10 Years Later.

Went to the reunion for the Crest class of 1996 last night. What a blast. It was great to see people that I haven't seen in years. It was also pretty cool getting down with my people just like it was day one.

I've been thinking about PROGRESS. That is an amazing term. Do you think that humans exhibit progress. If so is it societal? individual? both? I think about other animals and living things and it seems as if they have little purpose. I mean as far as progress goes. Ants and dogs just do what ants and dogs have always done. They don't sit around and wonder why they do those things. They don't ponder how to grow and mature. They just do. They just are.

But humans... I guess a lot of folks just do. Some maybe aren't as aware or cognizant of their purpose or of progress. Maybe they're just good at putting that question out of their minds, because it does tend to bring about anxiety at certain junctures.

This train of thought crept up while I was walking and trying to figure out why what I do is meaningful. I mean beyond job skills and the obvious. What can I do that will truly impact life.

I guess as soon as I figure it all out, I'll let you know.
dt

Optimism.

I love the feeling of the new school year. I'm more experienced. I've read more. I've thought more. Now I'm ready to apply. Here are a couple of pics of my new bulletin boards. I've been experimenting with my crafty side. The Red and Black is a makeshift blog. Our county filter "errs on the side of caution" so blogs, Flickr, Delicious, and of course MySpace are all out. So I decided to make a manual blog. The right side of the board is filled with quotations from the likes of Aristotle, Plato, Thoreau, Uncle Walt, W., Bubba Clinton, Reagan and even Chris Rock. The caption READ, REFLECT, REFEREE and REACT was stolen from my brother who may have stolen it from someone else. But that's the way these days. The white poster board is divided into 3 X 5 squares in which students can respond to the question and to each other's responses. The first question is "Do you think George W. is a good President? Why or why not?"

The Green and Yellow (Charger Gold) board is my civic action board. The quotation is from JFK's inaugural--although I'm not sure he was the first one to say it. The white pieces of paper are articles(1,2,3) in our local paper about community and civic mindedness. The patch is from when my father in law was in Kuwait, and the pictures are of Habitat for Humanity and the One Campaign.

Not sure these are revolutionary, but I've been cutting out letters and pasting and stapling all weekend. I even went to an education store and bought some border:)

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Charged.

Well today was our district wide pep rally to start off the school year. Following that this afternoon we had a different type of motivational meeting. Boss man said that we needed to raise our test scores. Social Studies is lagging behind. Test scores are going to become more of a focus for him and therefore for us.

My gut reaction is here we go again. Testing Testing and more Testing. Why is it that so many teachers agree that this current form of education is practically useless, yet we simply accept it and convince ourselves that "it's the way it is." I've heard "I don't like it, I think it's stupid, but we've got to do it" so many times sometimes I'm afraid I will start repeating that mantra as well.

On the other hand, however, the fact remains that NCLB and ABC is the current form and the students are now held to even higher standards. So I'm looking forward to blogging this year's civics classes. And hopefully receiving some beneficial comments--preferably from many of the folks that I teach with...

Of course I will need to find an acceptible blog format because blogspot is forbidden by our county's internet filter.

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Really?

This CNN quick vote poll blows me away. I know it's not supposed to be scientific. But does 50% of any population believe that gas prices are a more pressing issue than terrorism? This on a day in which a plot to blow up airplanes over the ocean was foiled.

Of course maybe Rove and the gang are up to it again. They must have planned to disrupt this attack the day or so after Lieberman was defeated. Of course, the master plan to illustrate the weakness of the Dems on national defense.

Look. I know that the administration is weak and less than skillful. But gas prices as important as terrorism? Call it by a different name. Explain the perspective that they are upset because our troops are on their soil. Make the point that our history is rife--is that a word?--with examples of 'terrorism' as well. I'm fine with all of those, but don't make the point that attacks, or potential attacks on us are not as important as how much you pay at the pump.

Confused.
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House Built on Sand

The iMonk has a very interesting article which explains the shift in my own thinking as of late. It's worth reading the entire article--though lengthy--and checking out the links especially this one about the possibility of a growing trend. The iMonks conclusion first:

My Conclusion

I am suggesting, therefore, that the increasing interest in the culture war among evangelicals is not an example of a reinvigorated evangelicalism remaking its culture. Instead, I believe the intense focus by evangelicals on political and cultural issues is evidence of a spiritually empty and unformed evangelicalism being led by short-sighted leaders toward a mistaken version of the Kingdom of God on earth.

so that's a pretty powerful statement. it is a tragic statement that the assertion can be made that the islamic right and the christian right are leading towards the same vision of existence... but i digress and leave you with a chunk from the iMonks article.

American evangelicals can point to hundreds of publications and programs aimed at some kind of spiritual formation result. The fact is that any honest, but generous judgement would say that after a century of moderate success, the twentieth century and beyond have witnessed an unparalleled failure of evangelicals in the area of spiritual formation. In other words, evangelicals are increasingly spiritually empty, and they are susceptible to a message that the world needs to be changed rather than themselves.

Both families and churches struggle in turning out disciples. American churches specialize in an consumerized, gnostic, experiential Gospel that is increasingly inseparable form the culture in which that church exists. American evangelicals have become as much like the dominant culture as it is possible to be and still exist at all. In fact, evangelicals continue to exist, in large measure, because they have mainstreamed the culture into their religion so that one’s Christianity hardly appears on the radar screen of life as any in any way different from the lives of other people. We are now about values, more than about Christ and the Gospel.

Evangelicals should come to terms with this: they are in every way virtually identical to suburban, white, upper middle class American culture. They are not as bad as the worst of that culture, but they are increasingly like the mainstream of that culture and are blown about by every wind of that consumerized and materially addicted culture. In fact, go to many evangelical churches and the culture is so present, so affirmed, preached and taught that one would assume that there is nothing whatsoever counter cultural about the affirmation that Jesus is Lord...

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Human Condition

This is an excerpt from The Brothers Karamazov. Which as of 300 pages in has overtaken the top spot in my all time favorite books. It comes from the chapter Notes on the Life of a Deceased Priest.

...the isolation that prevails everywhere, above all in our age--it has not
fully developed, it has not reached its limit yet. For every one strives
to keep his individuality as apart as possible, wishes to secure the greatest
possible fulness of life for himself; but meantime all his efforts result not in
attaining fulness of life but self-destruction, for instead of self-realisation
he ends by arriving at complete solitude. All mankind in our age have
split up into units, they all keep apart, each in his own groove; each one holds
aloof, hides himself and hides what he has, from the rest, and he ends by being
repelled by others and repelling them. He heaps up riches by himself and
thinks 'how strong I am now and how secure,' and in his madness he does not
understand that the more he heaps up, the more he sinks into self-destructive
impotence. For he is accustomed to rely upon himself alone and to cut
himself off from the whole; he has trained himself not to believe in the help of
others, in men and in humanity, and only trembles for fear he should lose his
money and the priveleges that he has won for himself...

also

"Until you have become really, in actual fact, a brother to every one,
brotherhood will not come to pass."

and

"...in truth we are each responsible to all for all, it's only that men don't
know this. If they knew it the world would be a paradise at once."

one more quote from my favorite movie that seems to fall in line with the thoughts above:

"every man lookin' for salvation by himself... each like a coal drawn from the
fire."

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Clean and Unclean

The Hebrews 13:11-13 reference in the previous post comes from a message that I heard this past Sunday. These few verses describe Jesus' method. Everything inside the gate was "clean" and the "unclean" were outside the gate. Where was Jesus? He was encamped outside the gate. He wasn't concerned about his reputation. He wasn't concerned with political power--he rejected that temptation from Satan. He was moved to compassion and Love when he encountered the world.

Yet, the Church proper seems to be comfortable inside the gates. Trying to direct morality and truth from within. But Truth and Grace cannot be separated. Faith and Works. The tree shall be known by its fruit. On and on goes the teaching of the Christ.

Yet so difficult to follow. Fear and pride are destructive forces.

The Good must be/should be/is common. Communal. Voluntary community. You before me. Him before us.

I suppose to explain the misdirection in my thinking of late is to admit that I believed that Truth was under attack. And well, I suppose it is and always has been... but the flaw was in believing that Truth could somehow be defeated... and perhaps it was up to me to somehow stem the tide of the advancing corruption. Wow. So much for humility in that line of thought.

"Speak not as one who has the Truth, but as one whom the Truth has." Another quote given to me by that same wise man...