The Bells of St. Andrews

I've been thinking about that as the name of my next post, ever since 6AM Friday morning. I've been having trouble sleeping, and Friday was a rare day when I didn't have to get up: DING DONG, DING DONG, (ect) for about a minute. It might have been amusing if I were rerecording the percussion track for "Standing on the Moon," since I like odd background noises, but it wasn't funny then.

The New Girl asked about me liking some classes better than others, so I've posted a few from a particular favorite class... although there was another class that produced more cartoons (and helped me change my emphasis). I'm slowly making my way through a vast backlog of cartoons, but I'll try to get some of the more recent ones online--just as soon as I write and record a zombie song!
Actually, it's amazing that I'm posting at all, since I just recieved a replacement part for my favorite toy. (Watch for my latest CD, "4-track Mind," some time next week!) I'll keep working on the cartoons, though!

Arrived awry

My friend Greg--of photo fame--spent some time at Thich Nhat Hahn's Plum Village a few years ago, and was fond of quoting him, "I have arrived, I am at home."
It's sometimes good to remember that, particularly when I'm having a squirrelly day.
Like today: I didn't quite make it to Dorothy Day or Thomas Merton in class, and now I need to go read yet more about Lutheran theories of atonement (which seems to be my latest "hobby").


Usually, however, the arrival of Mr. Miro means that something has gone awry.

Just cartoons (mostly)

My loyal readers might have noticed that a lack of things to say doesn't usually stop me from writing; but rather than telling you about listening to the Rolling Stone's last great album, cranked up to 12 while I did the dishes this afternoon, I'll just give you a bunch of cartoons.

Rain, I don't mind

This cartoon would have been more appropriate during the last two weeks, when I was buried under a pile of work; however, as I think about tomorrow it still seems appropriate.
I had two dreams last night (neither of which I'll share on the blog, so don't worry--talk about obscurely self-referential!), but the songs were interesting. I woke up with a mash-up of Miles Davis' Right Off (from Tribute to Jack Johnson) with Mick Jagger singing Sympathy for the Devil over the top of it (and I've linked that recently, so I won't link it again). So that was odd.
Walking in this morning (in the rain) I was thinking about the negative imagery of rain in CCR lyrics (Who'll Stop the Rain, Have You Ever Seen the Rain) as opposed to John Lennon's Rain:
"I can show you that when it starts to rain
Everything's the same
I can show you..."

Another week begins

I had a colleague at USC named Hu who really liked Leibniz and his "windowless monads." Looking back on it, I wonder if he was shocked by the insularity of American society from the world, and the insularity of Americans from one another. He's now listed as a "Computer company manager, San Jose CA" on the department's web site (and in looking him up I found my name listed incorrectly). I, on the other hand, am not a fan: I once put myself to sleep while lecturing about Leibniz. (Well, almost.)
Facts to help the loyal reader understand: Leibniz coined the word "theodicy."
I struggle with the question of theodicy quite a bit, but I refuse to struggle any longer with Leibniz.

Theologies of Atonement

Have you ever had one of those days when you're trying to read about various competing theologies of atonement, going back to Irenaeus, up through Gregory of Nyssa and on to Martin Luther, and the whole time George Clinton is chanting, "We want the funk.... give up the funk, ow, we need the funk... gotta have the funk..." over and over and over again?
It happens to me all the time.

Friday the Thirteenth

It rarely happens, but I don't have much to say today.








Mai seems to be doing most of the talking, and that's never good.










Monk has a pretty cool jam with Sonny Rollins called "Friday the 13th," but October thirteenth pretty much just means that I'm once again late for my grandma's birthday, dang it.

Would you read this book?

"This book investigates the ethical theory of Friedrich Nietzsche in light of recent work done in philosophy of mind. While the issue of free will and communication are addressed, the primary focus is the way in which we construct the self, and the implications for ethics.
After dismissing what he calls the “soul hypothesis,” Nietzsche is left with a problem: how do we explain the sense of unity and continuity most of us experience as our identity? Drawing on recent work in cognitive science and philosophy of mind, it is shown that Nietzsche’s tentative suggestions in the late nineteenth century have been supported by late twentieth century research. These include the idea of that there is no “raw data” of our experience, and that there is no place in the brain which could conceivably identified as the “soul.” At the same time, the more recent work has not adequately thought through the implications for ethics, which is precisely what Nietzsche has largely already accomplished. While they are writing in different styles to different purposes, a unity of vision can be seen in both fields. This book aims to bring those fields into conversation with one another to the mutual benefit of both."

Hypocrisy

The tension referred to in the cartoon has to do with "loving thy neighbor." Luther was clear that we should love our neighbors, even if they're Jewish; but he didn't have much good to say about "the Jews."
It reminds me of when Lisa Simpson became a vegetarian, and balks at the lamb chops set before her. "Come on, Lisa," Homer says to her, "it's lamb, not a lamb."

For some reason, I put my class ring on this morning, and now I can't get it back off my finger. (Plain-man will certainly bust me for that!)
There's a certain irony in discussing anti-intellectualism in American culture while wearing a class ring from a top-ten school; and I'm hoping to work this article into the discussion. Not that I'm biased.

Sleep deprivation

Although a great many of my cartoons have a "not enough coffee" theme, I think today I'll just share a photo taken by my friend Greg.
Have a groovy Tuesday.

Lost poem

I often struggle to find blank paper around my house, particularly when I'm trying--this is purely hypothetical of course--to write a lecture on new religious movements in mid-19th century America, such as the Oneida Community, the Seventh-day Adventists, and the Mormons.
The ironic thing is that I have half-used and forgotten notebooks all over the place. I mention this because earlier this week I found a poem that I had written into a notebook and forgotten five years ago. The funny things is that I've also forgotten if I wrote it, or merely stumbled across it in one of the various books I was reading at the time, and felt that it fit my circumstances. In any case, this reminds me of Rocky Knob, VA and the Rock Castle Gorge.

Clouds cover mountain meadows
The way is hard to follow
Cold winds blow at night
But the dust of the world remains

And in other news, I noticed that gas prices around here jumped 13 cents yesterday; I'm afraid to check the price today.

With a name like Churchland...

I don't preach that often, and don't see myself as making it a regular part of my routine anytime in the foreseeable future, but I've had the impulse from time to time (going back to my days teaching at Radford--try turning Sartre's Being and Nothingness into a sermon for 50 bored undergrads!), and so today I preached for the third time.
I like the parables perhaps most of all in the New Testament. The Napkin Artist gave me quite a complement--perhaps more than he meant--when he said my sermon made him see the parable in a new light. That's quite a trick, and I wonder if part of that comes precisely from being "unchurched": my familiarity with the Gospels is limited (I could never imagine myself preaching out of Hebrews, for instance), but I also don't have the same ossified understandings of the most familiar texts.
In any case, my subversion of the process was to include a "highly degraded image" in the order of worship. It's a black and white image--probably copyrighted, otherwise I'd include a scan--that doesn't really look like anything at first, but at some point resolves into a bearded man who looks like the typical Jesus envisioned in various works of art. I woke up in the middle of the night last and stumbled to my bookshelf: this is the picture I need to use! The subversion is that this image came from a book called, Engine of Reason, Seat of the Soul, by Paul Churchland. Even for a theologically liberal school, I suspect that this is the first time a text by an eliminative materialist (see here as well) made it's way to the front of the chapel!

Rolling Stones

A question was raised about the previous post: as with many things, there are a variety of sources for it.
As many of my loyal readers know, I've recently changed my appearance significantly. Mac had also changed his appearance over the summer, to the extent that a person who has known him for years came up and introduced himself, not recognizing Mac at all. (This is why I questioned Mac's Badger-hood, although I guess it's still firmly in place, even if he hasn't posted in a while). I wondered if a similar things would happen to me, hence the "pleased to meet you..."
This reminded me--as so many things do--of the lyrics to a song. And of course this fit the "evil" theme of the cartoon.
That's all for today.

Pleased to meet you...

I hope you guess my name.

Commitment to Coherence

In this interest of maintaining my new level of intelligibility, I'm merely posting a cartoon today and probably taking a nap immediately after.
The cartoon has something to do with Lutherans...

Yes, Senator Allen?

This is a cheap-shot at a U.S. Senator from the state I used to live in; and it's a waste of time to boot. Therefore, I really couldn't help posting it. Despite my struggles to see everyone as a beautiful child of God, it doesn't look as though I'll ever like George Allen.
Hudson is another issue: who she is and why I say "Phewy!" to her (not to be mistaken for "Phooey") is not nearly as important as the spreading of scurrilous rumors... So feel free to share any that you may have with me!

What is Truth?

A clarification regarding "begging the question": circular reasoning is an obvious version of begging the question, but the same dynamic is at work in both fallacies. What distinguishes the two is that, when one begs the question, typically the assumptions are unstated. This makes it more difficult to detect, particularly when you happen to agree with those underlying assumptions. For instance, on NPR a couple weeks ago, Cokie Roberts was talking about the Democrats' chances in the upcoming election, and warned them: "If you don't have security, you don't have anything." (or words to that effect) What does this assume? For one, it assumes a certain understanding of security which doesn't include things such as "job security," or decent public education, or health care: it only focuses on future potential terrorist attacks. And secondly, it assumes that Republicans have in some sense made us more secure at least in that sense, which it seems they haven't--unless increasing the number of terrorists through misguided neo-colonial invasions counts as making us more secure.

On a completely different subject: I'm always struck by how different motivations can manifest in the same behavior. This isn't earth-shattering news, but I think it's interesting, and a good check on assuming that we know what's going on with other people. I'm tempted to go into more detail, but as luck would have it, I have real work to do this morning!

Thinking Critically

Many people mistake "criticism" as necessarily negative; of course it can be, but more importantly it deals with analysis.
There are terms, however, that get tossed about without comment, such as "begging the question." Someone "begs the question" when a person assumes what is supposed to be proven. A classic version is, "We know God exists because the Bible says so; and we know the Bible is true because it is the Word of God." (This was not asserted by a Quaker, of course, because we know that the Bible merely contains the "words of God": the Word of God, of course, is Jesus.) It's interesting to notice how often this happens, particularly since people don't notice. A good contemporary example is how our government treats people detained because they're suspected of being connected somehow to terrorism: they demand civil rights and humane treatment, but the Bush Administration continues to refer to them as terrorists. That begs the question; but then, critical thinking isn't a skill valued by either the Administration or the general public these days.
Sometimes people use "beg the question" as if it meant that a question "begs to be asked," but that's not technically correct. On the other hand, insisting on being technically correct can alienate you from people. To quote Nietzsche out of context once more: Crede experto

The Verdict is In: "Obscurely self-referential"

"I am certainly doing everything I can to be hard to understand myself!"
This evening, someone told me that he hadn't posted any comments on my blog lately because it was too obscurely self-referential, and it was just too hard figure out what the heck I was talking about. This is significant, because I assumed that no one was reading at all, so the blog was functioning more or less as an on-line journal, full of nonsense and in-jokes. Not that I won't continue with the nonsense and in-joke, but I promise to make an effort to widen the appeal. Well, somewhat: the cartoons will continue to be the primary focus of the blog, and how wide is their appeal?

At the same time I'm a bit relieved that people are missing what I take to be fairly obvious clues to what's going on in my life. And that statement will remain obscure: it's probably not worth either me going back and clarifying (or deleting)--or you, dear reader, going back and puzzling over that which I have chosen to publish on the web and yet remain hidden. As Nietzsche wrote, "To talk about oneself a great deal can also be a means of concealing oneself."
In case you're wondering, the opening quote is also from Nietzsche, both taken from Beyond Good and Evil.

FYI: The Napkin Artist and I will be providing music for this thing on Monday morning at 11:15. We're expecting to play for the majority of the allotted time, and we'd love to see you there.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

It's Saturday morning: where are my Legos? Now that I'm a grown-up, I can make obscure references to Thomas Kuhn, but it's not quite as much fun.
Back when I was a kid, I used to wake up before my parents, and watch Bugs Bunny and Road Runner and build Acme product out of Legos... and they worked about as well as Wiley Coyote's.
Explanation of the Cartoon: hearing about a stressful event can provoke the same biochemical reaction as if you were experiencing the event yourself. If someone keeps telling you horror stories, it will take a physical toll on your body--not quite as bad as repeatedly falling off cliffs like Wiley, but it's still not very fun.
I don't know if this talk of Legos and cartoons sounds sappy and nostalgic or not, but that's what I'm thinking of this morning. I am an adult, even if--according to a book I've been reading recently--I'm not really dealing with the tasks of adulthood very well. Of course, I don't really know anyone who is doing particularly well in that area.
More cartoon explanation: The Target closed shortly after I moved here, so I can't check on "homeostasis" unless I want to drive into one of these sprawling Midwestern cities. Somehow I think driving to Dayton, or Indy, won't help.
Speaking of homeostasis, I'm at a bit of a loss this morning, which is one of the reasons this post is more disjointed than usual. Mostly, I wish I were somewhere in Appalachia this morning.

Who is Tanner?

There was a discussion of the word contumely the other day, occasioned by a film that inserted Hamlet's famous soliloquy (in French) for reasons that are not really clear. That is, we can see it as a choosing of death, which in context makes sense...



In any case, it's strange to see a noun ending in "ly," which makes it seem more like a misused adverb. I guess this wouldn't happen if I was more familiar with the Bard.
I wonder if I ought to include more writing on religious--or at least philosophical--themes in this blog, but I get the feeling that people just come to look at the cartoons. That's what I would do.
So, I've put in a cartoon about Jesus being fully human and fully divine: but does anyone want to hear how I understand that? If you do, I'd also have to include postings on my recent discovery of Reconstructionism as well as my struggles with the UUs. Of course, I'm hoping that alone will scare you off: you'd have to have a cast iron stomach to read about the Christology of someone who would start by talking about Jews and Unitarians.
In any case, I'm going to try to get home before sunset: have a good weekend, and a happy new year!

I Can't Explain

I spent a lot of time playing Tetris a while back, mostly when I was supposed to be writing an essay for Jerry, one of my favorite professors. I think he was working on this book at the time (even though it's dated several years after the fact). Anyhow, I associate Tetris with chronic procrastination and the semiotics of Roger Bacon.

Tonight, though, I'm playing Tetris and wishing I was somewhere else. There's a song by The Who going through my head, which serves as the title of this post.
I hate it when I have to decline an invitation, particularly when the alternative is sitting here playing Tetris.
And of course, I can't explain. Sorry.

Reconstructionist

Tomorrow: a full account of the confluence of the Great Awakening and the En lightenment to provoke the American Revolution!




(This is probably more interesting than most--I won't say all, but most--lectures I've given, particularly with regard to the above-named topic.)
I probably ought to explain the Reconstructionist title, but that can probably wait, too.

Another Monday afternoon

I guess it beats the alternative, but I had a pretty darn good weekend and I'm not really ready to return to "real life."
And how was your weekend?

Notes

This has become something of a running joke: where do all these cartoons come from, anyway?

I was waiting on the Holy Spirit this morning, but the only thing that came was Bob Dylan. That happens sometimes:

The rainman gave me two cures, and he said, jump right in
One was Texas medicine, and the other was railroad gin
But like a fool I mixed them, and it strangled up my mind
Now people just get uglier, and I have no sense of time...



I've been reading Ecclesiastes--yesterday and again this morning--and so I've been wrestling with the "Nevertheless!" aspect of that text, which I find appealing in Nietzsche but disconcerting in the Bible. Meaningless vapors, futilities and vanities, nonsense and smoke:

Everything as to all; one occurrence for the righteous and for the wicked, for the good, and for the pure, and for the unclean, and for he who sacrifices, and for he who does not sacrifice; like the good, so is the sinner; he who swears is like him who fears an oath.

"Yes, but... "

So, I'm going bowling this afternoon with Julie and some other folks. It could be worse.

Foolish

This isn't the quote I alluded to yesterday, but it's one of my favorites from Nietzsche, and was inspired by Columbus:

In the horizon of the infinite.— We have left the land and have embarked! We have burned our bridges behind us—indeed, we have gone further and destroyed the land behind us! Now, little ship, look out! Beside you is the ocean: to be sure, it does not always roar, and at times it lies spread out like silk and gold and reveries of graciousness. But hours will come when you will realize that it is infinite and that there is nothing more awesome than infinity. Oh, the poor bird that felt free and now strikes the walls of this cage! Woe, when you feel homesick for the land as if it had offered more freedom—and there is no longer any "land"!

What do we want when we say we want "freedom"?

Columbus

I can't find the quote I was looking for, so check back later.
The weather is nice here, but I'm having another low energy day--possibly related to listening to some high energy Horace Silver tunes--"Sister Sadie" and "Break City," among others--late last night. I started to dig out some Monk, but thought better of it and went to bed.
I still haven't come up with anything particularly thought provoking (the missing quote might fill that gap). Or rather, it's all the same old stuff: Quakers and the sacraments, Nicholas the Frenchman's Fiery Arrow, The Last Temptation of Christ... and yet nothing about Columbus.

[No Title]

Now that I've got time, I'm too tired to write coherently. Perhaps tomorrow.

Stop Time!

There's a great Horace Silver tune called "Stop Time" that I've been thinking of lately. I keep thinking I'll have time to sit and write something thought provoking... but mostly I'm just trying to keep up with my work (and not, in case you're curious, doing a particularly good job of it). But here's some cartoons: enjoy!

I also want to add a new person to the blogsplosion list, Radical Pie, but I haven't had time so you'll have to make due with this link for now.

And one for the UUs

It's not that I don't like Emerson...

And one for Eileen...

What do we do with our education? Inflict it upon others! In that spirit, I'm subjecting my students to Niebuhr's Christ and Culture this semester.
I hope no one defends "Christ and Culture in Paradox" with Michael's zeal, although I now have the ability to eject people from class. Wish me luck!

More Fan Art!

Thanks, Matt!