Notes from Work

Doodling through my meetings - an old habit. This time, though, I can't make fun of my co-workers, even when they're acting stupid.

"Very Serious People"

I like Paul Krugman - I've at least mentioned him a few times on this blog - and particularly appreciate how he captures an idea in a phrase (e.g., the Confidence Fairy).

I was reminded of his phrase "Very Serious People" the other day. It started in a meeting when someone noted that we had an unspent balance in the part of the budget set aside for something particular, and that there were a couple programs that the group could quickly pull together that would fulfill the function and stay within the budget.  So far so good?

The "Very Serious Person" objected, worrying about the budget, about the outlays, what about setting something aside for next year, etc. Very Serious Things to worry about!

Except that the budget he was talking about was completely distinct - I can elaborate in the comments if necessary - and the money that had been set aside for this purpose had already been sitting there for several years (because it can't do anything else, having been set aside). Sorry if this is too abstract - it was along the lines of saying, "this county can't afford that outlay, because the state budget is already in the red!"

I think that was clear to almost everyone else in the room: the objections sound very serious, making hard decisions because someone has to, but in fact were completely irrelevant.

I wouldn't be worried about this so much if he weren't on a path to take a significant position of leadership sometime soon.

Last Day

I thought I was going to post more this year - at least keep up with last year - but I'm not off to a good start.

I also had something I was going to write about today, but I forgot what it was. Oh well.

Happy New Year!

I got a couple books for Christmas that I'm enjoying at the moment (as well as catching up on a book I never got around to from last year, and a couple books on Quakers - I'm pretty much always reading five books at once) - and one of them is about the biological basis for morality. I'll probably have something to say about that one when I've finished it. That, and some better cartoons.

Merry Christmas!

Thoughts after Meeting for Worship...

...including a cartoon I drew during Adult First Day School.

This afternoon, I mostly want to write a poem to mirror yesterday's, called "Making the Lord ready for the House." It would start off something like, 

Dear Lord, You have showered and You have ironed, but You are still not as tidy as I would like for a visit...

But I don't think I'll get that finished for today, and it may be better as an idea rather than a complete poem anyhow. 

Falling behind...

So, I thought I was going to keep my blog up better this year, and in a sense I have. But not like I had intended. I also haven't quite kicked my "new blog" into gear yet. We'll see how that goes. Anyhow, here's a cartoon inspired by actual events.













And a poem by Mary Oliver, Making the House Ready for the Lord, because I like Mary Oliver.

Dear Lord, I have swept and I have washed but

still nothing is as shining as it should be

for you. Under the sink, for example, is an

uproar of mice - it is the season of their

many children. What shall I do? And under the eaves

and through the walls the squirrels

have gnawed their ragged entrances - but it is the season

when they need shelter, so what shall I do? And

the raccoon limps into the kitchen and opens the cupboard

while the dog snores, the cat hugs the pillow;

what shall I do? Beautiful is the new snow falling

in the yard and the fox who is staring boldly

up the path, to the door. And still I believe you will

come, Lord: you will, when I speak to the fox,

the sparrow, the lost dog, the shivering sea-goose, know 

that really I am speaking to you whenever I say,

as I do all morning and afternoon: Come in, Come in.

Catching up...

Well, maybe tomorrow.

But here's a cartoon. 

Knock Knock

Here's a very lame knock-knock joke that it's literally taken me several hours to draw and assemble.

I'm not sure that I'm really cut out for animation.

Rockin' the House

I've been drawing Mr. Miro for over twenty years now, but this is the first time he's been animated.

Look how happy he is!

Monday after a long, busy weekend

Unless you have investigated a problem, you will be deprived of the right to speak on it. Isn't that too harsh? Not in the least. When you have not probed into a problem, into the present facts and its past history, and know nothing of its essentials, whatever you say about it will undoubtedly be nonsense. Talking nonsense solves no problems, as everyone knows, so why is it unjust to deprive you of the right to speak? Quite a few comrades always keep their eyes shut and talk nonsense, and for a Communist that is disgraceful. How can a Communist keep his eyes shut and talk nonsense.
It won't do!
It won't do!
You must investigate!
You must not talk nonsense!

- Selected Readings from the works of Mao Tsetung

Quaker Quaker

I'm in the process of setting up a new blog, without cartoons. Practically speaking, that won't really affect this blog, since my initial intention was always just to post my cartoons, but I probably won't post my sermons over here any more. 

There may still be the occasional philosophical ramble and/or rant, and miscellaneous personal reflections which you don't care about.  

{Insert Better Blog Post Title Here}

I'm writing the message for an upcoming memorial service - not for a particular individual, but for a group of people who are unconnected except that they were cared for by our hospice. That makes it difficult to focus: they (probably) don't want a sermon, but I need to try to say something meaningful.


I found this quote, while looking for another (which has eluded me, and I've spent way too long looking for it already), attributed to the German philosopher Martin Heidegger: 

“What was Aristotle’s life?’ Well, the answer lay in a single sentence: ‘He was born, he thought, he died.’ And all the rest is pure anecdote.”

Regardless of whether he said it or not, it captures some of what I want to say, in an inverse form: what we really care about is the anecdotal aspect. We are our stories, and that's what needs to be told. That said, I doubt I'll use the quote for the memorial service, so I thought I'd leave it here instead. 

The Good Chaplain?

I was driving away from a patient's house earlier this week, and wondering about all the questions I didn't ask. Some of them seem cliched - "Where is God in all of this?" - and yet I drove away feeling like a second-rate Rogerian therapist rather than a chaplain. 

Sometimes I feel like I do better in a crisis, rather than in a long-term situation, when there's really nothing to do other than sit with someone and let them know that they're not alone. 

The advantage of the long-term situation, of course, is that I'll (probably) be able to go back and ask those questions at a later date. 

How to Turn Grace into a Burden

The title is another placeholder, the title of a sermon that I haven't yet written - but something that was inspired by a recent sermon by my wife, particularly when listening to people speak out of the silence. 

The Sabbath is supposed to be a time of rest: is that punitive? Or part of the joy of recognizing that one is a Child of God? 

God didn't work for seven days straight. Are you more important than God?

All the Lonely People

Just a cartoon today.

Second Day

It seems too early, but I've been thinking ahead to Christmas... but maybe it won't sneak up on me this year.

Why We Need the Humanities

Because we're human.

Was that difficult?

Nozick and Reparations

I said I was going to talk about Nozick yesterday, and this isn't quite the post that I had intended, for various reasons. However, it's a start, and something that I've been meaning to address for a while now.

So, Nozick wants to dismantle the social contract (and part of this not being the post I had hoped for is not having a page reference from Anarchy, State, and Utopia for that). 

He's interested in negative rights, which is to say, the limits that other people's claims can have on the individual. (Again, a lot more to say there, but not today). 

Three particular things that Nozick is interested in terms of property rights (because what other kinds of rights would we be interested in, after all?). He describes them as "Original Acquisition of Holdings," "Transfers of Holdings," and "Rectification of Injustice in Holdings." The idea here is that, if you obtained something legally (your original acquisition), then it's yours: no one can take it from you (particularly the government, in the form of taxes). If you have something, you can sell it legally (the transfer of holdings). Note here, if you buy stolen property, you're out of luck: if the original acquisition somehow went wrong, then the transfer of holdings doesn't hold. You're not permitted to buy or sell things that don't have a "clean" original acquisition. We need to enforce property rights!

Finally, Nozick recognizes that there needs to be something to "rectify" any problems that come along, i.e., the property transferred back to the rightful owner. And he also recognizes that, in some cases, simply giving back the thing itself will be insufficient, because there will be other costs involved. If your grandpa stole $100 from my grandpa after the war - let's say in 1948 - then you don't merely owe me the original $100, because that's now worth approximately $1000 today  (and that's setting aside interest, etc). Note that you're assumed to have benefited from your grandpa's theft, and therefore are liable for his debts. All in the name of preserving property rights!

Here's the thing: what happens if we apply this to, for instance, the Cherokee Nation? What happens when we apply to the descendants of African slaves? Fill in the blank yourself: in what ways has "original acquisition" gone wrong? Are you really willing to defend "Manifest Destiny" (and who knows, maybe you are, but you can't do it using Nozick). 

If the holdings weren't acquired justly, then they can't be transferred justly. If something has gone wrong, there ought to be a rectification of injustice. What might that even look like?

(After writing this, I decided to Google "Nozick and Reparations," and came up with this post by Matt Bruenig, which is worth reading if you found my blog post interesting.)

Placeholder

This is actually the beginning of a new series.

Also, I realized that I need to post something about Nozick. 

So, you have something to look forward to.