on worrying

At times, I run across people with frivolous and silly worries, the sorts which should have been resolved easily years ago and which, if they weren't presented with the sort of angst and heavy-dread usually reserved for high-school crushes, could be treated out of a children's catechism. It is fine for an adult who has never considered such questions to come to them innocently, but from some it is somewhat of a wonder that it never came up. What is the proper way to deal with such people? Is it the case that the root of their despair is not in the questions themselves?

For those needing something concrete, a few examples. A Bible college student who suddenly discovers the Gospels may not have been written by the people everybody says they're written by. All those damned nervous convert Orthodox types who plotz whenever they learn something or think about Protestants. A pious fellow who should know better wondering what good prayer is if God can't change His mind. A seminarian who encounters materialistic determinism for the first time and balks. A soldier who, three years into a war, wonders whether it's fine to shoot people. A pro-life advocate with an "unwanted pregnancy" considering an abortion. I suppose one must think about it sooner or later, but, you know, one would expect somebody in their position to have hit on it already. These things are trivial, stupid, small.

Perhaps I'm like Hume in his moral system, painting a grand picture but unable to articulate or care about the fine details that make all the difference. Perhaps I'm waving off, as trivialities, those things which truly do matter. I hope I'm not. The questions are important, and I'll be sure to disseminate my propaganda for future generations, but the difference is these people should know better by now. Perhaps if the tone in which the question were phrased were a little less anxious, I'd say less here. Simple education would do. I'm ignorant of several things, and if I'd never thought about prayer before, asking why one should pray at all if God doesn't change his mind is a fine question to ask. If I were quite knowledgeable, it would also be reasonable to ask in order to clarify what exactly one should say, why certain responses are wrong [ie, sounding like Job's comforters], how one could address the existential concerns of those sidelined by such doubts, etc.

And I don't care enough to conclude these thoughts, so I'll just say Discuss.

Finally.

Вознести благодарение Богу, сподобившему нас успешно провести IV Всезарубежный Собор с участием представителей клира и мирян из всех епархий Русской Зарубежной Церкви, за то, что на Соборе выразилось явное единодушие по принципиальному вопросу о том, что завершением его созидательного делания будет восстановление чаемого единства Поместной Русской Церкви, как было выражено в Послании Собора.

Everything going according to plan. Next, the patriarchate, and then, the World. I haven't heard any rumblings yet, which is a good sign, but I'm not the sort to hear rumblings ever. No insightful commentary, really.

on anscombe

Resolved: Our school needs one of these. Apparently they have like 80 members at Princeton or something. A suitable answer for those "Sex Education Activists" and "NOW" must be prepared. I, alas, will not be here in the future, but I am sure somebody will see my appeal and take up my aegis. There must be some lovers of chastity in this school willing to "take back the night".

EDIT: Caelius has convinced me [it didn't take much] that the main purpose should be providing a counterbalance to Vita.

on baseball

I'm no fan of Mr. Esolen's, but, since I am avoiding writing a paper about less important matters, I will write some reflections about baseball. Mr. Esolen says:

The owners, colluding by their silence, allowed the players to inject these dangerous drugs into their systems -- anything to keep the baseballs flying over the fences and the buttocks in the bleachers, anything to help the fans forget how both owners and players, rolling in a sea of money, managed to disgrace the game with their shutdown in 1994.

I won't forget. Baseball was pretty much the only professional sport I followed. I avidly read baseball history, developed rigid opinions about the moral superiority of the National League over the American, grass over astroturf, daylight ball over night games, and even collected baseball cards using what little means I had. But, after the strike, I refused, as a matter of principle, to pay any attention whatsoever to professional baseball. How could I care anymore? They betrayed me: it is as simple as that. The course professional baseball has taken since then only confirms I made the right decision. And that is how I stopped caring about professional sports.

Of course, the [temporary] retirement of my favorite player, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, as well as the departure in previous years of other key figures in the Cubs lineup made it easier to cut all ties.

It's a sad game that we play.

today is a good day i think

Spurred by my thoughts on the ending of War and Peace, among other things, I'm really gonna try this time and write my thoughts on gender and sexuality.

Don't fail me now, Patrick! By quoting you on my web-log, I have bound you to this course of action. I wait eagerly for your thoughts on teh sex, esp. as I lean more towards the Catholic take on the matter than the Orthodox take [the?] re: contraception and divorce [at least, those like Mr. Liccione who agree that, in the case of AIDS, the use of a condom may be a legitimate application of the principle of double effect]. I should consider articulating my own take on the matter, perhaps on aesthetic grounds rather than the more conventional grounds which are far more important to me but which can be found stated irrefutably in Anscombe.

EDIT: a fine Anscombe quote. "You might as well accept any sexual goings–on, if you accept contraceptive intercourse."

EDIT: on the irrefutability of Anscombe. I've never seen anybody directly take on and decisively defeat Anscombe. Especially not on matters where she's right.

la politesse

Is there a polite way of informing a "blowhard" that his argumentative techniques are stupid, unhelpful, and narrow? Sometimes a man just does his cause more harm than good by supporting it in public.