Entries in Life

For the past month or so, I’ve been doing some consulting with IntraHealth. We’re about to release a sizable webapp under the GPLv3 and one of the tasks is adding the proper headers to the files. Oh, of note, the Free Software Foundation has entered the age of the web. Instead of telling you to “write to the FSF at…”, if you need a copy of the full license, you are told to visit http://www.gnu.org/licenses/. Anyway, there seems to be a real lack of tools to help with this. Sure, there is this ruby script from Xavier Hanin, a one off and, finally, this Perl script. None of these supports PHP. So I grabbed the Perl script, made a couple of changes to add support for the GPLv3 and PHP. Here it is. The tool could really use a lot of improvement. More file types, more licenses, better detection, etc. But, for now, it’ll do.

Since I frequent places that regularly post links advocating the Gold Standard, What if a Golden Meteorite Hit the Earth? Introductory books for laypeople

The recent revelation that Mother Teresa was a doubting Thomas almost the entire time she worked in India but yet remained faithful shows the lie that Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens would like to promulgate: belief in God is comforting.  (And here, I thought we were still struggling with Catholic Guilt.) While I’ve no doubt that some believers gain primarily comfort from their belief, the religion that Jesus teaches isn’t very comforting at all. “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” And, of course, any Mennonite knows that Martyrs Mirror is filled with stories of people who endured a great deal of suffering. My own children have listened to the lives of many martyrs in the Orthodox lexicon of Saints, Nikolai Velimirovich‘s Prologue — so many that whenever they hear the Emperor Diocletian‘s name mentioned, they can tell you the end of the story. Perhaps some people make Christianity out to be a nice bedtime story, but anyone who pays attention to what Jesus said or what Paul wrote knows that any comfort offered isn’t the whole story: we are called to live sacrificially. Which is exactly what Mother Teresa did. What strikes me most among discussions like this one is the idea that Mother Teresa had an obligation to announce her doubts to the world.  “She’s a public figure” the thinking goes “and she kept this from us?” Well, no, her struggle with doubt or the lack of God’s Presence was her own and she kept it between herself and her spiritual confessors.  If she wanted to announce her doubt and be done with it, she could have done that without making her life any more uncomfortable. Mother Teresa was doing something completely foreign to most of us.  Jack Welch was a better humanitarian.  Mother Teresa was not a humanitarian and Christopher Hitchen’s was right to discredit this notion of her.  Jesus said “You will always have the poor” and Mother Teresa understood this to mean that we should be more concerned with loving the poor and having compassion for them than with giving them a handout. “You take care of their tomorrows, I take care of their todays,” she said. Secularists won’t appreciate the way she chose to use her money.  Evangelicals won’t appreciate her Gospel.  Atheists see her doubts as her hypocrisy. But there is something else going on, also.  She identified with the poor in the same way Christ identified with us.  She emulated his compassion. And of course isn’t that the whole Problem of Evil all over again?  As Judas pointed out, the money spent on the perfume Mary poured on Jesus feet was a year’s wages — surely there was a more practical use for it.  Surely Jesus could have done more than forgive sins, couldn’t he?  He was God, after all, shouldn’t he have done more? Mother Teresa is someone many people can admire from a distance.  Most will be repulsed by her, though, if they take a closer look.  She shows us exactly why true religion isn’t comforting.

Now, this is interesting. As the email announcing this says:

On Monday, September 3, 2007, Steve Fossett, the first person to fly a plane around the world without refueling and the first person to fly around the world in a balloon went missing in Nevada. An airplane he was flying failed to return. No one has any idea where he is. (Wikipedia article).

The Mechanical Turk project to locate Steve Fossett has been given one week for completion. Those of you who don’t know what the Mechanical Turk is should know that it is “Artificial Artificial Intelligence”. That is, Amazon.com has created a way for computers to use people’s work as input. In this case, people will scan satellite photography taken recently looking for possible places that search and rescue efforts should be focused on. Which means, you, sitting in your living room thousands of miles away, could help rescue someone. I’ve no idea if this will work, but, man, what a concept!

I finally got around to uploading some pictures from our trip last month.

“It’s the same sermon, same worship songs in many cases, just done in a more liturgical style,” Fitzgerald says. “I don’t mind changing the packaging for people. It freshens it up for them and for me.” The new “Liturgical Service,” as they call it, has become the most popular service even among young people. After the “standard” evangelical service at 9:30 a.m., workers decorate the platform with candles, non-specific iconography and other religious-looking items. Fitzgerald wears generic vestments and adopts a more somber manner. He reads from a liturgical book and the congregation responds by reading words on the screens. “I like the reverence and the mood,” says one girl, 16. “It feels more spiritual.” “I like the candles,” her friend chimes in. — Lark News

When I left the Presbyterian church I was a member of, I went to talk to one of the elders. These people were my friends and I thought I should let them know what was going on. They asked why I was going. “I want to have communion every Sunday.” “Yeah, we won’t be doing that.” No big theological issues, no insurmountable doctrine. Just the sacrament. A while later, I found another Presbyterian church that celebrated communion every Sunday. But even there, it depended on the current pastor. When he left, so did the sacrament. And there was something different, though I’m at a loss these years later, to say exactly what it was. Before I finally committed to the Orthodox church, I tried to be Roman Catholic (which would have made my mother-in-law extremely happy). In the end, though, Orthodoxy became my spiritual home. As time has past, I’ve found that the attraction of sacramental living (e.g. “communion every Sunday”) is more than just doing the same thing with different artifacts. Sacrament is interaction with God. And sacramental living extends beyond the Eucharist, beyond the church building. There are far more than just seven sacraments. Sacrament is everywhere. As my friend Jim once wrote: All of Life is Blessed. At the same time, this is exactly why adding smells and bells to an Evangelical church service is just so much dross. Liturgy is imbued with meaning. As the Orthodox say, during the Liturgy we enter Heaven and stand around the Throne with the saints and angels. Not just figuratively. We are there! Putting on a robe, like “Pastor Brian Fitzgerald” in Lark’s satirical piece, is just marketing, repackaging what you already have. Orthodox worship, on the other hand is completely different because everything in the liturgy — every word, every action, even form of the priest’s garments — is imbued with meaning.

Last week I got back from a working trip through the South with brief stops along the way in Tennessee; Jackson, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama and longer stays in New Orleans, Louisiana and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I’ve some great pictures I want to post here… but not just yet. I’m still recovering. As soon as I can manage to get back on my riding schedule, I should be fine. But, while I’ve got this itch, I thought I’d note that I think I’ve finally figured out why I’m no longer much interested in Theological discussions per se — that is, whose concept of God (or the non-existence of God) is correct. Of course, part of this is because I’ve already made up my mind which Tradition I’m going to follow. Another part is watching people like my friend Jim get involved in seeming never-ending discussions surrounding the the Emerging Church or New Perspectives on Paul and I’m just not that interested in discussing the right way to approach Christianity. I’d rather attempt to live it. I’m reading through John Chryssavgis’ The Way of the Fathers: Exploring the Patristic Mind and he makes this point nicely:

Christ proceeds through the ages in the agency of persons. … The transcendence of the divine Word was always easier to acknowledge than the more scandalous immanence and humanity … [Therefore] the teaching of a charismatic elder in the fifth century desert … is never outdated insofar as that person lived and loved as Christ.

[Finally] one must acknowledge that the high points of theology are not confined to one specific “golden” age but pervade every age which happens to be blessed with those “advanced in theoria [vision] … and purified. By analogy, there is decay in the theological world when such saints are wanting.

Father Stephen puts this point of view succinctly when he writes about evil:

Of course, there is much conversation about the metaphysics of evil and the nature of hell and eternal punishment – and though I have recommended articles on the same that I find of value – I think that a large amount of Christian energy is wasted on such matters. For it is not the mastery of the metaphysics of the universe that makes any difference, but rather the embrace of the Gospel of Christ and obedience to His commandments. [emphasis mine — Mark]

So, when I hear Christians arguing amongst themselves about interpretation or the church or whatnot, I’m turned off. I used to be really dogmatic about my beliefs, sure enough of myself that I would argue incessantly. And I still talk too much. But more and more I’ve come to realize how much more I need to embrace the Christ’s Gospel and obey his commandments and I’ve begun to refocus my efforts on my own life rather than figuring out better arguments for what I believe.

I’m in New Orleans this week for my brother-in-law’s wedding. Whether you drive or fly into New Orleans, you quickly realize that it is surrounded by a lot of water. This realization is more dramatic if you drive since there are 10s of miles of swampland dotted with fishing camps to cross. And, with Katrina in mind, the first time visitor is going to be overwhelmed by all the water and wonder once again: Why do they live here? Katrina seems to creep into conversation every day even between people who live here year round. The swath of destruction it left behind is still visible and a part of everyone’s life. But, for those of us who have family here, it isn’t any wonder why they stay. Families in New Orleans shared the fate of the ancient Oak trees that live throughout the city. When I returned to New Orleans for the first time after Katrina, the Oak trees in Audubon Park were obviously damaged. Some had been ripped apart and killed. But many, even though many of their branches had been stripped away, remained and sprouted new growth. Families may have been ripped apart, many have been spread to Houston, Atlanta and Baton Rouge, but many have decided to stay and stay together. More than the jobs (most of which were on hold for months or just plain disappeared), families are what keep people here.

Tuesday, I found out my (analog) bathroom scales were misadjusted and I got five free pounds of weightloss. Yay! Shortly, I’ll be below 200lbs. FINALLY! Earlier in the week, I took another reading from the sphygmomanometer at the pharmacy and it confirmed previous readings. I’m consistently below 120/80 — that is, I’m in the “Normal” range. Finally, waking up at 6:00 every morning and going on my ride helps me wake up and be ready to attack the day. I feel great, even if I’m not actually experiencing a burst of productivity.

I finally understand where this myth is coming from. John Walker of The Hacker’s Diet (and so much more) is the source. Under “What, Me Exercise?” he lists various activities and the calories burned. Bicycling gets 300/hr while jogging gets 700/hr. Now, if you don’t put out any effort and spend a lot of time coasting along, then, yes, you may as well walk for your exercise. The Final Sprint offers this:

The standard comparison is that one mile of running equals four miles of cycling, but that’s lousy science. Although running requires the same amount of energy per mile at any speed (110 calories per mile), riding is affected by wind resistance so the faster you ride, the more energy you use. So you have to compare running and cycling at different cycling speeds.

Which makes a ton of sense. Now, take this “activity calculator” and compare 90 minutes of cycling at around 13mph (~1100 calories) to 90 minutes of running at 6mph (~1400 calories). We’re not accounting for hills here (which changes things considerably) so this doesn’t reflect the actual number of calories being burned on my ride, but it’s a good estimate. Still, the comparision of 1400 to 1100 isn’t quite as dramatic as John Walker’s chart would have you believe. It is only a quarter more calories instead of double the amount. Come on, people! Trust, but verify! The Hacker’s Diet is a great resource, the excercise portion, at least, has some funny numbers. (I know, he probably got his numbers from somewhere else and that source is wrong, but two people I know who’ve read John Walker’s book have claimed running burns “a lot more” calories than cycling, so I suspect the book is the source of their misinformation.)