Keen Observations

My wife, who is home today from he job as a middle school librarian after some minor outpatient surgery yesterday, observed at lunch that she considered herself to be a better librarian than she was a teacher.  For myself I told her I am a much better retired person than I was a lawyer.

What a Crime

I have been watching the Swedish version of Wallander as I exercise in the morning.  In the episode I completed today several seemingly unconnected murders were eventually found to be related to a former Swedish soldier.  It turns out he was executing various people against whom he had carried a grudge for years.  His spree of revenge killings was triggered by his having been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  It seems once he knew he was going to die he decided to take his enemies with him.

This is a familiar trope for crime shows; when you have nothing to lose why not indulge in all of those fantasies you've nurtured over the years.  I started out asking myself why we don't see stories about people who commit mass forgiveness rather than mass murder when faced with death.  But of course those sorts of stories would not fit into any of the standard entertainment genres.  So, the larger question is why we are drawn to crime drama?  I certainly am.  I have run through all of the Netflix available episodes of "Midsomer Murders," "Vera," and "Inspector Lewis."  But why should I be interested in stories of murder linked to greed, lust and jealousy?

I'm not sure.  Certainly I find the characters interesting, but is that enough to overcome exposure to the sordid world they inhabit?  I don't know the answer but certainly it must be related to the fact that "the natural man is an enemy to God."  Were I not such a "natural man" but "a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love," I would not enjoy such entertainment.  My wife and children can certainly attest that I am far from meek, humble and patient.  Maybe someday I will reach that state, but it's not today.  Today I have another episode of the BBC version of Wallander waiting for me, 

Benvenuto!

Allora, ho appena visto che c'era un page view di questo blog da L'Italia.  Voglio dire Benvenuto!  E molto tempo che no scrive in Italiano and per certo ho dimenticato quasi tutto della lingua Italiana. Pero a una volta poteva parlare e scrivere abbastanza bene.  Spero che gli Italiani sentano comodi e benvenuti in questo spazio.  Non potrei scrivere tanto piu in Italiano (addesso not posso esspresarmi bene in quella lingua).  Cionondimeno, spero di avere piu visitianti Italiani. 

Arrivederci!

Not Adorable or Cute

So, it's happened.  For years I listened to my daughters talk about elderly men they liked and refer to them as "cute."  I threatened them with severe consequences should they ever be tempted to describe me with that condescending adjective.  I was very stern because I had observed that they employed that adjective to very old men whom they appeared to consider to be childlike.  In fact the inflection was exactly the same when they described actions or attributes of a toddler and a man of 80 + years.  But I cannot threaten everyone.

The other day my daughter Elizabeth told me that in conversations with some of her friends she mentioned that I was retired and in response to their question about what I am doing now she said that I practice the piano and go to the Temple.  Their response?  "That's adorable!"

Adorable is much too close to cute (which in fact is listed in Word's Thesaurus as a synonym).  So, I appear to have arrived already at my dotage.    My wife and I are traveling to see Elizabeth and her family in April. I think I will seek out Elizabeth's friends and roundly curse them out.  I wonder if they will find that to be adorable?

Out For a Walk

I went for a walk just now before making myself some lunch.  In my wandering I came across a man out cleaning up his yard a bit.  He was wearing a large set of headphones that looked like they could have a radio (at least that’s what I gathered from the antenna sticking up).  I was reminded upon seeing him of a common sight while I waited for the train home from work.  The platform where I caught the train ended in an intersection and generally waited for the train close to the intersection.  I routinely watched drivers and passengers as they came to the intersection and waited for the light to change.  I noticed after a while that a considerable majority of the drivers would  immediately look down at their phones as soon as they came to a stop and many of those would type a message while they waited.  

That behavior reminded me of Ray Bradbury’s wonderful short story “The Murderer” in which the protagonist is subjected to psychological evaluation for having destroyed appliances in his home because of the music and spoken messages they spouted.  In relaying his reasoning for the destruction he recounts listening to passengers on the bus speaking in their wrist phones; their conversations were meaningless (reporting exactly where they were at any given moment of their journey) but they evidently felt compelled to conduct them regardless. 

Bradbury was a bit off of course as many futurists are (texting and tweeting etc. have displaced verbal communication) but the essence of his vision is remarkably prescient.  

I certainly don’t want to live in a world in which the enjoyment of golden silence is thought to be a pathology.  We are not there yet, but more and more I am viewed as a bit of an old fashioned curmudgeon: no smart phone, no twitter account, no facebook account, barely capable of texting.  Perhaps I am missing out on indescribable wonders, but I am loathe to surrender moments like this very one when I can watch snow fall out my front window and enjoy it in undisturbed silence.

I went to an exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls a week ago Saturday with my wife and our son and daughter in law.  I am somewhat but not terribly familiar with the story of the Dead Sea Scrolls (how they were found what they represent etc.) and it was fascinating to learn more about them and see pieces (very small pieces) of the actual scrolls themselves.

When I consider the Scrolls and their origins at the small religious community of Qumran I am struck again at how throughout history much of humanity has expended enormous resources in time and treasure expressing their devotion to Diety.  I think for example of the churches we saw on our trip to Italy in tiny fishing villages--churches that must have consumed a large fraction of the inhabitants time and material wealth.

Then in the seeming blink of an eye that devotion has almost completely disappeared (at least here in the Western World) and has been replaced with a devotion to self.  Our time and money are spent in "self improvement," entertainment, or pursuit of wealth.  Truly as the Lord described in the first Section of the Doctrine and Covenants today "every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world."

With all desires turned inward our society becomes increasingly barren both literally, as fewer and fewer children are born, and figuratively as beauty slowly disappears from our surroundings.    Creation, the hallmark of the Creator, vanishes along with the Creator's influence. 

I have been reading a bit about the Woody Allen furor caused I gather by his daughter Dylan's open letter describing abuse she claims to have suffered by her father.  I read her letter and one blog post regarding the matter but have not otherwise delved into the controversy.  It is my perception that a controversy exists that interests me.

Perhaps my memory is overly selective, but it seems to me that generally the reaction to claims of abuse and attempts at defense is to accept the claims and treat the defenses as a pack of lies ("of course he denies it; what abuser would admit the abuse?").  That does not seem to be the case with Mr. Allen and I cannot help but wonder if the difference in the wider reaction can be accounted for by Allen's status as a Hollywood icon and staunch advocate of leftist authoritarian views (he did note after all that the country would be better off if Obama could be a dictator for several years).

This would not be the first time a person with the proper opinions was shielded from the consequences of his actions (Bill Clinton and other Democrats with similar proclivities toward the opposite sex (John Edwards anyone?) come to mind as do the many individuals on the left famous or otherwise who utter vile despicable things about conservatives.  As Victor Davis Hanson has noted leftest views shield you from all sorts of nasty consequences for your actions.

But it seems to me that it has always been the case that when the organs of information are staffed with persons of a particular world view they tend to protect those of similar views.       

I read an interesting blog post the other day.  The author had read a post or comment (I can't recall which) where a woman had offered an explanation of why she chose to be a stay at home mom.  The author lamented the fact that the woman felt the need to justify or explain her decision.  In his view the reasons for choosing to raise children rather than work for money were obvious and needed no explanation. 

I agreed with his observations.  In our family my wife made the same choice and I fully supported her.  I was intrigued by the comments following the essay.  A bit of a squabble ensued regarding whether stay at home moms raised better children than those who worked for money.  Each side seemed to be demanding an explanation from the other.  Some peacemakers asserted that neither stay at home moms nor moms working outside the home need offer any explanation for their choice.

I was prompted to think about the circumstances under which someone feels the need to offer an explanation for his actions.  Explanations are required when someone feels his actions are out of the ordinary.  No one feels the need to explain why they are eating breakfast at 8:00 a.m. or why they are climbing into bed at 11:00 p.m.  The reasons for those actions may not in fact be what we all assume but the actions themselves are so common we don't feel any explanation is required.

In the past staying home with your children required no explanation; rather if married woman with children worked she felt the need to offer some reason for doing so.   My mother worked outside the home as long ago as I can remember (I was born in 1956) and I recall her offering explanations for that choice.

The tables have clearly turned now--women who stay at home with their kids feel the need to explain themselves because "society" has bought into the notion that women should work for money and that choosing not to do so is unusual.

Ideally, a woman's choice in this regard is her own and should not be challenged or questioned, but that is not how we are built as humans.  We are heard animals and seek to avoid being different.  If we feel we are different we also feel the need to justify; If we see difference we feel the need to understand why. 

The felt need to justify staying at home with children will exist as long as "society" considers mothers with young children working for money to be the norm.