election, he helped a coalition of Christian conservative groups write their proposed amendment to the federal Constitution defining marriage as heterosexual. More than any other scholar, George has staked his reputation on the claim that same-sex marriage violates not only tradition but also human reason.
It’s part of a philosophy that has found support among a group of Catholic bishops who have become some of the most persistent critics of President Obama and the Congressional Democrats. George serves as their intellectual point man. In the past few years, many of the evangelical Protestants who once defined the religious right have turned inward after their disappointment with President George W. Bush. In their place, George’s friends among the Catholic bishops have stepped to the fore, hammering Obama for his pro-choice Catholic cabinet nominees, for being invited to speak at Notre Dame’s commencement, for his stem-cell research policies and most recently for his health care proposals.
As Democrats have stepped up their explicitly religious appeals to Catholic voters, these bishops have pushed back against the intrusion on their turf. While Democrats talked of finding common ground on abortion, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, the informal leader of this side of the American church, gave a much-publicized speech denouncing Obama as “the most committed abortion rights candidate in history.” Chaput chose to publish his remarks on the Web site of a think tank co-founded by George — the man who had himself argued in an essay disseminated widely last fall through conservative circles, Fox News and Christian radio that Barack Obama was “the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek” the presidency.
George’s role as an adviser to these bishops began more than 20 years ago, when he was a young professor and recent Ph.D. A mutual friend introduced him to the Rev. John Myers, then a bishop in Peoria, Ill., who was working on a pastoral letter about the moral obligations of Catholic voters and politicians. With George’s assistance, Myers wrote a letter laying out the case that abortion, as the taking of a life, was a crime against the natural law of human reason, not merely a violation of Catholic theology. Therefore, Myers and George argued, Catholic politicians and voters were wrong to write off the church’s teachings as a matter of personal faith. What’s more, the letter warned, voting for a candidate or a law upholding abortion rights would almost invariably put a Catholic so far outside church teachings that he should not receive communion. As the first systematic rebuttal to Mario Cuomo and other Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, the letter kicked off a now-familiar debate inside the church. “Whenever I venture out into the public square, I would almost invariably check it out with Robby first,” Myers, now the archbishop of Newark, told me. Many of the bishops, Myers says, rely on George as “a touchstone” and “the pre-eminent Catholic intellectual.”
Last spring, George was invited to address an audience that included many bishops at a conference in Washington. He told them with typical bluntness that they should stop talking so much about the many policy issues they have taken up in the name of social justice. They should concentrate their authority on “the moral social” issues like abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and same-sex marriage, where, he argued, the natural law and Gospel principles were clear. To be sure, he said, he had no objections to bishops' “making utter nuisances of themselves” about poverty and injustice, like the Old Testament prophets, as long as they did not advocate specific remedies. They should stop lobbying for detailed economic policies like progressive tax rates, higher minimum wage and, presumably, the expansion of health care — “matters of public policy upon which Gospel principles by themselves do not resolve differences of opinion among reasonable and well-informed people of good will,” as George put it.
A few months later, in a July 17 letter to Congress, the bishops did something close to that in the health care debate. Setting aside decades of calls for universal coverage, the bishops pledged to fight any bill that failed to block the use of federal subsidies for insurance covering abortion. “Stalin famously asked, ‘How many divisions has the pope?’ ” George wrote to me in an e-mail message after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed a vote on an amendment that satisfied the bishops’ demands. “I guess Pelosi now knows.”
In the American culture wars, George wants to redraw the lines. It is the liberals, he argues, who are slaves to a faith-based “secularist orthodoxy” of “feminism, multiculturalism, gay liberationism and lifestyle liberalism.” Conservatives, in contrast, speak from the high ground of nonsectarian public reason. George is the leading voice for a group of Catholic scholars known as the new natural lawyers. He argues for the enforcement of a moral code as strictly traditional as that of a religious fundamentalist. What makes his natural law “new” is that it disavows dependence on divine revelation or biblical Scripture — or even history and anthropology. Instead, George rests his ethics on a foundation of “practical reason”: “invoking no authority beyond the authority of reason itself,” as he put it in one essay.
George’s admirers say he is revitalizing a strain of Catholic natural-law thinking that goes back to St. Thomas Aquinas. His scholarship has earned him accolades from religious and secular institutions alike. In one notable week two years ago, he received invitations to deliver prestigious lectures at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Harvard Law School. His critics, including many of his fellow Catholic scholars, argue that he is turning the church into a tool of Republican Party. They say he is too focused on the mechanics of sex and morality, neglecting the other sides of the Christian message: the corruption of human reason through original sin, the need for forgiveness and charity and the chance for redemption. Citing George’s comparison of Catholic scholars who support abortion rights to defenders of chattel slavery, Cathleen Kaveny of the Notre Dame Law School, another scholar of law and theology in the Thomistic tradition, has called George and his allies “Rambo Catholics” and “ecclesiastical bullies.”
I met George 20 years ago, when I was a Princeton student and he was praying for tenure. The next time I saw him was in 2005, when he invited me back for a postelection conference on the future of the conservative movement. Rove spoke at lunch. To a movement still stinging from decades of condescension, George brings gleaming Ivory Tower credentials: degrees in law and theology from Harvard; a doctorate in philosophy of law from Oxford; a Supreme Court fellowship; and the endowed chair at Princeton that Woodrow Wilson once held.
In late August I returned to Princeton, where George was striding around a seminar room at the Princeton Theological Seminary — “John Paul II style,” as he put it, a reference to the pontiff’s habit of strolling as he spoke. At 54, George has thick gray-brown hair, bright blue eyes and a certain boyishness. Seemingly everyone from Rove to Cardinal Rigali calls him, simply, Robby. A few dozen graduate and star-undergraduate students had traveled from as far away as Cambridge and Poland for a seminar on the new natural law. He is by all accounts a terrific teacher. (“Awesome,” several undergraduates said in a stack of glowing evaluations he showed me.) Part of the reason may be that he brings almost every philosophical question back to a central debate about the nature of the self, a battle between reason and the passions. Moral philosophy, as George describes it, is a contest between the Greek philosopher Aristotle and the Scottish enlightenment thinker David Hume.
Aristotelians, like St. Thomas Aquinas, hold that there is an objective moral order. Human reason can see it. And we have the free will to follow or not. “In a well-ordered soul, reason’s got the whip hand over emotion,” George told the seminar, in a favorite formulation borrowed from Plato. Humeans — and in George’s view, modern liberals are usually Humeans — disagree. Against Aristotle, Hume argued that the universe includes facts but not values. You cannot derive moral conclusions from studying the world, an “ought” from an “is.” There is no built-in, objective reason for me to choose one goal over another — the goals of Mother Teresa over the goals of Adolf Hitler, in George’s hypothetical. Reason, then, is merely a tool of whatever desire strikes my fancy. “Reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions and may pretend to no office other than to serve and obey them,” George said, paraphrasing Hume, just as he does in seemingly every essay or lecture he writes.
In George's view, if I have no rational basis for picking one goal over another, then I have no free choice, only predetermined “passions” — the result of genetics, a blow to the head, whatever made me prefer either curing the sick or killing the Jews. We have reason and free choice, he teaches, or we have amorality and determinism.
George’s thinking draws on a system of ethics first developed against the backdrop of the 1960s debate inside the Catholic Church over contraception. In the tradition of Aquinas, Catholic thinkers had for centuries tried to establish moral laws of nature by studying biology, anthropology and history. When it came to sex, the church taught the idea of a “perverted faculty.” Sex was intended for the dual purpose of procreation and marital unity, so deliberate ejaculation in any other context — oral or anal sex, artificial contraception, masturbation, premarital sex, adultery — demeaned sex and contravened the natural law. (Female orgasms, incidental to conception, were not an issue.)
But by the late 1960s, most secular philosophers had abandoned the project of finding moral norms in nature. Amid the openness of the Second Vatican Council, some of their Catholic counterparts began to wonder if they should give up, too. Then came the pill. Some Catholic scholars, all the way up to the level of papal advisers, questioned whether a form of birth control that did not put a physical barrier between the partners might be permissible. Some began to suggest that the church should shift its focus from the act of sex to the totality of marriage, as Protestants did, and stop worrying as much about ejaculation and contraception. Wasn’t it marital love that was meant to be fruitful and that gave sex its meaning?
An orthodox-minded Georgetown University philosopher named Germain Grisez mounted a novel defense of the birth-control ban. Instead of beginning with science or history, he started by listing certain basic human goods that he believed anyone could see were “integral to human flourishing,” like friendship, knowledge, excellence in work and play, religion, life and procreation. Each was an end in itself, not a means to anything else. You could never prove each’s value by referring to other values — only assert and defend each one on its own.
Grisez argued that contraception violated the “basic good” of “the handing on of new life.” For George and the new natural lawyers, Grisez’s tactic of starting from self-evident human goods gave “the whip hand” back to reason.
In practice, George and his allies have usually found the rules of sexuality quite absolute, while the church’s teachings about social justice come out more contingent. That may be why he is almost uniformly popular among evangelicals but controversial among many of his fellow Catholics, particularly those who prefer the church's peace-and-justice liberalism to its conservative bioethics.
On the question of capital punishment, George says he is against it but he considers it a matter of interpretation about which Catholics can disagree. The intentional killing of innocent civilians in war is as grave a moral crime as abortion, George says, but what constitutes a “just war” is a more complicated judgment call. Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he wrote an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal arguing that the attack was not necessarily unjust and might even be a moral obligation. “On the evidence that Hillary Clinton voted for the war on and George Bush went to war on, I thought it was justified,” he told me.
The “rights” to education and health care are another matter, George told his seminar. “Who is supposed to provide education or health care to whom?” George asked. “Health care and education are things that you have to pay for. Resources are always finite,” he went on. “Is it better for education and health care to be provided by governments under socialized systems or by private providers in markets or by some combination?” Those questions, George said, “go beyond the application of moral principles. You can get all the moral principles dead right and not have an answer to any of those questions.”
But the argument for banning abortion and embryo-destructive research is “straightforward,” George told me several times. In his most recent book, “Embryo,” written with Christopher Tollefsen, George tells the story of Noah Benton Markham, rescued from Hurricane Katrina by a team of policemen in boats. Noah was an embryo frozen in liquid nitrogen on a hospital shelf. Later implanted in the womb of his biological mother, he will turn 3 next month. Science shows that you remain the same human with the same DNA as a teenager, a toddler and an embryo, George argues. The only moral debate, he says, is whether you deserve legal protection at each stage of your life.
George grew up in Morgantown, W.Va., the oldest of five brothers. All served as altar boys. Four attended Oxford and became lawyers. His father was a liquor broker, and George is a wine connoisseur. His mother, the daughter of Italian immigrants, taught her children “some pretty firm ideas about sexual morality,” George told me, and then he begged me not to repeat some of his more recent arguments on the subject. “Mom, I have got to explain!” George said, raising his voice to imitate first himself and then his mother: “ ‘George’s opposition to sodomy! What are you doing talking about sodomy? You shouldn’t even know what that is! Why do people have to know your views about that?’
“The Roman Stoic Musonius Rufus said, Look, there are some things you just shouldn’t have to talk about, and I think sex is one,” George said. “But in the circumstances we are in, what can you do? I can’t possibly make the case — to people on my own side or on the other side — about what I think marriage is and why it is so important unless we get into the earthy stuff.”
The same-sex marriage debate, George argues, illuminates an error in our understanding that he blames for most of the ills afflicting modern marriage — infidelity, divorce, out-of-wedlock births. Marriage is not just for procreation, love or sexual pleasure. “People have lost their grip on the true reasons for marrying, so they are unwilling to make all the sacrifices real marriage requires,” he said.
He admits the argument for marriage between a man and a woman can require “somewhat technical philosophical analysis.” It is a two-step case that starts with marriage and works its way back to sex. First, he contends that marriage is a uniquely “comprehensive” union, meaning that it is shared at several different levels at once — emotional, spiritual and bodily. “And the really interesting evidence that it is comprehensive is that it is anchored in bodily sharing,” he says.
“Ordinary friendships wouldn’t be friendships anymore if they involved bodily sharing,” he explained to me. “If I, despite being a married man, had this female friend of mine and I said, ‘Well, gosh, why don’t we do some bodily sharing,’ and we had straightforward sexual intercourse, well, that wouldn’t be friendship or marriage. It is bodily, O.K., but it is not part of a comprehensive sharing of life. My comprehensive sharing of life is with my wife, which I just now violated.” But just as friendships with sex are not friendships, marriage without sex is not marriage. Sex, George said, is the key to this “comprehensive unity.” He then imagined himself as a man with no interest in sex who proposed to seal a romance by committing to play tennis only with his beloved. Breaking that promise, he said, would not be adultery.
The second step is more complicated, and more graphic. George argues that only vaginal intercourse — “procreative-type” sex acts, as George puts it — can consummate this “multilevel” mind-body union. Only in reproduction, unlike digestion, circulation, respiration or any other bodily function, do two individuals perform a single function and thus become, in effect, “one organism.” Each opposite-sex partner is incomplete for the task; yet together they create a “one-flesh union,” in the language of Scripture. “Their bodies become one (they are biologically united, and do not merely rub together) in coitus (and only in coitus), similarly to the way in which one’s heart, lungs and other organs form a unity by coordinating for the biological good of the whole,” George writes in a draft of his latest essay on the subject. Unloving sex between married partners does not perform the same multilevel function, he argues, nor does oral or anal sex — even between loving spouses.
Infertile couples, too, are performing this uniquely shared reproductive function, George says, even if they know their sperm and ovum cannot complete it. Marriage is designed in part for procreation in the way a baseball team is designed for winning games, he says, but “people who can practice baseball can be teammates without victories on the field.”
George argues that reason alone shows that heterosexual sodomy and homosexual sex are morally wrong, just as the Catholic Church, classical philosophers and other religious traditions have historically taught. Unlike marital union in his special sense, he contends, such acts treat the body as an instrument of the mind’s pleasure. As both a practical and a philosophical matter, he argues, the law should not necessarily police such things. But the need for the state to establish a proper definition of marriage is a different matter, he says, because the law has always regulated it in the interest of parenthood and community. “Marriage in principle is a public institution,” he said. “I don’t think it can be like bar mitzvahs or baptisms or the Elks Club.”
It is safe to say that not many contemporary philosophers — whether secular or Catholic — agree with George’s marriage argument. Many balk at the mystical “unitive and procreative” qualities George ascribes to sexual intercourse. The idea of “one flesh” union seems far less obviously intelligible than other “basic goods” like friendship, knowledge or religion. Even fellow Catholic Thomists who oppose same-sex marriage question the esoteric quality of George’s argument. Why not just begin with the fact that humans are sexual and ask how best to channel that sexuality? Liberals, on the other hand, generally argue that the meaning of marriage is in the partners’ love, not their loins. (To which George counters that they offer no definition that would exclude polygamy.)
GEORGE ONCE WON two terms as governor of the West Virginia Democratic Youth Conference in high school and even served as an alternate delegate to the 1976 Democratic convention. He moved right in the 1980s, initially over the issue of abortion, which eventually took him back to politics. On the day of the Pennsylvania primary in the 1992 presidential campaign, Bob Casey, then the state’s governor (and the father of the current Senator Casey) surprised George with a phone call to talk about George’s criticisms of Mario Cuomo. Later that year, when Bill Clinton denied Casey a chance to speak about abortion at the 1992 Democratic convention, it was George who had helped to write Casey’s speech. Two years later, George represented Mother Teresa before the Supreme Court in an amicus brief seeking the overturning of Roe v. Wade. When George W. Bush became president in 2001, George was an active player in weekly White House conference calls for Catholic allies. Bush later awarded George a Presidential Citizens Medal. During the 2008 campaign, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain each sought George’s counsel.
At Princeton, George founded an independently financed center, the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Conservatives celebrate it for bringing conservative thinking to the campus and for adding “Princeton” to the résumés of young scholars. In the decade since its founding, George has helped scholars and foundations use it as a template for similar outfits at Georgetown, New York University and Williams College. Last spring, he joined a group of undergraduates in their call for a new university Center for Chastity and Abstinence. (He suggested they might have better luck with the name “Center for Love and Fidelity.”)
George’s left-leaning colleagues say he is unfailingly polite and even helpful. He co-teaches a great-books seminar with the African-American scholar Cornel West, who told me he thinks of George as “just a nice brother.” George and his wife, Cindy, who is Jewish, socialize with liberal professors. But his relationships with other Catholic scholars are sometimes more contentious, especially about politics.
Shortly after the last presidential election, John Haldane, an eminent Thomist who is a friend of George’s and an adviser to the Vatican, sent an open “Letter to America” to a Web site of the Witherspoon Institute, a conservative think tank that George helped found. Citing issues like the Iraq war and the Wall Street debacle, Haldane argued that Obama won in part because American voters “took moral exception to some of the policies pursued by the Bush administration, and I believe that in this their judgment was correct.”
Haldane, an orthodox Catholic opponent of abortion and same-sex marriage, argued that his fellow “moral conservatives” like George risked their own credibility if they continued attacking Obama as morally inferior. When I reached him by phone in Scotland, where he lives, Haldane told me that he could not have recommended voting for either candidate in America’s 2008 election. “If you were going to vote for John McCain, how are you going to square that with these discussions about social justice — about the running sore of structural deprivation running through American society, or the prosecution of an unjust war?” he asked. “There has been a tendency of social conservatives to either hold their noses because they are more concerned about abortion, or just not to notice the smell.”
When I asked George about the letter, he was derisive. “John, thanks for the advice!” he said sarcastically. “Gosh, I wish we would have taken it. We would have the strong and vibrant social conservative movement that you guys have in Great Britain!”
George instead is plunging deeper into partisan politics. Alarmed at signs that the Republican Party was moving away from cultural issues, he recently founded a new group called the American Principles Project, which aims to build a grass-roots movement around his ideas. “His new venture will make him a major political player,” the conservative writer Fred Barnes predicted in The Weekly Standard. Among the group’s first endeavors has been to call for the ouster of Kevin Jennings, an Obama education official who previously founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. Jennings, George says, wants to “use our elementary schools in defiance of the wishes of parents, to use our elementary schools to teach pro-sexual-liberationist, pro-homosexualist propaganda.”
I asked George several times if he was really hoping to ground a mass movement in abstract principles of reason so at odds with the prevailing culture. It was a bet, he said, on his conviction about the innate human gift for reason. Still, he said, if there was one critique of his work that worried him, it was the charge that he puts too much faith in the power of reason, overlooking what Christians describe as original sin and what secular pessimists call history.
It is a debate at least as old as the Reformation, when Martin Luther broke with the Catholic Church and insisted that reason was so corrupted that faith in the divine was humanity’s only hope of salvation. (Until relatively recently, contemporary evangelicals routinely leveled the same charge at modern Catholics.) “This is a serious issue, and if I am wrong, this is where I am wrong,” George acknowledges.
Over lunch last month at the Princeton faculty club, George noted that many evangelicals had signed the Manhattan Declaration despite the traditional Protestant skepticism about the corruption of human reason. “I sold my view about reason!” he declared. He was especially pleased that, by signing onto the text, so many Catholic bishops had endorsed his new natural-law argument about marriage. “It really is the top leadership of the American church,” he said.
“Obviously, I am gratified that view appears to have attracted a very strong following among the bishops,” he went on. “I just hope I am right. If they are going to buy my arguments, I don’t want to mislead the whole church.”
David D. Kirkpatrick is a correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times.

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Snow-covered landmarks and attractions in Paris, France - Telegraph

2009-12-18T02:54:00.001-06:00

via telegraph.co.uk

Absolutely beautiful -- the City of Light, covered in white.

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Google Voice: the coolest thing ever!

2009-12-12T11:47:00.001-06:00

via google.com

I've been using Google Voice for several months now, and I love it even more than I love Gmail -- Google's internet email system.

What is Google Voice, you ask?

Watch the video attached here for more explanations, but in short its a free internet telephone service that allows you to use one phone number for all your numbers.

For example, you can choose a phone number, then give it out to everyone to use. It replaces your home, business and cell numbers, by ringing all those (and more if you want) when the caller dials your Google Voice number.

Now, I hear what you're thinking: "Good grief! The last thing I need is people able to reach all those numbers! I get too many phone calls as it is, Ben!"

Well, Boopsie, I've got great news for you. You get to control who reaches those numbers and when they ring. Have an annoying pest who calls you all the time? No problem, set their number to always go to voicemail.

Want to keep your home phone from ringing during dinner? Again, no problem -- you can set it to never ring during the evening dinner hour and automatically go to voicemail instead.

Pretty cool huh?

But as the TV pitchmen say, "That's not all!" Remember how it was back in the days of yore when we first had physical answering machines? Remember how you could screen your calls by listening to the call as it came in and deciding whether to pick up or not?

Yep, Google Voice will do that too.

Another cool feature: have you ever wanted to record a call while you were on it? With Google Voice, you can. Just hit the asterisk (IIRC) key on your phone and you can instantly record those long-winded directions your country friend is giving you.

There are tons of features like these, but I'll give you just one more and then you can go watch the video. Have you ever started a call in your office, but really needed to leave and start making your way home? With Google Voice you can seamlessly transfer a call while in progress to one of your other phones -- from your office to your cell, for instance, and then transfer it again from your cell to your home phone when you get there.

Neat, huh?

Unfortunately, here's the bad part. You can't have it right now. Google Voice is only in limited release and only by invitation. If you want an invite, let me know and I'll send you one when I get more to hand out.

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Brennan Manning on the Signature of Jesus

2009-12-07T03:32:00.001-06:00

I've been reading and discussing Brennan Manning's wonderful sequel to The Ragamuffin Gospel, The Signature of Jesus.

If you don't know Manning, he is a former Franciscan priest who witnesses for Jesus. I love Manning, but I will often introduce him to others with the statement that "Manning is a drunk and a liar." But as he points out, Jesus does not choose perfect disciples. Those of us whom He calls are often anything but perfect.

He makes the point that Jesus lived for others. "He was not simply called but actually was a friend of publicans and sinners. He befriended the rabble, the riffraff of his own culture. 'One of the mysteries ... is this strange attraction of Jesus to the unattractive ... his strange love for the unlovely.'"

I think of this often when I encounter the poor, who are usually not as photogenic as even a sympathetic Hollywood makes them out to be. No, they are smelly and they have horrible habits, and they are decidedly "unlovely."

But Jesus loves them and loved them and spent time with them and I think he enjoyed Himself.

Speaking of Jesus' Maundy Thursday role as the washer of the feet of the disciples (in which Christ takes on the role and function of a slave), Manning observes

"What a shocking reversal of our culture's priorities and values! To prefer to be the servant rather than the lord of the household; to merrily taunt the gods of power, prestige, honor, and recognition; to refuse to take oneself seriously; to live without gloom the lackey's agenda -- these are the attitudes and actions that bear the stamp of authentic discipleship."
(Manning, TSOJ p. 96)

He continues,

"Jesus' ministry of service is rooted in his compassion for the lost, lonely, and broken. Why does he love losers, failures, those on the margin of social respectability? Because the Father does."

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Cam & Maddie at Turkey Mountain - October 2009

2009-12-07T01:34:00.001-06:00

via youtube.com

One of my favorite urban wilderness hikes, with two of my favorite people: my "Irish twins" Cam and Maddie. Late on a Saturday afternoon after my 47th birthday, we went for a Fall hike, where we found a raft made of two plastic barrels.

Being intrepid explorers, we immediately put the raft to good use and videoed the results with my cellphone.

One of the great consolations of being in your forties is the enjoyment and sense of the bittersweet. Life moves on.

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Me - After March 4 Life last January (2009)

2009-12-06T23:48:00.001-06:00

via facebook.com

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My first post

2009-12-05T17:07:00.001-06:00

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Book Review: The Omnivore's Dilemma - A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

2009-11-29T23:55:00.000-06:00

As we put the Thanksgiving holiday weekend to bed, I'm finishing up my latest blog post -- and by late, I mean very late: I haven't posted to this blog in a long, long time. It is fitting, though, that the subject is one that involves food and being thankful for the gift of life and creation -- both of which are provided to us by a loving God.

Finished reading Michael Pollan's great food book some time ago -- with a little help from the Holy Spirit.* Was talking to my friend Erick Bell about it just this past weekend as we were helping him move.

Pollan's book is a fascinating exercise in tracing four typified meals from their very beginnings to their consumption by the author and his family. Pollan -- a professor at the University of California, Berkley -- looks at three (one of which has a variant which becomes the second meal type) different types of meals: the Industrial, the Pastoral, and the Personal.

The Industrial Meal

The first, Industrial, begins with the realization that over the last 40 years, Corn has been in ascendancy in terms of the percentage of our calories which are derived in some part from it. Corn now exists in an astonishing percentage of the industrial food products we Americans consume. When it is not in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) -- a mass-produced, industrialized and cheap form of sweetener now present in practically everything in the supermarket -- it is being fed to the industrially mass-produced protein sources (beef, pork, poultry and now, unbelievably, industrially-raised fish). This is apparently a very bad thing.

For example, Pollan points out that cattle are not naturally equipped to digest corn meal. In fact, it makes them sick. Nonetheless, a diet of corn also very quickly adds mass to the beef cattle that are fed in concentrated industrial Commercial Animal Feedlot Operations (CAFOs) where they are packed into lots and fed a diet of corn and antibiotics.

The antibiotics are in part to keep the cattle alive long enough to be slaughtered, as the corn that they're fed literally makes them sick.

Pollan's industrial meal follows the mutation and asexual reproduction of corn plants from the central highlands of Mexico (some 6,000 years ago) to an Iowa farm where corn is big (agri)-business and finally (where else?) to a fast-food meal of McDonald's chicken nuggets consumed in a convertible rolling down the highway.

Pastoral - Big Organic Meal

Next up is the Supermarket Pastoral meal where big organic and natural foods chains market "Organic" with a capital "O". Make that a "capital-ist 'O'", because far from the vision of some hippies hanging out in a commune in Northern California or Vermont or someplace, Organic has indeed become big-business. A look inside my refrigerator betrays the truth of this observation, where my milk comes from Horizon dairy and my eggs from Eggland's Free-Range eggs. (Otherwise, I'm not all that devoted to organic food. I'd like to be, but with four kids to feed, clothe and educate, my own "capital" leaves something to be desired.)

Pollan investigates the $11 Billion-dollar (2002 figures, probably more now) Organic Food business and what he finds is a mixed bag: yes, the food is mostly well-grown and produced in healthy operations. But corporate food interests being what they are, there is a certain amount of advertising mythos that must needs be applied to prevent the reality that this too is an industrial process. Pollan remarks,

"Organic" on the label conjures up a rich narrative, even if it is the consumer who fills in most of the details, supplying the hero (American Family Farmer), the villain (Agribusinessman), and the literary genre, which I've come to think of as Supermarket Pastoral. By now we know better than to believe this too simple story, but not much better, and the grocery store poets do everything they can to encourage us in our willing suspension of disbelief." (OD, p. 137)

One of the best things that this book did for me, was to remove the Madison Avenue marketing curtain of pastoral mythos from the food sales business in supermarkets. By that I mean that Pollan points out that there is an active effort on the part of the supermarkets to pretend that the food they sell is from the archetypal "American Farm". You see this in the decorations in the supermarket and the packaging of the industrially-produced food that they sell -- the images of red barns and hay bales, as if the food comes from some bucolic paradise where a farmer in a straw hat and his happy cows frolic and gambol across green pastures.

Pollan made me realize for the first time that these pastoral images by which we're sold the food are complete bunk. The food doesn't come from farms, it comes from factories. There are no bucolic farmers or happy cows. No cartoonish roosters or even any iconic red barns. Instead our food comes from factories, where the animals that become the food are often abused in hellish conditions and live their sorry, short and pain-filled lives deprived of sunlight and even air. There's no "Farmer John", there's no red barn. There are metal buildings stretching to the horizon. There are stench-emanating CAFO feedlots where the beef or pork constantly stand in seas of their own liquified filth.

The Organic food business may have slightly improved on this nightmare, but probably not as much as you might think (or hope). Pollan notes the organic slight of hand marketing where organic dairies may claim that their dairy stock "have access to the outdoors", but in reality that may mean there is simply an opening in their concrete and metal warehouse where they might catch a glimpse or earth and sky. Or, they might have actual access to grass free patch of hardscape that is nothing like the idyllic pasture that you and I imagine when we think of farming.

Certainly makes one wonder what they're really buying at Whole Foods, doesn't it? Could be that what you're really purchasing is not much more than an illusion, in the form of a really sophisticated version of the supermarket's pastoral myth.

The Grass-fed Meal: Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm

Joel Salatin is a farmer of a different breed. His operation, far from the mono-culture of the industrial farm factory, resembles nothing so much as the myth that the supermarkets try to sell us with their images of smiling cows and red barns and hay bales.

Salatin, of whom I first read about in Smithsonian Magazine about a decade ago, eschews the industrial model of farming and is famous for his battling of federal regulations and regulators. He wrote a book a few years ago entitled "Everything I Want to Do is Illegal". Salatin has spent his life perfecting his Virginia farm operation and it's beyond-organic natural system.

For example, Salatin has a system of holistic farming that utilizes the inputs and outputs of all of his varied stock of cattle and chickens and so forth. He knows exactly how long to allow the cattle to graze the pastures filled with clover and grass, and how long to delay introducing his chickens to those same fields to harvest the larvae before they hatch and become flies. Here's Pollan on Salatin and his fellow "grass farmers":

"Grass farmers grow animals -- for meat, eggs, milk, and wool -- but regard them as part of a food chain in which grass is the keystone species, the nexus between the solar energy that powers every food chain and the animals we eat. 'To be even more accurate,' Joel has said, 'we should call ourselves sun farmers. The grass is just the way we capture the solar energy.'" (OD, p. 188)

Here's another point that I hadn't really realized until reading The Omnivore's Dilemma: that our food chain and the environment is really a system for the conversion of solar energy into organic matter and, ultimately, human beings. All of the energy we consume on earth -- yes, even the food energy -- is a storage system that is designed to store energy from the Sun. The sun's rays deliver energy which plants synthesize through photo-synthesis and animals eat to convert to flesh, and we then harvest to build our own selves.

Now, perhaps this something that is radically obvious to others. But it wasn't to me. Far from being (merely?) the source of heat and light, our sun is in fact the primary source for all energy and the plants and animals we consume (and thus convert to our own energy-burning bodies) and for us as well. For me as a Catholic, there's a certain symmetrical beauty to this system to extends beyond the electro-chemical mechanics of it all and points us to God and His providence.

Pollan actually spends some days or weeks living and working with Salatin on his farm, and ultimately even helps to slaughter a chicken. (Salatin is a big believer in the necessity of pulling back the curtains of the abattoir which are purposely hidden from us by the food industry, and letting individuals see and even participate in the slaughter of the food we consume.)

Salatin (and Pollan, his erstwhile student) bemoan the waste that follows from our current industrial food production system, arguing that Salatin's holistic practices are actually more productive and less wasteful than the industrial systems which rely on hydrocarbons to create, package and ship food across the globe to the point of their ultimate consumption. This, Salatin argues, is the true inefficiency and cannot be sustained except in a system where oil is artifically cheap and plentiful. In a world where energy is no longer is no longer cheap or plentiful, the ultimate considerations are obvious and scary.

"Why did we ever turn away from this free lunch (a' la Salatin's closed cycle of sustainable farming) in favor of a biologically ruinous meal based on corn? Why in the world did Americans every take ruminants (grass eating livestock) off the grass? And how could it come to pass that a fast-food burger produced from corn and fossil fuel actually cost less than burger produced from grass and sunlight?" (OD, p. 199)

You might think -- but would be wrong -- that Joel Salatin's beyond-organic 100-acre farm is less productive than its industrial competition. But that conclusion is not borne out by the facts. According to Pollan, Polyface Farm's 100 acres produce the following astonishing output each year:

30,000 dozen eggs
12,000 broiler chickens
800 stewing hens
25,000 pounds of beef
50,000 pounds of pork
800 turkeys
500 rabbits

As you might suspect, the quality of the food produced is extremely high. Polyface Farms markets their produce and eggs to high-end gourmet restaurants on the Eastern seaboard. Their eggs, for example, are particularly prized by gourmet chefs for their unusually robust flavor and color. Salatin's unusual yield and beyond-organic practices might have anyone asking, why indeed have we abandoned this form of multi-culture farming for the mono-cultures based on petroleum and factory farming?

The Hunter-Gatherer Meal

I've managed to get this far without explaining the title of Michael Pollan's book. The "omnivore's dilemma" is this: what shall we eat? It's based on the realization that as omnivore's we can eat practically anything and everything.

Think of it this way: the sparrow doesn't have to decide whether he'd like a nice salad or a big steak for dinner. His dinner is the same one he ate yesterday, and the day before yesterday and every day. Similarly, the cow doesn't have to decide what to eat today (although once she's sent to the CAFO that feed may change radically). She's eating grass. Today, yesterday and tomorrow.

We're not like that, obviously. Tonight at my house we're having Tyson chicken. Last night we ate tacos with ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes and onions and topped with cheddar cheese. Tomorrow it may be left-over turkey and dressing.

The fourth and final meal in Pollan's book is one that is probably the oldest, culturally-speaking: a meal that he hunts and gathers himself. After all, for nearly all of human history man has relied on his own wiles and tools to kill and eat animals, the development of agriculture coming relatively late in human anthropology. In this case it turns out to be roasted wild-boar and mushrooms -- both of which are gathered near his Northern California home. But as you might guess, a Berkeley college professor is not necessarily a big hunter.

But Pollan figures that it's a classic cop out to object to hunting just because he doesn't want to kill. After all, if you eat meat you're participating in killing for food. Moreover, the killing of your own food is very likely to involve much less pain and cruelty to be inflicted on the animal than causing a given hog to endure the factory farming and CAFO process. Pollan's experience in learning to hunt and kill his own food is thought provoking and interesting.

Pollan also delves into the world of mushroom hunters -- a secretive sub-culture that regards mushrooms and their hunting grounds as jealously as any bass fisherman or deer hunter protects his hunting grounds.

To finish out his hunter-gatherer meal, Pollan dives for abalone, gathers fava beans and arugula from his own garden, and picks cherries from a local cherry tree. He bakes bread made from wild yeast captured from the breeze (who knew the air contains yeast?) and provided chamomile tea gathered from Beverly Hills and wine from a friend with a vineyard.

The end result is a delicious-sounding perfect meal full of warmth and friendship, and leaves the reader wishing he'd been invited. And, as he notes,"Scarcely an ingredient in it had ever worn a label or bar code or price tag...."

*POSTSCRIPT: One of the reasons that I've taken so long to review this book is that in the midst of reading it, I lost the damn thing. There was therefore an unintentional interregnum of several weeks or maybe even months in which I wasn't reading due to its being lost.

Friends of mine know that I am involved in our local Perpetual Adoration program at the chapel located in St. John Medical Center in Tulsa, where the Blessed Sacrament (Jesus' real presence and body, blood, soul and divinity are contained within a consecrated host) is continually exposed for worship 24/7/364 days a year.

I mention this because at one point I had nearly despaired of ever finding again my copy of Pollan's book, and late one night I was doing my weekly adoration shift at the chapel when my mind wandered to my lost book and its fate. I found myself thinking, "What if the book were back there on the shelf in the chapel? Wouldn't that be a great thing? What if I cast a glance back there to the bookshelf, and my eyes came to rest on the book? Wouldn't that be cool?"

So, while thinking those thoughts I looked back to the shelf. Unfortunately, my eyesight is not what it used to be, and in the dimly-lit chapel, I really couldn't make out the titles on the spines of the books that were there.

That's when the thought occurred to me: "Maybe I should wander back there and just look to see what's on the shelf." "Wouldn't it be cool, if I could just wander back there and spot my missing book?" "How neat would that be?"

You can guess what happened next. Yep; believe it or not, that's exactly how and where I found my missing book. You can't tell me that the Holy Spirit wasn't operating there in that chapel that night -- right there in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

(Thanks, Lord!)

The World is Too Much With Us; Late and Soon

2009-10-29T21:33:00.011-05:00

William Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. -Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Came across this Wordsworth poem -- actually a friend mentioned it to me as we were driving down the street and I Googled it on my smart-phone. (How's that for irony?)

But as so often happens, the thing perfectly described my situation -- and the situation that I've found myself operating in for the past several months now. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

As we leave behind bright October and enter grey November, my thoughts are directed toward the changing of the seasons in both the geographical sense and the allegorical. I observed my forty-seventh birthday last weekend with a hike in the woods. Now don't get me wrong -- I love the woods and I love hiking. (I even have some pretty cool videos I took with my cellphone of Cam and Maddie and Abby playing in a mountain-top pond.) See here:

But there's a certain attenuated sadness -- not depression, not even really unhappiness -- that wreathes my thoughts as we head down into the bottom of the year. There's a sweetness to my sorrow, a sort of melancholy that I find myself not running from but embracing instead and occasionally even stealing glances at from my mind's eye.

Maybe it's just middle-age. Maybe it's regret for the things I haven't accomplished yet. Maybe it's the season. Hell, maybe it's just plain old exhaustion. I don't know.

Anyone have a cure for the malaise of middle age?

FBC

Ron Paul Inteview with Time Magazine

2009-09-20T14:53:00.006-05:00

Saw this 9/17/2009 interview with Congressman Ron Paul -- the unsuccessful 2008 Republican presidential candidate. In it, Rep. Paul gives his usual light-hearted but eminently reasonable responses to current events and our current situation, fielding questions ranging from his treatment at the hands of the major media to his views on the Federal Reserve. I supported Dr. Paul in his presidential bid, and still do. In fact, I think he's one of the very few government officials who really and truly understand the national predicament we find ourselves in today. For example, Paul's libertarian views against the income tax cut to the heart of the question: income taxes are incompatible with a free society because they derrogate a right to our incomes -- a principle which effectively makes us slaves and cedes our property rights to government. Once we do so, it is no longer a question of whether we own the fruits of labor -- we do not. We are left only to beg for whatever scraps the government decides to allow us to keep. This is slavery. I heard this principle illustrated just the other day while listening to the radio. A caller to some late night radio program was railing against churches paying no taxes. According to him, this was a government "hand-out" to the churches. In other words, letting the churches *keep* all of their donations was a "government giveaway" which removed the churches ability to criticize government policies! So the donations which you and I give to the church are not their property -- but in reality belong to the government which arrogates the power to decide how much of the donations they may keep. Unbelievable, but this is the logical principle to which an income tax must necessarily lead. Anyway, Rep. Paul is one of the very few who seem to understand the crux of this and so many other problems that face this government. Go watch the interview and see how different a course we could have chosen in the last election. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- how far these ideals seem from us today.

Nightmares about the Coming Facist State

2009-08-09T06:26:00.010-05:00

Wichita Kansas: early Sunday morning, August 8, 2009 -- I woke up in our hotel room this morning a little before 5:30 a.m. and couldn't make it back to sleep. We've been attending the Midwest Catholic Family Conference -- an annual event in Wichita that draws Catholic speakers and families from all over the world. Great event, very positive. It's exciting to hear these apologists and speakers whose names and stories I've only read about up to now. But one speaker's story has particularly affected me: Immaculee Ilibigaza -- a survivor of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Immaculee hid in a bathroom with 7 other women for weeks, while another tribe was hunting for people like her to hack them to death with machetes. At one point, a mob of 300 people entered the house where she was hidden, and despite searching the small house for 2 hours, Immaculee and the others were miraculously preserved through prayer God and spared the machete-wielding crowd. Immaculee wrote about the harrowing experience in a book entitled "Left to Tell". Although her story is an uplifting one -- full of the power of grace and forgiveness -- it has kicked off the realization within me that what happened in Rwanda *could* happen here. For westerners, the horrors that occurred in 1994 -- when Rwanda was suddenly cast into a maelstrom of violent killing and tribal genocide is nearly inexplicable. We cannot imagine that anything could cause people to suddenly rise up and begin hacking their neighbors to death as quickly as if someone threw a light switch turning otherwise normal people into raging savages bent on an orgy of murder. Actually, I guess we can imagine that -- we hear of violent murders on a daily basis, now that I think of it. No -- it's not that some people went berserk; it's that half of an entire nation did so at a moment's notice. That's the unbelievable part of this tragic story. Part of the impact of Immaculee's story on me personally has to do with the setting. It was here in Wichita several years ago that some black men abducted two couples at gunpoint and forced them to commit various sexually degrading acts, before murdering them all. I can't help but think of this horrible incident whenever I think about Wichita. Man's capacity for atrocity apparently knows no limit. (Another troubling aspect of this horrific event was the fact that the mainstream national media gave this -- like so many other black-on-white crimes -- almost no coverage, so those who do not live in the area are very likely never to have heard of this shocking crime, unlike the Rwandan genocide of course.) Anyway, so Immaculee's story has got me thinking about the ease and the quickness with which this country could descend into the same kind of ethnic and political violence. As the national debate - to the extent there even is one - continues over President Obama's alleged "healthcare reform" (read: "slide into Facism") we move ever deeper into a national morass in which the rabidly anti-life U.S. government will be able to decide who gets medical treatment and when. I recently gave an interview (really just a soundbite) to a local news station in opposition to the healthcare reform proposals, arguing that it is extremely scary to contemplate giving the U.S. government the power over who lives and dies. This will amount to the government deciding who gets catastrophic medical care, and alternatively who is instead merely giving palliative care to ease their slide into death. Healthcare administered by the same "warm and fuzzy" bureaucrats that run the IRS, if you will. Fortunately, there is a sizeable group of Americans who see the implications of handing over the routine power of life and death to this anti-Life government of radical 60's leftists. These people have been turning out to give their congressman and senators an earful in their districts -- where they are allowed to speak to their Capitol Hill masters, that is. (Some congressional office holders have moved to prevent public speaking at their appearances back home in their districts.) In other places, groups of thuggish union members and community organizations like the corrupt to the core SEIU and ACORN have actually threatened and intimidated people from speaking out at these meetings. Elsewhere, others have likened these people to the Brownshirts -- Nazi-orchestrated civilians which were used to silence dissent in pre-war Germany. Seems to me that ACORN and the SEIU fit the brownshirt description nicely. Being here in Wichita brings up better memories as well, though. Wichita was for a long time the home of Rich Mullins -- one of a very short list of men who have had a profound impact on my life and faith. Last evening after the family conference shut down, we drove over to Friends University where Rich attended and got his music degree, and nearby Newman University, whose St. Joseph Square is featured in Mullins' song, "Peace: A Communion Song from St. Joseph's Square." One of the many things that Rich said that has stuck with me, was that governments are inherently anti-life, and we should not be surprised to realize this. At one point, Rich thanked God for Richard Nixon, because he said, Nixon made it impossible for us to think that governments would ever be anything but anti-Christian and anti-life. "Democracy is not bad politics," Rich further explained. "It's just bad math." "It's the mistake that believing that a thousand corrupt minds are better than one corrupt mind." I don't think there are very many if any people out there in America today who imagine that this country could descend into the same bloody violence as what occurred in Rwanda in 1994. Surely, I must be nearly alone in fearing this. Some conservatives recognize the dangers that the Obama administration poses to our very lives, but overall the American people remain fat and happy. (I'm reminded of the line from the movie Animal House in which the dean tells the college student "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.") If that's not a perfect description for Americans in general, it's close, nonetheless. But still -- this is the stuff of nightmares that keep me from sleep, these days. God help us.

So SSAD: the Triumph of Homosexual Propaganda

2009-06-06T13:49:00.002-05:00

Got a couple of Twitter posts in the past two days that were promoting a local "Gay Pride" festival. (I prefer the term/acronym SSAD -- Same Sex Attraction Disorder to "gay".) The first of the posts was passed on by a perfectly nice young lady who often promotes local festivals, events, etc. around Tulsa. At first, I was a little taken aback -- you get to know people on a limited basis and probably don't know them as well as you think. (I know, I know -- it's the internet, what should I expect?) I would have liked to ignore it, but I just couldn't. So I sent the young lady a direct message (for those of you who don't "Twitter", a direct message goes only to the recipient sort of like a regular text message) expressing my disappointment, and then un-followed her future public posts. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a neutral reply back thanking me for the feedback, via direct message. (The young lady in question is nothing if not polite, and she should be commended for showing such obvious class and grace.) But no discussion of the subject matter. I suspect that she sees "Gay Pride" like most secularists as a civil rights matter. The next day I received more notices of the homosexual pride festival from other sources -- one of which was happily inviting people to visit the YWCA booth at the Gay Pride (yuck) festival. Think about that for a sec -- the YWCA, the Young Women's Christian Association is apparently promoting a festival which glorifies an objectively sinful behavior. These are the depths to which we've already sunk. Why should this be? Much of it is the triumph of secularism over religious belief, and secularism seems to be a fruit of the poisonous tree of relativism. The late great Pope John Paul II decried this philosophy in his landmark encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), when he noted the threat that relativism poses to our society and culture at large.) Relativists are able to believe contradictory mutually exclusive propositions (both "A" and "Not A") simultaneously, without so much as a blink. Where people have lost the common sense understanding that there is such a thing as objective truth, the whole culture is at risk. But it also seems to me that this has to do with a generational difference in the way homosexuality is viewed in society at large. The current generation -- a product of years of skillful and insidious propagandizing through the media -- has accepted that homosexuality is merely an acceptable alternative lifestyle, and not an objectively immoral or sinful (they seem to have little concept of the latter) behavior. That a whole generation could view something so objectively sinful as "normal" is testament to the success of 40 years of gay propaganda. But it's also proof that we have failed to publicly oppose it and speak out when confronted by it. Too often, we just "let it go" and silently cluck to ourselves. But what to do about it? I would suggest that we Catholics and Christians and even other non-Christian religions must necessarily push back. We must not be silent in the face of such things, but step out in courage to calmly and peacefully point out that such behavior is objectively wrong. We have to call attention to the fact that homosexuality is unnatural and a perversion which should draw pity, not pride. We cannot be silent. Lives are lost and a generation is the process of losing their very souls. At multiple apparitions in the 20th century, beginning with Fatima in 1917, the Virgin Mary has testified that more souls would be lost to sexual impurity (of which homosexuality is but one form, of course) than anything else. The Progressives rely on intimidating Christians into silence. Don't let them do it, for we remain silent we are betraying Christ. Speak up and speak out against these sins.

"The Greatest Mistake of My Life" - Dr. Bernard Nathanson

2009-06-03T10:19:00.001-05:00

The last surviving founding member of NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League), recants his involvement and frankly admits lying to the American people and the judiciary about when life begins.

Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy!

2009-05-23T13:09:00.008-05:00

I Am A Craft Brewer from I Am A Craft Brewer on Vimeo.

Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy! -- Benjamin Franklin

My latest favorite craft brew: Choc Beer's Pietro Piegari - an American Amber ale, brewed in Krebs, OK. http://chocbeer.com/choc_beer.html?#/beer/

Great stuff. Got six in my fridge as I speak, and I'm looking forward to this afternoon.

FBC

Pass the Salt: Fr. Jenkins arresting priests at Notre Dame

2009-05-16T21:14:00.001-05:00

Twitter invented in 1935?

2009-05-13T18:53:00.001-05:00

Robot-Notificator - 1935 August issue of Modern Mechanics: http://infomarketingblog.com/images/twitter-robot.jpg Here's a video explanation of Twitter. It's fairly good, but ignores the professional aspect of Twitter, wherein people (or lawyers, take your pick) post links to articles and issues that are of interest to their narrow fields. There are a number of consumer law / bankruptcy law Twitterers, and also law marketing Twitterers that I follow, in addition to friends' personal posts. I actually have two separate Twitter accounts (three, if you count the Tulsa Diocese March4Life acct): BenCallicoat (my personal account) and JarboeLaw (my professional account.)

The Feminization of the Roman Catholic Church

2009-05-09T14:10:00.006-05:00

I recently went to First Communion for Joseph B., a friend of my son Campion, at the Parish of St. Pius X, here in Tulsa. (Not to be confused with the SSPX -- this is a regular diocesan parish.*) One thing that I've noticed from my Mass365 project is that the liturgy varies from parish to parish and that although the liturgy of the cathedral is pretty reliably solid, it can get pretty far afield out in the parishes.

One example was Joseph's First Communion. You would think -- I would've thought, anyway -- that a First Communion Mass would be a fairly formal affair and the rubrics of the Mass would be more or less observed. Well if this is what you would think, you would be wrong. What a mess!

Rumblings of misgiving occurred when a week before the actual event, the children being catechized were instructed by the (female) DRE that all were to receive Communion in the hand -- none of that Communion on the tongue stuff allowed.

That necessitated a trip to see the pastor, Fr. Michael Knipe, who informed Joe's dad that there was "some misunderstanding" -- that he didn't intend for this to be the case. ("There was no misunderstanding", his father told me.) A follow-up revealed that a former pastor had indeed instructed that none of the children were to receive on the tongue, but apparently the DRE or whatever, had never changed this directive. All of which begs the question: who is running the church?

The Mass itself was a liturgical train-wreck, with all of the children lining up to do the readings. (I hate this practice, by the way. My understanding is that there is an indult for allowing lay persons to read -- but only in extraordinary circumstances.) The kids stumbled and mumbled through it -- including one young girl who climbed up to the podium turned a few pages and hurried away without saying anything -- and eventually the painful experience passed. The music was even more insipid than usual -- something about butterflies and God's love -- as done by an electric combo with a bass guitar and electric keyboard. I told someone later that it was like going to Mass and a country music concert broke out.

When it came time for First Communion, the candidates lined up in the back of the Church with their mothers (!) and each processed down to receive the host. As each youngster received Communion, their mother stood by next to them, then processed away without so much as a nod to Our Lord. After Mass the priest had some telling remarks, taking time to thank by name those who had instructed the children for First Communion. Tellingly, all of the five or six names he publicly thanked were female.

The only bright spot in the entire affair was that when it came time for little Joe to receive Our Lord, he did so in the traditional manner, receiving on the tongue. (Good show, Joe!)

Today my wife was telling me about some other friends of ours who attend a parish out in the hinterlands, and whose DRE (again, female, it goes almost without saying) began a talk with "I don't believe all of what the Church teaches; here's what I believe." As I like to say, there's a word for someone who believes 98% of what the Catholic Church teaches: "Protestant".

Leon Podles wrote an entire book about the feminization of the Church about a decade or so ago. (http://tinyurl.com/podles -- I've never read it, though.) Podles' jeremiad has apparently fallen on deaf ears.

Now I'm not one to bitch and moan about the state of the Church -- I'm really not. It gets old fast. And in fact, I'm full of hope as I get to know more and more of the people responsible for running and administering the church here in Tulsa. But really, something needs to be done. I'm happy to do it, I just don't know what it is. Letters to pastors? Letters to the Eastern Oklahoma Catholic? What? Any suggestions?

Ben

*Sitting there at St. Pius X Church, examining the late-60's architecture (think "church in the round") I couldn't help but wonder what Pope St. Pius X must think about this monstrosity of modernism committed in his name.

Moleskine notebooks

2009-05-07T15:27:00.000-05:00

Anyone else but me on this list a lover of Moleskine notebooks? You remember that post below where I advertised the Amazon Kindle e-Book reader? Well the Molekine is like the anti-Kindle. They're a line of notebooks in various sizes and formats that can be used to record dates, notes, opinions, drawings -- whatever you can commit to paper with pen, pencil or crayon -- you can jot it down in your Moleskine. They've been used for years by famous artists and novelists like Ernest Hemingway. (Which reminds me -- it's been too long since I've re-read Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, his famous novel-journal of his life in Paris in the Twenties.) I like the soft-cover, lined version. (See above.) How 'bout y'all? Anyone else a Moleskine fan? Go here for the Moleskine website: http://www.moleskine.com/

maggie and milly and molly and may

2009-05-06T11:17:00.002-05:00

maggie and milly and molly and may went down to the beach (to play one day) and maggie discovered a shell that sang so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and milly befriended a stranded star whose rays five languid fingers were; and molly was chased by a horrible thing which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and may came home with a smooth round stone as small as a world and as large as alone. For whatever we lose(like a you or a me) it’s always ourselves we find in the sea ee cummings

Gotta Have it: Kindle2

2009-05-05T22:37:00.007-05:00

The Amazon Kindle 2

Okay, so I'd heard about this thing on the various tech blogs and sites I'll admit to reading.

But frankly, it just didn't grab me.

Over the weekend, however, I was searching for a book and came across these videos about the Kindle.

I'm singing a different tune now. 1500 books? Download from anywhere without a computer or WiFi connection? What's not to love?

Check it out:

Say Hello to The New Kindle

Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns Read-to-Me: With the new text-to-speech feature, Kindle can read every newspaper, magazine, blog, and book out loud to you, unless the book is disabled by the rights holder Large Selection: Over 275,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs available Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise

Vocations: I Love Being an Attorney

2009-04-25T21:09:00.010-05:00

Spent the morning giving my prayer and financial talks to a Pre-Cana class at the Church of the Madalene. I really love what I do. Deo gratias.

When I was in my twenties and in college, I did a stint with U.S. Senator Don Nickle's (R-Oklahoma) office in Tulsa for a brief semester. It was an unpaid internship, and they set me to work answering phones as sort of an "ombudsman" position. (For the uninitiated, that means they gave me the work no one else in the office wanted to do.)

Fascinating variety, let me tell you. I took calls from people irate about their trash pickup (not usually something a U.S. Senator deals with) to people calling about problems dealing with their son in the military, and the usual Social Security payments, and alien abductions thrown in for good measure, and even including calls from the local Peruvian ambassador (Tulsa has an embassy, in case you didn't know.) Boring, it was not.

I remember thinking at the time, "Boy - if I were independently wealthy, this is EXACTLY what I'd like to do!" And I meant that with all sincerity. It was wonderful work and the joy of helping people (crazy or not) was such a boon. I loved every minute of it. Really.

Today, of course, I don't work for the senator. But I do work for people facing problems. I'm an attorney - a bankruptcy and consumer law attorney. People come to me with seemingly intractable problems, and I help them.

This one is facing foreclosure and thinks they might lose their home. This one is recently laid-off, and has no savings to fall back on. Those over there are about to be sued by their creditors, and don't know what to do.

All of these people come to me. And I help them. Much of the time that simply means helping them understand what they're facing and what they can do about it. What the worst-case scenario is, and why chances are it won't happen -- but that if it does, I will be there to defend them.

God in heaven, thank you. I love my job. Please let me continue to serve You by serving them.

I don't work for a U.S. Senator, and I can't boss around lackeys at the Library of Congress, but I *DO* get to help people.

Deo gratias, indeed.

The Passion

2009-04-14T16:37:00.002-05:00

Holy Week - The Triduum

2009-04-10T13:22:00.011-05:00

Finally, we arrive at the Triduum -- almost at the very foot of the Cross.

As usual I am limping into Holy Week, my soul caked with failed resolutions, splattered with the mud of my failures, and all my imperfections intact. They ride upon my shoulder mocking me and pulling at my beard (actually I jettisoned the Lenten beard about 3 weeks ago, no longer able to withstand the discomfort and embarrassment.)

And so I stand here on the brink of failure.

But little do they know, for my Savior does not share my weaknesses and imperfections. He, strong beyond strength, trudges on to Calvary in my place. He is Holy, He is Perfect, He is preparing even now to withstand the loneliness of the garden at Gethsemane. He knows what He must do, and He alone is strong enough to withstand it. He will save me. He will.

Holy Thursday

Last evening we made it to our Latin Mass parish for Maundy Thursday Mass. The church itself and the holy images of Christ on the crucifix, the saints obscured now in dark purple -- representing penance -- a reminder of how spare and joyless this world would be without the presence of God and Christ. "The world would easier survive without the sun, than without the Mass" said Padre Pio, according to our pastor. Even the holy water fonts are dry, as a reminder of the spiritual poverty we are about to face.

Holy Thursday Mass is a memorial of the Last Supper at which Christ instituted the Holy Eucharist ("My flesh is real food, my blood is real drink") hidden beneath the auspices of bread and wine. He is really and truly present on the altar -- the priest an alter Christus ("another Christ") who has been given the power to re-produce Christ's sacrifice on the altar before him.

We watched as twelve of my friends -- men every bit as holy, and because they are men, every bit as sinful as I am -- patiently waited while our good and holy priest, Fr. Peter Byrne, FSSP, humbly washed their feet in imitation of our Savior who washed the feet of the twelve disciples on that Thursday night two millennium before.

After Communion and Mass is finished, the Blessed Sacrament -- Christ's actual body, blood, soul and divinity -- solemnly processed around the interior of the church while the congregation led by the crystal voices of our women's schola, sang the Latin hymn the Tantum Ergo (Google it) to the altar of repose. Whereupon the main altar was stripped of its altar cloths and the remaining six candlesticks which mark the traditional Mass arrangement, finally the Gospel is repeated: "Diviserunt sibi vestimenta mea: et super vestem meam miserunt sortem" ("They parted my garments amongst them: and upon my vesture they cast lots.")

The rubrics of the traditional Mass say here, simply and finally: "The celebrant and sacred ministers [servers] return in silence to the sacristy."

Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Movie Review: Knowing

2009-03-21T17:08:00.011-05:00

Knowing

Went to see the new Nicholas Cage movie, Knowing, last night -- on opening day.

That last fact is significant, because I am decidedly NOT the typical movie-goer. In fact, I'm infamous for my lack of interest in movies of the day. It is not at all unusual for me to have not seen a popular movie -- I've not seen the latest Batman movie, or any of the X-men series for instance. (In fact, nothing strikes me as more infantile than going to see a comic-book movie, but I digress.) Suffice to say, I don't care to see most movies.

But, I've been waiting with bated breath for weeks now to see Knowing. Why?

I caught the trailer a couple of weeks ago on iTunes, and immediately became hooked on the premise: a time-capsule is opened from 50 years ago, and an elementary schoolgirl's 1958 contribution to the time-capsule is unearthed which foretells disasters past, present and future. It falls to the main character of the movie, an M.I.T. professor played by Cage, to decipher the doomsday message.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon, the movie's opening day, when I pulled up the Rotten Tomatoes site to see how the flick was faring among those who'd seen it. I was chagrined to see that it had a 24% rotten-tomato rating. In a word, most who saw it hated it. "Crackpot", "bizarre", etc. were the adjectives used to describe the movie. It was compared unfavorably to M. Night Shyamalan's work. But notably -- for me, anyway -- a common complaint was that it was "religious". The reviews were almost enough to dissuade me from seeing the film. Again -- I'm not a film buff; can't stand to sit through most of them. (Invariably fall asleep whenever my kids put a Lord of the Rings DVD into the player at home.)

But, the critics used that word "religious", which for me was like my parent's telling me I wouldn't like something in a lame attempt at reverse psychology. Religious? Nicholas Cage? Really? So I took the plunge, plugged in my credit card and bought two tickets (later three, because I had to buy one for my 14 year old who wanted to see it too.)

So how was it? Unbelievably good. And remember -- this is a non-movie fan talking here -- I'd much prefer browsing the internet to seeing the usual latest Hollywood blockbuster. Full of suspense, it kept me on the edge the whole way through. Excellent -- best movie (faint praise, I suppose) I've seen in years.

But not for everyone, it seems.

I saw more than one person who got up and walked out before it was done. (One group of teenaged kids yelled loudly as they exited, "This movie sucks!") Why? I asked my wife the same question later. She thought it was the subject matter. I think she's onto something. The movie's not necessarily a rosy scenario, for sure. And it did involve massive death and destruction. (I know? So, what's not to like? Go figure.)

I think that some of the reaction has to do with the fact that most people just do not want to contemplate what the Church calls the Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven or Hell -- a rather different "Final Four", if you will. "Give me fluff, give me sexual intrigue, give me madcap comedy -- just don't make me face reality", society seems to say.

Sigh. Oh well, yet another example of my not fitting in with the times. But you? If you'd enjoy a stem-winding doomsday thriller, I'd highly recommend it. Good stuff.

Dedication of new chapel at Thomas Aquinas College

2009-03-11T00:09:00.001-05:00

Oh my goodness! This is incomparably beautiful. (Post from The New Liturgical Movement blog, with pictures by Austin Welsh, a friend of mine.) Enjoy!

Monday, March 09, 2009

A Glorious Weekend on a Few Fronts at Thomas Aquinas College

by Shawn Tribe

We have been treated to some particularly fine examples of new church architecture in the past couple of years and this past weekend was no exception as the glorious new chapel of Thomas Aquinas College, Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, was consecrated. It is a glorious structure indeed and, I am particularly pleased to report, includes a number of stunning architectural features, including a ciborium magnum. Austin Welsh sent in these photographs of the church:

(Finishing touches were still being put in place when this photo was taken) (The papal arms of Benedict XVI) (The beautiful ciborium) (The sacristy) Do make certain to go and look at more on his Flickr Photoset which includes a number of other details and angles. The next day, as the Faithful Rebel reports:

The first Mass offered upon the newly consecrated altar after Saturday's dedication Mass was a solemn High Mass offered ... by Father John Berg, Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. The Deacon for the Mass was Father Robert Fromageot and the Subdeacon was Father Matthew McNeely, both Fraternity priests.

His Excellency, Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, Auxiliary Bishop of San Diego, was in choir. (Photos courtesy of Tommy Duffy and The Faithful Rebel) This was not all however:

Perhaps just as remarkable was the later Mass offered on Sunday in the Ordinary Form. Bishop Cordileone was the celebrant of this Mass. Remarkably, he offered the Mass facing the altar, in Latin, with the traditional candlestick arrangement remaining from the earlier Solemn High Mass.

Sadly, no photos of this Mass have been forthcoming yet. If any reader has any, please send them in. In concluding, I must share this final wonderful picture from The Faithful Rebel:

Mass365: Another One Bites the Dust!

2009-03-09T23:36:00.002-05:00

Aw snap! For a second time this year, my schedule and the stars conspired against me. No Mass today.

I really didn't think it would be this hard to attend Daily Mass. The trouble today was it was Monday -- the traditional day that Catholic priests take off, and as a result, fewer masses are offered on Monday than any other day, by far.

The day started off with a slow start, and by noon I had decided to take a tour of the Parent and Child Center of Tulsa -- a favorite charity of one of our partners, who had invited my wife Tracy to take part. (That was excellent, by the way. You really should support this charity, they do education on parenting to help prevent child abuse. A fine, fine organization.)

So anyway, I thought to myself -- "No problem - I'll just hit the 5:05 pm daily Mass at the cathedral." Indeed, at 5 o'clock I gathered up my Macbook and rushed out to get over there, only to find that the doors were locked. "No problem" suddenly became "big problem" as I realized my mistake -- there IS no 5:05 p.m. daily Mass on Mondays.

Even worse was that the only Mass left (the 6:30 p.m. at St. Joseph's Vietnamese Catholic Church in far East Tulsa) directly conflicted with a previous commitment I'd made to Tracy to attend a "Let's Talk" program at St. Bernard's of Clairvaux (in far south Tulsa).

Sigh, and ai-yi-yi.

Betcha East coast Catholics don't have this difficulty.

It's here: My new Macbook!

2009-03-06T21:48:00.008-06:00

Oh lovely! Oh marvelous! Your screen is like a limpid pool of video goodness! Ms. Apple Macbook, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Wow. Just wow.

Got the Macbook yesterday afternoon and have now used it for a little less than 24 hours. In that time, I've learned to love the new multi-touch Trackpad, used the Photo Booth app to make pictures and video with Cam and Maddie, used iMovie to record and edit my first professional video (still in progress) to place as a Welcome on my professional blog (http://tulsabankruptcyandconsumerlaw.blogspot.com, if anyone's checking), and played with the "Cover Flow" method of reviewing my docs.

It is an amazing piece of technology and design. Even the packaging is so unbelievably well thought out, that you stand in awe of Apple and their accomplishments. This is the result of unflinching, unstoppable, unquenchable focus on excellence. I recently put forth a Steve Jobs (co-founder and chairman of Apple Computer) quote to the effect that he simply cannot understand why anyone would want to do anything that was not "insanely great."

Yes, indeed. It shows.

Mass365: Monday, March 2, 2009 - Marian Chapel, Church of Saint Mary

2009-03-04T22:00:00.007-06:00

So Monday morning, eager to get back on the daily Mass "horse" (if I may be slightly profane), I arranged to get up a little earlier than usual. The reason? 6:30 a.m. Mass at the Church of Saint Mary's Marian Chapel. Normally on Mondays and any other day during the week, I attend the noon Mass at Holy Family Cathedral. However, on Monday, I had a conflicting appointment. And since Mondays are typically the day of the week that priests "stand down" from their shepherding duties, there are far fewer masses offered on Monday than any other day of the week. (Indeed, previous Mondays have resulted in my attending Mass in Vietnamese at St. Joseph's Vietnamese Catholic Church -- Monday's "last chance saloon" for daily mass goers.) And so on this particular Monday, I added a new place to my roster of places where I've celebrated Mass: the Marian Chapel at Saint Mary's in Brookside. Actually, I may have been here before. The only time I remember attending a Catholic Mass as a child was with my closest childhood friend, Chris Egan, who lived catty-corner of us in Brookside and whose family were the only Catholics I'd ever encountered. I don't remember much about that event, but I do clearly remember that it was at the Church of Saint Mary -- the parish in which we lived, and in fact I still live -- though we attend the Latin Mass parish of St. Peter today. The Marian Chapel was a pleasant surprise. This was because I was expecting Mass in the main church -- a "church in the round" (read: monstrosity of heretical architectural mania) -- which was newly built about 10 to 15 years ago at Saint Mary's. To tell the truth, I hate the place. Modern. Ugly. Devoid of any focus whatsoever. (See photo above, which although ugly enough, doesn't begin to show just how ugly a place it is. Ahem.) So when I drove up and followed the small crowd of people in the pre-dawn darkness of Monday morning I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were heading NOT into the large new sanctuary where Mass is normally held, but instead into the cozy and old chapel at the South end of the church. Mass there was with a friendly and familiar bunch of people -- people who obviously attend that mass on a very regular basis. (I did note that no one present was devoid of grey hair, also.) Mass was celebrated by Fr. Swift, an elderly priest who nonetheless gave a very cogent homily about Matthew 25 (the Gospel reading from Monday) and how rare it was that he had heard confessions of sins of omission over his long career as a priest and confessor. Apparently people focus a bit too much on the sins they actually commit, versus the sins that they commit by not acting, "Lord, when did I see you hungry and not feed you?") I want to note one rather odd practice that I've never seen anywhere else: when it came time for communion, instead of having both sides of the chapel file up to the center of the ambo to receive our Lord's Body and Blood in the Eucharist, first only the right or "Epistle"* side of the congregation filed up to receive, while the left, or "Gospel"* side, remained seated. Only after all of the epistle side of the church had received did anyone on the Gospel side rise to begin filing up to the altar. Weird. It was a very moving and warm experience, and I look forward to joining these early risers at the 6:30 a.m. Mass at Saint Mary's again sometime soon. FBC *The Epistle and Gospel "sides" of the church refer to the practice under the Tridentine Rite (the old pre-Vatican II Latin Mass) of the priest reading the Epistle from the right, then moving to the left side of the altar to read the Gospel reading from that side. This terminology is probably all but lost, except to that small band of die-hard liturgical types who attend the Latin Mass.) **Roster of Mass sites, thus far for Mass365:

Marian Chapel Church of Saint Mary, Tulsa OK
Sacred Heart Church, Miami OK
St. Philip Neri Newman Center, The University of Tulsa campus
Holy Family Cathedral, Tulsa OK
Parish of St. Peter (at St. Augustine Catholic Church), Tulsa OK (Tridentine or Latin Extraordinary Rite)
St. Athanasius / Chapel of the Theotokos (at St. Augustine Catholic Church), Tulsa OK (Byzantine Rite of the Eastern Catholic Church)
St. Joseph Vietnamese Catholic Church, Tulsa OK
Church of the Madelene, Tulsa OK
National Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington DC
Basilica Cathedral of St. Louis, St. Louis MO
Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine Chapel, atop Mt. Saint Mary, Emmittsburg MD
Verizon Center Youth Mass, Washington DC
St. Andrews Catholic Church, Richmond IN
St. Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Church, Tulsa OK
Chapel of Peace, Holy Family Cathedral, Tulsa OK
Roman Catholic Church of the Resurrectioin, Tulsa OK

Don't Dare Dance in Pinal County, AZ

2009-03-04T02:42:00.007-06:00

Saw this great story at Reason online (www.reason.tv), about harassment faced by some people who want to ... dance ... in Arizona(?). Yep. Can't have that, of course. If we did, who knows what might happen next? Freedom?

A Dog Named Blue

2009-02-28T22:34:00.002-06:00

Saw this great story, apparently true, on a website that sells briefcases. Ah well. Here's to great dogs like Blue, and my sweetheart chocolate lab, Abby. fbc From Saddleback Leather Company's website: http://saddlebackleather.com/37-in-memory-of-blue

In Memory of Blue

Dear friend of mine, Blue

A man may smile and bid you hail Yet wish you to the devil; But when a good dog wags his tail, You know he's on the level

"Some roads aren't meant to be travelled alone"

I walked in with my guitar, lined up the three little black lab puppies and then strummed a few chords to see if that would somehow help me decide. One just laid there, one scurried off under a chair and one started wagging his tail. When I did it again and got the same result, I reached down and picked up my dog.

From that day on, Blue was my constant and faithful companion wagging his tail millions of times over again.

He brought so much joy into my life that I can hardly start to tell you. He kept me company all day long for years and years. He was a great listener, never complained and protected me like no other. In return, I gave him a cool life.

His life was far from dull. He was killed in a car wreck in an ice storm and revived, run over by a car (by me), knew more Spanish than most of my friends, was stolen once (I got him back), had an active romantic life (60+ puppies in Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico City, Oregon, Texas, New Mexico, Cd. Juarez and probably a few places I don't know about), swam in 23 states, ate lots and lots of people food, and slept out under the stars hundreds of times. I suppose one could say that he lived a Dog's Life.

Blue rode with me I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of miles all over the North American continent, sitting behind me with his chin on my shoulder. He slept by my side every night; even when I slept on top of the Land Cruiser. He would run and jump onto the hood, over the windshield and onto the rack.

Of all my time sleeping in the mountains, deserts and behind gas stations when I couldn't drive anymore, Blue kept me safe. Once, we were camping along the Rio Grande in New Mexico and Blue just kept staring down the river, growling. We left.

We've had some good times, me and Blue. Every small town we lived in, everyone knew Blue. Driving through town, he would stick his head out and bark and from both sides of the street, people would wave and holler "Hola Blue! Hola Blue!" They all loved Blue, but not as much I did. Heck, who else would put a page in honor of their dog on their professional website? Did I mention that he once cost me $9000? But that's another story.

He certainly wasn't a backyard dog that I threw a bone to now and then. We were usually together 24 hours a day. He always had to be leaning against me at night and during the day always had to at least have his paw or chin resting on me in the truck. When I was sad, he was quiet. When I was happy, he was too. He knew me almost better than a human could have and I knew him almost better than I know myself.

Well, I knew that our friendship couldn't last forever and I dreaded the day that I would have to give him back to the earth. I hated the thought of it and hate it even more now. Blue passed away January 7th, 2008. That day was rough to say the least.

God knew it would be hard for me if I had been left alone in this world, so He blessed me with the warm comfort of my beautiful wife and 6 month old baby girl. They didn't make it any easier, but they sure were a blessed comfort. He didn't suffer and he ate well until the end, but he had cancer in his lungs and so just coughed continuously. On the last day, he couldn't lay down so I took him in. The drive to the vet was the toughest one hour drive of my life. I don't even know how I drove it, but he sat next to me silently staring at the highway ahead, just like always. My heart ached then and it still does.

Blue got his start in New Mexico and so I knew that that was where he needed to rest. I wanted him to be near the river that he had played in for so many hours and out in the desert where we had squandered days and days away together.

So, I took him way way out into the desert across the Rio Grande and buried him atop a tall bluff overlooking the the river. It was a solid place where he would have a good view and no one would bother him. A very fitting and honoring place to say goodbye to that dear friend of mine.

Dogs in Heaven?

My dad tells the story of a teary eyed little girl who showed up to church just after her beloved dog had died. The pastor heard about it and so went to talk with her. The little girl told him what had happened and then asked, "Will my dog be in Heaven"? The pastor said, "Sweetheart, if it takes your dog being in Heaven for you to be happy, then he'll be there." I believe there is some truth in that. King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, wrote about animals having a spirit and that it goes somewhere.

In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, God teaches us that the present universe in which we live will go away and will be replaced with a new heaven and a new earth. God also says that He will make all things new. For these reasons, I believe it to be a definite possibility that our pets will be made new and that those who are children of God will be reunited with them.

My Favorite True Dog Loyalty Story

In Edinburgh, Scotland 1856, wherever Auld Jock (John Gray) went, his best friend, Bobby, followed close behind. In just a few short years, the two developed quite a friendship as constant companions. In 1858 Auld Jock fell ill with tuberculosis and died, leaving Bobby all alone in the world.

He was buried at Greyfriar's Kirkyard cemetery with nobody but the gravedigger and his faithful furry companion, Bobby, attending the funeral. There was a ban on dogs entering the cemetery and despite efforts to prevent him, Bobby would find a way to sit next to Auld Jock every day.

During 1867, it looked like for a while that Bobby, without an owner, would be taken off the streets and be put to sleep. Thankfully, Edinburgh's Lord Provost, Sir William Chambers stepped in and paid for Bobby's dog license renewal, to which he became a ward of the city's council.

For 14 years, Bobby could be found at his best friend's gravesite. To sustain him during his long vigils at the cemetery, he would receive a meal daily at 1 p.m. at the Greyfriar's Dining Room. In 1872, when Bobby died, he was buried beside the grave of his adored Auld Jock, having been awarded ‘Freeman of the City' status. Having touched the hearts of all who knew him and his plight to watch over Auld Jock, Greyfriars Bobby was the only dog ever to have been awarded this.

The Scotsman newspaper archives reveal the obituary of a Skye Terrier on January 17th, 1872 and a statue was erected in his honor. Upon it reads, "Greyfriars Bobby. Died 14th January 1872 aged 16 years old. Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all."

What a day it will be when I see Blue again, dear friend of mine.

Mass364? The Streak Ends

2009-02-28T21:12:00.006-06:00

As I've posted previously, I've been on a project -- a religious pilgrimage of sorts -- to attend Mass every day this year. (Mass365). Since December 31, 2008 I've attended Mass every single day. (Actually, come to think of it -- last weekend I attended Mass at least THREE times. Hmmm.) Well the streak (if I can refer to the project in such a non-serious and profane manner) has come to an end. I did not get to Mass today at all. It wasn't for lack of trying. Or simple laziness -- though I probably could've planned a bit better. You see, I spent nearly all day at the Church of Madelene helping my wife with her Pre-Cana class and conducting two of the several presentations to the attendees. That took my time from early morning until nearly 5 o'clock. And since we had to be in Owasso for my youngest son's Cub Scout pack's Blue and Gold Banquet at 5:30 p.m., I ended up in a quandary. Dropping the family off at the Lutheran church where the banquet was beginning, I high-tailed it north toward Collinsville's St. Therese' of Lisieux shrine for what I thought was a 5:30 p.m. Mass. On the way up US 169, I called the parish only to find out that the Mass had started at 5 p.m. -- not 5:30 as previously thought. That meant that I would not arrive until nearly 5:45 p.m., and surely the Mass would be over by that time. I could've made it back to North Tulsa for the Byzantine rite which began at 6 p.m., but that would've meant missing Cam's Blue and Gold entirely. What to do? I thought about it, but the more I thought of it, the more I decided that Jesus would rather me sacrifice my project for the sake of my son's banquet. After all, the 365 days of Mass was probably more a testament to my tendency toward OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) tendencies, than true piety truth be told. In the end, the banquet was nice (though those faux-Native American pagan "ceremonies" always creep me out a little). Sigh. Lord have mercy on me. Oh well ... beginning tomorrow? Mass 364! Technically, I've still been to mass at least once per day, anyway. Watch this space for more shocking revelations of personal failure!

Mass365: Ash Wednesday

2009-02-25T22:57:00.002-06:00

And so it begins - Ash Wednesday, the first day of our Lenten season of fasting and penance. On this day (and Good Friday also) Roman Catholics 14 through 60 are obliged under pain of sin to fast and abstain from meat.

Ash Wednesday is also the day each year when Catholics receive the mark of Jesus Christ - a cross - on their foreheads, causing their non-Catholic friends and colleagues to do double-takes all day long. The usual greeting begins, "Did you know you've got something on your ....?" (You'd think you'd get used to it, but after a short dozen years as a Catholic, I haven't.)

Contrary to common opinion, although the fast and abstinence are mandatory, Mass attendance is not this day, i.e., it's not a holy day of obligation like Easter and Christmas. That doesn't stop millions upon millions who do not normally attend Mass during the week from showing up this day.

That was certainly the case today at Holy Family Cathedral, where Mass was celebrated by our wonderful orthodox bishop His Excellency Edward Slattery. The cathedral was overflowing -- in fact, there was literally no room to add anyone else. I've only seen it that full one other time -- when the monks at Clear Creek were there for Solemn Vespers a couple of years ago.

In addition to the beautiful liturgy -- full of the highest, and most solemn hymns of the Church -- Bishop Slattery surprised me by performing the Mass "ad orientem" (literally "to the East") -- the traditional way of facing the altar instead of the congregation. I'd noticed when I came in that the free-standing altar where the New Mass is normally celebrated, was covered with special linens and set up with the traditional six beeswax candles -- a throwback to the pre-Vatican II rubrics of the Mass -- and wondered whether this meant the Mass would be celebrated ad orientem. ("Can it be?" I thought to myself.) Yes, it was. And it was very moving and dignified.

I'm sure that not everyone there understood what this meant, but I did and I thank God for the opportunity to see this solemn celebration conducted with such dignity and grace as it should be. (Deo gratias.) I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but once more I am forced by charity to acknowledge what a wonderful bishop we have (and thanks also to Msgr. Patrick Brankin - who was no doubt instrumental in arranging this.) We are fortunate beyond measure here in the Diocese of Tulsa.

Shrove Tuesday: Gateway to Lent

2009-02-24T12:54:00.004-06:00

Here's a great video for Lent that I picked up from an Anglican (!) priest's website (Fr. Bosco Peters @ http://www.liturgy.co.nz/blog/ - Thanks, Father!) :

Bonum, Verum, Pulchrum: Solemn Vespers at Holy Family Cathedral

2009-02-22T22:35:00.004-06:00

We have so much to be thankful for in the Diocese of Tulsa. Our good bishop, the Rev. Edward Slattery, together with Monsignor Patrick Brankin and a stable full of pious and holy priests, has done much to restore the proper dignity and beauty to the liturgy here. One example of that is the Solemn High Vespers held at the Cathedral on the last Sunday of every month. Here's a video taken in August 2008. (Fast forward to the 2:10 mark for the opening hymn, Tantum Ergo.) I was privileged (and refreshed) once again to attend this very evening with my eldest son. It capped off a weekend which began with the sublime beauty of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy Saturday evening, continued with the subdued and reverent grace of the low Tridentine Mass this afternoon and concluded with the new Mass at the Newman Center (for my son's weekly obligation) after vespers. I am so thankful that I live where I live and for all that God has allowed me to experience. Deo gratias!

Neil Postman: Five Things We Need to Know About Technology

2009-02-17T21:20:00.013-06:00

A friend forwarded an amazing essay by the late Neil Postman, written before the millennium, regarding technological change and the pitfalls associated with it. ("Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change"). Postman, who wrote the book Amusing Ourselves to Death was no piker when it came to thinking critically about technology and its deleterious effects on us. This is a topic which fascinates me, of course. (Postman manages to quote one of my favorite passages from the Old Testament Book of Micah (6:8), and the motto I adopted for my law practice, along the way.) He wrote: Neil Postman: Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change Good morning your Eminences and Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen. The theme of this conference, "The New Technologies and the Human Person: Communicating the Faith in the New Millennium," suggests, of course, that you are concerned about what might happen to faith in the new millennium, as well you should be. In addition to our computers, which are close to having a nervous breakdown in anticipation of the year 2000, there is a great deal of frantic talk about the 21st century and how it will pose for us unique problems of which we know very little but for which, nonetheless, we are supposed to carefully prepare. Everyone seems to worry about this--business people, politicians, educators, as well as theologians. At the risk of sounding patronizing, may I try to put everyone's mind at ease? I doubt that the 21st century will pose for us problems that are more stunning, disorienting or complex than those we faced in this century, or the 19th, 18th, 17th, or for that matter, many of the centuries before that. But for those who are excessively nervous about the new millennium, I can provide, right at the start, some good advice about how to confront it. The advice comes from people whom we can trust, and whose thoughtfulness, it's safe to say, exceeds that of President Clinton, Newt Gingrich, or even Bill Gates. Here is what Henry David Thoreau told us: "All our inventions are but improved means to an unimproved end." Here is what Goethe told us: "One should, each day, try to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words." Socrates told us: "The unexamined life is not worth living." Rabbi Hillel told us: "What is hateful to thee, do not do to another." And here is the prophet Micah: "What does the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God." And I could say, if we had the time, (although you know it well enough) what Jesus, Isaiah, Mohammad, Spinoza, and Shakespeare told us. It is all the same: There is no escaping from ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always been, and it is a delusion to believe that the technological changes of our era have rendered irrelevant the wisdom of the ages and the sages. Nonetheless, having said this, I know perfectly well that because we do live in a technological age, we have some special problems that Jesus, Hillel, Socrates, and Micah did not and could not speak of. I do not have the wisdom to say what we ought to do about such problems, and so my contribution must confine itself to some things we need to know in order to address the problems. I call my talk Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change. I base these ideas on my thirty years of studying the history of technological change but I do not think these are academic or esoteric ideas. They are to the sort of things everyone who is concerned with cultural stability and balance should know and I offer them to you in the hope that you will find them useful in thinking about the effects of technology on religious faith. First Idea The first idea is that all technological change is a trade-off. I like to call it a Faustian bargain. Technology giveth and technology taketh away. This means that for every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage. The disadvantage may exceed in importance the advantage, or the advantage may well be worth the cost. Now, this may seem to be a rather obvious idea, but you would be surprised at how many people believe that new technologies are unmixed blessings. You need only think of the enthusiasms with which most people approach their understanding of computers. Ask anyone who knows something about computers to talk about them, and you will find that they will, unabashedly and relentlessly, extol the wonders of computers. You will also find that in most cases they will completely neglect to mention any of the liabilities of computers. This is a dangerous imbalance, since the greater the wonders of a technology, the greater will be its negative consequences. Think of the automobile, which for all of its obvious advantages, has poisoned our air, choked our cities, and degraded the beauty of our natural landscape. Or you might reflect on the paradox of medical technology which brings wondrous cures but is, at the same time, a demonstrable cause of certain diseases and disabilities, and has played a significant role in reducing the diagnostic skills of physicians. It is also well to recall that for all of the intellectual and social benefits provided by the printing press, its costs were equally monumental. The printing press gave the Western world prose, but it made poetry into an exotic and elitist form of communication. It gave us inductive science, but it reduced religious sensibility to a form of fanciful superstition. Printing gave us the modern conception of nationhood, but in so doing turned patriotism into a sordid if not lethal emotion. We might even say that the printing of the Bible in vernacular languages introduced the impression that God was an Englishman or a German or a Frenchman--that is to say, printing reduced God to the dimensions of a local potentate. Perhaps the best way I can express this idea is to say that the question, "What will a new technology do?" is no more important than the question, "What will a new technology undo?" Indeed, the latter question is more important, precisely because it is asked so infrequently. One might say, then, that a sophisticated perspective on technological change includes one's being skeptical of Utopian and Messianic visions drawn by those who have no sense of history or of the precarious balances on which culture depends. In fact, if it were up to me, I would forbid anyone from talking about the new information technologies unless the person can demonstrate that he or she knows something about the social and psychic effects of the alphabet, the mechanical clock, the printing press, and telegraphy. In other words, knows something about the costs of great technologies. Idea Number One, then, is that culture always pays a price for technology. Go here to finish the (somewhat lengthy) essay: 5 Things See also, my earlier post on the same subject matter: Thoughts about Technology

Mass365

2009-02-13T20:00:00.007-06:00

So it was New Year's Eve and we were at Mass at the Church of the Madelene for Mass. I had been thinking about New Year's resolutions (see my earlier "Ten Resolutions" post) and then it came to me: how wonderful it would be to go to Mass every day in the new year -- 365 days of Mass. As a sometimes traditionalist Catholic, I have in the past been given over to a certain critical view of the state of the Catholic church. To be sure, that criticism has been moderated in recent years - partly because I began to go to daily Mass (not every day) at the Novus Ordo mass downtown, close to my law office. It was the experience of praying and worshiping with a group of obviously holy people -- daily Mass attendees are there, of course, because they want to be -- that began to change my theretofore Pharisaical view of the new Mass. These people, the same ones over and over again, seemed oblivious to the many obvious (to me, anyway) deficiencies of the Novus Ordo. They just seemed to want to be there and receive Christ. Over time, that experience had a wonderfully moderating effect on me. No longer did I immediately assume that my fellow Catholics who attended the Novus Ordo were stupid or ignorant of the important issues of the Church, and I eventually came to realize that people who attend the new Mass were not necessarily irreligious. Clearly they were not lacking in piety. Their good example thus brought me back to the realization of the holy effect of the Sacrifice of the Mass -- whether it is conducting in English or Latin. Anyway, it was against this backdrop that I found myself at Mass New Year's Eve, and inspiration struck. How interesting would it be to chronicle the effect of going to Mass for 365 days in a row - an entire year of daily Mass. I'd never attempted anything like it before - in fact, I was on a roll if I could make it two days in row. Later the additional idea occurred of blogging about the experience, and still later - actually going to Mass at every parish in the Diocese of Tulsa. And so that's what I've been doing ever since. This is obviously an introductory post, but watch this space for discussion of what I found at Madelene, at Holy Family Cathedral, and at St. Joseph's Vietnamese Catholic Church -- all in Tulsa proper. I've got a good feeling about this project. Join me as I experience the sacrifice of the Mass every day this year. This is going to be good.

Twittering our brains out

2009-02-13T19:39:00.005-06:00

It's approaching a cliche' at this point, but there's a growing consensus that all this electronic communication may be having a deleterious effect on our attention spans. (Gee, ya think?) I know that I have recently discovered Twitter - the microblogging internet app that connects people through text message entries (micro-blog entries) that ostensibly answer the question: "What are you doing right now?" Twitter has rapidly grown from its inception in 2006 to a point where a new Pew Research poll indicates a full 11% of internet users regularly use Twitter, or a similar app. It's much more than merely text messaging, of course, but that's beside the point. Anyway, here's an article from Wired which questions whether or not all this instant communication is having a nasty effect. FBC Digital Overload Is Frying Our Brains By Brandon Keim February 06, 2009 | 5:41:37 PM http://preview.tinyurl.com/dl837w

2009-02-05T21:36:00.001-06:00

Sts. Peter & Paul Coptic Church, Bixby OK

2009-02-03T12:49:00.003-06:00

One of my clients -- a very impressive young man -- is a deacon for this Coptic Church. How cool to see this Tulsa World slideshow of their ancient liturgy. Very reminiscent of the Byzantine rite that I occasionally attend in the Chapel of the Theotokos (St. Athanasius, located at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Tulsa.) Check it out:http://tinyurl.com/dznrc7

US Airways Hudson River Crash - Demo from LegalTech Conference

2009-02-03T10:52:00.003-06:00

US Airways Hudson River Crash from Dan Nunan on Vimeo. Very cool demo of crash recreation software from LegalTech Conference this week.

Islands of Ease in chaos of life

2009-02-03T09:02:00.007-06:00

Leo Babauta is a blogger who regularly posts about productivity and related items at his Zen Habits blog (http://www.zenhabits.net). Leo is also a practioner of Zen Buddhism and the blog blends this Eastern practice into some very helpful insights about being productive and maintaining a sense of peace while doing so. He recently welcomed a guest poster, Mary Jaksch/GoodlifeZEN blog -- and another Zen practitioner -- who writes on how to maintain "islands of ease" among the chaos of daily life. I don't share their religion, of course, but I do recommend the articles. A more Christocentric practice, but one along the same lines, is the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner." Very powerful; highly recommended. Go here for a look at the article: http://tinyurl.com/cn7gdt

What's this Twitter thing I keep hearing about?

2009-02-01T13:55:00.004-06:00

I've got a new toy: Twitter.com -- go watch the video for an explanation. It's very cool, but it takes a little while to "get it". (From the Common Craft Show, "Twitter in Plain English".)

Reality and the dangers of tech: is the logic inescapable?

2009-01-31T10:35:00.007-06:00

One of the things I worry about (fret about, consider -- choose whichever verb you like) is reality. It is one of the hallmarks - or so I'm told - of Thomistic philosophy and Scholasticism, and also that of the late John Senior at Pearson College. (I minored in philosophy long enough to realize that it made my head hurt. Latin and Greek were far easier for me.) Senior -- together with his colleagues Frank Nelick and Dennis Quinn -- was famous for reminding his students, "Water is wet and rocks are hard." In other words, reality is real. As a result Senior was also a great critic of technology and the way in which it removes us from reality. For example, IIRC he disdained recorded music, preferring instead the venue of a live concert -- or even better, self-made music. It should go without saying that he was opposed to television as well -- not merely for its content, either, but rather for the way in which it divorces us from reality by creating this virtual universe of existence. If ever there was a lesson which spoke to my heart, it was this one. A child of television who grew up in the 60's and 70's, I now think of it as "the plug-in drug" as someone else referred to it. And so it is against that constant understanding that I struggle with technology and its appeal. My friends know that I love gadgets, I always have. Some of my earliest memories of my father were the little electronic trinkets he'd bring home from S.H. Kress (the 60's forerunner to K -Mart) which had a store next to his offices downtown. Dad was constantly bringing home transistor radios, walkie-talkies, etc. much to the delight of my brother and myself. And as I've noted recently, I've been playing around with some Web2.0 technologies in order to update my law practice and its marketing efforts. But I worry about it. I worry that I am feeding an unhealthy attachment to virtual (as opposed to actual) reality, in doing so. Is technology taking us to a place we should not be going? Are we Twittering and Facebooking, and GPS-ing ourselves into oblivion? Maybe. Eric Rauch writes about related issues and their treatment in recent movies in The American Vision @ http://www.americanvision.org/article/the-logic-is-inescapable/ Go check it out -- its worth a read.

Staying Afloat in a Sea of Data

2009-01-29T08:58:00.006-06:00

Are you drowning in information? Is it coming in over the gunwales of your smartphone faster than you can process it? If you're anything like me -- God help you -- you are fascinated and transfixed by the availability of data anywhere, anytime. For Christmas I received a smartphone which has instant access to the Internet, to email and to social networking apps like Twitter and Facebook -- the internet in my pocket, I call it. It's a different sort of "too much information" (TMI, as the kids refer to it.) They don't call them "Crackberrys" for nothing. I just recently returned from a trip to Washington D.C. where we led a group of teenagers and college students on the March for Life. As a part of that effort, I came up with the idea of using Twitter to push up-to-the-minute text updates to both the marchers and their parents and interested friends back at home. On the whole, it worked okay but could be improved for next year. But that was my intro to the social networking world, and from Twitter I quickly moved on to harder stuff like Facebook. In fact, just last night my wife informed me that I have a problem: I need a Twelve-Step program for info addiction. She's may be right. One of the great ideas that I see in Suderman's article is the notion of an information Sabbath, i.e., a day in which you turn off your smartphone, and withdraw from the grid, so to speak. I used to think of "going off the grid" in terms of moving out into the wilderness. Images of mountain cabins, unconnected to the phone and power grids came to mind. But maybe a new paradigm is in order -- going off the info grid, as it were. Peter Suderman wrote in The New Atlantis about drowning in a sea of data due to Web2.0 and the push of data: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/staying-afloat -- go read it, it's excellent stuff. PS: I'm still doing Mass365 -- I've just been busy with the March for Life trip (and playing with my Smartphone and Twitter.)

COMING SOON! Project Mass365

2009-01-02T03:21:00.004-06:00

Had an epiphany (no pun intended) at Mass on New Year's Eve: along with my resolution to attend daily Mass, why not blog about my experiences as I go through the year? So far, I'm 2 for 2 -- see tomorrow's post for December 31, 2008 Mass at the Church of the Madalene, and what I observed there. More to come

Ten Resolutions for 2009

2008-12-31T00:06:00.019-06:00

Seems like the time of the year to do this (though doing what is expected grates on my contrarian personality.) Nevertheless, I've been thinking of some resolutions I'd like to make -- again, noting my own sui generis objection that "I don't do New Years' resolutions." Not exactly sure how these differ from "goals", but for purposes of this post "goals" and "resolutions" are henceforth interchangeable, OK? OK.

That said, there are some things that need blogging about. Here's my "off the top" (not in order of importance - just as they occur to me) list:

Resolution No. 1 -- Professional: Establish a bankruptcy and consumer law website and/or blog. I want to make something that will get my practice noticed by more and more people -- especially in light of what I predict will be a tidal wave of personal bankruptcies along about the 3Q of 2009. If the economy crashes even half as bad a some are predicting (Dreher, etc.) it's going to be tough out there and a bunch of families will be hurting.

Resolution No. 2 -- Professional: Finish reading and fully implement David Allen's Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress-Free Productivity. The "big idea" of GTD (as its proponents call it) is systematically off-loading the stress that comes from not being sure that you've handled everything that needs to be handled. If Allen did a "Don't-Bee"* example for his books, he'd have to get a picture of my pathetic office -- with nearly every square foot stacked with stacks (of papers, files, etc.) It's truly awful. Go here for Shelfari's review: Getting Things Done

Resolution No. 3 -- Financial: Implement and stick to Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University principles, including cranking through his "Baby Steps to Financial Peace". Another area of my life where I need to suck it up and "do as I say -- not as I've been done." I regularly recommend Ramsey's stuff to my bankruptcy clients, but tend to get too busy and overloaded and let my own affairs slide. This is the year: no more aimless, non-budgeted frittering away of our income. We're going to have a monthly budget and spend every dollar "on paper, on purpose" according to the Ramsey plan. Dave Ramsey's baby steps: Click here

Resolution No. 4 -- Physical: Re-start my running plan and keep it going every single day. As recently as a month ago I was running on the treadmill at the YMCA nearly every single night. Then one night I got busy with work (see Resolution No. 2 above)... and you know the rest of that sad story. Well, that does it -- I'm going to make a goal of running another 15k run in 2009 and preparing for a possible half-marathon in November. I did the former in 2002, and have always wanted to do that latter. I'm doing it again.

Resolution No. 5 -- Physical: Get back on Atkins to control and eliminate my blood sugar problem. Diagnosed as a Type II diabetic in 2006, I pretty much ignored it all until I had a scary run-in with a diabetic spike in late October / early November of this year. Since then I've been tracking my blood sugar levels on a more regular basis and avoiding most carbs. I resolve to quit screwing around with my health and get serious about living to see my grandchildren.

Resolution No. 6 -- Family: Stop losing my temper at my family -- reduce the chaos and replace it with peace in the home. Those who have raised teenagers can no doubt relate, but I've found it 'ow you say ... just a bit stressful. I strongly believe, however, that chaos is demonic and that our Father in heaven, as the author and source of true peace ("My peace I give to you...").

Resolution No. 7 -- Family: Make bedtime reading non-negotiable. It seems to me that I read much, much more to my older two sons at bedtime, than I do now with Cam and Maddie. It's not like we never read -- just not regularly enough to suit me. (Plus our chocolate lab Abby really seems to enjoy it as well -- she always comes in and plops down on Cam's bed while I read.)

Resolution No. 8 -- Financial: Get my student loans and taxes straighted out. What can I say? Law school, self-employment, an abortive attempt at a business or two and pretty soon you've got a major mess on your hands. I resolve to address these two major financial headaches, make a plan and bring some order to this chaos.

Resolution No. 9 -- Family: Re-establish "Date Night" once a week. Even if it's only a couple of hours for iced tea at McAlisters. My wife and I need time to reconnect, regroup and heal each other's wounds. We had a nice streak going last summer, but it fell away with the rush of the kids' school schedules and the increased activities that come with.

Resolution No. 10 -- Personal: Make time every week to read more. A voracious reader all my life ('til law school, anyway), I now find it difficult to sit down and set aside even a half-hour to spend reading, as opposed to skimming.

More later.... Comments?

Hat tip to Matt Holmann at http://thenonbillablehour.typepad.com/nonbillable_hour/2008/12/ten-resolutions.html

*Romper Room reference, anyone?

King Corn?

2008-12-11T22:20:00.004-06:00

Here's a trailer for an independent film on processed food and the ubiquity of corn - especially high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in our food supply.

Life, law and other miscellany - Part Two

2008-12-10T14:25:00.004-06:00

OK, so where was I? Oh yeah. Poverty -- or "Lady Poverty" as Il Poverello (St. Francis) used to call it (her). I'm tempted to say "Get real. Poverty's not a virtue -- just look at what it does to the poor." And there is some merit to the observation. After all my poorest clients are usually not tops on anyone's "wanna be" list -- they're dirty; they're often stupid or uneducated; they live lives of unbroken misery and embarrassment. Quite often they have serial "marriages" and produce children out of wedlock, introducing new generations into the arms of Lady Poverty. They are in a very real sense, repulsive. So what's so great about Poverty? Well, sed contra, it may be objected that poverty's opposite - "plenty" as they used to say, or wealth - can separate us from God. This may be seen from personal experience in that it is often the case that when our lives are full of material wealth that we stray from God's plan. For example, I find that I am more quick to neglect my prayer life when things are "rolling" and I'm more apt to certain types of corporal sin than otherwise. When the living is easy, it seems that we no longer rely on God quite so much. Having seemingly less need for Him, we are apt to rely on our own abilities to provide for ourselves. But should we?Maybe having too much is too much. Jesus tells us to pray constantly for our needs. Elsewhere, he tells us that we needn't worry about such silly stuff as clothing or food, since God provides for lilies of the field and the birds and beasts all sufficiencies.

Law, life and other miscellany

2008-12-08T23:07:00.009-06:00

I've been considering a change lately.

Last week marked my sixth year with the small but somewhat pretentious law firm that I've labored in since my abortive attempt at soloing.

I'm looking to make a change for a variety of reasons, but in short, they would center around a desire to have more control over my practice and a desire to support my family by making more money in the process.

I've long represented indigent clients -- mostly in the field of consumer bankruptcy, but other debtor-creditor matters including foreclosure and indebtedness defense as well. I like the work; it appeals to my desire to make a difference and be Christ to those I meet.

Which brings up my Catholicism and the particular expression of it that my life has followed.

Last summer I became a postulant with a third order Franciscan group known (then) as the Tertiary Franciscans of the Primitive Observance -- a third order closely associated with the Franciscans of the Primitive Observance (or TFPO and FPO, respectively). Since that time, the third order has been somewhat reformulated, and is now known as the Tau Maria (not a particularly eponymous handle, but hey -- I didn't pick it.)

What's all that have to do with my law practice?

Well, quite a bit. As I said, my practice is an extension of my faith. Okay, maybe I didn't actually say that, but I implied it.

It seems to me that we all live lives which are meant to be lived for some particular purpose. Of course there's the overriding purpose we learn (or for some, learned -- past-tense) in the Baltimore Catechism: "to know and love God in this life, and to serve Him in the next" (paraphrasing from a somewhat leaky 46 year old memory, here.) We all have that as a purpose.

But what I mean is an additional, more particular purpose.

Opus Dei has a wonderful take on this that I find particularly appealing, i.e., that we are called to sanctification through our vocational calling, whatever that may be. If you are called to be a surgeon, then you may attain holiness through the practice of surgery by offering your best "work" for God, as it were. If you are called to be a teacher, then by teaching for God. If you are called to work in a factory, etc., etc.

As a lawyer for the poor, I feel a certain calling to defend and counsel those who struggle with their finances. The importance of this work is or should be obvious in this consumption-driven culture, which upholds wealth as the greatest goal to be attained, and poverty as the worst evil to be avoided.

This may come as a shock to some people, but some believe that poverty is actually a virtue to be sought rather than an evil to be avoided at all costs. I know that the lawyer I ate lunch with a couple weeks ago certainly was (shocked, that it is.) I mentioned this in passing, and the reaction I got from him -- also a Catholic, and by all appearances a fine man -- was as if I'd calmly mentioned my being abducted by space aliens the night before. Incredulous wouldn't be far from the mark.

More at Part Two....

Home again, home again, jiggety jig....

2005-11-27T23:31:00.000-06:00

A chance encounter and I was reminded of this abortive attempt at blogging tonight. Where has the year gone? I'm giving this another try; no promises but here goes. Anybody out there?

Something like perfection

2005-02-05T15:41:00.000-06:00

While browsing about on the web this afternoon, I came across this jewel which, by pure coincidence, is written by a friend of mine, Jim Taylor. Enjoy. http://www.classicalhomeschooling.com/html/something_like_perfection.html

John Senior's Cowboy Coffee

2005-02-05T15:30:00.003-06:00

The immediate (practical) purpose of drinking a cup of coffee is to wash the biscuit down; the proximate (ethical), the intimate communion of, say, cowboys standing around a campfire in a drenching rain, water curling off their Stetsons, over yellow slickers, splashing on the rowels of spurs, their faces creased with squinting at the sun, drawing the bitter liquid down their several throats into the single moral belly of their comradeship. The remote (political) purpose of coffee at the campfire, especially in the rain, is the making of Americans — born on the frontier, free, frank, friendly, touchy about honor, despisers of fences, lovers of horses, worshippers of eagles and women. Nations have their drinks: the English, tea, the Irish, whiskey, the Germans, beer. Drinking coffee from a can is us. The ultimate purpose is mystical. To drink a can of coffee with the cowboys in the rain is as Odysseus said of Alcinous's banquet: "something like perfection."

Welcome to Alcinous's Banquet

2005-02-05T15:06:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my first foray into the world of blogging. I am setting out on this adventure to talk about the wide-ranging things that interest me -- about subjects as diverse as Traditional Catholicism and modern information Technology, and its effect on culture and society. The name of the blog is a reference to something written by Dr. John Senior (RIP), who once wrote about "Cowboy coffee" and what it means to be an American. I'll post the passage later. By way of introduction, I am a 42 year old father of four; a lawyer and traditional Catholic (but not necessarily in that order, of course.) A native Oklahoman, I write from Tulsa where I was born and raised and will, God willing, be privileged to die someday when He's through with me. A former political conservative, I was converted to Christ and His Church as an adult, when God reached out and gave me the precious gift of my first child. I say "former political conservative" not because I am no longer conservative, but instead because I largely gave up politics when I came to believe. (I once told my former pastor, Fr. James Jackson FSSP, that "I ceased being a Republican when I became a Catholic.") That is, to be sure, largely hyperbolic -- one of my legion of faults -- but conveys a grain of truth in that, prior to my conversion politics was the only God I knew. Politics still interest me, of course. But I now know (at least I think know) that politics are not the answer to human happiness and all the ills of this world. My other interests include the Church and Her crises; the Traditional Latin Mass; and in addition to those central themes, the law -- I'm a practicing attorney whose practice centers on bankruptcy and civil litigation of various types; culture and the culture wars; the establishment of the monastery at Clear Creek (the Priory of Our Lady of Annunciation of Clear Creek), in the foothills of the Ozarks in Eastern Oklahoma; my friends and, of course, my children and family. In the meantime, may God bless all who enter here and all those near and dear to me.