Friday, December 30

Discussion Friday

Two wonderful discussions for you to follow:

1.

Dan and Ron are engaged in a great discussion that started with whether the biblical stories are literal or metaphorical, and turned into a talk about the literal/metaphorical interpretation of the constitution that may allow the president to justify some intrusions that wouldn't otherwise be justifiable.

The conversation happens in the comments section of their two blogs, in the comments attached to almost unrelated posts. So happy hunting to anyone interested in observing or participating.

A note to you Dan and Ron: It's really hard to follow the conversation. Perhaps you can consolidate your thread to one place? It's worth following.

The Discussion starts here: link
and continues here: link

2.

Non-Prophet has a series of email exchanges between Ted Haggard of New Life Church and the gentleman filing a lawsuit against the Air Force Academy alleging the unconstitutional imposition of christianity on cadets at the Academy, Mikey Weinstein.

Link

Wednesday, December 28

Infringing Copyrights in Support of My Nerd Quotient



This was an amazing gift that Heather gave me, featuring the tagline from that Dyson vacuum commercial. I always get a kick out the simplicity of that line, spoken with a British accent of course. Heather made the t-shirt herself, with a custom Luke Flowers design.

Friday, December 23

When half-spent was the night...

Merry Christmas to everybody. And Happy Holidays too.

Heather and I have been thinking lately about the Santa Claus thing. Is it really ethical to directly lie to your kids about the existence of such a character? Why would a parent do such a thing? Is there anything to be gained in it?

My conclusion is that there is little harm and significant value and here's my argument:

What's the point of Santa?
Santa is just part of the magical atmosphere of the holiday. It can go too far, and I think it's important not to overdo Santa into a cultish obsession, but I think it's valuable for kids to have some fantasy around the holiday. An introduction to such enormous absurdity (flying reindeer?) is good for imagination and ultimately, I think, a good weird sense of humor, which is a thing of beauty.

But why cause the trauma of a lie revealed?
I'm not really worried about traumatizing the kids. In fact, any trauma caused will be limited. Any adult who claims to suffer an unhealed wound caused by the realization that Santa Claus is not real needs to snap out of it. Plus, little kids are not really in touch with reality anyway. They may believe that Santa Claus is real, but that belief is only a small part of the fantasy world of childhood. Pete also believes that the trains living on the island of Sodor can talk. Who knows what other beliefs, physical laws, and relationships govern his world? No parent tears their hair over having to admit to their kids that animals or trains can't really talk, so why should we worry about Santa, who is really a bit player in the world of kids. The fantasy is the beautiful part of childhood, and the disillusionment is the beautiful part of growing up.

What do you think?

Tuesday, December 20

The Giving Tree



When I was a little kid, this was one of my favorite books. During a nostalgic period in college that marked the beginning of the end of my childhood, I bought a copy of it, and now Pete has taken to it. I picked it up a few weeks ago to read to him, and I was impressed by the tear-jerking sadness of it. I think that's part of what I liked about it as a kid. Good catharsis.

Last night, from the back seat of the car, Pete "read" the entire book to himself. He loves to tell the story of books to himself, but he's self-conscious about it and will stop if he knows someone's listening. Who knew fear of public speaking started so early?

So, Heather and I were in the front seat, trying not to giggle, as Pete went through the book. An example:

...
Then, that boy said to tree, "I need boat, sail away from my home"
(page turn)
Then, tree said, "I no have boat, I only have leaves"
Then, that boy take those leaves from that tree.
(page turn)
That boy said to tree, "I need boat, sail away from my home"
Then that boy cut down tree trunk, make boat and sail away.
(page turn)
Then, that tree was so lonely.
(page turn)
That boy come back!
(page turn)
That tree say, "I am good stump"
...

It was a beautiful, hilarious, very touching melodrama in the back seat.

By the way, if you haven't noticed, I've surrendered to sentimentality on this blog. I struggled, early on, with not wanting to get too sappy about the kids because while it's intense and meaningful to experience, it can be torturous to listen to. Not many people enjoy listening to cute-blinded parents describe over and over again their fascination with that face their kid makes while he poops.

I didn't want to be that guy, but without that, I've got nothing. The kids are what it's all about for me right now. Not a lot else gets me really excited. I'll surely have sarcasm and wit from time to time, but it would be too artificial to keep out the sappiness. So there you go.

Saturday, December 17

Painting

Yesterday, Heather left Pete on the toilet to do his business (He sometimes does better with a little privacy. Who doesn't?) When she came back to check on him a couple of minutes later, her eyeshadow was spread all over the floor and Pete's lower body. His response: "I was painting my legs and penis!"

Thursday, December 8

NERDS for 6 points!

So, I have a geek confession to make. Heather and I have had a scrabble fixation lately. We've played about a dozen games over the last month-and-a-half. It's fun because we're pretty evenly matched (although Heather has the lead in the series), and it feels better than sitting in front of the TV watching something neither of us has any interest in.

I think it started when I watched Word Wars.

Scrabble in itself is not necessarily a nerd's obsession, no matter what the pictures, hobbies (Siamese Cats?), and professions (numismatist?) of the experts might lead one to believe (Check out Marlon Hill's Occupation and Hobbies).

No, my nerdity does not spring only from the playing of scrabble.

It goes much further than that:

I've entered our scores into an excel spreadsheet and graphed them. See, here's a graph of our average scores:



There, I've said it.

(Our scores are trending up quite nicely, don't you think? I'll resist the urge to add a trendline)