Journal Treatise: Oort Cloud

Treatise: Oort Cloud

                        In my three years so far as a passionate apologist, I’ve had a number of varied interactions which I imagine fairly well represent the gamut, though obviously not constituting the whole spread of relationships that Christians can have with unbelievers. I’ve dealt with false converts of Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Orthodox Jewish and Lutheran persuasion, among others unstated. Homosexual ministers, Sadducees (which I take to be Jews who don’t believe in God or an afterlife—the Pharisees were the conservatives from which the modern Orthodox Jewish religion stems), muslims, mormons and jehovah’s witnesses (I refuse to capitalize these as if to indicate that they are credible or honorable, as with the Bible and Christianity). Of atheists, there are also many different kinds of individuals. One of them, whom I shall refer to as Oort Cloud, for a number of metaphorical reasons, was someone I met very early in my study of Biblical Creation and who, despite his mannerisms and facial expressions, came across to me as quite jovial and easy to get along with. Don’t judge someone as being angry just because they look like it. Some of the least pleasant people to talk to – or, some people you might not even be able to talk to – are people who put up a feigned air of politeness. People who are deceitful about their emotions and attitudes anger me much more easily than those who are straightforward.

                        Oort Cloud’s first encounter with me, that I remember, consisted of him showing the “Ray Comfort: The Banana, the Atheists’ Nightmare” video on youtube and asking what I thought of it. I answered that of course the banana wasn’t made in its current form at the very beginning. What I would have said if it had been today, however, would be that despite this, Ray’s statements are no less true about how the banana is an example of God’s care for human beings in how He designed the world. This is because even though the banana as we know it today likely did not exist 4,000 years ago, the genetic information which codes for the variety we see in grocery stores was nevertheless present in the original ancestral variety. The banana is an excellent example of directed selection, where certain qualities in an organism are “hand-picked” and used to develop the next generation, and of man’s stewardship for the earth, wherein he exercises his creativity to utilize the natural world for the benefit of mankind and nature alike. But as it were, my response surprised Oort Cloud, who apparently expected something more ignorant, and it, and a few other subsequent interactions of a similar sort, impelled him to search for “stumper” questions to try to debate me with, and see if he could shake my resolve and get me to relent of my confidence in the Bible.

                        Oort Cloud would see me on occasion and would over time begin to act as if, and tell me that he was angry with me for always having answers. This is not to say that they necessarily convinced him at any point, or that they even seemed to be an impressive argument, but I think his perception was that my answers did not fall to the level of being transparently illogical, and my views were internally coherent. He would often wear a contemplative frown when listening to my responses to his questions. His animated reactions to things that shocked him were amusing and will probably remain in my memory for some time. But as far as I can recall, he never made any effort to slander or attack me as a person, or to spread damaging lies about me to others, as a different group of people attempted to do roughly a year after I first met him.

                        I probably would have forgotten about the Oort Cloud if it wasn’t for a moment in late spring 2012. I hadn’t seen him for a while, but I encountered him suddenly in my campus dining hall. He was either graduating or transferring, and so he had come up to me to say goodbye. It was a curious occasion. Dejectedly is not quite the right word, but it was with a flustered insistency that I understand his reluctance to acknowledge what he was telling me,  that he told me, in effect, that he’d miss me, essentially. Not that he said those words. No, he said something akin to that he was bothered by my strong faith AND mastery of scientific facts and logic, that he thought in his heart that such a thing should not be—that a person of faith could believe without misunderstanding or rejecting science. He said in essence that he was impressed that I was a ‘worthy opponent,’ and expressed a wish to not be reminded of his confusion by meeting me or a person like me again. He would go on to grumble about these things for some time. I am glad to have served as a challenge to his presuppositions, and I hope that down the road, Oort Cloud will encounter something or someone that sparks the seed implanted within him to germinate, and that he does not stifle his discovery of the truth. The fact that he alone of the atheists I’ve spoken to came to me and gave me a verbal handshake is a good and hopeful sign, in my eyes. But you can never be sure. So if you read this and feel motivated to pray, I encourage you to pray for Oort Cloud and others like him to not seek relief from the challenge that they’ve encountered, be it in an intellectually savvy Christian or something profound in Scripture that just won’t let them be, but that they would struggle through it until they come to the foot of the Cross in humility and defeat. They may come unwillingly, as Oort came to me, but God’s Holy Spirit has the power to change a human heart. In time, we won’t want anything but to come to Him, whether we once struggled with it or not.

Journal Treatise: Maturation

Treatise: Maturation

Maturity is the condition of having grown into the form and function which is one's design and destiny to attain to. This definition covers the different categories of things which can mature – acorns, wine, bodies, forests, intellects, and a host of other things, both abstract and physical. Maturity is something that happens over time, but does not necessarily come with time. The acorn could be eaten, the body could be broken, the forest could be burned, the mind might make its thinking futile and fail to mature. When we speak of maturity in reference to persons, we almost certainly always have in mind intellectual maturity – maturity of character, the growth and development of personal integrity and wisdom. A person who is mature is a person whose mind works the way it should – it keeps him out of unnecessary trouble and eschews foolish thoughts, choosing to dwell on wisdom and virtue instead of sense pleasure and that which alters or inhibits the full functioning of the mind, be they chemical drugs or the equally dangerous spiritual sort – false philosophies that turn powerful minds to heaps of dung that have less worth than the mind of most animals.

IQ is not intelligence. It is your capacity to have intelligence (and only by one method of measurement, at that). Everyone has an IQ. Not everyone uses their mind to think to their full potential. Even so, intelligence is not knowledge. It is the ability to acquire, remember, recall, and process volumes of knowledge—brain data. And yet, intelligence does not guarantee understanding. Because even if you’re good at thinking, you can reach the wrong conclusions if you have the wrong initial beliefs. This is parallel to logic—it is easy to reason validly, but valid logic can reach false conclusions. Sound logic is both valid and has true premises, guaranteeing true conclusions. Likewise, intelligence is valid thought but may have false presuppositions, leading to unsound (unwise) conclusions. Sound thinking is what wisdom is. The ability to not just reason, but to reason from true beginnings to true ends. Very few people are wise. You do not need to have much knowledge or a high IQ in order to be wise. You need a requisite level of intelligence in order to access wisdom, but wisdom is more of a gift than the other three. It tends to be given out more unevenly than the others. Vast knowledge and high IQs tend to be found in highly intelligent people – and especially the highly educated – but wisdom is often found in surprising places. Often far removed from the halls of academia or temples to man-made gods, wisdom can be found in the very young and very old, but seems to be scarce among the established leaders in society. And two more things need pointing out: education is not knowledge—it is access to it, through the mediation of another person or persons. Based on who this mediator is, the knowledge gained from education can be great, little, or false. And common sense is a sort of wisdom that is intuitive and typically not learned through abstract educational methods. It is “common” not in that it is found among many people, but in that it is found among the “common” people. Those people who are overlooked by politicians, religious teachers, media and academia alike. As Ecclesiastes says, “more valuable is the whispering of the wise in secret, than the shouts of a ruler among fools.” Those you hear most often are those who are, in general, least worthy of being listened to. Even God, speaking through Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, affirms this. So think about this, when you turn on the tv, peruse the bestsellers in the bookstore, read the newspaper or turn your ear to the local gossip.

Why this aside? Because I needed to define terms. IQ is not intelligence which is not education which is not knowledge which is not wisdom. Common sense is a type of intuitive wisdom that the highly educated, highly intelligent often lack. This may imply that it’s something that can be unlearned, by conscious repression. Wisdom is something that can be learned and developed, but is first and foremost a gift, because you can’t simply figure it out on your own just by sitting down and thinking: you must learn it from others, or learn it through your own experience. And this is where maturity comes into the picture. Maturity of the intellect is the development of wisdom, concomitant with an increase in knowledge that happens naturally when you learn anything true and right.

In my life experience, I’ve discovered two important things about maturity and wisdom. One: maturity is NOT something to be taken for granted; it doesn’t at all necessarily come with age. I have encountered so many “adults” which were more childish than I was at that time in my life, at several junctions.  Most recently, the people on my university's online discussion forum have brought so much shame and disrepute on the estate of 30-50-year-olds in my eyes, that I now no longer have any respect for those older than me simply because of their age. Make no mistake, I’m not implying I disrespect other adults. But I have NO esteem for a person simply on the basis of their age. And anyone who acts like that’s something that should be expected (Grumpy Geezer comes to mind) immediately loses esteem in my eyes. I can’t respect someone who even implies something so monumentally stupid and offensive as that they should deserve respect because they were born longer ago. Does the time of your birth have anything to do with you? Is it your choice? No. You had no choice in when you were born, so if you are to be respected because of your age, it is not because of something you’ve done. In other words, I respect elders because the Bible says I should. I can think of a number of supplemental reasons for why. But I do not have any special respect for anyone simply because of how long they’ve been on the planet. In fact, I have several very good reasons NOT to do that, because of how poorly I have seen such people behave. Those who are “adults” have demonstrated worse behavior than that of any minor I’ve ever met. I’ve met 13 year olds more mature than some 30 year olds. The vast majority of ills in the world are invariably caused by those older than me. Is that something to be proud of? Is that something to respect? Over half of the US Congress, both House and Senate, are senior citizens. Should we blame the young, then? I protest. To summarize: maturity doesn’t come with age, and those who are young are frequently more wise than the average person twice their age. The second observation is this: wisdom can be learned, and is better gotten through having the accumulated wisdom of those older than you bequeathed to you through instruction and/or demonstration, rather than having to strike out on your own, make mistakes, and learn through your own painful experiences. I’m extremely much wiser than I’ve ever been, and I don’t hesitate to say this – and I assure you it is not with pride that I state this, but for emphasis – I am wiser than most people under the age of 60. Here’s the important thing: it’s not my own wisdom. I got it from “sitting under” older men and learning from them. I made careful choices about what sources of information I would trust on the internet and over the course of 3 years I have learned so much I hardly know what to do with it. That’s, incidentally, part of what drives me to write. I’m trying to share what I know. And the funny thing is that right now, I’m talking about how I learned what I’ve learned, and not even what I’ve learned. It’s a meta-discussion. Although technically this is something I’ve learned, as well.

Maturity, since it depends on the acquisition of wisdom, in part, can therefore be learned from others. You can mature slowly or quickly, just like with most things. Why take longer to become the person you’re meant to be? Take action to actively seek out sources of knowledge and wisdom and drink in what they impart to you. Only make sure that it is true and not false wisdom. That will take your own intellect to accomplish. The act of successfully choosing between good and bad, therefore, is in itself part of your growing process. I have matured not only in what I’ve learned from my online sources, but in the process I took to discover and evaluate them. Now I’ve learned how to approach thinking about new things that I don’t completely understand, and that I can now filter out bad from good and teach myself is evidence of my intellectual maturity. I have much further to go, for sure, but I went through mental “boot camp” at an early age, and now won’t have to make the associated mistakes related to having those experiences for myself. I’m in a better position to deal with the things that are coming toward me now and I’ll grow even more from going through them than I otherwise would. You could say that I’ve gotten a “jump start” to growing up, and my secret to doing so was simple: learn from the aged. Find someone in their 60s who has believed what they now believe for several decades, and you know that they’re not likely to doubt themselves. Consequently, they’ll be well equipped to address doubts and confusions that you might have. They’ve thought about what you believe for longer than you’ve been alive, so they’ve got a head start on you and can walk you through the challenges ahead of you better than you could on your own. That’s all. Maturity is not for granted, but it can be acquired faster and better through effort. So make the effort to find it, and wisdom and maturity “beyond your years” can be yours.

Journal Treatise: Why I'm Not Baptized

Treatise: Why I’m Not Baptized

                        My earliest memory of any encounter with Young Earth Creation is not even a memory of the thing itself, but of my mother reminding me about it some years later. It was that long ago, and apparently didn’t make enough of an impression on me to result in a lasting recollection. Apparently I was calling a lady from the church we then attended, and apparently I had mentioned something about human evolution—what the context was, I don’t know (remember that I was well-indoctrinated in the orthodox evolutionary dogma through my dinosaur books [and after 3^rd grade, an increasing interest in astronomy as well]). Apparently she had gotten upset and said (yelled?) that she wasn’t descended from no ape, or whatever. My mom probably remembers it better, it seems to have surprised her. My reaction to being told this was perplexity. What was so insulting about what I said? There was nothing I could see that would be offensive about it. Humans were descended from apes, what was the big deal? Perhaps this is why I’d quickly forgot the exchange. I, like many people today, had simply believed both sides of what I’d been told—evolutionary history and the Hebrew Scriptures—without thinking about it closely enough to realize that the two are in contradiction and can’t be simultaneously believed with any consistency.

                        The first time I actually became aware of the views of Young Earthers was between 10^th and 11^th grade, when I had visited the second church we attended and seen an interesting-looking book in the pastor’s office. That book was entitled “15 Reasons to Accept Genesis as History,” produced by Creation Ministries International, an organization I later discovered in 2010/11. The back inside cover had an advertisement for “Refuting Evolution,” another book, with a picture of Ken Ham holding it up. Later when I discovered Answers in Genesis in 2010, my mind flashed back to this image. I took the book (the former mentioned) and utilized it for bathroom reading. I distinctly remember the section about skin color genetics, and one part where Neanderthals were hypothesized to have had rickets (a Vitamin D deficiency that affects the bones), rather than being bow-legged creatures intermediary between a human and ape. The book was fascinating, and I found it very educational. I brought up some of the things I learned from it in conversations (the kind where you say “guess what?” and share a random fact as a matter of trivia). But strangely (in hindsight, that is), I didn’t change my views on evolution at that time. Apparently I just found it interesting, but it didn’t lead to a paradigm shift. If it had anything to do with my eventual change of mind, it took over 4 years for that seed to germinate.

                        It wasn’t until a year later that I actually had a significant shift in my beliefs about evolution, when I took Advanced Placement (AP) Biology in high school. As an interesting aside, it was to my great surprise, considering how many of the ‘smart kids’ were in my class, that I actually had the highest grade of them all. I was exempt from the final exam, and as for the AP exam, I got a 5 (on a scale of 0 to 5, for the uninitiated). So lest anyone get the idea, I understood what I was learning, and didn’t get “confused.” That’s all I mean to prove by this. It’s funny, our textbook had an interview with Richard Dawkins placed before one of the chapters; I didn’t remember who it was, but upon encountering Dawkins through my personal research in Spring 2010, I looked it up again and had another déjà vu flashback. I’d been lightly interacting with this stuff all along, skimming the surface, but barely getting affected until much later. Maybe the time wasn’t right. As Ecclesiastes says, “God makes everything perfect in its time.” It was in AP Biology, with one of the best teachers I ever had at answering random curious questions, as I’m inclined to have, that I discovered that natural selection can’t plan ahead. It may very well have been courtesy of Dawkins’s interview—otherwise it was something the teacher said, and I questioned her further. I hadn’t thought of it in depth before, but at the moment when I realized that natural selection can only deal with what’s already there, I did a quick and simple calculation: the human genome is 3 billion base pairs of DNA long. Life on earth has existed for about 3 billion years. Therefore, one base pair addition per year, on average, would have to be locked in to the genome in order to go from an original number of 0, to the 3,000,000,000+ that now exist. And that’s just the good ones that amount to something, not all the others that get weeded out from the population. And on top of that, all the other forms of life in the world would have to be accounted for as well. It was plainly obvious to me that this couldn’t happen randomly, in the time available. And here’s the silly part, in retrospect: I simply decided that since it couldn’t happen by itself, that obviously meant that God was guiding evolution! Because the thought would not have entered my mind at that point that evolution wasn’t true—that’s a ridiculous thing to accept at face value, when you’ve believed it all your life. I became a theistic evolutionist at that point, though I didn’t know that name until years later.

                        Then I went to college. I didn’t attend church during the first four years, but made it to a handful of services in the last one, because I was within walking/biking distance. I had neither bike nor car on campus the other years, and so I was stranded on campus due to lack of transportation. But for all this, I didn’t lack theological instruction for most of that time. I found much more vast knowledge through the Internet than I could have hoped to absorb through once-weekly, hour-long church services during that whole time. Sermons included. I found that Church is not a building, it is the sum total of all living believers on earth. All the commands in the Bible to be in fellowship with others and support the Church are telling us to interact with other believers, not to go to a building on such and such a day. This is not to say that “going to church” is contrary to Church, because it can be a great way to do that, but far too many people go to the building without being a part of the edifice.  Knowing this, I was encouraged despite not being able to go to sermon services regularly in person, because I wasn’t shunning the things of God in the meantime—and I was in fact consuming multiple sermon equivalents in online video and audio clips, as well as articles, throughout that whole time period. I decided it was worth it to wait until I could consistently attend church before attempting to become more involved in one. Doesn’t that make sense? I think so.

                        The reason why I’m not yet baptized is twofold, and the justification is based on practicality. One: I wasn’t as passionate about theology as I am now until 3 years ago, so the impulse to be baptized wasn’t there. Two: I was excused from needing to attend church while I was at college, because I had access to teaching online and access to people who would keep me accountable on campus, friends I met through my university’s discussion board and whom I’d made an attempt to build relationships with “In Real Life.” Because of this, I didn’t attend church, and consequently didn’t develop a connection to any church body, so as to find getting baptized therein purposeful. Because what is the purpose of baptism? An outward public display of an inward condition. It’s thus most pertinent to get baptized in a place where people know, or will know, you, for their benefit. They’ll be encouraged when they see your baptism, and they’ll also recognize you as a believer and not wonder about you. Getting “shotgun baptized” somewhere and then disappearing because you move somewhere else seems pretty pointless, accomplishing little or nothing. Hence, I’ve been waiting for the opportunity, and I know it’s not here yet. When I know where I’m going to live for a period of some years, then I’ll have the security to know to look for a church in that region and to become a member there. Baptism isn’t what saves you, so I’m not afraid. Baptism is what proclaims to everyone who sees and hears about it that you are saved. So I’m merely selecting the right audience. And that’s why I’m not yet baptized.

Journal Treatise: When Was I Saved?

Treatise: When Was I Saved?

Was it when I properly understood sound theology, or was it before that, when I acknowledged God as my Lord, if not yet understanding (though thinking I did) what it meant for Him to be my Savior? This is something that my mind comes around to thinking about every once in a while. It’s not a troubling thought, but it’s a difficult one to resolve. I may never be able to. But thankfully, it doesn’t matter if I do. And there may be a way around this question, which I’ll develop here in a little bit.

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t believe in God – The Christian God. One of the earliest memories I have from Sweden was, I think, a television show where the young girl lead character was sitting with her mom/aunt/grand-mother, and maybe her little brother, and looking in a picture book. A page flips, and someone points at a figure in the middle of the image and says ‘this is God,’ (or else Jesus), and it’s possible ‘Jesus’ was a separate figure somewhere in the picture that was also pointed to. It was a dark image. It could have been set in outer space. I don’t know. For some reason, the middle character appeared to have a sort of “elf” get-up in which he was dressed. Green tights, hat, pointy shoes and frills around the neck..so from whenever that was, to about 8 years of age, maybe a little after, if I imagined “god” in my head, it would be that “Link to the Past”-esque character. No eyes, that area was dark. Reddish, medium-length hair. It’s a weird thing to remember but it’s the earliest memory I have that I know is an actual memory and not just knowledge which I can’t determine when I received. The simple point of this is, I was from an early age exposed to the concept of the Trinitarian God. There are a couple of children’s books in our house to this day, and one of them is where I have the image of a fish spewing out Jonah onto a beach implanted in my brain from.

I only have one other memory of my own thoughts, (have you noticed that memory is of two sorts? One of things you experienced, and the other of thoughts you had?) and that is of trying to explain to my brother how history was supposed to work. When I was little, I loved dinosaurs, and had memorized the geological layers in the beginning of one of my dinosaur books into a little song. I knew the ‘scientific’ timeline of the earth, and it put humans at the very tippy-top of the “Nutid” segment. So I said to my brother, time is like a “Y.” One branch represents the Bible’s history and the other represents ‘prehistory.’ It’s much longer than the other one. They’re different, that’s why they’re separate, but “at some point, they come together, and then they continue together from that point on.” Because both of the histories, though different, were both supposed to be the past end of a timeline ending in today’s reality, of which there was clearly only one of. Looking back c. 15-17 years later, it was intriguing to consider that I had invented “Gap Theory” all by myself as a kid. Apparently that was a satisfying conclusion to my young mind, because I don’t remember ever thinking about it again. The only other memory about religion I have from before we moved is seeing a video of me running around the pews at my brother’s baby-baptism (Sweden is mostly a Lutheran country, insofar as denominations are concerned).

I don’t remember when I learned that “Jesus=God,” but I must have understood it from the first moment, because I don’t ever recall having a misconception about Jesus’ identity, at least officially speaking. I do remember something dawning on me when I read an article on Answers in Genesis entitled something like “Christ the Creator?” which pointed out that Jesus, as God, was actively involved in creating the universe. It was not something that the Father did while the Son sat passively aside and did nothing. But while no one ever really “gets” the Trinity in full, the way He Himself understands Himself, I remember being aware of the concept since I was little. I don’t, however, remember when I was aware of Christ dying for us on the Cross. Maybe I always knew that, too, since I don’t remember ever learning it. But here’s the rub: it wasn’t until roughly winter 2010-2011 when I understood HOW the Cross accomplished salvation—through a substitutionary atonement, where He took our punishment and we undeservedly receive His reward for living the perfect life. My question is, if I didn’t understand salvation completely, was it then possible for me to have faith in it? The object of my faith never changed (unless my conception of God was an idol throughout my youth?), but my understanding changed over time. So the question is, would I have been saved when I believed in Jesus and my conscience had quickened me to obey the Law and ask for forgiveness for sins, even if my knowledge of substitutionary atonement and a complete understanding of Biblical repentance and a faith-based soteriology (not works) was lacking?

This is an open question. If you’re reading this, I want you to think about it. I don’t have the definitive answer to my question, yet. I do have some answers that I’ve reasoned my way to, but they may very well not be the final word on the situation. Therefore, think deeply about this and don’t let me tell you what’s right and true – think, and decide for yourself.

Here’s my resolution of the question: looking back through my life thus far, I can see the ‘hand of God,’ as it were, operating, guiding, and influencing my life at key moments and important ways. Now, being able to see the working of Providence is not the same as being saved, because God is omnipresent and does not only involve Himself in the affairs of the Saints. But it is nonetheless encouraging, because at the very least it means that at no point in my life was I completely alone, without God watching over me. Also, the important thing is ultimately not at what point I was saved, but whether I am saved now. It’s not where I was, but where I’m going that matters. It sounds cliché, but that’s just because it’s said so often. And it’s said often because it happens to be true – it’s more of a proverb than a cliché, then. And considering the verses that say “He chose you from before the foundation of the world…”, it would be fair to say that even in my youth, before my “awakening,” I was still destined to be saved. Salvation, being a one-time event, is something that doesn’t apply to parts of a person’s life, it’s something that applies to their whole life (you’re either saved or not saved), it’s just realized at a particular point in that life. (the italicization here is done just the way I would stress the words if I was speaking). And so, in a manner of speaking, it has always been the case that I would be saved, and so it’s really only my current saved state that matters. “When” it ‘officially’ happened is nearly totally irrelevant. The question is almost completely meaningless. Here’s the thing: if you’re unsure of whether you were saved before and just became more theologically passionate, or whether you were a nominal/false convert before and have now truly repented and become a true convert, then what do you do? Do you act as if you were saved, or do you act as if you weren’t? It’s not that hard, when you think about it. Here’s what I did: Martin Luther once said “all of a Christian’s life is one of repentance.” Repentance is something that you do initially in order to accept the free gift of grace that God offers you, but you don’t ever stop repenting. Do you ever stop sinning? No. So repentance is not something that, if you do it, it would somehow imply that your prior repentance wasn’t genuine. Repentance is a continual activity of shunning sin, asking forgiveness for your missteps, and pursuing righteousness. What I did one night was to go up on a hill, as I liked to do at night, and prayed simply for the sake of my conscience. If you ask for God to save you from your sins and you’re already saved, it’s not as if you can risk “undoing” it. I made the decision to ‘rededicate’ my life to pursuing Him. I probably will do so again in the future. I already have again since then. Like married couples rededicating themselves to their vows, you don’t reject the past by emphasizing it. And that’s why it doesn’t hurt to pray again “just to make sure,” and to get your heart and mind right. You do it for your own psychological benefit, so that you have no reason to doubt your salvation, and thus you deny Satan an opportunity to attack your faith and attempt to discourage you. I didn’t have a huge change in my morality from ‘before’ and ‘after’ my “reawakening.” (And that statement is worth explaining, at another time.) That contributed to second-guessing myself. Whatever the past circumstances, I’m now confident of my status before the Throne, and am at peace with that. Now I put the question to you: what would you have done if you were in my position? And even more importantly: what will you do now?

Of June

I wrote another poem. After the last one, I realized how much fun it was. I hadn't written a rhyme in years. Apparently, there's a distinction between "poetry" and "verse," the latter of which must rhyme. The poetry that doesn't rhyme often strikes me as very weird, anyway. Verse is the sort of thing that Rudyard Kipling wrote a lot of.

Here's my work, and I'll put an interpretation below. This dovetails nicely with my earlier entry about work.

Of June

June has brought cascading rains that clean the dusty air

Something tells me farmers will delight

My nose rejoices over that the pollen isn't there

It's getting washed away 'bout every night

Soon the star charts will proclaim that summer's finally come

The heat's already trying to break through

The soil enriched, rain fills the ditch. Our task has now begun

to work the yard again, but we are few.

Upkeep is a full-time task when you're the only ones

who, hands and feet, must daily work, and plan

to work some more until you've made a dent in all the tons

of things to do for each and every man

Seeing the fruit of your labor lets you silently rejoice

-- or loudly, if it happens to be your style

With satisfaction, head turned skyward, prayer lifts your voice

to thank God for another day worthwhile

Working is no curse if what you're doing is infused

with worth according to a divine end

The ability to tell apart bad things from good misused

separates the godly men from men

Rain in this life can at times be undeniably cruel

when instead of falling calmly, it monsoons

Because I don't see work and rain as goods instead of tools

I'm thus disposed to make the most of June.

I don't think it needs much explaining, but here's some background:
* The farmers will delight because it's critical for crops to get rain right now. Last year we had a drought.
* Prior to the rains, I was congested and sneezy. Now I'm nearly completely uncongested. Rain does have a cleaning effect on the atmosphere. It takes the dust particles that the droplets form around, and brings them back to the ground during the storms.
* By 'star charts,' I'm referring to the astronomical definition of summer as beginning June 20, which coincides with the solstice being June 21. We've had a few days of hot summer-like weather already in May, but the rains have cooled the temperatures a bit. It seems that this year, we're going to get the hot weather nearly right "on time."
* Working the yard refers to my immediate family taking time out of our week to maintain the house and property, which takes up nearly all the time left over when you're working full-time. I myself am still unemployed, but for me, looking for employment and otherwise working around the house is my full-time task. Our house is shaded by trees, so we get lots of stick litter to clean up.
* The fifth stanza refers to the article "Leisurely Labor" that I wrote about a week ago. Not all bad things are necessarily inherently bad. The realization helps to get more enjoyment out of work, which isn't being done for no purpose. See the image above. The sixth stanza wraps up this thought and asserts that with the proper perspective, I can enjoy the season. Those who are begrudgingly laboring might benefit from a change of perspective.

As a neat coincidence, the title I chose for the poem (which wrote itself) is the same as the title for Adam Young's (Owl City) first album, one he self-released. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_June) I figured that giving it this name would be a nice homage to Adam's music, which is itself an example of how a different perspective can give you much more enjoyment out of the simple, even mundane, things in life.

~ Rak Chazak