There's much to be said on the subject of Wikileaks and Co., but I'll get to that later. For now- how come no one is talking about the eerie resemblance between Julian Assange and Silas from The DaVinci Code?
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Angel or Demon?
There's much to be said on the subject of Wikileaks and Co., but I'll get to that later. For now- how come no one is talking about the eerie resemblance between Julian Assange and Silas from The DaVinci Code?
The True Meaning of Christmas
Driving around, especially in Cincinnati, I see reminders of the Christian Christmas everywhere. Actually, I more see a battle for a reminder of the Christian Christmas. Minivans across the city bear "Keep Christ in Christmas" magnets with a picture of the Nativity Scene. And there's a billboard stating a similar message on a major highway overpass. There's an entire movement down here to remind people why the 25th of December got to be special day. Obviously, Christmas has been commercialized and generalized into a holiday of tradition, family, and "the Christmas spirit". I think that's probably fine for those that don't believe in the religious background of Christmas. If you didn't believe it to begin with, I don't know how a bunch of people trying to explain it would really help. People just want their presents, cookies and fun.
But as a little bit of a reminder, I'm going to look into the true origins of what Christmas meant as a purely religious holiday. Because that's what it started as. That's what it IS to me and many other people to whom the presents and Santa are secondary to why that day is Christmas. Surprisingly, the reason we celebrate Christmas on December 25th is because it was the beginning of a festival of light in ancient paganism. It's the winter solstice. (or close to it) And when Christians needed a day to celebrate the day the man who rescued them from the downfalls of human nature, the man who made it ok to say, "we're only human, but let's try to be better", was born, they chose a time of year that was associated with bringing light and hope into the world. So that's why Christmas is in December, and not July, or April or whenever else. I always thought that was really interesting and also a reason for non Christians to celebrate Christmas. If you don't believe in Jesus, or even God, you can celebrate this time of the year as a time we reflect on hope and light and good.
In any case, it's easy to forget that similar to Lent as a lead up to Easter, Christmas has its own runway of sorts. Advent is when we're supposed to reflect on our needs and gifts, our weaknesses and strengths. Meditation. Gratitude. Celebration. All those things. In that vein, I want to share a little reflection I found for today that was simple and helpful:
So many are truly angry at the "Keep the Christ in Christmas" signs. Many think its unfair. Are Christians grasping desperately for possession of a holiday? I think its sort of similar to copyright. I think Christians just want credit. If people are going to celebrate our holiday, I think Christians just want it to at least bear their name. So I guess it boils down to, is any holiday fairly labeled "ours"? When a billboard pleads, "It's Christmas, Not Holiday", is it a group of people fairly asking you to pronounce their name respectfully? Or evangelization? I think the evangelization is what makes people mad- and I don't think that's what Christmas, or the billboards, are about.
The radio host below is on 700 WLW Cincinnati, I don't agree with everything he's saying, but it's a very interesting point.
But as a little bit of a reminder, I'm going to look into the true origins of what Christmas meant as a purely religious holiday. Because that's what it started as. That's what it IS to me and many other people to whom the presents and Santa are secondary to why that day is Christmas. Surprisingly, the reason we celebrate Christmas on December 25th is because it was the beginning of a festival of light in ancient paganism. It's the winter solstice. (or close to it) And when Christians needed a day to celebrate the day the man who rescued them from the downfalls of human nature, the man who made it ok to say, "we're only human, but let's try to be better", was born, they chose a time of year that was associated with bringing light and hope into the world. So that's why Christmas is in December, and not July, or April or whenever else. I always thought that was really interesting and also a reason for non Christians to celebrate Christmas. If you don't believe in Jesus, or even God, you can celebrate this time of the year as a time we reflect on hope and light and good.
In any case, it's easy to forget that similar to Lent as a lead up to Easter, Christmas has its own runway of sorts. Advent is when we're supposed to reflect on our needs and gifts, our weaknesses and strengths. Meditation. Gratitude. Celebration. All those things. In that vein, I want to share a little reflection I found for today that was simple and helpful:
“The Lord your God … celebrates and sings because of you, and he will refresh your life with his love.” Zephaniah 3:17 (CEV)
God has taught me the power of music during difficult times in my life. Inspiring lyrics of a song often re-visit me when I need them most. When I can’t get a song out of my head, I sometimes realize that the song is helping me to get through the day or to face a problem. When I can’t find the words to pray, I often listen to a song that expresses my deepest feelings and offer it to God as a prayer.
Listen to a song that expresses your love for God, and offer it as a prayer.
- Nakia Gater
“The Power of Music” (from upperroom.com)
Anyway, the idea behind this post was this... What do you think of Christmas as a religious versus universal tradition? If it came from Christianity, is that where it should remain? Can a religious celebration be stripped of its religious implications? If you celebrate Christmas, are you paying homage to its roots? Is it a choice that we have to ignore where traditions like this come from? I'm trying to think of a metaphor but can't really come up with a another example of a place where our culture has fully embraced a holiday devoided of its roots.
So many are truly angry at the "Keep the Christ in Christmas" signs. Many think its unfair. Are Christians grasping desperately for possession of a holiday? I think its sort of similar to copyright. I think Christians just want credit. If people are going to celebrate our holiday, I think Christians just want it to at least bear their name. So I guess it boils down to, is any holiday fairly labeled "ours"? When a billboard pleads, "It's Christmas, Not Holiday", is it a group of people fairly asking you to pronounce their name respectfully? Or evangelization? I think the evangelization is what makes people mad- and I don't think that's what Christmas, or the billboards, are about.
The radio host below is on 700 WLW Cincinnati, I don't agree with everything he's saying, but it's a very interesting point.
We think we're so smart...
Another video lifted from BoingBoing. I hope this doesn't become me vomitting up boingboing material. Although, at least I'll be adding my thoughts. Anyway, below is a video of a 1773 creation from a silversmith and an inventor (whose name funnily enough was John Merlin). It's really incredible to think sometime like this was made that long ago. It's stunningly beautiful and ode to humility in technology. Can you imagine what the guy who made this must have thought we would be capable of in 2010, if he could make something so awesome in 1773? I'd love to see his idea of the future.
The battles we face
I lifted this from BoingBoing.net, which is an excellent blog for random, quirky, yet important news. It's from a BBC series called "The Joy of Stats", which is kind of hilarious in itself, that the BBC would even make such a show. And that's coming from someone who is studying statistics to make a livelihood. Anyway, I'm about to go check out Joy of Stats, but in the meantime, thought this video was really interesting. The graphics really aren't that impressive. He thinks he's doing some spatial visualization, but its not spatial, its just in front of him instead of behind him. CNN has been doing this stuff for a couple years. It's more interesting just to see the changes in health over time.
My interest in this topic is related to some work I'm doing as an RA for a prof. He is about to teach a class in comparative health systems, and I'm helping him gather materials. The idea is to take certain characteristics of health systems, compare them among various countries, and see how much those characteristics act as indicators of success. We're guessing that we will find that the millions and billions the United States puts into its health system will be rendered seemingly futile, since other countries with remedial systems have similar life expectancies. (On that note, did you see that the average life expectancy in the U.S. went down one tenth last week? for the first time in 15 years. It could be the first time ever that parents are expected to live longer lives than their children.)
This got me thinking how frustrated people like my professor, who study this health system, its outcomes, and the effectiveness of changes we make, have to be at the world. Can you imagine dedicating your life's work to improving and developing measure to help as tools in that improvement, and knowing that everything you do is too small to help? That the structure of the institution is SO screwed, and having to explain that to legislators who either don't understand the issue or are too concerned with thousands of other messed up institutions as well as pleasing their constituencies to pay you any attention. If we could get people on the same page and really fix this monster of a health system, imagine what our lives could be like! But it's really disheartening to think how impossible that is. So maybe people like my prof resassure themselves that they're doing the best thing possible by chipping away at what we have now. What a monstrous task.
It brings me back to kindergarten, where they try so hard to teach you how to work together. And as we grow we are taught teamwork and eventually group work. Something about how we teach these things must be off, because it's truly rare to see a group functioning at its highest capacity, highlighting everyone's strengths, sucessfully. And when we do get groups doing that, they are often working against each other. If only we could get our country as a whole to function as a group. We really are working toward the same things, people just don't know how to voice things in a way that the other groups see as amiable. We scream at each other "I like blue" and "I like cobalt" and "I like turquoise" and "I like navy" and no one is listening to say, "hey dudes- those are all kinds of blue".
I have no idea how I got here from a global health video.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
A start.
Keystrokes and coffee. My "fillintheblank" of the thousands of creative blog titles across the webiverse. I won't succeed if I try too hard, so I'm going with why I'm writing. For many reasons, keystrokes and coffee are why I'll be here.
Keystrokes, literally because I love the sound, the feeling, that pitter patter, that finger dance, the padding and trodding my fingers make on a keyboard. Some keyboards more than others. Some keys more than others. The & and ? and + more than the & and ^ and \ for example (and in my typing this just now I just figured out how to make the |... oh the discoveries to come!).
On to the coffee. I love it. I am unfathomably bad at making it sometimes. Ask my boyfriend. (I complicated things even further my adding salt to his on accident once) But I love it. It's the only food item I can justify buying more than twice a week. Because it's delicious. And because I need it. I love the feeling, as well as the look, of a fat, thick mug in my hands or anyone else's. I equally love the earthy, yet professional feel of the paper cup. And I like it black. Pure and unadulterated. I have to take life without the sugar and cream, so might as well practice with the coffee. And I love it that way. Don't water it down, and you can enjoy its true essence even more.
Further driving metaphors... I like the slightly askew alliteration. Much like my political, religious, and ethical beliefs which are eternally developing and just as steadfastly held, the K and C don't quite match up, but almost. And if you say it the right way, they make perfect sense together. You just have to speak correctly.
Also, It's only with the working attitude implied by above title that I will achieve the intellectual and spiritual strength that I seek to use the internet here to define in myself. This blog will chronicle my adventures across the pages of the internet, searching for, throwing out, and filing the lessons and ideas I see as helpful or stupid. I already have a journal. This is not for my pure emotion or chronicling of my life. But for a place to file away thoughts that crossed my mind about articles, videos, art, news, etc. My intellectual notebook of sorts. I'm sure I'll venture into some whining or remembering every here and there. But the purpose is to work away at my study of life. I've let that drift away in my drive for a career. And I refuse to let my career exclude such study.
I will be a student all my life. And the keystrokes and coffee that characterized plugging away through high school (yes I drank lots of coffee in high school), college and my masters will keep me plugging away. Here's to a coffee date... to knowledge, understanding, and searching. See you there soon. I'll take mine black. How do you take yours?
Keystrokes, literally because I love the sound, the feeling, that pitter patter, that finger dance, the padding and trodding my fingers make on a keyboard. Some keyboards more than others. Some keys more than others. The & and ? and + more than the & and ^ and \ for example (and in my typing this just now I just figured out how to make the |... oh the discoveries to come!).
On to the coffee. I love it. I am unfathomably bad at making it sometimes. Ask my boyfriend. (I complicated things even further my adding salt to his on accident once) But I love it. It's the only food item I can justify buying more than twice a week. Because it's delicious. And because I need it. I love the feeling, as well as the look, of a fat, thick mug in my hands or anyone else's. I equally love the earthy, yet professional feel of the paper cup. And I like it black. Pure and unadulterated. I have to take life without the sugar and cream, so might as well practice with the coffee. And I love it that way. Don't water it down, and you can enjoy its true essence even more.
Further driving metaphors... I like the slightly askew alliteration. Much like my political, religious, and ethical beliefs which are eternally developing and just as steadfastly held, the K and C don't quite match up, but almost. And if you say it the right way, they make perfect sense together. You just have to speak correctly.
Also, It's only with the working attitude implied by above title that I will achieve the intellectual and spiritual strength that I seek to use the internet here to define in myself. This blog will chronicle my adventures across the pages of the internet, searching for, throwing out, and filing the lessons and ideas I see as helpful or stupid. I already have a journal. This is not for my pure emotion or chronicling of my life. But for a place to file away thoughts that crossed my mind about articles, videos, art, news, etc. My intellectual notebook of sorts. I'm sure I'll venture into some whining or remembering every here and there. But the purpose is to work away at my study of life. I've let that drift away in my drive for a career. And I refuse to let my career exclude such study.
I will be a student all my life. And the keystrokes and coffee that characterized plugging away through high school (yes I drank lots of coffee in high school), college and my masters will keep me plugging away. Here's to a coffee date... to knowledge, understanding, and searching. See you there soon. I'll take mine black. How do you take yours?
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