God Bless America

I was at an event, a conference of sorts, with some interesting speakers, including Colin Powell. At the start of the event, they played the national anthem, and I stood up, hand over heart, looking for a flag (didn't look around like a yokel for too long, didn't see one, so I looked at the singer, found it later), in accordance with the suggestions put forth by Congress in the Flag Code. In the afternoon, they sang "God Bless America" and I did not stand. There are a number of reasons, but here's the one relevant to one of the purposes of this blog: the panheresy of ecumenism. The song indicates that it is a prayer, and I don't engage in acts of public prayer with heretics in accordance with canon law under threat of excommunication.

Apologetics

I read some boring apologetic article from some Catholic about why he didn't convert to Orthodoxy, and this got me thinking about the silly futility of apologetics. The only evidence I need to prove that Catholicism is wrong is that they do not commune infants. No bombardment of ratiocination can overcome that fact which conclusively proves they are wrong.

Goal Progress

1. Still not crushing enemies.
2. Battling a little cosmic evil.
3. Some progress on justice.
4. I forget what I was at when I wrote this. I'm around 114kg right now.
5. Not really doing well on this. Not taking an exam this spring, which pushes things back. I am taking a class though and doing decently. I'll take another, maybe 2, in the fall. And maybe do an exam, but I'm not sure. The classes will be relatively low impact, so I might. But they take time...
6. Not playing much chess. I did look over some puzzles recently.
7. I competed at a powerlifting meet and totaled 475kg. 500 should be very easy this year. I might be able to hit it right now, actually. I'm competing in a weightlifting meet in July. I don't think I'll hit 225kg, but I might make it by the end of the year.

"Look at me!"

"Look at me! I'm being critical of the people choosing a new bishop!"

Seriously, man. Come on. There's nothing wrong with being openly critical of a process, mind you, especially as important as this. I think he's being a little silly, that's all.

this year's resolutions

I had some success with last year's resolutions. I didn't get a new job, but I was busy getting married at the time. I also didn't pack my lunch as often as I could have. But, anyway, this year's resolutions.
1. I will not crush my enemies in 2010.
2. Battle cosmic evil.
3. Seek justice.
4. Acquire more weight, but probably cut down to 110kg sometime before the end of the year.
5. Get out of this crummy job into a real one in the fall. I'm starting the process in the fall, so it might not resolve this year. But I'm taking a class and taking an exam in the spring, so, there we go.
6. Play chess, not too seriously, but solve a few puzzles and maybe play one game per week.
7. Olympic lifting total of 225kg, PL total of 450kg. I could probably hit 250 and 500, but I want modest goals, given how busy I will be. A month ago, I said I'd enter at least one meet this year, but recent developments have caused me to reconsider that, based on time, expense, predictable availability...

on bizarre terminology

Gabriel referred to somebody else's argument about translating the usual references to the Virgin Mary in Orthodox liturgy. For those unfamiliar, the Greek title most often used to refer to her is "Theotokos" (Θεοτόκος), which roughly glosses as "She who gave birth to the one who is God", if you'll forgive my glossing it as though it were Sanskrit. Most other languages translate this title. Slavonic says "Bogoroditsa", for instance (Богородица). A lot of English Orthodox texts are translated from the Slavonic, so we have the absurd situation of translating from the Slavonic, which was translated from the Greek, not into the target language, but back into Greek. I find it slightly more absurd than using antiquated second person pronouns. Gabriel then goes on to say that he never uses the term when talking with non-Orthodox and rarely even when talking with Orthodox (unless explicitly discussing the third ecumenical council). I find this wise and tactful, because most people have a hard enough time understanding the nonsense we are talking about without our assuming that they know all these crazy big words we're using.

Which brings us to the topic of our conversation. Most people have no idea what the hell other people are talking about, religiously, if they are not a part of your bizarre little religious subculture. This has become more apparent over the last year, since my wife, for some odd reason, has a lot of Protestant friends, and they use common everyday words as though they are imbued with some special meaning that I cannot pretend to decipher and they have all these nonsensical debates which mean literally nothing to me. And they all pretend like they should mean something to me just because the words they are using are all English (imagine if they weren't and they were using hideously outdated German or French).

Of course, this extends beyond religious spheres. Any little coterie is bound to have manners of speaking that become pregnant with meaning, but when outsiders are introduced to them, their reaction is, "You say that as if it should mean something to me, but it doesn't." And, even more insidiously, conformance to these manners of speaking by those inducted can become a substitute for actual understanding. Leaning on the obscure words of others rather than, you know, realizing what you're saying. This isn't too bad if you're just working it out for yourself, but if you're trying to have any influence on other people, I recommend figuring out what you mean before you say it and trying to translate it into something somebody else can understand. This usually means using English words.

As a matter of policy, I pretend not to understand people who don't unless it's clear we know what we're doing. That's part of the motivation behind my post about words that cause me to tune out: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. Or at least we may not agree about it.