Thoughts on Perspective

Aging is like standing in an open elevator from which one can see farther and farther as the elevator rises, but the objects in view become smaller and smaller.  Details become less important and overall concept seems more relevant.

I have tried to imagine how different ones perspective would be as he looked at the earth, if he were as small as an atom versus being as large as a galaxy.  I believe God both permeates and encompasses everything.  His perspective is always perfect.

I am fascinated that one can be at the same coordinates in space, but if the time is different surroundings have a totally different appearance and impact…..a sunny summer day versus a snowy total white-out at the same point on a highway.

The same conversation or event can result in opposite opinions as to what happened depending on the prior experiences and inclinations brought to the occasion.  Since others aren’t privy to what is going on inside my mind, my words may be interpreted in a totally different context, and since I don’t know what is going on in their minds, I don’t know how they are interpreting my words.

We acknowledge 3 dimensions in space and one in time, but I suspect there are other dimensions to time, and I wonder if perspective itself is a dimension.

Is it possible during life, to begin seeing things from God’s perspective, an eternal perspective outside of time which sees detail and overall concept simultaneously?

I can’t really wrap my head around the concepts of infinity and eternity…..are they forever or only a blink in God’s eye?  I think the answer is “yes.”

I also think I had better just go have breakfast and accomplish something concrete today lest trying to stretch my brain to comprehend the incomprehensible sends me down the slippery slope and off the edge.

If All Lives Matter....

If all lives matter, we need to get rid of the total disrespect for life exhibited in video games, movies and television shows.

We can’t possibly get rid of all guns, kitchen knives, baseball bats, cars, bare hands and other objects capable of taking a life.  The problem is not the objects.  The problem is the attitude which trivializes life…unless you are the star of the show.  They will never kill off James Bond and probably not Jason Bourne.  We are shocked at the deaths of Han Solo and Will Gardner.

NCIS is one of my favorite shows, but it typically starts with a murder.  I was sad to see Person of Interest go, but when I reflect on that show, I can’t begin to count the number of individuals “offed” by John Reese and Sameen Shaw.  We are expected to be OK with this, because they are all bad.  In True Lies when Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character is asked, while under the influence of truth serum, if he has killed someone, his response is “Yes, but they were all bad.”  The bad guys die, and the grief of their family members is never shown.  The good guys die, and the grief is momentary, and the show goes on.  We don’t get to see the agony still present a year later.  (Exception:  Gibbs on NCIS will never get over the murder of his wife and child.  It is part of his character.)

I have never played a violent video game, but I understand they exist.  I do know that in video games it is possible to earn points that get one an additional life.  Seriously?  An additional life does NOT happen in reality.  What are we allowing children and young minds still in their formative stages to learn?

I guess you might tell me that we can’t change violence in entertainment either.  We have “free speech” which unfortunately protects hate speech and violent images.  Our society apparently has a lust for such, and the entertainment industry is just giving us what we want.

So, we all clamor into the arena and cheer for the gladiators to be eaten by wild beasts or to kill each other.  That attitude did not bode well for the Roman Empire.  What makes us think we will fare any better?

The basic nature of man has not changed or improved since Cain killed his brother Abel.  We are NOT evolving into a more enlightened species.  We have just become more sophisticated and technologically advanced in the way that we kill.

New Short Story

If you are interested, I have just put another short story on my other blog.  Click on the Short Stories link above right or go to ruthchapin.com

I Love/Hate My Fitbit

I have been wearing a Fitbit since April 16^th, and I am happy to report that I have lost 5 pounds.  That may not seem like much, but I have had a creeping weight gain going on for about 13 years….just two pounds a year, but that has added up.  In April, I decided this had to stop, because some of my clothes were getting tight.  I figured a Fitbit was less expensive than buying a closet full of new clothes.

I have tried to lose just a little bit gradually during the past 13 years.  I tried cutting out chips with my lunch, eating only half a sandwich, not having a morning cappuccino, eliminating ice cream at bedtime.  No luck.  The two pounds a year just kept coming.  Every time I took a few calories out of my diet, they snuck in someplace else.

I like the Fitbit, because it keeps track of the energy I have expended and tells me how many more calories I can consume and stay within my weight-loss budget.  When I set up the account, I told it I wanted to lose 15 pounds and that ½ pound per week was an acceptable rate.  Fifteen pounds won’t get me back to my 25 year-old weight or even my 45 year-old weight, but it will be a quite agreeable weight for a 71 year-old.  Supposedly an old lady like me has a higher risk of osteoporosis if she weighs under 126, so I have no plans to get too close to that.  I have also noticed that senior ladies sometimes get to a point where they just seem to shrivel up and look frail.  I figure that a little padding might be a good idea before I get to that slippery slope.

So, my Fitbit reminds me if I am over, under or in range of my intake goal as compared to my output.  If I am under my calorie budget in the evening, I have a low calorie bedtime snack.  If I am over my budget, I go for an evening walk.

However, sometimes my Fitbit makes me downright angry.  For example, I got my husband a top-of-the-line Fitbit, because he is a runner.  It tells him how many stairs he has climbed each day and seems to do a better job of taking note of his physical exertion.  My Fitbit is a pretty basic one.  It has no clue that I have spent an hour and a half vacuuming, 2 hours raking, 2 hours digging in the garden or most of the day washing windows.  It doesn’t even give me any “active minutes” for these exhausting, perspiration-inducing activities.  Apparently, it doesn’t count steps if one has their arms up pushing a grocery cart.  This hardly seems fair.

Sooooooooo…..when I worked all day washing windows, vacuuming the screens and was up and down the ladder doing all this, I got even.  I had a lovely crème de menthe soft ice cream cone in the evening, and I didn’t tell it!

Men from Issachar

After King Saul, Israel’s first king, was killed in battle, David was the choice of the people to succeed him.  Representatives from all of the tribes of Israel traveled to Hebron, where David was camped, to assure him of their loyalty and to support him.

In I Chronicles 12, a list is given of each tribe and the number of men who assembled to become part of David’s fighting force.  The specials skills of each group are listed…..whether they were adept with spear or sword or all types of weaponry.

In the middle of the list, 200 chiefs from Issachar are numbered among those who assembled.  “….men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”   David’s force included 200 wise strategists. 

Just what we as a nation need!

There are probably 200 men in our country who do “understand the times” and who know “what we should do,” but I’m afraid they aren’t the “chiefs.”  We probably don’t have that many in Congress or in governorships about whom this could be said.  If we have such men, they are apparently not in positions of power, and we aren’t listening to them.

I had hoped that one such person would emerge in the current election.  If we had such a man or woman as president and 199 others in congress, our country and perhaps our world would be changed for the better.

Oh…for a man or woman who understands the times and knows what to do!

The Clouds by Aristophanes

Strepsiades is an older man from a rural background who “married up” to a woman with higher class notions.  Together they had a son (Pheidippides) who is more interested in horses and racing than in working the farm.  Strepsiades has gotten himself into significant debt which he blames on his son’s spending habits.  He would like his son to be gainfully employed, but it doesn’t appear that is going to happen.  So, instead of his son going to school with Socrates, he goes himself.  His intent is to learn how to use speech to talk his way out of his legitimate debts.  He tells Socrates “a galloping consumption seized my money.  Come now; do let me learn the unjust Logic that can shirk debts.”

Socrates is presented as a double-talking charlatan.   Through the use of twisted logic and changing the subject, he convinces Strepsiades of the error of a number of beliefs commonly held.  Among these is the notion that there are gods.  Specifically, he says that Zeus doesn’t exist, and that it is actually the Clouds which control man’s destiny.  When Strepsiades inquires as to how the clouds cause thunder, Socrates’ answer is to liken it to the rumblings of ones stomach after consuming something that doesn’t agree with him.  He makes reference to flatulence as the explanation for multiple things.  (i.e. he uses bathroom humor)

Socrates eventually pronounces Strepsiades too stupid to learn, and Strepsiades convinces his son to enter the school.  At this point, “Right Logic” and “Wrong Logic” enter in to a debate in front of Pheidippides.  Right Logic advocates the “old ways” of truth and justice and manly behavior.  Wrong Logic pokes fun at this and advocates dishonesty and promiscuity.  Wrong Logic ends up winning the argument and so Pheidippides accepts it.

The problem with this is that it backfires on Strepsiades.  Pheidippides starts beating him because Wrong Logic once employed makes it perfectly acceptable for a son to beat his father and his mother. 

Strepsiades then sets the house of Socrates on fire.  Socrates yells that he is suffocating.  Strepsiades again claims to believe in the gods.  The Clouds, for their part, are pleased with the outcome saying, “We find a man on evil thoughts intent, and guide him along to shame and wrong, then leave him to repent.”

I wonder how his contemporaries reacted to Aristophanes’ plays.  I suspect they found them wickedly funny, although from my perspective he makes quite a bit of humor from bodily functions.

                e.g.  Strepsiades trying to convince Pheidippides how carefully he tended him as a child:  “And you could hardly say “cacca!” when through the door I flew and held you out a full arms’ length, your little needs to do.”

The play drips with sarcasm and irony, and Aristophanes clearly didn’t think much of philosophers in general and Socrates in particular.

Hezekiah's Plea

I have been reading the books of I and II Kings recently.  There are many fascinating stories of these ancient rulers of Israel and Judah.  None of the kings of Israel between Solomon and the time of Israel going into captivity in Assyria are recorded as being wholehearted followers of God and obedient to His commands.  Judah, however, did have several kings who attempted to live righteously and destroyed idols and the places in which they were worshipped.  Among the “good guys” was Hezekiah.

Hezekiah reigned for almost thirty years beginning when he was twenty-five.  Although his father Ahaz had not followed God, Hezekiah did.  “There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.  He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses.” (II Kings 18:5-6).  God consistently blessed him, including an occasion when Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, besieged Jerusalem with over 185,000 soldiers.  Hezekiah pleaded for God’s protection and was delivered when God sent an angel at night and put 185,000 Assyrian soldiers to death.  Sennacherib broke camp and went back to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.  There he was assassinated by two of his sons.

Shortly after this, Hezekiah became deathly ill.  He apparently had a boil and the infection was spreading.  We sometimes forget that antibiotics to fight such things were not even discovered until the 1920s.  For the millennia preceding our time, such infections were often a death sentence.  Hezekiah inquired of the prophet Isaiah as to whether he would live or die.  The Lord gave Isaiah the message that Hezekiah should put his affairs in order, because he would not recover.  Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and wept bitterly.  He pleaded for his life, asking the Lord to remember that he had been faithful and wholeheartedly devote to God.

Isaiah had not yet left the palace when God told him to go back and give Hezekiah the word that He would not die and that God would give him 15 more years.

Now comes the part that fascinates me.  When Hezekiah did die after those 15 years, it was his 12 year old son Manasseh who became king.  That means that Manasseh was born in the time period God granted Hezekiah, because he begged for additional life.  Manasseh is recorded as one of the most wicked kings of Judah.   The places of idol worship which had been destroyed by Hezekiah were rebuilt at Manasseh’s direction.  He worshipped multiple false gods.  He even sacrificed his own son to Baal.   “Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end…” (II Kings 21:16)

Through His prophets, God pronounced severe judgment on Judah, because of the sin of Manasseh and the fact that the people followed him in this sin.  “I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle….I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.” (II Kings 21:1213)   Eventually, this did happen as the people of Judah went into captivity in Babylon.

I can’t help but wonder how the situation would have played out if Hezekiah had died when first predicted and Manasseh had never been born.  I don’t understand how God’s sovereignty and our prayers combine together to bring about God’s purposes in human history.  But, this story does give me pause.  If I am ever given the diagnosis that I am terminally ill, I’m thinking I won’t plead for my life.  I’m hoping I won’t weep bitterly and try to remind God of all the “good” I’ve done.  The most perfect person who ever lived said, “…not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)