Hypotyposis on a Good Day

Back in town

Overall, Laura and I had a wonderful time in Toronto and Pittsburgh. I consciously tried to rest and refrain from thinking about the huge to do list for 2006. The huge storm last night caused a two hour delay in our flight from Pittsburgh and a late night taxi ride home from SFO. I got up this morning ready to go, ran some errands, and uploaded the rest of my vacation pictures. The big task today, besides marking the new year, is to put together a draft of a reader for my class. That's enough to do today!

My wiki and I are on vacation

I'm writing from Toronto to confirm what is obvious: my online activities will be at a minimum while on vacation. I also want to apologize for my wiki's current offline status -- I don't know why it's malfunctioning at this moment and won't be able to resurrect it while on vacation. I'll get it back online when I can. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a have a wonderful New Year!

Last day before vacation

"I know I should exercise more" is a continually reoccuring thought. I renewed my membership to the Recreational Sports Facility (RSF) but have yet to show up. Obviously, just paying money is insufficient to get me to the gym. I will have to do something in the new year. In the meantime, while I'm in Toronto and Pittsburgh, I plan to be active, to walk around as much as I can. Such exercise will be important given the holiday- and family-sanctioned overeating that is bound to happen.

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Lots of wrapping up to do today. Laura and I get on a 7am(!) flight to Toronto tomorrow morning. At least, we're on a direct Air Canada flight, which means that food will be served to us and we won't have to stumble around a third airport.

Getting the right presents (or even any presents at all) lined up for Christmas is a task we will have to complete in Toronto. I have considered setting up wireless networks at my parents', sister's, and mother-in-law's places, but who would those wireless networks really be for? (Should my family be game, I've printed out 4 steps to set up your home wireless network as a guide.)

Besides, should I be on the computer that much while I'm on holiday? I've not worked out a way yet to make sure I get a good rest (which I'll surely need for 2006) while still getting enough pieces in place for my spring course.

Notelets for 2005.12.15

Digital Photos Even a Miser Can Enjoy - New York Times:

Twelve manufacturers entered this fifth annual camera cook-off. Each submitted the one sub-$300 camera (online price) that it felt took the best pictures.

Several trends emerged. Picture quality continues to improve every year, and the megapixel race continues apace; this year, five- and six-megapixel cameras are standard. (More megapixels permit bigger enlargements and more room to crop, but do not affect photo quality.)

Today, I bought an issue of Stone Soup Magazine as a present for a bright and energetic eight-year old girl. I'm glad for an ad in the New York Review of Books that prompted me into looking at a magazine that I had never heard of before a couple of days ago.

Chinese Christian dissident and lawyer

Legal Gadfly Bites Hard, and Beijing Slaps Him is a fascinating article about Gao Zhisheng, a fiery Chinese dissident lawyer and Christian.

Lloyd responds to my "Reluctantly Turning the Other Cheek"

Lloyd wrote:

At the end of Mimi's post is one response to Raymond Yee's reaction to a reviewer he found shocking and thoughtless: Reluctantly turning the other cheek.

I must say though, Raymond, there is more than a grain of truth in what the writer said: it is an incontestable fact that millions of people the world over and through recorded history have been slaughtered for the sake of, and in the name of, "the one true god". However, from that monotheistic tradition has ALSO come the very real idea that God is love, which millions of other people have lived by and in so doing have made the world a better place through that belief.

Lloyd, you won't hear me disagreeing with your statement that millions have died at the hands of those proclaiming "the one true god". My comment had more to do with my own conflicted irritation with the reflexive yet popular bashing of monotheism at the hands of ostensibly serious writers.

Busy last week before vacation

It's the last week before the holidays, and not surprisingly, there's a lot to do! Not only are there major strategic decisions to be made but also taking care of the business of daily life. (For instance, it felt good to dig up my latest credit card bills and pay them this morning. The Getting Things Done system is supposed to keep me on top of tasks large and small, but I need to intervention of a higher power and intelligence to get me back on track with GTD.)

Children Learn by Monkey See, Monkey Do. Chimps Don't. - New York Times:

Mr. Lyons sees his results as evidence that humans are hard-wired to learn by imitation, even when that is clearly not the best way to learn. If he is right, this represents a big evolutionary change from our ape ancestors. Other primates are bad at imitation. When they watch another primate doing something, they seem to focus on what its goals are and ignore its actions.

Canada Geese on campus

Canada Geese on campus
Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

It was fun and strange to see Canada geese on campus today. What are they doing hanging out here?

Reluctantly turning the other cheek

Since I think of myself as a target reader of Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud, I'm mystified by the author's comments in the NY Times yesterday (What's the Big Idea?):

On the other hand, not all big ideas are good ideas. In fact, most big ideas are probably terrible ideas. What do you think is the single worst idea in history?

Without question, ethical monotheism. The idea of one true god. The idea that our life and ethical conduct on earth determines how we will go in the next world. This has been responsible for most of the wars and bigotry in history.

Surely, the thoughtlessness of the comment is not a reflection of the quality of the book! The ethical monotheism of the Chrisitian kind urges me to give the man another chance.

A new book on pastoral authority

I wrote last week "A question that I've been pondering: is the distinction made between clergy and laity in the Christian church a caste system?" It is serendipitous that I read this morning in Christian Century (October 18, 2005, p. 25), the following mini-review by Anthony B. Robinson of Who Are You to Say?: Establishing Pastoral Authority in Matters of Faith:

A UCC pastor, Rosenberger raises the important questions too few are willing to ask: Is there a place for authority in the pastoral role and office? What is the nature of appropriate authority and what are its grounds and sources? Is Christian community really possible absent legitimate authority?

I just put an interlibrary loan request for the book through the campus library. I certainly believe that there is a place for pastoral authority, and there there are solid grounds for such authority in the Bible (and in long Christian tradition). What has bothered are the perks and privileges that often come with being a clergy. The divide between clergy and lay staff in a church can be stark at times. I have to ask myself whether my question is motivated by envy since I'm not part of the clergy. Moreover, as an elder in the PCUSA, I am a lay leader myself and have enjoyed a certain status within the church. I too must wrestle with being leader who professes to have Jesus of Nazareth as my supreme model.

Pictures from yesterday

I saw everything from the new books I ordered, kids on BART all carrying the same plastic bags, a wild turkey on campus, and a hipster brand of car that I didn't end up buying.

paint "chips" at the local hardware store

paint "chips" at the local hardware store
Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

There is something strangely captivating about this display of paint chips. Does it represent the entire range of possible paint colors to put on one's walls? Probably not. If not, then what's left out and why? (Naive questions on my part....)

Clergy and/vs laity

A question that I've been pondering: is the distinction made between clergy and laity in the Christian church a caste system?

Focusing Rain

Thursday was marked by a downpour that I (accurately or inaccurately) thought of as the first major rainfall of the season. The following day was sunny, though I carried my umbrella out of fear of getting wet. The variability in the weather is exhilarating. Having grown up in northern Ontario, I still find it hard to believe that December has arrived just from looking outside. But the last month of the year is here. It is a busy, busy, busy time.

When people ask me how I've been, I reflexively respond "Oh, busy". Now, I'm beyond busy. There's just so much to do in the two weeks before Laura and I travel east to visit family. So why am I sitting in our living room wrestling with words rather than the Ikea furniture that needs to be assembled? Although thinking is often procrastination for me, I suspect that my running around -- as productive as it has been -- is for the moment a hinderance to internal work of disciplined thought, prayer, and quiet that I've been avoiding. Writing is hard work. Prayer is often hard work. The results often seem so meager given the effort. Yet I need to do that work.

Writing the previous two paragraphs has centered me so that I can tell you more about the things that we've been up to and things that still need to get done. I wish I could string together a coherent supper-narrative that weaves all of what I want to say into a neat package. Instead, I give you a list of vignettes:

On Friday night, Laura and I had a late-night dinner at Daimo, my curent favorite local purveyor of Cantonese food. We ran into Victor, a former neighbor of mine who is also a Ph.D. student in chemistry. He told me that he had recently purchased some chemistry texts that I had donated to the Berkeley Public Library-Friends of the Library. I was delighted. I've written previously about how I desired to give away my books to someone who can make use of them but then turned to selling books on half.com. I had to find a way to pare down my book collection in a hurry. The Berkeley Public Library takes books in good condition en masse. I've donated 8 boxes of books with three more on the way. I was concerned that donating advanced science texts to the BPL bookstore would not get my books to the right people. Last night's news was a little answer to prayer.

Last week, Laura and I bought a Toyota 2006 Corolla to replace our stolen car. We're still getting used to it. Even though it is Toyota's entry level car (with some options added), it is certainly more car than either has ever had. We learned to negotiate a price that we were happy with and have enjoyed dealing with our seller, Hanlees Hilltop Toyota in Richmond, CA.. What we did: we signed up for Consumer Reports Ratings and recommendations available at ConsumerReports.org for a month, paid for a price report for the Toyota Corolla to get a breakdown of the wholesale prices, followed the advice on the Consumer Reports site, called around to get some quotes, decided beforehand what we we were willing to pay and when we would walk away, and stuck to our guns. It's also useful to have two people involved in the negotiation. Although I did most of the talking, Laura picked up on important points that I missed.

Friends' response to Gopnik on Lewis

In response to my post on PRISONER OF NARNIA, two friends wrote by email. They have given me permission to quote their email here.

Sharon Gallagher, editor of Radix Magazine, wrote:

I just read the Gopnik article this week and was unhappy with it. I'm not surprised that Gopnik likes the A.N. Wilson biography. He takes Wilson's interpretations of Lewis's faith and sexuality and presents them as fact. Other biographers came to different conclusions. He also adopts Wilson's condescending attitude toward faith.

In my Radix (31:3) interview with Norman Stone, the director of the first Shadowlands, Norman is quite clear that Lewis's faith sustained him during Joy's illness and death. (Norman had talked with people who knew Lewis at the time.)

I wish that The New Yorker had given this assignment to either John Updike or Malcolm Gladwell--two of their superstars who would have handled the material with more understanding. (I've been a big fan of Gopnik's other writing and even bought his book about Living in Paris.)

Ginny Hearn wrote:

The quote in your blog from Adam Gopnik (11/20) ended like this, in his discussion of CSL's A Grief Observed: "Lewis ended up in a state of uncertain personal faith that seems to the unbeliever comfortingly like doubt."

Hmmmmm. It's been many years since I read AGO, but this statement is apt to be read as "In his life, Lewis ended up in a state of uncertain personal faith . . . ", which is not accurate. I recall that this book, written in a journal-like fashion in the several months following the death of Joy, expressed CSL's understandable, terrible anguish at her loss after their brief marriage--but Lewis did NOT end up in the doubt [or unbelief in Christianity] that this statement might imply to an unbeliever looking for "comfort" in his or her doubt.

A poppy from the U of Toronto

A poppy from the U of Toronto
Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

I only found this poppy this morning while going through the backlog of personal mail. Too bad for the late discovery. I was looking for a poppy this year because I wanted to wear one on November 11, in remembrance of the war dead and also of my own roots in Canada, where poppies are traditionally worn on that day.